Conception Preparedness: Before & After

This part 3 in this 3 part series 

Digestive Function

Improved eating habits, supplementing with a good whole food supplement and detoxifying will not be as effective if the parents-to-be have poor digestive function. This concept may be the most important to ensure long term improvement. Poor digestive function impairs your nutrient status and individuals must have good digestive system function to be able to detoxify correctly. One of the biggest indicators of poor digestive function is your bowel movement. You should have a bowel movement for every meal you eat. For anyone who has had a dog you know that you have to get that dog outside within an hour or two of eating or you are cleaning up after them also. If you eat more than once a day or more than once a week you should have more than one movement per day or per week.

Some causes for poor digestive function are:

·      Abnormal growth of harmful gut flora in the small and large intestines.

·      These harmful bacteria create toxins and waste products that irritate the intestinal wall causing inflammation and “leaky gut”.

·      Harmful parasites in the intestines

·      Yeast overgrowth

·      A diet high in pre-packaged and processed foods creates a sugar-rich environment which encourages growth of the unfavorable bacteria/flora.

Common causes of a poor intestinal environment are:

·      Low levels of stomach HCL

·      Low fiber diet

·      Chronic use of antacids

·      Repeated use of antibiotics

·      Regular use of NSAIDS- Aspirin

·      Long term stress

·      Food allergies

·      Nutrient deficiencies

·      Alcohol abuse

·      Immune deficiencies

In some cases food sensitivities may indicate that these foods are being eaten too often. If this is the case then the patient should rotate the consumption of these foods rather than eating them on a daily basis and increase the variety of foods in their diet.

The main action step needed in addition to the lifestyle changes is to have both parents tested to determine what whole food supplementation and herbal program may be needed to clear any parasites, yeast or harmful bacteria overgrowth, and to heal and support proper digestive function. Remember, poor digestive function impairs nutrient status and the ability to detoxify safely.

Optimize Fitness Levels

The following concepts are important for both parents but, if you care to ask someone who has ever given birth, you will find that the following are especially important for the birthing mother.

·      Improved stamina

·      Reach and maintain the ideal body composition and BMI

·      Develop core strength and flexibility

Pregnancy is not the time to get into shape. You should be in shape prior to conception and then you want to maintain yourself at approximately 70% during pregnancy.

Improved stamina and endurance is important during your entire pregnancy and especially during the delivery. During pregnancy your body has changed and you are no longer working for one but two now.

Starting your pregnancy at your ideal body composition is important because your body will change. The stress of pregnancy is great and you do not want to have to face that at less than your best and you do want to give your child the best of everything so why not let that include the best start from the best you.

Last but not least, core (abdominal and pelvic area) strength and flexibility. This is especially important to the end of your pregnancy at delivery. A strong you will be better prepared to handle the physical demands of the delivery and even though the female physique is designed for the birth process you will find that an increased strength and flexibility is always helpful.

As long as there are no contraindications to exercising the following is a short list of benefits from exercise prior to and during pregnancy. Studies have shown:

·      The exercise group had a lower level of anxiety and insomnia with a higher level of psychological well-being.

·      Exercise during the second half of the pregnancy significantly reduced the intensity of low back pain and had a significant effect on flexibility of the spine.

·      Regular exercise in the first two trimesters of pregnancy may be associated with reduced risk for cesarean delivery in first time mothers.

The action steps needed here are:

·      Have your current health level assessed

·      Have a professional create a fitness program that includes endurance, flexibility and strength (especially in your core) components

Most importantly: Get started.

(Info from Angela Hywood and the Green Medicine Institute)

Conception Preparedness: Before & After

This is part 2 of a 3 part series.

Detoxifying the Body

Detoxifying the body is important for both potential parents. A heavy toxic burden can have a negative effect on your body especially your endocrine system. The endocrine system includes the glands in your body that produce all of your hormones. As examples, carrying a heavy toxic burden can negatively impact both the male and female sex hormones and the man’s sperm count. As we can see it is important to detoxify both parents but especially the mother because poisons in the mother can cross the placenta and be taken in by the fetus. Even following birth, studies show that 20% of the mother’s toxic burden is transferred to the infant via the breast milk.

It is important to understand that:

·      Fetal exposure to some endocrine/hormone disrupting toxins not only affected the fetus but also subsequent generations, children of those children.

·      Many environmental agents have a neuro-toxic effect and can result in severe mental retardation and disability depending on the timing and the dose.

The action steps that should be taken here are:

·      Have you and your spouse tested to identify a potential toxic burden.

·      Find and use an affective, safe systemic detoxification program with appropriate whole food nutritional and herbal supplementation.

·      Detoxify your environment by using stainless steel cookware, install air and water filters, and find family friendly cleaning products to name a few.

Endocrine Gland Status: The two main glands we will talk about are the Pancreas and Adrenal Glands.

Pancreas Status and Insulin Sensitivity

The pancreas is a large gland that produces the well-known hormone insulin which drives your body to store energy as fat and the lesser-known, but equally important, hormone glucagon which drives the body to burn fat as energy. The pancreas is also involved with lipase production which breaks down fats, protease which breaks down protein, and amylase which breaks down carbohydrates and sugars.

Some indicators for pancreatic distress or insulin and glucose tolerance issues are:

·      Waist measurement of 35” or greater for a woman, 40” or greater for a man

·      HDL level of less than 50 for a woman, 40 for a man

·      Glucose level of greater than 110 or 120 depending on system used

·      Triglycerides of 150 or greater

·      LDL of 120 or greater

·      Body fat % of 37% or greater for a woman, 29% or greater for a man

·      For the potential mother to be obesity during pregnancy is associated with higher blood pressure and increased inflammatory response.

·      Women with an elevated glucose tolerance test are at risk for adverse peri-natal, post-delivery, outcomes. Insulin resistance puts the mother at risk for preeclampsia, gestational diabetes, and hypertension which increases the risk of an unfavorable outcome for the fetus.

Action steps to help heal the pancreas and restore the body’s insulin sensitivity include being evaluated for any problems and if a problem or weakness is found follow the proper herbal protocol and whole food supplementation plan to return the pancreas to normal. Exercise is also an important factor in controlling your blood sugar levels and we will discuss that as a separate topic.

Adrenal Status

Now, with all of the above information in mind and with your stress levels on the rise we will discuss the main stress organ, your adrenal glands. Stress can affect fertility for both men and women and the stress hormone cortisol has been linked to spontaneous abortion and miscarriage. A few of the other problems associated with high and/or chronic stress are:

·      Studies have found that stress causes a decline in the quality of semen with an inverse relationship between the amount of stress and the semen quality

·      Stress can cause preterm labor

·      Reduce birth-weight

·      Slow growth rate

·      Predispose the child to attention deficits

·      Cause temperamental difficulties and predispose to depressive illness

The first action steps to be employed are lifestyle strategies to remove, modify, and manage any stress in your life. The next is to evaluate your adrenals themselves to ensure optimal function and if indicated support your adrenals through proper herbal and whole food supplementation.

Conception Preparedness: Before & After

This is part 1 in a 3 part series.

Today we are going to talk about a very important and often overlooked healthcare concern. That is: preparing the body for conception and restoring the body after delivery. This information also applies to the fathers-to-be. We contribute to that gene pool and we should contribute our best.

It’s interesting that we spend a lot of time preparing for the wedding, preparing for the honeymoon, and even preparing the house for a newborn but very few of us actually spend the time needed to prepare ourselves and prepare our bodies to have our newborn.

Some of the benefits of preconception preparedness to the parents are reduced risks of:

·      Excessive pregnancy weight gain

·      Gestational diabetes

·      Preeclampsia

·      Less fatigue, backaches, fluid retention, constipation, hemorrhoids, and varicose veins

·      Better body image

Some of the benefits to the baby are:

·      Improved immune system

·      Improved overall health

·      Improved brain function

·      Reduced risk of birth defects and health problems later in life

Now, we will discuss some key areas to pregnancy success. Remember, these keys apply to the father as well. Again, we supply half of what’s needed to get things started.

The keys to pregnancy success include:

·      Optimizing nutrient levels through diet and customizing a supplementation program

·      Detoxify the body

·      Strengthen endocrine gland status in particular the pancreas and adrenal glands

·      Improve digestive function

·      Optimize fitness levels

Optimizing Nutritional levels

Poor nutritional status not only affects us as individuals but it is also passed on to the fetus and can have multiple negative effects on the baby such as brain development and function and physical defects including neural/spinal tube defects. Remember, specific nutrients are critical to fetal development and if the parents are deficient in them this will have a negative impact on the developing fetus. It is a strong recommendation that future parents have a comprehensive assessment before and in preparation for the pregnancy. This testing should include the husband as well as the wife to uncover any hidden deficiencies or imbalances. It is also important to retest in approximately 6 months to ensure that any deficiencies have been corrected.

When using any food supplement it is always best to use a whole food supplement. This is very important because not only does food have beneficial ingredients that we know about but it also has active ingredients that we don’t know about but are discovering daily. Another benefit to whole food supplements versus laboratory produced supplements is that they come in the ideal combinations for use by the human body.

 Some critical nutrients to include in any prenatal supplement are:

·      A Multi-vitamin with all of the B vitamins, vitamin D, vitamin c and a good antioxidant source

·      Omega 3 and Omega 6 fatty acids- an omega 3 fatty acid is a major fatty acid in sperm and brain phospholipids

·      A Multi-mineral with iron, calcium, magnesium, and zinc

Studies have found:

·      Regular use of a good multivitamin in preconception may reduce the risk of preeclampsia with one study taken from the American Journal of Epidemiology showing that multivitamin users had a 71% reduction in preeclampsia risk

·      Infants with iron deficiency demonstrated slower motor development

·      Maternal supplementation of omega 3s during pregnancy and lactation may be favorable for later mental development in the children

·      Maternal consumption of cod liver oil early in pregnancy was associated with a higher birth-weight, higher birth-weight has been associated with a lower risk of diseases later in life

·      Low preconception consumption of plant proteins, iron, magnesium, and niacin are associated with a 2 to 5 times increased risk of spina bifida

·      Pyridoxine (B6) deficiency of the mother may result in permanent behavioral abnormality and intellectual deficiency in her children. B6 is essential for normal brain development and function, and helps the body make the hormones serotonin and norepinephrine (which influence mood) and melatonin (which helps regulate the body clock).

·      All B vitamins help the body convert food (carbohydrates) into fuel (glucose), which is "burned" to produce energy. These B vitamins also help the body metabolize fats and protein. B complex vitamins are necessary for healthy skin, hair, eyes, and liver. They also help the nervous system function properly. All B vitamins are water-soluble, meaning that the body does not store them.

·      Women who had a total vitamin C intake in the lowest 10% of women before conception had twice the risk of preterm delivery because of premature rupture of the membranes.

The action steps needed to improve this first key to conception success are:

·Have you and your spouse tested to find any deficiencies and imbalances.

Start a high quality, whole-food prenatal supplement program. This may even require a systemic detoxification to cleanse your body before the repair and healing supplementation program can begin.

“A Heavy Burden: The Individual Costs of Being Overweight and Obese in the United States”

That is the title of a report published by the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services from which I am paraphrasing: It costs the health care system which includes you, your employer, your health care insurer, etc. almost $5,000 per year for a woman and more than $2,500 per year if you’re a man every year if you’re obese.

This report estimated the average per-person cost of being overweight and obese, including lost wages, direct medical costs, short term disability, pension insurance, absenteeism/sick days used, productivity losses, and gas costs to and from the Doctor’s office which is more frequent than healthy weight people. Costs attributed to lower wages due to the higher costs for obese employees were also included.

These are scary numbers especially during this time of economic difficulty in most countries. This is another reason why we should all eat healthy and stay active.

How do we do that? We should start with the one that many of us may find the most challenging; stop eating all of that nutrient deficient fast food chain junk. Eat at home more often and make the meal yourself and if you are the one that always makes the meals invite other family members to help and or make suggestions. I can’t do much in the kitchen but I do enjoy watching my children help their mother and Grandmother.

The next step is to cure ourselves of “couch potato syndrome”. Here in America the recommendation is to cut the TV watching down to 5-7 hrs/week. That is not an issue for our home because we don’t watch TV. But, the message for all of us whether we have a TV or not is to be more physically active. This means less TV, computer, radio, sitting, etc. and more, activity and moving around.

Finally, mix it up. Change the way you go to work. Walk, ride, or drive a different route and park a little further from the building. Take the stairs instead of an elevator, remember, every little step counts. Whether it is a new recipe, a new way to work or a new activity after work it all helps. Stagnation leads to bad habits and habits are hard to change so commit to moving beyond your normal routine, variety is the spice of life.

Overcoming Weight-loss Resistance

6 reasons for weight loss resistance:

1.    Stress

2.    Sleep

3.    High Toxic Burden

4.    Thyroid Fatigue

5.    Sex Hormone Imbalance

6.    Insulin Resistance

4 Influential Hormones:

·       Leptin- discovered in 1994, it was found that our fat cells actually produce a hormone, this tells us we are full and we don’t need to eat anything else.

·       Cortisol- ramps you up, prepares you for fight or flight, run from it or kill it response, provide glucose/blood sugar for response.

·       Insulin- beta cells, push glucose/blood sugar into cells if the cells don’t need it glucose is stored as fat, the key is storage as fat.

·       Glucagon- alpha cells, converts fat for energy, when insulin is low glucagon is high, the key is usage of fat.

1 Solution: Detoxification

1) A good detoxification program obviously needs to be developed around the cleansing of the whole body and in particular the main detoxification systems and organs. These systems and organs include the hepatic (liver), lymph, skin, kidneys and blood.

2) A whole food product containing our daily requirement of vegetables is important to a good detoxification program. A green food product will provide the nutritional needs that are necessary on a daily basis and most green foods are natural detoxifiers so they will support the above cleansing and detoxification.

3) A good whole food fiber will be very beneficial to your cleansing and weight loss program. It will help move the bowels for elimination and maintain a toned and healthy lining of the gastrointestinal tract.

4) Last but not least is the much needed whole food supplement. It should offer a balance of essential nutrients in a highly bio-available form supplying the body with the needed vitamins and minerals.