Male
Infertility and Glutathione
Copyright
© 2004 Priya Shah
Are
You Half The Man Your Father Was?
It is a well-known
fact that sperm counts have dropped by half in the last 50 years,
and that modern men have 20 percent less semen volume than their
fathers (BMJ, 1992, volume 305).
A recent
report from researchers in Aberdeen presented preliminary data
that suggests the sperm concentration of the men seen in their
clinic had declined by 29% over the past 14 years. (British Fertility
Society; 5 January 2004)
Persistent organic
pollutants (POPs) and endocrine-disrupting chemicals from normal,
everyday plastics are known to cause reproductive damage, as documented
in Theo Colborn's book "Our Stolen Future."
Damage to sperm caused
by exposure to common chemicals like alcohol, pesticides in food,
has been linked to lowered intelligence and behavioral disorders
in children.
Lifestyle risk factors
known to decrease sperm quality include
> Cigarette
smoking
> Alcohol consumption
> Chronic stress
> Nutritional deficiencies.
You would
also want to rule out congenital factors, and health conditions
like prostatitis and diabetes that can affect sperm production.
Pollution
is stealing our future, and there's little anyone can do to avoid
them. There may not be a lot you can do to reduce your exposure
to persistent environmental toxins.
But there
are definite measures you can take to reduce the impact of the
environmental pollutants and toxins on your body.
You can prevent
and, to a certain extent, repair the damage they cause to your
body, through a better lifestyle and nutrition.
These are
some of the nutritional therapies and antioxidants that have proven
beneficial in treating male infertility and improving sperm counts,
sperm morphology and motility.
> Carnitine
> Arginine
> Zinc
> Selenium
> Vitamin B-12
> Vitamin C
> Vitamin E
> Glutathione
> Coenzyme Q10
Studies show
that anti-oxidant supplementation - glutathione in particular
- can improve sperm quality, and possibly increase your chances
of conceiving.
If you smoke,
drink, are exposed to stress, chemicals, radiation, pesticides
or take medication or drugs (like sulfasalazine, ketoconazole,
azulfidine, anabolic steroids, marijuana) that affect fertility,
you should consider taking an antioxidant supplement to reverse
some of the damage.
Why
are Antioxidants Important for Sperm Quality?
Mammalian
spermatozoa are coated by a membrane rich in polyunsaturated fatty
acids. These fatty acids are extremely susceptible to oxidative
damage by free radicals or Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) by a
process called lipid peroxidation (LPO).
Lipid peroxidation
damages the sperm cell membrane. It is considered to be the key
mechanism of ROS-induced sperm damage and leads to
> Loss
of sperm motility
> Abnormal sperm morphology
> Reduced capacity for oocyte penetration
> Infertility
To protect
sperm from damage, the body depends on powerful antioxidant enzymes
in the body such as superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase, and
glutathione peroxidase/reductase (GPX/GRD).
Seminal plasma
and spermatozoa have several antioxidant enzymes - glutathione
peroxidase, glutathione reductase, superoxide dismutase.
Some amount
of all the antioxidant enzymes, which may protect spermatozoa
from oxidative attack, are also made by the epididymis during
storage.
The glutathione
peroxidase/reductase enzymes play a central role in the defense
against oxidative damage in human sperm.
Why
is Glutathione important for Sperm Quality and Fertility?
A decrease
in levels of reduced glutathione (GSH) during sperm production
is known to disrupt the membrane integrity of spermatozoa due
to increased oxidative stress.
Intracellular
glutathione levels of spermatozoa are known to be decreased in
certain populations of infertile men. Compared with a control
group, the infertile men in all groups had significantly higher
levels of ROS and lower levels of total antioxidants.
There is strong
clinical evidence to show that men diagnosed with infertility
have high levels of oxidative stress that may impair the quality
of their sperm.
In some groups,
higher levels of ROS were associated with lower sperm counts and
defective sperm structure, while lower antioxidant levels correlated
with reduced sperm movement.
Previous evidence
has also shown that oxidative stress can decrease a sperm's life
span, its motility, and its ability to penetrate the oocyst, or
egg cell.
Up to 40%
of men with unexplained male infertility have higher levels of
free radical activity in their bodies.
Because men
with high levels of ROS have a seven-fold lower likelihood of
inducing a pregnancy than men with lower levels, researchers recommend
that treatment for infertile men should include strategies to
reduce oxidative stress and improve sperm quality.
How
can Glutathione help in the Treatment of Infertility?
Glutathione
is not only vital to sperm antioxidant defenses, but selenium
and glutathione are essential to the formation of "phospholipid
hydroperoxide glutathione peroxidase" - an enzyme present
in spermatids - which becomes a structural protein in the mid-piece
of mature spermatozoa.
When either
substance is deficient, it can lead to instability of the mid-piece
of the spermatozoa, resulting in defective motility.
Free radical
scavengers - such as glutathione - that restore the structure
and function of poly-unsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) in the cell
membrane, can be used to treat these cases.
In a double-blind
cross-over study of twenty infertile men, treatment with glutathione
led to a statistically significant improvement of the sperm quality.
The study
concerned men in whom the sperm quality was poor due to unilateral
varicocele or germ-free genital tract inflammation - two conditions
in which ROS or other toxic compounds are indicated as causative
factors.
Treatment
with glutathione was also found to have a statistically significantly
positive effect on sperm motility (in particular forward motility)
and on sperm morphology.
The findings
of these studies indicate that glutathione therapy could represent
a possible therapeutical tool in cases where ROS or exposure to
toxins is the probable cause of infertility.
Read a detailed
report with references on Male
Infertility and Glutathione
About the
author:
Priya Shah is the Editor of The
Glutathione Report, a newsletter featuring regular updates
on the health benefits of glutathione. Get a Free
report on Glutathione in Health and Disease
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