The big questions:
Doping with hormones- did Floyd Landis take exogenous testosterone?
What is doping doing to our belief in sports heros?
Can testosterone ‘cause us to kill’?
Diabetes on the rise.
What comes first, diabetes or obesity? What’s the role of exercise?
Why are there cultural differences in susceptibility to metabolic syndrome?
Pima and Tarahumara Indians (US)
What should we do with the burden on health care?
Diabetes risk double for the mentally ill.
Obesity and the Science of Eating
Newly discovered hormones: ghrelin, leptin
Rise in thyroid hormone disorders.
Hormone replacement therapy, yay or nay? Increased risk for cancer?
Less risk for bones breaking (osteoporesis), better memory
What the findings of the Women’s Health Initiative mean to hormone replacement therapy.
Viagra madness… hey, sex does matter!
Stress disorders on the rise? Post traumatic stress disorder.
Stress Hormones Perception of stress – rank of rats makes a difference!
Who gets more stressed, the employee with less responsibility but less power or the boss with
more responsibility and more power?
Sociality – like alpha males and stress
Stress and Your Brain War, rape, sexual abuse, and other severe trauma--even a car accident-could make part of your brain disappear By Robert Sapolsky DISCOVER Vol. 20 No. 03 |
March 1999 http://www.discover.com/issues/mar-99/features/stress/
Environment: Is there a sperm decline? Is our sperm declining in number or quality? If so,
why? Do pesticides cause changes in sex ratios in alligators?
1. Guillette, L. 1995. Endocrine disrupting environmental contaminants and developmental
abnormalities in embryos. Human and Ecological Risk Assessment 1:25-36.
2. Sharpe, R. and N.E. Skakkenbaek 1993. Are oestrogens involved in falling sperm counts and
disorders of the male reproductive tract? Lancet 341:1392-95.
3. Safe, S. 1995. Do environmental estrogens play a role in development of breast cancer in women
and male reproductive problems? Human and Ecological Risk Assessment 1(2):17-23.
4. Colborn, T., F.S. vom Saal, and A.M. Soto. 1993. Developmental effects of endocrine-disrupting
chemicals in wildlife and humans. Environmental Health Perspectives 101:378-384.
Orphan Receptors – receptors with no known ligand. What are all those receptors doing?
New receptors of the already known hormones.
Shupnik estrogen receptor variants J. Neuroendo 14:85-94 2002.
Do hormones make us gay? (LeVay) Levay, S. Science 253, 1034-1037, 1991.
Womb environment ‘makes men gay’ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/5120004.stm
Gilovich, T. How we know what isn’t true. Free Press Ch 1-4 1991
Wade, N. The years in the wilderness Science 200:279-282 (411-415) (510-513) 1978
Boyd and Hertzberg Fundamentals of RIA. 1976
Beltz and Burd Immunocytochemical Techniques. 1989
Sapolsky, R. Glucocorticoids and hippocampal atrophy in neuropsychiatric disorders. Arch
Gen Phsych 2000, 57:925-935.
Nestler et al. Neuron 34:13-25 2002. Neurobiology of depression
Autism increasing. Link to environmental toxins?
Zoeller and Rovet Timing of TH action in developing brainJ Neuroendo 16:809-818, 2004.
Reproductive endo: athlete triad, secondary amenorrhea, androgen excess and PCOS
Big question: Mind/ endocrine/ immune link
McClintock describes a recent discovery in the field of animal behavior. Researchers have
found that when male mice are fighting, the subordinate mice change their hormonal and immune
profiles in anticipation of a wound. They are not reacting to a wound that has already been inflictedrather, there's something about knowing they are likely to receive a wound that enables them to
prepare their immune systems to deal with a potential injury. "Less dominant males, who are less
likely to be wounded, don't do that," says McClintock excitedly. "They have a completely different
strategy. This takes animal models out of the realm of strict behaviorism-we're talking about
anticipation and changing their profile.
endocrine disruptors resource page: http://e.hormone.tulane.edu/
definition: process by which an exogenous substance causes adverse health effects
consequent to changes in endocrine function.
Gynecomastia and tea tree oil
Bisphenol A (BPA) has been linked to damage in developing brain tissue
Article on endocrine disruptors and gender, review: Are EDC;s blurring issues of gender?
Hood, 2005 http://www.ehponline.org/docs/2005/113-10/focus-abs.html
Decreased anogenital distance in little boys with phthalates
http://www.ehponline.org/members/2005/8100/8100.pdf
Developmental Exposure to estrogenic compounds and obesity- live video
http://www.niehs.nih.gov/multimedia/qt/dert/obesity/newbold/newbold.htm
WHO stats graph, just for show http://www.who.int/whosis/2006highlights/en/index7.html
WHO webpage, can look at top ten causes of death by country