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Gas emissions and testosterone levels
Gas emissions and testosterone levels
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  If you are on the move or you work in the urban environment in your everyday life you probably need to handle a heavy traffic on a daily basis and it is very likely that this has a negative impact on your testosterone levels. An experiment carried out by the National Taiwan University proved that male rats who had been exposed to gas emissions from motorcycle and scooter engines started producing less testosterone. The petrol fumes damaged their testicles with permanent consequences.



Why is testosterone important?

 This is the hormone which makes a man out of the boy. Its natural levels need to be optimal and it should follow a natural decline observed at a later stage of the ageing process rather than at the prime stage of every young men’s life. This is the hormone which makes an alpha out of us, not only in the gym but also our immediate environment. A wide range of metabolic processes, some of which are directly connected to the physical and sexual function, are highly dependent on it. It has always been a leading factor for bodybuilders as more testosterone means better post-workout recovery and pure muscle gain. It should be noted that we talk about the natural production of this vital hormone rather than the synthetic outside one which can lead to a variety of problems.



The experiment:

Nearly every Taiwanese is a proud owner of a scooter or in some rare cases a motorcycle which runs above 100 mph. We have all come across one of these peculiar YouTube videos which show very clearly that they are experiencing issues with their traffic even though their sole mode of transport is the motorcycle. The researchers took it as their goal to establish the influence this excess gas emission emitted by engines in the urban environment has on living organisms. The research had a marked goal of proving if it has a negative impact on the sexual functioning and to what degree. We are all aware that this type of pollution in our environment is highly unlikely to have a good impact on any of the organs but what about cities with motorcycles whose engines are inferior to car engines.

So over the course of 4 weeks the researchers exposed male rats to emissions with the help of an old motorcycle: Yamaha Cabin 1992.

 The Taiwanese kept the engine running and collected the gas emissions. Later they would blow them into the rat cages so as not to stress theanimals which could possibly effect the outcome of the experiment. The rats had to inhale the gas emissions between 9 and 10 in the morning and 16 and 17 in the afternoon from Monday to Friday.

This routine mimicked the normal environment every man faces on their way to work and their return.



The outcome

Some of the rats lost nearly 9% of their body mass as a result from the experiment. Their spermatozoid level had decreased and when they were put in a cage with female rats who were sexually active the rate of activity fell below expectations.


Exposure to gas emissions reduced their activity by 60%. What is more when the animals reproduced very few of the female rats got pregnant.

How did those 2 hours of exposure influence the animals?



Tremendously! The concentration of testosterone levels in the blood fell down by 70%.

These results provoked us to share this research with you.

Here we need to add that the researchers divided the rats into two groups in the beginning of the experiment. One had a regular dietary regime while the other received an additional dose of vit. E with their food. The following statistics is based on the blood samples taken from the final days of the experiment. It shows that the reduction of testosterone in those who were supplemented with vit. E fell down only by 40%.



ME= group exposed to the gas emissions from a motorcycle
ME+Vit E= group exposed to gas emissions supplemented with vit. E
CONTROL= placebo group which didn’t come into contact with the gas emissions

How did it come to this?

During the dissection of the rats the researchers found that the testicles had been damaged while the rest of the organs didn’t show any significant changes.
In their report they noted that the gas emissions hadn’t  caused any effect  on the relative mass of the liver, kidneys, spleen, prostate, thyroid gland and most noticeably the lungs.
The amount of the free radical cells in the testicles had increased drastically nevertheless. The concentration of the protective enzyme superoxide dismutase had been cut down by almost a half while the synthesis of the inflammatory protein interleukine-6 had increased.
 Supplementation with vit. E had a beneficial effect on the organism by blocking the increase of the inflammatory protein. It appears that the antioxidative characteristics of the vitamin protect the testicles and what is more the concentration and quality of sperm in men as evident in the graph below.



Conclusion:

We do not wish to make you paranoid in any way. We are aware that this is one of the few factors accumulated in our everyday life which lower the quality of our life more or less. We found the experiment rather curious than frightening. May it serve the purpose to keep us on weekends away from the traffic as it seems there is no end to it. May it serve the purpose of prompting us to enjoy a picnic with our close ones or take a walk in the park.



While the experiment was carried out with animals which doesn’t necessarily make it a valid point of comparison with people it took place 5 times a week where the time of exposure was 2 hours.

A point to drive home is that supplementation with vit. E has proven its benefits in this trial research where 1 softgel daily can always help against the free radical cells and the oxidative processes.



SourceToxicol Sci. 2008 May;103(1):137-48.



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