American scientists have bad news for notorious couch potatoes. They found that men who spend 20 or more hours a week in front of the television have only about half the sperm compared to those who do not sit in front of the television at all or only very little, wrote the AFP agency.
Men who watched 20 or more hours of TV per week had 44 percent less sperm than those who watched the least amount of TV.
For the study, the results of which were published in the online edition of the British Journal of Sports Medicine, the researchers recruited 189 men between the ages of 18 and 22. They were questioned about their exercise, diet and TV viewing habits, and then asked to provide a sperm sample.
Men in the top quarter of TV viewers, those who watched 20 or more hours of TV a week, had 44 percent less sperm than those who watched the least amount of TV, “never or hardly ever.”
Another crucial factor was exercise. Men who did 15 or more hours a week of “moderate to vigorous physical activity” had 73 percent more sperm than those who exercised less than five hours a week.
At least one piece of good news for lazy people: none of the subjects had such low sperm count that they would not be able to conceive a child.
