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Men in their 50s may be aging faster due to toxic 'forever chemicals'

cnn.com

51–60 of 117 posts

Re: Men in their 50s may be aging faster due to toxic 'forever chemicals'

#51

If this were true, would we not see a corresponding drop in life expectancy?

My armchair scientific answer to that is: eventually, maybe. The problem we / science / medical / life expectancy has right now is that so much has and is changing as we speak. PFAS and microplastics only really became a thing after WW2, so while on the one side we banned asbestos, leaded fuel, smoking (and more recently drinking) got out of fashion, on the other there's microplastics everywhere, PFAS, vaping, various radiations, and by the looks of it the effects of a lot of these things will only slowly become apparent and statistically significant / measurable and discernable from other possible causes over a long period (30-50 years I'd guess, maybe longer), by which time there will be other factors at play too.

Re: Men in their 50s may be aging faster due to toxic 'forever chemicals'

#52
post #47

Consuming fiber daily, e.g. psyllium husk, is another way to lower some types of PFAS from the body, although not all types of PFAS are going to mix into bile to facilitate this excretion. The way this works is that some PFAS dissolves in bile which binds to psyllium which is excreted. Remember, 5g psyllium should be taken with 20 fl oz water, mixed and consumed immediately before it gels. Do not take it two hours be…

Source?

Here's one, googling is probably faster than asking for a source: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12940-025-01165-8

Re: Men in their 50s may be aging faster due to toxic 'forever chemicals'

#53
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Teflon is so useful when cooking that I'm going to use it until the moment it gets banned regardless of health impacts.

Cooking with it at normal fry pan temperatures (350-400f) is safe, this has been repeatedly confirmed in experiments, some not even funded by DuPont. Don’t do crazy things like really high temp searing and don’t use metal utensils that cause the coating to flake off. Also if you’re really concerned ceramic nonstick + oil has come a long way. And I should add the the most nonstick pan I own is actually a properly seas…

I love my Matfer Bourgeat carbon steel pan. It's just really heavy and kinda ugly. But it works great, especially at high temps when searing meats.

Re: Men in their 50s may be aging faster due to toxic 'forever chemicals'

#54
post #47

Consuming fiber daily, e.g. psyllium husk, is another way to lower some types of PFAS from the body, although not all types of PFAS are going to mix into bile to facilitate this excretion. The way this works is that some PFAS dissolves in bile which binds to psyllium which is excreted. Remember, 5g psyllium should be taken with 20 fl oz water, mixed and consumed immediately before it gels. Do not take it two hours be…

Source?

Anything that binds bile is going to help excrete PFAS, e.g. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-11-pfas-body-faster-medi...

Re: Men in their 50s may be aging faster due to toxic 'forever chemicals'

#55
post #6

People born before the 1980 are also of significantly lower IQ up to a 7-8 points due to leaded gas use. The boomers and gen X really did a number on themselves with environmental hazards.

A necessary (?) part of progress IMO. Environmental hazards have been a thing for a lot longer too. Settlements used to be covered in smog due to coal fires for example. Part of the environmental/emissions argument from developing countries is about past emissions by developed countries. I think it's a fair argument to say given these sacrifices made by past generations in industrialised countries + the benefit of de…

> Settlements used to be covered in smog due to coal fires for example.

Used to? Lots of them still are. Right now there's 150 µg/m³ of PM2.5 outside my window, and it's a "clean" day. Yesterday's concentrations were up to 900 µg (yes, that's correct), and the highest I've seen this winter were 2000 µg (yes, this is also correct). And it keeps getting worse, recently our so-called president mentioned that coal is our strategic reserve and we won't be phasing it out any time soon.

I'm relatively sure most of the "global south" has bad air quality, even if such extreme values are rare.

Here are some random photos of a typical winter day (winter is 8 months per year):

https://pasteboard.co/d2uZDyCd2gvt.jpg

https://pasteboard.co/F1zT2VPXFPKs.webp

https://pasteboard.co/r2S12bHXxzcI.jpg

https://pasteboard.co/w7CfK2Yfaz2l.webp

https://pasteboard.co/ceSDNcQuD4qL.jpg

https://pasteboard.co/z7XJcpoI6FCv.jpg

Re: Men in their 50s may be aging faster due to toxic 'forever chemicals'

#56
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They still are. Measles was on the road to being eradicated until 10 years ago.

The part you are leaving out is that illegals (now in the millions), living in the US are almost never vaccinated for measles.

Can you cite some sources? Because most countries have a functioning vaccination program, in part thanks to now-cancelled USAID funding. But vaccination rates have been dropping, just like in the US. https://www.unicef.org/lac/en/press-releases/latin-america-a...

Your comment reads like anti-immigrant propaganda. If USAID were to be restored, the US could use its vast wealth to improve global health. But the current US regime is decisively anti-vax and wants everyone to suffer unnecessarily from preventable disease.

Re: Men in their 50s may be aging faster due to toxic 'forever chemicals'

#57
post #6

People born before the 1980 are also of significantly lower IQ up to a 7-8 points due to leaded gas use. The boomers and gen X really did a number on themselves with environmental hazards.

1901 Oldsmobile curved dashboard was the first mass produced car. Lead was introduced to gasoline around 1920. You want the "Lost Generation", born 1883-1900.

Re: Men in their 50s may be aging faster due to toxic 'forever chemicals'

#58
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Teflon pans are still legal in every country in the world and used in every restaurant and food preparation industry. It's basically impossible to avoid this stuff unless you cook all of your meals from scratch and never eat out anywhere

Teflon is so useful when cooking that I'm going to use it until the moment it gets banned regardless of health impacts.

I'll keep using teflon frying pans for eggs, but we do most cooking in stainless steel pots and pans anyway.

Re: Men in their 50s may be aging faster due to toxic 'forever chemicals'

#59

Consuming fiber daily, e.g. psyllium husk, is another way to lower some types of PFAS from the body, although not all types of PFAS are going to mix into bile to facilitate this excretion. The way this works is that some PFAS dissolves in bile which binds to psyllium which is excreted. Remember, 5g psyllium should be taken with 20 fl oz water, mixed and consumed immediately before it gels. Do not take it two hours be…

> psyllium husk

If you can source clean psyllium, the bulk of it comes from India and let's say they have different standards when it comes to lead/pesticides and regulations in general

Re: Men in their 50s may be aging faster due to toxic 'forever chemicals'

#60
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They still are. Measles was on the road to being eradicated until 10 years ago.

The part you are leaving out is that illegals (now in the millions), living in the US are almost never vaccinated for measles.

The part you are leaving out is treating them solely as "illegals" means these people will avoid going to physicians to get their shots, because they would risk deportation.

The obvious solution for better health for all would be providing public and freely accessible locations for getting these shots, or mobile teams providing them at schools etc.

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