I was taught in college that girls reach puberty earlier now than in prior centuries in part because they are exposed to light for more hours per day thanks to electrification, and puberty is in part triggered by an internal clock keeping track of how much light you’ve been exposed to in your lifetime.
Of course we leaned a lot of shit in college before the internet which turns out to be nonsense now. But I believe exposure to light is more important than we generally recognize. If you trace our evolution back to the beginning, you’ll find light sensitive cells far far earlier than anything involving actual vision.
The bigger driver of earlier age of menarche is percent body fat. For example, menarche was in the very early teens in ancient Rome, but it was mid-to-late teens in medieval Europe. The average medieval European girl was malnourished by modern standards. And now, along with better availability of calories, kids also go outside and play far less than they did a generation ago, so they’re less active, hence fatter.
There’s might also be something in the light-exposure hypothesis, except that age of menarche tends to still be lower nearer the equator than nearer the poles. Artificial lighting, if it were the cause, would have weakened that difference.
I thought this too, but yeah, dairy can accelerate puberty, but it’s not the hormones, it’s just that kids that consume more dairy are often fatter which triggers early menache.
Ya, my biology professor had a theory that it was because of estrogen being introduced to the water supply through birth control. After the pill was introduced breast size started increasing and girls started reaching puberty earlier. Makes sense.
So! It’s actually kinda crazy how accurate your professor might be. Because progesterone, the chemical in birth control, does indeed break down into estrogen under the right circumstances. The components of broken down progesterone pass through the body via urine, enter the water system, and - this is the important part - is far too small and difficult to be collected or filtered out of the water.
So people taking birth control have absolutley added an insane amount of estrogen to the water supply. And most tap water now does have low levels of estrogen in it because people have been taking birth control for 60+ years.
In that same time, the average age of puberty has continued to fall.
So, it sounds a bit wild, but that theory is far more feasible than most realize.
Can estrogen in water become bio-available through drinking it?
What kind of concentrations are you talking about? There’s possibly a big gap between enough to be detected and enough to affect someone’s hormonal regulation.
In that same time, the average age of puberty has continued to fall.
As it did before birth-control pills were in widespread use. And another confounding factor is that modern birth-control pills have much lower doses of hormones than the originals did, so we need to look not only at the rates of usage, but at the amount each pill contains that gets excreted.
And filtration is not the only water treatment technique. The use of highly reactive treatments such as chorine can break down such chemicals.
Detection of estrogens in the environment has raised concerns in recent years because of the potential of these compounds to affect both wildlife and humans. "
The incomplete removal by publicly owned treatment works (POTWs) of excreted endogenous estrogens and prescribed estrogens leads to their introduction into surface waters and potentially into drinking water sources that rely on surface water. Estrogens, specifically estrone (E1), 17β-estradiol (E2), estriol (E3), and ethinyl estradiol (EE2), have been detected in numerous studies of wastewater influents and effluents.
(Several links to the studies of the levels of estrogen in waste water are then provided after this quote).
This study in 2009 concluded that kids are exposed to more estrogen in milk and food than water, so it shouldn’t be a problem to worry about. However, at least imo, it never looked at overall levels of estrogen intake increasing from all combined sources as water has certainly added to it at least marginally.
So that’s all to say, I’m not 100% behind this being all true, just that there’s actually quite a bit of valid scientific studies that have proven there’s now more estrogen in our drinking and waste water that seems to be at least corolated to our medical use of it.
There’re also other endocrine disrupters in the water such as pfoa/pfos etc. We should absolutely be filtering our tap water or drinking RO water if we can.
Oh? What’s his supposed correct age for this?
I was taught in college that girls reach puberty earlier now than in prior centuries in part because they are exposed to light for more hours per day thanks to electrification, and puberty is in part triggered by an internal clock keeping track of how much light you’ve been exposed to in your lifetime.
Of course we leaned a lot of shit in college before the internet which turns out to be nonsense now. But I believe exposure to light is more important than we generally recognize. If you trace our evolution back to the beginning, you’ll find light sensitive cells far far earlier than anything involving actual vision.
Growth hormones in meat and dairy may also have had an effect, but I have nothing to back this up currently.
Let me know if it’s completely incorrect.
I looked in to it briefly, and it seems the growth hormones are a boogie man, but dairy consumption is still a factor in early menache.
Turns out kids that have too much dairy in their diet are often overweight, leading to early menache.
Girls are having puberty without the consent of their congressmen?!
The bigger driver of earlier age of menarche is percent body fat. For example, menarche was in the very early teens in ancient Rome, but it was mid-to-late teens in medieval Europe. The average medieval European girl was malnourished by modern standards. And now, along with better availability of calories, kids also go outside and play far less than they did a generation ago, so they’re less active, hence fatter.
There’s might also be something in the light-exposure hypothesis, except that age of menarche tends to still be lower nearer the equator than nearer the poles. Artificial lighting, if it were the cause, would have weakened that difference.
also increased nutrition.
I would argue that since the internet we have learned a fair share of unadulterated garbage though let’s be real
It REALLY took a turn for the worse after someone showed Joe Rogan a microphone.
I learned something new today.
I also did hear that girls go through puberty sooner because girls now are fatter than they used to be due to a number of factors.
I always heard it was partly due to all the hormones we put in cows to keep them pregnant, and then we drink the milk.
I thought this too, but yeah, dairy can accelerate puberty, but it’s not the hormones, it’s just that kids that consume more dairy are often fatter which triggers early menache.
That makes no sense. Hormones in your food will just be broken down in your digestive system.
Ya, my biology professor had a theory that it was because of estrogen being introduced to the water supply through birth control. After the pill was introduced breast size started increasing and girls started reaching puberty earlier. Makes sense.
So! It’s actually kinda crazy how accurate your professor might be. Because progesterone, the chemical in birth control, does indeed break down into estrogen under the right circumstances. The components of broken down progesterone pass through the body via urine, enter the water system, and - this is the important part - is far too small and difficult to be collected or filtered out of the water.
So people taking birth control have absolutley added an insane amount of estrogen to the water supply. And most tap water now does have low levels of estrogen in it because people have been taking birth control for 60+ years.
In that same time, the average age of puberty has continued to fall.
So, it sounds a bit wild, but that theory is far more feasible than most realize.
Can estrogen in water become bio-available through drinking it?
What kind of concentrations are you talking about? There’s possibly a big gap between enough to be detected and enough to affect someone’s hormonal regulation.
As it did before birth-control pills were in widespread use. And another confounding factor is that modern birth-control pills have much lower doses of hormones than the originals did, so we need to look not only at the rates of usage, but at the amount each pill contains that gets excreted.
And filtration is not the only water treatment technique. The use of highly reactive treatments such as chorine can break down such chemicals.
I am by no means an expert, but there has been a significant amount of studies done on the estrogen in our water levels increasing:
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2854760/
This study in 2009 concluded that kids are exposed to more estrogen in milk and food than water, so it shouldn’t be a problem to worry about. However, at least imo, it never looked at overall levels of estrogen intake increasing from all combined sources as water has certainly added to it at least marginally.
So that’s all to say, I’m not 100% behind this being all true, just that there’s actually quite a bit of valid scientific studies that have proven there’s now more estrogen in our drinking and waste water that seems to be at least corolated to our medical use of it.
There’re also other endocrine disrupters in the water such as pfoa/pfos etc. We should absolutely be filtering our tap water or drinking RO water if we can.