Vitamin B may protect fertility from pesticide contamination

(NaturalNews) The Monsanto Company is responsible for redefining farming, making mainstream agriculture dependent on chemicals -- toxins that sterilize the human population. As food is subjected to chemical warfare all across the planet, militaries are busy searching for terrorists in the mountains. Why can't we see that it's our own chemical-based agricultural system that is terrorizing our livelihood? America glances over its own state-sponsored terrorism and corporations like Monsanto that unleash hell on the planet, sterilizing women all over the world. If creating Agent Orange wasn't enough, Monsanto also manufactured DDT. This insecticide was banned at the Stockholm Convention in 1972, but its use and devastation continues today. The chemical remains in the body and in the environment for decades. It's a known endocrine disruptor, capable of throwing off healthy human hormone levels. For exposed women, this means that they have a greater chance of being infertile. Yes, the population of the world is being sterilized by pesticides.

How to counter the sterilizing effects of DDT pesticides

Thankfully, there is hope. In fact, at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, researchers have found a key ingredient for restoring fertility in women most affected by pesticides. The medicine comes from the earth in the form of B vitamins. The researchers published their findings in the December issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. They found that B vitamins protect the reproductive system even in the presence of the sterilizing pesticide DDT.

"Our previous work has shown that high levels of DDT in the body can increase the risk of early miscarriage," said study leader Xiaobin Wang, MD, ScD, MPH, the Zanvyl Krieger Professor and Director of the Center on the Early Life Origins of Disease at Johns Hopkins. "This study tells us that improved nutrition may modify the toxic effects of DDT, by better preparing the body to cope with environmental toxins and stressors. We have shown that women with high levels of DDT who also had high levels of B vitamins had a better chance of getting and staying pregnant than those were deficient in those vitamins." [emphasis added]

The importance of supplementing with Vitamin B12, folate before conception and throughout pregnancy

In the study, conducted between 1996 and 1998, Wang and her team investigated a group of Chinese workers who were trying to conceive. Every day, the workers took a urine test. The researchers recorded the worker's hCG level, which is the hormone that signals conception. This helped the researchers determine if there was a miscarriage in the first six weeks of pregnancy. They also measured DDT levels, vitamin B levels and DDE (a breakdown product of DDT) levels before conception.

Their results were telling.

They found that women with high levels of DDT and low levels of B vitamins took twice as long to conceive. Of the group of 291 women studied, there were 385 conceptions. 31 percent of the conceptions were lost in the initial six weeks of pregnancy, which is a very vulnerable period. High DDT levels were at the root of the problem. High DDT levels and low vitamin B levels doubled the women's risk for early miscarriage. In women with high DDT levels but adequate vitamin B levels, there was less risk of miscarriage (42 percent greater chance).

The most important B vitamins, the researchers asserted, were vitamin B12 and folic acid. These are most important in the early stages of pregnancy, especially if the woman had been exposed to the sterilizing pesticide chemical DDT. While many women are instructed to supplement with iron and folate between eight and twelve weeks of gestation, this may be too little, too late. A diet rich in B vitamins should begin before conception and last throughout the entire pregnancy, especially in those vulnerable first six weeks.

This is important advice considering that married women in the US between ages 15 and 44 are now experiencing the most difficulty in conceiving and maintaining pregnancy. The rate of these pregnancy difficulties has increased from 8 percent in 1982 to 11.8 percent in 2002. The rate is even worse today, especially in countries without access to sufficient B vitamins.

Empowering women and families begins with education. What are pesticides doing to our hormones and fertility? How can whole food B vitamins give women healthy, uncomplicated pregnancies?

Wang concluded, "Health care providers need to make sure women get adequate micronutrients including B vitamins in their diets not only during pregnancy but before they even conceive. Otherwise, we may miss that critical window."

Sources:

http://www.jhsph.edu

http://ajcn.nutrition.org

http://science.naturalnews.com