{"id":2841,"date":"2012-05-27T20:52:44","date_gmt":"2012-05-28T01:52:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/realfoodhouston.com\/?p=2841"},"modified":"2012-05-27T20:52:44","modified_gmt":"2012-05-28T01:52:44","slug":"your-exposure-to-pollutants-and-poisons-could-damage-your-children-grandchildren-and-even-great-grandchildren","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/2012\/05\/27\/your-exposure-to-pollutants-and-poisons-could-damage-your-children-grandchildren-and-even-great-grandchildren\/","title":{"rendered":"Your exposure to pollutants and poisons could damage your children, grandchildren, and even great-grandchildren!"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Epigenetic<\/a>

Epigenetic mechanisms<\/p><\/div>\n

Did you know that\u00a0just one exposure of a pregnant woman to\u00a0synthetic chemicals such as bisphenol A (BPA), fungicides, and even diethylstilbestrol (DES), could affect her children for several generations and may even\u00a0cause\u00a0permanent genetic change?\u00a0 What\u00a0we do now<\/em> could cause cancer, diabetes, obesity, or\u00a0other damage in our children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.\u00a0\u00a0This transgeneration change is explained by\u00a0the science of epigenetics<\/a>.\u00a0 For more information about epigenetics, see the Sources and Resources listing below.\u00a0 For a very brief idea about what it is, I liked\u00a0how one\u00a0YouTube video [see below for video]\u00a0summed up\u00a0epigenetics:\u00a0 The Genome is the hardware, it does the work.\u00a0 The Epigenome is the software, it tells the Genome what to do and how to do it.\u00a0 The catch here is that the Epigenome can be affected by our environment, both positively and negatively.<\/p>\n

New epigenetic study<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

A recent study<\/a> of male rats\u00a0by Dr. David Crews of the University of Texas-Austin and others has found that a single exposure to a common-use fungicide (vinclozolin<\/a>) affected physiology, behavior, and metabolism to the extent that descendants three generations later responded differently to stress.\u00a0\u00a0 The timing of the exposure is critical to the extent of the effect– the greatest developmental sensitivity\u00a0to this type of exposure is during the\u00a0prenatal, immediately postnatal\/infant, and adolescent\/puberty periods.\u00a0 Yes, the one-time exposure to vinclozolin caused physical and behavioral changes in the third generation!<\/em>\u00a0 In fact, Dr. Crews says that the effects may be permanent;\u00a0he sees no evidence that\u00a0they will ever disappear.\u00a0 How common are these chemicals that can cause permanent epigenetic damage?\u00a0 What about this fungicide, the\u00a0chemical\u00a0used in this study?\u00a0 Vinclozolin,\u00a0an endocrine disruptor<\/a> with antiandrogenic effects,\u00a0is used “to control diseases, such as blights, rots and molds in vineyards, and on fruits and vegetables such as raspberries, lettuce, kiwi, snap beans, and onions. It is also used on turf on golf courses.”\u00a0 Any of those sound familiar?\u00a0 How many of us have already been exposed,\u00a0maybe more than once, to this endocrine disruptor?\u00a0 What other\u00a0chemicals have we been exposed to that may have already affected our descendants?<\/p>\n

Diethstilbestrol (DES) affects children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Mike Adams of Natural News.com interviewed<\/a> Dr. Crews about his groundbreaking study, the first study\u00a0that actually demonstrates transgenerational cause and effect.\u00a0 This is not<\/em> an observational study; it does show causation.\u00a0 The whole\u00a0field\u00a0(of epigenetics)\u00a0is fascinating, but what really caught my attention in this interview was\u00a0the example used by Dr. Crews to demonstrate the significance of epigenetic transgenerational\u00a0effects–diethylstilbestrol (DES)<\/a>.\u00a0DES\u00a0is a synthetic nonsteroidal estrogen<\/a>\u00a0that was given to about\u00a03 million pregnant women in the U.S.–and\u00a0many others\u00a0around the world–in the 1940s, 50s, and 60s because it was thought to be able to prevent miscarriage.\u00a0 Although by 1953, it\u00a0had been\u00a0shown that DES did not prevent miscarriage,\u00a0physicians continued to prescribe\u00a0it until the FDA issued a warning in 1971.\u00a0\u00a0Some European countries continued prescribing DES\u00a0until the early 1980s.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0You may be too young to remember when this was in the news, but I remember how tragic the news was at the time.\u00a0 What was the tragedy?\u00a0 Although the women who took DES were at a slightly greater risk of breast cancer, the real tragedy of DES was for the children born of those pregnancies.\u00a0 It has been well documented that the daughters were at increased risk of\u00a0developing cancers of the vagina and cervix, cancers more typical of menopausal women.\u00a0 Sons\u00a0were at increased risk of developing\u00a0testicular and other cancers more typical of older men.\u00a0\u00a0 Most of the cancers began to appear when the children were between 14 and 22 years of age.\u00a0 Cancer was not the only damage\u00a0caused by\u00a0DES.\u00a0\u00a0Daughters who were exposed to DES\u00a0in utero\u00a0have up to a\u00a033 percent increase in incidence of structural reproductive abnormalities, which can increase the risk of infertility and adverse pregnancy outcomes. Sons have a 300 percent increase in incidence of genital structural abnormalities, some of which are associated with an increased risk of testicular cancer.\u00a0 According to Dr. Crews, the children, grandchildren, and now even great-grandchildren have shown a similar increased risk of damage.\u00a0 He says that DES is the best human example of\u00a0an endocrine disruption compound with a transgenerational effect. [The discussion of DES is at 38:49 in the video interview.]<\/p>\n

Other endocrine disruptors<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

If DES and\u00a0vinclozolin have such a devastating effect on our epigenome, what are other common endocrine disruptors that could have\u00a0(or may have already had)\u00a0a similar effect?\u00a0 Here are some that you probably have heard about:\u00a0 dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane (DDT<\/a>), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs<\/a>), bisphenol A (BPA<\/a>), phthalates<\/a>, and atrazine<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Is it hopeless? What\u00a0can we do?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

My mother and\u00a0grandmother made dietary decisions that have affected me!\u00a0 I made decisions that affected my children.\u00a0 You may be making decisions that will affect your children and grandchildren.\u00a0 We should remember, however, that the epigenetic\u00a0effects on our children don’t need to be all bad.\u00a0\u00a0We can benefit our children, grandchildren, and all our descendants by eating nutrient-dense REAL foods,\u00a0following a healthy lifestyle, and making a sincere effort to avoid unnecessary chemicals.\u00a0 We should all care about what we eat, what we breathe,\u00a0what we drink, what medicines we take, and what we touch.\u00a0 Our children’s and grandchildren’s health, as well as our own today,\u00a0depends on it.<\/p>\n

Sources and more information about Epigenetics and Diethylstilbestrol:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS), Epigenetic transgenerational inheritance of altered stress responses<\/a>
\nNatural News, Red alert for humanity: Chemical damage can be inherited by offspring through unlimited generations<\/a>
\nTime Magazine, Why Your DNA Isn’t Your Destiny<\/a>
\nEpigenetics<\/a>, an excellent video explanation of the power of epigenetics
\nNOVA, Epigenetics<\/a>
\nThe University of Utah, What is Epigenetics?<\/a>
\nJohns Hopkins Medicine, Backgrounder: Epigenetics and Imprinted Genes<\/a>
\nFood Renegade, Interview with Dr. Catherine Shanahan On Deep Nutrition and Genetic Expression<\/a>
\nWikipedia: Diethylstilbestrol<\/a>
\nAmerican Family Physicians, Diethylstilbestrol Exposure<\/a>
\nCDC DES Update Home<\/a><\/p>\n

Here is the\u00a0YouTube video I mentioned above.\u00a0 It explains succinctly the power of epigenetics.<\/p>\n


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\nPhoto credit: Epigenetic mechanisms<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Did you know that\u00a0just one exposure of a pregnant woman to\u00a0synthetic chemicals such as bisphenol A (BPA), fungicides, and even diethylstilbestrol (DES), could affect her children for several generations and may even\u00a0cause\u00a0permanent genetic change?\u00a0 What\u00a0we do now could cause cancer, …<\/span> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[171,172,19],"tags":[108,193,192,189,191,84,61,194,179,190],"class_list":["post-2841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-diabetes-2","category-nutrition","category-real-food","tag-bpa","tag-ddt","tag-des","tag-epigenetics","tag-fungicide","tag-health-2","tag-healthy-foods","tag-pcbs","tag-phthalates","tag-vinclozolin"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p70SEj-JP","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2841"}],"version-history":[{"count":35,"href":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2841\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2900,"href":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2841\/revisions\/2900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}