----- forwarded message ------
Date: Thu, 17 Oct 2002 00:40:22 -0400 (EDT)
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Men risk having children with defects
Hi Everybody,
I just want to remind you that arsenic is a pesticide and that it has also been
found to
cause sexual dysfunction as well.
Take care and please keep safe.
Deborah
Wednesday, October 16, 2002
National Post
Men risk having children with defects
Damaged sperm
Joseph Brean
By the time a man is 35, his sperm have naturally degenerated so much
that he risks endowing his children with genetic defects, such as
malformed teeth or asymmetrical limbs, according to research
presented yesterday.
Unlike most other cells in the body, sperm cells cannot repair the
genetic damage that comes naturally with age. In younger men, this
damage is offset by an ability to weed out most damaged sperm in a
process called "apoptosis," commonly known as cell suicide. But
around 35, when sperm damage reaches a significant level, men begin
to lose their ability to carry out this genetic house-cleaning, the
research shows.
Men who father children past their mid-30s, then, have more damaged
sperm, which can nonetheless fertilize an egg, pass on the genetic
damage, and often resulting in miscarriages or deformities.
"The bottom line is if we want to have a healthy child, we must have
early-age reproduction," said Dr. Narendra Singh, a research
assistant professor of bioengineering at the University of Washington
in Seattle. He presented his work yesterday at the annual meeting of
the American Society for Reproductive Medicine.
In a study of 60 men aged 22 to 60, all of whom had healthy sperm
counts, Dr. Singh's team observed a steady increase with age,
starting in the mid-30s, in both the number of broken DNA strands and
the extent of the damage.
"It's very hard to put a number on DNA breaks," Dr. Singh said. "The
only thing I can say is that they are very significant, statistically
significant."
"As we grow old, we cannot eliminate those bad cells and they have
equal chance to fertilize the ovum, which is not what we want for the
future generations," he said, noting that the age of the mother also
plays a crucial role in the health of a child.
The ray of hope for the would-be father in his 30s is that, although
most cells in the body suffer damage to their DNA strands, the extent
of it in sperm is largely determined by environmental factors.
Pesticides, gasoline products, radiation, paints and solvents, even
soya, caffeine and beer have been fingered as the more common
culprits that speed along genetic degeneration in sperm cell.
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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