What Is the Cost of Endocrine Disorders?
Endocrine disorders are one of the greatest unappreciated causes of aging and disease in humans and animals. Disruption of key hormones regulating sexual function, energy metabolism, brain function and immune response has widespread systemic effects. Impairments to these essential systems have been implicated in some of the most common physiological disorders including heart disease, diabetes, cancer, auto-immune disease, obesity and impaired intelligence. Perhaps even mental disorders and crime can be attributed to them. The defense of San Francisco mayor George Moscones murderer centered on his blood sugar-insulin imbalance. Are the rising rates of these problems related to man made or natural chemicals in our food or environment, and if so, is it possible to assign a cost to these problems? A number of endocrine related disorders have been rising over the past several decades. By some estimates, the incidence of diabetes has gone up 49% since 1990 and is now estimated to cost Americ
