Is bisphenol-a: a plague to women?

Bisphenol-A, its link to estrogen dominance

Bisphenol-a (BPA) is a chemical invented in the early 1890s and mainly used in making plastics. However, it wasn’t until the 1930s that scientists discovered its ability to mimic estrogen.

After more than a century, the health effects of BPA has been documented. Unfortunately, it is still used in almost everything from baby bottles to canned beans.

BPA is one of many links to estrogen dominance and other female hormonal problems. If you use a lot of plastics and canned goods beware.

This is not a scare tactic, the dangers of this chemical are real and serious. Years of exposure to this xenoestrogen will result in endocrine disruptive problems like, you guessed it, fibroids and endometriosis.

One of the most used plastic products is water bottles. There are different types of plastic and some leech more BPA than others. The next time you are in a store, grab a bottle of water and look on the bottom. There should be a recycle symbol with a number in the center.

The recycle codes range from 1-7 and indicate how flexible or hard the plastic. Number 1 (PET or PETE—polyethylen terephthalate) plastic has the recycle symbol with the number one in the middle. These plastics are said not to leech BPA, but it always best to avoid plastic as much as possible.

Instead using plastic bottles to store your drinking water, try using stainless steel water bottles because they are:

•Better for your health-no BPA

•Economical—You can refill multiple times. Use filtered water because tap water contains chlorine, and other xenoestrogens

•Better for the environment

If you use canned goods, remember that the best thing is to avoid all canned and processed food. However, if you insist on using canned goods, look for products with BPA-free packaging. More and more companies are seeing the light, and are willing to carry BPA-free cans. However, the numbers are small. It is still a widely held belief that bisphenol-a is not harmful.

To be honest it will cost you a little more to purchase a product in a BPA-free can. It is much cheaper for a company to manufacture goods in cans lined with BPA.

You might have to shop around, but your local health food store may carry products featuring BPA-free cans.

Here are a couple of product lines that feature BPA-free cans.

Eden Foods

This company produces organic foods and since 1999 and since then has used BPA-free cans. So they’ve been ahead of the times for a while. Their cans are steel not aluminum. Instead of BPA the company uses vegetable resin which does not interfere with estrogen or endocrine function. Currently, this company uses all Bisphenol-a free lining for their organic beans varieties and their chili.

Wild Planet Foods

According to the company’s website, their Albacore Tuna and Skipjack Light Tuna are packed in BPA-Free cans. By the way, this tuna is absolutely delicious! So much better than ordinary store bought tuna and much more flavorful, also less mercury!

Reducing your use of BPA is one of the ways to reduce your risk of estrogen dominance anduterine fibroids as well as other female hormonal problems like heavy and irregular periods, endometriosis , insomnia etc.