August 5th, 2008 -- Posted in Mens Issues |
Diabetes and being over- or underweight can have a negative effect on male fertility.
That’s the conclusion of two reports to be presented July 9 at the annual conference of the European Society of Human Reproduction & Embryology, in Barcelona, Spain.
While semen samples from diabetics look normal under the microscope, a closer examination revealed DNA damage, Dr. Con Mallidis, of Queen’s University in Belfast, Northern Ireland, said in a news release issued by the conference sponsors.
“Sperm RNA was significantly altered, and many of the changes we observed are in RNA transcripts involved in DNA repair,” he said. “And comparison with a database of men of proven fertility confirmed our findings. Diabetics have a significant decrease in their ability to repair sperm DNA, and once this is damaged, it cannot be restored.”
Sperm DNA quality is known to be tied to decreased embryo quality, low embryo implantation rates, higher miscarriage rates and some serious childhood diseases, including cancers.
“We found a class of compounds known as advanced glycation end products (AGEs) in the male reproductive tract. These are formed as the result of glycation (the addition of sugar),” Mallidis said, “and accumulate during normal aging. They are dependent on lifestyle, diet, smoking, etc., and in many diabetic complications are centrally implicated in DNA damage. We believe that they play a similar role in the male reproductive system.”
The researchers plan to now determine how AGEs cause and contribute to DNA damage.
Obesity, which often plays a factor in diabetes, and being too thin, was also found to cause problems with sperm. In a separate study, scientists found that men with a higher body mass index (BMI, a ratio of weight to height) had less seminal fluid and more abnormal sperm.
The findings showed that men with an optimal BMI of 20 to 25 had higher levels of normal sperm than those who were either overweight or underweight. They also had higher semen volume.
The researchers did not look at DNA damage in the sperm, though.
“Our findings were quite independent of any other factors,” scheduled presenter A. Ghiyath Shayeb, from the University of Aberdeen, in Scotland, said in the news release from the conference, “and seem to suggest that men who are trying for a baby with their partners should first try to achieve an ideal body weight.”
“Adopting a healthy lifestyle, a balanced diet, and regular exercise will, in the vast majority of cases, lead to a normal BMI,” he said. “We are pleased to be able to add improved semen quality to the long list of benefits that we know are the result of an optimal body weight.”
August 2nd, 2008 -- Posted in Mens Issues, Womens Issues |
There’s no clear reason for the striking discrepancy, according to the study, which found signs of senility in a full 45 percent of women aged 90 and older from a southern California retirement community. Men weren’t immune to mental decline, however, since 28 percent of them also suffered from dementia.
Still, “given the increasing number of people (aged 90 and older) this can become a fairly big public health problem,” said study lead author Maria Corrada, an assistant adjunct professor of neurology at the University of California, Irvine. “We need to be prepared for that. Dementia requires a lot of care, and a lot of money needs to be spent on caring for these people.”
Dementia — also known as senility — refers to the mental confusion that can strike the elderly. Alzheimer’s disease, stroke and brain injuries can lead to the condition, although the cause is sometimes unknown.
Researchers know little about how senility affects the so-called “oldest old” — people 90 and older. There are now an estimated two million American in this age group and that number is projected to grow substantially as the population ages.
In the new study, the researchers examined a survey of 911 men and women over the age of 90 between 2003 and 2006. In the 1980s, all the participants had lived in the Leisure Village retirement community in Orange County, Calif., and took part in another study at that time.
Two-thirds of the participants were women and most were white, upper-middle class and well-educated. In some cases, the researchers interviewed them by phone or in person; in others, researchers talked to someone else, such as a relative or caregiver.
The study findings were published online July 2 in the journal Neurology.
Why the discrepancy between the genders in terms of dementia risk? Although the study didn’t look at when the participants started showing signs of senility, it’s possible that women may simply live longer with the condition than men, Corrada said. Women, after all, live longer than men in general.
It’s also possible that men who manage to reach the age of 90 have “the best protoplasm,” said William Thies, vice president for medical and scientific affairs with the Alzheimer’s Association. In other words, men have to be in pretty good shape to make it that far.
Corrada and her colleagues also found that women with higher levels of education were less likely to show signs of senility. More education didn’t seem to have any effect in men, however.
“Education may mean something different for men and women in this age group,” Corrada said.
Other research has linked education to brain health, Corrada added. “People who have more education and more intellectual attainment in their lives are less likely to become demented,” she said. “That may be simply because they start out so much better than everyone else (brain-wise) that they can cope better” with aging.