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Food For Thought |
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Declining Male Fertility Male infertility has been a recent subject of controversy. Are men becoming less fertile? As more couples experience difficulty conceiving children, the infertility business is growing. About one in six couples worldwide face fertility problems, 60% of which are linked in whole or in part to men. Why? No one knows for sure, but studies show that environmental chemicals can alter the behavior of sperm. We are bombarded with chemicals daily from the drugs we use to the weed killers we put on our lawns, not to mention all the food additives - read your labels! Regarding male infertility, the toxins in question are environmental estrogens. These compounds are a subset of a broader class of persistent pollutants known as hormone disrupters, or chemicals that have the ability to mimic hormones in the human body. Estrogens, of course, don’t naturally occur in men. But industrial substances that behave like them are entering male bodies around the world as men are exposed to environments and food supplies increasingly contaminated with these chemicals. We now know that environmental estrogens can affect the sperm’s ability to fertilize eggs. Most sperm cells have just enough energy and time to find the egg and penetrate. Environmental estrogens interfere with this balance by overstimulating sperm and causing them to burn through their energy stores well before they reach their target. It’s the reproductive equivalent of running a marathon at full speed the first few miles and suddenly having no strength left to finish the race. We know very little indeed about the unintended consequences of an environment awash in chemicals. Even the growing number of women having exaggerated symptoms with menstrual cycles and menopause may one day be traced to the chemical pollutants that mimic natural hormones in the body. Interesting Websites For those interested in the vaccine controversy, the following website presents some important public information about the SV-40 (Simian Virus 40) virus found in oral polio vaccines administered in the 1950s and its connection to various forms of cancer and possibly AIDS. Many people who received oral polio vaccinations in the 1950s could be in trouble, especially if they lived in certain states. If you think this information may apply to you, find a good kinesiologist who works with the NAET approach to clear allergies and toxic substances from the body. For more information, see: http://www.viewzone.com/sv40.html This next URL concerns the "Not In My Name" advertisement that was run in the New York Times several days before 9/11/2002 and signed by a number of very well known people, as well as others not so well known. The website is still taking signatures. It's an excellent statement about the our government, its stance on Iraq and what ordinary people can do to usher in peace. See: http://www.nion.us/ Help Animals, Help Create A Humane Officer Position in Alaska! By Margery Glickman Beyond the borders of Alaska's large cities, acts of barbarism against animals can easily happen. Alaska, without a statewide humane officer to enforce animal cruelty laws, leaves animal control up to over-burdened State Troopers who do not adequately understand the animal cruelty laws. The saga of how the Alaska Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) saved 66 animals from brutal treatment in Sterling, Alaska, shows why a statewide humane officer, with an adequate support staff, is desperately needed to prevent atrocities in the future. Alaska SPCA Executive Director Ethel Christensen says that for decades the Alaska SPCA has had complaints from tourists and others asking it to do something about the atrocities in the areas of the State where there are no local laws. The Alaska SPCA has begged for help from the State to tighten laws and for a statewide humane officer to enforce them. Now is an ideal time to create this position. How Can You Help? Write your state government representatives and Governor Tony Knowles (PO Box 110001, Juneau, AK 99811) to ask that a statewide humane officer with an adequate support staff and enforcement powers be hired immediately. Please help us to curtail the heinous cruelty to animals such as we have witnessed in Sterling! Other ways to help and be informed:
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