I've had more men & women coming in to talk to me about sperm issues lately. Infertility is so common these days - about 30% is due to a female factor, 30% due to a male factor (i.e. sperm issues), and 30% is of unknown origin. Although the majority of the people I see for fertility issues are women, this seems to be changing. Normalizing sperm parameters is usually so much easier than dealing with all of the complexities of female fertility issues!
Sperm can be greatly affected by diet & lifestyle. There are studies coming out about the negative impact of plastic on sperm production and development. Although it is virtually impossible to eliminate the use of plastic in your life, there are many ways to easily reduce it! The simplest way for most people significantly reduce their plastic exposure is to stop drinking bottled water, instead use a re-useable glass or metal water bottle. Just take a moment to think about all of your plastic exposure - from Styrofoam takeout containers to the lining of canned goods and milk cartons - it's everywhere!
With respect to diet, the main focus on sperm research over and over again is antioxidant consumption. When you're trying to fix or normalize motility (how they swim), morphology (how they look), overall number of sperm, or DNA fragmentation levels - antioxidant consumption is crucial. Antioxidants are most plentiful in fruits & vegetables, but can also be taken in pill format (e.g. Vitamin C, CoEnzyme Q10, etc.). We've also found that too much saturated fat and especially trans fat consumption is not good for sperm development. This is far from the end of the story, but will hopefully give you an idea of some of the things we can do to help the production of healthy sperm.
Bottom line, as always, is to eat a balanced diet with plenty of fruits & vegetables - and please come in and see me to discuss any specific issues so we can individualize treatment!
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