Dr. J: Enough gabbing in this month’s blogs about our philosophies. We promised to keep our readers up to date with the huge amount of new medical research findings that appears daily, sometimes hourly. So, I’ll ask you the first question. I read in a recent issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) that, in a large national study of over 1500 adults, Bisphenol A (BPA), a material commonly used in hard plastic beverage and food containers and in metal can linings, was associated with increased rates of diabetes, heart disease, and elevated liver tests. Soon after the results were released, the FDA defended the safety of BPA to an expert panel. Who are we supposed to believe? Do we now have to stop eating or drinking anything that comes in plastic containers or metal cans? Was this even a good study?

Dr. R: This study, looking at the association of BPA in the urine and the incidence of heart disease, diabetes and other illnesses, suggests an association. In other words, there may be a connection between exposure to BPA (usually from plastic bottles) and some diseases, but this study doesn’t prove it. The study looked at a set group of people who were part of a large health and nutrition survey done nationally, which studied many other behaviors and outcomes as well. Is it possible that people with diabetes and heart disease drink more water out of bottles and metal cans? And that that is the reason there is more BPA in their urine? Or, is BPA the cause of their illnesses? The only way to know is to follow two healthy groups of people who are similar, have one group drink out of bottles and cans that have BPA and have the other group avoid it and see which group gets more disease. That probably isn’t going to happen. Therefore, we may never know the answer. So, my advice is to find BPA–free water bottles and cans and not take any chances in the future.

Now here’s one for you. I saw a recent report, in the same issue of JAMA, that nearly ¼ of all women in the US have at least one “pelvic floor disorder”, especially as they get older. Good grief – another floor to take care of? I know you like to mop, but what aboutthose of us who don’t? Seriously, what does this mean and do we need to be concerned?

Dr. J: Not to worry at all. Pelvic floor disorder is a medical term which includes the symptoms of urinary incontinence, fecal incontinence, and prolapse of the pelvic organs, which we know(some of us personally!) is common in women as they get older, and which we discuss in detail in Chapter 7 in our book. What happens literally is that the muscles that are located on the “floor,” or at the bottom, of the pelvis, weaken and no longer support the bladder, the rectum, and/or the female reproductive organs. Here’s the thing about this study, though. We already knew these were common disorders associated with aging, this study simply quantitated the numbers of women in the US with these complaints. Very interesting to me about this study is that although the researchers confirmed the factors that we’ve always known put us at risk, including multiple childbirths, being overweight, and getting older, they found that getting older by itself – without having those other risk factors – can lead to at least one of the disorders in many women. In other words, even if you haven’t had several children or are not overweight, you are still at risk for getting urinary or fecal incontinence just by the passage of years. The good news is, as we discuss in Chapter 7, there are many things you can do to correct these problems, without having to resort to surgery. I think we’d better call it quits for now. All this talk about drinking fluids and the pelvic floor is making me…

-More discussion of recent medical research to follow!