Plastic Chemicals are Endocrine Mimics and Affect Fertility
Plastics Disrupt Hormones and Fertility…
…more than anything in our current environment and more than age. There are steps you can take to ameliorate the effects of plastics in your life. Additionally, these steps will increase overall health, vigor, energy, and immune function. Because when your hormone system is not functioning well, then the rest of your body does not function as well. And sex hormones are responsible for so much more than reproduction. Included in this is the large effect sex hormones play on regulating and modulating the immune system. Sex hormones also play a role in body mass index, leptin production, and sleep by effects on the circadian rhythm. Leptin is a hormone that regulates hunger intake by concentric actions on the brain and nervous system and in a feedback mechanism in cohorts with the hormone ghrelin.
How to Remove Plastics (Endocrine Mimetics) and Improve Hormones
Eliminate all plastics
Plastics are endocrine mimics that affect fertility by interfering with the hormonal system. They are the biggest contributors to issues with fertility and hormone production. Therefore eliminating plastics is the most important thing to do and should be continued with until you are at the end of your childbearing years. For men, this is once you have a vasectomy or exercise radical birth control to prevent pregnancy. For women this is until your last child is weaned or you have reached menopause. You cannot go back and remove the plastics mimetics once you are pregnant, and you never know when you will be pregnant. And these steps are not just for fertility, but will improve immune function, sleep, and body weight.
These steps are easier than exercise, once they are executed, and are going to be far more effective.
As much as possible remove the biggest offenders of plastic from your diet And Body as follows:
No plastic water bottles
Do not purchase hot food packaged in plastic.
Do not purchase juices or any other foods that are shelf stable in plastic, such as pasteurized juices. Juices in plastic bottles that are chilled, and not shelf stable, are okay.
Do not use any plastic containers to store food.
Purchase silicone reusable bags for storing and transporting food.
Do not use Saran Wrap or ziplock baggies. The only exception for this would be something like nuts carried in a bag that is kept cool, and only for a day. BPA and other plastics leak into the food over time or when the surface of the food makes a large amount of contact with the plastic.
Use dish towels and tea towels and small metal containers to cover, carry, transport, or store your food.
Use only glass or stainless steel bowls for mixing and food storage.
Replace any plastic shower curtains.
Start buying clothing that is all or mostly cotton. Stay away from polyester or other polyvinyl clothes.
Paint your house with VOC free paints and look for low chemical building components. Get rid of particle board or at least do not add it to your house. Usually the biggest offender is cabinets. It takes 2-7 years for the formaldehyde to outgas from particle board and cabinetry.
Open the windows in your house every day, even in the winter. Even a small cracked window left for several hours can help remove the chemicals in your house.
In good weather, open several large windows for half or the full day.
In super hot weather, open a window in each room in the early morning hours, or leave a window cracked in each room overnight.
Houses are the biggest source of volatile gases that are toxic to the human organism.
As you move on through life, choose to live in a house made of concrete, brick, or steel, as the biggest offenders in houses are the insulation, treated boards, sheetrock, paint, and particle board cabinetry/countertops.
Hot Baths or Sauna:
Once a week you should take a bath so hot you can hardly stand it. Start with a little bit of hot water in your tub with you in it. Then as you get used to the temperature, or the water cools, add more hot. By the time the tub is filled, you should be red and sweating. Bathe for at least 30 minutes. If you get overheated or faint, hop out of the tub for a few moments to breath, then get back in.
Keep the steam in the tub by using a thick shower curtain made of cloth, not vinyl. Vinyl is super high in petrochemicals which evaporate and VOC’s that interfere with the sex hormones.
There are many petrochemicals such as dioxins that cannot be eliminated from the body (with the exception of with pregnancy in which the dioxins enter the baby and are removed from the mother). But it is possible to remove a large number of toxins by sweating. Hot yoga, running, and other aerobic exercise that causes sweating should also be at the top of your list.
You can intensify the effects of the hot sauna bath by doing Yin yoga after the bath. Yin yoga is excellent for restoring the body to a younger state and improving fertility, especially after 40.
