Can you imagine your life without your cell phone? Difficult isn’t it, but did you know that these devices could be harming your sexual health? Most people keep their cell phones in their jeans or trouser pockets or clipped to a belt on their waist. While this does make the phone easily accessible, it also affects male fertility.

There are two main aspects to male fertility; the motility and viability of sperm cells. Motility refers to the sperm cell’s ability to swim through body fluids and fertilise the egg. Viability refers to the number of living vs non-living sperm cells and sperm cell abnormalities.

Cell phones are constantly working even when we’re not talking into them. They constantly send out and receive electromagnetic frequency radiation to keep your social media accounts updated. Given the close proximity of the cell phone and your body, this energy may be absorbed by your genitals. As a result, the sperm cells may change shape and lose their ability to attach themselves to an egg. The structural abnormality may impede the sperm’s ability to swim and thus reduce motility. Semen exposed to this type of radiation also has a high level of free radicals.

In order to produce sperm, the testicles maintain a specific temperature that is ideal for sperm health. Smartphones typically also have a higher temperature than that of the room you are in. Thus, when you keep your cell phone in your pant pockets, they increase your skin temperature in the groin by approximately 2 degrees as well as the temperature within your testicles. This slows down the production of sperm cells and can even kill them thus, reducing sperm cell viability.


In the ideal world, a cell phone should only be carried in a bag, but almost all men may cringe at the thought of carrying a bag. Hence, take your phone out of your pocket whenever possible, for example while driving, at a restaurant etc. The use of Ayurvedic aphrodisiacs can also lower the harmful effects of cell phones. The dried roots of asparagus or safed musli can help increase sperm count and rejuvenate a man’s libido. Ashwagandha, shilajit and kawach are also very effective Ayurvedic herbs to treat male infertility. Increasing your intake of food rich in vitamin C and E can also help deal with the stress in sperm caused by phone radiation. The use of these herbs has negligible side effects and hence can be safely used by men of all ages. If you wish to discuss about any specific problem, you can consult a Sexologist.

Being away or oblivious to social media is synonymous to not following the herd. Social media probably is no more the latest fad; it is the given code to take a deeper look into the present age. The rewarding fact about social networking sites is their ability to transport us to people and places millions of miles away from us. This epoch with its dictates of overproduction and maximum utilization of labor, snatches away the boon of communication.

Some of the mental health problems that you may suffer from due to a social media addiction are discussed below:

Peer Pressure- Social media use also creates the fear of missing out because you want to do what everyone else is doing. This evokes anxiety and will give rise to negative feelings and emotions, which again create mental health problems and stress and anxiety disorders

Fatigue and Stress- When you are using social media, you are constantly switching from one task to another because there is just so much to do and see. This information abundance can tire out your brain, especially when it is received chaotically. Your brain needs time and room for absorbing the data and processing the information, but multitasking on social media makes your brain work overtime. This can prevent it from relaxing and it will become exhausted as it tries to deal with the barrage of information. Hence, the fatigue puts your mind under a lot of stress and you may not be able to concentrate on anything at all.

Social Anxiety- Even though the whole point of social media is to allow people to stay connected with others, it doesn’t have the same satisfaction and element associated with actual human interaction, which is a crucial human need. In fact, in some ways, it is too distant and this is not a good thing for those who become dependent on social media as it can lead to social anxiety. Those who are already suffering from this problem will find it even more difficult to indulge in face-to-face interaction. Real human interaction can become extremely scary for people as it is becoming common to hide behind your computer screens and not go out at all.

Distraction- Social media is just tailor-made for decreasing our productivity because you spend hours looking at everyone else’s life when you could be doing something else. This means that most of your time is spent on viewing photos, liking posts, and writing comments and these activities don’t really require the use of your intellectual abilities. They aren’t intellectual at all and distract you from activities that are such as reading, studying informational articles on the internet, etc. Your brain doesn’t get enough food for development and your intellectual abilities can decline in this way. Your brain will slow down and not be able to respond quickly in various situations.

Insecurity- One of the major problems with social media is that posts typically present an idealized version of what’s going on in everyone’s life. Usually, what you see isn’t actually reality because everyone has their problems and issues.

Nevertheless, you end up comparing your own life with that of others and think less of your own. If people in your newsfeed seem to be having a good time, it will make you envious and affect your mood negatively. Research has shown that widespread use of social media can demotivate people, make them aggressive and cause a decline in confidence.

So are you being adversely affected by social media? Here are some signs to look out for:

Low self-esteem.

Feeling low when you see other people's images and lifestyle.

Envy of others people lives - wishing your life was like someone else's.

Finding social media as your first and only choice of activity done for enjoyment.
Not having as many face to face conversations with your relatives and friends and feeling disconnected.
Being unable to do anything without feeling you need to share it online.

For most people, the screen of a cell phone is the first thing they see in the morning and the last thing they see before going to bed. Nobody can deny the fact that living without a cell phone today is extremely difficult but must we be so glued to them? Staring into a phone or tablet screen, before going to sleep affects your sleep as well as impacts your health. Here's how:

It is harder to fall asleep - We feel sleepy when the brain releases a hormone called melatonin, which is controlled by the body's circadian rhythm and exposure to light. The blue light of a cell phone screen interferes with this rhythm and indicates the brain not to secrete melatonin, which makes it difficult for us to sleep even after we have switched off our phone.

It hampers the quality of sleep - A direct effect of sleeping late is that the number of hours are reduced. On top of that, using a cell phone before going to bed also hampers the quality of your sleep. When an office email or a text message is the last thing you see before going to sleep, our brain does not shut down completely, which makes us tense while we sleep.

It lowers your attention span - When we wake up from a restless night's sleep, our productivity suffers. When we are unable to sleep properly it is known to hamper our decision-making skills, impairs both long-term and short-term memory and distracts us. This leads to unnecessary stress and anxiety.

It increases the risk of weight gain - The body is more likely to feel hungry when it doesn't get enough sleep. This is because sleep-deprived people have a lower metabolism. Thus using a cell phone before sleeping also increases the chance of snacking on something unhealthy to get through the day and in turn leads to weight gain.

It weakens your immune system - The body's immune system produces antibodies that fight infections while we are asleep. Depriving the body of the sleep it requires, weakens the immune system by not giving it enough time to build its forces. Not only does this increase the risk of falling ill it also slows down recovery from illnesses.

It damages your skin - Sleeping late at night and not getting enough sleep can cause dark circles, puffy eyes and fine lines across the face. The blue light of a cell phone screen also tells the body to secrete cortisol which makes the skin less elastic and smooth.

Thus, even if we look at a phone screen for just five minutes every night before going to bed, the side effects last much longer and affect our mental and physical health as well as your looks.

"Get off the mobile and go outside," are these words being heard more commonly nowadays, than at any other point in time in life? The answer could be frighteningly real as humanity has just stepped in one of the newest forms of a psychiatric disorder. What's worse is that the medical world is divided whether if this should be considered as a disease and separate field to be dedicated to it or simply pass it off as a generation growth that the future has to embrace.

Let us look a little deeper about the disorder and the serious nature that it indicates.

What is internet & phone addiction?
Only recently did Internet addition and phone addition become part of the diagnostic and statistical manual of the mental disorder - Meaning that internet addiction is now effectively considered a psychiatric disorder and there are chances of identifying and treating it using medically approved means. As the name suggests, internet addiction and phone addiction means that the person is using his creative and designated time on the medium when he is no longer required to. Simply put it becomes an obsessive habit on the part of the person to look into the phone and use the internet as a routine activity. Long-term addiction can lead to many psychological factors such as withdrawal symptoms, depression, and general loss of awareness about the surroundings. For most people, the syndrome can be an underlying factor of an even more severe health condition that the person is trying to mask by whiling away his time with the internet and the mobile. Across the people who get affected by it, the common traits are the internet gaming and social media.


The addiction in today’s world:
The velocity of the disorder is yet to take on the world. As of now only two countries- South Korea and China have identified the disorder as a disease and treatments are administered. Europe and United States have just categorized it as a disorder and research is being done on it. The general treatment plan that exists now aims to understand the patient first. The psychiatric treatment tries to successfully make a minor bridge between the user and his addiction. From practicing different time of using the internet to suggesting new schedules and goals, the person can be slowly be eased backed into the society. The purpose of the psychiatric treatment is not to block the internet/ mobile usage completely but to limit them. A person is educated to get his satisfaction in other forms like relations ships, outdoor activities than to depend on the internet. Apart from it some depression reducing drugs can also be had at the insistence of the psychiatrist.

Medical Possibilities
Professors argue that Internet addiction and mobile addiction is not exactly a disease. It simply determines an underlying medical condition of a person that needs more treatment. Though still in its early stages the medical world has made it clear that its contribution towards these mental addictions would increase by massive miles within the turn of the decade.

Internet addiction is a very recent phenomenon, but is already a cause for concern. With the advent of various social networking websites, people are increasingly becoming addicted to the internet. Internet addiction disorder is often characterized by people inching to form an emotional attachment with people and activities, all of them online. You may enjoy connecting to people more over the virtual interface instead of the real world; this usually stems from an inability to establish real human contact.

The symptoms of internet addiction disorder are:
1. Excessive usage of the internet

2. Depression, mood swings and irritability if one doesn’t get access to the internet

3. Any effort to reduce internet usage is usually unsuccessful

4. You may experience constant problems in personal relationships, education and your job due to incessant internet usage

5. A tendency of lying to close ones when they ask you how much time you spend over the internet

6. Using internet to escape from real world problems

Further complications

Internet addiction can gradually isolate you. You may develop an aversion to meeting and communicating with people in real life. This can impair your social skills and make you socially awkward. This disorder also create problems in relationships as it can reduce the time you spend interacting personally.

Internet addiction may also lead you to create online personas to evade low self-esteem issues. This actually aggravates the problem instead of solving it; can result in severe anxiety and depression. Withdrawal symptoms might result in anxiety, depression, irritation and loneliness. This disorder can lead to complications such as dry eyes, headaches, change in sleep patterns and subsequent problems in falling asleep. Back pain from sitting upright while you are on the internet is also very common problem.