Finding higher diabetes rates among those heavily exposed to toxic pollutants—such as those exposed to Agent Orange, chemical plant explosions, toxic waste dumps, or heavy metals in fish from the Great Lakes—is one thing. Would the same link be found in a random sampling of the general population? Yes. A strong dose-dependent relationship was found between the levels of these pollutants circulating in people’s blood and diabetes. Those with the highest levels of pollutants in their blood stream had 38 times the odds of diabetes.
Interestingly, there was “no association between obesity and diabetes among subjects with non-detectable levels of pollutants.” In other words, “obesity was a risk factor for diabetes only if people had blood concentrations of these pollutants above a certain level.” We know obesity predisposes us to diabetes, but according to this study, highlighted in my video, Diabetes and Dioxins, this is perhaps true only if our bodies are contaminated with industrial pollutants. This finding implies that virtually all the risk of diabetes conferred by obesity is attributable to these pollutants, and that obesity might only be a vehicle for such chemicals. Could we be carrying around our own little toxic waste dump on our hips?
Now it’s entirely possible that the six pollutants they looked at were not themselves causally related to diabetes. Rather, they could just be surrogates of exposure to a mixture of chemicals. After all, 90% of these pollutants in our diet come from animal foods. Except for individuals living or working around industrial sites where these chemicals were used or dumped, the most common source of exposure to PCBs is from diet, from foods of animal origin, especially seafood. The strong relationship the researchers found between certain pollutants and diabetes may just be pointing to other contaminants in animal products.
If these pollutants are particularly found in seafood, are people who eat fish at higher risk for diabetes? See my videos Fish and Diabetes, and Pollutants in Salmon and Our Own Fat.
For more on dioxins, see:
For more on PCBs, see:
- Food Sources of PCB Chemical Pollutants
- How Fast Can Children Detoxify From PCBs?
- The Wrong Way to Detox
These pollutants may also play a role in our rising epidemic of allergic diseases. See Alkylphenol Endocrine Disruptors and Allergies and Dietary Sources of Alkylphenol Endocrine Disruptors.
-Michael Greger, M.D.
PS: If you haven’t yet, you can subscribe to my videos for free by clicking here and watch my full 2012 – 2015 presentations Uprooting the Leading Causes of Death, More than an Apple a Day, From Table to Able, and Food as Medicine.
