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Sperm Count in Western Men Has Dropped Over 50 Percent Since 1973, Paper Finds

nytimes.com

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Re: Sperm Count in Western Men Has Dropped Over 50 Percent Since 1973, Paper Finds

#71

Post by mrep »

bonzini wrote: post #69
rtpg wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

RE your second argument: population increases have always been happening, so why would it only be from the 70s that it would finally depress wage growth?

Exponential growth won't last forever. Pretty much everything that looks exponential is actually logistic. [1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logistic_function

Eh, I don't know about that (at least on time frames of a typical human lifespan).

For long term things, maybe. Do you have any good reads on that relationship?

Re: Sperm Count in Western Men Has Dropped Over 50 Percent Since 1973, Paper Finds

#72

Post by will_brown »

Houshalter wrote: post #68
will_brown wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well I imagine, if true, chimps aren't mysteriously gaining weight it would be related to their diet. Very likely they eat a fruit heavy diet, that's sugar. Unlikely are these wild fruits, but sugar laden industrial farmed fruits. Now if you don't think there is a difference in fruit today versus the fruits of yesteryear just look at the fruit itself. The bananas you eat today are not the same type from 100 years ago…

Fruits haven't significantly increased in size or sugar content since the 70s though. And it doesn't explain the increase in weight for other animals that don't eat fruit, e.g. dogs. EDIT: And this article is terrible. E.g. the painting of the watermelon is just a regular watermelon just like those grown today: http://static.boredpanda.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/07... That's just what it looks like when it grow…

And here is and article about the 90 million obese, not overweight, but obese dogs and cats in the US. Admittedly I don't know much about the pet problem, but Seems to be the PHD from UCDavis suggests the major contributing factor is the increased and added sugar in their food from the major manufacturers and increase in pet treats which too are sugar laden. I mean if all I'm doing is suggesting sugar is a contributing factor as to human obesity and you bring up dogs and cats gaining weight why wouldn't you mention they have sugar added in their pet food and the sugar has been increasing?

http://healthypets.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/archive/201...

Re: Sperm Count in Western Men Has Dropped Over 50 Percent Since 1973, Paper Finds

#73

Post by bonzini »

bane wrote: post #37
yters wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1965 is when birth control pills became legal.

It's also about the time that High Fructose Corn Syrup started to be shipped in bulk. HFCS-55 in particular became the dominant sweetener in soda sometime during the late 1970s. The late 70s was also the introduction of video games and home computers. A general explosion of electronic devices has permeated almost everywhere. Unleaded gas was introduced in 1974. What replaced lead as the antiknock agent? The space rac…

Re. lead tetraethyl, unleaded gas has more benzene than leaded one as a side effect of the productive process, but the answer is more complicated. Benzene is only released in the environment when the engine is cold.

The "replacement" for lead tetraethyl is a combination of better valves, higher octane rating when gasoline is produced, and electronic control of spark plugs. There's some feedback between these too, for example improved burning of fuel and the introduction of catalytic converter lets you increase the octane rating without suffering increased pollution from benzene.

Re: Sperm Count in Western Men Has Dropped Over 50 Percent Since 1973, Paper Finds

#74

Post by narrator »

Houshalter wrote: post #54
will_brown wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As to (3) obesity, one of the most obvious contributing factors is the increased refined sugar consumption. People are poisoning their mind and bodies. And I know it's controversial and since everyone consumes sugar, everyone gets sensitive and defensive. However, in the 60's/70's nonalcoholic fatty liver disease did not exist in children nor did childhood type 2 diabeties, as to the former the first case in children…

This is the common theory but it doesn't really hold up. The weight of lab animals is also increasing. Even though we have records showing they haven't changed their diets or routines significantly. Chimpanzees in particular, the animal most closely related to humans, have increased in weight drastically each decade. EDIT: Source https://aeon.co/essays/blaming-individuals-for-obesity-may-b... >As were laboratory maca…

What's funny is the guy who discovered BPA was an estrogen mimicking chemical[1] kept having his estrogen sensitive cells triggered whenever he would put them in plastic test tubes. He called up Corning to ask them what the test tubes were made of and they told him they don't give that info out. So all this lab equipment and stuff that they use to feed animals and all up and down the food supply chain is probably full of this stuff and we all just think the obesity epidemic happened by magic.

[1] https://www.fastcompany.com/1139298/real-story-behind-bisphe...

Re: Sperm Count in Western Men Has Dropped Over 50 Percent Since 1973, Paper Finds

#75

Post by jl6 »

will_brown wrote: post #65
Houshalter wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the common theory but it doesn't really hold up. The weight of lab animals is also increasing. Even though we have records showing they haven't changed their diets or routines significantly. Chimpanzees in particular, the animal most closely related to humans, have increased in weight drastically each decade. EDIT: Source https://aeon.co/essays/blaming-individuals-for-obesity-may-b... >As were laboratory maca…

Well I imagine, if true, chimps aren't mysteriously gaining weight it would be related to their diet. Very likely they eat a fruit heavy diet, that's sugar. Unlikely are these wild fruits, but sugar laden industrial farmed fruits. Now if you don't think there is a difference in fruit today versus the fruits of yesteryear just look at the fruit itself. The bananas you eat today are not the same type from 100 years ago…

My local zoo doesn't feed its gorillas with local fruit because they say the local fruit is much higher in sugar than the fruit they import for this purpose.

Re: Sperm Count in Western Men Has Dropped Over 50 Percent Since 1973, Paper Finds

#76

Post by EGreg »

AndrewKemendo wrote: post #11

Previously: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14855796 As I said in that thread, this is another statistic that had a rapid and precipitous change starting in the early 1970s. I've stated this elsewhere, but it's like something(s) happened the late 60s/early 70s that totally transformed our world and I have no clue what they were nor can I find anyone who has written about it. Wealth inequality [1], Real Wage stag…

COMPUTERS AND SITTING!

A much more sedentary lifestyle for people at work.

http://www.onemedical.com/blog/live-well/male-fertility/

Re: Sperm Count in Western Men Has Dropped Over 50 Percent Since 1973, Paper Finds

#77

Post by brian-armstrong »

RealityNow wrote: post #58
brian-armstrong wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this sort of pseudoscientific anecdata what passes for discourse on HN now? Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence - where's yours?

Just because he's not referencing a survey or study doesn't make it useless data. Anecdotal data is not useless. There's been a noticeable increase in effeminate men in NYC over the last 6 years. Maybe it's due to the increased acceptance of LGBT, maybe it's something else...

Are you sure you aren't falling victim to a frequency illusion? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases#Frequ...

Re: Sperm Count in Western Men Has Dropped Over 50 Percent Since 1973, Paper Finds

#78

Post by whizzkid »

My theory goes like this;

> In the recently released research, no significant decline in sperm quality was seen in men from non-Western countries, but this segment made up only about a quarter of the results.

There is something in developed countries that the male do not experience during his lifetime. It can be lack of fear, adrenalin, less activity, or something else. I think statistics hold up with the historic wars as well. As WW2 ends and people starts living without any fear of life, male sperm quality drops.

I think it is about what male experiences and which hormons are triggered in his lifetime.

Re: Sperm Count in Western Men Has Dropped Over 50 Percent Since 1973, Paper Finds

#79

Post by canadaduane »

JacobJans wrote: post #48
AndrewKemendo wrote: post #11

Previously: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14855796 As I said in that thread, this is another statistic that had a rapid and precipitous change starting in the early 1970s. I've stated this elsewhere, but it's like something(s) happened the late 60s/early 70s that totally transformed our world and I have no clue what they were nor can I find anyone who has written about it. Wealth inequality [1], Real Wage stag…

If you are to look specifically at the health angle (and it surprisingly even affects our mental health), we have suffered a double whammy of the change in diet plus the widespread use of antibiotics. It is becoming increasingly clear that our gut microbiome has a wide-ranging affect on many aspects of our health; and that the standard western diet is not good for a healthy gut microbiome and that taking antibiotics…

This is a really interesting hypothesis. It corresponds with several recent discoveries:

- obesity: fecal microbiota transplants, when used to save patients from antibiotic-resistant clostridium difficile, resulted in unintended weight gain (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4438885/)

- allergies: using probiotics (or perhaps better, synbiotics) in conjunction with immunotherapy improves outcomes (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5209480/, http://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lanchi/PIIS2352-4642(...)

- emotions: brain-gut interactions affect emotional responses (http://journals.lww.com/psychosomaticmedicine/Abstract/publi...)

We aren't at the point where we can say "yes, this caused all of the changes in the 70s" but it seems to be a fruitful area of study.

Re: Sperm Count in Western Men Has Dropped Over 50 Percent Since 1973, Paper Finds

#80

Post by 110011 »

RichardHeart wrote: post #2

Could this be from progress in pornography?

It's sad that perhaps the most plausible (of the discussed reasons so far in this thread) is being downvoted. I guess people believe what they want to believe.

Anecdotally, I have felt (and sounded) a whole better ever since I stopped consuming porn. There is also a very real drive and stubbornness that I feel in myself, markedly higher than before.

I would chalk (without evidence but as a hypothesis) decreased levels of T to: - not working out (and having a desk job), - increased consumption of porn, - harmful substances in mass produced food that we don't understand fully.

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