Falling sperm counts, declining egg quality, and endocrine disruptors • Hacker News Board

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

#361

Post by planetree » Tue, Feb 23, 2021, 3:50 PM UTC

tzone wrote: post #266

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…

Weight loss and proper exercise will probably deliver 99% of the improvements for 99% of the people. Stressing about heat, radiation, micro plastics, or other random stuff seems like extra stress for not that much benefit. Most people in Western world are either out of shape, or straight up obese. It makes sense that, that will have huge negative effects on fertility.

Perhaps that has something to do with endocrine disruptors too.

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

#362

Post by macNchz » Tue, Feb 23, 2021, 3:52 PM UTC

User23 wrote: post #254

lupire wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oils are dietary fats though?

Refined seed oils are synthetic chemicals that just happen to use seeds as a feedstock in a relatively novel chemical reaction. Yes one can quibble that cooking is a chemical reaction, but it’s one that is both simple and that we’re long since evolved to tolerate. I stick to mechanically produced vegetable oils and animal fats. It’s not only healthier but it tastes better too. However, a healthy diet depends a great…

> However there are no humans that are evolved to eat seed oils.

I am cautious about these sorts of issues and typically buy the least processed oils (and foods in general) that I can find, however it is my understanding that humans around the world have been producing and eating (mechanically expressed) sesame seed oil for thousands of years. I can't say whether that has any impact on whether people are "evolved to eat it", but it's certainly not something new: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2FBF02859136

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

#363

Post by rhinoceraptor » Tue, Feb 23, 2021, 3:56 PM UTC

admiral33 wrote: post #61

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…

4x is a large jump, is that referring to sperm count? It might be anecdata but given that you were seeing a fertility specialist it could be more valuable to hear your lifestyle changes rather than much of the noise that is out there.

4x is totally believable, I did two 25 day rounds of clomid so I could cryobank and I saw over a 10x jump in less than a month.

The reason why is pretty obvious, I'm overweight so I'm aromatising more. Taking clomid blocks the estrogen negative feedback loop in the hypothalamus, so you make more GnRH, so therefore more LH/FSH.

The whole endocrine disruption thing seems pretty sketchy to me. If you're infertile and/or have low testosterone, chances are your diet and lifestyle are horrible.

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

#364

Post by wing-_-nuts » Tue, Feb 23, 2021, 3:57 PM UTC

forgotmypw17 wrote: post #80

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…

If you wait for someone else to think for you and protect you from all the dangers in life, you'll be waiting a long time. The "regulators" are the same people and entities who make huge profits off this stuff. Do your research and act on it yourself.

>Do your research and act on it yourself.

Or, we could acknowledge that most of the general public doesn't have the education necessary, and have the government regulate on our behalf. You know... like they're elected to do.

Average Joe truck driver or Jane LPN shouldn't have to have an indepth knowledge of endocrinology just to be safe from the greed and callousness of polluting corporations.

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

#365

Post by jononor » Tue, Feb 23, 2021, 3:57 PM UTC

buildbot wrote: post #352

DoreenMichele wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not romanticizing anything. GMO is relatively new. We know a thimbleful of information about nutrition and health generally. We know even less than that about what more recent inventions do to the human body because there is simply less of a track record and time span in which to determine meaningful data and conclusions. Saying "We don't know what this new thing does to our health" in no way romanticizes anythin…

GMO isn’t that new is it? At this point the field is over half a century old? Right thaolidomide was really bad and we stopped using right away. GMOs enable us to support 7 billion people, without improved yields the world would probably starve. It’s good to question, but Questioning is different than fear mongering, there are very few wormholes

Did you mean half a century? The effects of nutrition on a population cannot be very well established in less than a decade...

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

#366

Post by zug_zug » Tue, Feb 23, 2021, 3:57 PM UTC

fogihujy wrote: post #178

esja wrote: post #101

Can these endocrine disruptors also contribute to gender dysphoria?

It sounds plausible that anything with the ability to disturb hormone production could also indirectly affect things like sexuality and one's gender identity. A quick googling suggests it has been suggested before, and that it's a highly controversial topic as it indicates that something is inherently wrong with being transgender. At best, it's something that needs much more research before any conclusions can be dra…

As somebody with a friend who has gender stuff going on, I can tell you the friend just wants an honest answer out of science and couldn't care less about indirect implications.

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

#367

Post by dukeofdoom » Tue, Feb 23, 2021, 3:58 PM UTC

I followed this girl on youtube that built a tiny house in the mountains. She carries her own water, makes bread from wheat she mills, makes her own hummus and cabbage and eats copious amounts of each and vegetables. Hardly has phone/internet service because she lives in a mountain valley. Plays music with friends, reads and does yoga for entertainment. Surprise, surprise. You are your habits! She looks very fit and healthy. I'm not advocating for traditionalism, but more like, optimizing your habits.

The simple basic, inexpensive things she does, and eats are pretty optimized for health and personal growth.

Isabel's Channel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4cght8xNnI

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

#368

Post by somehnguy » Tue, Feb 23, 2021, 4:02 PM UTC

giantg2 wrote: post #225

voqv wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if it's Teflon in general or damaged Teflon pans - many people do not used them correctly, overheat them and have damaged coatings that leak chemicals. You can go check perfectly fine pans having 1-star Amazon reviews "Pan sticking after a month!".

Here's something interesting to think about. Did you ever hear of a canary in a coal mine? The miners would take birds in with them to alert them to dangers gasses. If there were dangerous gasses he bird would typically die before the miners did. This is because the bird has very high performance lungs so that they can supply enough oxygen to beat their wings quickly. You basically can't own a bird in an appartment a…

I've read this all over the internet but my parents had a bird live very well past the expected bird lifespan and modified nothing about their normal habits (using teflon pans, cleaning the oven, etc) the entire time. The bird's cage was like 15 feet from the oven. Just a single anecdotal data point but I think the risk is extremely overblown.

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

#369

Post by hobo_mark » Tue, Feb 23, 2021, 4:07 PM UTC

dukeofdoom wrote: post #367

I followed this girl on youtube that built a tiny house in the mountains. She carries her own water, makes bread from wheat she mills, makes her own hummus and cabbage and eats copious amounts of each and vegetables. Hardly has phone/internet service because she lives in a mountain valley. Plays music with friends, reads and does yoga for entertainment. Surprise, surprise. You are your habits! She looks very fit and…

If she didn't look very fit and healthy, you would not be following her on youtube, and would not know she existed, even with the same lifestyle.

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

#370

Post by hef19898 » Tue, Feb 23, 2021, 4:07 PM UTC

DC1350 wrote: post #321

dqv wrote: post #276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm currently in the process of reducing animal product intake. I'm going about it methodically to make it into an actual habit rather than a fad where I give up a month or two later. What really got me to accept that maybe animal products might be detrimental is Dr. Gregor talking about the exogenous endotoxin theory. Dead bacteria in your food, no matter how or how long you cook it, will produce an inflammatory res…

Lots of doctors also recommended an all meat diet. Try both and see how you feel.

Personally, I stick with what could be called evlution. Humans are omnivores, so I aim for a mixed and balanced diet, vegitables, meat, fish, animal products like eggs and diary, pasta... Preferred cooked at home and baught locally (e.g. local farms, even if it is through a super market).