The tasty mixture that strengthens the sperm

Many environmental and lifestyle factors have at times been considered responsible for its deterioration sperm qualitywith the diet to be one of those most identified in recent years.

In addition, several studies have reported a direct correlation between its changes DNA methylation of sperm and its quality. To date, however, there have been no published randomized clinical trials evaluating the effects of diet on these changes in sperm DNA function.

Researchers from the University of Rovira i Virgili and the University of Utah evaluated, for the first time, the effect of consuming a mixture of three nuts (almonds, hazel and walnuts) over the short/medium term on sperm DNA methylation patterns in healthy adults consuming a Western-style diet.

The analysis was carried out in the context of FERTINUTS testwas published in 2018 and revealed that consuming the fruit mixture for 14 weeks significantly improved the number, viability, motility and morphology of spermatozoa.

The study was conducted on 71 healthy, non-smoking young participants in the FERTINUTS trial, with 24 serving as a control group, and was published in Andrology. As reported, the researchers observed that the methylation of 36 gene regions was significantly different between the beginning and the end of the trial only in the nut-consuming group, and that 97.2% of the regions were hypermethylated.

According to the researchers, these findings provide the first evidence that the addition of nuts to Western diets affects sperm DNA methylation in certain regions.

«This work demonstrates that there are some sensitive regions in the sperm epigenome that respond to nutrition and can contribute to changes in sperm and fertilization ability“, comments the first author of the study, Dr. Albert Salas-Huetos.

The researchers conclude, finally, that the findings highlight potential health benefits, which is why more studies are needed to confirm them in other populations.