Why are your hormones compromised?

Plastic is such a ubiquitous part of modern life that it’s hard to imagine a world without it. But in the grand scheme of things, plastic is still a new invention, and as noted by Dr Pete Myers, president, founder and principal scientist of Environmental Health Sciences, in the video above , there are many things we should not do. I don’t know about plastic and health – but then there’s a lot of things that we have to do.

Especially when it comes to chemicals in plastics, much is known about the risks they pose to human health, including future generations through intergenerational endocrine disruption. . “It was enough to give me a great pause,” says Myers.

Endocrine disruptors, common in plastic products, are structurally similar to natural sex hormones such as estrogen, thereby interfering with their normal functions – and more. According to Myers, the future of humanity may ultimately be at risk:^first

“Your hormones have been attacked. Your body’s incredible, finely tuned signaling system – a system that controls everything from your weight, fertility to your mood – has been tampered with by the chemical manufacturers loosely regulated used in countless ways including in consumer products.

These hijackers – known by scientists as ‘endocrine disrupting chemicals’ – are threatening the very existence of our species. The cause of this problem is that chemical companies focus only on cheap plastic and the regulatory agencies are not willing to do anything about it.”

Male fertility is declining, could reach zero by 2045

Myers highlights the book “Countdown,” written by Shanna Swan, a reproductive epidemiologist at the Mount Sinai Icahn School of Medicine. It is based on a 2017 study she co-wrote, which showed a 59.3% decrease in sperm count between 1973 and 2011.²

The most significant declines were found in samples from men in North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand, where many had sperm concentrations below 40 million pcs/ml, which is considered the cut-off point at which a person can control their sperm count. the man will have difficulty fertilizing the egg. Overall, men in these countries experienced a 52.4% decrease in sperm concentration and a 59.3% decrease in total sperm count (sperm concentration times the total volume of an ejaculate).

The book expands on what Swan describes as an impending fertility crisis; Along with a drop in sperm count, changes in sexual development pose a threat to human survival and according to Swan, “The current state of fertility cannot continue for much longer. without endangering human existence”.³ In fact, she estimates that if current predictions continue, sperm counts could reach zero by 2045.

The global fertility rate is also falling, reaching 2.4 births per woman in 2018, down from 5.06 in 1964. The fertility rate in about 50% of countries worldwide stands at 2.1 , lower than the population replacement level, The Guardian reported.⁴

According to Swan, humans already meet three of the five criteria for what puts a species at risk of extinction, and while there are many factors involved – including contraception and the cost of parenting – biological reasons, such as reduced sperm count, increased miscarriage rate and genital abnormalities are also reducing fertility and birth rates.

“Environmental chemicals and unhealthy lifestyles in our modern world are disrupting the hormonal balance, causing various degrees of reproductive havoc,” she said.⁵

Does the ‘Countdown’ to Infertility Begin?

The “countdown” brings some lesser-known findings into the spotlight, such as the fact that a significant portion of the global population may not be able to reproduce without technological assistance by 2020. 2050.⁶ And, the book suggests that men today have half as many sperm as their grandfathers.

“I am half like my grandfather, and my grandsons will be half like me. In some countries, half of couples who want to get pregnant need medical intervention,” Myers wrote.⁷ There also seems to be a synergy going on, which the book calls the “1% effect,” because sperm counts, testosterone, and fertility are decreasing, while testicular cancer and miscarriage are on the rise. increased, all at around 1% per year.⁸

Environmental chemicals, especially endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs), are another common cause, linked to increased fertility problems in women as well as men. “Studies are finding a correlation between EDC exposure with increased miscarriage and birth defects as well as a decrease in egg quality and quantity. EDC can even affect babies in utero if exposed during pregnancy,” reports Sustainable Pulse.⁹

Chemical exposure during pregnancy has been found to affect both virilization and long-term fertility in men. In the wild, fish, frogs and reptiles are also increasingly being born with both ovaries and testes.^ten

Environmental chemicals that reduce fertility

Certain chemicals are wreaking havoc on human fertility. EDCs interfere with endogenous hormones and it has been found that some effects of exposure persist into future generations, even in males not directly exposed.¹¹

For example, research published in PLOS Genetics found that exposing male rats to ethinyl estradiol, a synthetic sex hormone found in oral contraceptives, caused developmental problems in the reproductive tract , thereby reducing sperm count (men can be exposed to oral contraceptives through contaminated water and other sources). The generational effects of EDCs are also revealed. Environmental Health Newspaper reported:^twelfth

“They observed adverse effects starting with the first generation of mouse lines, where each generation was exposed to the other for a short period of time immediately after birth. The effects were worse in the second generation. Compared with the first generation and by the third generation, scientists have found animals that can’t produce sperm at all.

This second condition was not seen in the first two generations of exposure. The details of the experimental results actually show that generations of exposure can increase a man’s sensitivity to the chemical. “

Adding further support that environmental chemicals are linked to decline in fertility is research showing similar declines in sperm quality in dogs living in human households, with Sperm motility decreased by 30% over a 26 year period.¹³

In the dog study, researchers linked certain chemicals in the environment to sperm problems and suggested they could also be responsible for the decline in sperm quality in humans. This view is supported by a study published in the journal Scientific Reports.¹⁴

Researchers from the University of Nottingham used sperm samples from 11 men and nine dogs from the same region of the UK. They exposed sperm to doses of two environmental chemicals, diethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP) and polychlorinated biphenyl 153 (PCB153), which are currently found in the environment. The result is decreased sperm motility and increased DNA fragmentation.

The researchers believe that dogs can act as a “guardian” to male fertility decline, and that man-made chemicals are widely used in home and mainstream workplace settings. is the culprit. A previous study even found such chemicals in dog sperm and some dog foods.¹⁵

Top Sources of Endocrine Disruption

The Environmental Working Group (EWG) has named the following 12 chemicals on their “dirty” EDC list:¹⁶

Such chemicals are present everywhere, from food, drinking water and household appliances to personal care products, cleaning products, non-stick cookware and plastics. Others, like atrazine, are banned in the European Union but are still widely used in the US

Tyrone Hayes, an integrative biologist at the University of California, Berkeley, hypothesized that atrazine activated an enzyme (aromatase) that causes testosterone to be converted to estrogen. If you’re male, this means you won’t make sperm, but you’ll make estrogen, although you shouldn’t.

According to Hayes and colleagues in a study published in Nature in 2002, exposure to atrazine contamination in water resulted in “gonad abnormalities such as growth retardation and hermaphroditism” in 10% to 92% male wild leopard frogs. Hayes published another study in 2010 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), which also had similar findings.¹⁷

Phthalates, another chemical on the list, are involved in hormone changes and trigger “‘death signals’ in testicular cells, causing them to die earlier than normal,” EWG notes.¹⁸ And this is just one of their toxic effects (they are also thought to impair brain development, increasing children’s risk of learning, attention, and behavioral disturbances).¹⁹).

It’s important to remember that everything from antidepressants²⁰ and inactivity on your dietary choices and exposure to EMF can affect your fertility. I have previously compiled some tips for increasing sperm count here.

For reducing exposure to toxic phthalates and other EDCs that can “hijack your hormones” with disastrous consequences on fertility and beyond, the following steps may help: , but you can see more tips for avoiding EDC here.

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