Lifestyle choices that can increase or decrease fertility
Stress and infertility
What is stress?
It is the protective alarm response of the body, when life is threatened. We have many protective chemical that are leased during a stressor stimulation that causes us to prepare for the pending risk or trauma. The main one of interest it the long term stress hormone Cortisol which is nature’s starvation hormone.
When do we release cortisol and why?
There are four major reasons we need cortisol to help us cope. Think of cortisol like a credit card, which makes up the short fall when we do not eat, breathe or rest properly and we are emotionally upset. I call this life’s FARE, Food, Air, Rest and Emotions. When we put pressure on our FARE we need to run on borrowed energy from cortisol. When you are trying to conceive TTC, then stress is often emotionally exaggerated, but can be greatly helped by improving the rest of the FARE.
- Stress is the primal survival response and takes precedence over reproduction.
- The original stress response in animals is from immediate danger, adrenaline and starvation, which releases cortisol (stress hormone).
- Our primary stress response is triggered through our poor diet, lack of sleep, emotional turmoil, and a lack of oxygen from breathing incorrectly.
- Long-term stress can have detrimental effects on fertility, by depleting the resources of the reproductive system leading to male and female infertility.
- Effectively, stress is designed as Nature’s contraceptive – it is more important for you to survive than to have a baby.
- By diminishing the progesterone, men do not make the testosterone necessary for sperm growth and maturation, causing poor morphology and male infertility.
- In women, stress affects the amount of oestrogen needed for the maturation and growth of the eggs, which often leads to the over-production of FSH, poor quality egg, perimenopause.
- High levels of FSH lead to over-stimulation of the follicles, causing the growth of more than one follicle at a time, .
- Due to the lack of oestrogen, the maturation of the follicle cannot progress.
- The lower levels of oestrogen cannot trigger LH, as no eggs are mature and ovulation therefore does not take place.
- Failure to ovulate may lead to cyst growth and no production of progesterone.
- The body must now rely on progesterone made in the adrenal gland, most of which is used for cortisol (stress hormone) production.
- If the stress abates or cortisol production slows, the body may allow for increased oestrogen due to high FSH. The over-production of oestrogen may lead to endometrium over-growth and oestrogen dominance patterns.
Effects of Cortisol: The Long Term Stress Hormone
High physiological levels Depleted Cortisol Increased mental acuity Anxiety/panic attacks Increased energy levels Loss of concentration Increased blood sugar availability Poor memory Decreased inflammation Unstable blood sugar Immune suppression Chronic fatigue Inhibition of glucose uptake by organ tissue cells Allergies and inflammation Immobilisation of the gut Immune Hyperactivity High levels of androgens and oestrogens (male & female hormones) Anovulatory cycles (no egg is released) Heavy, painful menstruation/*endometriosis Irritable bowel PMS Headaches Anxiety/panic attacks Panic attacks High libido Male infertility and low libido Female infertility
The Glycaemic Index of Food
The Glycaemic Index is how carbohydrates are rated according to their effect on blood sugar levels.
Research has indicated that it is not the amount of carbohydrate, but rather the rate of absorption and digestion that determines the physiological effect on the body and its hormone levels. The Glycaemic Index Factor is rated on a scale of 0-100, where pure glucose = 100. The rating of a food depends on the effect it has on the blood glucose level i.e. how fast it goes in and out of the blood stream
The following factors have an effect on absorption and digestion and therefore on the blood glucose level:
- Particle size of the grain or wheat – for example whole wheat, whole corn and whole rye have a much lower GI factor than highly processed, fine grains
- The more refined the foods are, the higher the GI level
- Different types of starch have different levels of digestibility
- Fibre content of foods has an effect on the GI levels, because foods like oats and legumes contain soluble fibre, which lowers the GI
- Sugar, interesting, can lower the GI of food because its competes with starch and often has a lower GI than many starches (yet still remains a high GI food)
- Protein and fat in the food may lower the GI, but protein can decrease the efficacy of insulin, which affects blood sugar levels
- The acidity level of food also lowers GI levels. Apples and pears, for example, have relatively low GI levels.
Foods with a GI of 55 or less are classified as low GI foods that don’t result in a sudden rise in blood sugar levels, and are more satisfying because they do not result in such a large insulin release.
High GI foods, with an index rating of more than 70, should really only be eaten after strenuous exercise, because of their ability to elevate the blood sugar levels rapidly. Intermediate GI foods have an index of 55-70.
We should typically have an 80% intake of low GI foods, and if we have to eat foods that fall into the high GI category, we should combine them effectively with foods that are low on the scale.
The 12 step approach to improving your lifestyle for optimum fertility
Many of us are sleep deprived and as a result we can’t get through the day without using stimulants and craving sugar, caffeine and short chain carbohydrates. Because using cortisol is like using credit we end up going into debt every day we don’t sleep properly, this just compounds the problem has we are tired when we wake up and we need to run cortisol just to get going. Running on cortisol means we crave sugar is caffeine stimulants cigarettes and alcohol which or compound the debt process and it soon becomes a vicious cycle where we are chasing our cortisol debt.
It is important that you equate excess cortisol with infertility!
Take a FARE audit of your life. Do weekly check to see if you’re maintaining your FARE, using the Sort out your FARE sort out the cortisol and increase fertility Make sure you get at least eight hours sleep per night. Cortisol is designed to high during the day and low during the night if we stay up too late we keep our cortisol levels on the rise and therefore battle fall asleep, or we have a restless high dream filled sleep which is not restful sleep. Catch up on sleep that you have missed Life is never completely smooth sailing and it is not always possible to get a good night sleep every night, so it is very important when you do get the chance to see that you do not stay up late. When your body is adrenalised you do not feel like sleeping and therefore when you are overtired ironically cortisol makes you want to stay up. Fight this urge and go to bed! You will have plenty of time to stay awake all night then your baby comes Eat breakfast Breakfast is extremely important; you needto have a carbohydrate together with protein to sustain you for a morning. Cortisol is a starvation hormone and if we do not eat when we wake up we force our body to run on cortisol and interfere with our blood sugar. Do not have coffee or other stimulant in place of a proper meal for breakfast. If you are used to missing breakfast, and now introduce it, you will find that by mid-morning you are much hungrier than if you had not eaten, make sure you have a fruit or nuts or low glycaemic index, carbohydrates as a mid-morning snack. Cut wheat and sugar out of your diet strictly for six weeks. Cortisol inhibits glucose uptake in all tissue in the body that are not heart, brain and muscle. This in turn creates a rebound insulin response that drops your sugar levels and creates sugar cravings. It is important to avoid all short chain carbohydrates in the form of wheat, sugar and high fructose corn syrup. These are unfortunately found in most convenient foods and it involves quite an effortto make a change from a convenience point of view. This means avoiding all sweats, cold drinks, chocolate, cakes, breads, biscuits, pastries, pizza and pasta. However there are many forms of wheat free breads and pasta that you can eat see step six. Replace wheat with rice, maize, oats, sorghum, quinoa, buckwheat and rye Wheat has become very convenient, because it is easily available and because of the processed white flour and the hybrid forms that we find in much of our food; it is easy to get sugar highs from wheat. White bread breaks down into glucose in our bloodstream, faster than white sugar does, which causes the insulin to spike and then plummet our blood sugar causing more storage as fat and increase both our appetite and cortisol rise. Long chain or complex carbohydrates take a longer time to get absorbed and thus enters the blood stream slower and does not cause an insulin spike. All the carbohydrates fro the above listed foods have a lower GI and thus are better for thesugar insulin and thus fertility balance. Xylitol as at this point the easiest and best way to substitute sugar. Increase your vegetable proteins Vegetable proteins in the form of lentils, soya , beans, legumes, sprouts and pulsars, are good sources protein than meat for fertility as they come with a lot more enzymes to aid he digestion and assimilation in our body. With the masses that need to be fed every day the production of tender, fast growing animal source of protein means that many meats sources are stimulated with or genetically bred to have high levels of steroid hormone, which is passed to us in the meat. These may have hormone disrupter interference with our hormones. Please also be aware of genetically modified grain too. Stop all Alcohol and coffee and other stimulant or a minimum of three weeks Alcohol and coffee have been associated with infertility for years, but anyone wanting to have them look s at friends who drink both and say” … but they have children and didn’tseem to bother them”. Although this is true for some we are being bombarded with a multitude of factors that combine from stress to bad diet, especially where a stress response in the body has become reliant on the Alcohol and coffee and as a stimulant or support to help maintain itself in an exhausted state. Alcohol and coffee are bad for both male and female fertility, and you won’t believe how much better you feel when you avoid them for at least 3 weeks, you won’t like them after that. Many people stopping coffee will notice some headaches, drink plenty of water during this time and the will be gone within a day. Smoking is just long in every way for your body and anyone living in our modern age of installation or the knowledge about its effects and still smokes need to take a serious look at their denial issues. I have one thing to say about ‘smoking want -to- be parents’: “your child does not want to become an early orphan, they would like to see the appearance grow up withthem.” Reduce your stress response, to your lifestyle This is far easier said than done, we all work too hard, don’t eat properly , don’t get enough sleep but still have to continue whether we are exhausted or not just because our jobs and life demand it. There are many things that you can do to take control, as mentioned above changing lifestyle and stress often involves a new diet change and trying to get more sleep. We have to at some point deal with the emotional state of our stress and how we interact in our life. When your body is well nourished, not seeking stimulants and you are not exhausted, there is no physical reason for your body to run on cortisol, which in turn makes interpretation of your day far less stressful and as a result we take on less irritation and frustration emotionally. You have to make a concerted effort, to see the positive in your day, and keep the daily record in the diary of how much you do actually accomplish. Rules: Be rational about how long itactually takes to get things done, therefore you don’t overcommit yourself. Be more self- honouring, see step 11 Find an activity or exercise that is fun and entertaining not just simply exercise because you feel you have to. See step 10 It is imperative that you find a hobby or interest there is yours that you can use as an escape from the demands of the day and something that you can use to motivate yourself to get through the less pleasant tasks, while you’re looking forward to getting to do the fun and exciting thing that is your escape. Meditation, yoga, your faith and fulfilling social time are all important things you can use to offset the negative drain. There are many natural supportive supplements and herbal medications that can assist in allowing you to have the physical and mental ability to cope with a high paced demanding lifestyle. Ferti-boost® does have a profound ability to reduce your stress response in your body making you energised but calm at the same time. Getregular consistent cardiovascular exercise except if you are exhausted Physical exercise has many great fertility enhancing benefits. However exercise is a little bit like a double edge sword; while it gives your body increased efficiency and function, it also has the ability to create a drain on valuable resources if you are currently exhausted. When you are in a stressed-out, exhausted phase exercise produces more cortisol to allow you to cope. Because cortisol reserves energy for the heart, brain and muscles in a crisis, any form of exercise is regarded as a high priority for shutting down resources to the rest of the body so that it can give them to the muscles. If you are one of those people who exercises intensely, often before or after work to give you that extra stamina you need to cope with the day, be warned you may potentially be driving your cortisol levels more than you are benefiting them. It is therefore important to find an activity that gives you a good cardiovascularstimulation and muscle workout and not a wipe-out. Learn to honour yourself in everything that you do Life is a journey in which we are constantly learning through trial and error. Every mistake we ever made is because we had insufficient knowledge of the outcome of our action. If we fully understood the outcome every single thing we attempted we would have the ability to choose right every time. But without this foresight, we are left with making some erroneous choices. These choices allow us to learn and make better choices in the future. Because of this fact we have to be more self -honouring and choose what is best for what we feel at the time, if at the time of choosing we are feeling positive about who we are and what we stand for, we are most likely going to make the best choice for our self and those around us. However if we are negative and critical of our self we are going to hand over our power to others to influence us and we are going to get into our fears and insecuritywhen we make a choices, and these are more often than not the incorrect ones. Rule one Be nice to yourself! Stop criticising yourself! And stop criticising yourself for having been critical about yourself in the past. Keep an emotional trophy cabinet of all the good things that you do achieve and integrate them into yourself! Only you can acknowledge yourself! No amount of praise and recognition from anybody else can have effects on you until you integrate them into yourself. Accept gifts both physical and emotional gracefully, because the giver has recognised that you are worthy of giving to, you must therefore acknowledge that you are worthy of receiving. Spoil yourself more! Reward yourself for all the good you achieve through constant praise and wonderful treats just for you. (Eating sweets and junk on a regular basis that you know is not good for you is not self-honouring.) Learn to diaphragm breathe Lie on your back; put one hand on your belly and the other on your chest. Whiletaking a breath the hand on your belly should move first and more than a hand on your chest. Practice doing this at least five minutes a day and before long it will become a natural habit or how you breathe. Shallow breathing causes you to blow off too much carbon dioxide, and although this may sound good it creates a problem with gas exchange. We cannot exchange available oxygen for carbon dioxide if we do not have carbon dioxide in the blood stream. This forces the body to have to wait for oxygen and create a deficiency in its availability to tissues. Breathing slowly and deeply using your diaphragm and not just your accessory respiratory muscles in your rib cage allows you to get optimal oxygenation that your body needs.
How Reproduction Works…
The healthy reproductive cycle
The normal reproductive cycle starts with the release GnRH from the hypothalamus which in turn stimulates Follicle Stimulating Hormone (FSH) release from the pituitary gland. FSH stimulate the follicle’s growth, and as it grows, its releases oestrogen. Oestrogen generates the uterus lining (the endometrium) and matures the follicle and the ovum.
Oestrogen is detected in the blood by the pituitary gland and the hypothalamus. Increased oestrogen levels inhibit the release of FSH by the pituitary gland. High levels of oestrogen on or around day 13 of the menstrual cycle cause the pituitary gland to release luteinizing hormone (LH), which causes ovulation on day 14.
Ovulation
Ovulation is the release of ovum from the follicle, which meets with the sperm in the fallopian tube where fertilisation takes place, to form the embryo.
The embryo travels through the fallopian tube to the uterus for 6 days, transforming into a blastocyst, while the endometrium is maturing under the influence of progesterone.
At ovulation the empty follicle becomes the corpus luteum. The corpus luteum manufactures progesterone, which is necessary for the endometrium’s maturation, and which prepares it for embryo implantation around day 20. If there is no fertilisation the corpus luteum dies around day 27, progesterone levels fall, which results in the shedding of the endometrium.
The treatment for male and female infertility
Ferti-boostTM is a Natural hormone-regulating and stimulating formula for the treatment of infertility. A month’s course, designed to be repeated over a three to six month period, takes the form of a packaged set of three medicines each for the male and the female. The products comprise a Homoeopathic formula (x2), a Chinese Herbal formula (x2) and a Western Herbal formula (x2).
What exactly is Homoeopathy?
Underlying all homeopathic practice is the belief that all human beings have a vital force that, once disrupted through poor dietary habits, stress or injury, becomes depleted and causes physical symptoms of disease to manifest.
This is a precise analogue of the Chinese concept of chi (qi or ki) and the Indian prana – and indeed homeopathic remedies replenish and encourage this vital force that is innate within the body, enabling the body to heal itself. The correct frequency of a substance is, therefore, capable of correcting the energetic (vital force) imbalance of the body, thus restoring health.
The founder of homeopathy, Dr Samuel Hahnemann, proposed the idea that the disease-inducing effects of medicines give the key to their healing power. This is the fundamental principle of homoeopathic prescription. “Let like substances cure like disease“.
- Any medicinal substance, food, poison or any other substance capable of evoking a disease response in the body, is capable of curing those symptoms if given in infinitesimal dose to a patient suffering with those exact symptoms.
Homoeopathic principles are not to be mistaken with herbalism or naturopathy:
- Herbs have a pharmacological action that is employed as a specific treatment for a specific condition.
- The naturopathic approach to treatment uses modification of diet, lifestyle and habits, which promote health.
Hahnemann laid down the basic tenets of homoeopathy in The Organon of Medicine:
The physician’s highest and only mission is to restore the sick to health, to cure, as it is termed. The highest ideal of cure is the rapid, gentle and permanent restoration of the health, or removal and annihilation of the disease in its whole extent, in the shortest, most reliable, and most harmless way,on easily comprehensible principles. If the physician clearly perceives what is to be cured in diseases…, if he clearly perceives what is curative in medicines…, and if he knows how to adapt, according to clearly defined principles, what is curative in medicines to what he has discovered to be undoubtedly morbid in the patient, so that recovery must ensue.
Chinese Medicine
Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is based upon the Eastern Concept of yin and yang, the two forces of the universe that are opposite but equal. Yin and yang permeate everything that is, including the human mind, body and spirit, and any imbalance manifests as disharmony – or disease. This effective form of medicine has been practiced by almost a quarter of the world’s population for more than 5000 years. TCM is a 5000-year old system, which is gaining popularity in the West. Evidence of TCM treating female and male infertility (link to infertility page) dates back to 11AD. In the context of reproductive health, TCM techniques have been proven to:
- Regulate the menstrual cycle
- Treat PMS
- Treat endometriosis
- Treat pelvic inflammatory disease
- Treat blocked fallopian tubes
- Treat certain causes of miscarriage
- Increase libido
- Raise sperm count, morphology and motility
Research has shown that TCM influences these hormonal pathways, and assist our own internal energies to restore endocrine (glandular) harmony. Five major meridians (energy channels) influence the internal organs to control the reproductive organs, and others affect the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis, which is responsible for ovulation and sperm production. They all need to be balanced for optimal functioning.
Chinese herbal medicine works on the whole system to support underlying deficiencies and remove obstructions or stagnation. Acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine function to restore balance to the five basic energies of nature contained within all of us. They are:
- FIRE – may be thought of as your body’s thermoregulatory (temperature control) centre and thyroid function.
Ferti-boost® Stimulating Male mechanism of action
Function and clinical use
• Increases sperm count • Sexual stamina • Muscle strength and stamina • Increased sperm motility • Improved potency • Mild Analgesic • Improves sperm morphology • Balances Testosterone : DHT • Improves T cell immunity • Increases testosterone levels • Improved sexual enjoyment and libido in woman • Fatigue mental exhaustion • Reduces cortisol levels • Immune stimulant • Improves fat metabolism • Increases DHEA • Building blocks for sperm • Antibody regulation • Regulates Androstenodione • Improves memory • Decreased serum lipid levels • Enhanced T4 toT3 conversion • Powerful antioxidant • Reduces back pain • Prostate health • Reduces sperm DNA fragmentation • Reduces sperm viscosity
Ferti-boost® Male Nourishing Mechanism of Action
Supporting the function of the adrenals, pancreas, digestive system, thyroid metabolism and liver ensuring a overall effect on all the systems involved in male fertility. The balance of kidney yin, yang and essence allows for healthy adrenal function providing support of the adrenals without stimulating the cortisol for energy. Allows for increased testosterone production.
- Male infertility
- Poor sperm count
- Motility
- Morphology and Viscosity
- Impotence
- Lower back pain
- Incontinence
- Premature ejaculation
- Adrenal burnout with fatigue
- Headaches
- Dizziness
Ferti-boost® Stimulating Female Mechanism of Action
- Irregular menses
- Oestrogen dominance
- Ovulation stimulation
- Tinnitus and blurred vision
- Prevents heavy clotted bleeds
- Improved nutrient supply to uterus and ovaries
- Reduces multiple follicle patterns
- Reduces oestrogen dominance
- Improve follicle growth
- Lowers FSH
- Luteal phase support
- Reduced period pain from endometrial congestion
- Eases cramping pain.
- Reduces Premenstrual irritability
- Reduces menstrual migraines
- Reduced premenstrual nausea
Ferti-boost® Male Nourishing Mechanism of Action
Supporting the function of the adrenals, pancreas, digestive system, thyroid metabolism and liver ensuring a overall effect on all the systems involved in male fertility. The balance of kidney yin, yang and essence allows for healthy adrenal function providing support of the adrenals without stimulating the cortisol for energy. Allows for increased testosterone production.
- Male infertility
- Poor sperm count
- Motility
- Morphology and Viscosity
- Impotence
- Lower back pain
- Incontinence
- Premature ejaculation
- Adrenal burnout with fatigue
- Headaches
- Dizziness
