HEALTH & SCIENCE

STUDY SUGGESTS OBESITY LINK TO CHEMICAL

ELIZABETH GROSSMAN, WASHINGTON POST - A number of researchers are
pursuing indications that. . . chemicals, which have been shown to cause
abnormal changes in animals' sexual development, can also trigger
fat-cell activity -- a process scientists call adipogenesis.

The chemicals under scrutiny are used in products from marine paints and
pesticides to food and beverage containers. A study by the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention found one chemical, bisphenol A, in 95
percent of the people tested, at levels at or above those that affected
development in animals.

These findings were presented at last month's annual meeting of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science. A spokesman for the
chemical industry later dismissed the concerns, but Jerry Heindel, a top
official of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, who
chaired the AAAS session, said the suspected link between obesity and
exposure to "endocrine disrupters," as the chemicals are called because
of their hormone-like effects, is "plausible and possible.". . .

"Exposure to bisphenol A is continuous," said Frederick vom Saal,
professor of biological sciences at the University of Missouri at
Columbia. Bisphenol A is an ingredient in polycarbonate plastics used in
many products, including refillable water containers and baby bottles,
and in epoxy resins that line the inside of food cans and are used as
dental sealants. In 2003, U.S. industry consumed about 2 billion pounds
of bisphenol A.

Researchers have studied bisphenol A's effects on estrogen function for
more than a decade. Vom Saal's research indicates that developmental
exposure to low doses of bisphenol A activates genetic mechanisms that
promote fat-cell activity. "These in-utero effects are lifetime effects,
and they occur at phenomenally small levels" of exposure, vom Saal said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/
2007/03/11/AR2007031100918.html

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POSSIBLE HEALTH SECRET: COCOA

ROGER HIGHFIELD, TELEGRAPH - The health benefits of one ingredient of
cocoa are so striking that it "may rival penicillin and anesthesia in
terms of importance to public health". The ingredient - epicatechin -
can reduce the risk from diseases such as stroke and heart failure,
Norman Hollenberg, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, told
the journal Chemistry & Industry. Prof Hollenberg has spent years
studying the benefits of cocoa drinking on the Kuna people on the San
Blas islands off the coast of Panama. They drink up to 40 cups of cocoa
a week. Among the Kuna, he found that the risk of stroke, heart failure,
cancer and diabetes was reduced to less than 10 per cent. Advertisement.
"Epicatechin could potentially get rid of four of the five most common
diseases in the western world," Prof Hollenberg told the journal. The
cocoa that the Kuna drink is homemade and very rich in chemicals called
- flavanols, notably epicatechin - which is known to have
cardio-vascular benefits. Flavanols are removed from commercial cocoas
because they tend to have a bitter taste.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=
/news/2007/03/12/nteens112.xml

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