The way you live your life affects your sperm. Period. It doesn’t matter who you are. What food you put down the hatch, what supplements you take, where you store your cell phone, and where you put your laptop can all affect the quality of your sperm. Healthy sperm matters because healthy sperm = healthy offspring.
A sperm’s quality is usually based on, but not limited to, the following parameters:
- DNA structure. Abnormal DNA structure inside the sperm can lead to genetic defects in offspring.
- Sperm Concentration. The number of sperm cells per mL of ejaculate. A good number is above 15 million per mL.
- Sperm Motility. In other words, how fast your boys can swim.
- Sperm Morphology. Abnormal shape, like a crooked tail or lumpy head, can impede the ability to reach and penetrate the egg.
Here is what you need to know in order to keep those mini-me’s in their best shape for the big swim!
1. Get a Man Purse to Carry Your Cell Phone
Using a cell phone may decrease semen quality, especially when the cell phone is stored in a hip pocket or belt and rests in close proximity to the testes. A study found that when a cell phone is carried close to the testes, it was associated with decreased sperm concentration and decreased sperm motility.1
2. Don’t Use a Laptop On Your Lap
Using a laptop on your lap not only increases electromagnetic energy exposure on the testicles, but also increases the temperature of the scrotum. Higher scrotal temperatures interfere with sperm production.
3. Get Tested for STDs
Gonorrhea and chlamydia are two of the most common STDs that can affect the quality of your sperm. Get this! In some guys, chlamydia can be asymptomatic (no symptoms). Both of these STDs can result in poor semen quality, decreased sperm concentration, and decreased sperm motility. Once these STDs are treated with antibiotics, the semen is back up to par within 3 months.
4. Stop Microwaving Your Food in Plastic
When you microwave your food in a plastic container, you are basically nuking your food with synthetic estrogen. Microwaving food in plastic drives estrogen mimicking chemicals (xenoestrogens) from the plastic container into the food. Xenoestrogens in a male’s body can result in a smaller amount of ejaculate, decreased sperm motility, decreased sperm vitality, abnormal sperm morphology, and abnormal DNA in the sperm.
5. Stop Smoking
This includes cigar night. Cigarette smoke can decrease your sperm concentration, total sperm count, and sperm motility. It can also cause abnormally shaped sperm (morphology). Even more fascinating, cigarette smoke can cause inflammatory cells to show up in the semen.
6. Get Tested for MTHFR mutations
You can do this through your local physician or you can do it through 23andme.com. MTHFR mutations can play a huge role in the quality of your sperm because this particular mutation affects B12 and folate metabolism. B12 and folate are required for healthy DNA inside the sperm. Remember that the better the DNA of the sperm, the better that sperm will survive the long route to the egg, and then the better the DNA of the offspring. If you have an MTHFR mutation, it impairs your body’s ability to utilize plain ol’ B12 and folate, and you’ll need to take special forms of it (methylated B12 and methylated folate).
7. Eat as many organic, raw vegetables as possible
Sperm are very, very sensitive to this toxic world. Raw vegetables help quench free radicals, especially those in the cruciferous family. If you want to beef up your sperm quality, triple your current raw vegetable intake. Eat raw vegetables with breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Sometimes the only way to do this is to have a green smoothie for breakfast, sliced vegetables with lunch, and a large salad with dinner. If you can’t afford organic vegetables, eating conventionally grown raw vegetables is still superior to not eating them at all.
8. Take a high quality multi-vitamin
If you eat like the Wendy’s Eating Husband, you should take a high quality multivitamin not only while trying to make a baby but before you decide to make a baby. The extra nutrients in a multivitamin can increase all parameters of sperm quality. Extra nutrients can also protect the sperm from being damaged by free radicals. I have the Wendy’s Eating Husband take Thorne’s Basic Nutrients V, which is my go-to multivitamin for men.
References
1. Kilgallon SJ & Simmons LW. Image content influences men’s semen quality. Bio Lett. 2005 22;1(3):253-5.
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