Dioxin Human Health Effects
While the human health effects of dioxin compounds were more prevalent and unknown 20 years ago, today they remain a persistent food chain toxin. Many people are quite simply unaware that they exist either. As someone looking to maximise their overall wellbeing, having as much knowledge about environmental toxins, such as dioxins, is really important.
There are so many environmental toxins, mostly because of the industrial environment we have built in this century. Environmental toxins, including dioxins, can have serious health consequences for your body cells and tissues. They can cause damage to your body’s processes, restricting your wellbeing in ways current research may not fully comprehend.
Your vital organs all come together to produce a harmonious working organism. Maintaining optimal organ health is clearly very important for improving overall lifespan and wellbeing. Not only this but organs like the kidneys and liver work around the clock to ensure the body is as toxin free as possible. These organs are among the most heavily hit with toxins too, accumulating damage throughout our lives. When they are unable to cope even more broadscale damage can occur.
Having knowledge of toxins, such as dioxin compounds, means you are able to selectively avoid harmful toxins that could damage tissues and preserves optimal organ tissue health. As we know, antioxidants are also able to preserve tissue health and overall wellness. Avoiding accumulated damage from toxins could therefore be considered as important as eating the right amounts of antioxidants or antioxidant vitamins. Both actions are able to preserve the wellbeing of your organ tissues and cells, possibly preventing harmful diseases from occurring.
In this short informative article, we will look at the human health effects that can occur from consuming toxic dioxin compounds.
How Dioxin Compounds Are Detrimental For Our Health
Researchers have been aware of dioxins and their health consequences for many years, but this was not always the case and led to some serious human health catastrophes. Dioxin-like compounds are classified as one of the most well-known and persistent environmental toxins.
One huge concern with dioxins is that they bioaccumulate in the food chain, many health authorities now have to regularly test for them. They can also accumulate in our body fat stores and liver. Dioxin exposure can occur through agriculture, farmed or ocean caught meats. You can receive exposure from pesticide sprayed agriculture and fish meat is main route of exposure. Dioxin molecules have been linked to serious human health effects or issues from cancers to reproductive issues and endocrine or hormone problems.
Dioxins And Cancer
The main issue with dioxins are that they are polychlorinated. Polychlorinated dioxin compounds can have big human health effects and consequences within tissues of the body that are replicating. Dioxin molecules have an unusual structure, that is very reactive. Dioxins can therefore react with our DNA and other key molecules in the body.
If a reactive dioxin radical disrupts key DNA sequences for cell growth, uncontrolled cell growths or cancers can develop. As a result, dioxins have been demonstrated to be cancer causing, or carcinogenic, compounds.
Dioxin compounds have been linked to an increased risk of all cancers. Some of the more prevalent ones include rectal and blood cell cancers. Evidence of this is backed by a key case study in Vietnam. There is evidence that dioxins may also have negative effects on the immune system.
Through this same mechanism dioxins can have human health effects that damage vital organs. For example, radicals can damage organ tissues and if not correctly repaired can lead to longer term issues. Or environmental toxins, such as dioxin molecules, can temporarily weaken the responses of our body to other harmful molecules causing other unknown health consequences. As with many toxins, dioxins can potentially harm the nervous system and could also affect eye health. There have been reports of lower cognitive functioning in children with dioxin exposure.
Dioxin Endocrine Disrupting Effects
The results of many different studies suggest that dioxin exposure does have some significant effects on human hormone levels. This includes reproductive hormones. Some studies have observed changes in the ratio of boys to girls at birth as a result of dioxin exposure. While there may also be links to changes in sexual behaviour from dioxin exposure. There is evidence that testosterone hormone synthesis is impaired by dioxins.
Various studies have also observed effects of dioxins on thyroid function. Of course, iodine and selenium play a massive role in thyroid health, which manages healthy growth throughout the body. This could therefore be due to the structural similarities of iodide and chlorine, with resulting disruptive effects in the thyroid. These disruptions in endocrine, or hormone, levels may also be responsible for developmental issues that are observed from dioxin exposure.
Studies have linked delayed puberty development to exposure with dioxins and this is consistent with potential effects on thyroid gland growth hormones.
You also find some dioxin exposure from certain agricultural pesticides and there was an increased risk of diabetes observed in one study. These concerns have been reflected in other research papers too, where 20 year tracking studies linked dioxins to an increased risk of diabetes. That could be due to disruptions in levels of key hormones.
Reproductive Health Effects
Not surprisingly, given their potential effects on our hormones, studies have also observed some human health effects from dioxin molecule exposure on reproductive organs.
Reproductive cancers are associated with dioxin exposure. Studies have concluded that they increase the risk of getting breast or testicular cancers. Human reproductive organs are also considered to be the most vulnerable of all tissues to the harmful effects of food borne dioxin contamination. This is quite concerning, considering that some studies have detected dioxins in mother’s breast milk. One European commission study has found that toddlers are vulnerable to dioxin exposure.
During a child’s development hormone levels clearly fluctuate and this same study has highlighted concerns of chloracne developing from elevated dioxin exposure. This human health effect is where acne-like skin lesions develop as a direct result of dioxin exposure, especially in childhood. It is likely that dioxins accumulate in skin fat deposits and through a slow half life could cause this condition.
There are concerns about the effects of dioxins on sperm counts too through puberty, with lowered sperm counts observed in adolescents that possibly resulted from regular dioxin exposure. This could also have influences on growth, with hormonal levels and interactions being sensitive in that age category.
In animal studies, with monkeys, greatly reduced sperm counts were observed with exposure to harmful dioxin molecules. This level of exposure was only ten times higher than the current average level of human dioxin exposure. These effects were also observed in rats, where sperm counts and production were lowered from dioxin exposure. Some studies quote up to 45% reductions in sperm count.
Dioxin molecules seem to have demonstrated effects and present risks to human health, especially in terms of hormonal disruption or reproductive effects.
Summary
The human health effects of dioxin compounds are known and this environmental toxin has the potential to cause severe damage to our wellness.
For one, as an environmental toxin, dioxins can bioaccumulate in the food chain. This makes them particularly harmful to us. Dioxins accumulate in body fat stores, with a low biodegradability, which adds to their toxicity. Dioxin exposure occurs through agriculture, farmed or ocean caught meats. Fish meat is the main route of dioxin exposure for most people.
Our wellbeing is dependent on maintaining optimal organ health, while toxins cause damage to our organs and reduce our overall wellness. Dioxins have links to serious health issues from cancers to reproductive issues and endocrine or hormone problems.
This is because of their polychlorinated structure which can easily interact with the body and cause tissue damage. There have been many studies linking increased risk of cancers to dioxin exposure. Dioxins are classed as carcinogens.
Dioxins are considered to be endocrine disrupting at the right levels. Studies have observed changes in the ratio of boys to girls at birth from dioxins exposure. This is evidence that testosterone hormone synthesis is impaired by dioxins. Dioxins could affect thyroid function and cause other developmental issues. 20-year tracking studies linked dioxins to an increased diabetes risk.
Dioxins could severely affect reproductive health as they could negatively influence sperm counts, increase cancer risk in reproductive tissues and cause chloracne in young adults.
Research shows that dioxin exposure could cause serious human health issues, mainly through disruption to the endocrine system and to our reproductive health.
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