BPA stands for ‘Bisphenol A’, a chemical that can act in a similar manner to estrogen and other hormones. It is used to make a wide range of products that we use at home like water bottles as well as medical and dental apparatus such as dental fillings and sealants. This estrogen-mimicking synthetic chemical can also be found in epoxy resins which are used as coating inside food and drinks cans.
Is Bisphenol A Safe?
Bisphenol A is a toxic chemical which can affect the developmental, neural, and reproductive structures of your child. Besides this, studies have shown that it can mess our endocrine system adversely. The endocrine system is the collection of glands which produce hormones that control metabolism, tissue function, growth and development, sexual function, reproduction, mood, sleep, and many other biological processes in the body.
How Bisphenol A Affects Our Endocrine System
BPA is an endocrine disrupter. It can mimic the body’s own hormones in a way that could negatively impact human beings’ health especially in babies and young children as we have seen in the previous paragraph. It interferes with the secretion, transportation, action, function as well as elimination of the body’s hormones by blocking individual hormones from binding to their receptors, or disrupting the binding of a hormone to a receptor.
Also, it can confuse the endocrine system, causing natural hormones to send wrong signals to the glands. This may cause the glands to either produce excessive or inadequate hormone, depending upon the extent to which the disrupter has negatively impacted the cells.
Why Should We Avoid Bisphenol A?
We should avoid this notorious endocrine disrupter as much as possible because it can be harmful to our health in many ways. For instance it;
- Promotes abnormal penis development in males.
- Increases both childhood and adult obesity.
- Causes early sexual maturation in girls.
- Promotes Type 2 diabetes.
- Causes neurobehavioral problems like autism or attention deficit hyper activity disorder (ADHD).
- Promotes both prostrate and breast cancers.
Health experts have found out that BPA is the number one culprit of endocrine system malfunction. Malfunctions in the endocrine system can have adverse effects on our well-being. Although Bisphenol A is almost impossible to keep away from our daily lives, given that it’s used to make over 60% of products that we use at home and in the hospital, making sure that you are not overly exposed to this notorious endocrine system inhibitor is the only way that you can live a long healthy life.
To avoid Bisphenol A;
- Do not microwave foods in plastic containers.
- Wash all your plastic containers and bottles in the dishwasher.
- Do not clean plastic bottles or containers using strong detergents.
- Avoid eating or drinking canned foods as well as beverages unless the labeling says it is BPA free.
- Instead of quaffing bottled water, drink tap water or water from BPA-free stainless steel water bottles.
- Stay away from plastic storage containers for leftover food. Instead, use glass containers along with BPA-free plastic lids. Make sure the food doesn’t come into contact with the lids.
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