Smoking Marijuana Damages Sperm, Coffee Helps
The health of a male's sperm may depend on the kind of pot he
uses - if it's marijuana it's harmful, but of it's the coffee pot it's
beneficial.
According to a study presented at the annual American Society for
Reproductive Medicine conference in Texas, scientists from Buffalo University
said that men who go to pot frequently damage their ability to procreate in
several different ways. The study showed that regular pot smokers had
significantly less seminal fluid, a lower sperm count, and sperm that moves too
slow once released.
But another study to be presented by Brazilian researchers at the same
conference showed that drinking coffee can help increase sperm mobility.
Sperm produced by frequent pot smokers were more likely to swim too fast too
early, leading to burn-out before they reach the egg, said Dr Lani Burkman, the
lead researcher at the Buffalo study "The bottom line is, the active ingredients
in marijuana are doing something to sperm," she told Britain's Independent
newspaper.
According to the Independent, marijuana contains several chemicals known to
have an impact on human physiology, including THC (tetrahydrocannabinol). The
researchers believe that THC may disrupt the way sperm swim, or it may block
mechanisms designed to weed out malfunctioning sperm.
It is known that human sperm contains receptors which are stimulated by
substances like THC and other cannabis-related chemicals and tests have shown
that sperm exposed to high levels of THC swim in an abnormal fashion, and were
less able to attach to an egg so that fertilization could take place.
It is vital that a sperm begins to swim vigorously as it approaches the egg
to improve its changes of successful fertilization. However, if it begins to
swim too fast too soon its changes of reaching the egg are significantly
reduced.
Dr Burkman told the Independent the sperm from marijuana smokers were moving
too fast, too early. "The timing was all wrong," she said. "These sperm will
experience burnout before they reach the egg and would not be capable of
fertilization."
She noted that while many men who smoke marijuana have fathered children,
smoking pot may tip the balance against men whose fertility was borderline to
start with.
"THC from marijuana may push them over the edge into infertility."
"I definitely would advise anyone trying to conceive not to smoke marijuana,
and that would include women as well as men."
In the Brazilian study reported by the BBC, scientists found that men who
drink coffee have sperm that moves better than the sperm of those who lay off
the caffeine. The study suggests that new coffee-based treatments should be
developed for men with poor sperm movement - a defect that can cause fertility
problems.
The researchers tested the sperm motility - the strength and endurance of
sperm as they swim towards the egg during fertilization - of 750 men awaiting
vasectomy operations. Doctor Fabio Pasqualotto, the lead researcher, told BBC
"Sperm motility was higher in patients who drink coffee compared to patients who
do not drink coffee."
Doctor Euan Paul, spokesman for the Coffee Science Information Center, said:
"These findings are very exciting. There has been growing concern about sperm
problems and about lack of fertility in particular." Doctor Paul said that since
caffeine acted as a stimulant on dopamine cells in the brain, helping people to
concentrate, there was a possibility that sperm also experienced a boost when a
man drank caffeine.
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