Eating Soy Foods May Lower Sperm Count
Posted on: Thursday, 24 July 2008, 11:00 CDT
U.S. researchers said on Wednesday that a man's sperm count might be lowered by eating a half serving a day of soy-based foods.
The study found 41 million fewer sperm per milliliter of semen after just one portion every two days.
"What we found was men that consume the highest amounts of soy foods in this study had a lower sperm concentration compared to those who did not consume soy foods," said Dr. Jorge Chavarro of the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, whose study appears in the journal Human Reproduction.
"It was a relatively large difference," Chavarro said in a telephone interview.
Animal studies have suggested that large quantities of soy chemicals in food could affect fertility, but other studies looking at consumption in humans have had contradictory findings.
Chavarro's team looked at the diets of 99 men who had attended a fertility clinic with their partners and provided a semen sample between 2000 and 2006
The men were divided into four groups depending on how much soy they ate, and when the sperm concentration of men eating the most soy was compared with those eating the least, there was a significant difference.
The average sperm concentration for a man is between 80 and 120 million per milliliter, and the men who ate a portion of soy-based food every other day averaged 41 million fewer.
"It suggests soy foods could have some deleterious effect on the reproductive system and especially on sperm production," Chavarro said.
Chemicals called isoflavones in the soy might be affecting sperm production. These chemicals can have similar effects to the human hormone oestrogen.
Overweight or obese men seemed even more prone to this effect, which may reflect the fact that higher levels of body fat can also lead to increased oestrogen production in men, according to Chavarro.
"Men who are overweight or obese tend to have higher levels of androgen-produced estrogen. They are converting a male hormone into a female hormone in their fat. The more body fat you have, the more estrogen you produce in your fat," Chavarro said.
Chavarro said the study was not sufficient to suggest that soy intake would have health implications such as inducing infertility. Much bigger studies would be needed to answer that question, he said.
Image Courtresy Chinese Medicine News
---
On the Net:
Source: redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports
Related Articles
- FDA Relied on Industry Studies to Judge Chemical Safety
- Alkermes Announces Initiation of Phase I Clinical Study of AIR(R) Parathyroid Hormone
- Pet Food Chemical May Be Worse for Cats
- Popularity of Low-Fat Food and Prevalence of Diabetes: Twin Engines Power Growth in the European Intense Sweetener Market
- Sharp Increase in Food Production and Demand for Low-Fat Foods Drive the U.S. Food Emulsifier Markets
- Soy may prevent breast cancer, study finds
- Women's Health - Why Do Men Quote Caddyshack? Sex and Satisfaction, Get More of Both; Special Report: the Science Behind Hunger
- Soy Shouldn't Increase Cancer Risk, Study Finds
- A Study to Look at Hormonal Absorption of Progesterone Cream Used in Conjunction With Transdermal Estrogen
- Study: Fast Food, TV Triple Obesity Risk
 |
 |
User Comments (0)
RSS Feeds