Contents:
- Medical Video: Improving Fertility in Men with Poor Sperm Count | UCLA Urology
- What Is Zinc?
- How Important Is Zinc for Male Fertility?
- How Does Zinc Affect Male Fertility?
- Foods Rich in Zinc
Medical Video: Improving Fertility in Men with Poor Sperm Count | UCLA Urology
One of the problems with infertility in men is generally caused by little sperm production. About half of the infertility problems faced by married couples are caused by infertility in men. You can get around this by maintaining a nutritious diet, especially food sources rich in zinc.
What Is Zinc?
Zinc is basically a versatile mineral that is important for your body. Zinc is needed every day to replenish your nutrition, and Zinc is one of the most important minerals found in the body.
How Important Is Zinc for Male Fertility?
Zinc helps with immune function, enzyme conversion, cell metabolism, and protein breakdown. Zinc plays a role in various aspects of male reproduction.
Zinc is in charge of protecting sperm from bacteria, containing antioxidants that will protect sperm from free radicals that can damage cells, also affect the amount and health of sperm. The researchers concluded, men with high zinc levels, whether smoking or not, had healthier sperm than men with lower zinc levels.
How Does Zinc Affect Male Fertility?
Although zinc is also good for female fertility, the role of zinc is more reliable in supporting male fertility. Addition of zinc intake to infertile men has been shown to increase sperm levels; improve sperm shape, function and quality and reduce the chance of male infertility.
If the zinc levels in the male reproductive tract are too low, there can be some problems, such as
- Sperm does not mature: zinc will be very necessary during the formation of the outer membrane and sperm tail. Without zinc, sperm cannot reach the maturity level of sperm that will give them mobility and strength to travel long through the vagina, cervix and into the uterus to carry out fertilization.
- Chromosome changes: low zinc levels may also be the cause of chromosomal defects in sperm that can cause miscarriages, even if fertilization is ongoing.
Foods Rich in Zinc
Make sure to eat enough zinc-rich food every week. It is recommended to multiply as much raw food as possible, because the cooking process has been shown to reduce zinc by at least 50%.
Here are high zinc foods, listed in the highest to lowest order:
- veal heart
- oyster
- beef
- Lamb
- venison
- sesame seeds
- pumpkin seeds
- yogurt
- turkey meat
- peas
- shrimp
