9 Chemicals that are Killing Your Testosterone Levels and Stealing Your Manhood 

Note:  These chemicals are harmful to women too, even though this article focuses on the harm being done to men's Testosterone 

by Mike Geary, Certified Nutrition Specialist
& Dr. Richard Cohen, MD


Recent studies indicate that the testosterone level of the average male today is 25% less than it was in 1992 (Comparing males of the same ages).  Meanwhile, the average male estrogen level has increased an alarming 40% during the same time period. The studies also show that male sperm counts are down 40% in that same time period.

What this means is that the average male in today's stressed-out chemical-lade world is significantly less of a man (and has "feminized" a bit more with higher estrogen levels) than their counterparts of the same age just a couple decades ago.

Why is This Shocking "Feminization" of Men Happening with Lower Testosterone and Higher Estrogen?

Well, xenoestrogens (meaning foreign estrogens) are man-made chemicals that mimic the effects of natural estrogens in the body.   If you wondered why average testosterone levels are down 25%, male estrogen levels are up 40%, and sperm are counts less than 40% of what they were 20 years ago, you need not look any farther than the xenoestrogens.  By the way, phytoestrogens in our diet contributes to this too, but not nearly as much as xenoestrogens.

These chemicals are found virtually everywhere in the modern world, lurking in personal care products, food containers, our drinking water, air pollution, medical tubing, children’s toys, pesticides, and much more.

Our environment and food supply are fraught with hidden chemicals.  Herbicides and pesticides are sprayed regularly on farms, orchards, lawns and gardens.  Industries are dumping their waste products into the water supply, which pollutes the water you drink.  Tons of pharmaceutical and synthetic estrogens secreted by menopausal women pollute our streams and rivers, getting into our drinking water supplies.

And it doesn’t stop there...

The air you breathe is carrying estrogen mimicking chemicals in the form of smoke, soot and exhaust vapors.  The commercial meat and poultry you eat every day is pumped full of hormones and additives that are high in estrogen.

The foreign estrogens found in plastics and pesticides disrupt the natural hormonal cycles of both human and animal life.  The widespread use of genetically-modified foods has exacerbated the xenoestrogen problem.  Glyphosate (the active ingredient in Roundup®, Monsanto’s™ widely-used pesticide) often leaves a residue on the genetically-modified crops it is used on.  And the artificial gene, which has been inserted into every genetically-modified seed, is absorbed and housed within your gastrointestinal tract if you eat GM foods.

During the course of your daily life, you are exposed to a variety of environmental chemicals. It is important to be aware of the most common and most toxic ones, which we'll describe below:

Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) 

GMOs are foods that, in most simple terms, have had an insecticide gene implanted into their DNA, which in many cases is intended to allow them to be resistant to dying from pesticides, thereby allowing the farmers to use MORE pesticides without killing the crop.

The list of genetically-modified foods is growing but primarily includes corn, soy, canola, cottonseed oil, and sugar beets as the main offenders to watch out for.

The most common problem associated with the consumption of GMO foods is an increased incidence of both gastrointestinal and immune disorders.  The regular consumption of GMO foods has also been shown toxic to testicular cells and disruptive to testosterone synthesis.  Recent laboratory studies have proven that male rats fed a genetically-modified diet lose their ability to reproduce within just three generations.

Phthalates 

Phthalates are a group of industrial chemicals used to make plastics, like polyvinyl chloride or PVC, more flexible and resilient. They are found in everything from vinyl flooring, detergents, automotive plastics, soap, shampoo, deodorants, fragrances, hair spray, nail polish, plastic bags, processed food packaging, garden hoses, inflatable toys, blood-storage bags, and intravenous medical tubing.

Phthalates are also one of the most pervasive of the endocrine disrupters.  Studies have shown that exposure to phthalates can lead to incomplete testicular descent, reduced sperm counts, testicular atrophy, and/or structural abnormality and inflammation in newborns.

Bisphenol-A (BPA) 

BPA is a common ingredient in many plastics including those in reusable water bottles and resins lining most food cans and dental sealants.  BPA is primarily used to prevent preserved or canned foods from developing a metallic or plastic taste.  In addition to being used as an inner lining in most canned foods, it can be found in many plastic baby bottles and food storage containers.  Almost all canned foods contain BPA.

This toxin is now so pervasive it can be detected in the umbilical cord blood of 90% of all newborn infants.  Once in the body, BPA mimics estrogen setting the stage for a wide variety of health-related problems that include—but are not limited to—early puberty, infertility, cancer, diabetes, and heart disease.

Parabens 

Parabens are a class of chemicals commonly used as preservatives by cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries.  Like BPA, parabens have estrogen-like properties that lead to similar health and hormonal problems.

Metalloestrogens 

Metalloestrogens are a broad range of metals that also add to the estrogenic burden of the human body.  These metals are added to thousands of consumer products including vaccines.  Research indicates that they are capable of binding to cellular estrogen receptors, mimicking the effects of natural, physiological estrogens.

Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) 

PFOA is a chemical that is makes things resistant to grease and water.  It is used to keep grease from leaking through fast food wrappers and microwave popcorn bags, in non-stick coatings like Teflon, and in water-resistant fabrics like Gore-Tex®.  PFOA is a highly-estrogenic compound that can disrupt your hormones.
It has also been linked to thyroid disease, cancer, immune system problems, and increased LDL cholesterol levels. To make matters worse, PFOAs remain present in the body for many years.

If you use non-stick pots and pans on a daily basis, you may unknowingly be exposing yourself and your family to PFOAs.  In less than five minutes at high temperatures, the coating of non-stick cookware will also break down into a chemical warfare agent known as PFIB, and a chemical analog of the WWII nerve gas phosgene.

Nonylphenol ethoxylates (NPEs) 

NPEs are known to be potent endocrine disrupters.  These chemicals affect gene expression by turning on or off certain genes.  They interfere with the way your glandular system works and mimic the actions of estrogen.  NPEs have been implicated as a key reason why some male marine species have become female.

Fluoride 

Flouride is an industrial waste product, yet it is routinely and purposely added to our water supply to supposedly make our teeth stronger and less prone to cavities.  While topical fluoride will protect teeth at risk, drinking fluoride is akin to swallowing sunscreen to protect our body from getting a burn.

Flouride exposure can lead to many health-related problems including bone and joint pain, immune disorders, lower fertility rates, hormonal imbalances, and low sperm counts.
Make sure you’re using a water filter that removes fluoride.

Bovine growth hormones (rBGH or rBST) 

Bovine growth hormones are genetically engineered and routinely given to industrially-raised cattle, pigs, poultry, and other livestock to increase their growth and fat content.  The concentration of bovine growth hormones is greatest in non-organic, pasteurized dairy products.  A causal link between their consumption and the onset of both premature adolescence and prostate cancer has been scientifically established.

MSG 

MSG is an excitoxin and food additive commonly used to enhance flavor.  MSG itself is not frequently found on food labels because it is often disguised as a “natural flavor”’ or a “spice;”’ as hydrolyzed yeast extract, or a number of other deceptive ingredient names.  The consumption of MSG has been linked to reduced fertility rates, brain disorders, and low testosterone levels.

Needless to say, if you want to protect your manhood and your Testosterone levels, you should do everything you possibly can to minimize your exposure to these 9 chemicals we talked about in this article.

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Health Warning: Can a Cell Phone Carried Regularly in Your Pocket Damage Your _____?

A correlation between cell phone use and testicular cancer, reduced Testosterone levels, lowered seminal volume and sperm count?  Read on to see...
by Mike Geary - Certified Nutrition Specialist, Certified Personal Trainer
Author of best-selling program:  The Truth about 6-Pack Abs

You've probably started hearing in the media about emerging studies showing possible correlations between heavy cell phone use and brain tumors.  But what not many people are talking about is the risk of carrying cell phones in our pockets for hours each day.  This is where it gets even more interesting and a little scary too!
First of all, to both guys and gals... read this article carefully, as it contains some potentially scary health issues related to cell phone use.  And although the examples are geared towards men's issues, I wouldn't trust that it's only men that can experience health issues from heavy cell phone use.
You're also going to want to pass this page on to your friends and family to help them protect their health, and the health of their "crotch"... sounds funny, I know...but this is serious business.

To start, I realize that some people simply don't believe that something as small as a cell phone can give off any radiation levels that could harm your health over time. But we're not talking about immediate harm... we're talking about long term harm from chronic use, which most of us in this day and age use cell phones or have them in our pockets daily.   According to a recent article published on Yahoo Health, and a large health study conducted, the 2010 Interphone study...  "People who chatted via cell for just 30 minutes a day for 10 years saw their risk of glioma (the type of brain tumor that killed Ted Kennedy) rise 40 percent".
I feel like we are all currently in an inadvertent giant human guinea pig study right now with cell phone use.  Not purposely, but simply because cell phones (and another dangerous new phenomenon, our constant exposure to radiation from "wifi" and other wireless technologies) moved onto the scene so fast and infiltrated the entire population over the last 10 years.
Think about it... most of the population has only been using cell phones and wifi heavily for less than 10 years now... that's not a long enough time to know long term consequences (such as 15-30 year cancer risks) and most studies that supposedly "prove" the safety of cell phones have been funded by the telecom industry and have ridiculously low usage levels that they study.
We're definitely finding that the average person has a cell phone either strapped to their ear or carried in a pocket for more hours per day than any studies have any definitive long-term safety data on.
As Tim Ferriss points out in his fascinating new book,  
The 4-Hour Body ..(link to your right)"Most of the studies performed in the US that conclude no negative effect are funded either directly or indirectly (as with many IEEE studies) by cell phone manufacturers and carriers.  Does this prove malfeasance?  No, but it should raise a red flag."
One of the things that scares me about the possible harmful long term effects of carrying a cell phone in my pockets is potential testicular cancer.  I honestly feel that as the years go on, and we get to a level of chronic cell phone use where people have been carrying these things in their pockets for 10 or 15 years or more, we're going to see testicular cancer rates skyrocket.
But cancer risks are long term, and we may not have enough data from studies yet to prove definitive cancer risks such as testicular cancer.  So let's look at more current measurements that can prove health problems associated with cell phone use...
According to Tim Ferriss in his book,  
The 4-Hour Body ... "Lo and behold, jumping from article to article on Medline, there were more than a handful of studies that showed significant decreases in serum testosterone in rats following even moderate exposure (30 minutes per day, 5 days a week, for 4 weeks) to 900 megahertz radio frequency electro-magnetic fields (EMF), which is what most GSM cell phones produce."
Beyond lowering testosterone, can cell phones hurt your "swimmers"?
Tim did some more digging, but this time switched gears from just cell phone effects on lowering testosterone levels, and he began researching cell phone effects on sperm count and function.
Tim continues, "Of the dozens of studies that I found, most done in Europe, more than 70% concluded the same thing: cell phone radiation impairs sperm function."
In The 4-Hour Body, Tim also presents the results of a study he read about male Wistar rats that were exposed to a mobile phone for 1 hour continuously per day for 28 days... the end result of the study was that the mobile phone exposure to the rats significantly reduced the % of motile sperm.  The conclusion was that mobile phones negatively affect semen quality and may impair male fertility.
Think about this... they were only exposed to the mobile phone radiation for 1 hour per day for 28 days, and showed negative effects on sperm count and function.... how many of us out there carry a cell phone in our pocket for like 8-10 hours every day!!!!
Doesn't look good for our "boys", does it?
Now it gets even more interesting... It turns out that Tim first started researching the correlation between low sperm count and cell phone use because he went and got a sperm count test, and found out that his numbers were surprisingly low.
In Tim's words... "the lab results, which were available the afternoon after my session, put my sperm count on the low range of normal, borderline problematic. I couldn't believe it.  Assuming it was a lab mistake, I repeated the drill 3 weeks later and came back with an even lower count. The more tests I did over the next 12 months, the lower the results."
After Tim started researching the effects of cell phone use on sperm count, he realized that for years, he'd been carrying a cell phone in his pocket for about 12 hours per day, most days of the week.
So he decided to do a test...
For 11 weeks, Tim decided that he would no longer carry his cell phone in his pocket... or as he puts it "my phone was no longer allowed to cuddle with my testicles".
Instead, he kept the phone on the other side of the room if working at home, or if he had to go somewhere, he kept his phone either strapped to his arm with an ipod armband, or in a backpack pocket.  If he had to carry it in his pocket, he turned it off, and only turned it back on occasionally to check messages.
He actually performed this test for 11 weeks for a specific reason... sperm production takes an estimated 64 days in humans... so he wanted to wait that long, plus an extra 2 weeks for buffer.
The results of the 11 week "no-cell-phone-in-the-pocket" test:
The numbers are shocking...

• Ejaculate volume:  44% increase
• Motile sperm per milliliter:  100% increase
• Motile sperm per ejaculate:  185% increase

Now Tim admits that his study wasn't perfect, as there may have been other influences that weren't accounted for, such as his diet not being exactly the same during each time period.  However, he feels confident enough that these results speak for themselves.... after all, the results are pretty significant!
Personally, cell phone health issues is also a topic I've been reading a good deal about in the last couple of years.  Whether there's any conclusive evidence of cancer risk from cell phones, perhaps that's still to be determined... but I think we have significant evidence that cell phone use (and particularly carrying it in the pocket) can reduce both Testosterone levels (not good!) and also reduce sperm count and function (also scary!).
And please guys... don't start carrying around 2 cell phones in each pocket as a form of birth control!  All jokes aside, remember that there are possible bigger implications to this than just reduced sperm count... we're talking lower testosterone levels, possible increased cancer risk, etc.
What about women?  Please ladies, I wouldn't trust that health issues are only happening to men... I'm sure there are complications that can happen to women too...so beware ladies!
In fact, on the recent Yahoo Health article, according to David Carpenter, M.D., director of the Institute for Health and Environment at the University at Albany (regarding carrying cell phones near the pelvis, or using laptops on the lap), "For women, the studies aren't quite there yet, but I think we can say that anything that might cause cancer almost always causes birth defects, so pregnant women—or those wanting to become pregnant soon—should take extra precautions."
What I've done to help protect myself from these risks is this:
1. When I'm at home, I keep my cell phone on the other side of my home office, or in another room.  I try not to keep it anywhere near me most of the day.  If I get a call, I simply get up and answer it, the same way that we used to have to walk across the room to answer a phone before the days of mobile phones!
2. In my car, I keep my phone off of my body and put it in the front console or the passenger seat if I don't have a passenger.  The farther away from your body, the better.
3. When I go to the gym, go hiking, biking, etc... I leave that sucker in the car!  I don't want it on my body any longer than it has to be.  After all, I think a LOT of us need to learn how to not be a slave to our cell phones.  The texts and voicemails will be waiting when you're done your hike or your gym workout...don't be a slave to your phone!
4. If I absolutely must carry my cell phone on me, such as if I'm meeting friends out and need to be able to contact them... well, in that case, I simply try to keep the phone out of my pocket as much as possible... if we're at a restaurant, I put the phone on the edge of the table instead of in my pocket, or I just turn it off if I no longer need to get in touch with friends.
5.  Remember that EMF dangers aren't only with cell phones...it also occurs with Wifi, and other wireless devices.  So I also try to never use my laptop on my lap... If I'm at an airport, I usually try to find a table to sit at, so the laptop isn't actually sitting on my "junk".  Also, if possible, I try to use a wired internet connection (ethernet) instead of Wifi or mobile broadband.  In my house, I've also switched to a wired internet connection and gotten rid of the wireless router altogether.
With all of this said, will I ever give up my cell phone?
Well, let's be realistic...the cell phone has become an important part of our lives, and most of us aren't willing to give it up.  However, I plan to take the 5 steps that I listed above to minimize my risk.
I hope you take this issue as seriously as it should be taken.  It's time most of us wake up and realize that we are all inadvertently involving ourselves in a giant human guinea pig study on the risks of chronic cell phone and wifi use.
Thanks to Tim Ferriss and his new 4-Hour Body book (link to your right in blog) for providing some of the tests and info in this article!

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