Transcript:
I know, you're probably thinking, "Oh no, here's this bad news bear again preaching his gospel of depression that everything is poisoning us." About now, some of you might feel like throwing a penalty flag on me for piling on. So let's turn our attention for a minute back to why we care about hormone disruptors.
The endocrine system is a brilliant control and operations center. A network of communication and regulation geared to keep you at full strength, in fighting condition, ready to propagate the species with strong offspring. Now, by saying that, I don't mean the endocrine system and specifically these hormones we talk about are all centered around sex, but if you look around you in the biology world, a great deal of energy and resources are recruited in all species to get to that ultimate goal of replacing yourself. You won't be around forever. Strong heart, good circulation, quick reflexes, strong bones, clear cognition, drive and motivation. These are all part and parcel of these things we call sex hormones. Appendages of these steroids (in the good sense of the word) that we tend to primarily associate with sex. And it makes sense because if you don't present a strong option for reproductive prospects, or don't survive long enough to score on that front (forgive my vernacular there), the species is in peril. At least your genetic line is!
So the scope of human hormone health has very much broadened in recent years. I always say, "Hormones are not just about menopause or andropause anymore. These are not the hormones your mother took." The medical world used to say treat symptoms of middle-age menopause, like hot flashes, anxiety, and weight gain until they subside. Then stop. I believe that approach is 50 years old and stale. Because studies and our clinical experience show that those same hormones that relieve those middle-age symptoms are also maintaining body systems that keep us well, strong, and maybe most importantly, active and happy!
What got me hot on the subject of estrogenics and hormone disruption is the fact that I'm seeing younger and younger women and (more surprisingly to me) men in my office complaining of things I used to see mainly in middle age. About this time I heard a guy named Anthony Jay, a PhD biochemist, speak at a medical conference and got introduced to his book, "Estrogeneration." This lined up and corroborated my own thinking that these hormonal issues in younger people must be environmentally caused because these are otherwise healthy young people (early and middle 30s). And it gets more serious because their complaints extended beyond symptoms that were just inconvenient like lack of energy and focus, libido, and sexual function. In many cases they were having problems with fertility. That's a whole other level of serious.
Let's do a quick review:
The endocrine system attempts to get adequate hormones to receptor sites throughout the body to communicate a need and precipitate an action. When this breaks down, we spend a lot of effort replenishing the hormone levels at the front end of this functional axis, if you will, and largely we have good success, but that's only part of the fix. What happens if something messes with the receptor site? We've got hormone all dressed up with nowhere to go. It's just sitting there singing into the wind.
If you'll indulge me a war analogy, it's like loud and clear orders from the commanding general out of headquarters are not making it to the front line because the receiving radios are jammed. We might not win that war. At least not decisively and without more casualties.
That's what hormone disruptors do. There are already a lot of individual variables a practitioner has to take into consideration with patients (and patience). There's bioavailability (or absorption), there are innate genetic differences in receptor site sensitivity, to name just a couple. When you throw interference at the receptor into the mix, can you see how it can render labs less meaningful? You can have normal or even high levels of hormones in the blood, but the message is not getting through because it's getting a busy signal at the receiving end.
The consumer products, food, and big agriculture industries don't care what they do to your hormones. They have profits to make. Will government take care of you? Well... there's evidence to the contrary. So YOU have to care. I HAVE to keep piling it on because the list goes on and on. Hormone disruptors are everywhere. And because they are everywhere, all those different exposure from different agents, through different media will add up. You can only change what you control right now, but that's enough. And you won't change anything you don't know about, so if I can get you to be a little more aware and do a little bit to reduce your exposure in several areas, that adds up too in your defense. Sometimes we just need to get smart, remove any obstacles (disruptors) that WE'VE put in place, and let the body do it's thing.
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