healthy sperm

 

Introduction to supplements and healthy sperm

Healthy males produce millions of sperm each day and only a few of these ever go on to fertilise an egg. 

Despite the abundance of sperm, conception can take up to a year for many couples with healthy gametes (sex cells – sperm in males and eggs in females). When sperm quality is reduced, for example sperm are immotile (cannot move properly) or abnormally shaped (which may impair their ability to penetrate the shell of an egg) conception may take considerably longer or only be achieved with assisted reproduction technologies.

Many factors, including an individual’s genetic make up, sexual and reproductive health conditions such as sexually transmitted diseases and lifestyle factors such as smoking, affect the health of sperm. Nutritional intake, including intake of particular vitamins and micronutrients, has also been shown to affect the quality and quantity of the sperm a man produces. As a result there has been increasing interest in the role of nutrition in protecting and/or improving sperm health. Scientists have also devoted attention to studying whether or not taking nutritional supplements protects the health of sperm and if it could be an effective treatment for male factor infertility (infertility due to problems with the male).

How do vitamins and micronutrients affect sperm health?

Sperm production is highly dependent on DNA synthesis as each time a cell divides and replicates new DNA is required. DNA requires nutrients to grow and, as most of the nutrients required for DNA synthesis are derived from the diet, a man’s nutritional intake affects the production and health of the stem cells from which his sperm are produced. The processes which are essential for sperm production (mitosis, meiosis and spermatogenesis) each involve the division of cells and each process is thus dependent upon the production of new DNA. Nutritional intake can therefore affect sperm health by affecting the health and availability of DNA on which the cell replication and duplication process depend.

In addition to regulating DNA synthesis, dietary vitamins and micronutrients fulfil important functions in DNA repair and transcription. A number of the processes which regulate sperm production also depend on vitamins and minerals including zinc and B group vitamins to fulfil their functions. Nutrients which are antioxidants (e.g. vitamin E) also affect the development, growth and survival of new sperm cells, because antioxidants protect developing and mature sperm cells from oxidative damage. In the absence of antioxidant protection, oxidative damage might otherwise cause the cells to die (called apoptosis).