Seven Chemicals That Lower Testosterone
I am a science fanatic, but one of the curses that the scientific age has brought
upon us is a tidal wave of chemicas, many extremely common in every day life, that can pull the rug right out
from under your hormonal hindquarters. Read the list of chemicals below and
you'll be ready to hide under the mattress (instead of doing something
constructive on top of it) in order to save your precious testosterone. Maybe
the Amish were right after all!
The good news is that, for the most part, these chemicals can be avoided with a
few simple lifestyle changes:
1) Excitotoxins. Animal studies show that fetal exposure to
excitotoxins, such as MSG in food and aspartame in diet drinks, can lead to
reproductive and hormonal abnormalities in puberty and beyond. Read more about
Testosterone and Excitotoxins and find out more.
SOLUTION: Buy nothing in it with MSG, aspartame, monosodium glutamate,
autolyzed yeast extract, Equal or any of the other ingredients I list in
Testosterone and Excitotoxins.
2) Mercury. Methyl mercury, a byproduct of the industrial age,
has permeated our environment
and has been shown to definitely lower testosterone. [3] Sadly, one of nature's
most healthy foods, fish, is often contaminated with Mercury and so extreme care
is warranted. Most recommend fish only once or twice per week because of
it. Researchers just announced that mercury contamination is extremely common in
high fructose corn syrup: 50% of products tested by researchers were
contaminated! [4] The issue apparently is that there are no standards for
mercury residue in hydrochloric acid and hydrochloric acid is used to make high
fructose corn syrup.
SOLUTION: Do not consume fish
more than once or twice per week and avoid corn syrup. Also, you should be safe
consuming Fish Oil as a recent Consumer Lab Study looked at over 50 fish oil
brands and found all were mercury-free. [6] (Fyi: PCBs and lead were also in check.)
3) Pesticides. The FDA has gotten rid of some of the worst
testosterone-whacking pesticides, such as DDT, but many still remain. Read
about Testosterone and Pesticides for
some of the sobering details. SOLUTION: Avoid the dirty dozen
fruits and vegetables mentioned in
Testosterone and Pesticides for being
particularly overly sprayed. You may even want to buy organic when
possible.
Do you know the foods and drinks that increase erection-boosting
Nitric Oxide? Check out the
Peak Erectile Strength Diet where I show
you how to dramatically and naturally improve your erectile strength.
4) Drugs and Pharmaceuticals. Yes, there are some drugs that
lower testosterone. Read more about Statins for one of the most common examples.
SOLUTION: Check all of your medications (with your pharmacist and
doctor) for testosterone lowering properties.
5) Phthalates. I hope you didn't sound like you were coughing up a fur
ball trying to say this one, but it's actually quite easy: just don't say the
"ph". That's right - phonetically these are "thal-its" and they are just as
nasty to your testosterone as they are to say. These are potent endocrine
disruptors that every hormone-luvin' male should avoid like the plague.
One
study examined dosages of 100, 80, 60, 40, 20, 10, 5, or 0% of the mixture.on
fetal rates and found a dose-dependent decrease in testosterone, meaning the
more phthalates, the less the testosterone. [1]
Low testosterone can be just as devastating for a male infant. Researchers have
found evidence that phthalates, a common family of chemicals used in air
fresheners and to soften plastics that
lower testosterone [6] are
linked to effeminizing behavior in boys. See number 10 in my
link on Child
IQ for more details. Animal studies have shown nasty effects from
phthalates as well, including permanent reproductive disorders [2] and a recent
human study showed lowered sperm counts as verification. In other words,
the damage seems to be permanent.
SOLUTION: Use only glass and stainless steel for cooking and don't let anyone
freshen your air.
6) Bisphenol-A. The chemical, used (in America) in almost every canned good, is a
proven endocrine disruptor. Read more about Bisphenol-A to find out how
the levels that we are commonly exposed to are enough to have a clinically
negative effect. SOLUTION: Avoid canned goods.
7) Lead. China is by now means the only source of lead in our environment
but has been implicated frequently in a number of recent studies and exposes.
Our children are particularly exposed to the onslaught of this chemical we once
thought we had purged from our environment.
Lead is a known testosterone-lowerer. One study, for example, found
that lead exposed and poisoned men, who had complained of lowered libido and intercourse,
had reduced Leutinizing Hormone and, therefore, testosterone levels. [5]
This is just the beginning, however, as lead attacks many systems in the body,
including the brain and kidneys. Since we've eliminated lead in our gasoline and
paints, we're safe, right? Read this
Consumer Report's article on
the many products they found with lead.
SOLUTION: This is the toughest one as there
is no inexpensive, easy way to detect and avoid lead products.
1) Toxicological Sciences, 2008, 105(1):153-165, "A Mixture of Five Phthalate
Esters Inhibits Fetal Testicular Testosterone Production in the Sprague-Dawley
Rat in a Cumulative, Dose-Additive Manner"
2)
Toxicology, 1 June 2006,223(1-2):144-155, "Mechanisms underlying the
anti-androgenic effects of diethylhexyl phthalate in fetal rat testis"
4) J Environmental Health, Jan 2009, 8:2"Mercury from chlor-alkali plants:
measured concentrations in food product sugar", Renee Dufault, et al;
Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, Jan 26 2009, "Much High Fructose
Corn Syrup Contaminated with Mercury New Study Finds: Brand Name Food
Products Also Discovered to Contain Mercury".
5)
Infertility, 1978, 1(1):33-51, "Hypogonadism in chronically lead-poisoned
men"
