Chemical compounds called endocrine disruptors may play a significant role in various chronic diseases in both companion and other animals and also humans. These diseases include allergies, chronic skin diseases, recurrent ear, urinary tract, and other infections, digestive system disorders such as chronic colitis, diarrhea, and inflammatory bowel disease frequently associated with immune system impairment, and metabolic and hormonal disturbances expressed in a variety of symptoms from obesity to thyroid and other endocrine disorders especially of the pancreas and adrenal glands.

Veterinarian Dr. Alfred J. Plechner’s clinical findings that link elevated serum estrogen levels , thyroid dysfunction and impaired synthesis of cortisol with a variety of health problems in animals warrant careful consideration, and more detailed research and randomized clinical trials. His claimed benefits of very low doses of cortisone, often in combination with thyroid hormone replacement, may hold true for some patients suffering from what I term the Endocrine- Immune Disruption Syndrome (EIDS) . But long term cortisone treatment may aggravate the syndrome, especially in the absence of a holistic approach to improving the animal’s immune system and overall physical and psychological well being.

Adverse reactions to vaccinations, anti-flea and tick medications and other veterinary drugs, and hypersensitivity to various foods and dietary additives, may be consequential and contributory elements in what I interpret as a widespread and not yet well recognized Endocrine-Immune Disruption Syndrome. I receive many letters from readers of my syndicated newspaper column Animal Doctor, concerning dogs and cats with the kinds of chronic, complex, multiple health problems that conventional veterinary treatments have at best only temporarily alleviated.

The primary cause of these hormonal imbalances and associated neuro- endocrine and immune system dysfunctions is most probably environmental in origin, specifically the endocrine disrupting compounds (EDC’s) in animals’ food and water. Through bioaccumulation these compounds become concentrated in various internal organs of companion animals, in farmed animals raised for human consumption, including aquatic species, and also in wildlife and humans at the top of the food chain.. Since many EDC’s are lipophilic, they especially accumulate in animals’ fatty tissues, brains, mammary glands and milk.

While I would agree with Dr. Plechner that animals’ genetic background and stress are also contributing factors to an animal developing what I believe to be endocrine disrupting compound toxicosis, I do not accept his contention that "this disturbance appears to be largely genetic." On the contrary, certain breeds and lines of domestic animals, and domestic animals in general who develop often multiple symptoms of EIDS are like the proverbial canaries down in the coal mines, signaling environmental conditions also hazardous to humans.

An internet search and review of the existing literature and ongoing research in the field of environmental toxicology will reveal the ubiquitous presence of endocrine disrupting compounds (EDC’s) in the environment especially from industrial pollutants, (from power plants and municipal incinerators to paper mills and chemically dependent industrial agriculture), and from untreated and inadequately treated sewage water (some 850 billion gallons of which are dumped annual into US waters). EDC’s are also being identified in a host of household and medical products especially plastics, in clothing, floor materials, and lining of food cans, ( notably phthalates and Bisphenol A ) and in the food and water we share with our companion animals, and give to farmed animals.

New EDC’s are being identified, detected in human breast milk, infant umbilical cord blood, and in ’signal’ wildlife species, from alligators to Artic seals. Researchers with the US Geological Survey, (USGS) Contamination Biology Program have found that PCB treated fish have lower resting plasma cortical titers and disrupted stress responses, impaired immune responses and reduced disease resistance. PCBs disrupt glucocorticoid responsiveness of neuronal cells involved in the negative feedback regulation of circulating cortical levels. I link these and other research findings on EDC’s with Plechner’s findings of low serum cortical levels in his patients, exposed undoubtedly to a number of EDC’s that can have enhanced toxicity through synergism. But his contention that dysfunctional adrenal glands are the cause of elevated estrogen levels is questionable considering the high level of "background" estrogen mimicking EDCs in every animal’s environment. DDE for example is one EDC that is known to accumulate in the adrenal cortex and impair cortical production. Ironically the USGS has found human birth control estrogens in river waters.

EDC’s not only disrupt endocrine signaling systems (estrogen, progesterone, thyroid, glucocorticoid, retinoid etc) and immune system functions, they can also cause profound behavioral, neurological and developmental disturbances. They may play a role in obesity and in animals’ adverse reactions to vaccines, other biologics and pharmaceutical products.

With regard to the health and welfare of companion animals---and the education and consumer habits of their owner/care givers, calls for much more than the immediate drug-correctives suggested by Dr. Plechner that could have harmful long-term consequences without adequate and reliable blood serum monitoring of thyroid, adrenal, and immune system (immunoglbulins) function.

There is an urgent need for the veterinary profession to address this Endocrine-Immune Disruption Syndrome, and to consider it when treating a variety of chronic diseases in animal patients. For a start, all veterinary practitioners should encourage animal care givers to provide sick, (and healthy animals as part of holistic health maintenance) with pure water, organically certified food, including diets with animal fat and protein derived from young animals fed and raised organically, not exposed to herbicides, insecticides and other agricultural chemicals, and veterinary pesticides and other drugs. ( Even synthetic pyrethrins are powerful endocrine disruptors). Sea foods in the diets especially of cats, should preclude species high on the food chain like tuna and salmon. Also livestock that is organically certified should not be fed fish meal because of the bioaccumulation of EDC’s. Many commercial dog and cat foods are high in soy/soya bean/ vegetable protein. Since soy products are high in plant estrogens, (those from genetically engineered soy being potentially extremely problematic in this matter), it would be advisable to take all animals suspected of suffering from EIDS off all foods containing phytoestrogen laden plant proteins, and for healthy cats not to be fed any diet that relies on soy as the main source of protein. Healthy dogs, who are more omnivorous than cats (who are obligate carnivores) may not be at such risk.

The use of so called xenobiotic detoxification enzyme and other therapeutic nutrient supplement treatment, as detailed by Dr. Sherry A. Rogers and Dr. Roger V. Kendall, is worth consideration for chronically ill animals that may have EIDS. These include essential fatty acids, as in flax seed oil, digestive enzymes (e.g. papain and bromeliad) and vitamins A, B complex, C and E, alpha-lipoic acid, L-carnitine, L-glutamine, taurine, glutathione, dimethylglycine, CoQ10, bioflavinoids, selenium, copper, magnesium and zinc (with caution as per breed susceptibility to toxicity).

Homeopathic practitioners use Nux vomica and Sulfur to help detoxify a patient.

Detoxification can also include a bland, whole food, natural diet for 3-5 days (individual food-hypersensitivity being considered), including steamed carrots, sweet potato and other vegetables, cooked barley or rolled oats, and a little organic chicken or egg, plus a sprinkling of kelp (powdered seaweed), alfalfa or wheat grass sprouts, and milk thistle. A 3-4 day course of treatment with psyllium husks, activated charcoal and aloe vera liquid extract can also help cleanse and heal the digestive system. For cats, the amount of animal protein should be at least two-thirds of the diet, while one-third is sufficient for dogs. After this cleansing diet, a whole food , home-prepared balanced diet is advisable. In some cases, fasting for 24 hours may also be beneficial prior to giving the detox. diet, but caution is called for since this could put some cats at risk.

The use of lawn and garden pesticides and other household chemicals, especially petroleum-based products, that could be endocrine disruptors should be avoided, and also plastic and water food containers for all family members, human and non-human. New carpets, plastic chew-toys and stain-resistant fabrics and upholstery may also be potential hazards

The medical and veterinary evidence of an emerging EIDS epidemic is arguably being suppressed for politico-economic reasons, as witness the US government’s foot-dragging from one administration after another to take effective action to phase out hazardous agricultural chemicals and industrial pollution to protect consumers from dioxins, PCB’s and PBB’s---all potent EDC’s. These compounds in particular, contaminate, through bioaccumulation, foods of animal origin, the discarded and condemned parts of which are recycled into pet foods and livestock feed.

Postscript:

Recent research into the epigenetics of disease has shown for example, that the offspring of rats exposed during pregnancy to pesticides were more prone to breast and prostate cancer, immune system dysfunction and other health problems. These rat offspring, even when fed a diet free of such agrichemicals, passed these health problems on to their offspring, and thus on to subsequent generations. Endocrine-disrupting chemicals, especially phthalates in the plastic of food and beverage containers and liners, play a major role in epigenetic diseases.

For references, see:

Colborn, Theo, et al, Our Stolen Future, updates--www.ourstolenfuture.org/NewScience/new sources/newsrce.htm

See also www.ourstolenfuture.org/New/recentimportant.htm

Environmental Working Group, (2005) Body Burden: The Pollution of Newborns. Washington DC. (www.ewg.org/reports/bodyburden2/)

Kendall, R.V.,(1997) Therapeutic Nutrition for the Cat, Dog and Horse, pp 53-72 in A.M. Schoen and S.G.Wynn, eds., Complementary and Alternative Veterinary Medicine.St.Louis, MO Mosby.

Krimsky, Sheldon, (1999) Hormonal Chaos. Baltimore MD Johns Hopkins Press.

Plechner, Alfred J., (2003) Endocrine-Immune Mechanisms in Animals and Human Health Implications. Troutdale OR NewSage Press.

Pottinger, T.G., (2003) Topic 4.10 Interactions of Endocrine-disrupting chemicals with stress responses in wildlife. Pure Appl. Chem., Vol.75, pp. 2321-2333.

Rogers, S.H., (1997) Environmental Medicine for Veterinary Practitioners, pp 537-560 in A.M. Schoen and S.G. Wynn, eds., Complementary and Alternative Veterinary Medicine. St. Louis, MO Mosby.

U.S. Dept. of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey, Summary of Endocrine Disruption Research in Contamination Biology Program. Updated 11.10.04  www.cerc.usgs.gov/

For ways to avoid poisons in one’s food, and in pet foods, see my book Eating With Conscience: The Bioethics of Food. New Sage Press, Troutdale OR.