Health Care Policy Stuff

How Toxins and Chemicals Can Effect Your Endocrine System: And What To Do About It

Combinational Toxicology or "mixture toxicity" is the study of the combined
effects of certain chemicals in the body.
 
To simplify this as much as possible, researchers have traditionally examined
the effect of single toxins on single organ systems.
 
More recently, researchers have begun to focus on the effect of multiple toxins
on multiple organ systems.
 
As you can imagine, researchers are seeing that risk multiplies in dramatic
fashion as both number of toxins and overall toxic load increases.
 
The European governments are taking the lead on this issue, and basically
acknowledged the concern of scientists. 
 
Here is a blurb from one of the organizations that is monitoring this
effort.
 
"The Environment Council, composed of the environment ministers of all EU countries, has called for the European Commission to consider the cumulative (or "cocktail") effect of exposure to multiple chemicals when developing chemicals policy and risk management strategies.

In particular, the Environment Council highlighted exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals as a source of particular concern in the effort to protect public health and the environment. These conclusions reflect a growing scientific concern."
 
What Is The Endocrine System And Why Is It Important??
 
The endocrine system plays a key role in regulating mood, growth and development, tissue function, metabolism, as well as sexual function and reproductive processes.
 
There are tens of thousands of new chemicals that we are exposed to that
our bodies can't deal with. It is effecting our long term health, but it is also 
effects our current quality of life.
 
What we are focusing on at PEERtrainer right now is to bring some basic
awareness to this risk. And we are also focusing on making sure that people
know that there are steps you can take, in your everyday life, to help
mitigate this risk.
 
The work we are doing with JJ Virgin right now will help everyone take these
steps. What is great about JJ is that she approaches this issue in a really
easy, fun and non-scary way. She makes it easy to deal with.
 
This Thursday we will hosting a live call, in which she outlines the specific
steps your body can take to eliminate as much of this toxic junk as possible.
 
This is the start of a much bigger effort for us. The more we look at the research
and the broader discussion, the more compelled we feel to focus on this.
 
This is important, and we know how to make it fun and non-scary. I will be
hosting the call, and asking JJ the questions. The two of us have talked 
a ton about this with each other. Her information has changed my habits,
permanently.
 
 
-Jackie
 
PS: PLEASE feel free to hit reply to this email and ask me any questions about
any of this.

Imagine Being 7 Months Pregnant, You Get Heart Palpitations And A Series Of Doctors Refuse To See You

By Habib Wicks, PEERtrainer Co-Founder


As many of you know I have been training for a marathon. I run several times a week with a group of guys who have run marathons before. As far as "PEERtrainers" go, these guys are the best. They schedule runs, motivate me to run on days that I don't want to. Many of them are doctors as well, so I have to endure lots of complaining about some of the inside baseball of being a doctor. 

Usually I focus on my own breathing and let them talk and talk so I can have a better chance of keeping up with them. Yesterday though I heard a very interesting story which I felt compelled to write about. One of the guys is a cardiologist, and he was particularly upset about something that happened in the last couple days. 

There was a woman in the hospital, somewhere in the system that was 7 months pregnant and having heart palpitations. I was told by my friend that a whole series of doctors would not see her, I think 4 or 5. My friends assistant called him and asked if he would. He agreed to, and explained that the other doctors did not want to touch the case with a ten foot pole out of fear of being sued.

He gets into the room to see her and she just starts crying and crying. She is glad to see my friend. But can you imagine what is going through this woman's head? You are way pregnant, your heart starts acting funny, you are probably freaking out. And a series of doctors refuse to see you?

Bad stuff can and does happen to women during pregnancy. Anyway, there is this huge healthcare debate about things that might or might not happen in the future depending on what happens. And in this debate, the words "tort reform" have come up. It is something that Republicans always talk about, and that some Democrats are starting to talk about. As I understand it, "tort reform" means reworking the issue of suing doctors when something goes wrong. 

It is one of those buzzwords that we hear get tossed around, and it sounds like an abstraction. Which is why I wanted to blog about this story. I am not a lawyer or a doctor, but it seems that when doctors refuse to see patients out of fear of being sued, something needs to be worked on. And I have NO IDEA how one would structure "tort reform." Obviously if someone screws up, there needs to be recourse. 

Anyway, I thought this might be interesting contribution to the healthcare debate. Hopefully not too controversial. This is one of those things that everyone can relate to and understand.