There is no two ways about it, we sadly live in a terribly toxic world. Scanning the research that came into my inbox today is a chilling reminder of how seriously the state of our world is harming not only our health but that of the unborn next generation.
Excellent book
Here are a few article headlines and their links.
Exposure to High Pollution Levels During Pregnancy May Increase Risk of Having Child With Autism
June 18, 2013 — Women in the U.S. exposed to high levels of air pollution while pregnant were up to twice as likely to have a child with autism as women who lived in areas with low pollution, according to a new study from Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH). It is the first large national study to examine links between autism and air pollution across the U.S.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/06/130618101734.htm#
54% of Pregnant Women Use Insecticides That Are Harmful to the Fetus, Spanish Study Shows
June 20, 2013 — Pregnancy and infancy are the periods of greatest vulnerability to the use of household insecticides. This is one of the findings of the first study of its kind to be carried out in Spain, which concludes that more than half of expectant mothers routinely use these chemical compounds.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/06/130620100832.htm
I am astounded at the high percentage of usage of chemicals in the home, however it also strikes me what are the implications for women living in countries such as Singapore where chemicals are regularly sprayed into the atmosphere to control mosquitos and dengue fever?
BPA Linked to a Common Birth Defect in Boys
June 17, 2013 — A new study links fetal exposure to a common chemical pollutant, bisphenol A (BPA), to defects of a testicular hormone in newborn boys with undescended testicles.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/06/130617122140.htm
Exposure to BPA in Developing Prostate Increases Risk of Later Cancer: Ubiquitous Plasticizers May Have Long-Term Health Effects
June 17, 2013 — Early exposure to BPA (bisphenol A) — an additive commonly found in plastic water bottles and soup can liners — causes an increased cancer risk in an animal model of human prostate cancer, according to University of Illinois at Chicago researcher Gail Prins.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/06/130617122133.htm
Although these papers are discussing very different topics, the underlying theme is that our environment is affecting the health of the unborn and newborn. This is only the research today!
It often feels overwhelming to me, where to start when educating my clients about protecting themselves against the environment as it is no longer sufficient to talk about only diet and supplements. If I am to do my job correctly and help people heal, then I must also guide patients to the beginning of the learning journey into how they can best arm themselves to deal with the environment and to limit daily exposure. If the environment has played such a large role in patients getting to where they are with ill-health, then ONLY bombarding them with supplements, herbs, diet, and kind words is not doing their health justice. Environmental factors that commonly affect people’s health are agrichemicals such as pesticides and herbicides; food and beverage additives such as aspartame, HFCS and the long gamut of E-numbers, synthetic chemicals, and additives never-mind contamination; vaccinations, medications and antibiotics; chemicals added to our water, the prime culprit being fluoride which is only a tad worse than arsenic for us; chemicals in plastics, BPA being the major offender; and toxins in our toiletries, cosmetics, and household cleaning products for example parabens. This is only touching on the surface of what must be thousands of chemicals hitting our systems on a daily basis.
If you would like to learn more about fluoride this is a clip that I was glued to yesterday, please watch this to the end as the informational content really gets going after approx. 10 minutes
It is an uphill battle for humans when governments really don’t seem to care, and are not listening to the scientists highlighting the very real dangers and consequences chemicals in our environment are having on our planet, wildlife and populations. There are very real effects occurring in our ecosystems as highlighted by increasing reproductive problems and this is following suite in humans. Infertility rates are skyrocketing; and it is not a laughing matter. The biggest threat to our long-term health is infertility; we will go extinct as a race if things don’t change. FAST.
Please educate yourselves more here on how prevalent endocrine disruptors are in our environment and the drastic consequences. it is no longer a case of protecting our children when they are born; babies before birth have traces of over 200 chemicals in their placental cords 🙁
http://www.who.int/ceh/publications/endocrine/en/
Furthermore, the very DNA of the baby is programmable by the environment, which then may have repercussions for their long-term health. As a colleague of mine said, the DNA is the gun, the environment the trigger. We can influence the health of the unborn for better or worse by our actions pre-conception and during pregnancy. WOW!!!
So when you are planning a baby you have to start thinking of the consequences of all your actions; and also realise that all the positive steps that you take are making a crucial and important difference for the better. Every one of your efforts to support your health counts for the baby.
This is a nice article for the scientists out there that speaks more about how crucial environmental cues are for the developing foetus and how the genetics of the baby can be programmable by the environment http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3171169/
We do everything that is possible and beyond to protect our children when they are born, and I am asking you to see that this absolutely must start before you plan to conceive. There is ample argument for us to embark on a strict regime of detoxifying the effects our environment has had on our bodies to date using a combination of diet and supplements, to eliminate all exposures as much as possible, AND to support our endogenous detoxification systems through the use of diet and nutritional supplements right through from the pre-conceptional to the post-lactation phase and to continue to create the safest environment possible for our children.
Seek to minimise exposure when pregnant, limit scans to those that are only crucial, seek to have the most natural and stress-free birth possible and aim to eat a nutrient packed natural diet that is preferably free from gluten and along the principles of the Paleo or Hunter Gatherer diet. Investigate cots, baby lotions, vaccinations, foods, cooking methods, and so on; everything that baby is exposed to can have an impact. And then tell yourself you have done the best that you can; this is all that you can do and every little step counts.
xxx
In the coming months Deirdre and I will be running workshops to support mums to be and provide education about how to eat and prepare your body before and during pregnancy. Please email us on achealthsolutions@eircom.net for more information if you are interested.
In the meantime, here are a few resources that may be helpful
http://www.nourishingourchildren.org/Home.html
http://www.westonaprice.orghttp://www.foresight-preconception.org.uk
http://www.ewg.org/research/healthy-home-tips/healthy-pregnancy
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