Nicolás Olea, professor: ‘Plastic coffee capsules contribute to exposure to endocrine disruptors’
The health specialist has published a book that has 80 recommendations for avoiding toxins, as well as advice for a healthier life, away from harmful substances
Until recently, endocrine disruptors — found in many everyday products — were largely absent from public discussion, but that term is now heard more and more. Nicolás Olea, emeritus professor of Radiology and Physical Medicine at the University of Granada in Spain, has played a key role in this shift. “I began to study them in 1988 in the United States, and it was a big surprise.”
In 1992, he focused on one in particular, bisphenol A, and since then has participated in dozens of studies on these substances, which he detailed in the popular science book Libérate de tóxicos (Free Yourself from Toxins). Six years later, he has recently published 80 recomendaciones para evitar los tóxicos (80 recommendations for avoiding toxins), a book offering advice for living a healthier life.
Question. What are endocrine disruptors?
Answer. They are chemical substances which, once inside the body, modify its hormonal balance. Hormones are the messengers that communicate between, for example, the ovary and the breast, as does estradiol, which is an estrogen. Disruptors can mimic estradiol and compete with that message, distorting it. They are hackers that alter hormonal messaging.
Q. Do they have immediate effects?
A. The effect is certainly immediate, because the alteration is instantaneous, but the repercussions of adverse effects can be very long-term: early exposure to a hormone can condition your adult life. The consequences are not visible until adulthood, so it is difficult to establish causality. In our study on poor semen quality, the prevailing hypothesis is that it was defined in the first 40 days after the child’s fertilization.
Q. What other effects do they cause?
A. Thyroid disorders — there are a huge number of people taking thyroid hormone for hypothyroidism — weight gain and diabetes, infertility. This summer, a scientific article noted that declining fertility in Europe is linked to women’s empowerment and economic conditions, but also to poor semen quality, decreased ovarian reserve, and diseases such as endometriosis and polycystic ovary syndrome, all of which are associated with endocrine disruptors.
Q. Are women more affected by endocrine disruptors?
A. Yes, because hormonal variability plays a major role in female physiology. Between the development of puberty, the first period, mammary development, monthly ovarian cycle and pregnancies, they are much more susceptible to hormonal changes. Hypothyroidism affects 17 times as many women as men, and chemical sensitivity also multiplies in women.
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