Updated January 30, 2015.
The whirlwind of launching our new book, Feeling Fat, Fuzzy or Frazzled? is beginning to wind down, and we're checking in with Mary Shomon's About.com site readers about our book tour and some of the latest thyroid findings.
In these recent weeks, we have had the opportunity to speak with folks all across the country, at book signings, luncheon presentations, and radio call-in shows. What we're hearing is that hormone disruption is indeed a widespread and keenly-felt epidemic, affecting our lives in various ways, diminishing both energy and enjoyment of life.

This epidemic of gland imbalance is not just making millions feel fat, fuzzy or frazzled. We've heard from people whose exposures might indeed be adding to their problems of ADD, autism, infertility, and impotence. In fact, a great many of you who are dealing with high cholesterol and perhaps using the prescription medicines to combat it actually have a hormonal cause of the elevated lipids acting on you under the surface, perhaps still undiagnosed.

Here's a quick review of some of the relevant literature:

• Low thyroid has been found to be a separate independent risk factor for heart disease and stroke, according to the Rotterdam multicenter study of 2001.
• The Journal of Epidemiology, also in 2001, carried a detailed article revealing that 26% of menopausal women have some degree of hypothyroidism affecting their so- called "menopause" symptoms.
• The above surprising incidence confirms a prior study by the Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in NY which estimated that over 20 million people are currently being treated for thyroid gland disorder.

• In addition to the incidence reported above, an intriguing University of Colorado Health Sciences Center survey of over 25,000 participants revealed that more than 13 million more people have a mild but diagnosable thyroid abnormality that neither they - nor their doctors - know about yet. A simple TSH test (even using the older, less accurate range-of-normal would detect the problem if it were just suspected more often by the patient or practitioner). If proper evaluation was performed, these figures could easily be doubled or more.
• More recently, a May issue of the Journal of Endocrinology and Metabolism reported that TSH levels that are borderline low - yet still normal - are associated with an increased occurrence of obesity. As small abnormalities in thyroid function are quite common, this gland disruption may be an important influence in the increasing prevalence of obesity and resulting problems with diabetes and hypertension.
• In July 2005, the GAO reported that the Environmental Protectional Agency has not been adequately protecting the American public from the harmful effects of an estimated 80,000 synthetic chemicals used in industry. This report found that the chemical companies have provided health data to the EPA for only about 15% of the newly-released chemicals over the past 30 years! In fact, EPA has sought information on only 200 of the tens of thousands of chemicals that have been in use since before the late 1970's.
• A study released in July 2005 by the scientists of the Environmental Working Group found that fetuses in the womb are not protected by the placenta from the many dangerous chemicals pregnant women are routinely exposed to. Lab testing of the umbilical cord blood of newborns found an average of 200 chemicals that can cause cancer, brain damage, birth defects, and other health ailments.
• Representatives of the chemical companies argued that such chemicals are often found in people's blood or urine in amounts not generally found to be "toxic"; however, the levels at which chemicals are toxic for levels for fetuses or newborns are not established. It is known that fetuses and newborns are much more sensitive at lower levels of chemical than are adults. Moreover, the level at which a person or fetus might have hormonal disruption is quite a bit lower than the level at which that same chemical would be considered toxic or poisonous.

Fortunately, there is a lot that we can all do about this.
Here are some very beginning suggestions that can be implemented immediately, and would help each of us lower our ongoing toxic load.