Environment and diet can have a significant impact on the health and quality of sperm – smoking, heavy drinking, maintaining an unhealthy lifestyle and diet can result in increased DNA fragmentation in sperm, poor morphology and has been linked to poor embryo development. We’ve often posted about the types of food you can eat to help increase the health of your sperm and the types of activities you should avoid to help improve your chances of having a healthy pregnancy.
A very recent article published in the European Journal of Nutrition has identified Lycopene, a natural pigment found in tomatoes as a carotenoid that can greatly improve sperm quality.
Scientists from the University of Sheffield in the UK conducted a study involving 60 test subjects and found that those who consumed Lycopene showed a 40% improvement in both sperm motility, concentration and morphology. The powerful antioxidant effects of the carotenoid were also believed to be helping protect the sperm against damage caused by oxidation, which has been well document as a cause of male infertility.
The university is now planning a larger scale study involving men who have known fertility problems to observe the powerful effect of the natural pigment.
