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Falling sperm counts, declining egg quality, and endocrine disruptors

nytimes.com

451–460 of 640 posts

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

#451

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because its the same thing as a person setting your house on fire then advising you not to breathe in the smoke. Advice like telling people we are drowning in plastic because we don't recycle, telling people with no access to public transportation to minimize the use of cars, telling people with no access to healthcare to take care of their bodies, telling people that grew up in a glorified prison they call public sc…

Who is "they"?

The upper-middle professional-managerial class who gets to make and implement these decisions, and write these articles.

edit: More simply, what upper-middle class people usually refer to as "everybody."

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

#452
post #439

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't affect me at all either, but I'd still be cautious before making any claims hinting that being trans is a medical condition -- if it does indeed turn out to be related, then it could turn a lot of people's lives upside down.

> being trans is a medical condition Curious, what else is it if not that? Eczema is also a medical condition too but we don't shame people for having it. Medical conditions shouldn't carry the implication that you're a broken person as a result of it.

Terminology is super important. Obviously everything about a person is a biological fact, but "medical condition" implies a certain severity and negativity.

It's sort of like asking if being shorter than 6' a medical condition. Or if being unattractive is a medical condition. Obviously not in the common parlance, and anybody who wanted to classify it as such would be seen as a real agitator.

I suppose for people who experience full gender dysphoria and want to transition that's probably necessary for sake of insurance coverage. But I think most people who don't feel either gender norm feels right for them (e.g. "genderqueer") prefer not to have a medical label on it.

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

#453
post #388

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you had to say what was the best intervention?

Unfortunately, I have no idea. I just did EVERYTHING. I was more concerned with making a baby than figuring out exactly what worked and what didn’t. There are just so many potential things it would require a lot of testing to know.

ah the old miracle of life.

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

#454
post #440

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess it's all relative and a matter of opinion... 4.75 nanograms may not seem like a lot, but when you consider that, at 414.07g/mol it is 6,908,293,060,000 parts of the stuff, it seems like quite a bit to me. And that's in just one cooking session. Please correct me if I'm wrong, it's been a while since my chemistry class. The EPA drinking water standards, the ones watered down by industry influence, are measured…

>4.75 nanograms may not seem like a lot, but when you consider that, at 414.07g/mol it is 6,908,293,060,000 parts of the stuff, it seems like quite a bit to me. This doesn't prove anything part from molecules being really small. What's more important at what doses do negative health effects materialize. >And that's in just one cooking session. I'm not sure about you but 1 hour is an usually long time to be using a fr…

Googling for "epa pfoa", I found this page, where the limit is listed as 70 parts per trillion:

https://www.epa.gov/ground-water-and-drinking-water/drinking...

Did you get a chance to take a crack at the chemistry math problem I posed?

Once you've solved that one, here is another one for you:

If 4.75 nanograms of the material is aerosoled out into the air, what amount is absorbed directly into the food which is cooking on the pan?

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

#455
post #435
post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> Weight loss and proper exercise will probably deliver 99% of the improvements for 99% of the people. In addition to be factually incorrect, consider how what you said sounds to the many people who are healthy, active but are having problems with something they thought would be easy. This is very stressful for many people, seeming especially cruel after years of worrying about accidental pregnancy, and the medical t…

At least in men, there is a very clear mechanism. If you have excess body fat, your aromatase may be overexpressed, and if so, you will convert more of your testosterone to estradiol. This interacts with the hypothalamus' negative feedback loop, lowering your GnRH, (and therefore your LH/FSH) making you less fertile and lowering your testosterone until homeostasis is achieved.

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

#456

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In some communities, weight gain is a down-stream effect of "metabolic syndrome", and the "solution" isn't to count calories or exercise more - it's to simply eat _differently_. Sugar is a particularly odious contributor to problems. Like OP, my wife and I also struggled with infertility for a few years (two miscarriages, years of doing everything "right", and not getting pregnant.) We're finally pregnant, and out of…

Really glad to hear you got pregnant. It makes me so happy now when people do after finding it so hard. It’s a shame this info isn’t more easily found by most people. I had the exact same experience with doctors just saying there was nothing a man can do to improve fertility. “It’s just genetic”. I also second the case against sugar. I should have called out refined sugar specifically in my list. That was one thing I…

I'll agree with you that it was an interesting film. Morgan Spurlock is an admitted alcoholic which casts doubts on the liver claim.

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

#457
post #439

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> being trans is a medical condition Curious, what else is it if not that? Eczema is also a medical condition too but we don't shame people for having it. Medical conditions shouldn't carry the implication that you're a broken person as a result of it.

Terminology is super important. Obviously everything about a person is a biological fact, but "medical condition" implies a certain severity and negativity. It's sort of like asking if being shorter than 6' a medical condition. Or if being unattractive is a medical condition. Obviously not in the common parlance, and anybody who wanted to classify it as such would be seen as a real agitator. I suppose for people who…

> It's sort of like asking if being shorter than 6' a medical condition.

Maybe not 6' but isn't dwarfism considered a medical condition?

> Or if being unattractive is a medical condition.

Again, most cases not, but things like crooked teeth, cleft lips, acne, etc that could be left alone but are frequently treated because they reduce quality of life are considered medical conditions.

I buy the argument that "medical condition" can carry heavy negative connotations, especially for minority populations, but still believe anything that requires medical intervention (like hormone therapy but especially reassignment surgery) qualifies. We should just attack the stigma.

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

#458
post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

You’re right. I consider chemically extracted the default, but I should have been explicit that I didn’t mean mechanically expressed seed oils.

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

#460
post #321
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.

I'd have to see a pretty strong argument disproving the exogenous endotoxin theory before I'd consider an all meat diet. It also sounds like it's a pretty low-fiber diet which isn't ideal.
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