We finally have had the alarmist headline:
"PENISES ARE SHRINKING BECAUSE OF POLLUTION"
Honestly, it is about fucking time! I have been bitching about Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals (EDCs) since I learned about them way back when I was a teenager. Several years later, I remember back when America was going psycho over bisphenol A (BPA) causing endocrine disruption. I also specifically recall the massive movement to ban BPA entirely. Unfortunately, even I as a young adult at the time, knew that they were DOING IT WRONG, because nobody seemed to ask the question "what will we replace BPA with once it is banned?"
Thus, BPA was banned...and mostly just replaced with other bisphenol (BPx) chemicals, many of which are unresearched, or have very little research about them, and even are indicated to be MORE HARMFUL than BPA. Way to go people, mission failed. I don't know how nobody saw it coming: you make companies ban one thing and they will jus replace it with whatever is cheapest, even if it's probably worse for human health--they simply don't care about anything except their profits.
But that is only one miniscule little piece to the whole story. To provide some background, EDCs include a wide range of substances that are used across nearly every industry that have activity related to sex hormone receptors and pathways. The most well-studied and best known are the ones that agonize Estrogen. There are also antiandrogens
Unfortunately, and I mean seriously, really, tragically unfortunately, BPx's are not the only chemical at play here. Some of the most common EDCs, organized by type, are listed below:
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Pesticides: DDT; Chlorpyrifos; Atrazine; Glyphosate; vinclozolin (anti-androgen)
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Heavy metals: Lead; Cadmium; Arsenic
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Industrial chemicals and their byproducts: PCBs; Dioxins
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Plastics and food storage materials: Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs);
bisphenols (BPx's); Phthalates; Phenol
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Electronics and building materials: Brominated fire retardants (PBDEs); PCBs again
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Personal care products: phthalates; parabens; UV filter chemicals in chemical sunscreens
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Soaps: triclosan (also found in colgate total toothpaste)
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Tons of things from textiles, clothing, food wrappers, teflon cookware, popcorn bags: Perfluorochemicals (PFCs)
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AND MORE!!! Let us not forget the random chemicals, drugs, and drug metabolites, found in our water: the birth control and other hormones; the anti-depressants; anti-anxiety; birth control; beta-blockers, etc. (
1) (
2)
In males, these chemicals cause all kinds of issues: decreased fertility; suppressed endocrine system (low testosterone); increased prostate size; delayed puberty; decreased penis size (even the medical condition "micropenis"); genital deformations; and of course cancer. A growing number of researchers are saying that most men will be infertile between 2045 and 2065 because of EDCs.
In females, these chemicals cause all kinds of issues too! Breast abnormalities/cancer; general endocrine disruption (low estrogen, issues with estrogen/progesterone balance); premature breast enlargement; early puberty; endometriosis; reproductive tract abnormalities/malignancies; disturbed lactation; polycystic ovarian syndrome; and of course other cancers too.
(source)
In amphibians, these chemicals actually cause them to change genders and even change their sexual preferences. (
1,
2) This study made waves in the headlines and both liberal and conservative media ran with it. Look, just to be clear, I am NOT one of the psychotic idiots (cough Alex Jones) saying that "the government is purposefully putting drugs in the water to make people gay." That is fucking stupid on so many levels that I won't even go into it. However, it is a
fact that this is happening as a
side effect of our widespread use of pesticides. Now, taking the leap from amphibians to humans is a big one, but given the laundry list of issues above that EDCs cause, some people may be comfortable making that leap. Personally, I think it makes sense, when you look at the drug therapy that trans females go through: they are given antiandrogens and estrogens. Well, the same thing is happening, albeit at much lower levels to nearly every modern human living in a developed country (and sometimes underdeveloped countries are even worse, due to less government regulations to prevent pollution).
The only additional thing I will say about this is that I have had the privilege to speak with university professors involved in these studies or follow up research who
firmly believe that these EDCs are having an impact on the percentage of LGBTQ people in the overall population. These are some of the leading ecology and wildlife researchers in the world. In their mind there is no doubt about it, but unfortunately, they aren’t able to be vocal about that opinion because the liberal media will label them as anti-LGBTQ and the LGBTQ community will explode with backlash on social media about the professor’s comments, etc. It is really a shame. The far left’s desire to hamper free speech really fucking irks me—it is not healthy, but I digress. This is not about politics. It’s about the science of EDCs.
So anyway: this is obviously a
really big fucking deal! But for some reason, the vast majority of the population has been happy to just ignore it. It doesn't have immediate effects on people, the effects are long term--sometimes VERY long term--and also due to the many many variables in this thing we call life, it is nearly impossible to truly pinpoint these chemicals as the cause of the issues people are having. As such, sufficient momentum to create a sustained movement around reducing EDCs in the environment has never been attained--save for the BPA scare because that was having a relatively immediate impact on people's precious little babies, so of course everyone freaked out, but again nobody thought it all the way through.
There are even more issues and chemicals that could be added to this list, but that gives you the idea of just how damaging these chemicals are.
And the worst part is that we are ALL exposed to them, unwillingly, from the time we are born on a daily basis. There is nothing we can do to avoid all of them--however we can avoid SOME of them by making healthier choices in the products we buy, the places we go, and are privileged enough to be able to purchase things like fancy water filters and organic foods.
<Warning, personal anecdote>
Unfortunately, our modern American medicine system doesn't think it is important to monitor hormones AT ALL. Even females on exogenous hormones in the form of birth control don't get hormone panels. The doctor asks "how do you feel" and adjusts the dose accordingly. Young men with pubertal gyno and no motivation and emotional issues are given anti-depressants and benzos--and this strike particularly close to home for me. I had pubertal gyno (as you can read about in a recent page in the gyno megathread), I also had depression and anxiety and serious confidence issues despite being an intelligent and attractive young man.
I suspect the main factor in my issues was all due to endocrine disruption (too much E2 agonism and not enough T), but obviously can't prove it because I never had a hormone panel. Now, at the ripe young age of 31 I am on TRT (blast and cruise). It is the best thing I have ever done. My depression is gone, my anxiety is drastically reduced. Of course, body comp has gotten way better. I did have my gyno removed (again, see the gyno megathread). I really, really struggled as a teen; it was fucking awful. I came extremely close to killing myself several times. When I see other young kids struggle with similar issues and when I hear teens say they think they are a woman and all that, I just shake my head. Let me be perfectly clear: I do NOT think that gay and trans people wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for EDCs, they obviously have been around for much longer than EDCs have.
However, I think the issue would be much, much smaller.
<End personal anecdote>
I feel like I am starting to go in circles here, so let me sum up my post thus far:
- EDCs are everywhere: in our water; our clothes; the air we breathe; the food we eat; the devices we touch; the upholstery we lounge or sit on; the personal care products we use; the artificial fragrances we smell; the sex products we use (yeah, check your lube for phthalates!!); they’re fucking
everywhere!!!
- they have POWERFUL effects in the human body and mind. For example, "Sperm counts among men in North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand declined more than 59% from 1973 to 2011, according to
a meta-analysis Swan co-wrote in 2017. At the current rate, half of men in those countries would have no sperm by 2045, while many others would have very low counts" (
source)
I hope that with more alarmist headlines about penises shrinking and the population becoming infertile, maybe the general population will start to pay more attention to this problem. Then maybe we can gain some momentum to make a change, regardless of the cost to big agriculture/pharma/manufacturing/chemical companies.
So, what can we do about this?
For starters, if you have kids:
- Get your kids a hormone panel when they hit puberty. Just monitor that shit yourself. Pay out of pocket if you have to, just monitor it to know. If something is off, then talk to your doctor about it. If your doctor is an idiot and doesn’t know anything about the endocrine system (like most doctors) then find a different doctor or take matters into your own hand (no, don’t start injecting your kid with TRT LOL
).
For everyone, with or without kids:
- Make positive changes in your home to ensure that you are
minimizing your and your family’s exposure to EDCs. Some of these things are easy, some are hard/expensive. This includes things like:
- opting for natural personal care products (in general avoid gels, get bar soaps and get natural organic products that either use essential oils for scents or have no scent)
- get natural toothpaste
- stop using plastic water bottles and food storage containers, glass is the only safe option (often times metal containers are coated with a BPx or similar chemical to prevent the metal from absorbing into the food/water)
- DEFINITELY NEVER heat up food in plastic - weight watchers and TV dinners = VERY BAD!!
- don’t buy fast food or junk food (including breakfast cereals and pop-tarts and toaster pancakes, etc.)
- buy organic foods to minimize your exposure to pesticides
- wear an N95 or KN95 mask if you go into the city where air pollution is always terrible
- get a high-quality under sink water filter
- don’t buy bottled water
- don’t get artificial fragrance things like those glade sprayers, candles, etc.
- don’t go swimming in nasty city lakes
- don’t use pesticides in your yard and don’t pay someone to spray your lawn!! Weeds are natural and honestly turf grass is pretty ecologically useless, let the weeds grow, it’s gonna be fine. For sidewalk cracks, etc., get a propane torch to burn that shit away!
- when painting or using volatile chemicals for home or construction or car projects, wear a high-quality respirator. I even wear an N95 mask when I go to the shooting range as the lead in the primers is not something I want to inhale while shooting (I put a little scotch tape at the top so it doesn’t fog up my glasses).
- there’s more but that’s about all I can think of right now!
- oh! And also, get enough sleep! Sleep is HUGE and even a single bad night of sleep and disrupt the hormonal balance. De-stress! Practice mindfullness meditation, go out into nature, take epsom salt baths to de-stress and lower cortisol. Avoid drugs: particularly opiates and alcohol (especially beer, the hops in beer is one of the strongest phytoesteogens on the planet), and also marijuana. Eat enough fats, studies show eating a diet with ~40% fat can increaze natty T levels, idk if it would mTter for enhanced guys though; lastly, make sure you aren't lacking in any nutrients like magnesium, boron, selenium, etc., but also don't supplement them "just because"
These are all things you can do to minimize your and your family’s exposure to EDCs. In doing so, you are drastically increasing the likelihood of being healthier into old age and raising healthy, stable kids. Hopefully you’ve found this interesting and helpful. Feel free to comment with any non-political comments you may have!
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Fukkin REALLY???!?!
) And WHY is this?? Its because the fukked over Gen X so badly that we are all in coffins now and thus you have millennial turds and on that had no one to raise them. The baby boomers just could not part with a dime more than they could screw us out of... Earn that money boy...! Get out there and cut that acre of grass for 15bux. When I was yer age a coke was a nickel. BLA BLA BLA... BLA BLA.... BLABLABLA...
