Liver Disease: A New Risk From Hormone Disruptors

Endocrine-disrupting chemicals have far-reaching effects, including on our livers, researchers find

More than half of the 2020 deaths caused by alcohol were from alcoholic liver disease.Explode/Shutterstock

In this series, we explore ways medical science, modern medicine, and lifestyles have taken us to an unhealthy extreme—and what alternatives and solutions may exist.

By now, most people are aware of endocrine-disrupting chemicals, or EDCs—and their dangers—but they may not be aware of their links to the most common liver disease of our time.

These chemicals mimic and disrupt hormone function and lurk in our food packaging, furniture, cleaning products, building materials, drinking water, gardens, cosmetics, and more. Many EDCs became popular as plastics replaced wood and other more expensive natural substances in manufacturing. EDCs that function as flame retardants became popular when much of the nation began smoking, more than 50 years ago, and deadly home fires began to occur more frequently.

Last summer, Emma Suttie, an acupuncture physician, told Epoch Times readers about the 12 worst EDCs, the harms they can cause, and how we can try to avoid them. Because EDCs are “ubiquitous and people are exposed to so many simultaneously, studying their health effects is complex, and the long-term health consequences remain unclear,” she wrote.

Epoch Times readers also recently heard about the role EDCs can exert in obesity. Obesogens, a type of EDC, are found in personal care products such as makeup, shampoos, and soaps and are often overlooked as obesity factors when usually only the roles of diet and exercise are considered.

We also recently reported that higher concentrations of a type of EDC known as mono-ethyl phthalate, or MEP, in pregnant women was correlated with obesity in their offspring, specifically, an increase in “BMI [body mass index], waist circumference, and percent body fat in children between 5 and 12 years of age,” regardless of the child’s gender or age at onset of puberty.

It’s known that these widespread chemicals can cause cancerous tumors, birth defects, and changes in the brain and immune system, as well as obesity and early puberty in those exposed to them. Now, scientists are identifying a new disease linked to EDCs—nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, or NAFLD.

NAFLD—A Rising Disease

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease is the most common liver disease in the world. Marked by excessive fat­­ accumulation in the hepatocytes, major liver cells, it’s mostly seen in people who are overweight or obese. NAFLD can have no symptoms at first, yet can lead to diabetes, high blood pressure, kidney disease, heart problems in those with diabetes, cirrhosis, and even liver cancer. No specific medicine treats NAFLD, but doctors may treat accompanying high blood pressure, high cholesterol, obesity, and Type 2 diabetes.

As cases of NAFLD increase, scientists are eyeing the role of gut microbiota in its development.

“The gut microbiota is involved in gut permeability, low-grade inflammation and immune balance, it modulates dietary choline metabolism, regulates bile acid metabolism and produces endogenous ethanol,” reads a 2013 study published in the journal Clinical Microbiology and Infection. “All of these factors are molecular mechanisms by which the microbiota can induce NAFLD.”

Since EDCs affect so many bodily systems—hormone, endocrine, respiratory, nervous, and immune systems—it should come as no surprise that they also affect the gut microbiota.

“Exposure to EDCs induces a series of changes including microbial dysbiosis and the induction of xenobiotic pathways and associated genes, enzymes, and metabolites involved in EDC metabolism,” write scientists in a 2020 article in the journal Nutrients. “The products and by-products released following the microbial metabolism of EDCs can be taken up by the host; therefore, changes in the composition of the microbiota and in the production of microbial metabolites could have a major impact on host metabolism and the development of diseases.”

Obesity and poor Western diets may be driving NAFLD, but EDCs are clearly adding insult to injury by wreaking further havoc on the gut microbiota.

NAFLD Can Be Caused by Epigenetic Changes

Research published in Nature Reviews Endocrinology in 2017 concurs that there’s a “growing epidemic” of NAFLD in Westernized countries and that EDCs may be a factor. But while the researchers write that EDCs have the “potential to influence the initiation and progression of a cascade of pathological conditions associated with fatty liver,” they don’t indict gut microbiota as NAFLD drivers but rather point to epigenetic changes—alterations in the script that shapes genome behavior and decides which genes get turned on and off.

The researchers surmise that the well-known ability of EDCs to alter the activity of estrogen, glucocorticoids, thyroid hormone T3, and other nuclear hormone receptors alters the epigenome itself—the gene script which can then be passed from cell to cell and to the next generation without actually altering the genome’s DNA.

Such gene scripting, in which someone’s behaviors and environment actually change the way their genes work, is the key element that drives epigenetics and shifts genetic expression over time. This process is thought to be behind some of today’s most stubborn diseases. For example, research published in the Iranian Biomedical Journal in 2016 suggests that an EDC epigenetic change in cells called DNA methylation is correlated with Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, schizophrenia, autoimmune and neurological disorders, and cancers.

Researchers also suspect that early-life exposure to EDCs may play a role in NAFLD development as it does in other EDC effects. For example, research published in the journal Endocrinology in 2018 states that “increasing evidence supports a developmental origin of liver disease, and early-life exposure to EDCs could represent one risk factor for the development of NAFLD later in life.”

The Allure of EDCs

EDCs have become intrinsic in the manufacturing, food packaging, and home furnishing industries because of their efficiency and low cost. They are incorporated into personal hygiene products and cosmetics because consumers like the colors and fragrances that EDCs can produce. However, as consumers educate themselves about the dangers of EDCs, not only can they protect themselves from some of the dangers, they also can reduce the demand for such harmful products and the manufacturing of them. For example, “phthalate-free” now appears on the label of some personal care products, which is a direct outgrowth of consumers’ buying preferences.

Just as with leaded gasoline and asbestos, regulators have been slow to recognize the harms of EDCs. But awareness of their danger is growing, especially as new conditions such as NAFLD are linked to the chemicals.

How to Avoid EDCs and Their Many Harms

The linking of NAFLD to EDCs is another reason to urge our lawmakers and public agencies to better regulate and outright ban the worst of these substances. But as regulation continues to lag behind research raising concerns for human health and safety, incorporating these lifestyle measures can help protect you from exposure to these omnipresent and unwanted chemicals.

1) Buy organic produce and unprocessed foods (herbicides, additives, and packaging can have EDCs).

2) Avoid fragrances in personal care products—even in your laundry and dish soaps.

3) Avoid cooking with plastic and storing food inside it.

4) Wash your hands often; they may touch and transmit EDC chemicals.

5) Avoid harsh household cleaners.

6) Avoid canned goods—cans have often been lined with bisphenol A, commonly known as BPA.

7) Trade bottled water for a water filter attached to your sink or a water filter bottle.

8) Say no to thermal receipt paper, which is often coated with BPA.

9) Read labels on everything and maintain a high level of suspicion.

10) Vacuum with a HEPA filter and dust with a wet rag frequently to reduce EDC contamination in your home. Furniture has often been manufactured with flame retardants, which are EDCs.

11) Reduce herbicide and pesticide use.

12) Make sure to eat enough iodine, which may protect from the EDC perchlorate.

13) Avoid nonstick pans.

14) Try to buy loose food that isn’t packaged; wash produce thoroughly.

15) Avoid black plastic cooking utensils. Besides EDCs, they may also be made from recycled electronic waste plastic.

16) Avoid single-use plastic cups. Use reusable coffee cups instead.

17) Avoid paper containers with greaseproof linings. These packages often contain EDCs.

18) Don’t buy stain-resistant carpets or rugs.

19) Avoid clothes that have treated to make them waterproof or stain resistant.

20) Don’t eat microwave popcorn. The bags are a significant dietary source of perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, better known as PFAS.