On Earth Day, Think About Your Health

The link between the state of the environment and women's health is finally getting the attention it deserves, and there's no better day to talk about this than Earth Day. A terrific new Women's Health and the Environment Tool Kit helps explain the connections.

For example:

Breast Cancer - Industrial chemicals that act like the hormones estrogen and progesterone may be adding to a woman's breast cancer risk.

Heart Disease - Air pollution, exposure to arsenic, lead and mercury, and of course cigarette smoking and second-hand smoke make us more susceptible to heart disease.

Endometriosis - Endometriosis affects 1 out of 10 women in the U.S. Some contaminants that may increase our risk for this condition include dioxins, polychlorinated biphenyls (pcbs) and radiation.

Diabetes - A recent study showed that chronic exposure to Bisphenol A, a chemical found in some plastics and food can linings, causes insulin resistance in laboratory animals, leading to Type II diabetes. Other studies showed that exposure to organochlorines (which may be found in pesticides) may also lead to diabetes.

To download the entire kit, as well as some great tips for action at home and in your community, visit the Women's Health and Environment website.

Comments

[Mari]

Hi everyone, I hope you will find this information helpful and relevant. This is encouraging news if you have both PCOS and insulin resistance. In a pilot study released in February 2007, researchers at Columbia University showed that consumption of cinnamon reduced insulin resistance in fifteen PCOS women.

Click here to read Dr. Nancy Dunne's article about cinnamon and www.ovarian-cysts-pcos.com/cinnamon