KEEP THAT SPERM HEALTHY! ENHANCE FERTILITY!!

Infertility will continue to be a big issue as long as you have couples who stay several years trying for a child to no avail. 

It breaks every couple when they try conception for several years, yet medical consultants keep trying to find out the underlying problems even as the couples are most times declared healthy yet the problem of infertility still persists. It grieves the heart greatly.

I stumbled on a site recently and what caught my attention was the number one way out of the six ways mentioned about how men diminish the quality of their sperm and so deemed it fit to share hoping that it may help a couple of people out there if they stumble on my page.

According to what was gathered from the report, it is recommended that everyman should avoid stress as much as possible and maintain a healthy lifestyle all the time as being unhealthy, coupled with fatigue and stress could have adverse effect on the quality of sperm which is one of the reasons for infertility.

Also part of staying healthy includes keeping the testicles cool, when I say ‘cool’ it means at least 4 degrees cooler than the rest of the body as the sperm count would be affected if the temperature becomes too high.

Now for all those men who drink too many bottles of alcohol per day, it is a ‘no-no’ as that would be too much for the sperm to handle even as smoking is also a ‘no-no’ if you want very good quality sperm. Smoking according to health experts causes erectile dysfunction and a decrease in the flow of blood to the privates and as a guy smokes his chances of experiencing such dysfunctions increases.

  

One very interesting one is the caution against the habit of men who keep their phones in their front pockets. It is advised that since the radiation and vibrations from the phones can decrease sperm count up to 9%, hence the phones should be kept away.

The most informative was the number one caution for the avoidance of plastic bottles and cans that contain Bisphenol A, which would hereafter be referred to as BPA.

Some people may be wondering what is BPA and how does it affect *on a lighter note* “the price of fish”?

It does affect in a lot of ways, if you asked me.

Now take a seat for the very SHORT eye opener on BPA.

BPA according to PLOS Genetics acts as an endocrine disruptor thus men should avoid bottles and cans that contain the ‘disruptor’.

BPA is a common chemical used to harden plastics by manufacturers. Unfortunately, as harmful as they say it is, it is found in nearly everything we use on a daily basis by professionals and nonprofessionals alike. It is found in items within and outside the homes including offices and market places. Just name it, from baby feeding bottles, medical devices, entertainment devices and even the lining of canned foods and drinks and many more products that come our way on a daily basis.

Worrisome, isn’t it? 

From all indications, it seems everyone has got some level of BPA in them as long as you use any of the aforementioned products.

Before the year 2010, the United States Food and Drug Administration had held that BPA was safe until it expressed the concerns after some studies that BPA could have negative effects on the brain, behavior, and prostate glands in fetuses, infants and young children.

Now how does that affect you?

Now you know better.

Let’s avoid BPA as much as possible as we can. Make deliberate efforts!

HE KNELT OR STOOPED TO CONQUER! SO WHAT?

It is vile expression for people to say that young man, the banker who was alleged to have knelt down for Fayose begging, given the pictures which went viral last week, ought to be ashamed of himself and according to many, mainly the male folks “he has fallen the hands of men”.

   

Hmm! Hypocrisy runs wild in our society and one wonders when it’s going to end, that’s if it would ever end. People talk a lot of gibberish stuff when making comments on issues relating to others and it is so easy for them to make very ‘uncalled for’ as well as unrealistic “if I was the one, I would do blah blah blah” this or that just because they are not the ones in whatever that situation may be at the time.

And so the man knelt down? Yes. Why? Because he was trying to save his job. Simple.

Again, a lot of other people had the guts to say, why didn’t he just resign instead of stooping so low? And my question for such people is “how many of you have had the guts to resign from that underpaying job, abusive job and what have you? I can imagine a lot of them recoiling back in their shells right now because of being hit by reality questions.

I am more disappointed in those women who have posted more hateful statements in the order of the aforementioned men. And I feel pity, to say the least for such women. What do most of them know safe for driving around in cars, parties, visiting spas and gyms courtesy of the hard earned money from their spouses?

If only a good number of such women are aware of the kinds of things their ‘precious’ husbands go through on a lot of their so called ‘executive position’ jobs just to make keep the home front together, then I bet you, many of these women would have a rethink on what they say whenever they hear about a man who knelt down in public for his benefactor.

I’m so sticking with that guy any day, but it hurts to see his picture going viral and whoever took and uploaded such, should have his/her knees ready because like they say, “it rains everywhere” meaning we all get our shot at things in life, one way or the other.

As a former banker and from every angle, bankers, especially of the new generation banks, kiss asses all the time *excuse my French*.

As a banker you are subjected to a lot of ‘begging’ and even ‘worshipping’ of customers who most of the times enjoy such pampering and ‘ego’ massaging, just to keep your job.  And sincerely speaking, the banks don’t give a ‘hoot’ about how you get the huge deposits or big customers as long as you get it in the long run. That’s all that counts. It’s the sad truth and reality, so deal with it.

I have on several occasions witnessed senior colleagues and even friends in many of these new generation banks do all sorts of ‘ego massaging’ in many ways such as kneeling down, rolling on the floor, going on stupid errands, buying of unaffordable gifts and many more just to please some of these clients or else get threatened with “I will move my account to another branch” or “I will close my account and move to another bank” and I assure you, no banker wants to hear such threats because they know it could have serious ripple effects which could eventually result in the loss of their jobs if care is not taken.

So what does the poor banker do? Of course he/she has to keep licking the boots of the ‘always right’ and ‘difficult-to-please’ customers and then when they get tired of such ‘ego massaging’, a lot of them resign and sadly because there are few job opportunities out there, many of them if care is not taken, give up on life out of frustration or, should I say ‘depression’?

And so, my heart goes out to that young man who was pictured kneeling down begging. And to all those who think they would have done otherwise, pray, just pray you never find yourself in such circumstance.

I know many people would be wondering why the said pictures are not here. Yes it was deliberate because I feel it has gone viral enough.

And to all the men who go through so much to put food on the tables of the ‘good, the bad and the ugly’ wives, I say a big “WELL DONE”.

JUST ONLY YESTERDAY. YES! WE WERE PLAYING 'KUSO'

I was going through some ‘throw back things’ from way back and I came across some things that warmed my heart at their sight, and I was flooded with this nostalgic feeling as to how so much has changed between the ‘then’ and ‘now’. It’s been ages, yet it seems like it was only just yesterday.

Just only yesterday, I was in secondary school with my 'basket' shoes and 'kobos' that were eventually upped to the naira notes which would enable me buy soft drinks, puffs and the likes at break time and that would sometimes be lunch until you got back home after school. I was a 'big' girl at that level. winks.

I remember how a couple of us swore never to buy the soft drinks anymore when the prices were increased to 50kobo or was it N1.50k? Can't remember the exact price now. Nevertherless, we found ourselves back to buying the drinks after staying away for barely a week. *Laughs*

Today, we are still buying even though it's several times double the amount we protested against back then.

It was only just yesterday. And yes, I did play 'kuso'.  

Just yesterday, I got into the University and missed a lot of childhood friends along the way as many of us ended up in separate higher institutions.

Just only yesterday I wrote my final exams in the university for my first degree and a couple of months later I was off to camp for the compulsory one year of NYSC.

Only just yesterday, I started working and making a living and then I realized that I was no longer that child of ‘just yesterday’ who would now need to fend for herself without waiting for any daddy, mummy, uncle or aunty to feed her or tell her almost everything to do or not to do. 

I could go on and on.

Where did yesterday go?

I was looking at this pack of thread on the left above and I remembered how my ‘best friend’ back in the days would come all the way from her house to ask me to come with her to the market which was closer to her place just for us to ‘plait’ our hair and of course we had that belief that a particular woman was best in handling our hair with that thread. 

Interestingly, we still saw ourselves as ‘BABES’ even with the threaded hair sometimes made in what was popularly called ‘shuku’ which is now funkily called ‘galas’ or whatever.

Life was sweet. Where did all that go?

 

Then, if we wanted something more matured during the holidays, we would either ‘perm’ the hair with locally made relaxers or fix the synthetic weaves which were the only options for us then. Worst case scenario, we would braid the very long ‘Bob Marley’ and pack it up in different styles such as ‘soul to soul’ named after Caron Wheeler, the female lead
vocalist of the old school group ‘SOUL II SOUL’.

Today, all that has changed.

Nowadays, you would see teenage a secondary school student on holidays with human hairs in the names of Brazilian, Peruvian et al worth as much as N70,000 and more even as the young girl would have the air of  “I’m atop of the world” around her, without a clue in the world on how to earn one kobo yet.

Gosh! Times have really changed.

My question is, have the changed times marred us as a society or helped us more?  

I’ll leave you to ponder on that while I’m still busy reminiscing on my childhood moments in my head.

STOP CARRYING OR KEEPING UNNECESSARY 'BAGGAGE' AROUND

Let’s just imagine. You’ve been eating for a week and even a few days more but haven’t visited the toilet for that number of days. How do you think you would feel as a human being?

You will be so uneasy and God help you, if you eventually get to the convenience and you are unable to pass out anything despite the pressure on your vitals. You totally would be face swollen and headache ‘banged’ to say you would be very uncomfortable would be stating it mildly.

Three days without emptying your bowel is just like carrying a bag of ‘poo’ around the only difference would be just that it is still inside your body. And you expect your organs to be happy with you? Hell NO!

Your organs can only be happy with you and you can only enjoy your body when it’s free from toxins so also will you enjoy your environment if it’s kept clean.

   

I was going through a page online and I saw a picture which read loads of messages and I am so disappointed to say the least that a lot of Nigerians are so, should I say ‘wickedly stupid’ not just to others but to themselves.

On several occasions I have witnessed some societal practices by individuals who most of the time you would expect to be better behaved, but they would rather do the otherwise.

Just take another look at the picture on your right, below. What are your thoughts?

It is only a blank mind that would finish chewing up, for example corn and throw the cob in the nearest gutters or drink water and then toss the empty bottle or sachet in the gutter and then turn around to shout “the government is not helping us” when the rains come and flood your homes simply because the gutters have been blocked with thrash which ought to have been sent to an allocated dumpsite.

A lot of people are so guilty of such practices. There are times you walk past a sweeper on the streets or a shop keeper whose shop is very close to the gutters, especially those who display their wares all the way from within the shop to the walkway/pavements and you would be amazed to see they throw the trash meant for the dustbin, right into the gutters even to their own detriment.

A couple of years ago, while braiding my hair at an ‘open’ shop, a lady almost ate me raw because I scolded her child for throwing thrash in the gutter right in front of the shop but trust me, *winks* I took her and her entire crew who did not see anything wrong in the child’s acts to the cleaners. I gave them a lot to chew on and I bet you, they may still be chewing on them even as you read this article. *Laughs.

Why did I choose to write on this topic, you may want to ask?

Well, after seeing pictures of refuse in drainages/gutters blocked since the rains started, I was tempted to make a clarion call to all Nigerians to make deliberate efforts to stop throwing thrash in our gutters.

Let’s just help ourselves because when these gutters are blocked, the waters which would always ‘find its level’ will find its way to your homes and offices as well as business locations including the markets and even the streets hence making movement difficult on a rainy day.

So if your gutters are blocked, it’s time to clean them out and let them remain ‘cleaned out’ even during the dry seasons and you will be happier for it.

Empty your bowels even as you keep the gutters clean.

And hey! Lest I forgot to mention it earlier!!

Please! Don’t empty your bowels in the gutters or channel your toilets to the gutters either. Kai!! That would be so unhealthy!!!