Contents:
- Medical Video: 5 tips to ensure healthy sperm - Jesse Mills, MD | UCLA Health Newsroom
- Zinc
- Selenium
- Vitamin D
- Folic acid
- Antioxidants
- Omega-3 fatty acids
Medical Video: 5 tips to ensure healthy sperm - Jesse Mills, MD | UCLA Health Newsroom
Want to improve the quality of your sperm, but still confused how to do it? Here comes the easiest way you can do. Unexpectedly, it turns out that the food you eat everyday also affects the quality of your sperm. Yes, some of the nutrients contained in the foods you eat can help you improve sperm quality. Want to know what are these nutrients?
Zinc
Zinc deficiency can make your sperm quality deteriorate. This happens because zinc plays a role in increasing your motility and sperm count. A study in the journal Fertility and Sterility, men whose fertility was being able to increase their total sperm count by 74% after taking zinc sulfate every day for 26 weeks. Therefore, you need to increase the consumption of foods containing zinc when you want to plan a pregnancy.
Zinc can be found at: meat, chicken, shellfish, lobster, shrimp, eggs, and dairy products.
Selenium
Selenium is also one of the nutrients that plays a role in sperm movement. If you lack selenium, the ability to move sperm will decrease and the quality of sperm will deteriorate.
Selenium can be found at: bread, fish, meat, eggs, and garlic. Besides selenium, garlic also contains allicin compounds which can help increase blood flow to the sexual organs and help protect sperm from damage.
Vitamin D
Vitamin D is not only needed for healthy bones and teeth, but vitamin D is also needed to improve the quality of your sperm. Apparently, vitamin D can support sperm movement. One study shows that vitamin D deficiency can cause reduced sperm movement.
Vitamin D can be found in: sunlight, fatty fish, margarine enriched with vitamin D, and cereals fortified with vitamin D.
Folic acid
Folic acid or folate or vitamin B9 are also important for making healthy sperm. So, not only women need folic acid before pregnancy, but men also need folic acid to improve the quality of their sperm so they can fertilize. Some studies have shown that a diet high in folic acid is associated with an increase in sperm count.
Folic acid can be found at: green vegetables, such as broccoli, spinach, kale, also from potatoes and oranges.
Antioxidants
Antioxidants can also improve the quality of your sperm by helping the body fight free radicals that can cause cell damage. Several studies have shown that men who have low antioxidant diets are more likely to have poor sperm quality.
Antioxidants can be found at: vitamin C, vitamin E, and vitamin A in the form of beta-carotene. You can get these three vitamins by eating lots of vegetables and fruits. Research from the University of Rochester in 2006 showed that infertile men were twice as likely to have low fruit and vegetable intake (less than 5 servings per day) compared to fertile men. The research conducted by Lewis and his colleagues also proved that men with low antioxidant intake had lower movement of sperm compared to men with high antioxidant intake.
Omega-3 fatty acids
Omega-3 fatty acids can help you increase the number and quality of sperm, and help increase blood flow to the sexual organs.
A study published by Biology of Reproduction shows that healthy men who add an intake of 75 grams of walnuts to their diet every day for 3 months have better sperm shape and movement. The researchers believe that alpha linolenic acid (ALA), a type of omega-3 fatty acid contained in walnuts, contributes to this change.
In addition, omega-3 fatty acids can also increase your sex drive. As said by Yvonne K. Fulbright, Ph.D., the omega-3 DHA and EPA fatty acids found in fish can help increase dopamine levels in the brain which can trigger sexual arousal, reported Men Men Health.
Omega-3 fatty acids can be obtained from: walnuts, chicken, crab, salmon, tuna, sardines, mackerel, and other fatty fish.
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