The client is a certified naturopath who wanted to write about hormone issues that women struggle with during menopause and childbearing years. She needed someone who was semi-knowledgeable in this area (which I am!) and who could do research and fact-checking (which I can!). She was concerned about striking the right balance between sounding authoritative, fun, and light-hearted. I think we hit the right style! We met on a weekly basis until the book was finished. She plans to self-publish on Amazon and use her book to attract more clients.

The numbers you see in the excerpt are reference citations that appear as superscript in the finished book.

We haven’t met, but I’m confident that if you’re reading this book (actually, if you’re living in Western society), you are estrogen dominant. It’s true whether you’re a woman or a man. Even children are estrogen dominant in this day and age.

This hasn’t always been true. It hasn’t even been true for the past hundred years. So how did we get here?

Blame xenoestrogens.

How estrogen took over the world

After WWII, researchers and industrial corporations were pretty impressed with all the new chemical advancements they were making—especially for agriculture. Through the miracle of science, they cooked up pesticides that protected entire crops, made farms more profitable, and helped keep people fed.(30,31) I’m sure some of them believed they were actually solving world hunger.

From there, they learned to mix and match molecules to create an entire army of synthetic chemicals used in everything from fertilizers, to food additives (so food wouldn’t spoil), cosmetics and body products (to make them more shelf-stable and give them a smooth texture), household cleaners, plastics, and more.

You’ve probably heard of a few common xenoestrogens, like BPA (Bisphenol A).(30,31) It’s found in plastics including water bottles, food containers, and even dental fillings (yikes!). But BPA leaches out of that plastic and enters your body through your water and food. I cringe every time I see someone leave their plastic water bottle in a hot car. That water is swimming with BPA!

Phthalates (pronounced “THAH-lates”) are another type of xenoestrogen that pops up everywhere. They’re known as “plasticizers,” and they make plastic products softer and more flexible.(30,31) They’re in vinyl flooring, children’s toys, shower curtains, and even shampoo and lotion. (You want plastic in your body lotion, right...? Oh wait, you don’t?)

Then there are parabens (used to make body products feel silky and smooth), dioxins, PCBs, DEHA, and the list goes on and on.

These synthetic molecules are so teeny tiny, they have no problem getting into your body. You eat them, drink them, breathe them in, and even absorb them through your skin. But your body has no idea what these molecules are. It doesn’t understand how to process them. So it interprets them as hormones and they seriously mess up your endocrine system. These particles are fat-soluble, so they can accumulate in your adipose tissue (your body fat). As you read these words, your body could contain xenoestrogens that you were exposed to over 10 years ago. If you lose weight and your fat tissue dissolves, those xenoestrogens get released to circulate through your body again. Now your body finally has the chance to flush them out and detox. You want to be sure your system is as healthy as possible so they don’t stick around and contribute to estrogen dominance.

But they’re not safe even after they’re detoxed out of your body. Xenoestrogens are not biodegradable. Once they’re in the environment, they’re there to stay, affecting wildlife, plant life, and future generations of humans.(31)

Back in the 1950s, the mad scientists and big corporations didn’t stop to research all of this (or if they did, they ignored the results). They were on a roll. They even popularized a quote: “Better living through chemistry!”

I’d like to counter that with another quote: They were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, that they didn’t stop to think if they should. (Mine is from Jurassic Park!)

And the development of new chemicals hasn’t stopped. Millions of new chemicals are created each year, but the EPA is only required to test 20 in the same time frame. You read that right—just 20!(32,33) The government doesn’t have the funding to keep up. Over in Europe, the European Commission has openly admitted that 99% of chemicals aren’t well regulated.(34) It’s like we’re all part of this ongoing weird science experiment that nobody was consulted on, nobody understood the risks of, and nobody consented to. (I know I sure didn’t consent to it!)

Research is slowly trickling in, and it’s showing that a lot of these substances can cause cancer.

Well, that explains a lot! We have more cancers now than at any point in history! This isn’t random. (I should know. I’ve had cancer. I was fortunate to have excellent doctors supporting me through that experience, and even more fortunate that the tumor they removed did not metastasize.)

Research is a long, slow process. It can take years to investigate even a few of these chemical synthetics. After scientists finally come to a conclusion on their safety, it can take even longer for legislation to happen that actually bans their use. At this rate, it could be hundreds of years before some of these franken-chemicals are banned! Meanwhile, they’ve wreaked havoc on our planet and our bodies in just a few generations.

Do we really need laws to stop them? Yes. It will take legislation to stop big business from using xenoestrogens. Hey, these chemicals make it cheap and efficient to manufacture a lot of cool stuff! What corporation wouldn’t like that?

Consumers have some power, though. People are waking up to the fact that synthetic, processed chemicals are destroying our planet and our health. Pressure on companies to make more natural options is growing, and customers are demanding more transparency around what’s in the products they buy. That’s excellent news! It’s hitting corporations where it hurts: their wallets.

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