The quality of men's sperm has taken an absolute nosedive and is down 60 percent compared to stats from just 40 years ago, says recent research.
Yikes.
The reason? Most experts and scientists blame diet (high in sugar) and toxins we are all exposed to, most frequently in the form of pesticides, additives and from cosmetic and wellness products.
In fact, in a
recently published study (published in PLOS Biology) Swedish researchers think the problem is a combination of the above, but they also made the interesting discovery that sperm quality is extremely dictated by nutrition, and that a change in diet can affect sperm quality almost immediately.
In a study conducted at Linköpings University in Sweden, healthy, young men were fed a diet high in sugar, and the researchers were amazed at how quickly their sperm quality started to decline as a result of this.
"We noticed that diet affect the motility of sperm, and also changes to specific molecules in it," explains Anita Öst, professor at the Institute for Clinical and Experimental Medicine at Linköpings University.
"Our study revealed changes that were noticeable after just a week."
The study was done using 15 normal, healthy non-smoking young males, who all followed a diet dictated by the scientists for two whole weeks. The first week, the men all ate healthy, nourishing foods, but the second week, the researchers changed the diet to include large amounts of refined sugar, in the shape of chocolate and soft drinks. The men's sperm quality was analysed at the start of the study, after the first week, and again once the second week of the study was completed.
This study comes following a
larger study conducted at the University of Illinois in Chicago where researchers found an alarming decline in sperm quality globally.
