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Does Sugar Promote Heart Disease & Cancer?

By Dr. Mercola

More than 1,660,290 new cancer cases are projected to be diagnosed in the US this year, and an estimated 580,350 Americans will die from the disease.1Another 600,000 Americans die of heart disease each year.2 At present, heart disease is the leading cause of death among both sexes.

Despite massive technological advances over the past half-century, Western medicine is still at a loss for how to rein in the prevalence of these top two killers.

It's become increasingly clear that many of the conventional strategies, from diagnosis to treatment, are riddled with flawed assumptions and approaches that, in many cases, do more harm than good.

What's worse, virtually none of the conventional strategies actually address the root cause of the problem, a flawed diet high in sugars and processed foods.

In fact, conventional dietary recommendations for the prevention of heart disease are diametrically opposed to what you actually need for optimal heart health! For over 60 years, saturated fats have been blamed for heart disease, resulting in the promulgation of a dangerous low-fat, high-sugar diet.

In reality, a diet that promotes health is high in healthful fats and very, very low in sugar and non-vegetable carbohydrates... Research coming out of some of America's most respected institutions now confirms that sugar is a primary dietary factor driving chronic disease development.

Sugar, and fructose in particular, has been implicated as a culprit in the development of both heart disease and cancer, and having this information puts youin the driver's seat when it comes to prevention.

How Much Sugar Is in Your Diet?

Ever since I started this Web site back in 1997, I've been warning about the dangers of high sugar consumption. It's important to realize that even if you don't add sugar to your foods, hidden sugar, typically in the form of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), is in virtually all processed foods, from yogurts and sauces to breads and sodas.

Many favorite staples are also grain-based, such as bagels, pancakes, and breakfast cereals. All those grains are also quickly turned into sugar in your body, adding to your sugar burden.

Clinical trials have shown that those who consume HFCS tend to develop higher risk factors for cardiovascular disease within as little as two weeks, so if I had to pick out the worst culprit among sugars, it would be fructose.

Other studies indicate that if you limit your sugar, no matter what form you get it in, you effectively decrease your chances of developing cancer—including breast and colon cancers.

Soda Drinkers Have Increased Cancer Risk

According to recent research,3, 4 older women who drink a lot of soda or other sugary beverages may be at significantly increased risk for endometrial cancer—an estrogen-dependent type of cancer that affects the lining of a woman's uterus.

The study included data for more than 23,000 postmenopausal women who were followed for 14 years.

Women who had the highest intake of sugary beverages had a whopping 78 percent higher risk for endometrial cancer, and the risk appeared to be dose dependent; rising right along with consumption. Study author Maki Inoue-Choi was not surprised by the results, and neither am I.

"Other studies have shown increasing consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages has paralleled the increase in obesity. Obese women tend to have higher levels of estrogens and insulin than women of normal weight, [and] increased levels of estrogens and insulin are established risk factors for endometrial cancer," she said.5

Previous research has also shown that dietary fructose can promote cancergrowth in a number of different ways, including:

Altered cellular metabolism

Increased reactive oxygen species (free radicals)

DNA damage

Inflammation

Fructose Promotes Cancer Cell Proliferation

Studies have shown that different sugars are metabolized using different metabolic pathways, and this is of MAJOR consequence when it comes to feeding cancer and making it proliferate. Three years ago, researchers published findings showing that fructose is readily used by cancer cells to increase their proliferation.6 Cancer cells did not respond to glucose in the same manner.

In this case, the cancer cells used were pancreatic cancer, which is typically regarded as the most deadly and universally rapid-killing form of cancer. According to the authors:

"Traditionally, glucose and fructose have been considered as interchangeable monosaccharide substrates that are similarly metabolized, and little attention has been given to sugars other than glucose. However, fructose intake has increased dramatically in recent decades and cellular uptake of glucose and fructose uses distinct transporters.

Here, we report that fructose provides an alternative substrate to induce pancreatic cancer cell proliferation. Importantly, fructose and glucose metabolism are quite different; in comparison with glucose, fructose... is preferentially metabolized via the nonoxidative pentose phosphate pathway to synthesize nucleic acids and increase uric acid production.

These findings show that cancer cells can readily metabolize fructose to increase proliferation. They have major significance for cancer patients given dietary refined fructose consumption, and indicate that efforts to reduce refined fructose intake or inhibit fructose-mediated actions may disrupt cancer growth." [Emphasis mine]

The study confirms the old adage that sugar feeds cancer because they found that tumor cells do thrive on sugar (glucose). However, the cells used fructosefor cell division, speeding up the growth and spread of the cancer. This difference is clearly of major consequence, and should be carefully considered by anyone who is currently undergoing cancer treatment or seeking to prevent cancer.

This does not mean you should avoid fruits, the benefits of most fruits outweigh any concerns to fructose. I would suggest to not juice your fruits and to eat them whole, and also realize we have bred many of these fruits to a very high level of fructose. Fruits today are many times sweeter than they were historically, and should be consumed in moderation. The real problem is the high fructose corn syrup that is added to practically every processed food and drink you see.

Remember: Exercise Is Another Potent Ally Against Cancer and Heart Disease

Controlling your blood-glucose and insulin levels—through diet, along with a comprehensive exercise program—can be one of the most crucial components to a cancer recovery program. These factors are also crucial in order to prevent cancer in the first place. Diet and exercise—particularly high intensity interval training—are also the dynamic duo that will help you stave off heart disease.

In fact, a recent meta-analysis that reviewed 305 randomized controlled trials found no statistically detectable differences between exercise and medications for heart disease, including statins and beta blockers. (Previous research has also shown that exercise alone can reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease by a factor of three,7 which isn't too shabby.) Exercise is in fact so potent, the researchers suggested that drug companies ought to be required to include it for comparison when conducting clinical trials for new drugs. As reported by Bloomberg:8

"The analysis adds to evidence showing the benefit of non-medical approaches to disease through behavior and lifestyle changes... 'In cases where drug options provide only modest benefit, patients deserve to understand the relative impact that physical activity might have on their condition,' Naci and Ioannidis said in the published paper. In the meantime, 'exercise interventions should therefore be considered as a viable alternative to, or, alongside, drug therapy.'"

In a nutshell, being a healthy weight and exercising regularly creates a healthy feedback loop that optimizes and helps maintain insulin and leptin receptor sensitivity. And, as I've mentioned before, insulin and leptin resistance—primarily driven by excessive consumption of refined sugar and grains along with lack of exercise—are the underlying factors of nearly all chronic disease.

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Connecting the Dots: Fructose—Uric Acid—Cancer and Chronic Disease Risk

The theory that sugar feeds cancer was actually born nearly 80 years ago. Shockingly, most conventional cancer programs STILL do not adequately address diet and the need to avoid sugars. The 1931 Nobel laureate in medicine, German Otto Warburg, Ph.D., first discovered that cancer cells have a fundamentally different energy metabolism compared to healthy cells. Malignant tumors tend to use a process where glucose is used as a fuel by the cancer cells, creating lactic acid as a byproduct.9

The large amount of lactic acid produced by this fermentation of glucose from cancer cells is then transported to your liver. This conversion of glucose to lactic acid generates a lower, more acidic pH in cancerous tissues as well as overall physical fatigue from lactic acid buildup.10, 11

This is a very inefficient pathway for energy metabolism, which extracts only about five percent of the available energy in your food supply. In simplistic terms, the cancer is "wasting" energy, which leads you to become both tired and undernourished, and as the vicious cycle continues, will lead to the body wasting so many cancer patients experience. Additionally, carbohydrates from glucose and sucrose significantly decrease the capacity of neutrophils to do their job. Neutrophils are a type of white blood cell that helps cells to envelop and destroy invaders, such as cancer.

While all forms of sugar are detrimental to health in general and promote cancer, but in slightly different ways and to a different extent, fructose clearly seems to be one of the overall most harmful. As mentioned above, fructose metabolism leads to increased uric acid production along with cancer cell proliferation.12 Again, ONLY fructose (not glucose) drives up your uric acid levels.

Now, the connection between fructose, uric acid, and insulin resistance is so clear that your uric acid level can actually be used as a marker for toxicity from fructose. What this means is that if your uric acid levels are high, you're at increased risk of all the health hazards associated with fructose consumption—including both heart disease and cancer. Subsequently, you'd be well advised to reduce your fructose intake. For more information about this, please see my previous interview with Dr. Richard Johnson, who is an expert on this topic. Two key recommendations however are:

Keep your uric acid level below 4 mg/dl for men and 3.5 mg/dl for women, and

As a standard recommendation, I strongly advise keeping your TOTAL fructose consumption below 25 grams per day

Reeling in Your Fructose Consumption May Be the Most Important Lifestyle Change You Can Make

Dr. Johnson has written one of the best books on the market on the health dangers of fructose, called The Sugar Fix, which explains how fructose causes high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity, diabetes, and kidney disease. It's also safe to say that many cancers are also on the list of diseases that are directly linked to excessive fructose consumption. In addition to the studies already mentioned, fructose has also been found to promote metastasis in breast cancer,13 and shows genotoxic effects on the colon in animal research.14

Fructose also promotes a condition called intracranial atherosclerosis15—a narrowing and hardening of the arteries in your skull—and contrary to popular belief, it is the sugar/fructose in your diet that increases your risk for heart disease, NOT saturated animal fats.

At the basic dietary level, the prevention strategies for heart disease and cancer are identical. First and foremost, you need to address your insulin and leptin resistance, which is the result of eating a diet too high in sugars and grains—again, not fat, with the exception of trans fats from partially hydrogenated vegetable oils, which have been linked to increased heart disease risk, even in small amounts. To safely and effectively reverse insulin and leptin resistance, you need to:

Avoid sugar, processed fructose, grains if you are insulin and leptin resistant, and processed foods

Eat a healthful diet of whole foods, ideally organic, and replace the grain carbs with:

Large amounts of vegetables

Low-to-moderate amount of high-quality protein (think organically raised, pastured animals)

As much high-quality healthful fat as you want (saturated and monosaturated from animal and tropical oil sources). Most people actually need upwards of 50-85 percent fats in their diet for optimal health—a far cry from the 10 percent currently recommended.

Restricting Fructose Consumption Is Crucial Part of a Healthy Lifestyle

Whether we're talking about heart disease or cancer, reducing (or preferably eliminating) fructose and other added sugars, as well as limiting grain carbohydrates from your diet is a primary strategy on my list if you have insulin and leptin resistance. This dietary modification should also be part of your comprehensive treatment plan if you've been diagnosed with either cancer or heart disease.

Understand that excessive fructose consumption leads to insulin resistance, and insulin resistance appears to be the root of many if not most chronic disease, including heart disease and cancer. So far, scientific studies have linked excessive fructose consumption to about 78 different diseases and health problems.16

By severely reducing your intake of fructose and carbs in your diet, you help stave off any potential cancer growth, and "starve" any tumors you currently have. It also bolsters your overall immune function, because sugar decreases the function of your immune system almost immediately.

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10 Warning Signs For Heart Disease You Should Never Ignore

While heart disease can be deadly, many people dismissed the symptoms as nothing of major concern. Learn about these 10 signs of heart disease that you cannot afford to ignore.

While severe anxiety strikes everyone at one time or another, many people who’ve experienced a heart attack have reported feeling intense anxiety just days prior to the event. General fear and panic, heart palpitations, and dizziness are just some of the symptoms associated with intense anxiety or what is commonly referred to as a panic attack.

While severe anxiety could be brought on by stress and the environment around you, serious heart ailments can manifest themselves with these exact symptoms.

Chest discomfort and pain are typically the hallmark symptoms of a heart issue. While not every pain in your chest is related to your heart, severe pain, often described by many as the weight of an elephant, is usually noted moments prior to a heart attack or even during an episode.

If the pain becomes stronger and fails to subside, you’re encouraged to seek medical attention immediately. While it is possible to suffer a heart attack without chest pain, discomfort in the chest is a classic symptom that medical professionals will look for when making a diagnosis.

Have you found yourself coughing much more than usual? Chronic coughing and general wheezing can be a potential symptom of heart disease and even heart failure.

As the heart weakens, fluid becomes trapped in the lungs. One of the red flag signs is the coughing up of blood or phlegm mixed with blood. If you’re not under the weather in respect to a general cold or sinus issue yet you’re experiencing a deep perpetual cough, consult your physician immediately.

While general bouts of dizziness are common symptoms associated with ailments such as inner ear problems and sinus issues, continual bouts of dizziness over the course of several days or weeks can be a sign of something very serious.

When the heart fails to function properly due to pumping and rhythm issues, the side effects can manifest themselves in the form of lightheadedness and even severe cases of dizziness.

Fatigue is typically nothing to worry about. If you have a stressful job and a very demanding personal life, hitting the wall every once in a while in terms of exhaustion is not that uncommon. However, if your condition does not improve with relaxation and sleep, you could have a serious heart problem.

More often than not, heart conditions are met with symptoms of fatigue. If the basic tasks of daily life leave you feeling exhausted, then you should be on heightened alert. The heart is a muscle and when it’s not performing correctly your body will begin to wind down and feel tired.

While nausea and a general lack of appetite could be the product of a stomach virus, many people who are on the verge of a cardiac event do experience some from of sickness. Swelling of the abdominal area is common with heart failure and various heart conditions.

If you’re experiencing nausea on a daily basis and a general lack of appetite has plagued you for several days or weeks, these issues could run much deeper than just a basic stomach flu. If standard antacid tablets fail to remedy your symptoms, you should be significantly concerned — especially if these symptoms are also accompanied by chest pains.

Although abdominal, chest, and shoulder pains are quite common during the early stages of heart disease, other areas of the body can also suffer. Dull and/or sharp pain in the arms, back, elbows, jaw, and neck have also been reported.

Not every heart attack, contrary to what is often depicted in the entertainment world, will leave you grasping your chest and falling to the floor. While various aches and pains are quite common simply due to daily living, you’re advised to seek medical attention if arm and back pain, for example, fail to respond to treatment and rest.

Do you find your pulse racing while you’re in a seated position and relaxed? Can you literally feel and hear your heart pounding for no explainable reason?

Rapid pulse rates accompanied by general weakness and fatigue can be a major cause for concern. These symptoms can serve as a red flag warning that your heart is in trouble. With proper care, heart arrhythmias can be treated. However, you should never ignore your symptoms and leave the final outcome to chance.

If chest pain is considered to be the most classic symptom of a heart attack, shortness of breath has to be in the same category. Similar to increased pulse rates, if you find yourself out of breath after completing basic tasks, you’re advised to closely monitor the situation and contact your physician if the episodes persist.

While marginal breathing problems are certainly worth your attention, you’re asked to seek immediate medical care if you find yourself gasping for air. Severe shortness of breath can be a symptom of an impending heart attack.

Sweating, especially the occurrence of a cold sweat, can be a sign of a major heart issue. Commonly associated with a heart attack, cold sweats typically occur when the heart is forced to work overtime in an effort to overcome a blocked artery.

If your body is having to sweat in order to perform basic survival tasks such as breathing and extremity function, something is very wrong and the episode could prove to be fatal. It’s important to know your body and take action when distress signals are being sent.

Protect Yourself Against These Top Two Killers Cancer & Heart Disease With One Simple Change

When someone asks me what the most important nutrients are that they should be getting, my response is: All of them.

Fact is, your body must have the full array of nutrients to function the way it’s supposed to—nutrients are not optional.

While all of the 2,000 or so vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients are impressive in their own way, one superstar nutrient worthy of a pat on the back is vitamin D.

Let’s take a closer look at all that vitamin D does for you and why you don’t want to be without it.

Vitamin D—bones are just the beginning!

Vitamin D works with parathyroid hormone (PTH) to regulate the level of calcium in your blood and support bone health (plus it helps prevent against osteoporosis too).

But it’s also important for your teeth and oral health. Studies have shown that in men and women over 50 years of age, a lack of vitamin D is associated with increased risk of periodontal (gum) disease.

An immune boost

Vitamin D also helps regulate your immune system activity by helping to prevent excessive, inflammatory immune responses such as those seen in autoimmune conditions like Crohn’s, colitis, multiple sclerosis, lupus, Type 1 diabetes and Graves’ disease.Type 2 diabetes

The role of vitamin D in regulating calcium goes beyond your bones and teeth.

Calcium also plays a major role in your body’s ability to regulate glucose and insulin levels, so having enough blood calcium (which depends on healthy levels of vitamin D) is important to prevent Type 2 diabetes.

In addition, vitamin D also supports proper pancreatic function to help control glucose in the bloodstream (since your pancreas produces insulin).

Our #2 killer–Cancer

Researchers have been intrigued for a long time about vitamin D’s role in preventing cancer, since studies have shown that people who live in southern latitudes (where they get more sun exposure and their bodies can make vitamin D) have lower levels of certain cancers.

Turns out they were on to something.

Vitamin D plays an important role in your cell activity—in other words, helping to regulate cell multiplication and cell death.

By definition cancer is excessive cell multiplication, along with a concurrent slowing down in cell death. That’s what allows tumors to form and take over surrounding tissues—they multiply like crazy and don’t die off.

But vitamin D’s action to encourage proper cell activity shines through here– studies have found that vitamin D acts to decrease the growth of cancer cells and to stimulate the death of those deadly cells.

Our #1 killer—Heart Disease

Several studies have been conducted linking low levels of vitamin D to an increased risk of heart disease including heart attack, peripheral artery disease, congestive heart failure and atherosclerosis.

For example, a study conducted by researchers at Harvard University found that people who had low levels of vitamin D were twice as likely to have a heart attack as those who had adequate D levels.

This is merely another example of vitamin D’s anti-inflammatory efforts in action.

Since inflammation in your arteries is a leading contributing factor to high blood pressure, arterial damage, atherosclerosis and ultimately heart disease, vitamin D’s anti-inflammatory properties can help protect against our #1 killer.

Why do so many have too little?

Unfortunately, vitamin D deficiency is extremely common, especially in the northern hemisphere where we have less exposure to sunlight and therefore our bodies can’t always make enough vitamin D.

Additionally, our increasing use of statins has contributed to our vitamin D deficiencies too.

Your body needs cholesterol to manufacture vitamin D. So if you take statins (which suppress the liver’s ability to produce cholesterol like it was designed to), that most assuredly can have an effect on your vitamin D level.

Moreover, as we get older, our skin doesn’t make as much vitamin D in response to sun exposure. At the same time, our kidneys become less efficient at converting vitamin D into the form used by the body as we age.

So now what?

Hopefully by now you’ve gotten the idea that vitamin D is not something you want to be low in.

It’s important to know where you stand, so ask your doctor to do a test to see if you are lacking.

If you are deficient, then you’ll need to consider increasing your dietary intake of vitamin D. Natural food sources of vitamin D include: shrimp, milk, cod and eggs.

And if you want to consider supplementing, look for formulas that provide both vitamin D (in the highly recommended form D3) as well as vitamin K (in the form of K2).

Just like vitamin D, vitamin K also provides bone support and helps to prevent atherosclerosis, thereby decreasing your risk of heart disease, so a formula with both D and K is ideal.

All of the 2,000 nutrients are extremely important, but vitamin D really packs a punch in terms of health benefits and protecting you against our top two killers (and many other chronic diseases).

So it’s crucial to do what you need to do to make sure you have enough of this potential life saver!

Causes of Early Puberty: Why Is This the New "Normal?”

So many children now have this condition that it's been termed the new "normal"... but is it? Today at least 1 in 5,000 children are impacted! Here's what the latest research has to say about why this is happening.

Reaching puberty is a rite of passage that we've all been through, but children nowadays are reaching it earlier than ever before -- a trend that has both health experts and parents alarmed.

Precocious puberty, which is the appearance of secondary sex characteristics like pubic hair or breast growth before age 8, or the onset of menarche before age 9, impacts at least 1 in 5,000 U.S. children, and the rate is on the rise.¹

Even in the last three decades, children (particularly girls) are maturing at younger and younger ages (precocious puberty is 10 times more common in girls than in boys).

Puberty, Once the Norm at Age 15, Now Occurring in 7-, 8- and 9-Year-Olds

In the 19th century the onset of menstruation occurred around the age of 15. Now the average age of the first period, or menarche, is around 12. The time during and before puberty is one of rapid development and change, which is why even months matter when it comes to first menstruation. Before menstruation, girls will show beginning signs of development, such as breast "budding" and growth of pubic hair.

These signs are now becoming unsettlingly common among 7-, 8- and 9-year-old girls, to the extent that many health care providers, rather than labeling these children with a diagnosis that something is wrong, have simply changed the definition of what's normal... but is it really "normal" for girls to mature at such a young age?

There are more questions than answers in the case of precocious puberty, but what is certain is that girls are developing earlier than they have even 10, 20 or 30 years ago.
One study in the journal Pediatrics revealed that by age 7, 10 percent of white girls, 23 percent of black girls, 15 percent of Hispanic girls and 2 percent of Asian girls had started developing breasts, with researchers noting:²

"The proportion of girls who had breast development at ages 7 and 8 years, particularly among white girls, is greater than that reported from studies of girls who were born 10 to 30 years earlier."
Early puberty can set the stage for emotional and behavioral problems, and is linked to lower self-esteem, depression, eating disorders, alcohol use, earlier loss of virginity, more sexual partners and increased risk of sexually transmitted diseases. There is also evidence that suggests these girls are at increased risk of diabetes, heart disease and other cardiovascular diseases, as well as cancer, later in life.

Environmental Chemicals a Likely Factor

Scientists have brought forth a number of potential explanations for the rising rates of early puberty, but one that deserves special attention is environmental chemicals, and particularly estrogen-mimicking, "gender-bending" chemicals that easily leach out of the products that contain them, contaminating everything they touch, including food and beverages.

As the featured New York Times article reported:

" ...animal studies show that the exposure to some environmental chemicals can cause bodies to mature early. Of particular concern are endocrine-disrupters, like "xeno-estrogens" or estrogen mimics. These compounds behave like steroid hormones and can alter puberty timing.

For obvious ethical reasons, scientists cannot perform controlled studies proving the direct impact of these chemicals on children, so researchers instead look for so-called "natural experiments," one of which occurred in 1973 in Michigan, when cattle were accidentally fed grain contaminated with an estrogen-mimicking chemical, the flame retardant PBB.
The daughters born to the pregnant women who ate the PBB-laced meat and drank the PBB-laced milk started menstruating significantly earlier than their peers."
This is an extreme case, but the truth is we are all part of a "secret experiment" of sorts, because hormone-disrupting chemicals are all around us. Bisphenol A (BPA), an industrial petrochemical that acts as a synthetic estrogen, is found in our plastics and our tin can linings, in dental sealants and on cash-register receipts. Laboratory tests commissioned by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) detected BPA in the umbilical cord blood of 90 percent of newborn infants tested -- along with more than 230 other chemicals. As written in the New York Times:

"One concern, among parents and researchers, is the effect of simultaneous exposures to many estrogen-mimics, including the compound BPA, which is ubiquitous."
No one knows what happens when a developing fetus or young child is exposed to hundreds of chemicals, many of which mimic your body's natural hormones and can trigger major changes in your body even as an adult, let along during the most rapid and vulnerable periods of development (in utero and as a young child).

BPA is, unfortunately, but one example. Others include phthalates, a group of industrial chemicals used to make plastics like polyvinyl chloride (PVC) more flexible and resilient. They're also one of the most pervasive of the endocrine disrupters, found in everything from processed food packaging and shower curtains to detergents, toys and beauty products like nail polish, hair spray, shampoo, deodorants, and fragrances.
Other environmental chemicals like PCBs and DDE (a breakdown product of the pesticide DDT) may also be associated with early sexual development in girls. Both DDE and PCBs are known to mimic, or interfere with, sex hormones.

Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), found in non-stick cookware, also falls into this dangerous category, as does fluoride, which is added to the majority of public water supplies in the United States. Research showed that animals treated with fluoride had lower levels of circulating melatonin, as reflected by reduced levels of melatonin metabolites in the animals' urine. This reduced level of circulating melatonin was accompanied -- as might be expected -- by an earlier onset of puberty in the fluoride-treated female animals.

These Chemicals Also Increase Your Risk of Cancer and Heart Disease

If a chemical is capable of influencing the rate of your reproductive development, it stands to reason that it would be capable of influencing other hormone-sensitive growth processes as well, and this is indeed the case.

For instance, new research has detected the presence of paraben esters in 99 percent of breast cancer tissues sampled.³ Parabens are chemicals with estrogen-like properties, and estrogen is one of the hormones involved in not only puberty but also the development of breast cancer. They are widely used in household products such as:

Deodorants and antiperspirants

Shampoos and conditioners

Shaving gel

Toothpaste

Lotions and sunscreens

Make-up / cosmetics

Pharmaceutical drugs

Food additives

Recent research has also confirmed the existence of a previously unknown class of cancer-causing estrogen-mimicking compounds: metals. Yes, a broad range of metals have been shown to act as "metalloestrogens" with the potential to add to the estrogenic burden of the human body, thereby increasing the risk of breast cancer and also possibly early puberty. The following metals, which are added to thousands of consumer products, including vaccines, have been identified as being capable of binding to cellular estrogen receptors and then mimicking the actions of physiological estrogens:⁴

Aluminum

Antimony

Arsenite

Barium

Cadmium

Chromium

Cobalt

Copper

Lead

Mercury

Nickel

Selenite

Tin

Vanadate

Data from a long-running British health survey, meanwhile, has shown that if you have high levels of the chemical BPA in your urine, you may be at an increased risk of heart disease. Some of the greatest concern surrounds early-life, in utero exposure to BPA, which can lead to chromosomal errors in your developing fetus, causing spontaneous miscarriages and genetic damage. But evidence is also very strong showing these chemicals are influencing adults and children, too, and leading to decreased sperm quality, early puberty, stimulation of mammary gland development, disrupted reproductive cycles and ovarian dysfunction, obesity, cancer and heart disease, among numerous other health problems.

Avoiding Hormone-Disrupting Substances is Crucial for Children and Adults Alike

While young girls may show obvious signs of exposure to hormone-disrupting substances via early puberty, other signals are more insidious and may not show up until a disease is already present. Here are 11 measures you can implement right away to help protect yourself and your children from common toxic substances that could cause precocious puberty and other long-term health problems:

As much as possible, buy and eat organic produce and free-range, organic meats to reduce your exposure to added hormones, pesticides and fertilizers. Also avoid milk and other dairy products that contain the genetically engineered recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH or rBST)
Eat mostly raw, fresh foods. Processed, prepackaged foods (of all kinds) are a major source of soy and chemicals such as BPA and phthalates.
Store your food and beverages in glass rather than plastic, and avoid using plastic wrap and canned foods (which are often lined with BPA-containing liners).
Use glass baby bottles and BPA-free sippy cups for your little ones.
Make sure your baby's toys are BPA-free, such as pacifiers, teething rings and anything your child may be prone to suck on.
Only use natural cleaning products in your home to avoid phthalates.
Switch over to natural brands of toiletries such as shampoo, toothpaste, antiperspirants and cosmetics. The Environmental Working Group has a great safety guide to help you find personal care products that are free of phthalates, parabens and other potentially dangerous chemicals.
Avoid using artificial air fresheners, dryer sheets, fabric softeners or other synthetic fragrances, many of which can also disrupt your hormone balance.
Replace your non-stick pots and pans with ceramic or glass cookware.
When redoing your home, look for "green," toxin-free alternatives in lieu of regular paint and vinyl floor coverings.
Replace your vinyl shower curtain with one made of fabric.
Avoid non-fermented soy, especially if you're pregnant and in infant formula.

Theo Colburn's book Our Stolen Future is a great source for further investigation as it identifies the numerous ways in which environmental pollutants are disrupting human reproductive patterns. I believe it is one of the best resources on this topic and highly recommend it.

Vitamin D Also Linked to Early Puberty

It has been suggested that girls who live closer to the equator start puberty at a later age than girls who live in Northern regions. Since this indicates a potential connection with sun exposure, researchers decided to investigate whether vitamin D was, in fact, related. Upon measuring vitamin D levels in 242 girls aged 5-12, researchers from the University of Michigan School of Public Health found that those who were deficient were twice as likely to start menstruation during the study period as those with higher levels.⁵
Specifically, among the vitamin-D-deficient girls, 57 percent started their period during the study, compared to 23 percent with adequate vitamin D. However, researchers defined adequate vitamin D as ≥ 30 ng/mL, which is actually still a deficiency state! For optimal health, vitamin D levels should be a minimum of 50 ng/mL, which means the number of vitamin-D-deficient girls with early puberty was probably much higher than the study reported.

The earlier you enter puberty, the longer you're exposed to elevated levels of the female hormone estrogen, which is a risk factor for certain cancers such as breast cancer. This has been the primary "link" between early puberty and cancer that has been explored, but it's important to understand that vitamin D deficiency is also a major risk factor for cancer, heart disease and many other diseases. So it could be that some of the increased risks that come from early puberty are linked to low vitamin D levels.

What You Should Know About Obesity, Stress and Exercise

Obesity (which exposes girls to more estrogen because estrogen is both stored and produced in fat tissue) is another likely factor in early puberty. The New York Times reported:

"As Robert Lustig, a professor of clinical pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco's Benioff Children's Hospital, explains, fatter girls have higher levels of the hormone leptin, which can lead to early puberty, which leads to higher estrogen levels, which leads to greater insulin resistance, causing girls to have yet more fat tissue, more leptin and more estrogen, the cycle feeding on itself, until their bodies physically mature."
As for stress, this, too, has been linked to early puberty, with girls whose parents divorced when they were between 3- and 8-years-old significantly more likely to experience precocious puberty. "Evolutionary psychology offers a theory," the New York Times reports. "A stressful childhood inclines a body toward early reproduction; if life is hard, best to mature young. But such theories are tough to prove." Interestingly, in addition to avoiding environmental chemicals, obesity and stress, and optimizing your vitamin D, regular exercise appears to be one of the best known ways to help prevent early puberty.

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