Smarter Men have More Sperm

note: I have long observed that in the pool of women I’ve attracted during my lifetime, the smartest women also seemed to be the most sexually charged. Just a small private survey, with lots of biases. -m

SMARTER MEN HAVE MORE SPERM
By Melinda Wenner
Live Science
January 9, 2009

http://www.livescience.com/health/090109-smarter-men.html

Women tend to like smart men because they’re usually more successful and
better providers. But here’s another reason: Their sperm is better, a new
study says.

Researchers at King’s College London, the University of Delaware and the
University of New Mexico recently compared results from five intelligence
tests given to 425 Vietnam War vets in 1985 as part of the U.S. Centers For
Disease Control and Prevention’s Vietnam Experience Study. These vets, aged
31 to 44, also provided sperm samples, so the researchers analyzed the sperm
per milliliter of semen, plus how many of the sperm swam normally, and other
measures of sperm health.

The smarter the men were, the more sperm they produced and the better their
wee ones swam — and it didn’t matter how old the men were or whether they
smoked, drank or were obese.

But why might these two seemingly unrelated traits be linked? Why would
calculus aces or business consultants make better sperm?

Turns out that intelligent people are generally healthier than their
less-clever peers — studies have shown that brainiacs are, for instance,
less likely to suffer from heart disease and Alzheimer’s. Scientists have
suggested that smart people may score less stressful jobs in safer places
and that they may make better lifestyle choices, for instance by exercising
more and eating better. In other words, maybe bright people actually listen
to the Surgeon General.

But these newest findings, to be published in an upcoming issue of the
journal Intelligence, found that negative habits had little effect on sperm
quality, so they don’t support that theory.

The researchers instead speculate that intelligence might be passed down as
part of a larger package of good attributes. One gene can influence multiple
traits, so the genes involved in smarts may somehow improve sperm quality —
and perhaps other characteristics as well.

This could help explain, then, why intelligence can be so sexy: It could
simply be an indicator that a person has a lot of good genes and traits,
says study co-author Geoffrey Miller, a psychologist at the University of
New Mexico.