How to protect you and your family from TOXINS
LIvING a life totally free from toxins and carcinogens is just not possible. It’s also unnecessary, as the body’s antioxidant defences are able to cope with a certain amount of them.
It’s only when these potentially cancer-causing substances are absorbed, inhaled or consumed in excess that our defences get overwhelmed and health problems start.
The harm these environmental toxins do to our DNA depends on the amount we take in over time — and whether we’re also consuming chemicals from other sources that increase your overall toxic load. The problem is that what constitutes excess varies from one individual to another, as many factors play a part — including genetic susceptibility and lifestyle habits.
The good news is that it’s also possible to off-set the impact of carcinogens we encounter, for example by increasing the amount of phytochemicals we eat in our diet and by doing exercise.
Here, I’ll look at everyday hazards and what the latest research shows about the threat they pose to our health and our chances of developing cancer. Individually they might not seem particularly dangerous — but if you combine them or add them to a sedentary, high-sugar, super-fast lifestyle, you may find it’s another story.
VEHICLE EMISSIONS AND PLASTIC CONTAMINANTS
SOME environmental pollutants are damaging because they have a chemical structure similar to the hormone oestrogen — and this stimulates certain tissues to grow rapidly, often in an uncontrolled way.
These are known as xenoestrogens and they’re found in fuels, car emissions, plastic bottles and containers. Other xenoestrogenic chemicals include dioxins, which are released in some industrial processes, and bisphenol A (BPA) a chemical used for making tough, polycarbonate plastics.
It’s difficult to avoid these chemicals in today’s environment and it’s a sad fact that the quantity of plastics found in the sea, rivers and lakes is increasing exponentially.
On top of this, chemicals can seep from packaging materials into the foods we eat and drink. When thrown onto rubbish dumps or into lakes and oceans, they also filter into the water supplies and soil, contaminating the plants and animals we eat.
Endocrinologists and reproductive biologists have suggested that long-term exposure to xenoestrogens is responsible for the rise in endometriosis and fibroids in women and decreasing sperm levels in men.
In terms of cancer, a publication linked an increased rate of testicular cancer in men with pollutant oestrogenic chemicals in their mother’s milk and later in their water supply.
Likewise, an analysis of chemical plant workers in Hamburg, Germany, discovered a two-fold increase in breast cancer among the female workers who had been exposed to dioxin contamination.
There are multiple reasons why these chemicals cause cancer. Some are mutagenic so directly damage DNA; others increase inflammation, which drives cancer cells and weakens immunity. Others can cause susceptible cells to grow faster.
Polluted air from outdoors can get trapped inside our homes, adding to the contaminants being emitted by cleaning products, paint and furnishings.
My own conclusion is that we could reduce our exposure to these risks significantly by going back to the way we used to live 50 years ago. Walk and exercise away from cars. Buy food, as we did before the plastic revolution, from local producers and choose foods that are in season (rather than sprayed with preservatives and flown across the world).
SHOULD YOU WORRY ABOUT MOBILES?
MOBILE phones emit heat and radio frequency energy from their antennas and batteries. This can be absorbed by the skin, the ear, the parotid salivary gland, the lining of the brain and the brain itself. Other tissues can be affected if the device is stored next to the skin.
Given that 95 per cent of the UK population now has a mobile, a vast number of people would be affected if the energy produced by mobiles affected your risk of cancer even slightly.
This is why several public health organisations have conducted detailed investigations to see if the incidence of cancer has increased in the tissues nearest to the mobile device.
However, the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (Seer) programme found no overall increase in the incidence of brain cancer between 1992 and 2006, despite the increase in mobile phone use in the same period.
Despite the lack of evidence of direct harm caused by mobile phones, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) and World Health Organisation (WHO) still classify them as ‘possibly carcinogenic to humans’.
The American Cancer Society also suggests that there could be some cancer risk associated with radio frequency energy. However, further evidence is needed.
It advises people to limit their radio frequency energy exposure by reducing mobile phone use and to avoid storing your phone in your change pocket (next to your testes if you’re a man) or breast pocket (if you’re a woman).
DON’T FRET ABOUT MASTS
THERE’S also been speculation about the links between cancer and living near a phone mast.
However, researchers at Oxford University studied data from all 81,781 mobile phone towers in the UK and found no correlation between the masts and cancer.
Extracted by Judith KEELING from How to Live by Professor robert thomas, published by Short Books at £14.99. © 2020 Professor robert thomas. Order a copy for £12.74 at mailshop.co.uk/ books or call 020 3308 9193. Free UK delivery on orders over £15. Promotional price valid until October 10, 2020.