Read 'n' Seed: Part 4 of Hormone Deception

For the last portion of Hormone Deception, I read "Part 3: What to Do about Hormone Disruptors" of the book which included chapters 12, 13, 14, and 15. To sum this part it, Berkson basically broke down where we can get all of these hormones and then presented ways of how to reduce our intake of them.

Chapter 12: Food and Drink
Dairy: Cows are typically given growth hormones to produce more milk and grow faster. They are also fed antibiotics to fight the infections that are caused by the growth hormone BGH (bovine growth hormone). These typically can act as hormone disruptors. People are worried that they will not be able to get their daily intake of calcium if they do not consume milk. This is not true as many other natural leafy greens and beans can provide the adequate amount of calcium.  To lessen your exposure, it is suggested that one should

• Eat less dairy, especially the products that are high in fat content
• Buy organic dairy
• Remove cling wrap immediately from cheese and meats

Meat and Poultry: also high in hormone disruptors, try to buy products that are organic or free-range/grass fed.

Fruits and Vegetables: Many are treated with pesticides and herbicides for better growth. One should be sure to wash them with "a mild solution of dish detergent or diluted vinegar" to get rid of some of the chemicals

• Best non-organic: avocados, corn, bananas, plums, green onions, watermelon, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, sweet potatoes, onions.
• Worst non-organic (try to buy organically if possible): strawberries, spinach, cabbage, pineapples, green beans, asparagus, apricots, red raspberries, cherries, apples, peaches, grapes, sweet peppers, celery, cucumbers, cantaloupe

Other suggestions from the chapter: limit the amount of food that comes from a tin can, plastic containers (replace with glass instead), has a lot of additives, and filter and test your water.

Chapter 13: Detoxification and Dietary Suggestions
Berkson provides simple suggestions to help promote the livers natural cleansing

• Drink 5-8 cups of filtered water per day
• Exercise daily to excrete chemicals through sweat
• Eat high-fiber, low-fat proteins. And make them organic
• Get adequate vitamins and minerals
• Avoid the "white" carbohydrates (white flour, white sugar, etc.)
• Try to consume a lot of antioxidants and amino acids which help support enzyme detox
• Avoid excessive amounts of alcohol and Acetaminophen

Chapter 14: Room-by Room Tour
Berkson breaks down each room and discusses ways to reduce the risk of ingesting hormone disruptors

Overall air supply

• Ventilate your house by opening windows for better air exchange
• Add house plants to increase oxygen production

At the Front Door

• Insist that visitors take their shoes of outside or right by the door
• Have a rug to wipe off the collected chemicals on the bottom of your shoes (which may be 75-100% as effective as taking off your shoes before entering)
• Dust the front door on a weekly basis
• If you work in a chemical environment, change your clothes before entering

Living Room

• Vacuum  the furniture and carpet on a regular basis to get rid of the dust that collects (preferably with a high-efficiency particle air vacuum cleaner)
• Wash all surfaces at least once per month that are frequently touched by others
• Clean thoroughly around fireplaces or woods stoves
• Check your house for lead paint that is toxic

Bathroom

• Use non-chemically based cleaners
• Reduce the use of air fresheners. They typically contain pesticides.
• When taking a hot shower or bath, open a window or turn on a ceiling fan as to not inhale the steam with chloroform in it that can be soaked in by the skin and taken into the lungs

Bedroom

• Let dry-cleaned clothes air out before you put them in your closet. Many chemicals are used in the process of dry cleaning
• Vacuum your mattress as it tends to harbor dust and skin particles

Kitchen

• Do not store cleaning supplies under the skin. The heat from the pipes can vaporize some of the chemicals into the air.
• Avoid using heavy-duty chemical cleaners
• Filter the water you drink and get it tested
• Use the exhaust fan over the stove
• Avoid using plastic containers, especially in the microwave. This goes for cling wrap also. They tend to have a lot of plasticizers in them which means more chemicals.
• Avoid using Styrofoam products

Laundry Room

• Attempt to by soaps and detergents that are free from nonyl phenol ethoxylates
• Use nonchlorine bleach
• Open a window when running the washing machine

Garage

• Try to carpool as often as possible
• Leave your garage door open several hours after parking in it and never let your car run while in the garage

Chapter 15: How Can You Help?
To sum things up quite shortly, Berkson basically says to be aware of what you are buying, eating, and what you are around on a daily basis. Read the labels, recycle, and avoid using anything that is simply more man-made than natural. Everyone should make themselves aware not only for themselves but for the future generations.

Overview of the Book
We have only been living with this many chemicals for about the last half of a century so it is century not too late to turn things around and live more simply and naturally. I never realized until reading this book what an effect the environment has on my body. I think it's really scary and it needs to come to an end. Berkson is basically saying that all of these chemicals and synthetic hormones are changing the way our body reacts naturally. It is actually changing the amount of femininity in men of all species which I think is pretty remarkable. We need to be aware that we do not fully know how we react to these chemicals in the long run so we need to be on guard and question what we are ingesting.

Three Most Significant Things from the Book

• We need to be aware of the chemicals that we are putting in our bodies through nearly everything we encounter. It is interfering with our natural hormone production.
• The chemicals that act as hormone disruptors is likely partially responsible for the uprising in nearly every disease, especially cancer. They are also responsible for developmental problems and lower IQ's.
• If we eat and buy everything as organic as possible, we can reduce our risk of developing a disease and be much healthier overall.

What Does It Mean to Me
I will not make more of an effort to buy organically and use less plastic on a daily basis. Now that I see how it I have had it all laid out and explained to me, I can really see the problems all of these hormone disruptors are causing. I know that it will not be a dramatic change at one time but a gradual one. I will also try to inform others about this issue in hopes that they will change also.

Would I Recommend This Book?
I think this book has a lot of good information but it seemed really repetitive to me. It also seemed like the author was a little bias since she has had so many issues in her life being a DES daughter. It made the book feel like a therapy session in a way. Overall, I liked the information but could have done without her personal story in it. I can't necessarily say I would recommend this book but it wasn't the worst thing I've read either.

Read 'n' Seed: Part 3 of Hormone Deception

In this portion of Hormone Deception, I ready pages 145 through 210 which included Chapters 8, 9, 10, and 11. These chapters discussed the effects of hormone disruptors on women in several different aspects.

Chapter 8: Women's Health
Berkson starts the chapter off by pointing out the many differences women have from men physically. Since women are smaller and have higher levels of estrogen, they are much more susceptible to they hormone disruptors they encounter. These have been found to cause the following problems

• endometriosis
• uterine fibroids
• benign breast disease
• premenstrual syndrome or PMS
• permenopausal problems
• endometrial polyps
• ovarian cysts
• infertility
• increases in breast and ovarian cancer

According to the book, approximately 80% of women in the United States reports having taken oral contraceptives at some point. Studies have shown that women who started taking birth control early in life or for a prolonged time have an increased chance of developing breast cancer at a earlier age. Adversely, once a woman reaches the age of her mid-forties, early use is shown to decrease the risk of developing breast cancer. Since there are so many women taking birth control that is excreted from their bodies into our water supply without proper water systems to filter out the estrogen, it is present in the water we use and drink on a daily basis. The fertility drugs that women are taking to combat the rising rate of infertility can possibly cause an increase in deformities and abnormalities in the children that are the product of them.

Chapter 9: Breast Cancer
According to Berkson, 46,000 women are killed by breast cancer every year and is the number one cause of death for women between the ages of 32 and 52. Young women are more susceptible to the hormone receptors in their breasts since they are not fully developed and are more impressionable. Over half of all diagnosed breast cancers are estrogen sensitive. This means that higher estrogen levels will increase risk of developing breast cancer. There are other hormone disruptors may also affect the breasts such as through hormones such as thryoxine (made by the thyroid gland which affects the response of breast tissue to estrogen), prolactin (which is the hormone that produces milk in pregnancy), insulin (maintains blood-sugar levels in the body), and progesterone (regulates female cycles).

Chapter 10: Synthetic Hormones and Menopause
Hormone replacement therapy or (HRT) is typically administered to women going through menopause to attempt to lower the risk of various diseases associated with growing older such as osteoporosis and cardiovascular disease. Even though they may be beneficial, they can have very severe side effects since as close to the real hormone it is, it is still synthetic and foreign to the body. Even though it is believed that hormones in women are declining at this time, they are actually all over place from high to low. Therefore, adding more estrogen with HRT's and from the environment can cause problems such as breast cancer. There is no evidence that shows that HRT's may actually cause liver damage, cardiovascular problems, cancer, asthma, and may not be as beneficial in preventing osteoporosis as previously thought. The main point that Berkson is trying to make is that every woman is different; therefore, doctors should be more cautious of prescribing HRT's to them to prevent adverse affects.

Chapter 11: Other Health Problems
To shortly sum up this chapter, Berkson discusses how hormone disruptors have been shown to cause the rise in several other diseases such as allergies, autoimmune conditions (where the body attacks itself) thyroid and adrenal problems, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (which is what my boyfriend actually had so I found this to be interesting), diabetes, and higher levels of blood pressure.

It is easy to see how much these synthetic hormones are disrupting everyone. I think it explains why there as been a rise in so many of the diseases that are so common now. It is important to be aware of the risks along with the benefits associated with what we are around and putting in our body. I find all of this to be really disturbing, and it makes me feel like I am not safe doing anything.

Read 'n' Seed 3: Part 2 of Hormone Deception

For this portion, I have read about half of Part 2: How Hormone Disruptors May Affect You in the book which extends from pages 75-145. This included Chapter 5: In the Womb and at the Breast, Chapter 6: Children, and Chapter 7: Men's Reproductive Health. For this portion, I will be giving a summary of each chapter since so many different topics are covered.

Chapter 5: In the Womb and at the Breast
In this chapter, Berkson discusses how hormone disruptors can still pass through the placenta and may inevitably cause developmental problems in the future. This is due to the fact that xenoestrogens (compounds that mock natural estrogens) are able to pass through barriers freely while natural estrogens are bound to proteins so they are not able to pass through to harm the unborn child. The fetus' are more susceptible to more dramatic effects from the hormone disruptors since they are not fully developed with a liver and kidneys to get rid of the toxins. It was found through testing on rats that if a hormone disrupts the day of conception that the gender is decided, this could eventually cause physical developmental problems.
Once the child is born, many mothers opt to breast feed their child as it is the most natural way and is typically known as the healthiest nutrition source for infants. Though this is still believed to be true compared to other forms of nutrition, such as formula, there are some drawbacks that many do not know. Many of the toxins in our body is stored in our fat. When a woman breastfeeds, she releases much of the stored toxins into the milk, which is found contain more chemicals than the FDA allows in infant formulas. Berkson goes on to discuss how to get rid of these toxins before becoming pregnant with a detox and also what kind of products not to use with bottle feeding.

Chapter 6: Children
Berkson discusses how children are more prone to hormone disruptor'\s since they are still developing in many ways. In recent studies, it has shown that childhood cancers, asthma, birth defects, ear infections, and hypospadias (a male developmental problem) have dramatically increased at least within the last 10 years. It has even been found that children are reaching puberty at a much younger age, specifically girls starting with breast development. This is probably due to the fact that children are more exposed to harmful chemicals while their body and brain are not fully developed. This is by them constantly playing in dirt, putting toys in their mouth, and not being as concerned with hygiene as adults. Another study conducted in Mexico was done on two groups of children; one growing up around around pesticides and one growing up free of chemicals. Over several years of the study, it was evident that the children growing up in an organic environment were much further developed mentally as opposed to the children growing up around pesticides. In other studies, there is evidence that the newer generations have experienced a downward shift in IQ scores also and an increase in the cases of ADHD. According go the book, the United States uses 80% of the worlds Ritalin. I think this statistic is outstanding and unacceptable. The conclusion of this chapter discusses ways to protect children from harmful chemicals through hygiene and their food consumption.

Chapter 7: Men's Reproductive Health
The topic that was most prevalent in this chapter was gender-bending. Gender-bending is the when hormone disruptors with much estrogen in them interfere with the natural development caused by natural hormones causing men to become more feminine. These chemicals even have the ability to reverse gender from male to female. This is becoming more and more common and has even been suggested to cause some homosexuality. Other problems it has caused is lower sperm count (which could lead to fertility issues), testicular cancer, and sex organ developmental issues. These chemicals, overall, are making everything more feminine with the overabundance of estrogen and xenoestrogens.

From this portion of the book that I have read, I think it is clear that there is a serious problem with the chemicals and synthetic hormones we use so widely. Only now are we starting to see the affects of these on our bodies and I think we all need to take action against their use just like with smoking. It would be in every one's best interest to avoid using plastic, eat organically, and be aware of the environment you are in. If we can start eliminating our need and use of plastic on a personal level, eventually it will lead to less production on a larger scale. Who knows, if we don't change something, maybe we'll start slowly losing the male gender.

Read 'n' Seed: Part 1 of 4 of Hormone Deception

For the first part of Hormone Deception, I read the first 75 pages which amounted to be 4 chapters that would conclude part 1 of the book.

Part one of the book was an introduction of the topic of how "hormone disrupters" can affect our natural hormones in our body. The author, Lindsay Berkson, writes this book as a daughter of a mother who was injected with DES while pregnant to prevent from having a miscarriage. Years later, this man-made hormone meant to act as an estrogen boost was found to be of no benefit and to cause many ill results later. From this, Berkson has faced several female problems throughout her entire life which has caused her to research the affects of man-made hormones and chemicals that we face on a a daily basis. She points out the fact that companies only test chemicals for their immediate effects on animals and do not follow-up with the results that appear later in life. Also, even though the harmful results appear on animals, companies do not regard them being equivalent enough to humans so it is dismissed. We face several toxins in the air we breathe, water we drink, and food we eat on a daily basis which may be the reason for more cancers, developmental problems, and fertility issues.

Most of the terminology presented in this book, such as the endocrine system, estrogen, progesterone, etc. were already things I have heard of from taking several classes in anatomy and biology. I wasn't, however, aware of the chemicals and toxins that we are faced with everyday such as phytoestrogens, xenoestrogens, phthalates, alkyphenolic compounds, and persistent organic pollutants. I had also never previous heard about DES and its affects which surprised me.

I think that learning about how the chemicals are disrupting our natural hormones and the endocrine system is very beneficial. Our country and others make so many products (mostly out of vinyl and plastic) for the simple convenience of living. We seldom look at the long term affects of all of these chemicals in our bodies. It is clear that there is some sort of problem in the environment we live in with more and more people having body illnesses each year. Publicly showing the results of these chemicals could help save future generations lives. It is time to know what we are putting into our bodies and to change it for us, our future children, and for the planet.

Read n' Seed 1: Hormone Deception: How Everyday Foods and Products Are Disrupting Your Homones--and How to Protect Yourself and Your Family

The book I have chosen is "Hormone Deception: How Everyday Foods and Products Are Disrupting Your Hormones--and How to Protect Yourself and Your Family" by Lindsey Berkson.

This book discusses how the use many of our products from food to plastic products may be affecting our bodies and the hormones within. She explains how certain diseases that have been on the rise, becoming an epidemic, are quite possibly the result of the consumption of harmful chemicals and chemically-altered products.

I chose this book because I have always been interested in the physical health and science aspects of the body. I have been involved in several aspects of cancer; therefore, by reading this book, I will likely get a better idea as to why some of these diseases have become so prevalent in the last decades.

Three sources about the book and author are as follows:

• http://www.lindseyberkson.com/

• http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Hormone-Deception/D-Lindsey-Berkson/e/9780658021305/?itm=2&USRI=hormone+deception

• http://www.amazon.com/Hormone-Deception-Lindsey-Berkson/dp/0809225387

This book is 421 pages and chapters. Therefore, I will be splitting the book into 4 quarters by reporting on about 100 pages at a time depending on the cut-off of the chapters.

Welcome to Samantha: Green with Envi

Hi everyone! My name is Samantha and I am currently a senior at the University of Minnesota-Duluth with a major in Health Education (Community). In my limited free time, I enjoy reading, shopping, and enjoying the outdoors.

My blog will be about a variety of topics concerning the environment. I will attempt to provide the latest and greatest ideas and inventions for going green!

There are 6 possible types of posts on my blog. They include:

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