This Is For Nigerian Men, Studies Suggest You Should Avoid Stockfish. Lol! : Stockfish, Others Blamed For Falling Sperm Rates

                                    

Most men in Nigeria love stock fish, aside that stockfish got a special seasoning taste which most women wouldn't want to have missing in a pot of native soup and sauce. Take a good look of the pictured native meals after the cut and  imagine no stock fish okporoko in it and am thinking no ugba with stockfish for male lovers of this native delicacy so as to preserve their sperm. Choi!!!! 

 

Imagine a banga soup without stock/driedfish

 




Tomatoes, others boost sperm count by 70  so you adviced to eat plenty of that

• ‘Coffee, alcohol do not reduce fertility’

 

AN insight into why more men are becoming infertile has emerged from recent studies. Regular intake of stockfish, environmental pollution, stress and untreated infections have  been  implicated .
 

The studies, however, suggest that sperm count and quality could be boosted by increasing the consumption of tomatoes, taking recommended multivitamins, and physical activity.

Imagine a well prepared ogbono soup without stock/dried fish

 

Stockfish is popular in West Africa, where it is used in the many soups that complement the grain staples fufu and garri. Also,  stockfish is the main ingredient in the Igbo snack called Ugba na Okporoko or Ukazi amongst the Ohafia people in Abia State. The name Okporoko for stockfish, among the Igbo of Nigeria refers to the sound the hard fish makes in the pot and literally translates as “that which produces sound in the pot.”

 

 A fertility expert, Joint Pioneer of Test Tube Baby/In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) in Nigeria and Medical Director of Medical Art Centre (MART), Prof. Oladapo Ashiru, told The Guardian: “A lot is happening to the sperm count. A lot has to do with environmental events. We have seen people who work in the Niger Delta region. The ozone layer in that place is bad and there is a lot of pollution. One of my students did a Ph.D and saw that those extracts of crude oil have severe effect on fertility of both male and female, they compromise them severely. No oil industry will encourage that level of polltion.

 

 “Recently too we found out  that people who work in that area if they carry out some tests they see they have some heavy metals and oil fossils in them and those things have the capacity to depress gametogenesis because gametes forming is dependent on some mitochondria activities that require oxygen, that require the best form of enzymes. Even herbicides and pesticides, smoking, diesel fuel they can block that enzyme activity that influences sperm count. It is an environmental problem; it is also a nutritional problem. I think 40 years ago some things we have in our environment now were not there.”

 

  According to a study led by researchers of  Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health and Rutgers School of Public Health Psychological, United States, stress is harmful to sperm and semen quality, affecting its concentration, appearance, and ability to fertilize an egg.

 

 The results were published online, last week, in the journal Fertility and Sterility. According to the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, infertility affects men and women equally, and semen quality is a key indicator of male fertility.

 

 Senior author Dr. Pam Factor-Litvak, associate professor of Epidemiology at the Mailman School of Public Health, United States, said: “Men who feel stressed are more likely to have lower concentrations of sperm, and the sperm they have is more likely to be misshapen or have impaired motility. These deficits could be associated with fertility problems.”

 

The researchers studied 193 men, ages 38 to 49, enrolled in the Study of the Environment and Reproduction at the Kaiser Foundation Health Plan in Oakland, California, between 2005 and 2008. The men completed tests to measure work and life stress on subjective scale (how they felt overall) and objective scale (life events behind the stress). They also provided semen samples. Technicians at the University of California, Davis, used standard methods employed in fertility testing to assess the samples for semen concentration, and sperm appearance and motility.

 

 Measured subjectively or objectively, life stress degraded semen quality, even after accounting for men’s concerns about their fertility, their history of reproductive health problems, or their other health issues. Workplace stress was not a factor, however the researchers say it may still affect reproductive health since men with job strain had diminished levels of testosterone. Being without a job did not improve matters. Unemployed men had sperm of lower quality than employed men, regardless of how stressed they were.

 

 It is not fully understood how stress affects semen quality. It may trigger the release of steroid hormones called glucocorticoids, which in turn could blunt levels of testosterone and sperm production. Another possibility is oxidative stress, which has been shown to affect semen quality and fertility.

 

 While several previous studies have examined the link between stress and semen quality, the current paper is the first to look at subjective and objective measures of stress and find associations with semen concentration, and sperm appearance and motility.

 

What is the solution? According to a recent study, the key nutrient that gives tomatoes their bright red colour could boost fertility in men. The research showed that lycopene could increase sperm count by up to 70 per cent.

 

Now a leading support group for infertile people is embarking on a yearlong survey to see if giving a daily high-lycopene supplement will lead to more pregnancies.

 

 The report, which was published by the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, United States, reviewed 12 studies by different groups around the world.  All of them showed that lycopene improved sperm count and swimming speed, and reduced the number of abnormal sperm.

 

Ashok Agarwal, director of the Cleveland Clinic’s Center for Reproductive Medicine, who led the study, said it was part of a general pattern showing lycopene benefited men’s reproductive organs.

 

 Other studies have shown the nutrient reduces diseases of the prostate, the gland, which makes sperm, and may slow down or even halt the progress of prostate cancer.

 

His team has already begun a trial giving lycopene supplements to men with unexplained infertility. They expect to announce the results next year.

 

He said: “There is a need for more large trials to analyse the effects of lycopene on male infertility, and the studies must establish which patient groups would derive the greatest benefit from the therapy – for example, we would need to compare lycopene supplementation in infertile men with low versus normal, baseline sperm concentration.”

 

 Ashiru who is also an adjunct professor at the University of  Illinois,  Chicago, United States, said: “What I think is that we should be cautious of what we eat. Things like stockfish has high amount of mercury in it, it affects men and women and smoking of course. I find out that quite a lot of men now don’t smoke but some of them take alcohol and you have to control it. Of course the last but not the least is infection that can affect the reproductive system.”

 

What should people naturally do to boost sperm count? Ashiru said: “Vitamin is important. The use of multivitamins and vitamin C, which are antioxidants, are supposed to protect the system. Some of these vitamins contain some of these co-factors like zinc and selenium that are helpful in demobilizing these toxins from the body. Selenium will bound the heavy metal and make it pass through the urine.”

      According to another new study,  exercise may boost a man’s sperm count, and therefore may improve a couple’s chances of conception.

 

     Meanwhile, two other studies being released at the meeting found that neither coffee nor alcohol affects a man’s ability to conceive, contradicting concerns raised by earlier research.

 

        In particular, men who lift weights or spend time working or exercising outdoors tended to have a higher-than-average sperm concentration in their semen, said study co-author Audrey Gaskins, a doctoral student at the Harvard School of Public Health, United States.

 

       “Men engaging in exercise for seven hours or more per week, essentially one hour a day, had 48 percent higher concentrations than men who were engaging in less than one hour per week,” Gaskins said.

 

     The study was presented penultimate week at the joint meeting of the International Federation of Fertility Societies and the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, held in Boston.

 

          “Even though caffeine and alcohol are generally considered a risk factor for decreased fertility, we saw no evidence of that,” said co-author Dr. Jorge Chavarro, an assistant professor of nutrition and epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health.

 

       The exercise study focused on the male partners of couples who sought treatment at the Massachusetts General Hospital Fertility Center between 2006 and 2012. Ultimately, 137 men provided semen samples and filled in questionnaires regarding their regular levels of physical activity.

 

  “When we looked overall, we found that men who engaged in levels of moderate to vigorous activity had higher levels of sperm concentration,” Gaskins said.

 

 Further, the researchers found that particular types of pursuits boosted sperm counts more than others. “Outdoor activities and weightlifting seemed to be driving the association between moderate to vigorous activity and sperm concentration,” Gaskins said.

 

 Men who spent more than an hour and a half each week engaging in physical activity outdoors had a 42 percent higher sperm concentration than those who spent no time outdoors, she said.

 

  Weightlifters who spent two or more hours a week pumping iron had a 25 percent increase in sperm count compared to men who did not lift weights.

 

 “Weightlifting has been shown to increase testosterone levels and improve insulin sensitivity,” Gaskins said. “Both of those have been related to higher sperm concentrations.”

 Gaskins speculated that outdoor exposure to sunlight might boost fertility by increasing men’s levels of vitamin D.

 

The researchers found that one form of outdoor exercise actually can decrease male fertility, however. Men who rode a bicycle for more than an hour and a half each week had 34 percent lower sperm concentrations than men who did not bike.

 

Pressure placed against the scrotum by a bike seat or the increased scrotal temperatures caused by such pressure are possible explanations for this decrease in fertility, Gaskins said.

 

 The study did not find any difference in the quality of sperm or how well it traveled in the body related to exercise.

 

Although the studies found associations between exercise levels and sperm concentration, it did not prove a cause-and-effect relationship.

 

Two other studies assessing male fertility looked at the potential impact of alcohol or caffeine.

 

 One study reviewed the alcohol and caffeine intake of 166 male infertility patients, and found no link with the men’s sperm counts.

 

 “We found that neither alcohol nor caffeine affected semen quality, which serves as a proxy for male fertility potential,” Chavarro said.

 

 A second study by French researchers also looked at caffeine intake, but focused on the possibility that caffeine could do harm to the quality of sperm as well as the quantity.

 

The study, which involved nearly 4,500 men, reviewed semen volume and sperm counts, and performed genetic analysis to see if caffeine caused damage to sperm DNA.

 

The researchers reported that caffeine intake overall did not have a detrimental effect on semen. In particular, caffeine did not seem to cause any significant damage to the DNA carried by the sperm.

     Until now, research into the effects of caffeine and alcohol on male fertility has been very mixed, Chavarro said.

 

 “There have been many papers suggesting that alcohol and caffeine may be deleterious to fertility,” he said. “But there have been a few papers that say caffeine might help sperm motility, and helps sperm move faster with improved patterns.”

 

 Because the new research was presented at a medical meeting, all data and conclusions should be viewed as preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

 

Sperm count: How to boost it

1. Wear loose underwear – to make healthy sperm the testicles need to be below body temperature.

2. Eat food low in saturated fat.

3. Avoid smoking, drinking, using drugs and becoming obese.

4. Reduce exposures to industrial chemicals such as those used in making plastics – they can mimic the female hormone oestrogen countering male hormones.

5. Protect women in pregnancy – there is growing evidence that falling sperm counts may stem from effects in the womb.

6. Avoid anti-depressants – in rare cases they can cut sperm counts.

 

       Indeed, the world’s largest study of the quality and concentration of sperm had found that the reproductive health of the average male is in sharp decline.

 

        Between 1989 and 2005, average sperm counts fell by a third in the study of 26,000 men, increasing their risk of infertility. A similar proportion also reduced the amount of healthy sperm.

 

       The findings confirmed research over the past 20 years that has shown sperm counts declining in many countries across the world. Reasons ranging from tight underwear to toxins in the environment have been advanced to explain the fall, but still no definitive cause has been found.

 

      The decline occurred progressively throughout the 17-year period, suggesting that it could be continuing.

 

       The latest research was conducted in France but British experts say it has global implications. The scientists said the results constituted a “serious public health warning” and that the link with the environment “particularly needs to be determined”.

 

  The worldwide fall in sperm counts has been accompanied by a rise in testicular cancer – rates have doubled in the last 30 years – and in other male sexual disorders such as undescended testes, which are indicative of a “worrying pattern”, scientists say.

 

    There is an urgent need to establish the causes so measures can be taken to prevent further damage, they add.

 

 Richard Sharpe, professor of reproductive health at the University of Edinburgh and an international expert on toxins in the environment, said the study was “hugely impressive” and answered skeptics who doubted whether the global decline was real.

 

      “Now, there can be little doubt that it is real, so it is a time for action. Something in our modern lifestyle, diet or environment is causing this and it is getting progressively worse. We still do not know which are the most important factors but the most likely are … a high-fat diet and environmental chemical exposures.”

 

      Researchers from the Institut de Veille Sanitaire, St Maurice, used data from 126 fertility clinics in France that had collected semen samples from the male partners of women with blocked or missing fallopian tubes. The men, whose average age was 35, did not have fertility problems of their own and were therefore considered representative of the general male population.

 

      The results, reported in the journal Human Reproduction, showed the concentration of sperm per millilitre of semen declined progressively by 1.9 per cent a year throughout the 17 years – from 73.6 million sperm per millilitre in 1989 to 49.9 million/ml in 2005. The proportion of normally formed sperm also decreased by 33.4 per cent over the same period.

 

       Although the average sperm count of the men was well above the threshold definition of male infertility – which is 15 million/ml – it was below the World Health Organisation threshold of 55 million/ml which is thought to lengthen the time to conceive. Other European studies have shown that one in five young men has a sperm count low enough to cause problems conceiving.

 

       Combined with other social trends, such as delayed childbearing, which reduces female fertility, the decline in sperm counts could signal a crisis for couples hoping for a family.