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Comment by lm28469 | Hacker News Reader

Not dead but you have 50% of the testosterone of your great grandpa due to environmental pollution and other factors

we have 50% of the testosterone of our grandpas because body fat produces small quantities of estrogen, and we're the fattest, most sedentary, most in-doors-y humans in the history of humans.

The great thing about modern living is that a thousand variables have changed in the last 70 years so we can pick our own favorite pet peeve and just hammer on that point in every conversation.

Baseline testosterone levels are actually even lower in most hunter gatherer populations. This suggests that your explanation is not necessarily correct.

Not dead but we have the increasing prevalence of cancer

Citation needed

Look bruh, we have the documents, and they're turning the frogs gay.

He was reading an article about how chemicals we're dumping are triggering a frog species natural ability to change sex. The frogs normally do it when there's too many of one sex, to even it out, but the chemicals were making them switch when there was balance and were causing an imbalance.

Truth is stranger than fiction: it would have been more accurate for him to say "they're turning the frogs trans".

If one has delegated their thinking to the point that they’re essentially a parrot, do they really care about accuracy?

Take your accuracy, put a frog in it, make it gay and lame!

This is non controversial established medical fact. Here are the first three results when you Google 'testosterone rates dropping'

The only thing vague is the precise etiology. However, when it comes to legalizing irreversibly blanketing the planet in poisons, the onus should be on proving they are not the culprit, not the inverse.

'The average levels of the male hormone dropped by 1 percent a year, Dr. Thomas Travison and colleagues from the New England Research Institutes in Watertown, Massachusetts, found. This means that, for example, a 65-year-old man in 2002 would have testosterone levels 15 percent lower than those of a 65-year-old in 1987.'

'Research carried out on Finnish and Danish populations has shown the same trend [1,6]. And even more recently, a large-scale study of Israeli men has shown how average testosterone levels have dropped between 2006 and 2019 [7] — by over 10% across almost every age category. '

'Testosterone deficiency has a prevalence of 10%-40% among adult males, and 20% among AYA men aged 15-39 years, he added.'

a) nobody has tested my testosterone or my great grandpas to my knowledge

b) Both of those are taking drops over a certain period and then you're extrapolating back to my great grandad and assuming certain results, which is a bit tenuous. No to mention also assuming the cause.

Quite a long way away from a "non-controversial established fact."

If you workout and aren’t overweight and obese you don’t.

please source that, I'd love to keep that reference handy if it's true.

It’s got a ton of papers, but here is a quick and easy cite from 5 seconds of googling.

Weight lifting increases it more than cardio.

[https://www.nm.org/healthbeat/healthy-tips/fitness/quick-dos...]

More activity, and more muscle, leads to more testosterone.

More fat leads to more estrogen (and some other problematic hormones for men) - [https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/healthyliving/obe...]

We’re a nation in the midst of an obesity epidemic.

Also, sex also seems to increase testosterone. Participating much more than watching. For both genders. So more sex == more sex, generally.

[https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/325418]

Notably, we’re at record levels of sedentaryness in western society - and record levels of low sex.

Low sex IMO also partially due to high levels of narcissist abuse by society (and mothers) aimed at - well - everyone - coupled with little support or guidance on how to fight back.

Especially in younger folks.

Personally, I noticed schools phasing out recess, PT, and physical activity a long time ago. Steadily decreasing for almost 30 years. It’s gotten pretty bad, to the point now that many schools do almost none now. I’m sure everyone has noticed the ‘dads are incompetent losers’/predators schtick that’s been on TV for decades too.

The level of physical activity in most jobs has also been dropping.

Also, the widespread use of high SPF sunscreen, while likely reducing cancer rates, is also likely depressing vitamin D levels, in combination with the amount of sun most people are exposed is likely leading to subsets of the population (non supplementing) which seem highly correlated to neuroticism and mood regulation issues. [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4496526/]

Anecdotally, I’ve seen no decrease in sex drive among active folks - and any following of news from the olympic villages shows similar behavior.

If anything, there is a pretty clear correlation between activity/health/sex (or at least sex drive). And always has been.

Personally, I’ve noticed a very strong correlation between seasonal weather patterns (aka winter) and everyone losing their minds (more), especially online, especially the last few years - as everyone has stayed at home more, and people are online more, staying single more, etc.

The big issue with this kind of problem is that it can be self reinforcing. Contagious even.

The best thing to do is get outside into nature, get some sun, exercise/lift heavy things, and have some good sex.

Easier said than done though eh? Especially when there is so much ‘crabs in a bucket’ going on.

Maybe it’s caused by endocrine disruptors - they certainly aren’t helping, and we should do what we can to remove them. But the elephant in the room is that our society has shifted in exactly the way one would expect would cause these issues too. And it correlates with the various mental health issues that are going nuts as well.

If you look at the daily habits and attributes of the population 100 years ago on these elements vs today - they couldn’t be more different.

So society, we need to get out, workout, and get laid if we want to be healthy.

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