Here’s something you may not know…
Pesticides may make it harder for men to attract women.
A team of reproductive biologists at the University of Austin ran a study on sexual behavior in animals. They exposed the animals to a common fungicide commonly used by grape growers. One group continued to receive a normal diet without the chemical. They exposed the other group to the pesticide, separated the females from the males with a wire mesh barrier, and then observed them to see if they continued to mate normally.
What they found was surprising to me: the females were less sexually interested in males who’d been exposed. And what was even more interesting was that for three generations the females tended to ignore the exposed animals and their offspring. The females’ response to the healthy males was unchanged.1
The females could tell something was wrong with the exposed males, even though they couldn’t see it. The researchers speculated that the pesticide may have turned off or damaged the gene that helps males win females over. They speculated that the same problem may be showing up in humans.
That means there’s something more lasting and dangerous going on than we ever suspected with these chemicals. It’s why I’ve been following this research into these chemical “sex offenders” for more than 20 years.
One of the things these chemicals have in common is that they act like estrogen in your body. There are thousands of these chemicals in everything from household products to electronics, clothing, furniture, and plastic bags. And not only are these pesticides and fungicides sprayed on lawns and in public places, but they leech into the water supply.
The constant exposure from so many sources in our modern world can cause estrogen to be the dominant hormone in your body. Extremely high estrogen is not healthy for men or for women. Just from this study you can see that estrogen dominance can permanently alter your physiology at the genetic level. Who knows what other effects these chemicals have on you? No one. We have no way of knowing.
So what can you do? How do you get these unwanted estrogen-like toxicants out of your body?
One of the best ways is through good old fashioned sweat.
To work up a good sweat through exercise, I recommend you use shorter but more challenging periods of exertion. This pumps more blood through your body, oxygenating and detoxifying your cells, and carrying estrogenic compounds away.
Light exercises lasting a long time don’t give you this benefit. They don’t raise your oxygen levels enough. The key is to keep the duration brief and just increase the challenge a little bit each time to make sure you work up a sweat. This will pump oxygen-rich blood to your vital organs by up to 18 times more than walking, for example.2
Here’s a sweat-inducing workout that you can do right now – whether you’re reading this at work or at home. It involves nothing but good old-fashioned body weight.
First, get up from your chair. Make sure you have some space around you. We’re going to do some simple knee-strikes. They’re a great exercise to get your blood pumping and your detoxifying sweat glands working.
- Stand with one foot slightly behind the other, heel off the ground, and raise your arms straight up in the air.
- Bring your arms down as if you were pulling something to the floor, and at the same time, bring the leg that was behind you up into a knee kick or “strike.”
- Raise your arms back up and return your leg to your starting position and repeat. Do a dozen or more with each leg until you are breathing slightly hard.
Stop and recover until your heart rate slows and you feel like you’re almost back to normal. Now do 15 more knee strikes, but this time increase the speed. Try to get them done in half the time you did the first set. Recover.
Next, do 20 or more, a little faster this time. You’ll start to feel the burn in your legs and your breathing will get harder and hopefully you’ll be sweating.
When you start your next exercise session, do a few more knee strikes each time, add a set, or increase the speed, or shorten the recovery time. All you have to do is a little bit more each time to keep the sweat and the toxicants pouring out. A small increase will do the trick.
1. Crews D, Gore A, Hsu T, Dangleben N, Spinetta M, Schallert T, Anway M, Skinner M. “Transgenerational epigenetic imprints on mate preference.” Proc Natl Acad Sci. 2007;104(14):5942-6.
2. Adapted from: von Ardenne, M. “Oxygen Multistep Therapy.” Thieme. 1990. p. 144.