LifeCare Chiropractic

The Best Chiropractic Care in Mesa, Arizona

assisted reproductive technologies

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…

SURPRISING PROBLEM WITH FERTILITY TREATMENTS

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The number of couples using assisted reproduction techniques (ART) continues to go up.  The problem is that, in most cases, the reason the couple cannot get pregnant is lifestyle.  While they exist, few represent true problems with the ability to reproduce, vs the ability to reproduce RIGHT NOW.

As an example, polycystic ovarian syndrome accounts for a large proportion of the cases of infertility.  This is strongly associated with being prediabetic.  To do the right thing, you address the prediabetic lifestyle in order to allow pregnancy to occur.  Trying to force a pregnancy on a body that is not ready for it can lead to problems.  It’s just really, really not a good idea to mess with Mother Nature in this way.

To understand this current article, we need to understand a process called methylation, which uses factors such as folic acid and B12 to put “marks” onto regions of DNA to turn them on or off.  This allows liver cell DNA, which contains all the information to perform the functions of every other type of cell, to only do “liver” stuff and not “brain” stuff.

This process also occurs in our reproductive cells (sperm and oocyte), where methylation is turned on and off at critical points in the transition from production of the reproductive cells to fertilization to the time spent in the womb.  This process can be called “imprinting” in that it allows messages not contained in the DNA to be passed on to the next generation.

The problem with certain ART procedures is that they may grab these cells at the inappropriate times when the methylation “imprinting” is not present.  Thus, adaptive traits that may protect the newborn may be lost.

While this concept is evolving, I can’t see that the outcome is a good thing, and may be one of the reasons why we see increased risk of preterm labor as well as increased risk of chronic diseases such as obesity, heart disease and diabetes in children conceived through ART.

Let me give a good example.  Had a couple as patients a few years back.  Somehow the topic came up of pregnancy in an office visit and there was obvious tension between the two.  Turns out that they had been trying and her OB was pushing her towards ART.  Well, we did a diet history, made some changes and put her on a high quality prenatal.  Two months later I had a thank you card delivered to me and some 8 months later their little daughter was born.

Had this couple gone through ART, it is impossible to say if the outcome would have been different.  But the bottom line is that ART was NOT what was needed.  Lifestyle was what was needed.

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