According to a new study, men in France and worldwide are making less sperm.
A new report published in the journal Human Reproduction claims that in a study of French men from 1989 to 2005, sperm counts among those men dropped by roughly one third in that 16-year period.
The semen of more than 26,600 French men was tested in the study; within the range of study results, the amount of spermatozoa per millilitre plummeted by 32.3 percent.
To put it in perspective, that meant the sperm counts in those men dropped by 1.9 percent each year. The percentage of normally shaped sperm also fell by more than 33 percent.
Dr Joelle Le Moal, an environmental health epidemiologist and one of the lead authors in the report, said the findings of the report were cause for "a serious public health warning."
"To our knowledge, this is the first study concluding a severe and general decrease in sperm concentration and morphology at the scale of a whole country over a substantial period," Dr. Le Moal wrote.
However, Dr Allan Pacey, senior lecturer in andrology at the University of Sheffield, argued that the change in sperm "is still well within the normal range and above the lower threshold of concern used by doctors which is suggestive of male infertility, 15 million per milliliter," according to BBC News.
As to what could have caused the sperm counts in men to have fallen so drastically over time in the study, Prof. Richard Sharpe, from the University of Edinburgh, told the BBC that it could have something to do with something in the modern lifestyle, diet or environment - exposures to chemicals, for instance - that may have had an influence.
"We still do not know which are the most important factors, but perhaps the most likely is a combination, a double whammy of changes, such as a high-fat diet combined with increased environmental chemical exposures."
Dr. Manny Alvarez concurs with that statement, telling Fox News that smoking, pollutants, and obesity may have played huge factors in sperm counts declining.
For a healthy reproduction system, Dr. Alvarez recommended that men maintain a good balance of proper diet and exercise, as well as getting emotional rest, spending time away from electronics such as laptops and cellphone, wearing less tight clothing,reducing alcohol and smoking and consider the use of folic acid, selenium, zinc, and Vitamins C and E.
"Eat foods that help significantly with sperm production and raise testosterone," he adds. "Examples include oysters, which have certain amino acids; dark chocolates, which have arginine; and my very own Medicine Hunter, Chris Kilham, keeps pushing the maca plant, which has been dubbed the Peruvian ginseng, known to increase libido, stamina and sexual function."
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