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Research links Bisphenol-A with heart disease

By Anthony Clark
Posted 16 August 2012

A research team from the Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry (PCMD), University of Exeter, and University of Cambridge has published a report linking Bisphenol-A (BPA) with heart disease.

The study, published in online journal Plos One, looked at 591 patients and compared their urinary levels of BPA with the occurrence of severe coronary artery stenosis. According to the researchers, there was a correlation.

“In our relatively small sample of patients investigated for ischemic heart disease referred for coronary angiography, BPA exposure (evident in urinary BPA concentrations) was higher in those with severe coronary artery stenoses compared to those with no vessel disease,” conclude the report’s authors. “

“Larger studies are needed to estimate true dose response relationships. The mechanisms underlying the association remain to be established.”

Team leader Professor David Melzer, professor of epidemiology and public health at PCMD, University of Exeter, said: “Our latest study strengthens a growing body of work that suggests that BPA may be adding to known risk factors for heart disease.

“Full proof will be very difficult to get, as experiments on this in humans are not feasible.”

Read more here.


Comment on this article.

Comments:

Copied verbatim from the Conclusions section: "Larger studies are needed to estimate true dose response relationships. The mechanisms underlying the association remain to be established." Enough said? Ben Goldacre (author of "Bad Science") might be worth canvassing for his opinion.

- 20 August 2012 - John McLoughlin

The fatal flaw in this study and others like it is that BPA was measured in the patients at the same time as the diagnosis of heart disease. That "cross-sectional" study design is sure to provide no information on whether BPA is a risk factor for heart disease or any other long latency chronic disease since BPA has a very short half-life in the body. Measuring BPA today tells nothing about exposure levels years ago during the critical time of onset and development of the disease. These researchers report a very weak statistical association, but one that has no apparent biological meaning.

- 17 August 2012 - Sven

We need to be very careful in analysing the research based on statistics as this one. How are we getting BPA from food: mainly from metal cans of beer or soda drinks. We all know that high consumption of alcohol and sugar leads to coronary heart disease. Therefore, it is normal that BPA levels are higher at those people who consume more beer and soda drinks than others. So, BPA may not necessarily be the reason for heart disease, and may just be the result of the same factor.

- 17 August 2012 - Emir Koyluoglu

This to me seems just another scare story, which has more to do with for a University department seek funding. There have been numerous larger studies done on BPA, some concluding there is a link to one illness or another and other studies that have found evidence to the contrary. This small study is not sufficient to conclude that BPA exposure has caused heart disease as there may be other commonalities that they have omitted from the study. Even if there is a link though it can’t be concluded that the BPA has come from food packaging as it might be that the link to heart disease is to do with where those in the study worked, and that some other aspect of the work they did caused the heart disease. Without a broader study of all the factors that effected those in this limited study that have indicated both a higher BPA level and incidents of heart disease has been carried out I see no point in increasing the size of the study.

- 16 August 2012 - Chris Wheeler

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