Can Green Tea Help Fertility?
The difference between green tea and black or oolong teas is the fact that it is not fermented. This allows it to maintain a high level of polyphenols and a low level of caffeine. Caffeine is known to be a negative substance to ingest, especially when a couple is trying to conceive. Since it has much smaller amounts of caffeine than either black or oolong tea, or coffee, it has become a viable alternative to "the morning cuppa joe."
Green Tea Helps Fertility? How?
Research suggests that there are other benefits to green tea that enhance fertility. Two of the main ingredients in green tea are hypoxanthine and polyphenols. There are indications that these two substances may lead to a higher percentage of viable embryos. Other research says the substances help increase the maturing of eggs and may even make the eggs more fertile. Top that off with the already established fact that polyphenols serve as antioxidants, which help in protecting the body from various diseases and other conditions, and green tea looks like a wonder compound.
The Value of Antioxidants
The big word when it comes to green tea is polyphenols and the primary pholyphenols present in green tea are catechins. Of these, the one that has the most propriety is epigallocatechin gallate, also known as EGCG. It is considered to be the most active component in green tea and is the best researched of all the green tea polyphenols. The bottom line is that polyphenols are antioxidants and they appear in green tea in huge numbers.
The value of antioxidants can't be underestimated. We know that they are key to fighting free radicals in the body. Free radicals are the residue of cellular activity used to create energy. Kind of like the sludge in a dirty oil filter. The oil was great, but the residue can wreck the engine. It's the same with free radicals - they can wreak havoc in the body. Enter polyphenols and catechins. They gobble up free radicals.
It Figures In for Both Men and Women
What has all of that got to do with conception and pregnancy? Well, for a man, it's a big deal. A recent medical study in New Zealand came up with results that indicated antioxidants can boost men's fertility. When you consider that female infertility is 30% of the issue, male infertility is 30% of the issue, and both male and female infertility contributes to the balance of the equation, then you know that addressing male infertility issues is important.
Much of male infertility is due to the damaging effect of oxidative stress on sperm cells, lowering their number and quality. Green tea contains major amounts of antioxidants - fighters against free radicals that produce oxidation. If that can be addressed adequately, the studies indicated that fertility goes up and pregnancy as well as live birth numbers increase.
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