LifeCare Chiropractic

The Best Chiropractic Care in Mesa, Arizona

Healthy Pregnancy

BEFORE YOU TRY IVF TO GET PREGNANT, KNOW THIS

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Infertility is a rising problem in today’s unwell society.  Billions are spent per year by desperate couples in an attempt to have a child.  I can honestly say that never, in all my years of practice, has a couple come in who has seen a fertility “specialist” and the discussion included lifestyle changes.  This is abhorrent.

First, let’s get one thing straight.  Scrap Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs–as an organism on this planet our only job is to reproduce and propagate the species.  What does that say when a couple cannot get pregnant?  How much is the couple’s (and NOT just the woman..) physiology screaming for help, basically saying that things are too screwed up right now and we can’t handle the metabolic demands of a pregnancy?

So we just ignore that warning, collect billions of dollars from patients, and use chemicals and exogenous hormones to force pregnancy on a couple that clearly is not ready for it from a health standpoint.  This is shameful from the point of the “specialists”  (sorry for the continued quotation marks, but it just fits).  These providers have a very captive audience that is likely willing to make every change necessary to get pregnant, and yet they miss one of the most valuable opportunities to improve health, viewing the achievement of pregnancy as the prize rather than the result.

Don’t get me wrong–true infertility does exist.  Personally I remember only a single patient who, arguably, was a good candidate for fertility treatments because her lifestyle was close to optimal (although we never evaluated the ultimate topic of this post–more on this later).

So, what things can a couple do to achieve pregnancy naturally?

  1.  Plant based diets (rather than animal based diets) improve fertility
  2. A prediabetic diet is the best approach for PCOS
  3. PCBs can interfere with fertility
  4. Lower cardiovascular risk factors (cholesterol, triglycerides, etc…)

It is very, very clear that making better lifestyle decisions will improve a couples chance of getting pregnant.  The lifestyle factors such as diet, exercise and not smoking are clear and most couples can understand and the decision to make these changes is in their hands.

However, less clear is avoiding toxic exposures that are known to impact pregnancy rates.  PCBs were already mentioned above.  Let me give a quick story..

I was opening a new account at a local bank.  Upon entering, I noticed a strong “new shower curtain” smell, which is due to offgassing of phthales from certain materials.  In this case, it was likely the carpeting.  I then asked if this was new carpeting, and was informed by my female banker that it was at least a year old.  Seeing a wedding picture on her desk, I told her that, breathing this stuff 8 hours per day for the past year (and likely for a very long time in the future) was a concern.  I mentioned that, if she ever planned on getting pregnant, she should consider not working here (ok..so it was a little invasive of me to offer this advice, but I just couldn’t stop myself..).

This particular article supports my recommendations to this banker.  What did researchers find?

By looking at levels of MEHP (a phthalate metabolite), they found that, in women with the highest levels, they had FOUR THOUSAND percent greater risk of an early pregnancy loss. 

4,000%.  Again, I would ask those couples spending thousands on “fertility” experts are getting lifestyle advice such as avoiding phthalates.  If not, I would ask for my money back…

HOW VITAMIN D SUPPLEMENTATION GIVEN TO OBESE PREGNANT WOMAN PAY-OFF? – (03-17-08)

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Prepregnancy Obesity Predicts Poor Vitamin D Status in Mothers and Their Neonates

A pregnant woman who is overweight has a high likelihood of preprogramming the developing fetus for heart disease, diabetes and certain types of cancer in that child’s adult life. This is a serious concern all by itself. To find that, on top of this, obesity predicts that the mother will also be low in Vit D status and pass that onto her newborn child is nothing short of disastrous.

Luckily, this situation is very correctable, but the responsibility should lie with the OB managing the patient. Vitamin D supplementation is very safe, inexpensive and has massive payoffs when given to the mom a month or so before delivery.

Read entire article here

PREGNANCY BLOOD PRESSURE AND DIABETES – CAUSE FOR MASSIVE CONCERN

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Every pregnant woman knows she needs to watch her blood pressure and sugar levels during pregnancy. It’s not too uncommon for a pregnant patient to come into my office and state that she had blood pressure or sugar problems.  Or for a patient to have experienced these while pregnant in the past. They make changes and the problem goes away.  Or so we think…

I have found that patients are not fully educated on just how much these two conditions during pregnancy actually affect their risk for diabetes later in life. Many are told that they need to be careful and the discussion ends there.

However, we already know that, in the presence of obesity during pregnancy and a diagnosis of gestational diabetes (GDM), the chance of developing diabetes later in life goes beyond massive to almost a sure thing. A 3 pack a day cigarette smoker is less likely to develop lung cancer and heart disease than this pregnant woman developing diabetes. To be exact, this obese, pregnant patient diagnosed with GDM has a 4700% chance of becoming diabetic later in life.

This particular article looks at the relationship between high blood pressure during pregnancy and later development of diabetes and finds the connections just as disturbing. In pregnant women who had experienced hypertension during their pregnancy, the later risk of developing diabetes was 508% higher.  Interestingly, when they looked at the combination of hypertension, elevated cholesterol and obesity, the risk for progression to diabetes was again staggering–3950% higher risk. Maybe not as high as the previously mentioned study, but lets face it–anything over DOUBLE (200%) is bad enough.

When it comes to diabetes, nothing is set in stone, but clearly in these situations pretty dramatic lifestyle changes are required. Without these changes, diabetes is imminent.  If you had problems during your pregnancy, you will need to forever be vigilant with your lifestyle to avoid the development of diabetes.

INCREASING IMMUNE FACTORS IN CORD BLOOD AND BREAST MILK – (09-01-09)

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Supplementation with Lactobacillus rhamnosus or Bifidobacterium lactis probiotics in pregnancy increases immune factors in cord blood and breast milk.

Just in case the previous article didn’t convince you…let’s add this one.

Read entire article here

IMPACT OF MATERNAL ATOPY AND PROBIOTIC SUPPLEMENTATION – (05-18-09)

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Impact of maternal atopy and probiotic supplementation during pregnancy on infant sensitization

A few comments here, beginning with my decade long frustration about medicine’s refusal to accept normal, protective flora as being important. We destroy it only in infancy with antibiotics, with never a thought as to the physiological ramifications of this approach.

In this study, the authors used probiotics in mothers who were allergy-prone (which meant that their infant, as well, would be allergy prone) and nursing to lower the risk in the infants for developing allergies. This likely occurs through 2 mechanisms–one with the modulation of the mom’s own immune status, and two, but direct translocation of the bacteria from the gut into breast milk. Couple this with findings of greatly reduced allergies and asthma in infants whose mothers took in higher levels of EFAs and we would see a drastic reduction in the prevalence of this chronic condition.

Read entire article here

CESAREAN DELIVERY MAY AFFECT THE EARLY BIODIVERSITY OF INTESTINAL BACTERIA (5-11-09)

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Cesarean Delivery May Affect the Early Biodiversity of Intestinal Bacteria

Regular readers of Updates will confirm how much I rant and rave about the critical importance of normal, healthy bacterial flora in our newborns, infants and toddlers. Words alone are inadequate at explaining just how important this is to healthy, balanced development of our immune system and gut ecology.

Because of this, importance of the pregnant mom’s vaginal flora (has she ever been on antibiotics?), the route of delivery (C-section or vaginal) and has the child ever received antibiotics without replacing the normal flora w/ probiotics? This study again confirms that birth by C-section alters the normal flora that is supposed to be present.

Read entire article here

CAN PLASTIC HARM YOUR DEVELOPING BABY?

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CAN PLASTIC HARM YOUR DEVELOPING BABY? The answer is really looking like a strong “yes.” Bisphenol A, or BPA, is a chemical used in making plastics that has long been known to disrupt hormones, and has recently been shown to make changes to the way genes are expressed in the offspring of exposed mothers. It’s known …to increase the risk of diabetes and thyroid problems. Up until recently, we’ve thought that the placenta filtered out much of the chemicals we are exposed to.

Not true, as this article further confirms. Even the EPA has finally admitted it’s not good for us, but it’s now too ubiquitous in industry to do anything about it. It’s up to the individual to avoid plastics as much as possible (stop this crazy idea of lugging a plastic water bottle around with you everywhere you go!!!).

Read entire article here.

CAN ANTIBIOTICS INCREASE THE RISK OF PRETERM BIRTH?

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CAN ANTIBIOTICS INCREASE THE RISK OF PRETERM BIRTH?  It has been well established that inflammation in the vaginal vault during a pregnancy can increase the risk of a preterm birth.  One of the factors that can contribute to inflammation is bacterial vaginosis (dysruption of the normal bacterial flora), which can be brought about by destruction of the normal vaginal flora with antibiotics.

So the answer is yes–antibiotics taken by a woman before or during pregnancy can increase the risk of preterm birth, as well as leave the as-yet-unborn infant without the right bacteria to jump start their immune system.  The good thing is that the answer can be as simple as replacing normal flora via oral supplementation or via douching.  Or just avoiding antibiotics in the first place (unless absolutely necessary).

Read entire article here.