Pesticide Exposure Linked to Heart Disease

Endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) are commonplace in the manufacturing of consumer products – especially plastics; as well, some pesticides act as EDCs.    The polychlorinated pesticides DDT is ome of thee first recognized EDCs; although DDT was banned in many countries in the 1970s, it remains widespread in the environment and food supply. Diana Teixeira, from the University of Porto (Portugal), and colleagues analyzed the amount of EDCs in fat tissue and blood samples from 121 obese women (73 premenopausal, 48 postmenopausal) who underwent bariatric surgery at a local hospital. The researchers tested the participants’ fasting blood glucose and cholesterol. Using the Framingham risk score, the researchers assessed the women’s 10-year risk of developing cardiovascular disease. Data analysis revealed that among premenopausal women, women with higher concentrations of environmental estrogens in their visceral fat tissue from the belly were more likely to have higher average blood sugar levels. Among premenopausal women, those with higher levels of environmental estrogens in their blood tended to have more inflammation and faced a greater risk of cardiovascular disease on the Framingham scale.  Observing that: “Significant associations between [xenopestrogen] levels and metabolic and inflammatory parameters were found. In premenopausal women, [xenopestrogens]  in plasma seem to be a predictor of 10-year cardiovascular disease risk,” the study authors warn that: “Our findings point toward a different distribution of [xenopestrogen]  between plasma and [adipose tissue] in pre- and postmenopausal women, and reveal the association between [xenopestrogens]  on the development of metabolic abnormalities in obese premenopausal women.