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Falling sperm counts, declining egg quality, and endocrine disruptors

nytimes.com

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Re: Falling sperm counts, declining egg quality, and endocrine disruptors

#121

Post by tracker1 »

petertodd wrote: post #75
WA wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Soy isn't that easy: https://www.health.harvard.edu/newsletter_article/Medical-me... There was one study with 99 participants. A counter argument is Asia, where men eat a lot more soy and don't have reduced sperm count.

They've also eaten soy for much longer than others, literally thousands of years(1) at this point. That's more than long enough to evolve countermeasures if it did have an effect. They also eat soy differently, mainly in products which are fermented. 1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soybean#History

I think a lot of it comes down to how it's processed... fermentation probably made it safer to consume over time.

I think the aversion to dietary fat for the past 3 generations combined with refined seed/bean oils has been hugely detrimental to human health as well. Not to mention, even with reductions, we still consume a massive amount of sugar per capita compared to pre-wwii levels.

Re: Falling sperm counts, declining egg quality, and endocrine disruptors

#123

Post by DoreenMichele »

petertodd wrote: post #75
WA wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Soy isn't that easy: https://www.health.harvard.edu/newsletter_article/Medical-me... There was one study with 99 participants. A counter argument is Asia, where men eat a lot more soy and don't have reduced sperm count.

They've also eaten soy for much longer than others, literally thousands of years(1) at this point. That's more than long enough to evolve countermeasures if it did have an effect. They also eat soy differently, mainly in products which are fermented. 1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soybean#History

Almost 95 percent of the soybeans grown in the U.S. are genetically modified.

https://www.thedailymeal.com/travel/8-most-genetically-modif...

In 2007, over half the world’s soybean crop was genetically modified; a higher percentage than any other crop.

https://worldofgenetics.weebly.com/genetically-modified-soyb...

Asians are probably eating less GMO soy (than Americans) and we don't really know what those genetic modifications do in terms of human health. They are typically made to improve profit in some fashion, not to improve human health.

Re: Falling sperm counts, declining egg quality, and endocrine disruptors

#124

Post by Lammy »

inter_netuser wrote: post #38
hilbert42 wrote: post #22

It would be helpful if we knew eactly what these endocrine-disrupting chemicals were. As is usually the case with such reports, this article is short on specifics. Over the years there have many reports from cleaners to plasticizers, phthalates, and various other chemicals as endocrine disruptors but no one has put a sufficient measure on the problem so that we can move foreword - put regulations in place, etc. As th…

We all know what these are. It's precursors to common plastics, and byproducts of their decay. Majority of these have been grandfathered as GRAS "generally recognized as safe" by the FDA when environmental laws first went live in the 60s. The onus is therefore much higher, it is on you to prove they are harmful, instead of requiring producers to prove they are safe. Nobody wants to stick their neck out because the pe…

> when environmental laws first went live in the 60s.

I love our Earth and want to protect it as much as possible, and it's incredibly frustrating that restricting housing construction, globalizing pollution emission so it's out-of-sight-and-mind, and economically wrecking large swaths of middle America are the only things our environmental laws seem to be consistently good at :/

Re: Falling sperm counts, declining egg quality, and endocrine disruptors

#125

Post by dalbasal »

tracker1 wrote: post #121
petertodd wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They've also eaten soy for much longer than others, literally thousands of years(1) at this point. That's more than long enough to evolve countermeasures if it did have an effect. They also eat soy differently, mainly in products which are fermented. 1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soybean#History

I think a lot of it comes down to how it's processed... fermentation probably made it safer to consume over time. I think the aversion to dietary fat for the past 3 generations combined with refined seed/bean oils has been hugely detrimental to human health as well. Not to mention, even with reductions, we still consume a massive amount of sugar per capita compared to pre-wwii levels.

>> aversion to dietary fat for the past 3 generations combined with refined seed/bean oils

Aye... This is probably the first medically/scientifically prescribed diet for society at large and it has been a disaster.

Re: Falling sperm counts, declining egg quality, and endocrine disruptors

#126

Post by forgotmypw17 »

Lammy wrote: post #112
jonplackett wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes absolutely! Still doing the dietary things for her. She gets to have hot baths though, and wear tight fitting underpants. FYI anyone else reading, if you have a boy Teflon is really something you should avoid.

Good parenting is forcing your boy children to take cold baths because you need their sperm to carry on your legacy.

Cold baths is a bit far, but pouring a bucket of cold water over them has many health benefits, including immune function.

Re: Falling sperm counts, declining egg quality, and endocrine disruptors

#127

Post by refurb »

vmception wrote: post #15
refurb wrote: post #7

As a scientist I hate articles like this. Apparently putting the word “may” in the title allows one to pontificate wildly about what might be the cause of falling sperm rates and other reproductive trends. Little to no comments about other possible causes, no data that shows a relationship between “endocrine disruptors” and sperm counts, no comments about levels of these chemicals in the population or what levels the…

My publicist used to do this all the time. We'd even go as far as ghostwriting the articles ourselves. This is an advertisement for the epidemiologist's book, which may contain the depth of information you are looking for.

I noticed the book mention as well. I immediately figured it was a PR play.

Re: Falling sperm counts, declining egg quality, and endocrine disruptors

#128

Post by Lammy »

mikkelam wrote: post #81

Is this really so bad? Assuming humans are hit the hardest, the planet will be better off. Obviously we wouldn't want it to kill our civilization, but for the mean time, it doesn't sound so bad with less homo sapiens

What global human population could we stabilize at in a climate change and/or ecological collapse worst-case? Personally my guess is around 500 million or so.

Re: Falling sperm counts, declining egg quality, and endocrine disruptors

#129

Post by Nilef »

jonplackett wrote: post #79
admiral33 wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How did you cut out tap water, heat, microplastics, teflon, and the western diet?

Not completely obviously! Micro plastics was hard since you kinda have to choose between bottled water or tap water! We got a water filter for this one. Heat meant loose underpants and no warm baths ever. Teflon- easy. Replace with a carbon steel pan. Improve your chef skills AND sperm! Western diet is basically high sugar and refined carbs. Just didn’t eat anything with refined sugar on the label in any amount whats…

Would love to hear more about the mind of brands/foods you ate with no sugar. I’ve attempted this before and it’s extremely hard to find products with 0 sugar! Guessing you avoided the local Tesco?

Re: Falling sperm counts, declining egg quality, and endocrine disruptors

#130

Post by 74d-fe6-2c6 »

jonplackett wrote: post #47

As someone who has had to do IVF for our child and go through the challenge of figuring our what to do to try and improve sperm quality, I can tell you once you start looking into it, basically everything about modern life is bad for sperm. Heat, radiation, plastic, micro plastics, soya, tap water, Teflon, antibacterial soap, underpants, western diet. It’s a perfect storm. If you’re going though it though I offer a r…

If those things are bad for sperm count I'd expect them to be bad for the rest of the body as well. Sperm count is probably just a convenient metric which reveals the detrimental impact.
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