The effects of pesticides have generated the term: circle of poison. This term refers to the cycle in which pesticides banned in industrialized countries continue to be manufactured there and exported to developing countries. The pesticides are then used in developing countries almost entirely on export crops, and returned to industrialized countries as pesticide residues on food.

Recently, Time magazine reported on an increased link between milk consumption and Parkinson’s disease. Robert Abbott, from Shiga University of Medical Science in Japan, published his findings in the journalNeurology. In the 1980s, pineapple farmers in Hawaii used an organochlorine pesticide on their crops. This pesticide got into the milk supply when cows were fed a gruel that contained the leftover parts from those pineapples. Men who consumed 2 glasses or more per day of this milk, which now had residues of specific organochlorines called heptachlor epoxide, had compromised nerve function in specific areas of the brain. As the scientists investigated when the cell damage had actually occurred, they found that the chemical accumulation had occurred prior to the damage, which points to the pesticide bringing about Parkinson’s.

Another study published in the Journal of Agromedicine found that exposure to certain pesticides can increase reproductive disorders in men and women, causing problems such as sperm abnormalities, decreased fertility, a deficit of male children, spontaneous abortion, and birth defects/fetal growth retardation. When babies consume breast milk with this pesticide exposure, they can experience neurobehavioural problems, altered immune cell function, and even childhood leukemia. The study states, “Every class of pesticides has at least one agent capable of affecting a reproductive or developmental endpoint in laboratory animals or people, including organophosphates, carbamates, pyrethroids, herbicides, fungicides, fumigants and especially organochlorines. Many of the most toxic pesticides have been banned or restricted in developed nations, but high exposures to these agents are still occurring in the most impoverished countries around the globe,” aka, the circle of poison.

The best way to limit these risks is to eat organic, non GMO food. Apples, peaches, and nectarines are the top 3 worst products for pesticide exposure, so these should always be eaten organic.

Immune-boosting products are also important. To maintain a healthy immune function, starting in the gut by establishing friendly bacteria with Laktokhan probiotic. Use Thymus gland for T-cell production, and Colloidal Silver (non-nanoparticles) as an added immune booster. For more information on our Immunity products, click here.

To learn more about the connection between pesticides and disease, click here.

To learn more about the benefits of organic products, click here.