Is Your Shampoo Making You Fat?:Chemical Calories EQUALS Endocrine Disrupters

"Is Your Shampoo Making You Fat"?

Years ago I found an study that connected PCP poison to fatter young people. We are living in a toxic stew and I believe it IS impacting the population and affecting metabolism and how the body is operating. The article also describes the reality of endocrine disrupters, which essentially the chemicals in the shampoos and plastic would serve as but this is a very interesting study...

Emerging evidence suggests that a more sinister reason than food and activity could be contributing to weight problems and that so-called ‘chemical calories’ lurking in everyday beauty products such as shampoo, body lotions and soap could be to blame.

Doctors at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York claim that phthalates, chemical ingredients in 70 per cent of cosmetics as well as many household cleaning products, have been shown to throw the body’s natural weight control system, a delicate balance of hormones, off kilter.
They suggest that exposure to phthalates through daily use may be linked to childhood obesity and weight problems in adults.
In their long-term study on girls living in the inner city area of East Harlem, the Mount Sinai team measured exposure to phthalates by analysing the children’s urine.
‘The heaviest girls have the highest levels of phthalates in their urine,’ says Professor Philip Landrigan, a paediatrician and the study author. ‘It goes up as the children get heavier, but it’s most evident in the heaviest kids.’
Phthalates have been widely used as gelling agents in cosmetics, cleaning products and to make plastic bottles for more than half a century, but it has only just come to light that there may be possible health risks.

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Another substance, Bisphenol-A (BPA), also present in containers and bottles, has also been found to provide ‘chemical calories’.
It’s the fact they are absorbed into the body that causes most concern. Billed as ‘endocrine disruptors’, they are known to affect the glands and hormones that regulate numerous bodily functions.
Studies on animals have shown consistently that the chemicals depress testosterone levels, known to be a risk factor for weight gain. They have also been found to mimic the effects of oestrogen, which have been linked to weight gain and early puberty.
Further research on humans linked phthalates with poor semen quality in men and with subtle alterations in the reproductive organs of male babies. And now come the latest revelations that they may also influence weight.
In numerous studies, mice exposed to such ‘endocrine disruptors’ became obese. But could the same effect occur in people?
Zoe Harcombe, nutritionist and author of the Obesity Epidemic, says that even the slightest disruption to hormone levels ‘is very bad news’ for someone trying to lose weight.
‘In men, phthalates and other chemicals have an anti-testosterone capacity that has been linked to obesity,’ she says. ‘In women they mess up our basic genetic hormone balance so that you get disruptions similar to those that might occur during the menopause or at puberty.’