Are Plastics Making You Fat?
If you have been suffering from fatigue, depression and an inability to lose
weight no matter what you do, you may want to look at your water sources.
Many of you are probably drinking bottled water hoping to maintain good
health through proper hydration. What you may not know is the detrimental
health effects that chemicals in plastics may cause.
Pthalates are chemicals found in plastics such as bottled water, food
storage containers, plastic food wraps (Saran wrap). They are also found
in cosmetics and personal products including nail polish remover, hair
spray, perfume and eye shadow. Even the popular glow sticks that children
use are loaded with pthalates. Bisphenol A is another chemical used
especially in plastic water bottles and is finally getting some attention due
to it’s effects on brain development in young children. Other chemicals
including PCB’s, flame retardants, dioxins, parabens and pesticides have
hormone-disrupting properties as well.
These chemicals can have devastating effects on the thyroid gland which
regulates metabolism including the burning of fat and sugar. There are
many ways by which they affect thyroid function:
1. Decreases production of thyroid hormones including T4 and T3.
2. Inhibits the brain’s communication with the thyroid gland.
3. Can actually bind to thyroid hormone receptors blocking thyroid
hormone.
4. Stresses the liver where most thyroid hormone is metabolized.
5. Poisons proteins that transport thyroid hormone.
6. Inhibits iodine from entering the thyroid gland.
7. Disrupts the action of thyroid hormone at the cellular level.
This can create a scenario where all of your thyroid hormone blood tests
are normal yet you can still have hypothyroidism. In addition, many of
these chemicals can have estrogen-like effects in the body. Symptoms of
excess estrogen include:
• Weight gain
• Water retention
• Fatigue
• Mood Swings
• Anxiety
• Depression
• Sleep problems
• Endometriosis
• Painful, heavy periods
• Uterine Fibroids
• Fibrocystic breasts (hard, lumpy)
Excess estrogen reduces the amount of available thyroid hormone and can
lead to symptoms of hypothyroidism. This is very common in women who
are on conventional hormone replacement therapy which includes high
doses of synthetic estrogen. Sometimes simply by detoxifying the excess
estrogen from a women’s body we see all hypothyroid symptoms resolve.
It’s impossible to avoid all chemicals but you can significantly reduce your
exposure to them. The first thing to do is to stop drinking bottled water.
Bottled water on average is just 70% tap water, is more expensive than
gasoline per gallon and is causing a major environmental problem as
millions of plastic bottles are piling up in landfills.
Use chemical-free personal products. The best resource for this is the
Environmental Working Groups cosmetics database which can be found at
www.cosmeticsdatabase.com Simply search for your products and you will
get a safety rating as well as what chemicals are in the products and what
they do.
Make sure you’re using the best water filtration system. I used to use
reverse osmosis because it was the only filter that removed fluoride but a
new filter is available through www.mercola.com which I have switched to. It
assembles easily to the countertop and has a specific filter for fluoride as
well as filtration for chemicals, chlorine etc. Fill glass water bottles or
stainless steel and drink out of them instead of plastic.
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