Smoking Marijuana Damages Sperm, Coffee Helps

The health of a male's sperm may depend on the kind of pot he uses - if it's marijuana it's harmful, but if it's the coffee pot it's beneficial.

According to a study presented at the annual American Society for Reproductive Medicine conference in Texas, scientists from Buffalo University said that men who go to pot frequently damage their ability to procreate in several different ways. The study showed that regular pot smokers had significantly less seminal fluid and a lower sperm count.

But another study, to be presented by Brazilian researchers at the same conference, showed that drinking coffee can help increase sperm mobility.

Sperm produced by frequent pot smokers were more likely to swim too fast too early, leading to burnout before they reach the egg, said Dr Lani Burkman, the lead researcher at the Buffalo study. "The bottom line is, the active ingredients in marijuana are doing something to sperm," she told Britain's Independent newspaper.

According to the Independent, marijuana contains several chemicals known to have an impact on human physiology, including THC (tetrahydrocannabinol). The researchers believe that THC may disrupt the way sperm swim, or it may block mechanisms designed to weed out malfunctioning sperm.

It is known that human sperm contain receptors that are stimulated by substances like THC and other cannabis-related chemicals, and tests have shown that sperm exposed to high levels of THC swam in an abnormal fashion and were less able to attach to an egg so that fertilization could take place.

It is vital that a sperm begins to swim vigorously as it approaches the egg, to improve its chances of successful fertilization. However, if it begins to swim too fast too soon, its chances of reaching the egg are significantly reduced.

Dr. Burkman told the Independent the sperm from marijuana smokers were moving too fast too early. "The timing was all wrong," she said. "These sperm will experience burnout before they reach the egg and would not be capable of fertilization."

She noted that while many men who smoke marijuana have fathered children, smoking pot may tip the balance against men whose fertility is borderline to start with.

"THC from marijuana may push them over the edge into infertility."

"I definitely would advise anyone trying to conceive not to smoke marijuana, and that would include women as well as men."

In the Brazilian study reported by the BBC, scientists found that men who drink coffee have sperm that move better than the sperm of those who lay off the caffeine. The study suggests that new coffee-based treatments should be developed for men with poor sperm movement - a defect that can cause fertility problems.

The researchers tested the sperm motility - the strength and endurance of sperm as they swim toward the egg during fertilization - of 750 men awaiting vasectomy operations. Dr. Fabio Pasqualotto, the lead researcher, told BBC, "Sperm motility was higher in patients who drink coffee compared to patients who do not drink coffee."

Dr. Euan Paul, spokesman for the Coffee Science Information Center, said: "These findings are very exciting. There has been growing concern about sperm problems and about lack of fertility in particular." Paul said that since caffeine acts as a stimulant on dopamine cells in the brain, helping people to concentrate, there is a possibility that sperm also experience a boost when a man drinks caffeine.

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