Key to Fertility Nutrition
Did you know improving your eating habits can dramatically boost your chances of conceiving? Infertility affects about 10% of the population according to the American Society of Reproductive Medicine. Proper nutrition is a vital component of a healthy reproductive system. The right vitamins and minerals are essential to prepare your body for conception and play a significant role in your baby’s fetal development.
Inflammatory foods trigger root causes of female infertility including ovulatory disorders, irregular periods, PCOS, recurrent miscarriages, elevated blood sugar levels, insulin resistance, and hormonal imbalances. Research continues to prove that proper nutrition can mitigate these risk factors and set the stage for a healthy pregnancy.
Nutrition – The Key To Unlocking Fertility &Successful Conception
A natural fertility diet supports hormone balance and optimizes reproductive health. Your body needs specific nutrients to facilitate hormonal function, reduce inflammation, balance blood sugar, reduce cholesterol and help provide the building blocks for a healthy pregnancy and child.
Benefits Of Eating a Fertility Diet
- Promotes energy and vitality.
- Provides your body and reproductive system with vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and other nutrients necessary for pregnancy.
- Floods the body with antioxidants to prevent egg damage and preserve optimum sperm health.
- Facilitates natural hormonal balance by providing the core nutrients for hormone production and function.
- May help minimize the chances of a miscarriage due to insulin resistance.
The Way Forward
A natural fertility diet supports hormone balance and optimizes reproductive health. Your body needs specific nutrients to facilitate hormonal function, reduce inflammation, balance blood sugar, reduce cholesterol and help provide the building blocks for a healthy pregnancy and child.
An anti-inflammatory diet has 3 core pillars:
- Lean proteins: Focus on lean meats such as chicken, and turkey. Also, add fish for Omega-3 fatty acids. If you are vegan add beans, nuts, and seeds to get the required protein.
- Vegetables and seasonal fruits: Vegetables and low glycemic fruits are high in fiber and antioxidants. Not only will they keep you fuller but they also help your body rid itself of the toxins.
- Whole-grains: Focus on whole-grain options and minimize processed carbs such as bread and pasta.
How to get started?
While the internet is full of contradictory information on the best fertility diets, it is important to have a trusted resource to answer your questions and provide you with a roadmap. In our Key to Fertility workshop, you will receive guidance from an expert who will walk you through the entire transformation to make sure you are on track.
What to Expect From Key to Nutrition Workshop
The comprehensive 1 hour workshop will:
- Help you develop a deeper understanding of the role preconception nutrition plays in fertility for both men and women.
- Give you evidence-based, actionable steps to help prepare your body for pregnancy.
- Know how to optimize your weight for a healthy pregnancy
- Understand what foods to include and which to avoid in your journey to becoming pregnant
- Learn which supplements are key for supporting conception and prenatal health
Vaginal Microbiome & Its Impact
On Your Reproductive Health
Microbiome refers to all the microorganisms that exist within the human body including the reproductive organs.
There are 4 bacterial groups that reside in the vagina. 3 of these, especially lactobacillus are responsible for maintaining normal PH levels within the vagina and your overall vaginal health. When there is a lactobacillus shortage, it disrupts the bacterial ecosystem within the vagina.
This can lead to several health conditions that may significantly reduce your chances of conception. They include urinary tract infection, cervix uterus, and fallopian tubes complications. These infections are directly linked to pelvic inflammatory disease, miscarriages, premature birth, premature rupture of the fetal membrane, and uterine infection during and after delivery.
How Can Probiotics Help With Fertility?
Probiotics are live bacteria and yeasts with possible benefits for your digestive and vaginal health. These useful bacteria facilitate several key metabolic processes, such as digestion, a boost in vitamin and mineral uptake, immune system regulation, and protection against pathogens – organisms that may lead to disease.
All of these functions have a direct or indirect impact on your fertility. For instance, a robust digestion process and proper mineral absorption will help the body to carry out important chemical reactions crucial to balancing our hormones, thus leading to a higher chance of pregnancy.
The Importance Of Normal Vaginal PH And How To Maintain It
A normal vaginal PH hovers between 3.8 and 4.5, which is somewhat acidic. An acidic vaginal environment acts as a protective shield that significantly reduces infection risk preventing harmful bacteria from multiplying too quickly.
A vaginal PH level beyond 4.5 makes it easy for these pathogens to grow. Having a high vaginal pH puts you at risk for infections such as Bacterial vaginosis (BV), which can negatively affect your fertility chances.
Here’s how you can maintain a healthy vaginal PH:
- Use contraception during sex: Semen is alkaline and can disrupt your vaginal PH, using a condom will help prevent that and also keep STDs at bay
- Avoid douching: Quite a few women wash out their vagina with a mixture of water and vinegar, baking soda, or iodine. Avoid doing so – It can abnormally raise your vaginal PH. All you need to do is use mild soap and water while you shower. ·
- Take probiotics: Supplementing with probiotics can help restore the balance of healthy bacteria to your system.
How Stress Impacts Your Chances Of Pregnancy?
Research has shown that unchecked stress can severally disrupt your body’s hormonal balance and reproductive organs, therefore may directly lead to infertility. importantly, hormonal imbalance can be equally damaging to those trying to conceive on their own or going through fertility treatments such as IVF.
This kick-starts a cycle where stress and infertility feed off of each other, spiraling out of control and making it more difficult for you to conceive.
That said, essential oils can help you manage chronic stress and boost fertility. You can either use individual oils or an essential oil blend, such as Fertility Balance, which provides an optimal ratio of active ingredients to help reduce stress, improve reproductive health and fertility.However, steer clearof fragrance oils. They are not essential oils and do not offer health benefits.
What Are Essential Oils?
They are concentrated oils extracted from plants. The oils capture the essence of the plant i.e. their scent and flavor. The natural aromatic compounds found in the plants’ leaves, seeds, bark, roots, and flowers give each essential oil its unique aromatic character. They are extracted either through water or steam distillation or cold pressing.
Can Essential Oils Boost Fertility?
Experts believe there are 4 main ways essential oils can aid in boosting fertility.
- Stress Reduction: Lavender is one of the most popular essential oils widely used for its healing effects. It could help lower cortisol levels thus helping you stay calm. It may also help improve your sleep quality leaving you well-rested and energized.
- Gut Microbiome Support: Your digestive health plays an important role in maintaining fertility. Essential oils help promote the multiplication of beneficial bacteria and other useful microorganisms within your gut, keeping it functioning properly.
- Hormonal Balance: A hormonal imbalance can disrupt ovulation and lead to female infertility. Conditions such as polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) are often a result of hormonal imbalance. Including essential oils in your routine may help correct these imbalances. Clary sage oil may be beneficial for this purpose.
Which Essential Oils To Use?
That’s a valid question. Instead of using any particular essential oil, using a blend of fertility-boosting essential oils such as Fertility Balance, that may help you get better results with respect to fertility and overall health. It uses a carefully calibrated formula of several fertility-improving ingredients such as: 1-
- Lavender Oil: It is known for various benefits for female reproductive health. It can be effective during menopause and may reduce stress, anxiety and depression that often occur through a fertility journey and calm you down by regulating the hormonal cycle. Research shows it may help lower cortisol levels – the human body’s stress hormone. Lavender Oil is also known to improve sleep quality, meaning you’ll feel rested and energized throughout your day.
- Neroli-Petitgrain Oil: Both Neroli and Petitgrain essential oils may help improve your overall health. In addition to improving joint health, they may facilitate a balanced monthly cycle for women.
- Rose Geranium Oil: It may help support your adrenal system, which regulates your metabolism, immune system, and response to stress. It soothes you down and improves your mood. It may also boost libido by promoting sensual feelings. According to a study published in 2017, geranium and rose may help raise estrogen levels in women experiencing menopausal symptoms, which impact a woman’s ability to conceive naturally.
- Clary Sage Oil: Is known as the woman's oil. In addition to stress reduction, it offers many health benefits such as reduction in muscle spasms, pain, and inflammation. It may also boost your sexual wellness and libido along with strengthening the immune system and minimizing the effect of harmful bacteria.
- Sandalwood Nut Oil: It is rich in Ximenynic acid, which helps in reducing inflammation and also improves blood flow to vital organs. Also, it is full of antioxidants, which may strengthen your hair and give you healthier, more vibrant skin. According to a 2014 study, the active compounds in sandalwood may lower inflammation markers in the body called cytokines.
A Healthier Lymphatic System
Equals A Stronger, More Fertile You!
Lymphatic system is the backbone of your immune system and works like a “cleaning system” to rid your body of toxins and waste. The tonsils, adenoids, spleen, liver, and thymus make up the lymphatic system.
We constantly come into contact with harmful chemicals; this can throw off our lymphatic system and cause several health conditions such as infertility, chronic inflammation, allergies, and hormone imbalances – all of these can dramatically reduce your probability of attaining pregnancy.
By resetting your lymphatic system, you may see a measurable improvement in your overall health plus you will be giving your body the best chance of success with fertility treatment.
Moreover, an optimal functioning lymphatic system enables efficient lymph node function thereby giving your immune system a boost. Lymph nodes are hundreds of small bean-shaped structures found within the human body. They help it fight infection by filtering out toxins from the lymphatic fluid and carrying around white blood cells.
What Can You Do To Facilitate Peak Lymphatic Function?
There are several easy-to-follow ways to reset your lymphatic system:
- Stay Hydrated: Make sure you’re drinking enough water; it makes it easier for your body to get rid of toxins. Aim to consume 8 glasses a day. If plain water becomes too boring add a wedge of cucumber to it. You can also use add-ons for your water such as Hydrate, which gives it an electrolyte boost and it makes it taste great. ·
- Steer Away From Tight Clothes: Overly tight clothing restricts blood circulation within the lymphatic system. A blocked lymphatic system facilitates continuous toxin buildup.
- Watch Your Nutrition: Adding raw and nutrient-rich foods to your daily meals will ensure a healthy lymphatic system and enhance its ability to eliminate toxins. Consider adding, leafy green vegetables, nuts, low-sugar fruits, chia seeds, and avocados.
- Supplementation: In addition to the above tips, incorporate Lymph Balance which is a natural supplement that helps reset and fine-tune your lymphatic system.
Oxidative Stress & Its Impact On Your Fertility
Oxidative stress is a condition that occurs due to an imbalance between free radicals and the antioxidants required to neutralize them. Put simply, free radicals are unstable molecules that cause cellular and tissue damage. In addition to speeding up the body's aging process, it can significantly increase your chances of becoming infertile.
Excessive generation of free radicals fosters an environment that is not ideal for normal female physiological reactions. This can often lead to several reproductive complications such as PCOS, Endometriosis, unexplained female infertility, miscarriage, recurrent respiratory loss (RPL), preeclampsia, and intrauterine growth restriction.
Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) – The Key To Preventing Oxidative Stress
Commonly known as CoQ10, it is an antioxidant our body naturally produces. CoQ10 plays a critical role in producing the energy our cells need to function properly. Secondly, it is vital for reducing oxidative stress because it blunts the effect of excessive free radicals.
Moreover, CoQ10 can help improve egg quality. A significant amount of energy is needed for egg maturation, fertilization, and embryonic cell division. When there is inefficient cellular energy production due to oxidative stress, it can lower egg quality. However, boosting your CoQ10 intake improves energy production thereby improving egg quality and the probability of successful IVF cycles and conception.
Easy Ways To Reduce Oxidative Stress
Small yet consistent lifestyle changes can help stop oxidative stress in its tracks and improve your chances of a healthier, stress-free pregnancy. Use the following hacks to keep oxidative damage at bay:
- Minimize sugar & processed foods: Processed foods are usually full of sugar and when the body is loaded with more sugar than it can handle, this leads to excessive oxidation thereby increased oxidative stress.
- Stay active: Exercise 4-5 times a week and if you can, complement this with regular sauna sessions and Epsom salt baths – the constant activity keeps your body's detoxification process in overdrive thereby strengthening your body's natural elimination pathways.
- Supplementation: In addition to the above tips, incorporating natural supplements containing CoQ10 such as Ova Balance can help boost the production of antioxidants thus preventing oxidative stress.
Inflammation – Published research tells us inflammation is responsible for infertility in up to 30% of women in the US.
So what exactly is inflammation & how can it affect your chances of pregnancy?
Inflammation is the human body’s natural reaction to injury, infection or illness. However, prolonged inflammation can lead to several conditions that may negatively impact your ability to conceive. They include endometriosis, PCOS, implantation failure and frequent miscarriage. Moreover, elevated inflammation and oxidative stress may negatively affect egg quality and reproductive organ health, reducing fertilization and conception rates. To make matters worse, chronic inflammation can cause severe uterine lining dysfunction. It can compromise your uterine lining’s ability to facilitate egg implantation thus putting a stop to further embryo development and increasing the probability of pregnancy loss.
Omega-3 – The Key To Counter Chronic Inflammation & Boosting Fertility
There are 2 types of essential fatty acids (EFAs), omega-3 and omega-6. Both are essential to our health. Omega-6 fats facilitate a pro-inflammatory response, while omega-3s have an anti-inflammatory response.
Vital Health Benefits of Omega-3 Fatty Acids:
- Reduced Inflammation*
- Promotes fetal brain development*
- Lower risk of premature labor*
- Lowering insulin resistance*
- Lower risk of diabetes*
- Lower risk of heart disease
- Anti-inflammatory benefits, reduces arthritis symptoms*
- Reduced triglycerides count (bad cholesterol)*
- Weight Loss*
- Improved gastric function (Improved Crohn’s disease symptoms) *
- Improved vascular function*
- Reduced risk of coronary artery disease*
- Improved depression symptoms*
How Much Do You Need?
It is crucial to maintain a 3:1 ratio between the two. This balance is important to prevent prolonged inflammation and more importantly to maintain your fertility. Most Americans suffer from an omega-3 deficiency due to excessive omega-6 in the diet, leaving them prone to chronic inflammation, which negatively impacts your fertility and eventually may decrease your chances to conceive.
The Easiest Ways to boost your omega-3 intake
- Add Omega-3 rich foods to your diet: They include fatty fish like salmon, mackerel, trout, anchovies, tuna, and sardines, nuts, and perilla.
- Supplement: You can also use an Omega-3 supplement to boost your intake. However, not all Omega-3 supplements are created equal! In addition to using a reputable brand, you must ensure the supplement provides the correct Omega-3 to Omega-6 ratio like found in our Vitagenis OmgeaPure.
- You can also use an Omega-3 supplement to boost your intake. Finally, while raising your omega-3 intake, you must also make an effort to lower your omega-6 intake. You can do that by minimizing the use of processed seed & vegetable cooking oils such as corn, safflower, and sunflower oils.
Fertility Mind Body Program
80% INCREASED RISK OF STILLBIRTH – THAT is what stress can do to your chances of becoming a parent.
If you have been trying to conceive for over 6 months without success, experienced a sudden weight gain or have gone through the painful experience of a miscarriage, stress is likely one of the underlying causes.
Here’s How Stress Can Wreak Havoc With Your Chances Of Pregnancy
Chronic stress can affect your entire body. Let’s take a closer look at how it affects fertility:
- When you experience stressed, your body goes into "fight or flight" mode, ramping up release of cortisol, the primary stress hormone. If this goes on for longer than it should, your body triggers hyper-inflammatory response, which often results in infertility.
- Prolonged stress can weaken your immune system. This can increase the likelihood of your uterus getting an infection thereby ceasing embryo development and may also cause premature birth.
- It negatively impacts your sleeping and eating habits, both leading to unwanted weight gain or loss. You may also body aches and stress can intensify the effect of morning sickness. ·
- Stress may cause raise your blood pressure during pregnancy. This may lead to a serious high blood pressure condition called preeclampsia, premature birth and having a low-birth weight infant.
- And doesn’t end there, chronic stress may also affect the way your baby’s brain develops. While more research is needed, these differences may cause behavioral issues as the baby grows.
Defeating Stress Is EASIER Than You Think!
There are proven techniques and counseling and guidance avenues that can help you take control and overcome the underlying factors that are causing unwanted anxiety and stress. Disciplines such as meditation, mindfulness, and acupuncture can make it significantly easier to counter stress, just to mention a few.
A study undertaken in 2011 shows us that adopting mind/body practices can significantly improve IVF success rates. 52% of the women who leveraged these techniques experienced positive IVF outcomes as compared to only 20% women who did not.
Most importantly, recognizing that you need help and consciously seeking guidance will put you on a clear path to recovery, mental peace and conception.
What to Expect From Fertile Mind & Body Program by Lisanne Wellness Centre
The comprehensive 6-week program will:
- Help you will acquire mastery of the core meditation pillars, which will not only improve your fertility but also enable you to achieve a more fertile hormonal state, and achieve the inner balance that is so crucial in maintaining composure while going through fertility treatments, as well as within the challenges and hustle of daily life.
- Explain how you can take control of a scattered mind by practicing mindfulness. You will be able to effortlessly focus on the present moment and acknowledge your true feelings. This will help you keep your thought process present and organized, and prevent negativity or fearful neuro-patterning from wreaking havoc with your peace of mind.
- Educate you on the importance using journaling techniques for calming your mind, increasing your clarity and mental wellness. You will experience how effective journaling is when it comes to acknowledging and making peace with your thoughts, feelings and past experiences.
- Will teach you how to listen to your body. You will develop a deeper understanding of the physical and mental cues your body gives you every day and how honor them to create the perfect “inner environment” to attain optimum fertility.
- Help you see yourself in a positive light, ignite the positivity-guru within, and understand how self compassion is your power tool. You will be able to reset your mindset process and get rid of the self-defeating feelings holding you back.
- Will teach you about the importance of setting realistic and attainable goals about your well-being. In addition to projecting an actionable roadmap you will learn the fundamentals of monitoring your progress and adjusting along the way.
Path To Pregnancy Is EASIER With A
Timely Fertility Cleanse
Infertility makes it quite challenging to attain pregnancy. However, one of the best things you can do to prepare your body for conception is carrying out a fertility cleanse. In addition to eliminating toxins from your body, it is known to restore your reproductive organs to their healthiest and maximizes the probability of pregnancy.
A cleanse is often complemented by an easy-to-follow elimination nutrition plan. The elimination nutrition plan in combination with a cleanse is designed to help lower inflammation. In addition, it will help regulate your blood sugar and replenish the core nutrients your body needs for optimum function and enable it to fend off excessive inflammation.
Let’s take a closer look at why you need a cleanse, what to expect once you start and how the treatment may help you on your path to parenthood:
- Revitalizes The Uterus & Facilitates Embryo Development
The core function of the uterus is to nourish, nurture and house a fertilized egg throughout its development until the baby is ready to be delivered.
During each cycle, the uterus is supposed to release the lining that was built the month before for the embryo to implant. At times, the uterus is not completely cleansed during the cycle, so old stagnant blood remains. As you can imagine, this is not the best environment to house a new embryo, often leading to infertility issues, PCOS, and painful periods.
A timely fertility cleanse can help flush out stagnant blood and replenishes the uterus with fresh, clean blood thus facilitating proper embryo nourishment and creating an ideal environment for the embryo to flourish.
- Cleans Out The Lymphatic System
The Lymphatic system is the backbone of your immune system and works like a “cleaning system” to rid your body of toxins and waste. The tonsils, adenoids, spleen, liver, and thymus make up the lymphatic system.
We constantly come into contact with harmful chemicals; this can throw off our lymphatic system and cause several health conditions such as infertility, chronic inflammation, allergies and hormone imbalances – all of these can dramatically reduce your probability of attaining pregnancy. Cleansing promotes lymphatic drainage thus significantly enhancing your body’s ability to filter out toxins.
- It Facilitates Optimum Liver Function
The liver is responsible for eliminating toxins and maintaining hormonal balance within our body. Excess hormones can clog the liver and compromise its ability to filter out toxins, which can ultimately lead to infertility. Poor lifestyle and nutritional choices also play a part in reducing your liver’s effectiveness. This at times, warrants external stimulation such as a 2 to 4-week cleanse, which can help remove these toxins and improve your chances of conception.
Nitric Oxide and Female Infertility
Commonly used by athletes for enhanced muscular performance and men to treat erectile dysfunction, nitric oxide is now being leveraged as a tool to help women achieve conception. Our body naturally produces Nitric oxide through the oxidation of the amino acid L-Arginine.
Nitric oxide could be beneficial especially for older women trying to conceive. In a study, published in the journal Biochemistry, researchers studied its impact in mice. They took a sample of 1,500 eggs immediately after ovulation and exposed them to nitric oxide.
They believe that the outer shells of the eggs took longer to harden after the exposure and that nitric oxide blunts the effects of aging of ageing on their ovaries, which could negatively impact fertilization. Researchers also believe that that nitric oxide may protect against spontaneous miscarriages and genetic abnormalities during early embryo development in older women.
Here’s a closer look at other Nitric Oxide benefits:
- Nitric oxide facilitates vasodilation i.e. better circulation to organs including the reproductive system.
- The increased increase blood flow can improve ovarian response and stimulation in cases of poor ovarian reserve or in poor ovarian responders.
- Helps the body produce cervical fluids needed to conceive e.g. cervical mucus, which is essential to carry the sperm to the egg.
- Nitric oxide may boost the chances of a successful IVF cycle because it enhances fertility of harvested eggs.
- It can boost yours and your partner’s sexual drive.
- It improves blood flow to the uterine cavity, which can help in implantation after embryo transfer.
Disclaimer: While our customers have reported experiencing these benefits but they are not verified by the FDA. Always consult a medical doctor before modifying your diet, using any new product, drug, supplement, or doing any new exercises.
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