Damage in sperm due to exposure to common chemicals like alcohol, pesticides in food, has been linked to lowered intelligence and behavioral disorders in children (see: Damaged Sperm & Common Chemical Exposure: Links to Links to Learning Disabilities, ADD and Behavior Disorders by Richard W. Pressinger). Lifestyle risk factors that decrease sperm quality include cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption, chronic stress, and nutritional deficiencies. You would also want to rule out congenital factors, and health conditions like prostatitis and diabetes that can affect sperm production.
Other than changing your lifestyle and switching to organic foods, there's not a lot you can do to reduce your exposure to persistent environmental toxins. There is, however, a lot you can do to prevent and repair the damage they cause to your body, through better lifestyle and nutrition. A number of nutritional therapies have been shown to improve sperm counts and sperm motility, including carnitine, arginine, zinc, selenium, and vitamin B-12. Antioxidants like vitamin C, vitamin E, glutathione, and coenzyme Q10, have also proven beneficial in treating male infertility. (1) 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 that may affect fertility (like Sulfasalazine, Ketoconazole, Azulfidine, Anabolic steroids, Marijuana), you will most certainly require an anti-oxidant supplement to reverse some of the damage.
Why are Anti-oxidants 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 and is considered to be the key mechanism of this ROS-induced sperm damage leading to loss of motility, abnormal morphology and reduced capacity for sperm oocyte penetration and infertility. (2,3). To protect sperm from this damage, the body depends on powerful antioxidant enzymes in the body such as superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase, and glutathione peroxidase/reductase (GPX/GRD). The GPX/GRD enzymes play a central role in the defence against oxidative damage in human sperm (2). Seminal plasma and spermatozoa possess several antioxidant enzymes, glutathione peroxidase, glutathione reductase, superoxide dismutase (4). It is now known that some amount of all the antioxidant enzymes, which may protect spermatozoa from oxidative attack, are also made by the epididymis during storage (5).
Why is Glutathione important for Sperm Quality and Fertility?
A decrease in levels of reduced glutathione (GSH) during sperm production has been shown to cause disruption in the membrane integrity of spermatozoa as a consequence of increased oxidative stress (6). Intracellular glutathione levels of spermatozoa are shown to be decreased in certain populations of infertile men (7). At the 94th Annual Meeting of the American Urological Association, andrologists presented strong clinical evidence that men diagnosed with infertility have high levels of oxidative stress that may impair the quality of their sperm (8, 9). Compared with a control group, the infertile men in all groups had significantly higher levels of ROS and lower levels of total antioxidants. 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.Their results supported previous evidence showing 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 male infertility without a known cause have higher levels of free radical activity in their bodies (8).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.
