ECOESTROGENS healthy living
BY MOJKA RENAUD, A.P., LN
acteristics in animals that are exposed to it. Lake Apopka, for example, is adjacent to an EPA Superfund site contaminated with dicofol and DDT. Both of these pesticides are known as estrogen mimics. University of Georgia researchers completed a study on alligators in Lake Apopka. Yes, THAT Lake Apopka, which is less than 25 miles from Lake Eola! At six months of age, female alligators from Lake Apopka had plasma estrogen concentrations almost two times greater than normal females. The plasma testosterone levels of male alligators were more than 3 times lower than in an adjacent lake. In another case, two Lake Apopka alligators without penises were identified as females but later observed to have testes! The reason why University of Georgia researched the lake is because abnormalities in the ovaries of these alligators are similar to the conditions seen in the ovaries of women suffering from reproductive issues.
ENVIRONMENTAL TOXINS
I
am excited to give you a resolution that will make the most dramatic impact on your health in the future. This one affects everybody in the most insidious ways: ECOESTROGENS. They are environmental estrogens that are in every food we eat, milk or water that we drink. They are in birth control pills, plastics and environmental pesticides. Concern over environmental estrogen is so great that in 1999, the Environmental Protection Agency
(U.S. EPA 1989 toxin released inventory) Inventory National Report
(EPA) initiated a screening and testing program to identify the potential endocrinesystem impact of the 87,000 chemicals in commercial use. Environmental chemicals are called Ecoestrogens because they have the ability to mimic our own estrogen and enter our cells more efficiently than natural estrogen where they can alter tissue structure of our cells and cause tumor growths and cancer. Because of its estrogenic effect, it causes female char-
12 IT'S JUST YOGA MAGAZINE | CENTRAL FLORIDA | SPRING/SUMMER 2020
• 550,000,000 lbs. of industrial chemicals were dumped into public’s sewage storage. • 1,000,000,000 lbs. of chemical released into the ground. • 1,888,000,000 lbs. of chemicals discharged into surface waters. • 2,400,000,000 lbs. of air emissions • 3,705,670,380 lbs. of chemicals in one year.
