In the last ten years, the quality of the semen of the young people of the Spanish southeasthas decreased by 2 percent, as revealed by a study carried out by researchers from the University of Murcia. Although a scientific study would be needed to know theCausesSpecific to this data, the authors believe that lifestyle and poor diet may be behind this result.
Scientists have analyzed sperm samples provided by Murcian university students frombetween 18 and 23 years oldand they have been compared with another analysis carried out in 2001 and 2002 on a group of people from Almeria with similar characteristics and the same age range.
“The total count and the concentration of spermatozoa have decreased in young people from the southeast of Spain in the last decade,” say the authors of the work, which is published in the journalAndrology. Specific,it has gone from an average concentration of 72 million sperm per milliliter to 52 million. Furthermore, “40% of the university students analyzed in Murcia suffer alterations in at least one seminal parameter -morphology, mobility-, and in 15% all sperm indicators are below normality”, as Jaime Mendiola explained to SINC , one of the authors. Although this data does not imply an increase in the number of infertile men, the results worry the researchers: “in recognized studies it has been found thatfrom a concentration below 40 million / ml it is more difficult to conceive a child“, Mendiola affirms.” If the rate of loss that we have detected is maintained, with an average drop in quality of 2% per year, the sperm of young people could reach that dangerous level of 40 million / ml in a period of time very short time. “
Does this result mean that the quality of Spanish semen is getting worse? It is a very local study, so, according to the researchers, it cannot necessarily be applied to other areas of the Spanish geography. Specific studies are needed to determine the specific causes of this decline in sperm quality, althoughdiet and lifestylethey have a lot to do with it. Recent studies have shown that obesity and the abuse of dairy and carbohydrates can negatively affect the quality of sperm. On the other hand, increased vitamin D in the blood improves gamete mobility, and a study presented at the 2009 European Society for Human Reproduction and Embryology conference revealed that daily sex also improves sperm quality.
“We believe that somepreventive activitiesthat suppose an improvement in the lifestyles, such as a healthier diet, can increase the seminal quality “, has pointed out Alberto Torres, principal investigator of the work,” but we still do not have rigorous scientific information to propose them even in the clinical field nor at the population level. If we could identify those interventions, we could improve the sperm. “
