🔥Read For Free Count Down: How Our Modern World Is Threatening Sperm Counts, Altering Male and Female Reproductive Development, and Imperiling the Future of the Human Race
Read For FreeIn the tradition of Silent Spring and The Sixth Extinction, an urgent, “disturbing, empowering, and essential” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) book about the ways in which chemicals in the modern environment are changing - and endangering - human sexuality and fertility on the grandest scale, from renowned epidemiologist Shanna Swan.
In 2017, author Shanna Swan and her team of researchers completed a major study. They found that over the past four decades, sperm levels among men in Western countries have dropped by more than 50 percent. They came to this conclusion after examining 185 studies involving close to 45,000 healthy men. The result sent shockwaves around the globe - but the story didn’t end there. It turns out our sexual development is changing in broader ways, for both men and women and even other species, and that the modern world is on pace to become an infertile one.
How and why could this happen? What is hijacking our fertility and our health? Count Down unpacks these questions, revealing what Swan and other researchers have learned about how both lifestyle and chemical exposures are affecting our fertility, sexual development - potentially including the increase in gender fluidity - and general health as a species. Engagingly explaining the science and repercussions of these worldwide threats and providing simple and practical guidelines for effectively avoiding chemical goods (from water bottles to shaving cream) both as individuals and societies, Count Down is “staggering in its findings” (Erin Brockovich, The Guardian) and “will serve as an awakening” (The New York Times Book Review). Read less Free with Audible Trial $0.00
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Reviews :
kittyinvogue 5.0 out of 5 stars Advertised as a breakthrough book and exceeds expectations Reviewed in the United States on March 17, 2021 Verified Purchase Disclosure: I work at Legacy, a leading fertility company. Our CEO admires the work of Dr. Swan and so purchased the book for each team member to read through.
Countdown is very much an academic work in the style of Orientalism or On the Origin of Species and feels as though its sweeping insights will impact policies, perspectives, world plans. It is as urgent as Silent Spring or The Jungle. Throughout the book, Swan demonstrates that sperm counts and concentrations have been dropping - and not dropping, but dropping cataclysmically, dramatically - over the past 50 years. Her earlier work identified the drop in Western men. Here she lays out a case showing it is impacting not only all men, but all animals, too.
Why is it happening? The core culprit, she submits, are endocrine disruptors. Drugs, plastics, phthlates, 'forever' chemicals that we've been manufacturing and circulating into our environment and bodies since especially World War II. She presents her argument in a highly digestible format with strong evidence, decades of meticulous research, and caution about how to interpret the research. This is how you wish every academic would communicate complicated work to the general public.
The associated arguments that connect out of that far-reaching theory are, frankly, sweeping. The most obvious impact is that fertility rates are not only plummeting because couples are choosing to have children later in life and women are empowered to prioritize careers but also because when they DO try to have children later in their life, it is harder than it would have been at that age just 30 years ago. Lifestyle changes are clashing with biological changes, suggesting fertility rates will continue to plummet in an unsustainable way. The suggested impact is societal instability. What Swan does not state that many in the media have since her book released is that the end state could be a broadly infertile population.
Swan is keen to point out the psychological impact these biological changes are having. Often women take blame and feel self blame when they experience miscarriages. Swan points to growing bodies of evidence that show men's sperm are often responsible for whether there is a miscarriage or not: the higher the DNA fragmentation in a man's semen sample, the more likely there will be a miscarriage.
Perhaps the freshest perspective here is Swan's argument that endocrine disruptors are wreaking hormonal havoc on fetuses in the womb, leading to hormonal imbalances that result in children being born in to the wrong sex. Swan makes this argument considerately and somewhat convincingly. And although it's not an apples to apples comparison, she points to the increase of sexual dimorphism among animals who have been affected by these same 'forever' chemicals that the changes happening to our bodies are happening to all life on this planet as well. The implications of our having placed nature out of balance, much like we have with climate change, are troubling.
I left this book, unfortunately, very cynical. I appreciated the information on lifestyle changes that can result in my sperm performing better. But I worry about our societal ability to act on the research that effectively invisible chemicals we've begun using everywhere are resulting in life's hormonal ruin. We have been slow to act on climate change, whose impact, relatively speaking, has been invisible and slow, but whose solutions are well understood. The solutions for eliminating our environment of endocrine disruptors are far less understood, the urgency from the public to act is far smaller (I didn't know this was a problem!), and their invisible rate of change on our bodies has been, relatively speaking, far faster. It worries me about where we'll be as a society 25 years from now. Read more 47 people found this helpful Helpful
Emily Copeland 5.0 out of 5 stars So engaging, super digestible Reviewed in the United States on February 23, 2021 Verified Purchase Don't be turned off by the doom and gloom title, Count Down also provides very real things that people can in their own lives to reduce their exposures to toxic chemicals like BPA and phthalates in their everyday lives and homes. It also raises the call to action -- what are we as a society now going to do about this problem?
They also manage to insert humor where possible, which keeps the book light-hearted in places despite its very real, often alarming points. The writing is so accessible and at the same time, so informing and well-researched.
I bought this for my whole family!! 28 people found this helpful Helpful
Carla A 5.0 out of 5 stars A wake up call to take action Reviewed in the United States on February 25, 2021 Verified Purchase I was moved by NY Times Nicholas Kristoff's column that shared the findings of this book, particularly the line that reads: "Many issues in headlines today won’t much matter in a decade, let alone in a century. Climate change is one exception, and another may be the risks to our capacity to reproduce." I'm so grateful Dr. Swan wrote this book to amplify the message beyond academic circles that urgent action is needed protect against the harmful impacts of toxins in our environment. 30 people found this helpful Helpful
D. Cohen 5.0 out of 5 stars Wake Up To Stop Extinction + Climate Change Reviewed in the United States on February 26, 2021 Verified Purchase CountDown is a Wake Up Call for Everyone on our Planet. The chemicals in plastic are toxic to humans and animals and the future of us all is dependent on how we respond at this pivotal moment in time. Plastic Pollutes from extraction through manufacturing, production, use and waste management: which is often Incineration, dumping in our environment and shipping to poorer countries. Dr. Swann's research and this book are key- the key to educate us all and to inspire the call to action for the systemic change which much be put in place today! 22 people found this helpful Helpful
Ron D. 5.0 out of 5 stars If you want kids, read this. Reviewed in the United States on March 17, 2021 Verified Purchase Count Down I have only heard a few sound bites on the news about declining sperm counts. I was shocked by some of the claims in this book, so I Googled (DuckDucked) the author to see where she was coming from. Dr. Shanna Swan is one of the world’s leading experts on health / environmental research. Any couple desiring to have a family should read this book. You don’t need a medical degree or medical dictionary to understand this presentation. Dr. Swan uses familiar words if they convey the meaning. Declining male sperm count is only one of the many factors in successful conception and having healthy children. It is also interesting how the decreasing fertility problems are linked to many of our other environmental, nutrition and pollution problems. Dr. Swan admits that many details about human conception are not yet known, but she points to possible research needs and offers some solutions to reduce the problems. The answer to global over-population might be the falling birth rates but it might also lead to human extinction if other problems don’t kill us off first. Yes we live in a dangerous time considering the climate, nukes, financial disparity, government corruption, chemical pollution, etc. Some issues can be at least slowed down while we try to find solutions. 15 people found this helpful Helpful
g miklashek 2.0 out of 5 stars What is the real cause of sperm and egg decline? Reviewed in the United States on March 1, 2021 Verified Purchase It's not that this isn't a well researched and written book, but the authors ignore the environmental impact of our massive human population and over-consumption. Thus, from the perspective of Mother Earth, fewer humans consuming less of Her natural resources and producing less of the very pollution the author decries is obviously a good thing. Population density stress is our number one health problem, but the well-meaning author only devotes a few words to stress in any form on page 167. Ironically, she gives a few vague recommendations on stress management, but never defines the term or its implications. Want the truth? Read "Stress R Us" on Amazon Books. Good luck! 16 people found this helpful Helpful
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