Joe Rogan Experience #1638 - Dr. Shanna Swan

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The Joe Rogan Experience.

Train by day, Joe Rogan podcast by night. All day. (rock music plays) Hello.

Hello.

Welcome to the show. Thanks for doing this.

Thanks for having me.

Y- y- I'm very concerned with what you're saying. Um, your book, Countdown, says that the modern world is threatening sperm counts, altering male and female reproductive development, and imperiling the future of the human race.

That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

I believe you.

(laughs)

But I'm scared.

I think we should all be kinda scared.

Now, what is it specifically about the modern world that scares you?

Oh, gosh, a whole bunch. But (laughs) what I write about in this book is the problem with the decline of our reproductive health and the chemicals in the environment that we're surrounded with every day, all the time, that are playing a big part in it. Not the only part, but a big part in it.

And so they're playing a part in affecting our hormonal production? Is that what's going on?

Yes. That's actually what, a good part of what they do. They affect ... They interfere with our hormonal systems in various ways. So they could increase production of a hormone like, uh, pro-estrogen. They could decrease, say, an anti-androgen, decrease testosterone. They could mess with our thyroid hormone and so on and so forth. So they change levels, but they also change how they're transported, and they interfere with making them available to other parts of the body basically. Um, and you got it right. I mean, that doesn't sound so scary to people, but the consequences sound really scary, which is that we're, you know ... By every measure, our sperm count, our miscarriage rates, our fertility rates, our testosterone levels, they're all going south, if you will, at the rate of about 1% per year.

And specifically which chemicals are responsible for this alteration?

A whole bunch of them. Um, and as a group they're called endocrine disruptors 'cause they disrupt the endocrine system, right?

Mm-hmm.

And, um, so I spent a lot of time studying one particular class of those which have the ability to lower testosterone. And the reason I did that is because I'm interested in reproductive health, and testosterone is so critical, as you know, for men and women's reproductive health. So that class is called phthalates. It's a terrible mouthful (laughs) to say.

Phthalates.

Phthalates, right. Um, and they sound weird, but they're very, very common. And if you gave a urine sample today and send it off to the Centers for Disease Control, you would see that you have a lo- you know, no- not only phthalates, but other chemicals and plastics and other chemicals in your body right now. You could do that. It would ... It costs a little bit. Quite a bit. Quite a bit.