Diet And Treatment For Improving Fertility In Men - Dr Sanjay Prakash J

There is a famous saying which goes “It is the most powerful creation to have life growing inside of you. There is no bigger gift.” But many couples are unfortunate not to achieve this happiness. Worldwide, around 15% of couples are unable to achieve natural pregnancy, and are seeking medical help for having a child. 

In India, the infertility rate ranges from 3.9% to 16.8%. For infertility, females have always been blamed, but advancing knowledge proves that males are equal contributors to this problem. The male partner contributes to infertility in nearly 40-50% of couples. 

According to some data, the quality of human semen has deteriorated by 50%–60% over the last 40 years. The worrisome fact is that there is an increasing number (nearly 20%) of men with no sperms in their ejaculate (azoospermia).

Male infertility is seen as an alteration in sperm counts, motility, morphology and DNA damage which are identified by doing a basic semen analysis. The usual causes of male infertility are advancing age, sedentary lifestyle, obesity, excessive smoking and alcohol consumption, stress, electromagnetic radiation, infection and a few genetic causes.

Diet is also directly associated with semen quality and plays a crucial role in the maintenance of proper reproductive functions. A high-fat diet and obesity, resulting from an unhealthy lifestyle, not only affects the structure of spermatozoa but also the development of offspring and their health in later stages of life. 

An unhealthy high-calorie diet, like the Western diet commonly adopted by most of the younger generation as a fashion statement, has excessive unhealthy fats (saturated and trans-fat), high sugars, low nutritional value, less fibres and micronutrients. This leads to oxidative stress, development of diabetes, reduced testosterone and other hormones involved in sperm production leading to poor quality sperm production, testicular damage and subsequently infertility. 

Improper dietary patterns, such as meal omissions, eating at abnormal times, insufficient intake of antioxidants (vitamin C, E, coenzyme Q10, lycopene, carnitine, folic acid, and N-acetylcysteine) and micronutrients (zinc, selenium, magnesium, copper) also lead to male infertility.

A list of foods to be avoided and to be consumed is enlisted in the table. A Mediterranean diet, characterised by the consumption of large quantities of fruit and vegetables, wholemeal products, olive oil, nuts, and fish, is considered a healthy and pro-fertility diet. Nutrition can both negatively and positively affect the quality of semen. Therefore, maintenance of a healthy active style with regular exercise, good habits and dietary modification, is indispensable for male fertility, sexual health and sperm health.

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