 Hi everyone, this is Dr. Rochelle. Let's discuss the association between pesticide exposure and hypothyroidism. And just as a brief bit of background, there is some suggestion that exposure to pesticides and herbicides may interrupt and interfere with thyroid function through a variety of mechanisms. But oftentimes here the degree of influence is important, meaning that there may be some mechanism of thyroid function that could be influenced, yes, by an herbicide or a pesticide. But we also have to show that that has a appreciable influence in someone's system and that we're not getting overly wrapped up in a very small perturbation of a mechanism that doesn't result in any meaningful type of impact. However, this is one case, even with that in consideration, that we do appear to have evidence showing that pesticide exposure has been correlated with disruption in a significant fashion of thyroid function. I'll put the abstract up here on the screen. Pesticide use and incidence or incident hypothyroidism in pesticide applicators in the agricultural health study. So an important point here to lead with is this is not looking at people who ate non-organic food and therefore were exposed to the pesticides and herbicides that are higher in non-organic than they are in organic food. This is people who actually work in agriculture, mainly farmers who are applying the pesticides. So this is showing a association to hypothyroidism in a population of people who have a high level of exposure. So it's important to keep that in mind and I'll wrap that into our conclusion here in a moment. But let's look at the specific of the study. I'll put some of the quotes up here on the screen. The study evaluated the association between use of specific pesticides and incidence hypothyroidism in private pesticide applicators in the AHS study or group. The AHS is a prospective meaning going forward in time cohort, meaning group, study of licensed pesticide applicators, mainly farmers and their spouses from North Carolina and Iowa. They followed 35,150 male and female applicators for over 20 years. Now it was found that ever use, meaning ever using or applying of eight insecticides and three herbicides, including glyphosate, was associated with increased risk of hypothyroidism. So that's a key finding. Now continuing. These findings are generally consistent with prior analyses of the prevalence of hypothyroidism in this cohort and also a very important point here. Many of these pesticides are still being used in current agriculture. So they further conclude or further draw attention to the fact that pesticides could alter a thyroid function by several mechanisms, including interference with thyroid hormone synthesis or creation, transportation and metabolism via direct immunomodulation or development of autoimmunity. But they also insert the caveat that there are limited data illustrating these mechanistic pathways. So again in recap we see fairly compelling evidence that an agricultural workers who have high levels of exposure to herbicides and insecticides, a increased prevalence of hypothyroidism. So what can you do? You can eat organic whenever possible. And there are data we are reviewed to study now, gosh, probably four to five years ago, I believe, published in the Journal of Pediatrics showing differences, measurable differences in pesticides levels in the blood of people who ate organic versus non-organic. Those eating non-organic or conventional food had measurably higher levels of certain pesticides in their blood. So there is certainly something here, even for those who are not working as farmers per se. But also don't worry, and this is more so my opinion, but I think this is a reasonable opinion to reach. Don't worry if you miss some meals, meaning if some meals are non-organic, don't let that lead you to be fearful or worried that you're going to be having this influx of pesticides in your system that are going to greatly increase your risk. And my opinion, this is very likely dose-dependent, meaning the longer and the more frequently you've been eating non-organic the higher your risk, and the more you've been eating organic the lower your risk. But these are not absolutes, meaning that someone who's been eating non-organic for 15 years has a much different risk than someone who has been eating organic for 15 years and occasionally has a non-organic meal. Again that's my opinion, but I think that's a pretty reasonable read of the data, so as it prevents you from going to an overzealous position on organic versus conventional food. So again, there are some compelling data here showing that at least in agricultural workers there is an increased risk of hypothyroidism due to the pesticide exposure. This ostensibly applies to those who are eating non-conventional food, although I don't know that that's been bore up by the literature yet. I think it's safe to conclude that a good health practice would be to opt for organic whenever possible, but also not be dogmatic about it and be okay with occasional non-organic meals because it can be very difficult to only eat organic 100% of the time. So one piece of the thyroid picture is food quality, and there certainly seems to be at least an inference we can draw here suggesting that normal people who are not farmers should be opting for organic food whenever possible. This is Dr. Ruscio, and I hope this information helps you get healthy and get back to your life. Thanks.