Sperm quality: these bad habits to avoid!
For a man who’s sexually active enough, sperm quality isn’t super-important. As long as he ejaculates at the right time, and in abundance, to express his virility and satisfy his partners. However, there’s a good chance that, sooner or later, the state of your sperm will become a matter of greater concern: when you decide to have children!
Sperm quality plays a decisive role in procreation, and it’s essential to make every effort to improve it. Sperm count, mobility and endurance are all parameters that define sperm quality. However, certain bad habits are at the root of many problems.
Let’s discover them together…
Sperm quality: what’s it all about?
Sperm quality depends on a number of parameters relating to the different facets of sperm life. But before we go any further, let’s start by reminding ourselves what sperm is.
This whitish liquid secreted during ejaculation is made up of 3 main components:
- Pre-seminal fluid, generated by the body’s Cowper’s glands. Its role is to remove all traces of urine from the urethra in preparation for the passage of seminal fluid. It also acts as a lubricant for the glans;
- Seminal fluid, secreted by the prostate and seminal vesicles. This fluid nourishes the spermatozoa and gives them mobility. It also neutralizes the natural acidity of the vagina, enabling the sperm to reach the cervix;
- Finally, the spermatozoa are the tiny male reproductive cells whose ultimate role is to fertilize the egg and kick-start a new life!
Did you know that every time you ejaculate, some 200 million spermatozoa are released, in a jet of 2 to 6 ml of semen? And to think that only one of these little creatures will be able to fertilize the egg! It’s enough to motivate you, when you know that you came in first out of 200 million others “supposed to be you”!
Among the criteria determining sperm quality are sperm count, strength and mobility. These criteria can be influenced by many factors, both internal and external to the body.
Bad habits that affect sperm quality
A poor diet with a high concentration of unhealthy or industrially processed foods, smoking, chronic stress, alcohol, excess weight… these are all living conditions that are foreign to those of our ancestors. All in the name of progress, of course. However, it has also brought back just as many bad habits to our daily lives, and our bodies suffer from them all the time.
Among the bad habits that have been the subject of extensive scientific study is the amount of time spent sitting in front of a TV screen. In fact, a study carried out at the University of Copenhagen and published in the American Journal of Epidemiology revealed some interesting results that are of concern to us on more than one level.
According to the experts behind the study, spending at least 5 hours in front of the TV reduced sperm quality by around a third. Among 1,200 healthy young men, the group who spent around 5 hours a day in front of a TV screen had a sperm concentration of around 37 million/ml, compared with 52 million/ml for the group who hardly watched it at all.
This drop in concentration is thought to be due to a drop in the general level of testosterone, affected by the bad habits of a sedentary lifestyle, of which television is an important facet. Other bad habits, associated with spending too much time in front of the TV, further affect sperm quality. For example, junk food and cigarettes are “must-have” accessories when watching TV programs.
How can I boost sperm quality?
To improve sperm quality and boost sperm concentration, here are a few tips you can incorporate into your daily routine:
- Maintain a healthy weight. (Strive to lose weight if obese);
- Feed your sperm well, by adopting a healthy, balanced diet that contains the nutrients (omega-3, vitamin B9, zinc, etc.) that are guaranteed to improve sperm quality;
- Limit your intake of high-risk foods: red meat, coffee, processed foods. Moderate alcohol and tobacco consumption;
- Improve your sleep (7 to 8 hours at night is the minimum essential!);
- Fight stress, the number 1 enemy of physical health!
- Stay well hydrated, drinking an average of 1.5 to 2 liters of water a day. Combine this with a good program of physical activity to use this water to detoxify the body;
- Ensure the good health of your most precious jewels in the world: your testicles! Maintain them at their ideal temperature (around 34-35°), avoiding cramming them into tight-fitting clothes, exposing them to hot baths, exposing them to radiation from telephone waves, exposing them to bad so-called hygiene chemicals…
Finally, the best advice we can give you is to make love fairly regularly, to keep your machine in shape! A regular ejaculation, every 2 or 3 days, is a good routine to keep your testicles in good shape but also to get a better sperm quality.
Having good-quality sperm is also synonymous with sexual fulfillment, for both man and woman. If you want to know everything (or almost everything!) about this vital liquid, we invite you to consult our special Sperm dossier.
Read also our article on Volume Pills to boost your sperm volume!
Enjoy your reading!
