Hormonal effect of pesticides over children obesity

Studies revealed such cases where babies born with high concentration of DDT, that cause an unusual growth but it has some wrong effects on children as they become obese. Growth in womb was not affected as they were not weighed not more than normal. In the studies carried out at Spain blood collected upon entry was assayed for the presence of several common pesticides like DDT, its breakdown product DDE, hexachlorobenzene, lindane and PCBs.

The study probed for correlations between pollutants in the mother’s blood and growth differences among their children. Only DDE exhibited such an association. When such relation studies were observed it was shown that mothers who had exhibited elevated blood-DDE were twice as likely to grow rapidly during their first 6 months as were infants born to the least-exposed mothers. By 14 months old, children whose exposures to DDE in the womb had been in the top 50 percent were four times as likely to be overweight — as indicated by a high body-mass-index, or BMI, score — when compared to children with lower exposures. Obesogens has shown some impact on increasing weight, as many obesogens have some hormonal alterations

Many obesogens — including DDE — have a hormonal alter ego. In the body, DDE can either turn on or block the activity of natural estrogens, female sex hormones. This pollutant also can block the activity of male sex hormones. Such properties lead scientists to describe this pesticide derivative as an endocrine disrupter. Bruce Blumberg of the University of California, Irvine. Although there have been few studies investigating endocrine disrupters of any type with weight-regulation issues in children, he notes that “DDE levels are consistently associated with increased BMI in adults. Therefore, the ongoing study provides another link between DDE and the risk of obesity.”

New study’s findings from children make a good case that endocrine disrupters can be human obesogens endocrinologist still are investigating.