Does Omega 3 Fish Oil Increase Semen Count?

People have a lot of questions about omega 3 fish oil. I thought this was one of the most interesting that I had seen. Until I did some research, I believed that the answer to the question, "Does omega 3 fish oil increase semen count?" would automatically be "No". But, what I found about the ongoing study of the relationship between increased consumption of omega 3 fish oils and semen count surprised me.

I use a database that publishes scientific research to try to answer questions about omega 3 fish oils and other health supplements. From what I can see, the majority of the research concerning omega 3 fish oil and semen production focuses on birds. Why? It seems that several kinds of birds (including chickens) have a decrease in sperm production at a very young age.

Nutritionists have known for some time that the amount of omega 3 fatty acids in the chicken that we eat is much lower in poultry raised in an enclosed environment than it is in free range chickens. Keeping poultry inside protects them from predators and diseases carried by wild birds, but the diet of a caged bird is quite different from that of a free range bird. When raised outside, chickens eat worms, grasshoppers, and other bugs, as well as their feed. Indoors, they exist primarily on a diet of corn, a diet that lacks long chain or omega-3 fatty acids.

So, in order to increase the fertility of poultry, researchers have focused on the idea of changing their feed, to include omega 3 fish oils, the best known source of long chain fatty acids. The results were positive. In poultry given the new feed, sperm counts and sperm motility increased. In study groups that were given the new feed along with vitamin E (also found in the better omega 3 fish oils) supplements, the amount of semen produced, the mobility of the semen and the fertility rate increased in the older birds that normally had lower sperm counts and were mostly infertile.

So, does omega 3 fish oil increase semen count and activity? Well, at least in chickens, it appears to. But, what does this mean to a man who has a low sperm count?