Sperm quality: How to improve it?

According to a study published in the journal Human Reproduction Update, of the University of Oxford, in the Uk, the quality of sperm from men in north America, Europe and Australia has halved in the past 40 years.

The research epidemiologist Hagai Levine of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, he assembled the results of 185 studies between 1973 and 2001, the analyzed semen samples from nearly 43,000 men, making it one of the investigations largest of its kind.

This study found a decrease of 52.4% in the concentration of sperm and a decrease in the sperm count of 59.3% in men from north America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. In addition, this decrease is continuous and possibly is on the rise.

Causes of this decline

There is No clear evidence to explain the apparent decrease in the number of spermatozoa in the last 40 years. However, a decrease in the quality and sperm count has been associated with exposure to chemicals and metals in the food, those used in plastics and pesticides, obesity, smoking, stress, a diet high in saturated fat and a sedentary lifestyle.

What determines the health of the sperm?

The health of the sperm depends on a number of factors such as:

Amount: the ejaculate should contain between 15 and 200 million sperm per milliliter to be considered fertile. You have less, you might have difficulty conceiving.

Movement: The sperm must swim through the cervix, uterus and fallopian Tubes of a woman to achieve to reach the egg and fertilize the egg. This is known as motility and must have at least 40% of the motile sperm to have a higher chance of achieving a pregnancy.

Morphology: a sperm has normal oval-shaped head and a long tail that move together to produce thrust. This is not a factor just as important as the quantity and motility, but the more sperm with shape and structure in normal you have, the more chances of achieving a pregnancy.

What can I do to increase the production of healthy sperm?

There are many measures linked to your lifestyle you can adopt to improve the semen quality, such as:

• Keep a healthy weight because a higher body mass index is associated with the decline in count and motility of sperm.
• Consume fruits and vegetables rich in antioxidants, improving the health of the sperm.
• Protect yourself from sexually transmitted diseases that can affect your fertility, such as chlamydia and gonorrhea.
• Handle stress as it can affect your sexual function and interfere with the hormones in charge of the production seminal.
• You have physical exercise: weight lifting, running and jogging are associated with higher concentrations of sperm.
• Don't smoke: smoking causes low sperm count.
• Limit your consumption of alcoholic beverages as they decrease the production of testosterone and sperm, in addition to being able to generate impotence.
• Avoid the use of lubricants at the time of sexual intercourse, as these may affect the sperm.
• Be careful with certain drugs such as: anabolic steroids, tricyclic antidepressants, anti-androgens, among others. These can help with problems of infertility.
• Eye with toxins and chemicals such as pesticides and metals, such as lead, aluminum, and cadmium as they affect the quality and quantity of sperm. These metals are found in higher concentrations in foods such as seafood, canned food, cereals and certain fish so you have to reduce your consumption.
• Increase your consumption of vitamin C as several research studies have shown that its consumption considerably improves the problems of motility and agglutination of the spermatozoa.