During a recent episode of JRE, Joe Rogan sat down with reproductive epidemiologist Dr. Shanna H. Swan. In the middle of that conversation, Rogan brought up a friend whose experience with microplastics and testosterone had left a clear impression on him.
Rogan introduced the anecdote while the discussion centered on environmental exposures and hormone disruption. “Let me tell you a story about a friend of mine,” he said. He then identified the individual directly. “There’s a guy named Philip Franklin Lee who is a Michelin star chef that lives in Austin and he has this amazing sushi restaurant, Sushi by Scratch and great chef,” he said.
Rogan continued by describing the health issues his friend had been experiencing. “Anyway, he was experiencing fatigue, like always tired,” he said. “Got his hormones tested, extremely low testosterone,” he added. He then connected that finding to another test result. “But then got his microplastics tested and they were off the charts,” he said.
He went on to outline the steps his friend reportedly took in response. “He did a series of interventions to try to clean his body out from that,” Rogan said. “Stopped drinking anything out of plastic, stopped using plastic, just by whatever he did. I’m not sure if he did the plasma feresis thing that I just did recently.”
According to Rogan, the outcome was significant. “His testosterone went up to 1,200 with no testosterone replacement, no nothing. Just eliminating microplastics from his life over a period of time raises testosterone.”
Dr. Swan indicated that the story was consistent with themes presented in her documentary work on environmental chemicals.
Later in the conversation, Rogan returned to the same example when the topic shifted to fertility. “There is certainly an issue, like I said, with my friend Philip, that it made a radical difference in his sperm count and his testosterone levels,” he said.
He then extended the implication to a wider population. “And so this is probably the case with so many Americans in this country that are dealing with infertility issues,” he said. “A big part of it is probably these plasticizers.”
He also speculated about a possible source of exposure related to his friend’s profession. “Well, with my friend Philip, I guarantee he eats a lot of sushi,” Rogan said.
He explained the reasoning behind that assumption. “He runs a sushi place,” he said. “And if you ever go to a sushi place, all the fish is wrapped in plastic. They’re always wrapped in plastic, and then they cut it open. And so the exposure to all this stuff.”
