Organic Food during Mother's Pregnancy Reduces Risk of Male Birth Defects
A large epidemiological study links consumption of organic food with decreased rates of hypospadias and cryptorchidism, both common types of male urogenital birth defects [1]. This is the first prospective study to find a significant link between consumption of organic foods and reduced risk of hypospadias.
The study analysed over 37 000 women and children pairs, finding that women who consume any organic food during pregnancy are 0.42 times as likely to give birth to a boy with hypospadias as those who report seldom or never eating organic food. This decrease is modest but significant, and builds on a growing list of studies linking pesticides and other endocrine disrupters to these types of defects. Of all the food groups analysed (vegetables, fruit, cereal, dairy, eggs and meat), consumption of organic vegetables as well as organic dairy were most strongly associated with the protective effect, with baby boys 0.30 times as likely to get hypospadias when mothers consumed either organic dairy or organic vegetables. For cryptorchidism, a borderline negative association was found solely with the consumption of organic milk/dairy products, with those consuming this organic food group being 0.65 times as likely to give birth to a boy with the condition. Results were adjusted for food intakes, sociodemographic variables and lifestyle factors, though these factors had marginal influence on the results.
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Pesticides are the other obvious candidate for the observed disparity in disease rates between those eating organic versus conventional foods. Several classes of pesticide have been shown to have endocrine disrupting effects including glyphosate, 2,4-D, atrazine, endosulfan, linurin, vinclozolin and dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene (DDE) [16]. A metal-analysis of 9 studies found a marginal but significant risk of hypospadias associated with both maternal and paternal exposures to pesticides, reporting a 1.4 times increased chance of getting hypospadias following maternal pesticide exposure [17]. Individual studies have found increased rates of hypospadias children of people living or working in agricultural environments in North Indian boys [18] and increased cryptorchidism in gardeners in Denmark [19]. Greek boys with hypospadias as well as their parents show the presence of organophosphate and organochlorine pesticides in hair samples, with mother’s showing significantly higher levels than the fathers, though was limited by a lack of control [20].
Glyphosate herbicides have also been suggested to contribute to hypospadias in a recent review of the decline of health in both people and wild animals in the state of Montana, USA, in the last 20 years, that correlates with the increased use of glyphosate [21]. Glyphosate has been widely reported to cause birth defects and has been shown to disrupt endocrine pathways such as the retinoic acid signalling pathway and aromatase enzyme activity, which converts testosterone precursors to oestrogens (see [22] Banishing Glyphosate, Special ISIS report). This latter mechanism may cause a disruption of testosterone signalling that could lead to the development of hypospadias, though this is yet to be mechanistically studied.
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/Organic_Food_Reduces_Birth_Defects.php
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