Some amount of all antioxidant enzymes, which may protect spermatozoa from oxidative attack, are also made by epididymis during storage.

The glutathione peroxidase/reductase enzymes play a central role in defense against oxidative damage in human sperm.

Why is Glutathione important for Sperm Quality and Fertility?

A decrease in levels of reduced glutathione (GSH) during sperm production is known to disrupt membrane integrity of spermatozoa due to increased oxidative stress.

Intracellular glutathione levels of spermatozoa are known to be decreased in certain populations of infertile men. Compared with a control group, infertile men in all groups had significantly higher levels of ROS and lower levels of total antioxidants.

There is strong clinical evidence to show that men diagnosed with infertility have high levels of oxidative stress that may impair quality of their sperm.

In some groups, higher levels of ROS were associated with lower sperm counts and defective sperm structure, while lower antioxidant levels correlated with reduced sperm movement.

Previous evidence has also shown that oxidative stress can decrease a sperm's life span, its motility, and its ability to penetrate oocyst, or egg cell.

Up to 40% of men with unexplained male infertility have higher levels of free radical activity in their bodies.

Because men with high levels of ROS have a seven-fold lower likelihood of inducing a pregnancy than men with lower levels, researchers recommend that treatment for infertile men should include strategies to reduce oxidative stress and improve sperm quality.

How can Glutathione help in Treatment of Infertility?

Glutathione is not only vital to sperm antioxidant defenses, but selenium and glutathione are essential to formation of "phospholipid hydroperoxide glutathione peroxidase" - an enzyme present in spermatids - which becomes a structural protein in mid-piece of mature spermatozoa.

When either substance is deficient, it can lead to instability of mid-piece of spermatozoa, resulting in defective motility.

Free radical scavengers - such as glutathione - that restore structure and function of poly-unsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) in cell membrane, can be used to treat these cases.

In a double-blind cross-over study of twenty infertile men, treatment with glutathione led to a statistically significant improvement of sperm quality.

The study concerned men in whom sperm quality was poor due to unilateral varicocele or germ-free genital tract inflammation - two conditions in which ROS or other toxic compounds are indicated as causative factors.

Treatment with glutathione was also found to have a statistically significantly positive effect on sperm motility (in particular forward motility) and on sperm morphology.

The findings of these studies indicate that glutathione therapy could represent a possible therapeutical tool in cases where ROS or exposure to toxins is probable cause of infertility.

Read complete report with references on Male Infertility and Glutathione http://www.1whey2health.com/glutathione_infertility_sperm.htm

Ketone bodies provide energy for body's needs when there is a total food restriction, carbohydrate restriction, and/or long enough physical effort.

In beginning of ketosis, ketones provide up to 75% of total energy requirement, including energy required by brain. Most dieticians say that carbohydrate is only fuel for nerve cells but it is not true. It's a preferred fuel, yes, but not only one. If there are little or no carbohydrates, all tissues of body including brain tissue can adapt to using alternative fuel.

As body undergoes process of adaptation to ketosis, amount of carbohydrates required reduces. This explains why brain fog and muscle weakness can occur in beginning of ketosis but becomes very rare after a week or two. In fact, it's true that a diet is considered low carb if it contains less than 100 carb grams a day, but it's only true until adaptation to ketosis develops. After it is completed, carb requirement is around 40 grams. None of non-clinical low carb diets takes this fact into account.

After 1-2 weeks, as process of adaptation to ketosis develops and tissues no longer rely on carbohydrates for fuel, they send less signals requesting beta-cells in pancreas to release insulin -- resulting in decrease of insulin concentration in blood.

Low insulin level frees its antagonistic fat burning hormones from suppression resulting in increased levels of glucagon, growth hormone, catecholamines, and glucocorticoid.

Glucagon is most important insulin antagonist; it's up to glucagon to control fatty acids' release from fat stores to be burnt for fuel. So, as glucagon release increases, insulin goes down. It is thought that to initiate ketosis, carbohydrate intake should be reduced to less than 30g/day.

However, there's a most important condition grossly overlooked by authors of low carb diets. Any food is either ketogenic or glucogenic depending on it influence on competition between glucagon and insulin. To make ketosis possible, a meal should contain at least 1.5 g of fat per every 1 g of protein plus carbohydrate combined.

Only that or higher of a ratio makes food ketogenic enough to allow eating without portion and calorie control. Foods with ketogenic indexes below 1 promote insulin release and are essentially anti-ketogenic. Foods with indexes between 1 and 1.5, though not anti-ketogenic, require calorie control since their ketogenic properties are not strong enough to significantly suppress carbohydrate metabolic pathway and mobilize body fat for fuel thus causing healthy hunger decrease.