ARE MICROPLASTICS HARMFUL? YOUR TESTOSTERONE SAYS YES! #Chapter2 #34

Learn the dangerous truth about microplastics — found in our water, air, food, and even clothing. A major concern? Phthalates (pronounced THAL-ates), a chemical added to hard plastics to make them flexible, can interfere with testosterone production. This hormone surge is critical during fetal development, especially for forming the male reproductive system. Disrupting it may have lifelong impacts on sexual development. This powerful conversation makes it clear: minimizing plastic exposure is crucial for protecting your health and the planet.

Listen to this episode on Microplastics and Learn:
How plastic exposure can lead to serious health issues like infertility and cancer
• How even common kitchen plastics can leach harmful chemicals into your food
• Why synthetic fabrics, like polyester, are essentially wearable plastics
• How plastic pollution is harming the environment — and our bodies
• The startling truth that only a small percentage of plastic is recycled
• About new innovations in compostable plastics that offer real hope for the future
• Why Advocating for better plastic policies in government is essential to protecting our children and our future

00:00 What Are Microplastics and Are Microplastics Everywhere?
01:40 Are Synthetic Fabrics Bad for Your Health?
04:50 Are microwavable plastic containers safe
08:08 How Does Plastic Affect Hormones and Health?
09:40 What Is Plastic Pollution Doing to the Environment?
14:06 Are Compostable Plastics a Solution?
16:20 What Can You Do to Reduce Plastic Waste?

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Transcript

0:15

Plastic has been around for a long time. We're all fine, right? Are we? I don't know. A lot of us are pretty sick. I don't know about you, but I don't really want to be ingesting or taking plastic into my body. And yet that's pretty much what our world is doing right now. I'm going to be reading some content from a few websites, one of which is medicalexpress.com. And in this article, it reads plastics and the long lasting chemicals they're made of are accumulating in our oceans, leaching into our farm fields, piling up in landfills, obviously. Plastic is floating in the air and falling from the sky. It's also turning up in remote isolated caves. So even if you've been living under a rock, you might have cause for concern. You could literally be living out in the middle of nowhere and plastic could still be affecting you. This article in particular focuses on Microplastics which are smaller than five millimeters. Microplastics are pretty much everywhere in the water that we drink, in the air that we breathe, in so many different products that we buy and own, in our houses. And so it's inevitable that we're going to be dealing with this. But the idea is that we minimize exposure the best we can because it's probably not going to be possible to completely obliterate it. We did talk about in the last video some ways that we can avoid synthetic oils highly refined oils, which are basically plastic, right? So this will help tremendously. And the things that I'm going to be teaching you today, I hope that you can implement as well to minimize your exposure. So what are some of these plastics? The first thing that comes to mind are the clothes that we wear. Ironically, I actually make a point of going to thrift shops to get a lot of my clothing. I don't buy clothing new because a lot of the off -gassing that happens that doesn't have anything to do with plastic. But I've started also trying to be more careful about what kinds of fabrics I'm buying. I love polyester. I always have. It doesn't wrinkle, feels good on my skin, but it doesn't breathe. It is quite literally plastic and if you think about plastic wrap and how that works when we wear plastic clothing it's a lot like putting plastic wrap on our bodies. They don't breathe very well. Some don't breathe at all. In SewingIsCool.com I got a list of synthetic fabrics and kind of basically why we like them and what they do. Polyester, I already mentioned, soft doesn't wrinkle. one of my favorite synthetic materials to buy honestly, but I'm trying to get away from that more. Spandex, it stretches. I mean, who wouldn't want that? It mimics rubber. PVC or polyvinyl chloride. It's made with polyester fibers and plastic. It's lightweight and rubbery but has no breathing ability. A lot of these plastic synthetic fabrics also resist abrasions which makes them last longer. Polypropylene. I've seen that in food, I think. But it's also a clothing or a cloth. It's perfect for outdoor use and it resists fading from the sun, odor, stains, and static. So think of athletic equipment. The material is also good for backpacks, and similar products. Then we have nylon. I have some nylon. filters that I use to filter my goat milk because they're just really nice and easy to use, but they're basically plastic. microfiber a major favorite among human beings. I actually have a microfiber couch but when it hits the dust and it was given to me for free so I needed a couch I took it and it's really easy to clean. I love that about it. I also really enjoy my microfiber rags but are they really the best to be using? Cotton would probably be a lot better. Natural fibers. microfiber is soft and durable but again not really good for us to be breathing. And then acrylic. It's made from a petrochemical and has the warmth and softness of wool without the absorption of water. So that's why it's sometimes preferable to wool for some people. Some people are allergic to wool. They'll prefer something like acrylic. But again, all of these plastic clothing have the same source, which is oil. Synthetic fabrics are also sensitive to heat, so they can melt. High heating them in the dryer can also melt them. It can also melt on your skin. When I was a firefighter, I actually made a point of getting only cotton garments. I'm a member of the Mormon LDS Church of Jesus Christ of Latter -day Saints, and we wear garments. And so I had a lot of synthetic at the time garments, and I decided to go and get cotton ones just in case I was in trouble and got burned. and I wanted to make sure that I didn't have plastic burning my leg. I mean, if you're burned, it's going to be bad anyway, but it would just exacerbate the issue. There are also quite a few other sources of plastic in our world. Think about shopping for food. I can't think of many things that aren't stored in plastic. Even the bulk bins have usually a plastic lining and then you take the food and you put them in a plastic baggie. I know some stores are starting to go over to paper bags and I think that while it's not as convenient because sometimes paper rips But honestly, probably better for the food you're eating your body because the plastic, while it's not intended to get into our food, it does. Plastic Tupperware, when we're scraping it out, we're going to get some of those microplastics on our fork. Especially, do not microwave anything plastic I know that there's a lot of food out there that's in little plastic bags and they'll tell you to put the whole bag in your microwave. I would strongly advise against this. I'm not going to make any claims. it just doesn't sit right with me. I always take whatever I have out of the plastic baggie, put it in a bowl or cover it up with a glass, something or other and heat it without the plastic. You don't want to put metal in your microwave. We will get to many reasons why you don't want to use the microwave at all, but that's for another discussion. I only really have glass and stainless steel in my house. I do have one ceramic pan. I'm not sure of the good, the bad, and the ugly of ceramic, think it's okay. My husband brought it home and he really likes it, so I haven't thrown it out. But basically, you really want to stay away from plastic in your kitchen. You think about how many plastic things we're giving to our kids, especially littles, and they're sticking it in their mouth. And we're told that they're safe. But I still don't think that they're the best thing for us to be sticking in our mouth or getting in our food, regardless of if there's BPA in it or not. It's not something we should be consuming. Consider also the pipes, the plumbing in your house. Most of the pipes used to be copper. Our house was really old and we were doing some work the other day, my husband was, and he actually found that our plumbing for the bathroom is made out of... cast iron. Like wow, that's really old. But those are the things that plumbing used to made out of. And now it's made from usually PVC, which lasts a long time and it's cheaper to reproduce, cheaper to install and fix. But if drinking water out of the tap or even out of a water filter, sometimes it doesn't get all of that out. Right now I'm thinking about all the things in my fridge that are in plastic bottles. I've tried to shop more for glass bottles, ketchup in glass bottles, dressing in glass bottles and so forth. Most dressings, condiments, they're in plastic bottles. Again, just something to think about. anything with tomato or anything acidic in particular that is going to eat at the plastic. If you have plastic water bottles be very very careful about keeping them in the car. The heat will actually get the plastic in your water. I believe that plastic bottles are pretty awful to use period. You don't want to be using them repeatedly for sure. I do believe and I again I don't have any concrete evidence at this moment to support this claim but it feels like they would get some plastic in your water inadvertently, not on purpose, but just these microfibers. Sometimes you can even see plastic kind of peeling off the lids. I mean, what do think that does to your body? It's going to go somewhere. The other big deal plastic issue I have is bedding. Now there's whole books about this that you can research, read, go to the library, check one out, but about the toxic level of chemicals and basically plastic components in our bed that are poisoning us while we sleep. If anything.... because I know organic beds are extremely, extremely expensive. And honestly, not every organic bed is alike. There's some organic beds that only have like the very top layer that's organic and the rest is not. So when you're researching organic beds, I'd be very selective and we'll talk more about that later as well. I do not own an organic bed in my main bedroom. My kids have organic beds or at least an organic cover to kind of protect them from what's underneath the organic cover. But I personally don't have an organic bed. I haven't. That's not at the top of my list. However, I do have organic sheets. organic cover over my non -organic bed and an organic pillow that's 100% organic. Again be careful when you see something labeled as organic; it's not always 100% organic because think about how much time you're spending putting your face into microfiber or latex all these different things that aren't really natural I wouldn't want to be putting my face in that half of my life so It's not a cheap thing to buy, it's not out of the question crazy expensive to buy an organic pillow and possibly organic sheets being the next step. So why does this even matter? What's the big deal? Plastic has been around for a long time. We're all fine, right? Are we? I don't know. A lot of us are pretty sick. A of us are pretty tired. I think plastic has something to do with it. Not all, but something. And here's some studies to support that. Again from MedicalXpress.com. There was a woman, researcher named, Woodruff, and she has more than two dozen scientific papers to support claims about reproductive health and microplastics and their effect on reproductive health. The California state legislators actually paid her to do this. The studies supported that exposure to plastics appears to reduce fertility and increases cancer risk. Microplastics mess up the endocrine system, which is in charge of mood, sleep, sex, metabolism, hormones that are literally key to these functions. Many plastics contain a chemical called bisophenol A or BPA, which we see a lot of foods labeled as BPA free, right? Or plastics BPA free. The interesting thing about BPA is it acts like estrogen. It can't unlock the crucial functions that estrogen helps control, like puberty, menstruation, and pregnancy. However... It looks and acts enough like the hormone estrogen, again, that they can get themselves into estrogen receptors, kind of like if you accidentally jammed the wrong key into a lock. BPA blocks actual estrogen from binding to those receptors, so the hormone cannot do its job. Woodruff pointed to other studies that linked BPA to endometriosis, infertility, asthma, obesity, and fetal neural development disorders. Talking more a little bit about that. Pythala... Pythalates? I think that's how it's said, which is a class of chemicals that manufacturers add to hard plastics to give them some flex. They interfere with the body's production of the hormone testosterone. And the reason why that's important is because there is a huge surge in testosterone that happens during fetal development. That's the signal that starts the development of the male reproductive system. And by interrupting the supply of testosterone to male fetuses, pythalates may affect sexual development for life. And you think about all of the issues with infertility that we're having right now, as well as identity crises and sexual confusion and people who are not feeling at home in their bodies, that they don't feel female in a male body or vice versa. Could this be contributing to that? you The studies that Woodruff conducted also showed links to metabolic, respiratory, and digestive disorders. When the immune system detects microplastics, it responds with inflammation, which causes a lot of diseases. And the things that we're dealing with today, a lot of the core basic principles, the root cause of these disorders and diseases is chronic inflammation. They're just manifesting different bodies. I've actually heard it said before that we fought nature for years, for centuries, and that we as a society have won the war on nature. We have all of these synthetic materials now that can basically keep nature at bay, keep bugs out of our house, that don't decompose, that don't cause us to have to buy things over and over again, that last a lot longer, that are convenient, and yet it's backfiring, on our entire society. I believe that nature has a spirit and that when you abuse nature she actually does fight back and I also heard it in a speech I can try to remember who it was but it was so funny because he was talking about how people are so concerned about the planet and he goes the planet will be fine it's humanity I'm worried about because if we abuse her enough she will revolt she will kill us off. mean, we'll just go the way of all the earth and she will continue. And I mean, think about what nature does when things go terribly wrong. earthquakes, volcanoes, things that, you know, obliterate societies. So I think he's right. I'm not opposed to all plastic at all times, but why are we doing it this way? Because there are actually solutions. Most plastics do not biodegrade, so they are basically going to be here with us for hundreds or thousands of years. And when they do biodegrade, I'm not even sure if I'm saying this right, because biodegrade would mean going back to nature, wouldn't it? But basically the plastics we have, breaking down but into toxic components that are not good for our soil or good for us. So what is the solution? Can we live with plastics and still have a healthy body, healthy world? This is also from medicalxpress.com Scientists at UC Berkeley invented a way to make compostable plastics break down faster and with less energy, solving a problem that has flummoxed the plastics industry and environmentalists. They embedded polyester-eating enzymes in the plastic as it's made. These enzymes are protected by a simple polymer wrapping that prevents the enzyme from untangling and becoming useless. When exposed to heat and water, the enzyme shrugs off its polymer shroud and starts chomping the plastic. and creates building blocks such as lactic acid which can feed microbes in compost. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab experts also engineered a strain of E. coli bacteria that turns plastics into a plastic polymer that can then be recycled infinitely. Maybe that was what they did to these plastic spoons I saw at Winco that were advertising to be compostable. Cool. I mean, literally I could put them in my compost and they would biodegrade. They were more expensive. But the idea that I could buy a plastic spoon and not feel bad every time I threw one away or broke one, that's pretty cool. Are you willing to possibly throw away some items in your kitchen? Tupperware that is plastic cups, plates, spoons, forks that are plastic and investing in maybe fewer plates and bowls if you have to? I know that IKEA has very inexpensive bowls that I own a big old set of them. Very inexpensive stainless steel. There are places you can find inexpensive stainless steel items or glass items. And are you willing to purchase products that advertise that they are compostable plastics in order to support those industries and encourage companies to continue to use them? It might also benefit us to write our political leaders, ask them to make some of these toxic plastics illegal. Because as it stands now, only 9% of our plastics have been recycled, according to this article. 12% incinerated and the other 80% is just lying around and getting into our environment in ways that we really don't want. And again, it's really not about I mean I hate saying this but it's really not as much about the planet as it is about you and me. We are the ones suffering from this. And if the planet suffers, we suffer. It's one of those karma things. I will leave some ideas for you in the Overcome Depression Workbook link below. Keep making goals, keep getting better. You are working towards a life free of depression.