Cola harms sperm count

According to a new Danish study, men who drink a litre of cola every day could be harming their sperm count.
On an average, these men's sperm counts were almost 30% lower than those who didn't drink cola. While the sperm count would still be considered normal by the World Health Organisation, men with fewer sperm generally 've a higher risk of being infertile.

The link is unlikely to be due to caffeine, the researchers say, because coffee did not 've the same effect. Instead, other ingredients in the beverage or an unhealthy lifestyle could be involved.

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

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 & tended to 've a healthier lifestyle. In contrast, the 93 men who drank more than one litre a day had only 35 million sperm per millilitre. However, they also ate more fast foods, less fruit & vegetables.

It is still not clear if the cola or the unhealthy lifestyle, or both, is to blame & the scientists said further research was needed.
The study was published in the American Journal of Epidemiology.