Join Today & Get 4% Cash Back Then 6, 7...Up to 10% Off Reorders!

July 25, 2008, 9:34 am
Flag as Inappropriate skatss  

Oh No! Say it isn't so!

Eating half a serving of soy food a day lowers sperm concentrations and may play a role in male infertility, particularly in obese men, Harvard University researchers report.

They can't say why it happens exactly, other than soy increases estrogen activity which may have a bad effect on sperm.

But then they found out that the link between soy and sperm concentration was strongest in men with higher sperm concentrations. Men who have normal or high sperm counts may be more susceptible to soy foods than men with low sperm counts. And overweight men also are more sensitive to soy. But the doctors can't tell why.

Also, although sperm counts decreased most among men who have the highest counts, eating soy should not have affected their fertility, since sperm counts were still in the normal range.

It was discovered that men who ate the most soy had 41 million fewer sperm per milliliter of semen compared with men who did not eat soy foods. Normal sperm counts range between 80 million and 120 million per milliliter.

The last word?

"It's way too early to say stop eating soy foods," said lead researcher Dr. Jorge Chavarro, a research fellow in the department of nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health. "It's not time to worry about whether you're eating too much soy. There's not enough information to conclusively say that. "

Here's the full story:

http://www.everydayhealth.com/publicsite/news/view.aspx?id=617728&cen=--ALL--&pd=07/24/2008&xid=nl_EverydayHealthWomensHealth_20080725

As usual, they don't know why it happens, they can't tell you what to do about it, or if the research is sound, but they will circulate the story and leave men with no real information or idea what to do.

Thanks docs. We really needed this.

NOT.

They have done the same thing with women. For years we were told to consume a lot more soy to help with our health, especially with menopausal symptoms. Now we're getting warning stories connecting with overdoing soy consumption that it apparently may cause worse problems than we started with. I think they should stop releasing this type of information until it's factual and proven.

I think that the trouble is that by the time there is definitive information there could be a lot of damage that could have been avoided. At least by warning people then they can make their own choice.

Real men don't eat soy....or at least my dad tells me that at least twice a year when I try to feed it to him. The real problem is that they always tell people to eat some new super food more than once a week, then realize doing so may be bad for you. DUH. Anything not in moderation is normally bad for you.

As China have one of the highest populations and they eat soya with everything I wouldnt take this too seriously!

Ha ha, nice. But, as Louise says, think of China, Japan. If that were true, I don't think they'd be so crowded right now.

Maybe there's a basic problem with modern studies.

I think that if you look at this study and then see what they are doing to put together another study about hot flashes for women up higher on this site, then you can see that they seem to go into it knowing that they won't get any real answers to their questions.

All they get are sound bites that might make them money but that don't help anyone.

It's a shame.

I heard this on the radio and also wonder why many Asian countries who use this in their daily diet are still able to reproduce. There must be more to it than that and I think more study needs to be done.

Soy is something everyone should avoid. There is nothing wrong with eating meat. So dig into a big juicy steak and leave that soy crap in the stores.

That is scary for men who WANT children. If this is indeed correct, That should be printed on every label of the food containing soy.