Antioxidants For Better Sperm Health

Dietary antioxidants can help maintain male fertility, say Australian researchers. They studied crickets and found that a combination of antioxidants provided the best weapon to boost the health of the male ejaculate.

It was a collaborative research of Dr Maria Almbro and Winthrop Professor Leigh Simmons, from the Centre for Evolutionary Biology at the University of Western Australia and Dr Damian Dowling of Monash University's School of Biological Sciences. The study has been published in the prestigious journal Ecology Letters. Professor Simmons said highly reactive molecules, known as free radicals were waste products of the cellular processes that fuel the body's activities. "These free radicals damage cells if they are not neutralised by antioxidants," he said.

Dr Almbro said sperm were known to be vulnerable to attack from free radicals, and the study had shown that the best defence against sperm damage was to take two antioxidants; Vitamin E and beta-carotene.
Professor Simmons said for most animals, it was typical for females to have the sperm of several males inside them at any given time, competing for the fertilisation of the eggs.
"It is fair to say that the sperm are at war within the female, and we can expect that the most competitive sperm will win the race to the egg. Our study showed that the sperm of males who were fed antioxidants were easily able to outclass the sperm of rival males who were deprived of antioxidants."