Associations between Environmental Toxins, Obesity, Weight Loss, and Chronic Disease Using Canonical Correlation Analysis, Factor Analysis, and Pca Logistic Regression

Modern advances in industrial and agricultural chemistry have resulted in increasing numbers of novel chemical compounds in the environment, compounds whose full effects on human health are still yet to be determined. Environmental toxins have been implicated in the development of obesity, as well as other chronic diseases such as diabetes and cancer. However, the exact relationships between these toxins and chronic illness are still largely unknown. In addition, with weight loss, persistent pollutants stored in adipose tissue may be released into body fluids and lead to health problems. In this study, National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) data collected by the CDC from 2001-2004 and 2007-2010 were used along with canonical correlation analysis, factor analysis, and principal component logistic regression. Relationships between toxins and obesity, diabetes, and cancer were examined, as well as associations between weight loss and persistent organic pollutant serum concentrations. An unexpected inverse relationship between both obesity and diabetes and the four parabens involved in the study was found and would be of particular interest to future research.