London - Men who want to increase their fertility levels might benefit from eating walnuts, according to a study.
Researchers in America asked a group of young men in their 20s and 30s to eat a 75g packet every day for three months.
Compared to a group of men who avoided walnuts, they managed to increase their sperm count and its quality, potentially giving them a better chance of fathering a child.
Scientists at the University of California chose walnuts because they are a major source of “good” polyunsaturated fats. They are rich in omega 3 and omega 6 – also found in oily fish – which are thought to be good for sperm development and function but are lacking in many Western diets.
One in six couples struggle to conceive, and it is thought around 40 percent of these problems are due to problems with the man’s sperm.
Professor Wendie Robbins, of UCLA’s School of Public Health, said as the 117 volunteers were healthy non-smokers, it was not clear that walnuts would help with fertility problems, but it had a positive effect. The researchers analysed the men’s sperm concentration, how strongly they swam and their genetic makeup.
Those eating walnuts saw a modest 3 percent average increase in sperm swimming, compared with no increase in the group who did not eat walnuts.
And fewer of the walnut eaters were seen with aneuploidy – a disorder where sperm have too many or too few chromosomes.
Allan Pacey, a fertility expert at the University of Sheffield, said the study found only a “quite modest” increase in sperm count. “I would be cautious about recommending this as a therapy for infertility until it has been studied further,” he added
A Canadian study has linked mobile phones with impotence. Researchers found that 20 men with erectile dysfunction carried an active phone around for a daily average of 4.4 hours a day, compared with 1.8 hours for ten men who did not have the problem.
But Rany Shamloul, of the University of Ottawa, added: “Further larger studies are recommended to confirm our findings.” - Daily Mail