HEALTH REPORT
T rying for a baby? Read on for important news about the first supplement ever shown to increase high quality sperm by almost 50 per cent. Not being able to conceive a child is frustrating and stressful, and an unfortunate fact of life is that, despite being keen to father a child, some men have great difficulty in doing so. One in six couples has a problem getting pregnant and, in every case, there is a 50:50 chance that the source of the infertility lies with the man. Causes of male infertility - which is defined as being unsuccessful attempts to conceive after a year of having unprotected sex with a partner - can vary. A diagnosis of chlamydia or other reproductive-tract infection may have left scar tissue blocking the movement of sperm. Or, a man may have a low sperm count caused by inadequate levels of testosterone, the hormone which triggers the testes to make sperm. A low sperm count can be due to a range of causes, including some prescription drugs and environmental chemicals which alter sperm motility (activity) and make conception difficult. Also, sperm are fragile and easily damaged by naturally-occurring chemicals called free radicals; numerous factors affect levels of both free radicals and testosterone, including alcohol, smoking, poor nutrition and stress. A supplement is now an option For couples struggling to have a baby, a new research breakthrough offers hope. The randomised, placebo-controlled study of 60 healthy men, aged from 19 to 30 years of age, was conducted at the University of Sheffield Medical School, England. Results of sperm and blood samples analysed at the beginning and end of this study demonstrate that those men taking a dietary supplement containing lactolycopene, a The baby maker
compound derived from cooked tomatoes, over a period of just 12 weeks, showed a dramatic increase of almost 50 per cent in the number of “Class A” sperm in their samples. These are the fast-swimming, correctly shaped sperm which are the baby-making sperm. Improvements to sperm size, quality, motility and shape in those men who took the lactolycopene supplement were also noted. Excessive amounts of reactive oxygen species (ROS) cause oxidative stress in the body, which results
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ISSUE 56 • 2019
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