Men: Regular Alcohol Consumption Could Be Weakening Your Sperm

Even just cracking open a few cold ones after a long day, each day, may be weakening even healthy men's sperm. That's according to a new study that suggests that moderate weekly alcohol intake can lower the quality and count of a man's little swimmers.

They study, recently published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) Open, details how alcohol can impact the quality of sperm in young adult males.

According to the study, researchers from Denmark and the United States analyzed data on 1,221 Danish men aged 18-28, who underwent a medical exam for military service between 2008 and 2012.

These men were asked questions about how much they drank in the week before their exam, and how often they binge drink to get drunk. Semen and blood samples were reportedly taken during the examination.

It was revealed that the average number of units of alcohol these men drank in a week was about 11, or slightly less than two units a day.

Interestingly, 64 percent of these men also reported binge drinking at least once during the previous month, but after considering the data and all influential factors, the researchers discerned that there is no significant impact binge drinking has on sperm quality.

However, when it came to regular alcohol consumption, the men with the healthiest sperm (highest sperm count) drank between one and five units of alcohol a week - about as much as a glass of wine with dinner on most nights. Any more, and the sperm count dropped like a rock, with men who reported drinking 40 units or more each week boasting a 33 percent lower count, with 51 percent fewer of those sperm looking healthy compared to a minor drinker.

"It remains to be seen whether semen quality is restored if alcohol intake is reduced, but young men should be advised that high habitual alcohol intake may affect not only their general, but also their reproductive health," the researchers reported.