Male sexuality is under assault. Here are some of the statistics that back up this assertion. The average man’s sperm count is half what it was 70 years ago.  Half of all American men have problems with impotency (the politically correct term now is erectile dysfunction). Prostate cancer is the number one cancer among men (one in three men is expected to get it) and testicular cancer is on the rise.  60 percent of men over 40 have prostate problems. Birth defects of the penis and undescended testicles are on the rise, too, so the problems aren’t just affecting older men.

Professor Skakkebaek at Copenhagen University Hospital, Rigshospitalet, said: “There is evidence that male reproductive function seems to have deteriorated considerably during the past 4 to 5 decades.”  Since similar reproductive problems are on the rise in wild animals, so the causes are clearly environmental. The truth is that environmental toxins are disrupting the balance of male hormones and chemically “castrating” men.

But masculinity is under attack on two other fronts as well.  For starters, the nutritional deficiencies caused by the modern diet are weakening men’s bodies through chronic disease. Many men suffer from back problems, cardiovascular disease, obesity, diabetes and other chronic problems that reduce and inhibit their natural masculine strength.

But, this is not all.  The third prong of the attack against masculinity is a social one.  Being manly has in many ways become “politically incorrect.”  Men are encouraged to be sensitive and feeling and suppress their natural characteristics to be aggressive (I don’t mean that in the violent sense, but in the sense of doggedly pursuing their goals and defending what they value) and tough.

Becoming a man is not simply a function of going through puberty. Becoming a man has traditionally been seen as the transition from having the values and attitudes of a boy to acquiring the values and attitudes that we instinctively recognize as manly.  This transition requires healthy masculine role models who can guide boys through the rites of passage that turn them into men. Most men in modern society have not had healthy male rites of passage. 

The combined result of this three-fold attack is a loss of healthy male energy in modern society. A large percentage of guys are overweight, weak, impotent and/or infertile and, in general, suffer from a lack of masculine self-confidence.

Guys, it’s time to defend our right to be men. In this article, I will address how we can defend ourselves against this assaults on our manhood.  I’ll talk about the environmental toxins that are reducing our testosterone levels and reproductive health and the nutritional deficiencies that are weakening our bodies.  I’ll also talk about how to reacquire the values and attitudes of real manliness and counteract the propaganda that is convincing men to act like boys, instead of encouraging boys to act like men.

Environmental Toxins

There are a number of chemicals that reduce male health and fertility.  One group of these chemicals is xenoestrogens. Xenoestrogens are environmental chemicals that have an estrogenic effect, meaning they attach to estrogen receptors in the body and stimulate them.  In women, xenoestrogens cause estrogen overload and result in over stimulation of breast and uterine tissue.  In men, xenoestrogens disrupt the natural balance between male and female hormones, causing men to lose some of their manly traits.

For starters, xenoestrogens are believed by some researchers to be the primary cause of a world-wide decrease in male fertility.  They are both reducing male sperm count and reducing the quality of male sperm.

Xenoestrogens are also believed to be a major factor in the rise or prostate diseases.  The prostate has estrogen receptors, so these chemicals over stimulate prostate tissue resulting in the overgrowth of the prostate, a condition known as benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH for short). They also contribute to prostatitis (inflammation of the prostate) and prostate cancer.

Since testosterone helps a man burn fat and build lean muscle, xenoestrogens also contribute to obesity in men.  They may cause men to develop more breast tissue (a very common problem with modern men) and to experience erectile dysfunction (we’ve become the Viagra generation).  Clearly, any man who values his manhood ought to do all he can to avoid xenoestrogens.

Avoiding Xenoestrogens

Pesticides and other agricultural chemicals are a primary source of these xenoestrogens, which is one reason why many farmers have developed serious weight problems in spite of the physical labor they perform.  Men ought to be eating organically grown produce wherever possible and making sure that regular produce is properly washed to remove as many of these chemicals as possible.

Since plastics are another major source of xenoestrogens, soft plastic containers should be avoided in favor of glass. At the very least use hard plastics instead of soft ones.  Since heat releases these chemicals, don’t microwave food in plastic containers or put hot food into plastic containers. Also, don’t give your children, especially your sons, soft plastic toys they chew on.

One of the chemicals in plastics that has been shown to inhibit testosterone and damage male reproductive organs is phthalates.  In addition to being used to soften plastics (hence the reason for avoiding soft plastics), phthalates are used in perfumes, hairsprays, lubricants and wood finishers. They are also responsible for that new car smell as they are volatile (which means heat releases them).  About a billion pounds of materials containing phthalates are produced worldwide each year.

The Feminizing Effect of Fluoride

Another compound which may be causing a drop in testosterone levels is fluoride.  High doses of fluoride are known to suppress testosterone production, but a study published in Environmental Research in 2003 suggested that even low levels can reduce the amount of available testosterone.  Only 2-3% of the testosterone in the body is active, so if fluoride reduces the active testosterone, this is very significant.

The fluoride issue is of special interest to me. On advice of our dentist, my mom gave me fluoridated water for several years.  She crushed up these fluoride tablets the dentist gave her and put them in pitchers of water for me to drink.  I did not start puberty until I was 16 and did not have to shave every day until I was nearly 20, so my passage through puberty was delayed.  Also, I developed a number of unmanly gestures and attitudes that I learned caused a few people to think I might be gay.  I now believe that this was the result of the fluoride my mom gave me.

When I became aware of this a few years ago, I did some fluoride detoxification and I really felt a difference in my masculine self-confidence. Other people noticed this difference, too.  Since a large number of water sources in the United States are now fluoridated, this may be part of the reason for the growing male reproductive problems mentioned earlier.

I don’t have the studies or solid information to back this up, but I have been told that Hitler pioneered the fluoridation of water supplies because he found it made people more docile and willing to submit to authority.  Since testosterone-driven males tend to be strong-willed and independent, it makes sense that fluoride would make a population more unwilling to question authority.

Also, I did not save the information, so I can’t cite it, but I did see one study which correlated the fluoridation of water supplies with the rise in male homosexual activity.  This is a very politically incorrect thing to say (and I am personally not offended by anyone’s sexual orientation), but I cite this only as an additional piece of evidence that implicates fluoride with reductions in testosterone. 

The bottom line is, avoid fluoride. In fact, avoid the other halogens, chlorine and bromides, too.  These chemicals displace iodine from the body and reduce thyroid function. Thyroid function is tied in with reproductive function as the thyroid hormone is needed to combust the lipids that are the basis for all sex hormones.  So, reduced thyroid function causes reduced output of reproductive hormones.

Phytoestrogens

Considering the problems men are having with reduced testosterone levels due to these environmental chemicals, it would seem wise that men also reduce their exposure to phytoestrogens.  Phytoestrogens are plant-based estrogens. While phytoestrogens are probably very good for women as they do help to block the more powerful xenoestrogens, they probably aren’t a good idea for men who are trying to balance their hormone levels.

One of the foods that may be particularly problematic for men is soy.  There is research that demonstrates that genistein, one of the phytoestrogens in soy, decreases male fertility.  There is also research which suggests that soy products in animal feed can reduce the fertility of male animals.  Occassional use of soy products (2-3 times per week) is not a problem, but soy is increasingly being added to many foods and vegetarians often consume very large amounts of it.  Many body builders claim it is harder to build muscle on soy-based protein powders, too. 

Based on what I’ve read, I’ve decided to limit the amount of soy in my diet. Instead, I am opting to include more organic, grass-fed beef in my diet. I’ve done this even though I’m an A blood type and soy is supposed to be a beneficial for me and red meat is an avoid.  I’ve found that as long as I don’t eat large portions of the grass-fed beef (no more than 2-4 ounces) and take protease enzymes with it, that I actually do better than I did when I ate more soy.

Another interesting plant that has strong phytoestrogenic effects is hops. Hops has been traditionally used to decrease sexual desire in men and increase it in women.  According to Stephen Harrod Buhner in his book Sacred and Herbal Healing Beers: The Secrets of Ancient Fermentation at one time beers were made from a variety of medicinal plants, many of them possessing testosterone-enhancing action.  The decision to require that beer be made from hops was made under pressure from the Church, again based on a need to make men more obedient to authority and less sexually active.