Health material of deep personal interest to me

This material which came my way today is very personal to me and makes me more angry than I can say.  The medical profession that I have to consult totally disregard any suggestion of a toxic load on the body and, instead either deny there is a problem or exhort me to lose weight.  

Meanwhile, I get sicker and sicker to the extent that I can no longer summon the concentration to read more than a small amount of material and because of exhaustion, irritation, nausea and other symptoms am unable to do this work like I used to.

Making this material available to conventional medical practitioners (despite the scientific research to back it up) would doubtless have the same effect as presenting evidence of methane and other positive feedbacks and abrupt climate change NOW (not in the next century) to either climate change denialists or (more-importantly) abrupt climate deniers.

As such, I am dealing with denial in every aspect of my own life.

Note this in particular:

"As persistent organic pollutants mainly bioaccumulate in adipose tissue, weight change can affect serum concentrations," they explained. Lee and colleagues also noted that some small longitudinal studies have already found evidence that these chemicals are released from fat tissue after short-term weight loses.

The researchers suggested that such releases may account for some adverse outcomes seen in people undergoing large weight losses, including increased rates of cardiovascular disease, dementia, and death.

Nothing wrong with me!

Diabetes, obesity linked to chemical exposure – Endocrine Society

Scientific research has increasingly linked common chemicals found in everyday products to diabetes, obesity, cancer, and other major ailments, according to a new policy statement.

RT,

29 September, 2015

Endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) like bisphenol A and phthalates, found in food can linings, plastics, cosmetics, and pesticides, are common to the point that everyone on Earth has been exposed to one or more. EDCs – which influence the body's natural hormones – mimic, block, or simply interfere with hormone functions, leading to the malformation of cells.

The Endocrine Society now says in a new scientific statement that research in recent years has repeatedly pointed to links between these and other chemicals to not only diabetes and obesity, but infertility and breast cancer.

"In 2015, there is far more conclusive evidence about whether, when, and how endocrine-disrupting chemicals perturb endocrine systems, including in humans," said the Endocrine Society, which includes health specialists involved in EDC research.

READ MORE: TTIP will legalize cancer-causing chemicals banned by EU, trade union warns

"Thus, it is more necessary than ever to minimize further exposures, to identify new endocrine disrupting chemicals as they emerge, and to understand underlying mechanisms in order to develop methods to enable interventions in cases of endocrine disrupting chemical-associated disease. This is especially important because new chemicals may be released into the marketplace without appropriate safety testing."

The publicity was planned to coincide with the International Conference on Chemicals Management in Switzerland, where experts will stress the health risks of EDC exposure and ways to limit harmful EDCs.

Read the @TheEndoSociety statement on EPPPs from ICCM4 in Geneva, Switzerland.http://t.co/AVQIi6mBGC

— Endocrine_News (@Endocrine_News) September 29, 2015

"The evidence is more definitive than ever before - endocrine-disrupting chemicals disrupt hormones in a manner that harms human health," said Andrea Gore, a pharmacology professor at the University of Texas at Austin and chair of the task force that offered the statement.

READ MORE: Pizza boxes can increase risk of miscarriage by 16 times – study

"Hundreds of studies are pointing to the same conclusion, whether they are long-term epidemiological studies in human, basic research in animals and cells, or research into groups of people with known occupational exposure to specific chemicals."

The Endocrine Society has called for more research into EDCs and their impact on human health. They also said regulators must require sound chemical testing before approval.

READ MORE:  EPA does not have to address call to mandate labeling of hazardous pesticide ingredients - judge

"Animal studies found that exposure to even tiny amounts of endocrine disrupting chemicals during the prenatal period can trigger obesity later in life," the group said. "Similarly, animal studies found that some endocrine disrupting chemical s directly target beta and alpha cells in the pancreas, fat cells, and liver cells. This can lead to insulin resistance and an overabundance of the hormone insulin in the body - risk factors for Type 2 diabetes."

The group said mounting evidence has shown that EDCs are "connected to infertility, hormone-related cancers, neurological issues and other disorders."

Need more #obesity data? Check out @TheEndoSociety's Endocrine Facts and Figures report.http://t.co/LP8T39yt76pic.twitter.com/jnPx24iyzm

— EndoMedia (@EndoMedia) September 22, 2015

EDC exposure costs the European Union $209 billion per year in health costs and lost earning potential, according to an economic analysis published in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism in April.

The Endocrine Society will hold a Twitter chat on October 1 regarding health risks associated to EDC exposure.

They are in food containers, cosmetics, & toys. How do #EDCs harm your health? Join us 10/1 at 1PM ET for #EndoChathttp://t.co/hYfcuFCp3L

— Endocrine Society (@TheEndoSociety) September 28, 2015

According to the organization, 35 percent of US adults over the age of 20 are obese, as are nearly 17 percent of children. Meanwhile, more than 29 million American adults are diabetic.

EDC exposure has been linked to common feminine health products, hydraulic fracking operations, food packaging like pizza boxes, and common herbicides and pesticides.

Genetically-modified organisms are designed to withstand repeated spraying of the herbicide 2,4-D, a component of the toxic defoliant “Agent Orange,” which is linked to cancers of the immune system, Parkinson’s disease, endocrine disruption, and reproductive-health ailments.

This piece of research, no doubt rejected by the denialists in the pharmaceutical/medical industry (asd well as  politicians and regulatory agencies)  that are quite happy to release more and more toxins into the environment.

TTIP will legalize cancer-causing chemicals banned by EU, trade union warns

Weight Loss May Release Stored Toxins

Environmental pollutants trapped in fat cells could be released back into circulation when people lose a lot of weight, researchers said.

Medpage,

9 September, 2009

Environmental pollutants trapped in fat cells could be released back into circulation when people shed a lot of weight, researchers said.

According to data collected from among 1,099 adult participants age ≥40 in the CDC's National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), serum concentrations of six persistent organic pollutants were significantly correlated with weight change, according to Duk-Hee Lee, MD, PhD, of Kyungpook National University in Daegu, Korea, and colleagues.

Adjusted correlation coefficients for 10-year weight changes ranged from -0.16 to -0.23 for the six pollutants, with slightly smaller coefficients found for one-year weight changes, the researchers reported online in the International Journal of Obesity.

Correlations between serum pollutant levels and five categories of weight-loss -- stable weight, moderate increase or decrease, and large increase or decrease -- were significant (P<0.01) for all but one of the six pollutants.

Compared with participants who reported large weight gains over the previous decade, those claiming large losses had serum levels of the six pollutants that were about 50% higher, Lee and colleagues found.

Although the cross-sectional study design could not establish that weight loss itself led to the higher concentrations of circulating organic pollutants, the findings were consistent with such a mechanism, the researchers suggested.

"As persistent organic pollutants mainly bioaccumulate in adipose tissue, weight change can affect serum concentrations," they explained. Lee and colleagues also noted that some small longitudinal studies have already found evidence that these chemicals are released from fat tissue after short-term weight loses.

The researchers suggested that such releases may account for some adverse outcomes seen in people undergoing large weight losses, including increased rates of cardiovascular disease, dementia, and death.

"These puzzling findings on weight change from observational studies have been dismissed simply as bias due to no biological plausibility," Lee and colleagues wrote, suggesting that these effects are mixed with the benefits of weight loss in previously obese individuals.

"Pathogenesis of some health outcomes may be more affected by the change of adipose tissue mass, while pathogenesis of other health outcomes may be more affected by the change of serum concentrations of persistent organic pollutants," they argued.

Their study involved data from 1999 to 2002 NHANES series, in which serum levels of 49 organic pollutants that are not metabolized in vivo were measured in some participants.

Since most of these pollutants turned out to be undetectable in many samples, Lee and colleagues focused on the seven with the highest detection rates in participants who were at least 40 years old. The study group was comprised of 49% men and over half were white.

These chemicals included trans-nonachlor, p,p'-DDE, beta-hexachlorocyclohexane, PCB169, PCB180, 1,2,3,4,6,7,8-heptachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin, and 1,2,3,4,6,7,8-heptachlorodibenzofuran (HpCDF).

Participants in NHANES also reported their weight at year one and 10 years earlier, allowing for weight change to be estimated over time. Lee and colleagues stratified these estimates into five categories for each period: stable weight, moderate increase or decrease, and large increase or decrease.

For one-year change, stable weight was a gain or loss of less than 1 kg (2.2 lb). Moderate change was 1 to 5 kg (11 lb) and large change was more than 5 kg. The 10-year weight-change categories were double these ranges (that is, large change was more than 10 kg or 22 lbs) and moderate change was 2 to 10 kg (4.4 to 22 lbs).

The correlations between the weight-loss categories and the serum pollutant levels were significant (P<0.01) for all but HpCDF -- for which the correlation coefficient was -0.05 (P=0.12).

Lee and colleagues acknowledged that the study design allowed for potential confounding and error, insofar as each participant had only one serum measurement of pollutant levels and reported their own previous weights.

Also, it remained possible that factors other than weight loss, which were not analyzed in the current study, were also associated with the serum pollutant levels. Thus, they recommended more studies of the potential relationship.

However, pending the outcome of such future studies, "researchers and clinicians need to consider lipophilic xenobiotics such as persistent organic pollutants that bioaccumulate in adipose tissue as well as obesity itself when they study or manage obesity issues because such xenobiotics may work against what we generally expect from weight loss or gain," Lee and colleagues concluded.

No external funding for the study was reported.

The authors declared they had no conflicts of interest.

WEIGHT LOSS NEWS

Why Toxins and Waste Products Impede Weight Loss - The Leptin Diet Weight Loss Challenge #3

Wellness Resource,

16 April, 2012

Your body’s ability to process trash, including toxic trash, is a pervasive factor in your ability to lose weight and reach a healthy goal weight. Struggling with this issue activates backup strategies for dealing with toxic overload, which include expanding the number of fat cells and stuffing them with toxins as well as fat. This is likely done to get the toxic trash out of your circulation and away from key organs. It causes easy weight gain and complicates weight loss because your body does not easily give up the toxic fat it has stored.

In many ways, our polluted world is a true test of genetic survival of the fittest. The number of toxic chemicals now threatens the reproductive ability1 of the human race and is also a large part of the cancer issue. These chemicals contribute to weight gain in various ways, including disruption of the hormone signaling2 system that regulates your metabolism, damage to and accumulation in your white adipose tissue, and increased risk for poisoning during weight loss. It is absolutely vital that you understand this subject.

Our Toxic World is a Major Metabolic Problem

In my previous article in this series, How Digestive Problems Prevent Weight Loss, I explained how toxic LPS, the result of bacterial imbalance within the digestive tract, stimulates the formation of new fat cells and promotes weight gain. I explained how LPS causes leptin resistance and thyroid malfunction. LPS is an example of an internally generated toxin. There are other internally generated toxins along with plenty of “normal” trash like inflammatory debris and lactic acid. Additionally, pervasive environmental toxins affect everyone to some degree and can cause all of the metabolic malfunctions of LPS, as well as increase the risk for cancer. Many of these environmental toxins are fat soluble, which means they readily accumulate in white adipose tissue.

Some of these toxic compounds have been banned, but the damage has already been done as they continue to bioaccumulate in the food chain and pose long-term challenges to the farming soils throughout America (PCBs, dioxins, furans, DDT, DDE). Others are widely used by industry such as the biocide tributyltin (TBT)3, an anti-fouling agent for paint, which gets into water and accumulates in fish. Others are in daily consumer contact4, including contact with food, such as Bisphenol A (BPA). There are many others. This is a key metabolic problem for the two-thirds of Americans who are overweight.

Once upon a time, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) conducted a program called the National Human Adipose Tissue Survey (NHATS). In 1982 and again in 1987 it analyzed human fat samples from cadavers obtained throughout the country, looking for the types of toxins that accumulate in human fat. Four industrial solvents and one dioxin were found in 100 percent of the fat samples6. Nine more chemicals, including three more dioxins and one furan were found in more than 90 percent of the fat samples. In general, 83 percent of the fat samples contained PCBs. U.S. researchers have confirmed the presence of multiple toxins in human fat7 associated with obesity risk. The EPA has confirmed the presence of these chemicals as pollution in the farm soil across America – meaning this problem will be with us for some time to come.

The scientific theory of how these chemicals cause weight gain8 and difficulty losing weight has now been established.  They bind to gene signaling within white adipose tissue and induce new fat cells to form9 while simultaneously increasing inflammation10. Oftentimes, the newly formed fat cells are themselves damaged by the toxins11 so that they cannot metabolically perform12, which includes an inability to make leptin normally13. These damaged fat cells can fill up with excess fat14 and toxins, but are not able to efficiently carry out normal functions of fat cells, leading directly to increased risk for type 2 diabetes15 via the suppression of the important fat cell hormone16 known as adiponectin17. Several human studies confirm that PCBs increase diabetes risk.18 These chemicals pose a serious problem to the thyroid gland19 and the efficient utilization of thyroid hormone throughout your body.  Furthermore, they can cause either hypothyroidism20 or hyperthyroidism. Trying to get the fat and toxins out of these damaged fat cells is no small challenge in terms of successful weight loss, yet it is vital to restore normal metabolism.

Damage occurs, and may be very difficult to resolve, if exposure to these chemicals occurs while in the womb21 and during the early years of life.  Breast milk may contain numerous fat-soluble toxins22 depending upon the health of the mother. Such toxic exposure during formative years may influence gene settings in a way that predisposes future obesity (an adverse epigenetic change23). It has also been shown that when these chemicals disrupt thyroid hormone function24 during development they also adversely impact the development of the brain. A human study has confirmed the future risk of obesity25 in women whose mothers had high levels of the chemical compound DDE.

Toxins Pose a Major Challenge to Weight Loss

A variety of reasons toxins pose a major challenge to weight loss. A person who has too many toxins to process will make new fat cells and store those toxins along with fat in them. This is first a form of self-defense against being poisoned, and second, a strategy to get toxins out of the circulation and away from major organs. This means that some people will not be able to lose any weight at all, regardless of how little they eat, until the acute nature of their plumbing problems are addressed.

It is very clear that these toxins are released back into the circulation during weight loss. This is especially the case during significant weight loss26. During a weight loss of 12 percent of body weight toxins in the blood increased 23 percent - 51 percent, with the heaviest individuals releasing the most toxins27. Over a one year period of weight loss toxic exposure ranged up to a whopping 388 percent. Scientists have shown that such toxins can interfere with thyroid hormone28 function during weight loss.  Human data shows that as the toxins go up in the blood during weight loss the levels of biologically active thyroid hormone (T3)29 go down. This data means that your plumbing and detoxification systems must be in good working condition for healthy weight loss – or possibly even to engage weight loss.

Toxins make you feel irritable. Many people report feeling “poisoned” at a certain point in their weight loss process. Such people will always feel better when they eat a lot of food, as the toxins are pulled out of their blood and placed back in fat – along with plenty of fat.  With a little effort, most people can readily lose weight they have most recently gained. After that, people reach what I like to call it the “toxic plateau.” This means that detoxification strategies may need to be adjusted if weight loss slows too much or stops. In my clinical experience, the difficult-to-lose pounds are typically toxic fat. Strategies to improve detoxification often enable weight loss to proceed. While overweight people who struggle to lose weight with a good diet and exercise have this problem to some degree, those who are the most overweight experience this issue to a greater degree. 

Individuals with chemical sensitivity issues are extremely challenged. Virtually all individuals with chemical sensitivity are hyper-inflamed, have lost physical strength and fitness, and are either overweight or underweight. Oddly enough, being overweight is generally better than being underweight, because at least the backup system of stuffing toxins into fat still works. Underweight people usually have excessive damage to their white adipose tissue and can’t store toxins in fat. 

This usually equates to more damage in their bodies from the toxins (including type 2 diabetes).  However, as the weight is lost and the toxins come back into the blood, it is like a fresh new chemical exposure with a reaction. Such individuals must optimize their vitamin D levels—keeping them in the upper 2/3 of normal range—while using anti-inflammatory nutrients like quercetin and grape seed extract to help lower the amount of chemical reactions that will otherwise derail their progress.

Strategies to Improve Detoxification During Weight Loss

The nutritional support strategies I outlined in the first article in this series, The Leptin Diet Weight Loss Challenge – Overview and Basic Needs, cover basic detoxification needs. Of special importance is increased fiber intake. Fiber acts like a sponge for toxins. In that article I suggest 35 – 60 grams of fiber per day, using supplemental fiber to ensure needs are met. Individuals with this toxin issue should try to get their fiber to the 50 – 60 grams range, which may be all it takes to get this problem on track. After that the next most important nutrients to boost are antioxidants in general and vitamin D in particular.

The next step is to boost antioxidant nutrients that are known to help detoxification processes while protecting the liver, brain, white adipose tissue, and/or circulation. Top choices are silymarin, R-alpha lipoic acid, chlorella, quercetin, grape seed extract, vitamin C30, and tocotrienols. It is now understood that “toxic” blood triggers the formation of new fat cells.  This is because the endothelial cells of your circulatory system directly communicate to your baby fat cells and can tell them what to do. Keeping your blood as clean as possible and supporting your liver are vital steps to ensure that this process goes smoothly.

Other aspects of detoxification may need to be addressed, however, explaining them in detail goes beyond the scope of this article. For more information and articles on this subject, simply type “detoxification” into the search engine on my website at www.wellnessresources.com. Part of getting a handle on weight loss is becoming a master plumber. Your body’s success in processing trash, including toxic trash, is a major key to eventually get to a healthy goal weight.