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Sperm Count Dropping in Western World

scientificamerican.com

131–140 of 300 posts

Re: Sperm Count Dropping in Western World

#131

My belief is that the primary cause is environmental chemicals, specifically Phthalates and BPA (and related chemicals). The science on this is fairly conclusive. We can show that these chemicals bind to estrogen receptors, that they're present in everyone's body, and that if you're acutely exposed to a higher dose, your testosterone goes down. In my opinion, these chemicals are having social and cultural effects bey…

Want an interesting read? Go to your city water providers website and read up on all the pollutants they are over recommended levels on. Then look at the pollutants they are over the legal limit on. We assume that the water in our taps is safe to drink but there are often a myriad of tests that our utility companies are failing. For example, I live in a relatively well to do suburb and my utility is over the recommen…

That's disturbing indeed.

What's the best approach to replacing drinking water to avoid all of this?

Re: Sperm Count Dropping in Western World

#132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't forget the dietary recommendations changed telling people to eat loads of carbs and avoid fat (and as a side effect, most natural sources of protein). That might be directly related to this actually.

That wouldn't affect dogs as much.

A lot of cheap dog food is made of largely grains / corn.

Re: Sperm Count Dropping in Western World

#133
post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Want an interesting read? Go to your city water providers website and read up on all the pollutants they are over recommended levels on. Then look at the pollutants they are over the legal limit on. We assume that the water in our taps is safe to drink but there are often a myriad of tests that our utility companies are failing. For example, I live in a relatively well to do suburb and my utility is over the recommen…

That's disturbing indeed. What's the best approach to replacing drinking water to avoid all of this?

Install a reverse osmosis system in your house. However, not sure what to do about the pex piping though... Maybe run copper? Maybe there is an inert plastic?

Re: Sperm Count Dropping in Western World

#135

People offering human-centric explanations like cell phones: Note also that the sperm quality of dogs has decreased 30% since 1988. https://elpais.com/elpais/2016/08/09/ciencia/1470755907_2432... https://www.nature.com/articles/srep31281 This suggests its more environmental, chemical, diet-based, etc.

To expand upon diet-based -- how about food preservatives from processed foods. For example: Propyl parahydroxybenzoate[0][1]

[0] https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/Propyl_4-hydroxybe...

[1] The dirt: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12419695

Re: Sperm Count Dropping in Western World

#136
post #133
post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's disturbing indeed. What's the best approach to replacing drinking water to avoid all of this?

Install a reverse osmosis system in your house. However, not sure what to do about the pex piping though... Maybe run copper? Maybe there is an inert plastic?

Reverse osmosis can be also problematic cause it removes chemicals from water that are also useful. Maybe a less aggressive filtering method will do.

Re: Sperm Count Dropping in Western World

#137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We can only hope. This would be a great example of natural selection at work if fat unhealthy people couldn't reproduce and thinner healthy people could.

Only in our current environment. If food was scarce, wouldn't those who can store energy better be more likely to survive?

I get what you are saying, but I don't think being fat is evidence of being able to survive in an environment of food shortages.

Re: Sperm Count Dropping in Western World

#140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even worst is all the extra female hormones coming from birth control pills and livestock (mostly milk cows) that are not getting filtered out of by water providers.

If I may pick a nit: there are no pills in sewage streams. We're talking drugs in solution or suspension (the term "dissolved solids" is used in the water treatment industry). Drugs can very difficult to remove, and water treatment facilities are only able to remove roughly half [ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/only-half-of-drug... ].

I thought a lot of pharmaceuticals wind up in water supplies because when we take pills only part of the mass is used in the body, the rest stays in the blood stream, passes the kidneys, and is removed fairly intact into the urine thereby entering our water supply at the next voiding of the bladder.
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