Not the usual comment you might imagine on reading that headline, but on holiday recently, I saw a number of boys under the age of 12 with prominent bouncing breasts. They were large enough that I had then been featured on a teenage girl, and being displayed so nakedly, there would have been much comment.
I can’t begin to imagine the kind of teasing those boys must endure, and of course part of the problem is that they certainly were substantially overweight. However, the fatty tissue growth around the breasts is usually due to oestrogen so one would have to conclude that it is not just women who suffer from oestrogen dominance.
The environment is further polluted by the passing of oestrogens into the water supply. In recent years there has been much concern about the rising oestrogen levels in men as well, which has resulted in sperm counts dropping alarmingly. A study by the Medical Research Council found that Scottish men born since 1970 are 25 per cent less fertile than those born 20 years earlier – and that fertility is continuing to drop by two per cent a year. And it’s not just affecting men as the paper also reported research showed that ethanol oestradiol, a powerful form of oestrogen, is causing up to half the male fish in our low land rivers to change sex and a study published by the Environment Agency at the same time said that entire fish stocks in some stretches of water are irreversibly affected. Scientists believe the synthetic oestrogen can feminize fish at levels as low as one part per billion.
For boys, the main sources are going to come through the food chain usually in meat that has been treated with growth hormones and given the popularity of fast food with teenagers this adds to the concern. The other source is in the water supply and there has been much documented research about the increased levels of oestrogen in the water supply due at the most basic level to the number of women on synthetic hormones via the pill and HRT. Oestrogen is being passed through their urine and so into the water supply where, despite costly and endless filtration, traces of it are found.
So how can you protect your sons from at best being the butt of jokes from their peers and at worst compromising their future fertility? Go back to basics with a wholefood, organic, diet with good supplies of zinc to improve sperm count and wherever possible use bottled water not that straight from the tap. Maintaining a healthy weight through exercise will also help not just with the estrogen issue but in terms of building a healthier future all round.
