On behalf of myself and co-founder Becca Yeamans-Irwin, I have to offer an apology for the delay in both the experimental protocol beginning, and the delays in content posting.
One of the biggest delays has been the experimental protocol in which both Becca and I became our own lab animals, measuring BPA levels and comparing that with specific lifestyle changes.
The experimental protocol had been completed in the summer of 2014, but the university that had committed to do the testing backed out without any real explanation. It was quite a mystery that left us at loggerheads, but has provided a new opportunity for a new protocol we are finishing.
That delay was on top of some wonderful life changes for Becca and her new husband Jacob. The two were married last September and they have moved to Boulder, Colorado where Jacob is putting his new PhD to work with an energetic pharmaceutical company there.
Along with the wedding planning, and the experimental protocol collapse came Becca’s decision that she no longer wanted to be running clinical drug trials at the University of Virginia.
As mentioned in her bio on the site (right-hand column down toward bottom) Becca is a biomedical scientist with extensive research and laboratory experience in clinical research trials in immunology and neurology not only at UVA but also at Harvard and other top institutions. Educated in environmental sciences, she is the author of several papers in peer-reviewed journals.
All of that slowed us down in both the experimental and in our main goal which is to write science — fully based on published, peer-reviewed studies — but which ordinary people can understand and use to reduce their risk to endocrine disruptors and similar dangers.
I had managed to clear my desk and planned to begin additional writing in November. That was forwarded by a spectacular rotator cuff injury involving two completely severed tendons to other badly damaged ones and serious damage to a major muscle.
That has left me unable to use a keyboard. I am compensating as I get better at managing the quirks of voice dictation.
While the delays have certainly set our timeline back by a year or more, it has also offered us time to think about new opportunities which have arisen.
Specifically we are changing the experimental protocol. Instead of simply measuring BPA levels correlated with environmental health changes, we will use a far more useful and valuable method.
Specifically we are going to use measurements such as double-stranded DNA breaks, methylation profiles, and changes in specific blood profile measurements commonly used to diagnose illnesses and hospitals.
Instead of simply taking a scholastic look at a single chemical with a set of well-done protocols, this will look at indicators of specific health related outcomes. These are not just more valuable, but easier for the general public to comprehend.
The delay however has cost the experiment half of its lab rats. Because Becca and her husband may be anticipating a family, and because of the known hazards of endocrine disruptor’s on developmental issues beginning with the most fundamental levels of fertility, Becca has wisely opted out.
However because this has always been intended as a sort of “UN-Supersize me” proof of concept demonstration of what might be done, the results are unlikely to be compromised.
We envision getting the entire operation moving again with some degree of momentum by the spring.
We will be increasing the number of posts here, and the number of scientific studies reviewed and translated for the consumption of intelligent non-scientist.
We thank all of our supporters and our readers and your visitors for their patience and look forward to a very busy 2015.
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