BPA fosters diabetes-promoting changes

[n2doc]

Low doses alter insulin secretion
By Janet Raloff

Thursday, February 9th, 2012

An ingredient in plastics and food-can linings coaxes cells from the pancreas to inappropriately secrete the hormone insulin, a finding that bolsters earlier links between type 2 diabetes and low-dose exposure to the chemical.

Bisphenol-A, or BPA, can mimic the effects of estrogen, a hormone that is involved in regulating insulin production in the body. Although controversy persists over BPA’s potency as an estrogen mimic, the new study, published online February 8 in PLoS ONE, finds that the pollutant is every bit as potent as the body’s natural estrogen in terms of triggering insulin release.

“I don’t think that anyone can say now that low-dose effects don’t occur,” says endocrinologist Ana Soto of the Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston, who was not involved in the new work. “It shows that changes happen in human cells — and at concentrations comparable to current levels of human exposure.”

The new work shows that BPA stimulates insulin release through a hormone-activating protein called estrogen receptor beta, or ER-beta, says Angel Nadal of Miguel Hernández University in Elche, Spain, who led the new study. Tiny concentrations of either estrogen or BPA boost the release of insulin. When his group tested mice engineered to produce no ER-beta, the effect went away, demonstrating that the protein is integral to BPA’s perturbation of insulin secretion.

more
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/338202/title/BPA_fosters_diabetes-promoting_changes

[grasswire]

1. I would *guess* that people are using fewer cans than in decades past...

...but using more plastic for food use. And what about those packaged frozen foods like pizzas and meals? Is that packaging contaminated with BPA? Hella lot of people using those items regularly.

[BlueToTheBone]

2. they line the cans

with the stuff to keep it from rusting. The only way to avoid is glass, I think.

[Warpy]

3. Now that is really, really interesting

and could explain the link they're finding between zero calorie sodas and weight gain. It makes a lot of sense since most people drink soda that has been sitting in a plastic bottle for weeks, the carbonic acid likely leaching the BPH out a little faster than, say, canned sweet corn does.

[dixiegrrrrl]

4. Actually one of the reasons I stopped all sodas.

Quite some time ago.
We try very hard now to only buy glass containers, or "cardboard" ( like milk comes in) and to use frozen veggies whenever possible.
That sure would explain the skyrocketing rates of diabetes.
Wonder if asthma is something they need to look at?

K&R