WATER BORNE INFERTILITY-HUMAN CALLOUSNESS!

Water is considered the fountain of life and it constitutes a major portion of all living things. Being a medium for all life sustaining metabolic activities, water needs to be supplied to the body through the food consumed and by direct consumption. While pure water is supposed to be free from pathogenic microorganisms and dangerous contaminants, the ground reality is that the current status of most of the so called protective water supply infrastructure does not guarantee its safety to the consumers. Though there are national and international standards for potable water, public health authorities turn a blind eye to all violations since water supply is mostly in government sector. This piquant situation has given scope for a thriving market for branded, bottled, safe drinking water products manufactured by over 1000 units in the private sector. Though they are supposed to be certified by ISI, the compliance is more often perfunctory with very little punitive action taken against defaulters.

Practically every house hold in towns and cities invest on water cleansing gadgets to make the water supplied by the civic bodies really safe for them. Those depending on bore well supplies face additional safety concerns because of high degree of hardness and possibility of unpredictable contaminants present in such water samples. Water purification by filtration, activated charcoal treatment, resin treatment, revers osmosis etc gives reasonably good water, especially from microbiological angle but presence of dangerous chemicals and traces of heavy metals still pose life time risks, especially in the long term.

It is well known that female sex hormones (estrogen) and many chemicals that mimic estrogen cause dramatic changes in the male fish leading to their feminization and loss of fertility. These chemicals originating from industrial effluents and medical wastes containing even harmful levels of contraceptive medications find their way into water bodies like rivers through the sewage treatment plants. Fish population living in these waters show remarkable tendency for sex change affecting the reproductive ability of male fish. In human beings infertility is often caused by testicular dysgenesis syndrome due to exposure to a range of anti-androgen chemicals, present in pesticides, anti-cancer treatment medicines, many medicinal products etc which inhibited the function of male hormone, Testosterone. Two major reasons for male infertility are stress conditions in life and pollution from chemicals. DDT's adverse effect on the fertility rate of Alligators in Florida USA, decades ago, is one of the well documented evidences that opened up the Pandora's box vis-a-vis dangers of pesticides.

Per Flourinated Compounds (PFCs), many in number, are omnipresent in almost all consumer products and their presence has been reported in air and water also as a result of large scale industrial pollutants finding their way from chemical plants . Chemicals like Bis-phenol A (BPA), Pthalates, Chloridane, Dielderin, Heptachlor, Hexa Chlorobenzene, Toxaphene, Perchlorates, Alkylphenols and many others are part and parcel of hundreds of modern day house-hold consumer products inventory which find their way, albeit in small concentrations into human body capable of inflicting heavy damage to the health including fertility. Though this may be a scary situation, the extent of risk posed by them depends on the frequency and intensity of exposure which is determined by the living style of the people. Most alarming is the quality of water that is available in many places located near chemical industries and waste treatment plants. While water treatment system is confined routinely to filtration and disinfection by chlorination in many urban areas, what is not checked is the chemical quality which can only reveal the safety.

Probably a mission-like project to assess the chemical quality of water at least in all the protected water supply areas in the country can be a beginning in addressing the potential dangers posed by these chemicals to the health of the population. The shocking fact that in Patna alone, there are 29 discharge points of effluents into the Ganges, must wake us up from any complacency. Many years ago a national project was undertaken to monitor heavy metals in water in different parts of the country but what came out of this study is not known. Whether it is Ministry of Health or any other agency, 'mission project on chemical quality of water' must be taken up on a priority to avert possible human disaster and tragedy of unimaginable dimension, for the future generation.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/

THE 'TWINS" BOOM- ROLE OF FOOD

Women amongst some tribals in Nigeria have been known to deliver twins in large numbers and precise reasons for this phenomenon are still obscure. Several questions remain unanswered as to whether the environment has any thing to do with it or whether local water sources are responsible or what role food plays in perpetuating this freak developments. One of the most guessed reasons is that these black women have high levels of follicle-stimulating hormones which could lead to multiple births. Why this happens is still a mystery. Same phenomenon has been reported in some parts of Spain with white women. In all these cases the twins are of dizygotic types or fraternal twins where 2 eggs get fertilized by two sperms each developing in separate sacs in the ovary. As against this monozygotic types result from one egg fertilized by one sperm and splitting into two eggs early in the gestation period within 12 days of conception, both the eggs developing in a single sac. Chances of identical twins are one in 285 and that for fraternal twins is one in 80.

Generally it is believed, though not scientifically proved, that consumption of ovulation-inducing drugs cause multiple births though these are confined to a minority of cases. Many theories, most of them not proven conclusively, float around amongst the fertility experts for explaining this freak phenomenon. Seasonality, maternal age, social class all are supposed to influence the chances for twins. For example In January least number of twins are born while it is highest in July in a country like USA. In some studies consumption of high levels of Vitamin A has been linked to multiple births. Excess consumption of vitamins and minerals by women of child bearing age is also cited as one of the causes. In the Togiak region of Alaska Cow moose are known to be giving birth of twin calves, almost 7 out of ten when they had access to plenty of foods and the rate of twin births declined when food became limited. Folic acid is another Vitamin which, whenever found in high levels in the blood, was implicated in twin births. Diets rich in estrogen like phytochemicals are also suggested as a possible contributing factor by nutritionists as this hormone has a vital role in conception.

If phytoestrogen contents do play a role what could be the make up of a diet ideal for giving birth to twins? There are many estrogen rich foods like yams, barley, some varieties of beans, flax seeds, oats, sesame seeds, soybean, rye, clover, millets, some herbs which are consumed but their relative levels in the regular diet may be the critical factor that may influence conception. It is time that this aspect is given more attention by multidisciplinary scientists so that the role of food is precisely brought out with least ambiguity.

High multiple births reported in Kodinhi, a village in Kerala caught the attention of many media persons and the reason for the presence of 150 twins in a population of 14600 is suspected to be the environment, though no absolute conclusion was possible with practically no scientific investigation. What lends credence to this assumption is that people migrating from other places to this village also showed tendency to conceive twins. Another reports some time back identified a village near Allahabad called Mohammad Umni where there were 33 pairs of twins amongst a population of just 600! According to some scientists who conducted limited studies here that a combination of food, living conditions and high consanguineous marriage could have resulted in such high twin births in this village.

Food scientists, nutritionists and fertility experts must put their heads together to bring out the role of food if any in this phenomenon. If definitive factors are known probably women can decide to go for two children in one go by choosing the right mix of foods instead of undergoing the trauma of child birth twice for the famous "we two and ours two" goal.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/