A food that improves sperm fertility

Scientists from Spain and the United States have shown that eating nuts regularly and periodically positively affects male fertility.

Andrology reports that poor environmental conditions and lifestyle in developed countries affect the quality and number of sperm in semen and their ability to remain active.

Researchers from the College of Human Nutrition of the University of Rubira I Berjeli, Spain, and the University of Utah, USA, decided to find out if it is possible to reduce the effect of these factors, even partially, by following a specific diet.

Nuts are considered promising in this area. Previous studies had previously revealed that eating nuts helps increase sperm methylation, which improves sperm function. To date, however, no results have been published from a randomized clinical trial on the effect of diet on these changes.

In the context of the FERTINUTS study, in which 72 healthy men who did not smoke, 48 of whom ate walnuts for 14 weeks, the researchers evaluated for the first time the effect of a mixture of walnuts: walnuts, almonds and hazelnuts on the patterns of sperm DNA methylation in people on Western diets.

The results show that adding walnuts to the diet greatly improves sperm quantity, activity and motility. For the first time, the researchers were able to discover regions in the epigenome that interact with diet, revealing why diet affects male fertility.

Lead researcher Albert Salas Huetos of the Spanish University says, “This study reveals that there are some sensitive areas in the sperm epigenome that respond to diet and can lead to changes in sperm and their ability to fertilize.”

According to the researchers, these findings are the first evidence that adding walnuts to the regular Western diet affects sperm DNA homeostasis. However, to get final results in this area, further studies are needed.

Source: Novosti