A few days ago we talked about the recommendations related to mercury that are concentrated in fish and today we are commenting on similar news, because in the same way they concentrate mercury we are accumulating in our body, throughout our lives, the toxins with which we live.
A recent study by the Marquis Institute and the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) has revealed that environmental pollution is causing a higher concentration of toxic in breast milk that is transmitted to children and that can cause low concentration of sperm in children's sperm.
Having said that, it is scary, however, it should be borne in mind that what is observed in milk is only a reflection of the concentration of toxins that women, men and children will have (if the environment is not improved) and that despite this the recommendation remains the same: breastfeed babies exclusively up to six months and in a complementary way up to two years, and from there until mother and / or son decide.
Toxics accumulate in fats
Environmental toxins accumulate in our body fat as we come in contact with them over the years. This Toxic concentration is transmitted to children during pregnancy and also during breastfeeding, it is the time when some fluids of the mother come into contact with the baby (they feed him, in fact).
As many of the toxic substances accumulate in fats it is very difficult to measure the level of concentration of them in blood but it is very easy to do it in breast milk, because it is a fat-rich fluid. For this reason, if you want to know the level of exposure of a population to a toxic substance, you get breast milk from the women who live there, you analyze it and so you will know what the toxic concentration of all of them is.
To carry out the study, published in the International Journal of Andrology, the concentrations of 38 chemical substances in 68 breast milk samples of 34 Catalan and 34 Galician women have been measured.
Results of the study
The study shows that Catalan women have a toxic level in milk four times higher than Galician.
According to the authors of the study, this difference is explained as follows:
The study shows a clear difference between these two populations, which we relate to the greater industrialization in Catalonia and certain life habits such as the intake of packaged foods.
Substances that affect semen quality
The problem with this concentration of toxic elements in our bodies is that some of them act as female hormones (they have endocrine disruptive properties) and this can cause low sperm concentrations in the semen, genital malformations and testicular damage.
Despite this, we must continue to breastfeed
As I said, reading that some of these substances (the most representative are polychlorinated biphenyls, contaminant already prohibited but still remaining in the environment, organochlorine pesticides and flame retardants, also banned 30 years ago) are in our body and they pass From mothers to children it might seem that a recommendation would be to stop breastfeeding to avoid it, however it is not desirable.
The same authors of the study have commented that "It is still advisable to breastfeed because it provides immune defenses" which is perfectly logical because, as we have said, the analysis of milk is not done to know if it is to blame for the toxic levels of babies, but to know how a whole population is contaminated.
If the babies of Catalan mothers have the same customs as their mothers, at their age they will have a very similar concentration of toxins in the body and therefore It doesn't make much sense to stop breastfeeding if you will then receive those same toxic substances from water, food and the environment.
In any case, the ideal is to try to achieve a healthier environment for all and take care of our diet a little more, if we do not do enough.
