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Sperm counts worldwide are plummeting faster than we thought

nationalgeographic.com

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Re: Sperm counts worldwide are plummeting faster than we thought

#941

Post by G3rn0ti »

ccn0p wrote: post #938
G3rn0ti wrote: post #936

“men who are overweight tend to have reduced sperm concentration, lower total sperm count, and fewer motile sperm. … The fact that the sperm count decline is also occurring in countries in South and Central America, Africa, and Asia, according to the new meta-analysis, suggests that the lifestyle factors and environmental exposures that are likely to blame are present globally“ While the article does not rule out che…

there are growing studies about 1) the connection between gut biome damage and obesity and 2) that chemicals in food and products are destroying our gut biome. Putting those two things together, these signals in the article would make sense.

* citation needed

Re: Sperm counts worldwide are plummeting faster than we thought

#942

Post by jhanschoo »

themagician wrote: post #566

Whenever I read about things like decreasing sperm counts or increases in cancer I always think of the same phrase, "Everything is chemicals." It just really doesn't surprise me knowing how little evaluation is done on chemicals and materials throughout the supply chain. I believe the period from 1900 to around 2100 will be looked at as this horrible era where we filled our own ecosystem with an almost unimaginable a…

It's like lead in ancient Rome all over again

Re: Sperm counts worldwide are plummeting faster than we thought

#943

Post by amake »

TexanFeller wrote: post #855

One thing that I'm genuinely curious about that I've never heard addressed is whether the large increase of people identifying as trans(trans women in particular) could be related to the same factors that are causing lowered sperm counts and testosterone in men. There are massive amounts of compounds in our environment that are endocrine disrupters or mimic sex hormones like estrogen. Like maybe many persons assumed…

(Back in 1920)

"One thing that I'm genuinely curious about that I've never heard addressed is whether the large increase of people identifying as left-handed could be related to the same factors that are causing ..."

https://twitter.com/ithayla/status/1410339332477517826

Re: Sperm counts worldwide are plummeting faster than we thought

#944

Post by andrewflnr »

Noumenon72 wrote: post #780
justnotworthit wrote: post #771

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of all the worthless, flame-inducing posts in hacker news comments, "Ah yes, that study" is the example that need to be highlighted?

It may be more educational to contest one that most readers might not realize is problematic (I didn't bat an eye) than one that is obviously flamebait.

As a general principle, explaining edge cases are helpful for elucidating tricky distinctions.

Re: Sperm counts worldwide are plummeting faster than we thought

#945

Post by onion2k »

dionidium wrote: post #664
onion2k wrote: post #475

Earlier quoted context omitted.

...rational individual choice... It's a choice in the same sense that I've chosen not to buy a Ferrari because I can't afford one.

This really doesn't make any sense. We are not poorer than our ancestors and they figured it out. People have convinced themselves that the requirements for having children are far beyond what they actually are. In fact, I think it's precisely our wealth that scares people about the prospect. You're going to have to trade away some of that wealth to have children and people are understandably nervous about that.

We are not poorer than our ancestors and they figured it out.

Quite a lot of them died in childbirth.

Re: Sperm counts worldwide are plummeting faster than we thought

#946

Post by captainmuon »

jeffreyrogers wrote: post #502
AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its the same with obesity, which has been sharply increasing in much of the world since the 1970s, but pretty much all the conventional explanations (increased availability, excess sugar, excess carbs, excess fat, decreased physical activity, etc.) don't seem to stand up to scrutiny. Hypothesis: the cause in both cases is likely industrial contaminants considered essential to the running of modern civilization, so no…

Doesn't the existence of anorexia (which appears to be socially transmissible) and the fact that people who take up hobbies like bodybuilding are able to manage their fat levels well suggest that environmental contaminants aren't the whole story? The staple bodybuilding foods are rice and chicken breast. That's about as industrialized as you can get. If there were people getting fat eating broccoli, potatoes, chicken…

There is the idea of a "lipostat" which is the mechanism of the body to regulate it's weight. In a person with obesity or anorexia, the lipostat would be off, so the body would be trying to maintain a higher or lower than regular weight. (I think I read about it first on the slimemoldtimemold blog).

The interesing thing is, in case of underweight, the lipostat might not just cause reduced hunger and increased body temperature for example. It might also affect self-image and cause you to feel you are too fat. This is still speculation of course, and I can imagine that it makes people uncomfortable, since we like to believe our self is in control of our body and not the other way around. But it is entirely possible that "socially transmissible" or seemingly "cultural" disorders are intertwined in a complex way. (What if you need certain widespread contaminants, or microbiome deficiencies, plus trauma experience or unhealty body images in media to cause anorexia.)

Re: Sperm counts worldwide are plummeting faster than we thought

#947

Post by 4gotunameagain »

maxsilver wrote: post #896
TexanFeller wrote: post #855

One thing that I'm genuinely curious about that I've never heard addressed is whether the large increase of people identifying as trans(trans women in particular) could be related to the same factors that are causing lowered sperm counts and testosterone in men. There are massive amounts of compounds in our environment that are endocrine disrupters or mimic sex hormones like estrogen. Like maybe many persons assumed…

> the large increase of people identifying as trans(trans women in particular) Well, that's not quite accurate. (a) there isn't a large increase of trans people, historically speaking, just folks being more open and honest about their status recently, since it's become marginally less punished in a few specific places, than it has been prior, and (b) in recent years, trans men or transmasc folks are the largest group…

Currently it is impossible to know whether the increasing numbers of people identifying as trans is due to less fear of punishment as you say, or due to hormonal disruption. The only way I've thought of is long term studies of endocrine disruption quantification in pregnant mothers and their children, correlated with transexualism.

> This is barbaric if you think about it for more than 5 seconds.

It is barbaric to not even consider a different point of view because it opposes your religion (yes, I think it is a religion at this point)

Sorry if I appear harsh, but I believe that in a couple of decades we will look back at what the pharma industry is doing to "trans" people as we look back on lobotomy now.

Re: Sperm counts worldwide are plummeting faster than we thought

#948

Post by theshrike79 »

njovin wrote: post #352
rootusrootus wrote: post #260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps we need to invest in more testing, and then work on a whitelist instead of blacklist approach.

I've heard on a few podcasts that this is how European countries do this. We need to stop letting for-profit companies gamble with the health and longevity of the species in the interest of profits.

Yep, this is the fundamental difference between EU and US laws for consumables.

In the EU the manufacturer needs to prove the ingredients are safe.

In the US they need to prove they're not harmful. "not harmful" != "safe"

Re: Sperm counts worldwide are plummeting faster than we thought

#949

Post by hazn »

whatshisface wrote: post #908
Dig1t wrote: post #567

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are right that this is a much better approach. The problem is Europe also has low sperm counts and are also being exposed to endocrine disruptors in the same way as the rest of the world. So whatever whitelist approach they are using does not seem to be saving them from this problem.

There's not a huge difference between what's legal to sell in Europe and the US.

There's however a huge difference in what's being actually prescribed and what's not. Anti-Depressants and strong pain medication isn't as easy to get as in the us as in Germany.

Re: Sperm counts worldwide are plummeting faster than we thought

#950

Post by adrian_b »

Xeoncross wrote: post #839
adrian_b wrote: post #646

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no real difference between eating food to which refined sugar has been added and eating sweet fruits. The sugar is not bound to anything and it is released in the fruit juice when the fruit is chewed, so it is not digested more slowly than when eating a sweetened cake with the same proportion of sugar (but the cakes are frequently made much sweeter than the fresh fruits). The great danger that has been creat…

> There is no real difference between eating food to which refined sugar has been added and eating sweet fruits. Yeah, I've heard people say this, but I can tell a big difference between people who eat a lot of fruit and people who eat a lot of processed sugar. It's right up there with saying eating an avocado is going to make you fat because of all the calories it has so you should eat a hamburger with half the calo…

I have already explained why this happens.

The fresh sweet fruits have a relatively low sugar content, so when eating them you will usually have enough before eating too much sugar, e.g. if you eat a half of kilogram (a pound) of fresh fruits each day that is still OK.

When pure sugar is added to food, most people, and especially most industrial producers, add far too much sugar, so it becomes very easy to eat too much sugar each day, while eating just a small amount of sweetened food, which does not cause satiety.

The only difference between sweet fruits and sweetened food is in the quantity of sugar, not in its quality.

If one eats, for example, 2 kilograms of sweet fruits each day, then that would still cause health problems eventually, even without any added sugar, like in the geese traditionally fed with figs, to make foie gras. The effect of eating food with too much sugar, which destroys the liver, has been well known for thousands of years, even before pure sugar became known in Europe.

If sweetened food is eaten in a very small quantity per day, it does not have any other effect than eating sweet fruits.

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