Fruits that increase sperm count and quality as Modern life poses threat to fatherhood

Fresh tomatoes, banana, cucumber, carrots and some other colourful fruits and vegetables have been shown to increase sperm count and quality.

A scientist has warned that sunscreen, car dashboards and some other everyday items contain potentially dangerous chemicals, which he claims are poisoning men’s chances of fatherhood.
He claims potentially dangerous chemicals in everything from waterproof jackets to car dashboards and frying pans are poisoning men’s chances of fatherhood.

Just one in four men now has good quality sperm and male fertility is declining across Europe, the new analysis shows.

The scientist in a report published in DailyMailOnline claimed for more than one man in seven the problem is so acute that he would need fertility treatment to start a family

Niels Jorgensen, a Danish researcher, believes that much of the blame lies with the cocktail of chemicals that surrounds us in everyday life.

Fatty food and watching television are also said to affect fertility. “Modern life is having an impact,” he said.

Jorgensen is advising men to stop wearing sunscreen and says pregnant women should avoid make-up and sun cream as they could be harming their unborn baby boys.

He made the controversial recommendations after reviewing more than 70 years of research on male fertility at a leading European conference.

Jorgensen has calculated that just 25 per cent of European men have good quality sperm.

He believes that up to 15 per cent of men would need fertility treatment if they want to start a family.

Sperm counts have fallen by at least a quarter in Denmark since the 1940s.

France, Spain and Finland have also seen drops. In Liverpool, counts halved between the 1930s and 1970s.

Meanwhile, reasons why more men are becoming infertile have emerged from recent studies. Regular intake of stockfish, environmental pollution, stress and untreated infections have been implicated.

The studies, however, suggest that sperm count and quality could be boosted by increasing the consumption of...

-Tomatoes, 

-Taking recommended multivitamins, and Physical activity.

Stockfish is popular in West Africa, where it is used in the many soups that complement the grain staples fufu and garri. Also, stockfish is the main ingredient in the Igbo snack called Ugba na Okporoko or Ukazi amongst the Ohafia people in Abia State. The name Okporoko for stockfish, among the Igbo of Nigeria refers to the sound the hard fish makes in the pot and literally translates as “that which produces sound in the pot.”

A fertility expert, Joint Pioneer of Test Tube Baby/In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) in Nigeria and Medical Director of Medical Art Centre (MART), Prof. Oladapo Ashiru, last year, told The Guardian: “A lot is happening to the sperm count. A lot has to do with environmental events. We have seen people who work in the Niger Delta region. The ozone layer in that place is bad and there is a lot of pollution. One of my students did a Ph.D and saw that those extracts of crude oil have severe effect on fertility of both male and female, they compromise them severely. No oil industry will encourage that level of pollution.”

Today, around one in ten Nigeria couples and one in seven couples in the United Kingdom (UK) has trouble conceiving, and although infertility is traditionally thought of as a female issue the problem is as likely to lie with the man as the woman.

By Chukwuma Muanya [The Guardian]