[SPEAKER_00]: Hello everyone and welcome back to the pod.
[SPEAKER_00]: I hope you're having a nice morning afternoon or evening wherever you are in the world.
[SPEAKER_00]: Today we're talking all things and are kind of disrupting chemicals.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's going to be a gargantuan one.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to need to take lots of big, deep breaths throughout this so we don't lose our minds.
[SPEAKER_00]: But before we get into it, let's pay our respects to the Otis past present and future residing in the lands of literary at Tasmania where I'm recording
[SPEAKER_00]: Before we get stuck in, I just want to take a moment, 30 seconds in fact for our sponsor for this episode that makes it free for you to listen to Indigo Luna.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Let's get into the episode.
[SPEAKER_00]: In this first part of the podcast, we are just going to outline the scale of the problem of endocrine-destructing chemicals.
[SPEAKER_00]: The modern world is what we're living in, what Professor Philippe Grangerine at Harvard calls a chemical pandemic.
[SPEAKER_00]: With over 350,000 synthetic chemicals are registered for commercial use globally, the vast majority have never been tested for their effects on the hormonal system.
[SPEAKER_00]: Generally with these chemicals, what we find out is that there is negative health consequences and then we swap it out for something else that hasn't been tested and generally the consumer base just assumes is safe and that just isn't the case.
[SPEAKER_00]: Professor Leonardo Trezande at NYU put a price tag on the EDC related disease in 2017, Lancet Diabetes,
[SPEAKER_00]: an endocrinology analysis.
[SPEAKER_00]: Get a load of this over 163 billion euros per year in the EU alone and over $340 billion in the US.
[SPEAKER_00]: This current measurable harm is our future risk.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so this isn't a future risk outcome.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, this is how much it costs us in dollars and euros right now in measurable harm.
[SPEAKER_00]: The endocrine society, one of the world's peak body for hormonal health research, published its second scientific statement on EDC's in 2015, which notably is 10 years ago now, and concluded the evidence for harm across a reproduction, metabolism, road function, and cancer is strong.
[SPEAKER_00]: and mounting.
[SPEAKER_00]: They explicitly invoke a precautionary principles.
[SPEAKER_00]: We have notable governing bodies, notable Ivy League schools and notable scientists all saying that there is a mounting and already pre-existing risk that we can put a dollar sign to.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're probably wondering what EDC actually stands for.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I said it before, endocrine disrupting chemical and to cut down on the time it takes to say that I'm going to say EDC.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that's what it means.
[SPEAKER_00]: But what actually is an endocrine-destructing chemical?
[SPEAKER_00]: Because everything is made out of chemicals.
[SPEAKER_00]: One of my biggest boron of contentions is when someone says, oh, there's too many chemicals in that.
[SPEAKER_00]: And like, what do you mean?
[SPEAKER_00]: You're breathing in chemicals.
[SPEAKER_00]: You whole body is made of chemicals.
[SPEAKER_00]: So chemical itself isn't their negative thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Everything is made out of chemicals.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because the whole world, it's basis, is on chemistry.
[SPEAKER_00]: When we talk about EDCs, though, these are chemicals that are known to have endocrine-destructing impacts on the female body.
[SPEAKER_00]: or the human body, I should say.
[SPEAKER_00]: But we are going to be specifically talking about the female body here because this is a female health podcast.
[SPEAKER_00]: An endocrine disrupting chemical is any external substance that interferes with the body's hormonal system.
[SPEAKER_00]: It mimics hormones.
[SPEAKER_00]: It blocks hormone receptors.
[SPEAKER_00]: It can alter how hormones are produced or broken down or changing the epigenetic marks on DNA in ways that can persist and even be passed onto the next generation.
[SPEAKER_00]: When we take into account
[SPEAKER_00]: Something comes to mind a lot of the time is that dose creates the poison, but in fact, that doesn't really count here, even miniscule amounts of endocrine disrupting chemicals can have an insurmountable negative health outcome on the body.
[SPEAKER_00]: The reason why tiny amounts matter is because hormones operate on a picomolar concentration, trillions of a gram per liter of blood.
[SPEAKER_00]: And when we try and use that classical toxicology,
[SPEAKER_00]: of the dose makes the poison.
[SPEAKER_00]: That just does not apply here because many EDCs show stronger effects at lower doses than high doses because they are behaving like hormones not poisons.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that goes on to something else called the cocktail effect.
[SPEAKER_00]: Professor Andreas Corden-Trabb at Bruno University London demonstrated in a landmark 2002 paper that eight Zeno estrogens each individually below its no effect threshold produced significant estrogenic activity when combined.
[SPEAKER_00]: He sprays something from nothing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Zero plus zero plus zero does not equal zero.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the fact of the matter here is that we are never exposed to one of these EDCs at a time.
[SPEAKER_00]: And regulatory risk assessments that evaluate chemicals individually are systematically underestimating the real world exposure as humans in the modern world are experiencing.
[SPEAKER_00]: And right off the top here, we also have to say women carry an excessively higher burden when we talk about endocrine disrupting chemicals in comparison to men.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not saying it doesn't affect men,
[SPEAKER_00]: a significantly higher burden.
[SPEAKER_00]: We know this business is reflected in the literature.
[SPEAKER_00]: Women have a measurably higher body burden of fallates, parabens, tricose lands, and many PFA's compounds in comparison to men.
[SPEAKER_00]: Priorarily, because the personal care and household products marketed are predominantly to women.
[SPEAKER_00]: The average woman applies 9 to 15 personal care products before leaving the house.
[SPEAKER_00]: Each one is a potential EDC exposure and today we follow that burden into the body alongside that who does most of the cleaning in the household really, it's mostly women who is more likely to work at as a nurse who is more likely to work as a nail tech who is more likely to get a job as a cleaner, they're all women and so the chemical exposure of these jobs also have a higher burden
[SPEAKER_00]: of EDC's as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not saying that men are not exposed to it, okay?
[SPEAKER_00]: My partner is a tradie.
[SPEAKER_00]: I worry about the things he's exposed to at work every single day.
[SPEAKER_00]: But when we think about your classical woman who might be working as an outlet, coming home and does the bulk of the cleaning at home, likes to go and have her hair done, likes to do her makeup and feel really nice, there's a lot of chemical exposure here that they are exposed to that men are simply not.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's go into the next part of this podcast and talk about pesticides.
[SPEAKER_00]: There are lots of different types.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's talk about one first.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is called an organocloride.
[SPEAKER_00]: These are persistent and generational.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you didn't know what pesticides were, it's basically a chemical that we use in farming to spray onto crops to stop pests from ingesting that food.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they include DDT, H, C, H,
[SPEAKER_00]: These are the most banned in developed countries decades ago but still measurable in women's blood today because they accumulate and fat and have biological half lives of years to decades.
[SPEAKER_00]: They travel through the food chain into fatty animal products like dairy and fish and you don't actually have to use them for them to carry on.
[SPEAKER_00]: So how can this show up in women's health?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, the first one is enemy triosis.
[SPEAKER_00]: In the Ren's study, spelled W-R-E-N, like the bird, who's in Upson at the University of Washington and Fred Hutchinson, environmental health perspectives in 2013.
[SPEAKER_00]: They surgically confirmed in 248 women, enemy triosis cases, and in 538 controls, women in the higher beta-H-C-H quartile.
[SPEAKER_00]: So
[SPEAKER_00]: pesticide.
[SPEAKER_00]: So women who had more of this pesticide exposure had a 1.7 times the odds of developing endometriosis overall and 2.5 times the odds of a variant endometriosis specifically.
[SPEAKER_00]: When we introduce a different pesticide called mirex that raised the risk by 50%.
[SPEAKER_00]: So these are really significant numbers for a condition that takes an average of 7 to 10 years to diagnose.
[SPEAKER_00]: So for these two pesticides we know there is an increased risk of the development of endometriosis.
[SPEAKER_00]: going on from that, there is the Savesa Women's Health Study held by Brenda Eskenazi at UC Berkeley, and this followed the women of Savesa in Italy since in 1976 industrial dioxin explosion.
[SPEAKER_00]: And this was the biggest exposure that human populations had ever had to this pesticide dioxin.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so this study followed the women from the group of the population who were exposed to it for years and they measured their health outcomes.
[SPEAKER_00]: They published this in Human Reproduction of 2021, and it showed a 10-fold increase in Serum TCDD, and that was associated with a 25% reduction in monthly conception, probability, doubled the odds of taking 12 or more months to conceive.
[SPEAKER_00]: 2002, paper, found double the endometriosis risk above 100 parts per trillion of this pesticide dioxin.
[SPEAKER_00]: This was one industrial accident and decades of reproductive consequences.
[SPEAKER_00]: and that really speaks to how these EDCs can impact our DNA and epigenetics and what we pass on to the next generation.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it also speaks to the fact that these pesticides stay around.
[SPEAKER_00]: Some of these pesticides, especially if they are fat soluble, will stay around and their half life might be 15 or 20 years.
[SPEAKER_00]: and you might think, okay, 15 or 20 years for it to leave.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, it takes 15 to 20 years for it to reach half the level it was at the original exposure, which means you could technically pass it onto your kids or it could be in the environment where you are living and you could possibly be exposed to it as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: Speaking about modern pesticides and fatalities in the Earth study in Jama International Medicine in 2017, 225 women undergoing IVF at Massachusetts General Hospital, women eating two or more daily servings of the EWG dirty dozen in high pesticide produce had 18% lower pregnancy probability and 26% lower live birth rate.
[SPEAKER_00]: replacing one of the high-residue servings with a low-residue alternative was associated with an 80% higher probability of successful pregnancy.
[SPEAKER_00]: So what this basically is talking about the EWG dirty dozen and cleaned 15 if you haven't heard about it.
[SPEAKER_00]: EWG every single year does residue testing on the pesticide residue in fruits and vegetables.
[SPEAKER_00]: and it points out the dirty dozen.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so these very often are spinach, strawberries, berries, and so they're basically foods that have a really high residue of pesticides, and then they have the clean 15.
[SPEAKER_00]: So the 15 that you don't really need to worry about buying organic, because they have really, really low pesticide residue.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so what this study looked at was if we find women who are in IVF clinics and they're having problems falling pregnant, we're going to see if they eat
[SPEAKER_00]: And if halfway through this study, we changed that to a fruit that has a low pesticide residue, what outcomes do that does that have for fertility?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's changing one piece of fruit a day.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's really quite minimal in a change, really, isn't it?
[SPEAKER_00]: And that increase the probability of pregnancy above 80 percent.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's pretty significant.
[SPEAKER_00]: And this is one of the most impactful diet fertility findings in peer-reviewed literature to date.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're probably wondering, when am I going to talk about glyphosate, I'm talking about it right now.
[SPEAKER_00]: glyphosate is something that I want to do an entire podcast episode on because it is just a really horrific water-based pesticide which basically means it can go everywhere.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's present in over 94% of pregnant women tested in 2021 in Indiana co-hort studies,
[SPEAKER_00]: and that IARC classified it as a probable human coscinogen in 2015.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, glyphosate.
[SPEAKER_00]: The thing we sprayed down to lines with causes cancer.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and the reason why it causes cancer is because it inhibits aromatase, the enzyme that produces estrogen in human liver and placental cells at concentrations well below agricultural use levels, which basically means it negatively impacts
[SPEAKER_00]: by way of a Roma taste and those tests were done on pesticide levels below what farmers use on their crops.
[SPEAKER_00]: Next, let's talk about flame retardants.
[SPEAKER_00]: This isn't something that I think is on the frame of mind of a lot of young women.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's flame retardants and when and where they are used in the household.
[SPEAKER_00]: And in this section, also, we're going to be looking at poofers.
[SPEAKER_00]: First, let's talk about PBDEs.
[SPEAKER_00]: This stands for Polybrominated Diaphold Esters, and they were added to foam furniture, mattresses, electronics, and children's clothing for decades.
[SPEAKER_00]: The USA actually used them at roughly 10 times the European levels.
[SPEAKER_00]: driven by California's fires, safety standards.
[SPEAKER_00]: But most of these have now been phased out, thank Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: But because they leech into house dust and accumulate in fact, they are still present in bodies and homes long after the products were discontinued.
[SPEAKER_00]: Kim Harley and Brenda Eskenazi.
[SPEAKER_00]: Brenda Eskenazi came a lot in my lit review.
[SPEAKER_00]: She has been doing a lot in this space, shout out to you, Brenda.
[SPEAKER_00]: At UC Berkeley, environmental health perspectives, which was published in
[SPEAKER_00]: Among 223 pregnant women, each a 10-fold increase in serum PBDEs was associated with a 30% decrease in monthly odds of conception.
[SPEAKER_00]: Also alongside this 1.9 times higher odds of sub-clinical hyperthyroidism in pregnancy and even sub-clinical thyroid distribution during pregnancy is associated with increased mass carriage and impaired fetal brain development.
[SPEAKER_00]: So what they basically
[SPEAKER_00]: was when women were exposed to PBDEs, which are these flame retardants in the home.
[SPEAKER_00]: They had a higher likelihood of developing hyperthyroidism in pregnancy that has negative health outcomes for both mother and fetus, and it also decreased the odds of fatality.
[SPEAKER_00]: So 30% decreased odds of falling pregnant within a month.
[SPEAKER_00]: These EDCs have also been shown to negatively impact puberty of young women.
[SPEAKER_00]: In the 2017 chemicals paper, they found that higher prenatal or PBDE exposure was associated with later menarking girls, whilst simultaneously causing earlier puberty hair development,
[SPEAKER_00]: the normal coordination of pubular hormones are so dissociated by chemical interference.
[SPEAKER_00]: Next, let's talk about poofers, also known as the Forever Chemicals.
[SPEAKER_00]: Poofers don't break down in the body or the environment, which is why they are called Forever Chemicals.
[SPEAKER_00]: Poofers actually have a half-life of three to six years in the body, and PFOA is up to five years.
[SPEAKER_00]: They are in non-stick cookware, water proof text styles,
[SPEAKER_00]: Approximately 110 million Americans have poofers contaminated tap water as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is everywhere.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, so how does it impact women's health?
[SPEAKER_00]: So first let's talk about early menopause.
[SPEAKER_00]: And this was shown in the Swan Study, which was done by Ning Ding and Swan Park at University of Michigan in JCM in 2020.
[SPEAKER_00]: and they looked in 1120 pre-menopause or women.
[SPEAKER_00]: And what they found was her levels of poofers.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're associated with 63% increased risk of early menopause.
[SPEAKER_00]: Equivalent two menopause arriving approximately two years earlier.
[SPEAKER_00]: Every year of early and menopause increases cardiovascular and osteoporosis risk.
[SPEAKER_00]: Poofers also negatively impact women in birth outcomes.
[SPEAKER_00]: especially in the increased risk of the development of pre-eclampsia.
[SPEAKER_00]: This was found in the C8 Health Project, the largest ever conducted on a specific industrial chemical.
[SPEAKER_00]: They they looked at 69,000 residents near due point PFOA contaminated West Virginia plants.
[SPEAKER_00]: And this independent science panel established a probable link between the poofers and pregnancy induced hypertension and preeclampsia are approximately 40% higher in the highest exposure groups.
[SPEAKER_00]: So the more women are exposed to poofers, the higher the likelihood that they were going to develop preeclampsia.
[SPEAKER_00]: And let's just talk about poofers in menstrual products.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is a thing that I think is just the scariest.
[SPEAKER_00]: Graham Peasley at University of Notre Dame tested over 100 menstrual products and incontinence products in 2023.
[SPEAKER_00]: Approximately half had detectable poofers and around a third of period underwear showed levels consistent with an intentional addition.
[SPEAKER_00]: some exceeding a thousand parts per million.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's the thinks huge lawsuit.
[SPEAKER_00]: Remember how things that underwear company, they said in their marketing on their website, on the actual packaging of their period underwear, where then we're selling them to women.
[SPEAKER_00]: It said that they had no poofers, and that's what caused that huge lawsuit.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that huge problem in that huge kind of outrage, which is why if you have things underweb, please throw them in the bin.
[SPEAKER_00]: And maybe even look up a class action lawsuit
[SPEAKER_00]: have some money back paid to you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Going on from Graham Peasley's study from Notre Dame, subsequent independent testing found poofers indicated in 65% of period underwear and 48% of pads and panty liners.
[SPEAKER_00]: Volvo and vaginal tissue is estimated to be at least 10 times more absorptive than 4 arm skin.
[SPEAKER_00]: A woman spends approximately 2,540 days menstruating over her lifetime.
[SPEAKER_00]: The product choice here is not neutral, you need to be.
[SPEAKER_00]: very careful on what menstrual products you use and you need to vet the companies that you are using and make sure that they don't have any proofers because this area of your body is really highly absorptive.
[SPEAKER_00]: Next, let's talk about phallates.
[SPEAKER_00]: Everyone became really interested in phallates after Dr. Shanna Swan's book Countdown came out.
[SPEAKER_00]: I actually read and listened to this book on the lead up to this podcast just to make sure I knew everything I needed to know.
[SPEAKER_00]: if you wanted to read that book, it's available on audible.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's how I listen to it.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's pretty overwhelming.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll put the link in the description if you want to read it, but she is one of the main researchers in this space and she's talked really openly about phallates and she's done a lot of education work around phallates as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: So if you wanted to learn more about phallates, I'm not going to be doing a whole podcast on them.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm just going to be doing a short section, but that is a huge, huge, huge rabbit hole that you can go down.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, so what are phallates and where
[SPEAKER_00]: Fallates are plasticisers, so they are added to PVC to make it soft and flexible.
[SPEAKER_00]: DE HP is found in food packaging, cling film, PVC flooring and medical tubing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, some of the medical devices that we use are ridden with fallates.
[SPEAKER_00]: DEP, die author Fallate, is a fragrance carrier.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is one of the many reasons why IVF doctors do not wear.
[SPEAKER_00]: any perfume that contains valet because it can decrease fertility outcomes which will get to.
[SPEAKER_00]: It hides in the word fragrance or perfume on every single cosmetic or personal care product label.
[SPEAKER_00]: Perfume, body lotion, shampoo, fabric, softener, air freshener.
[SPEAKER_00]: If it has a synthetic scent, it is likely DEP.
[SPEAKER_00]: It has a half life of hours to days, which is both bad news and good news.
[SPEAKER_00]: So the bad news is that with Fallates, we are constantly being exposed to it.
[SPEAKER_00]: We don't just use a Fallate Ridden product once a day.
[SPEAKER_00]: Women are spritzing themselves with a perfume every single day because it's water soluble we pee it out and our body is really good at getting rid of it, but it means that we're consistently exposing ourselves to it.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it doesn't really matter that it's half-life is so little because phallates are we're exposed to them all the time and so many different products.
[SPEAKER_00]: Fast food consumers have approximately 35% higher DE HP metabolite levels than those who
[SPEAKER_00]: any fast food.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's because falades in processing equipment and packaging migrate into the fatty food during preparation.
[SPEAKER_00]: The food itself is often not the issue.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's the container and how that food was prepared in fast food giant restaurants.
[SPEAKER_00]: The main negative outcome that falades have for women's health is their negative impacts on a very and health.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the thing about this is that women are born with all the ovums they'll ever have in their entire lives.
[SPEAKER_00]: which is in stark contrast to men who produce 1 to 2 million sperm at a zoo every single day.
[SPEAKER_00]: They consistently make sperm, which means men can recover from endocrine disruption and exposure a lot quicker than women can.
[SPEAKER_00]: And there are some experts out there who will say that women will never recover.
[SPEAKER_00]: Once their ovums are damaged, they are damaged.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so that's the main problem with falades.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's also the problem with women is because they are exposed more falades
[SPEAKER_00]: and it can negatively impact ovarian reserve.
[SPEAKER_00]: So in this one cohort of 2023, doubling DE HP metabolite levels was associated with a 13 to 16% reduction in AMH, which is the primary marker of remaining ovarian reserve, and this is in midlife women not IVF patients.
[SPEAKER_00]: Population level ovarian aging is trackable through EDC exposure, and specifically the EDC we're talking
[SPEAKER_00]: We can also see a negative outcome on IVF.
[SPEAKER_00]: In the Harvard Earth study, was the Air and Chavaro.
[SPEAKER_00]: They looked at 256 women, the 175 IVF cycles.
[SPEAKER_00]: So in the highest fall rate exposure quartile, they found lower u of site yield throughout mature eggs, or clinical pregnancy rate, for a live birth rate, and of follow-up of this,
[SPEAKER_00]: in 2019 found an IQR increase in the DEHP mixture score was associated with a 41% lot higher probability of cycle failure before live birth.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's 10% higher pregnancy love, loss but for 20 weeks.
[SPEAKER_00]: in the higher DEHP quarter.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, what does this mean in layman's terms?
[SPEAKER_00]: So basically, women who had a higher exposure to this fellow, DEHP, they had lower ulcer yield.
[SPEAKER_00]: So ulcerides are also your ovums.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so when you're going through an IVF cycle, I have a whole podcast on IVF.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you want to go on listen to that with an amazing IVF doctor, doctor Rebecca Mackenzie Proctor.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you want to learn about that,
[SPEAKER_00]: When we are going through IVF where basically, amping up the body's hormones and amping up the body's ability to mature multiple ovums at a time.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then we take those ovums and then we fertilize them and insert them back into the woman in a very lots and lots of different ways.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's lots of different ways that you can do it.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the more oosites that you can get, the better IVF outcomes and what they found in these women,
[SPEAKER_00]: is that the more phallets they were exposed to, the less ooze sites they actually matured, and they also just weren't the greatest ovums.
[SPEAKER_00]: They just weren't really effective at holding onto a pregnancy and miscarriage rates were really, really high as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: Phallets also increased the incidence of women developing endometriosis and PCOS.
[SPEAKER_00]: In a 2019 meta-analysis, they found significant positive associations between total phallate metabolites
[SPEAKER_00]: So when we look at this, mechanistically, phallates drive a rheumatase overexpression in ectopic tissue and activate TGF beta inflammatory pathways, which is the exact biology that sustains endometriosis lesion growth.
[SPEAKER_00]: And in PCOS, multiple studies find higher phallate levels in women with a condition with molecular connections to the genes governing androgen production in thicker cells.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's move on to the next section, which is really popular at the moment and I think I'm very personally interested in this as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's your clothing wearing plastic and how this can effect your endocrine system.
[SPEAKER_00]: And this is a good moment to pop back to Indigo Luna for a second, because what we've been discussing makes this really relevant.
[SPEAKER_00]: Most of us do not think about what our clothes are made of, but when you're wearing synthetic fibers against your skin all day, every day, this really matters for your health.
[SPEAKER_00]: In to go lunar works with fabrics like OE, K-O-Tex certified organic cotton and plant viscos, meaning they are plant derived natural fibers and they are tested against thousands of harmful substances.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's slow fashion but with a really great intention behind it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Use code soft to choice at checkout for 10% off.
[SPEAKER_00]: Before we talk about polyester clothing and just synthetic fibers, generally, I think we need to talk about the scale of synthetic fiber exposure.
[SPEAKER_00]: Polyester is made from petroleum.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that accounts for over 51% of global fiber production.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that is approximately 70% of modern clothing contains synthetic fibers.
[SPEAKER_00]: When you wear active wear, fast fashion basics or swimwear, you are wearing a petroleum-derived product against your skin for often 8 to 12 hours at a time.
[SPEAKER_00]: And what we know about synthetic clothing is that synthetic clothing tends to shed more when we are wearing it as opposed to when we wash it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Zoologica and Amdohan, they found in 2020 that wearing poliester sheds approximately
[SPEAKER_00]: per person per year into the surrounding air.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's compared to around 300 million through washing.
[SPEAKER_00]: You shed more through wearing than laundering.
[SPEAKER_00]: And as I said before, you shed more of this synthetic fiber around you and you're inhaling it on your skin in comparison to washing it.
[SPEAKER_00]: The anelo and his colleagues in 2019 estimated that up to 272 microplastic particles are inhaled per person per 24 hours indoors with polyester dominating at 81% of it.
[SPEAKER_00]: So what I'm saying here is the biggest risk associated with polyester is actually what we're breathing in.
[SPEAKER_00]: The other one is what the skin absorbs.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the concern here is not just about the polyester fiber, it's actually what the fiber is actually carrying.
[SPEAKER_00]: So most synthetic textiles are manufactured with flame retardants, poofers as waterproofing agents, which is the big thing with period underwear, is because we need to waterproof it to a certain degree.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's why they were used in period underwear.
[SPEAKER_00]: They also used in plasticisers, dyes, resins and catalysts to basically formulate a certain look or of the garment, a certain texture or overlaying art or dying in a certain way.
[SPEAKER_00]: And many are applied to skin facing surfaces.
[SPEAKER_00]: So when you sweat, when there's heat, when there's friction and occlusion from tight fitting garments, all of these can increase dermal absorption.
[SPEAKER_00]: In 2024, the University of Birmingham demonstrated that five specific PBDE compounds leaked from microplastics in sweat across the skin barrier into the equivalent bloodstream.
[SPEAKER_00]: Your active wear, if it contains bromalinated flame retardants, is delivering them transdermally every single time you sweat.
[SPEAKER_00]: And most active wear,
[SPEAKER_00]: have these flame retardants included in them.
[SPEAKER_00]: Another one is poofers specifically in sports leggings and sports bras.
[SPEAKER_00]: Environmental health news testing in 2022 found detectable poofers in 25% of leggings and approximately 66% of sports bras with concentrations in highest levels in the nipple and front panel areas, suggesting intentional additions.
[SPEAKER_00]: The center for
[SPEAKER_00]: is up to 19 times the California Prop 65 limits in polyester spandex sports bras from multiple major brands.
[SPEAKER_00]: Lulu Lemon is now being investigated.
[SPEAKER_00]: At the moment, like now, Lulu Lemon is being investigated in California for this very reason.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the thing that's really concerning about this is that these chemicals are exposed to sweaty areas in the breast.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so we don't know if there's any association,
[SPEAKER_00]: between these chemicals and the exposure of them in long-term periods of time and women developing breast cancer foods.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, so what do I choose instead?
[SPEAKER_00]: I would highly suggest natural fibers with a certification.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, God certifies cotton, hemp, linen, and tensor, which is wool, silk, they produce no microplastics.
[SPEAKER_00]: They carry none of the petrochemical,
[SPEAKER_00]: additive burden and they don't buy it a great.
[SPEAKER_00]: So the gods explicitly banned all poofers for maldehyde, antimony and phallates and most azo dyes across the entire production chain.
[SPEAKER_00]: O-E-K-O tax standard, 100 tests in the finished garment against a thousand substances and from January 24th, 24 bands all intentional poofers.
[SPEAKER_00]: so you want to be looking for God's certified and then you also want to be looking at if that company has used the Okero text standard 100 tests to make sure and certify that their garments are safe to wear and don't have these chemicals laid in inside of them.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I'm not saying Chuck out your entire wardrobe, I think for a lot of people, specifically in this economy, that's just not actually viable.
[SPEAKER_00]: What I would highly suggest is prioritizing some swaps and then slowly swapping things out as you live your life.
[SPEAKER_00]: So start with the closest fitting, longest worn garments, so sports bras, leggings, active wear and underwear.
[SPEAKER_00]: So watch new garments, one to three times before first wear to remove finishing residues as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: and for any remaining synthetics that you just want to keep in your wardrobe, I get it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I get it after a few pieces like that just between you and me.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can use a guppy friend washing bag that captures 54 to 90% of shed microfibers, but again, we have to keep in mind that most of the polyester shedding is not happening in the washing machine.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's happening on you.
[SPEAKER_00]: something that's really practical that you can do every time you go out, up shopping, every time you go out to a new shop, just make sure that you're making sure you prioritize cotton, making sure you're prioritizing if you want to invest in a new gown or something new, just make sure it's got certified for example.
[SPEAKER_00]: My partner and I were in Sydney recently and my partner wanted to go to Uniclo and you know it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Uniclo is not amazing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like 70% of that shop is plastic.
[SPEAKER_00]: But they do have 100% cotton options.
[SPEAKER_00]: Are they got certified?
[SPEAKER_00]: No, they're not.
[SPEAKER_00]: But if you're on a budget and that's all you have available to you.
[SPEAKER_00]: These big chains are now catering to people who just want a lower
[SPEAKER_00]: and a crime, disrupting chemical burdens, so there are options there, they're not perfect, but they're better than wearing polyester.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's talk about microplastics, specifically microplastics found in women's bodies.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, where is microplastics being found?
[SPEAKER_00]: The placenta, the blood, follicular fluid, and the endometrium.
[SPEAKER_00]: In 2021, Regusa at Al in Rome in environmental international in 2021, they found that microplastic fragments were found in four of six human placenters on the fetal and maternal sides.
[SPEAKER_00]: And in 2022, when they followed this up, they found particles inside the cells between the exchange layer of the maternal and fetal circulation, not just in the tissue, inside the cell.
[SPEAKER_00]: So intracellular.
[SPEAKER_00]: So we have found
[SPEAKER_00]: in both fetal and maternal sides.
[SPEAKER_00]: And now we found it inside of the cells in the middle of this area as well, which is very concerning.
[SPEAKER_00]: We've also found microplastics in the blood, as I said before, Leslie at L in University Abstadam in Environmental International 2022 studies, 77% of 22 healthy blood donors had detectable microplastics at a main concentration of 1.6 micrograms per
[SPEAKER_00]: PET polyester was the most abundant polymer.
[SPEAKER_00]: So they have found polyester in the blood tissue of human beings.
[SPEAKER_00]: Microplastics are in systemic circulation and they carry to every single organ in the body.
[SPEAKER_00]: They've also found it in follicular fluids.
[SPEAKER_00]: In mentera at al-Rome exatology and environmental safety of 2025 was studied just last year.
[SPEAKER_00]: 78% of women undergoing IVF had microplastics in nephilicular fluid.
[SPEAKER_00]: The fluid directly surrounding each developing egg.
[SPEAKER_00]: at an average of 2,191 particles per milliliter.
[SPEAKER_00]: The concentration correlated positively with FSH levels.
[SPEAKER_00]: We've also found microplastics in the endometrium.
[SPEAKER_00]: So the endometrium is that layer that basically fills up with blood inside of your uterus.
[SPEAKER_00]: At picking university third hospital in environmental science and technology published in 2024, a hundred percent
[SPEAKER_00]: of 22 endometrial tissue samples contained microplastics.
[SPEAKER_00]: Mouse experiments in the same study showed that microplastic exposure caused endometrial inflammation, apoptosis, and reduced fertility.
[SPEAKER_00]: In humans, microplastic exposure showed disrupted growth at statistically significant levels.
[SPEAKER_00]: And remembering as well, this is the tissue that the embryo implants into.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is the tissue that the placenta grows out of.
[SPEAKER_00]: Again, this study only had 22 participants.
[SPEAKER_00]: So we can't just get super, super concerned.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's concerning that we found it, but we don't know the scope, we don't know the range, and we don't know how many people have this.
[SPEAKER_00]: This needs to be replicated with a far larger sample size of human beings.
[SPEAKER_00]: It can't just be off rat studies.
[SPEAKER_00]: rats and humans, you know, there's a reason why we study rats and mice, it's because they're kind of similar to us, but they are not humans.
[SPEAKER_00]: We need to study humans and we need to study way more humans and replicate this study.
[SPEAKER_00]: So you're probably wondering how does this happen?
[SPEAKER_00]: How do microplastics get into the body?
[SPEAKER_00]: I think when we think about plastic, we think of it as an object and therefore we think of it as inert and so it doesn't actually have
[SPEAKER_00]: any chutney to can't actually do anything in the body.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's just this inert thing that just happens to be places.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I just really want you to know that that is not the case.
[SPEAKER_00]: Acroplastics are not inert.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're hydrophobic services, concentrate, persistent organic pollutants.
[SPEAKER_00]: So fallates, BPA, poofers, and P-B-D-E.
[SPEAKER_00]: So there's a flame retardants from surrounding tissues.
[SPEAKER_00]: When a particle reaches a target tissue, it releases a chemical cargo locally.
[SPEAKER_00]: So microplastics have
[SPEAKER_00]: On top of microplastics being possibly endocrine disrupting here and of themselves, plastics are known to be estrogenic.
[SPEAKER_00]: The particles on this microplastic and the microplastic itself, you could argue directly trigger oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction and chronic inflammation.
[SPEAKER_00]: The smallest nanoparticle is can also cross cell membranes entirely.
[SPEAKER_00]: The particle and its chemical passengers can cause harm simultaneously, and we found them
[SPEAKER_00]: Intracellularly, we have found plastics inside of the cell.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so there are a lot of researchers out there saying that plastic is the Trojan horse for all of these other EDC.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have touched on women's health in little bits throughout this, but I think let's just talk about it as it's our own chapter.
[SPEAKER_00]: So let's talk about fertility, endometriosis, and PCOS.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's start with fertility and the HPO axis.
[SPEAKER_00]: So you'll hyperthalamic pituitary ovarian axis.
[SPEAKER_00]: So your hypothalamus is a gland in your brain.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is kind of like the mother hormone center and regulator.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it sends a hormone to the P2H3 gland called gonadotribin-releasing hormone.
[SPEAKER_00]: That can release FSH and L-H, which are both the precursors to estrogen and progesterine.
[SPEAKER_00]: A lot of scientists and researchers will say the biggest sexual organ in a human being is the brain for this reason.
[SPEAKER_00]: So the connection between your hypothalamus, your protruding gland on your ovary is a really really important axis.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it governs so many other things in the body.
[SPEAKER_00]: As I was saying before, that hate to be your axis determines the hormonal cycle and where we are in the cycle and how well that cycle is going.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so generally what happens is this.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hypothalamus releases Giana H, GNR H goes down to bituotry.
[SPEAKER_00]: Petuitary gland releases FSH.
[SPEAKER_00]: FSH travels through the blood system, goes to the ovary, stimulates the ovary to stimulate ovums.
[SPEAKER_00]: These ovums release estrogen.
[SPEAKER_00]: Estrogen goes into the blood system reaches a high set point when one of those ovums is about to ovulate and it's fully mature.
[SPEAKER_00]: that signals to the hypothalamus.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hey, we're about to have a cycle.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that signals to the hypothalamus.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hey, we're about to ovulate.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hypothalamus goes great.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to release G&R H again.
[SPEAKER_00]: That goes next door to your petrature gland.
[SPEAKER_00]: That releases LH this time.
[SPEAKER_00]: LH travels through the blood system and goes and breaks down the membrane of the follicle and the ovary and we ovulate.
[SPEAKER_00]: After we ovulate,
[SPEAKER_00]: The follicle, the left over follicle, is now called the corpuslidium that produce and progesterone.
[SPEAKER_00]: If we don't feel pregnant, progesterone falls, that signals for the cervix to open, and that signals for your hypothalamus to start releasing G and R-h to release FSH and the whole cycle begins again.
[SPEAKER_00]: Quite an intricate cycle.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's perfectly designed.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's designed to stop unwanted pregnancy if we are in a really, really stressful environment.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is designed to hold off on ovulation if we're experiencing stress, as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: Your hypothalamus is also keeping an eye on everything in your body.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it knows when to stop a cycle and it governs your entire cycle.
[SPEAKER_00]: But there's also this feedback loop that's happening between your hypothalamus, but to a cherry and your ovarian axis.
[SPEAKER_00]: So where do EDCs and microplastics play into this?
[SPEAKER_00]: EDCs interfere at literally every single level of the chain that I just explained.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it disrupts G&R H pulses.
[SPEAKER_00]: It confuses FSH and LH signaling.
[SPEAKER_00]: It impairs follicle recruitment and estradiol production.
[SPEAKER_00]: It disrupts LH surges and pulses.
[SPEAKER_00]: It shortens the lusual phase.
[SPEAKER_00]: It accelerates follicle pool depletion, so lower AMH.
[SPEAKER_00]: that shows up as higher miscarriage rates to anovulatory cycles to just straight out in facility.
[SPEAKER_00]: Menstrual disruption across cohorts is really interesting.
[SPEAKER_00]: So when we look at higher EDC exposure, fallates in earth study, poofers in the swan and enumender cohorts, dioxin,
[SPEAKER_00]: All of these consistently are associated with longer cycles, irregular cycles, missed periods, increased dysm period, which is painful periods.
[SPEAKER_00]: These are population level effects not findings confined to an occupatory exposed groups.
[SPEAKER_00]: So many studies following women for long periods of time have found these associations.
[SPEAKER_00]: When we look at menstrual products again, so DEHP has been measured in conventional pads
[SPEAKER_00]: at 0.58 to 1.44 milligrams per gram.
[SPEAKER_00]: VPA has been detected in 92% of tampon samples in one published review.
[SPEAKER_00]: again, Volvo and vaginal micmucosa and the same tissue used to deliver hormone replacement therapy, trans terminally and again, just to reiterate, your Volvo and your vagina are really, really, really good at absorbing things.
[SPEAKER_00]: So if you are using tampons, pads, period, underwear and just underwear that contain these chemicals, you are absorbing it and it is going very close to your reproductive organs.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's talk about endometriosis.
[SPEAKER_00]: In the foundational animal study from published by Rhea, first, first, let's look at the foundational animal study, Rhea at L in 1993.
[SPEAKER_00]: I do have to say, this is a significantly old study.
[SPEAKER_00]: They found Rises Monkeys fed TCDD dioxin for four years at 25 parts per trillion.
[SPEAKER_00]: 71% developed moderate to severe endometriosis versus 33% of controls.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is dose dependent, and it was the first experimental evidence that an environmental chemical could cause endometriosis in a primate model, and it redirected decades of subsequent research.
[SPEAKER_00]: Again, recess monkeys are not human beings, but then we found other studies in human beings where we
[SPEAKER_00]: there was a higher likelihood of those women having endometriosis versus control groups who didn't have endometriosis.
[SPEAKER_00]: It would be very, very, very, very fucking unethical to grab a thousand women and to give 500 of them this endocrine disrupting chemical and not give the other, this endocrine disrupting chemical and see who developed endometriosis.
[SPEAKER_00]: That would be
[SPEAKER_00]: that would be really horrible.
[SPEAKER_00]: Going on from that BPA, there's a association between BPA and Intemitriosis.
[SPEAKER_00]: Cabelis and colleagues found BPA in 51.7% of women in their serum blood levels from Intemitriosis cases versus 0% of controls.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to repeat that again.
[SPEAKER_00]: In endometriosis patients, they found women who had endometriosis, 51.7% of them had BPA in their bloodstream, and all of the controls that did not have endometriosis had 0%.
[SPEAKER_00]: At 2020, Chinese study found 4.92 times the odds of endometriosis in the third urinary PPA quartile.
[SPEAKER_00]: In Upson's Ren study, you probably wondering how this can happen.
[SPEAKER_00]: Endocrine disrupting chemicals BPA specifically can drive endometriosis by inducing aromotace in a topic tissue.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, a topic tissue is tissue that should not be there.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, endometriosis tissue in other areas of the body is a topic endometrial tissue.
[SPEAKER_00]: Endometrial tissue that should not be there.
[SPEAKER_00]: And in that tissue, they found up-regulated aromotace activity.
[SPEAKER_00]: Arromotace turns testosterone into estrogen.
[SPEAKER_00]: If we have too much aromotace activity,
[SPEAKER_00]: and high-estrodial levels E2 levels are associated with the development of endometriosis.
[SPEAKER_00]: But what this study is suggesting is that higher BPA levels can turn on a room taste and that means more estrodial, which means there is a higher likelihood
[SPEAKER_00]: The endometrial tissue is going to be formed from higher BPA level exposure.
[SPEAKER_00]: And what about PCOS and BPA?
[SPEAKER_00]: So in 2011, there was 71 women with PCOS versus 100 controls.
[SPEAKER_00]: When they tested Serum BPA, it was 1.05 versus 0.72 nanograms per milliliter, which was really highly significant.
[SPEAKER_00]: So what that basically is saying is that women with PCOS had a Serum BPA level of 1.05.
[SPEAKER_00]: nanograms per milliliter, he comparison to women who didn't have PCOS at 0.72 nanograms per milliliter, and that's statistically significant difference between those levels.
[SPEAKER_00]: Being women with PCOS had 60% higher BPA than lean controls.
[SPEAKER_00]: BPA correlated with higher testosterone, adrenal steroid.
[SPEAKER_00]: and insulin resistance.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the proposed mechanism here is a chemical feedback loop.
[SPEAKER_00]: But elevated antigens impaired BPA clearance, BPA therefore accumulates in the body, which drives further hydrogen production in the thicker cells.
[SPEAKER_00]: What about poofers and PCOS?
[SPEAKER_00]: In 2021, there was a study published in Environmental International.
[SPEAKER_00]: They looked at 18,503 women in a poofers contaminated Swedish water supply.
[SPEAKER_00]: was 2.18 at highest exposure, more than doubled the risk in prospective population data.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that study looked at a group of Swedish women who had been exposed to high poofa, and they found that the women who had the highest contamination rate in their serum levels,
[SPEAKER_00]: had a higher rate, 2.18 of developing PCOS.
[SPEAKER_00]: I spoke lightly before about fertility and pregnancy outcomes, but I'd like to zoom in a little bit more on pregnancy and the daughters born of women who have been exposed to EDC.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's start with pregnancy complications.
[SPEAKER_00]: Number one is preterm birth.
[SPEAKER_00]: So Ferguson, Micya and McLeath in the life codes, which was published in Jammer Pediatrics.
[SPEAKER_00]: So in the highest quartile of women with DE HP exposure, they had approximately twice the odds of a preterm birth.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the mechanism that explained this was confirmed as oxidative stress in placental tissue.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's also increased risk of preeclampsia and gestational diabetes, so C8 science panel.
[SPEAKER_00]: 40% higher per year claims their risk in the highest poofah quartile and in a 2026 meta-analysis.
[SPEAKER_00]: So this year, very new, they analyze a 129 studies.
[SPEAKER_00]: And what they found in this meta-analysis is that every time there was a doubled risk of exposure of poofas, that was associated with a 13% higher odds of
[SPEAKER_00]: developing gestational diabetes, going on from that again, miscarriage.
[SPEAKER_00]: Lanthi, Vomsal, Baker from Stanford.
[SPEAKER_00]: This was published in fertility and stability in 2014, 2015, 11 years old.
[SPEAKER_00]: I will give you that.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a pretty old study.
[SPEAKER_00]: Women in the highest serum BPA quartile had 80% higher the risk of pregnancy loss, so miscarriage, risk ratio of 1.83.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's pretty significant.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's so sad.
[SPEAKER_00]: Harvard found a 60% higher loss
[SPEAKER_00]: before 20 weeks in the highest DE HP quartile and the pathway and mechanistic idea around this is that the egg and the embryo quality are chemically damaged before they are embryos and then because the embryos have then probably more higher risk of chromosomal abnormalities, they are therefore at a higher risk of miscarriage.
[SPEAKER_00]: So most of the miscarriages that taste
[SPEAKER_00]: chromosomal abnormalities before they were even embryos.
[SPEAKER_00]: So again, eggs will sequester damage over time from endocrine disrupting chemicals, and they cannot repair, we cannot regenerate them as much as Spamarozoa from men.
[SPEAKER_00]: What about the girls born of women who are exposed to
[SPEAKER_00]: women who have a higher exposure of EDCs.
[SPEAKER_00]: So earlier minarch and transgenerational epigenetics are two areas of research that are really quite pertinent to this conversation.
[SPEAKER_00]: So let's start with transgenerational epigenetic inheritance.
[SPEAKER_00]: So epigenetics basically in Latin means above genetics and it's the changes that can impact the
[SPEAKER_00]: actual DNA code.
[SPEAKER_00]: So the DNA code can technically change.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's also the mutations in that code that you could say is a change.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's also how we express those genes as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: In 2025, Anaway and Skinner published in science and they found that pregnant rats exposed to an anti-androgenic fungus side produced male offspring with infertility and testicular abnormalities.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the same
[SPEAKER_00]: The mechanism here is altered DNA methylation in the germline and that faithfully copied through every single subsequent generation.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is a chemical exposure at your great-grandmother can cause disease in your body without any change in the DNA sequence through heritable marks of the epigenome.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that basically means if we are exposed to an endocrine disrupting chemical, that can change how our DNA methyleneates and how that genetic code is passed on to generations and generations of people.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so that's why a lot of research is an experts in endocrine disrupting chemicals speak about.
[SPEAKER_00]: how the effects of these chemicals are combative and pass through generations, and that's why the sperm rate is dropping.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's why fertility is dropping is because it is a snowball effect.
[SPEAKER_00]: We have, and we are carrying in our genetic code, the endocrine disrupting chemical DNA changes that occurred in our parents, in our grandparents, in our great grandparents as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: So how can this impact girls born from mothers who had exposure to EDC's?
[SPEAKER_00]: Brenda Ezanaki, again, love you Brenda, published in Human Reproduction in 2018 to 2019.
[SPEAKER_00]: And what they found was that girls born from mothers who had a high exposure.
[SPEAKER_00]: to trickle-licen, methyl paraben, and two-four die-loral phenol had menstruated approximately four months earlier on average.
[SPEAKER_00]: They had earlier menar, and we have to point out here that you might think in four months is in that early, but there is risk associated with early menarken young girls.
[SPEAKER_00]: Early menarcus independently associated with higher lifetime risk of the development of breast cancer, ovarian cancer, and cardiovascular disease, and type two diabetes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Next let's talk about sperm quality.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know sperm quality doesn't necessarily have any direct influence on women's health, but it does if you are falling pregnant with a man who has poor sperm quality.
[SPEAKER_00]: And this is because sperm, shitty sperm specifically, can predicate whether you are going to miscarry or not.
[SPEAKER_00]: And this is a quite problematic because miscarriage has always been told to women that is a woman's problem and women are often blamed for miscarrying, but up to 50% of recurrent pregnancy loss involves factors originating in sperm and there is some research that suggests that 80% of miscarriages are caused by bad quality sperm.
[SPEAKER_00]: And this is because sperm DNA fragmentation equals
[SPEAKER_00]: We have chromosome mutations, which means we miscarried.
[SPEAKER_00]: So let's talk about sperm DNA fragmentation and its associations with miscarriage.
[SPEAKER_00]: EDCs generate oxidative stress in testicular tissue, mature sperm cannot repair DNA damage.
[SPEAKER_00]: A sperm with fragmented DNA can fertilize an egg, but the resulting embryo is compromised.
[SPEAKER_00]: Robertson at L in human reproduction in 2012, they did a metaanalysis of 16 studies and they studied nearly 3,000 couples,
[SPEAKER_00]: High sperm DNA fragmentation index doubled the miscarriage risk.
[SPEAKER_00]: And two years later, infertility and sterility, they confirmed this finding in 2005 confirmed high miscarriage rates with a high DFI after both.
[SPEAKER_00]: IVF and ICSI.
[SPEAKER_00]: Alongside this, everyone knows about this.
[SPEAKER_00]: We have declining sperm rates.
[SPEAKER_00]: In a 2022 meta-analysis of 223 studies across 53 countries, they confirmed sperm concentration has been declining globally and the rate is accelerating post 2000.
[SPEAKER_00]: The same EDC classes causing female reproductive disruptions, falades, BPA, poofers, and organoclorine pesticides are all associated with lower sperm count, motility, and morphology.
[SPEAKER_00]: When we talk about pre-conception, we have to take into account both partners' health.
[SPEAKER_00]: Both partners are bringing half of the DNA.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think a lot of women, especially women who are listening to this podcast are quite healthy and very conscious about the decisions they make.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I think men, they think, oh, well, I can fertilize women throughout my entire life.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, my sperm regenerates a lot.
[SPEAKER_00]: So everything I do doesn't really have any impact.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm going to smoke.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to drink.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to drink lots of fast food.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I don't know why my partner keeps miscarrying.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know couples who have a partner that is super healthy, the female is really really healthy and the male is not healthy.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the moment he gets his shit together, they fall pregnant and they have a healthy baby.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you're listening to this in your a man and you are trying you're in your TTC journey with your partner.
[SPEAKER_00]: you need to be healthy.
[SPEAKER_00]: You need to be super fucking healthy for at least three months on the lead-up to trying.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you think you can just smoke darts and break hearts and you can just, you know, have a baby whenever you want.
[SPEAKER_00]: Your health, your commitment to health, is going to negatively or positively impact your female partner that is going to positively or negatively impact the health of your fetus.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you actually want to be a parent,
[SPEAKER_00]: You should care for that child before it exists on the earth plane.
[SPEAKER_00]: You need to give up the darts, you need to stop breaking hearts, babe, because you need to get you shit together, because if you have a poor diet, if you have poor lifestyle outcomes like you're not exercising your overweight, you can cause huge emotional damage to your female partner through miscarriage.
[SPEAKER_00]: Your sperm is one of the greatest determinants of miscarriage, okay?
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, all right.
[SPEAKER_00]: So this podcast has been a bit full on.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're probably thinking,
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to give you a little bit of hope.
[SPEAKER_00]: There is data to give us hope that the changes we make today do have positive effects and we can recover.
[SPEAKER_00]: Roodle at Al in silent spring Institute and EHP in 2011.
[SPEAKER_00]: They followed five families who ate fresh food in non-plastic packaging for three days.
[SPEAKER_00]: DEHP metabolites dropped 53 to 56% and the most exposed individual, the BPA was down from 76 DEHP down from 93 to 96.
[SPEAKER_00]: Three days, the levels rebounded when they returned to normal eating, which tells you exactly where the exposure is coming from.
[SPEAKER_00]: You need to look up EWG's Clink 15 and Dirty Dozen.
[SPEAKER_00]: You need to stop eating the Dirty Dozen and you need to invest on eating that organic or spray-free, find a local farmer.
[SPEAKER_00]: Buy food from them because they're most likely.
[SPEAKER_00]: They can't really afford lots of pesticides anyway, so support local.
[SPEAKER_00]: In the Homosa study, Ali Kogar, Eskenazi, UC Berkeley and EHP in 2016.
[SPEAKER_00]: A hundred latina teenagers switch from Falle Paraben, because Lyssen and Oxi Benzone free personal care products for three days.
[SPEAKER_00]: MEP was down by 27%, methyl Paraben was down 44.
[SPEAKER_00]: Protocol Paraben was down 45% and Tricola San was down by 36% in three days.
[SPEAKER_00]: Highland of UC Berkeley, who published an environmental research in 2019,
[SPEAKER_00]: They followed four families who ate entirely organic for six days.
[SPEAKER_00]: Pesticide metabolites dropped 60% on average, Malatheon fell 95%, chloropartheroes dropped by 61% in six days of organic food.
[SPEAKER_00]: Puffers are the exception.
[SPEAKER_00]: So the half-life is years, which mean the strategy for preventing future accumulation is not rapid clearance.
[SPEAKER_00]: Reverse osmosis water filtration removing Puffers sources from the home of primary levers because you're water if it's just coming out of your tap.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's going to be leading with lots and lots and lots and lots of poofers, so reverse osmosis is really great.
[SPEAKER_00]: Your brusher filter is not going to cut it, maybe investing in spring water, but alongside that you have to keep in mind that reverse osmosis water and filtered water removes your minerals from the water, which doesn't impact hydration, I will say.
[SPEAKER_00]: But what I will say is that it can impact your mineral levels.
[SPEAKER_00]: So if you're doing that, then you need to look at your magnesium specifically.
[SPEAKER_00]: I covered that in the last episode where I talked extensively about magnesium.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, so what are a few things that we can do today?
[SPEAKER_00]: What are some just swaps that you can do?
[SPEAKER_00]: So number one menstrual products.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is really pertinent to women's health 100% organic cotton tampons and pads medical grade silicon menstrual cups period underwear only from brands with a verified third party poofers free certification.
[SPEAKER_00]: Volva and vaginal tissue is amongst the most absorptive tissue in the body.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're bleeding for nearly 3,000 days out of your life.
[SPEAKER_00]: Please invest in the right products.
[SPEAKER_00]: Number two is fragrance.
[SPEAKER_00]: Anything labeled with fragrance or perfume, so PAR, FUM, is a legally disclosed blend that can contain DEP phallates and hundreds of other compounds.
[SPEAKER_00]: switch to genuinely fragrance-free personal care, not unscented.
[SPEAKER_00]: Number three, food packaging.
[SPEAKER_00]: Glass and stainless steel food storage over plastic, never heat food in plastic, fresh and frozen over canned, avoid cling film on fatty foods.
[SPEAKER_00]: As this is a direct DEHP sauce,
[SPEAKER_00]: prioritise organic from the EWG dirty dozen produce as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: Before, cookware, replace PT, FE, non-stick pans with cast iron, stainless steel, or a enamored cast iron.
[SPEAKER_00]: Avoid fast food packaging.
[SPEAKER_00]: These are both significant proof of sources.
[SPEAKER_00]: Number five, clothing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Got certified or OEKO text standard with a hundred natural fiber garments for closed skinwear.
[SPEAKER_00]: What new clothing every single time before you wear it?
[SPEAKER_00]: Or you can use a guppy-filled bag for remaining synthetic which you can use in the laundry.
[SPEAKER_00]: And finally, there are some apps that are really, really useful.
[SPEAKER_00]: Clearia is a real-time ingredient alert with online shopping, EWG skin deep for personal care product ratings.
[SPEAKER_00]: A Yuka is also both great for food and cosmetics.
[SPEAKER_00]: Have a few friends that really like Yuka.
[SPEAKER_00]: Silent Spring Institutes detox me for a practical, evidence-based checklist as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: I hope you enjoyed this podcast, and I'll see you on the next one.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's a wrap.
[SPEAKER_00]: I hope today's episode gave you a lot to think about.
[SPEAKER_00]: If it's got you reconsidering what you're putting on your body day-to-day, go on and explore Indigo Luna.
[SPEAKER_00]: Natural fibers and slow fashion pieces, you'll genuinely reach for again and again.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you to Indigo Luna for making this episode possible.
[SPEAKER_00]: Use code softer choice at checkout next time you shop with them for 10% off.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you so much for taking the time out of your busy day to listen to this episode.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you loved it, please remember to like, subscribe, and send to a loved one.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you want to learn more from our quaman, please check out the website at arquaman.com.au where you can find a pothora of offerings like charts, masterclasses, courses, and organic clothing.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can also head over to patreon.com slash arquaman.
[SPEAKER_00]: or sub-stack.com slash alcoholmen to join the community.
[SPEAKER_00]: I hope you have a really beautiful morning, afternoon or evening wherever you are in the world, and I will see you on the next episode.