Drinking a litre of cola a day could reduce male fertility

[FarCenter]

By Richard Alleyne, Science Correspondent
Published: 5:57PM BST 01 Apr 2010

On average, these men's sperm counts were almost 30 per cent lower than in men who didn't drink cola.

While most of the sperm counts would still be considered normal by the World Health Organization, men with fewer sperm generally have a higher risk of being infertile.

The link is unlikely to be due to caffeine, the researchers say, because coffee did not have the same effect, even though its caffeine content is higher.

Instead, other ingredients in the beverage or an unhealthy lifestyle could be involved.

"It's important to note that the men who drank a lot of cola were also different in many other ways," said Dr Tina Kold Jensen at Copenhagen University Hospital in Denmark.

Kold Jensen, who led the new research, said only a few studies have looked at caffeine's impact on reproductive health in men. The participants have generally been a very select group, such as infertile men, and the results have been conflicting.

Because Danish youth has been upping their consumption of caffeine-containing soft drinks over the last decades, the researchers decided to study how this might affect their reproductive health.

More than 2,500 young men were included in their study. Those who didn't drink cola had better sperm quality – averaging 50 million sperm per millilitre semen – and tended to have a healthier lifestyle.

In contrast, the 93 men who drank more than one litre (about 34 ounces) a day had only 35 million sperm per millilitre. They also ate more fast foods, and less fruit and vegetables.

<SNIP>http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/7545674/Drinking-a-litre-of-cola-a-day-could-reduce-male-fertility.html

[Xipe Totec]

1. There are far better contraceptives than this nt

[Cirque du So-What]

4. That reminds me of an old 'folk remedy'

Cola used as a douche after the fact to prevent pregnancy. I hope that one's not still making the rounds.

[FarCenter]

7. Snopes doesn't think much of the "folk remedy" either

http://www.snopes.com/cokelore/sperm.asp

[Cirque du So-What]

9. Yeah, it was debunked many, MANY years ago

but it still got repeated when I was a teenager, and I always tried to discourage the spreading of this nonsense.

[Bombtrack]

2. Hopefully this effect is 2 THE XTREME in Mountain Dew

n/t

[LiberalFighter]

3. Those that drink Mountain Dew

Have more to worry about than their fertility.

[Initech]

5. Litre cola... do we make litre cola?

[FarCenter]

6. About the same as three 12 ounce cans

[Initech]

15. My post was meant to be a reference to "Super Troopers"

[depakid]

8. Rotted teeth aren't exactly an aphrodesiac, either.

[Bluebear]

10. Send a case to the Duggars. Please.

[me b zola]

11. HFCS

I'd be willing to bet HFCS is the culprit.

[Crunchy Frog]

13. I think they use sucrose in Europe.

[Hello_Kitty]

12. Drink more cola, guys! We have more than enough people on the planet. eom

[Crunchy Frog]

14. I will not encourage my sons to rely on it for birth control.

[Odin2005]

16. What are they meaning by "cola"? Just actual colas or ALL pop?

[FarCenter]

17. Actual colas

Caffeine Intake and Semen Quality in a Population of 2,554 Young Danish Men
http://aje.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/kwq007v1

"Habitual moderate coffee drinking has been associated with a reduced risk of chronic diseases, including cancer, and reduced mortality, whereas high intake has been associated with increased risk (39). The effect of cola intake on reproduction has not been intensively studied, but it has been associated with increased incidence of osteoporosis (40). Colas were originally blends of extracts of the coca leaf and the cola nut, mixed with sugar water. The coca leaf is no longer used, but the cola nut remains in the recipes that are public, and it is reportedly also still in the secret Coca-Cola recipe (The Coca-Cola Company, Atlanta, Georgia). In addition, these drinks contain large quantities of sugar. A report from The Danish Institute for Food and Veterinary Research showed that consumption of sugar-sweetened soft drinks increased from 133 mL to 184 mL per day among Danish teenagers and from 110 mL to 121 mL per day among adults from 1995 to 2001 (25). In our study, mean daily cola intake was 290 mL, which was higher than among Danish teenagers in 2001, indicating that intake increased from 2001 to 2005. Therefore, a possible adverse association with semen quality is of public interest, particularly since poor semen quality in young Danish men is unexplained (14, 15, 41, 42). "

[Odin2005]

19. Thanks!

Vocab differences drive me nuts! When somebody calls Mt. Dew "coke" I feel like punching them! :rofl:

[Silent3]

18. The sperm count might be lower...

...but the sperm that are left are much less likely to fall asleep on the way to the egg. :)

[Odin2005]

20. DUzy!!!

:rofl: