Viagra®, nicknamed the little blue pill, is a prescription to treat erectile dysfunction. It’s a well-known medication, but there are a lot of myths surrounding it. Find out what’s fact and what’s fiction.
There is conflicting evidence in the literature, at least for pesticides used in the current millennia, as to whether they are associated with any health consequences at all. Certainly, in prior decades, a number of pesticides were associated with health consequences. One of the most famous may have been in the increased risk of male infertility for male farm workers
exposed to pesticides containing DBCP (dibromochloropropane) in South America. Essentially, that chemicals literally caused the testes to shrink and sperm counts to drop.
DBCP is no longer in use, but other pesticides are. Is it possible they pose risk as well? According to a study from the journal Human Reproduction, the answer may be “yes”.
In a study conducted by the Chan School of Public Health in Boston, authors Chiu et al reported that 155 men attending a fertility clinic were found to have on average a lower total sperm count and lower percentage of morphologically normal sperm if they consumed fruits and vegetables with high levels of pesticide residues. Fruits and vegetables considered to have high residue included: spinach, strawberries, red, green and yellow peppers, celery, blueberries, potatoes, peaches, apples, pears, squash, kale and grapes. Foods with low to moderate residue included: beans, onions, avocado, corn, cabbage, cantaloupe, bananas, eggplant, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, oranges, cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, lettuce and stringbeans. Men with the highest intake of pesticide-heavy fruit and vegetables – at least 1.5 servings per day – had an average total sperm count of 86 million sperm per sample compared with 171 million for those whose consumption was lowest.
Still, this should not be interpreted as advocating a removal of all fruits and vegetables from one’s diet. Men may simply want to be more careful about which ones they eat, and possibly consume relatively fewer items with high levels of residue while increasing intake of others.
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Dr. Seaman presented at the annual Translational Reproductive Biology and Clinical Reproductive Endocrinology conference on the correlation between Cap Score Utility and Varicocelectomy.
Erectile dysfunction is hard to talk about, even with your doctor. Sometimes, though, it’s due to an underlying condition that may be putting your overall health at risk. Don’t live with erectile dysfunction. Talk to your doctor today.
When male infertility is caused by an absence of sperm in your ejaculate, there are ways to retrieve them from the testes. Find out more about the different sperm extraction methods.
Prostate cancer is one of the leading cancers affecting men in the United States. There’s good news, though. New, advanced treatments can reduce the threat of prostate cancer tumors by starving them of the fuel they need to grow.
Getting a prostate cancer diagnosis is scary, especially since it’s the second leading cause of death among American men. But did you know that it doesn’t always require intervention? Read on to learn how to know when you may need treatment.