Topic

Claims Examined

Every Oakman post tagged claims examined, collected in one place.

The Surprising History of Conception Advice—and Why the Every-Other-Day Rule Isn’t Always Right
Male FertilityClaims Examined
If you are trying to conceive, you have probably heard the standard advice: have sex every other day during the fertile window. Maybe you have also heard the older version: “save up” for a few days to build your sperm count. Or maybe a friend told you to have sex daily for better odds.The truth is, advice on how often to have sex for conception has changed a lot over the centuries. And most of it was never based on good science. The every-other-day rule is actually a recent invention,... Read more...
The Infrared Sauna Weight Loss Myth: What Actually Happens to Your Metabolism
Claims ExaminedInfrared Sauna
Infrared saunas don't cause meaningful weight loss through calorie burn, and nearly all the weight you drop in a session is water that returns once you rehydrate. The real metabolic value is indirect: better insulin sensitivity and lower stress that support the actual work of diet, training, and sleep. Read more...
The Real Reason Sperm Counts Are Falling (It's Not Just Heat)
Sperm HealthMicroplastics
Sperm counts have fallen sharply over the last few decades, and the biggest drivers look environmental, not the occasional sauna. Sauna-level heat does lower sperm production for a while, but the effect reverses once the heat stops. Read more...
The Exercise Paradox for Male Fertility: When Working Out Can Work Against Your Sperm
Sperm HealthClaims Examined
I spent a few weeks digging into the research on exercise and sperm quality. Not because I’m a fertility specialist-I’m a guy who reads papers and asks questions. But because the standard advice felt too simple. “Exercise to boost your fertility.” That’s what every article says. It’s true, but it’s incomplete. It leaves out the part where some kinds of exercise can actually lower your sperm count. And the mechanism behind that isn’t about hormones or stress-it’s about heat.Sperm production runs on a narrow thermal window. Your testicles sit outside... Read more...
The Surprising Way Your Workout Could Be Hurting Your Sperm Count
Sperm HealthClaims Examined
You've probably heard the standard advice a hundred times: exercise is good for fertility. Get moving. Lift weights. Don't sit around all day. And yeah, that's true-up to a point.But here's the thing nobody talks about. The relationship between exercise and sperm quality isn't a straight line. It's more like a bell curve. Moderate exercise improves your numbers. No exercise makes them worse. And too much exercise-the kind that gets you lean, strong, and complimented at the gym-can actually drag your sperm count back down below a sedentary guy's.I spent... Read more...
What Nobody Tells You About Keeping Your Sperm Healthy in Your 30s
Sperm HealthClaims Examined
I spent a month reading through the research on male fertility preservation because I wanted to know what actually works. What I found surprised me.The standard advice-freeze your sperm, check the box, move on-isn't wrong. It's just incomplete. It treats fertility like a static thing you capture and store. But your sperm don't work that way. Every three months your body produces an entirely new batch. What ends up in that batch depends on what you ate, how you slept, what you were exposed to, and whether you spent last... Read more...
The Lies We Were Told About Male Fertility (and What I Found in the Research)
Male FertilityClaims Examined
I remember sitting across from my buddy Jake a few years ago. He and his wife had been trying for a baby for eight months. He was convinced it was his fault because he went to the sauna twice a week. "Maybe I cooked them," he said, half-joking, half-terrified. I told him to relax, but I also went home and spent the next three days buried in PubMed. What I found surprised me-and it might surprise you too.The myths around male fertility are weirdly persistent. Some of them go back... Read more...
The History of Sperm Volume: What Your Grandfather Got Wrong and What the Research Actually Says
Sperm HealthClaims Examined
I spent a weekend digging through ancient medical texts, 19th-century quackery, and modern fertility studies. What I found surprised me, and it might surprise you too.For most of recorded history, the amount of semen a man produced was treated as a direct line to his vitality, his character, even his spiritual standing. The Greeks thought large ejaculates proved a man was physically excellent. Chinese medicine tied semen retention to life force-the idea that losing too much volume drained your essence. In the Victorian era, doctors prescribed everything from cold baths... Read more...
Why I Stopped Worrying About Lowering Estrogen (and You Should Too)
Male FertilityClaims Examined
A few years back, a buddy of mine-early thirties, trying to start a family, frustrated with his sperm count-sent me a screenshot from some forum. The advice was aggressive: crash your estrogen with an aromatase inhibitor, watch your testosterone soar, and boom, fertility solved. Sounded logical enough. Estrogen is the “female hormone,” right? Less of it must mean more manliness.He was wrong. And the research has been proving it for years.Estrogen isn’t the enemy. Your brain, your bones, and your blood vessels need it. Your sperm need it too. The... Read more...
How Long Should You Actually Stay in a Sauna? (The Research Says It Depends)
Cardiovascular HealthClaims Examined
You step into the sauna. The heat hits you. You sit down, start counting minutes in your head. Fifteen? Twenty? Thirty if you’re feeling tough? The standard advice gets tossed around like a gym rumor: 15 to 20 minutes, maybe up to 30 if you’re acclimated. Every blog repeats it. Every sauna manual prints it. But nobody explains why that number exists or whether it’s actually right for what you’re trying to do.I spent a few weeks digging into the sauna physiology literature-the studies, the mechanisms, the numbers that don’t... Read more...