Posted by Larry Hoover on March 8, 2009, at 15:42:35
In reply to Re: How Inflammatory Disease Can Cause Fatigue » Larry Hoover, posted by garnet71 on March 8, 2009, at 13:15:49
> That's really interesting you do that type of work Larry!
Did might be more accurate just now. I had post-surgical complications a few years ago that have kept me from working.
> I've had this knawing question forever, so maybe you could explain it. How on earth could scientists possibly know or predict the effects on the human race of a combination of over 10,000 chemicals in our environment?
We can't. It's hard enough to predict the effect or even just the exposure from one of them on its own. The combination is totally beyond prediction. Last I checked there were over 180,000 man-made chemicals being released. I expect that number is continuing to increase.
> Since evolution is continuous, how could such chemicals not alter our physiology, when say pharmaceuticals or toxic substances, alter our bodily functions?
They must alter it. The question is, I suppose, how much is that alteration? Each chemical poses a non-zero risk, although that sometimes is best approximated by a zero. It's like the mathematical concept of a limit. The limit as x goes to infinity of 1/x is zero, but it never really gets there. In practical terms, in colloquial speech, I might say zero. But as a scientist, I know it never ever is.
> What is up with the bees?
I wish I knew, so I could tell the experts. I suspect a virus might be most likely. Or perhaps a phage, which could alter the health of symbiotic bacteria in their guts.
> Has the endocrine disruption process been known to have gone beyond frogs?For sure. Name the animal, and we've seen it. Perhaps the beginning of our recognition of endocrine disruption arose from the effect of DDT on large birds of prey. The dechlorinated metabolite of DDT is called DDE, and it strongly binds to the estrogen receptor of the calcium pumps which deposit the shell around the embryo after it is fertilized. DDE blocks the receptor without activating it, so there was a dose-dependent thinning of the shells. The eggs simply collapsed under the weight of the parent during incubation, if their DDE burden was high enough. Luckily, we noticed the correlation, banned DDT use, and some adult birds survived long enough to excrete the toxins sufficiently to allow reproduction before they went extinct. We figured out why the ban was necessary long after the ban took effect.
Fifty years ago, they used to spray DDT right on people, including babies. I only say that to suggest that different animals have different responses to different chemicals. I do not recall any endocrine disruption in humans attributed to DDT. Now I'm curious, and I shall have to look.
> I better let you get back to your vitamin D post..lol.I'm done with that now, thanks. I think my post was so large it caused the board to archive.
Lar
poster:Larry Hoover
thread:883457
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20090304/msgs/884455.html