Vital signs

Organic food is definitely good for men's sperm, according to a recent leaflet from the Soil Association. Organic farmers in Denmark, who produce food without using pesticides or chemical fertilisers, have been found to have 50 per cent higher sperm counts than the national average.

Has the new baby got his father's eyes, nose or mouth? It may be a cliche, but friends who comment on the resemblance between a father and small child are probably not imagining it. A study from the University of San Diego, California, published in Nature, found that at one year old, most babies really do look like their dads. The researchers believe that the first resemblance, which fades as the child grows older, may have once served as a primitive signal to reassure the father of his paternity and so ensure his parental care.

Men who suffer from high blood pressure could lower it by taking regular and moderately intense aerobic exercise instead of swallowing medication, say researchers from Washington DC. Their study of of 46 African-American men who suffered from hypertension, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, found that after 32 weeks of exercise, the patients' blood pressure was reduced even after their drug dosages were lowered. The study also found that taking exercise reduced thickening of the septum, the wall which divides the heart's two chambers.

Bald men have already been found to run a higher risk of heart disease, but those who are grey and wrinkled fare little better. According to a Danish study published in the American Heart Journal, men who are completely grey run twice the risk of developing coronary heart disease, while those with prominent wrinkles had a 60 per cent increased risk.