Zinc can improve sperm count

Zinc is necessary for a healthy immune system. It is needed to activate T lymphocytes T cells in your body that regulate immune responses and fight off infected or cancerous cells.

For this reason, a zinc deficiency can affect the function of your immune system and cause you to be more vulnerable to illness and disease.

Zinc is an antioxidant and works as an anti-inflammatory agent. Studies have also found that zinc supplements can decrease the duration of the common cold and reduce your risk of inflammatory diseases. Sperm counts have steadily declined over the past four decades, according to a review of recent scientific studies. This means that an increasing number of couples are looking for ways to treat male factor infertility by improving sperm quality and quantity.

When talking about the health of your sperm, there are three main characteristics that physicians look at:. Sperm count , motility, and morphology all play a role in male fertility.

For sperm cells to make it through the female reproductive tract to fertilize an egg, they must survive a variety of environmental changes. Sperm that is healthy, active, and has a normal shape is more likely to make it through uterus and cervix and into the fallopian tubes.

There are many physiological functions that contribute to the production and quality of sperm. Research is still being done to understand the processes needed to make sperm capable of fertilizing an egg. However, we do know that zinc plays an active role in male reproductive health, especially in the production of healthy sperm. Studies have found that zinc concentrations in the semen of infertile males tend to be significantly lower than those in fertile males.

For this reason, the University of Missouri study found that measuring zinc levels in seminal fluids can be an accurate indicator of fertility in males. These findings can help couples trying to conceive become more informed about what can cause male factor infertility.

Knowing more about the different things, such as zinc, that can impact male fertility can allow couples to make informed decisions about fertility treatments and assisted reproductive technologies. Adding zinc supplements to your diet can help improve sperm health from the moment of production. With higher concentrations of zinc in your reproductive system, the sperm that your body creates will be healthier and better suited to survive the journey to fertilize an egg. In fact, zinc supplements have been found to significantly increase sperm count and motility, as well as improve sperm morphology in men experiencing infertility.

Another study found that zinc sulfate supplements taken with folic acid were able to raise sperm counts in men experiencing infertility. RDA for zinc is a low 15mg per day, yet very few men obtain this amount. During spermatogenesis, or sperm formation, the concentration of zinc in the testes rises, as zinc is needed for the development of sperm.

An in vitro study in highlighted several important findings regarding zinc and spermatogenesis. Zinc levels in the testes increased in tandem with the progression of the sperm development, gradually rising as sperm matured.

It was observed that zinc accumulates in germ cells. Germ cells are the only cells in the body that have half the amount of chromosomes, and which undergo both mitosis and meiosis in males to produce the gamete, or sperm cell. When researchers tested the necessity for zinc by creating a zinc deficiency, germ cells suffered apoptosis or cell death.

However, this cell death was rescued by the addition of zinc to the cultures. Additionally, this study investigated the effects of zinc on sperm motility: A zinc deficiency led to a suppressed rate and duration of sperm motility, the sperm swam slower and for a shorter time. Zinc is one of the most important trace elements in the body with three major biological roles as catalyst, structural, and regulatory ion.

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