The University of California has released a new study which shows that a vast number of off the shelf hygiene products such as shampoos and soaps are chock full of endocrine disruptors that alter hormone levels in children and are linked to numerous harmful effects.
For years now we’ve been noticing that young girls are reaching puberty at progressively younger ages. Many have blamed this on high levels of growth hormones in milk and other dairy products. But the Berkeley study appears to show that it is the endocrine disruptors in shampoo that are causing girls to menstruate at younger and younger ages. Boys, by contrast, are experiencing a delay in their maturation through the same mechanism.
The effect of these unnatural endocrine disruptors is to increase the production of estrogen and decrease testosterone levels. It is, therefore, escalating the sexual maturation of girls while delaying and retarding that of boys.
A report published in the medical journal, Human Reproduction, relies on accumulated data gathered by the Centre for the Health Assessment of Mothers and Children of Salinas (CHAMACOS). The initiative tracked 338 children from the womb to mid-adolescence. It looked at the effects on children exposed to endocrine disruptors in a range of different locations.
They have determined that over the past two decades, the age at which children reach puberty is becoming increasingly earlier and that endocrine disruptors in personal care products are directly statistically linked to the changes.
Many people have noticed changes in the ways children develop in recent years. But no one suspected that this has been going on for more than 20 years. What has been shocking is the dramatic increase in the numbers of parents who are claiming that their children are trans-gender or homosexual, and the encouragement they are getting from academia and the media.
One of the lead authors of the study Kim Harley said, “We know that some of the things we put on our bodies are getting into our bodies, either because they pass through the skin or we breathe them in or we inadvertently ingest them. We need to know how these chemicals are affecting our health.”
The normal average age for girls to reach puberty is 11. But since the use of endocrine disruptors has become more and more common, as the research reveals, the average age has been brought down to 8. Sometimes, puberty begins even earlier. It is a phenomenon that has become known to the scientific community as “precocious puberty.” It is an abnormal condition which is linked to an increased propensity for girls to engage in risk-taking behavior and to develop social difficulties.
Some of the most common endocrine disruptors that cause precocious puberty are; phthalates, parabens, and phenols. These are exceedingly common in off the shelf personal hygiene products and are known to disrupt normal hormone production in people of all ages.
Harley added, “While more research is needed, people should be aware that there are chemicals in personal care products that may be disrupting the hormones in our bodies.”
The CHAMACOS study also found that endocrine disruptors can alter the hormone levels of unborn children, and are linked to autism.
In 2014, research was published showing that endocrine disruptors had been linked to autism. Since then, many other research teams have corroborated these findings. One such study looked at 175 expecting mothers and tracked them for five years. They found that exposure to endocrine disruptors during pregnancy resulted in increased exposure of the fetus to the chemicals which predicted an increased risk of developing autism.
L.J. Devon explains, “With autism rates climbing in the United States between 2002 and 2012 by 78 percent, it seems that Americans are oblivious to the effect that these chemicals have on the human body, especially on developing minds. Since boys are four times more likely than girls to develop autistic behaviors, the scientists concurred that several key hormones known to control male brain development are being disrupted by chemicals in the environment.”
Of course, these pollutants are present in the containers our foods are shipped and stored in. They are in receipts in especially high concentrations. They are in water bottles and in the keyboards, computer mice, and other tech items that many of us use on a consistent basis. And they are in the capsules that medications are encased in for direct consumption.
They are banned for food storage in many western countries. But if we are to get these toxins out of our lives, we are all going to have to make serious changes and take political action.