The dramatic rise of allergic diseases such as eczema and seasonal allergies may be related to dietary exposure to endocrine-disruptor xenoestrogens, such as alkylphenol industrial pollutants.
Alkylphenol Endocrine Disruptors and Allergies
Below is an approximation of this video’s audio content. To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video.
In my video Preventing Childhood Allergies, I noted a study in Japan that found that “[h]igher maternal intake of meat during pregnancy was significantly associated with” about three times the odds of both suspected and physician-diagnosed eczema. They suggest that “[ce]rtain components of meat may affect the foetal immune [system].” But, what about the moms themselves?
Seasonal allergies have exploded in Japan in the past few decades, starting with the first reported case in 1964, and now affecting millions every year. We’ve seen a “rising prevalence of allergic diseases” around the industrialized world in past decades, but perhaps nothing quite this dramatic.
Researchers suggested profound changes in the Japanese diet may have played a role. Over the latter half of the century, total meat, fish, and milk intake rose hundreds of percent in Japan, so researchers decided to look into dietary meat and fat intake and the prevalence of these seasonal pollen allergies. No association with overall fat, but higher meat intake was associated significantly with an increased prevalence of disease.
So, maybe it was the saturated fat? No, that didn’t seem to be it. So, what other constituents in meat may be to blame? Well, there are the cooked meat carcinogens, the heterocyclic amines, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and nitrosamines—but, who knows?
This new review, however, raised an intriguing possibility. There’s a class of industrial pollutants called alkylphenols, recognized as common toxic endocrine-disrupting chemicals, that “tend to accumulate in the human body and may be associated with the adverse effects of allergic diseases.” A variety of studies have shown how they may exacerbate allergen-induced inflammation, suggesting “that alkylphenol exposure may influence the onset, progression, and severity of allergic diseases.” These toxic xenoestrogens can be found in human breast milk, stored up in our body fat, coursing through our urine, our bloodstream, and even in the umbilical cord blood going to our babies. How did it get there? How do people get exposed? Through contaminated food.
It all goes back to a famous study about the reduction of penis size and testosterone levels in “alligators living in a contaminated environment.” I don’t know what you all do for a day job, but these researchers observed that a population of juvenile alligators living in one lake in Florida exhibited a significantly smaller penis size and lower blood concentrations of testosterone, compared to animals on some different lake. “The most important difference between the two lakes was that Lake [stubby was] fed by…relatively polluted [waters]. They attributed the short penis phenomenon to estrogen-mimicking (xenoestrogenic) environmental metabolites of DDT” that still pollute the earth. “This [seminal] work introduced the concept that [endocrine disruptors,] environmental xenoestrogens might result in feminisation of exposed male animals.” And, that’s just the shriveled tip of the iceberg.
Since then, endocrine-disrupting chemicals have been implicated in the dramatic rise over the last fifty years of diseases like breast cancer, prostate cancer, testicular cancer, diabetes, obesity, decreased fertility, such as dropping normal sperm counts. Not to mention genital birth defects, such as penile malformations, preterm birth, neurobehavioral disorders in children linked to thyroid disruption, and earlier breast development in young girls.
“Because genes do not change fast enough to explain these increases, environmental causes must be involved.” Since our greatest exposure to the environment is through our gut, it’s no surprise that our greatest exposure to these endocrine-disrupting chemicals is through diet.
But, which foods? I’ll cover that next.
Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.
- A. Bergman, J. J. Heindel, T. Kasten, K. A. Kidd, S. Jobling, M. Neira, R. T. Zoeller, G. Becher, P. Bjerregaard, R. Bornman, I. Brandt, A. Kortenkamp, D. Muir, M.-N. B. Drisse, R. Ochieng, N. E. Skakkebaek, A. S. Byléhn, T. Iguchi, J. Toppari, T. J. Woodruff. The impact of endocrine disruption: A consensus statement on the state of the science. Environ. Health Perspect. 2013 121(4):A104 - 6.
- L. S. Birnbaum. State of the science of endocrine disruptors. Environ. Health Perspect. 2013 121(4):A107.
- A. M. Soto, H. Justicia, J. W. Wray, C. Sonnenschein. P-Nonyl-phenol: An estrogenic xenobiotic released from "modified" polystyrene.
- R. J. B. Peters, H. Beeltje, R. J. van Delft. Xeno-estrogenic compounds in precipitation. J. Environ. Monit. 2008 10(6):760 - 769.
- B. Shao, H. Han, D. Li, Y. Ma, X. Tu, Y. Wu. Analysis of alkylphenol and bisphenol A in meat by accelerated solvent extraction and liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry. Food Chem. 2007 105(3):1236 - 1241.
- F. Ferrara, F. Fabietti, M. Delise, E. Funari. Alkylphenols and alkylphenol ethoxylates contamination of crustaceans and fishes from the Adriatic Sea (Italy). Chemosphere 2005 59(8):1145 - 1150.
- H. R. Andersen, A. M. Andersson, S. F. Arnold, H. Autrup, M. Barfoed, N. A. Beresford, P. Bjerregaard, L. B. Christiansen, B. Gissel, R. Hummel, E. B. Jorgensen, B. Korsgaard, R. Le Guevel, H. Leffers, J. McLachlan, A. Moller, J. B. Nielsen, N. Olea, A. Oles-Karasko, F. Pakdel, K. L. Pedersen, P. Perez, N. E. Skakkeboek, C. Sonnenschein, A. M. Soto. Comparison of short-term estrogenicity tests for identification of hormone-disrupting chemicals. Environ. Health Perspect. 1999 107 - Suppl - 1:89 - 108.
- P. Ellwood, M. I. Asher, L. García-Marcos, H. Williams, U. Keil, C. Robertson, G. Nagel. Do fast foods cause asthma, rhinoconjunctivitis and eczema? Global findings from the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC) phase three. Thorax 2013 68(4):351 - 360.
- C. Bime, C. Y. Wei, J. Holbrook, L. J. Smith, R. A. Wise. Association of dietary soy genistein intake with lung function and asthma control: A post-hoc analysis of patients enrolled in a prospective multicentre clinical trial. Prim Care Respir J 2012 21(4):398 - 404.
- N. Ademollo, F. Ferrara, M. Delise, F. Fabietti, E. Funari. Nonylphenol and octylphenol in human breast milk. Environ Int 2008 34(7):984 - 987.
- G.-W. Chen, W.-H. Ding, H.-Y. Ku, H.-R. Chao, H.-Y. Chen, M.-C. Huang, S.-L. Wang. Alkylphenols in human milk and their relations to dietary habits in central Taiwan. Food Chem. Toxicol. 2010 48(7):1939 - 1944.
- J. G. Dórea. Alkylphenols and other pollutants contaminate human milk as well as cow's milk: Formula feeding cannot abate exposure in nursing infants. Environ Int 2009 35(2):451.
- K. Guenther, V. Heinke, B. Thiele, E. Kleist, H. Prast, T. Raecker. Endocrine disrupting nonylphenols are ubiquitous in food. Environmental science & technology 2002 36(8):1676 - 1680.
- B. Björkstén. Effects of intestinal microflora and the environment on the development of asthma and allergy. Springer Semin. Immunopathol. 2004 25(3 - 4):257 - 270.
- K. Saito, T. Yokoyama, Y. Miyake, S. Sasaki, K. Tanaka, Y. Ohya, Y. Hirota. Maternal meat and fat consumption during pregnancy and suspected atopic eczema in Japanese infants aged 3-4 months: The Osaka Maternal and Child Health Study. Pediatr Allergy Immunol 2010 21(1 - Pt - 1):38 - 46.
- Y. Miyake, K. Tanaka, H. Okubo, S. Sasaki, M. Arakawa, others. Dietary meat and fat intake and prevalence of rhinoconjunctivitis in pregnant Japanese women: Baseline data from the Kyushu Okinawa Maternal and Child Health Study. Nutrition Journal 2012 11(1):19.
- Y. Kaneko, Y. Motohashi, H. Nakamura, T. Endo, A. Eboshida. Increasing prevalence of Japanese cedar pollinosis: A meta-regression analysis. Int. Arch. Allergy Immunol. 2005 136(4):365 - 371.
- J.-L. Suen, C.-H. Hung, H.-S. Yu, S.-K. Huang. Alkylphenols--potential modulators of the allergic response. Kaohsiung J. Med. Sci. 2012 28(7 - Suppl):S43 - 8.
- S. De Coster, N. van Larebeke. Endocrine-disrupting chemicals: Associated disorders and mechanisms of action. J Environ Public Health 2012 2012:713696.
- K Sasaki. Determination of Alkylphenols and 2, 4-Dichlorophenol in Foods. 1999 40(6):460 - 472.
- A. Blom, E. Ekman, A. Johannisson, L. Norrgren, M. Pesonen. Effects of xenoestrogenic environmental pollutants on the proliferation of a human breast cancer cell line (MCF-7). Arch. Environ. Contam. Toxicol. 1998 34(3):306 - 310.
- I Mao,Y Lu,M Chen. A simplified method for simultaneous quantitation of alkylphenols and alkylphenol ethoxylates in meat and fish using high-performance liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection. Int. J. Environ. Anal. Chem. 2007 86(10):713-722.
- H. Adachi, A. Hino. Trends in nutritional intake and serum cholesterol levels over 40 years in Tanushimaru, Japanese men. J Epidemiol 2005 15(3):85 - 89.
- B. M. Thomson, P. J. Cressey, I. C. Shaw. Dietary exposure to xenoestrogens in New Zealand. J. Environ. Monit. 2003 5(2):229 - 235.
- R. Renner. European bans on surfactant trigger transatlantic debate. Environ. Sci. Technol. 1997 31(7):316A - 20A.
- N. Olea, P. Pazos, J. Exposito. Inadvertent exposure to xenoestrogens. Eur. J. Cancer Prev. 1998 7 - Suppl - 1(NA):S17 - 23.
- L. J. Guillette Jr, D. B. Pickford, D. A. Crain, A. A. Rooney, H. F. Percival. Reduction in penis size and plasma testosterone concentrations in juvenile alligators living in a contaminated environment. Gen. Comp. Endocrinol. 1996 101(1):32 - 42.
Images thanks to Stuck in Customs, guilherme cecilio, and Toban B via flickr
- adolescencia
- alergias
- aminas heterocíclicas
- cáncer
- cáncer de mama
- cáncer de próstata
- cáncer testicular
- carcinógenos
- carne
- cognición
- contaminantes industriales
- conteo de esperma
- defectos de nacimiento
- desarrollo mamario
- diabetes
- disruptores endocrinos
- eccema
- embarazo
- estudios en animales
- fertilidad
- función inmune
- grasa
- grasa corporal
- grasa de origen animal
- grasa saturada
- hidrocarburos aromáticos policíclicos
- infantes
- infertilidad
- inflamación
- Japón
- lácteos
- leche
- leche materna
- niñez
- nitrosaminas
- obesidad
- pérdida de peso
- pescado
- prediabetes
- productos de origen animal
- pubertad
- salud de la mujer
- salud de la próstata
- salud de la tiroides
- salud del pene
- salud mamaria
- salud masculina
- salud mental
- salud sexual
- salud testicular
- testosterona
- xeno-estrógenos
Below is an approximation of this video’s audio content. To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video.
In my video Preventing Childhood Allergies, I noted a study in Japan that found that “[h]igher maternal intake of meat during pregnancy was significantly associated with” about three times the odds of both suspected and physician-diagnosed eczema. They suggest that “[ce]rtain components of meat may affect the foetal immune [system].” But, what about the moms themselves?
Seasonal allergies have exploded in Japan in the past few decades, starting with the first reported case in 1964, and now affecting millions every year. We’ve seen a “rising prevalence of allergic diseases” around the industrialized world in past decades, but perhaps nothing quite this dramatic.
Researchers suggested profound changes in the Japanese diet may have played a role. Over the latter half of the century, total meat, fish, and milk intake rose hundreds of percent in Japan, so researchers decided to look into dietary meat and fat intake and the prevalence of these seasonal pollen allergies. No association with overall fat, but higher meat intake was associated significantly with an increased prevalence of disease.
So, maybe it was the saturated fat? No, that didn’t seem to be it. So, what other constituents in meat may be to blame? Well, there are the cooked meat carcinogens, the heterocyclic amines, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and nitrosamines—but, who knows?
This new review, however, raised an intriguing possibility. There’s a class of industrial pollutants called alkylphenols, recognized as common toxic endocrine-disrupting chemicals, that “tend to accumulate in the human body and may be associated with the adverse effects of allergic diseases.” A variety of studies have shown how they may exacerbate allergen-induced inflammation, suggesting “that alkylphenol exposure may influence the onset, progression, and severity of allergic diseases.” These toxic xenoestrogens can be found in human breast milk, stored up in our body fat, coursing through our urine, our bloodstream, and even in the umbilical cord blood going to our babies. How did it get there? How do people get exposed? Through contaminated food.
It all goes back to a famous study about the reduction of penis size and testosterone levels in “alligators living in a contaminated environment.” I don’t know what you all do for a day job, but these researchers observed that a population of juvenile alligators living in one lake in Florida exhibited a significantly smaller penis size and lower blood concentrations of testosterone, compared to animals on some different lake. “The most important difference between the two lakes was that Lake [stubby was] fed by…relatively polluted [waters]. They attributed the short penis phenomenon to estrogen-mimicking (xenoestrogenic) environmental metabolites of DDT” that still pollute the earth. “This [seminal] work introduced the concept that [endocrine disruptors,] environmental xenoestrogens might result in feminisation of exposed male animals.” And, that’s just the shriveled tip of the iceberg.
Since then, endocrine-disrupting chemicals have been implicated in the dramatic rise over the last fifty years of diseases like breast cancer, prostate cancer, testicular cancer, diabetes, obesity, decreased fertility, such as dropping normal sperm counts. Not to mention genital birth defects, such as penile malformations, preterm birth, neurobehavioral disorders in children linked to thyroid disruption, and earlier breast development in young girls.
“Because genes do not change fast enough to explain these increases, environmental causes must be involved.” Since our greatest exposure to the environment is through our gut, it’s no surprise that our greatest exposure to these endocrine-disrupting chemicals is through diet.
But, which foods? I’ll cover that next.
Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.
- A. Bergman, J. J. Heindel, T. Kasten, K. A. Kidd, S. Jobling, M. Neira, R. T. Zoeller, G. Becher, P. Bjerregaard, R. Bornman, I. Brandt, A. Kortenkamp, D. Muir, M.-N. B. Drisse, R. Ochieng, N. E. Skakkebaek, A. S. Byléhn, T. Iguchi, J. Toppari, T. J. Woodruff. The impact of endocrine disruption: A consensus statement on the state of the science. Environ. Health Perspect. 2013 121(4):A104 - 6.
- L. S. Birnbaum. State of the science of endocrine disruptors. Environ. Health Perspect. 2013 121(4):A107.
- A. M. Soto, H. Justicia, J. W. Wray, C. Sonnenschein. P-Nonyl-phenol: An estrogenic xenobiotic released from "modified" polystyrene.
- R. J. B. Peters, H. Beeltje, R. J. van Delft. Xeno-estrogenic compounds in precipitation. J. Environ. Monit. 2008 10(6):760 - 769.
- B. Shao, H. Han, D. Li, Y. Ma, X. Tu, Y. Wu. Analysis of alkylphenol and bisphenol A in meat by accelerated solvent extraction and liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry. Food Chem. 2007 105(3):1236 - 1241.
- F. Ferrara, F. Fabietti, M. Delise, E. Funari. Alkylphenols and alkylphenol ethoxylates contamination of crustaceans and fishes from the Adriatic Sea (Italy). Chemosphere 2005 59(8):1145 - 1150.
- H. R. Andersen, A. M. Andersson, S. F. Arnold, H. Autrup, M. Barfoed, N. A. Beresford, P. Bjerregaard, L. B. Christiansen, B. Gissel, R. Hummel, E. B. Jorgensen, B. Korsgaard, R. Le Guevel, H. Leffers, J. McLachlan, A. Moller, J. B. Nielsen, N. Olea, A. Oles-Karasko, F. Pakdel, K. L. Pedersen, P. Perez, N. E. Skakkeboek, C. Sonnenschein, A. M. Soto. Comparison of short-term estrogenicity tests for identification of hormone-disrupting chemicals. Environ. Health Perspect. 1999 107 - Suppl - 1:89 - 108.
- P. Ellwood, M. I. Asher, L. García-Marcos, H. Williams, U. Keil, C. Robertson, G. Nagel. Do fast foods cause asthma, rhinoconjunctivitis and eczema? Global findings from the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC) phase three. Thorax 2013 68(4):351 - 360.
- C. Bime, C. Y. Wei, J. Holbrook, L. J. Smith, R. A. Wise. Association of dietary soy genistein intake with lung function and asthma control: A post-hoc analysis of patients enrolled in a prospective multicentre clinical trial. Prim Care Respir J 2012 21(4):398 - 404.
- N. Ademollo, F. Ferrara, M. Delise, F. Fabietti, E. Funari. Nonylphenol and octylphenol in human breast milk. Environ Int 2008 34(7):984 - 987.
- G.-W. Chen, W.-H. Ding, H.-Y. Ku, H.-R. Chao, H.-Y. Chen, M.-C. Huang, S.-L. Wang. Alkylphenols in human milk and their relations to dietary habits in central Taiwan. Food Chem. Toxicol. 2010 48(7):1939 - 1944.
- J. G. Dórea. Alkylphenols and other pollutants contaminate human milk as well as cow's milk: Formula feeding cannot abate exposure in nursing infants. Environ Int 2009 35(2):451.
- K. Guenther, V. Heinke, B. Thiele, E. Kleist, H. Prast, T. Raecker. Endocrine disrupting nonylphenols are ubiquitous in food. Environmental science & technology 2002 36(8):1676 - 1680.
- B. Björkstén. Effects of intestinal microflora and the environment on the development of asthma and allergy. Springer Semin. Immunopathol. 2004 25(3 - 4):257 - 270.
- K. Saito, T. Yokoyama, Y. Miyake, S. Sasaki, K. Tanaka, Y. Ohya, Y. Hirota. Maternal meat and fat consumption during pregnancy and suspected atopic eczema in Japanese infants aged 3-4 months: The Osaka Maternal and Child Health Study. Pediatr Allergy Immunol 2010 21(1 - Pt - 1):38 - 46.
- Y. Miyake, K. Tanaka, H. Okubo, S. Sasaki, M. Arakawa, others. Dietary meat and fat intake and prevalence of rhinoconjunctivitis in pregnant Japanese women: Baseline data from the Kyushu Okinawa Maternal and Child Health Study. Nutrition Journal 2012 11(1):19.
- Y. Kaneko, Y. Motohashi, H. Nakamura, T. Endo, A. Eboshida. Increasing prevalence of Japanese cedar pollinosis: A meta-regression analysis. Int. Arch. Allergy Immunol. 2005 136(4):365 - 371.
- J.-L. Suen, C.-H. Hung, H.-S. Yu, S.-K. Huang. Alkylphenols--potential modulators of the allergic response. Kaohsiung J. Med. Sci. 2012 28(7 - Suppl):S43 - 8.
- S. De Coster, N. van Larebeke. Endocrine-disrupting chemicals: Associated disorders and mechanisms of action. J Environ Public Health 2012 2012:713696.
- K Sasaki. Determination of Alkylphenols and 2, 4-Dichlorophenol in Foods. 1999 40(6):460 - 472.
- A. Blom, E. Ekman, A. Johannisson, L. Norrgren, M. Pesonen. Effects of xenoestrogenic environmental pollutants on the proliferation of a human breast cancer cell line (MCF-7). Arch. Environ. Contam. Toxicol. 1998 34(3):306 - 310.
- I Mao,Y Lu,M Chen. A simplified method for simultaneous quantitation of alkylphenols and alkylphenol ethoxylates in meat and fish using high-performance liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection. Int. J. Environ. Anal. Chem. 2007 86(10):713-722.
- H. Adachi, A. Hino. Trends in nutritional intake and serum cholesterol levels over 40 years in Tanushimaru, Japanese men. J Epidemiol 2005 15(3):85 - 89.
- B. M. Thomson, P. J. Cressey, I. C. Shaw. Dietary exposure to xenoestrogens in New Zealand. J. Environ. Monit. 2003 5(2):229 - 235.
- R. Renner. European bans on surfactant trigger transatlantic debate. Environ. Sci. Technol. 1997 31(7):316A - 20A.
- N. Olea, P. Pazos, J. Exposito. Inadvertent exposure to xenoestrogens. Eur. J. Cancer Prev. 1998 7 - Suppl - 1(NA):S17 - 23.
- L. J. Guillette Jr, D. B. Pickford, D. A. Crain, A. A. Rooney, H. F. Percival. Reduction in penis size and plasma testosterone concentrations in juvenile alligators living in a contaminated environment. Gen. Comp. Endocrinol. 1996 101(1):32 - 42.
Images thanks to Stuck in Customs, guilherme cecilio, and Toban B via flickr
- adolescencia
- alergias
- aminas heterocíclicas
- cáncer
- cáncer de mama
- cáncer de próstata
- cáncer testicular
- carcinógenos
- carne
- cognición
- contaminantes industriales
- conteo de esperma
- defectos de nacimiento
- desarrollo mamario
- diabetes
- disruptores endocrinos
- eccema
- embarazo
- estudios en animales
- fertilidad
- función inmune
- grasa
- grasa corporal
- grasa de origen animal
- grasa saturada
- hidrocarburos aromáticos policíclicos
- infantes
- infertilidad
- inflamación
- Japón
- lácteos
- leche
- leche materna
- niñez
- nitrosaminas
- obesidad
- pérdida de peso
- pescado
- prediabetes
- productos de origen animal
- pubertad
- salud de la mujer
- salud de la próstata
- salud de la tiroides
- salud del pene
- salud mamaria
- salud masculina
- salud mental
- salud sexual
- salud testicular
- testosterona
- xeno-estrógenos
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Alkylphenol Endocrine Disruptors and Allergies
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Sorry for the cliff-hanger, but the video was getting a bit long. To find out which foods may contain these alkylphenol endocrine disruptors, check out my next video, Dietary Sources of Alkylphenol Endocrine Disruptors.
Here’s the link to the video I mentioned: Preventing Childhood Allergies. A plant-based diet may also help alleviate allergies in adults; see Say No to Drugs by Saying Yes to More Plants and Preventing Allergies in Adulthood.
More on endocrine disruptors in:
A different class of chemicals has been found to be associated with smaller penis size in humans. See Chicken Consumption & the Feminization of Male Genitalia.
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