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Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
Alisa Vitti
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February 25 - March 12, 2021
When you wait too long to eat between meals, your body goes into starvation mode and is more likely to store glucose as fat at your next meal. A short bout of exercise will help your muscles burn some of the glucose for fuel to reduce the total amount of sugar in your bloodstream.
Avoid stressing your body out with the influx of sugar and minimize your body’s physical response to food sensitivities (such as those to the gluten found in wheat). In addition, keep your bowels moving to remove all of these processed food substances, which threaten to slow down transit time and potentially increase estrogen in your bloodstream.
In the evening, shut off all stimulation, including TV, computer, cell phone, and tablet, by 10 P.M. Getting adequate sleep will help calm your overactive adrenals.
Take a hatha yoga class (nothing heated or too intense). This will calm your adrenals, which are dealing with a lot of internal stress. The twists involved in yoga also help detoxify your internal organs to prevent a backup of estrogen.
Immediately burn the glucose for fuel, prevent dehydration (due to excess carb intake) while you’re sleeping, and increase the transit time through your system.
when you’re in an unfamiliar environment, your brain is primed for forming the neural pathways that are associated with imprinting new behaviors.
Dairy is a loaded with estrogen. It contains 60 to 80 percent of the estrogen consumed in the American diet. What’s more, cows on most modern dairy farms are pregnant nearly year-round, and milk from a knocked-up cow contains about 33 percent more of a certain kind of estrogen that can affect the human body than milk from cows that aren’t pregnant.
Estrogen has growth-stimulating effects in your body ( just as it causes us to grow and mature in puberty), and these can make the excess tissue growth you’re already experiencing with fibroids and endometriosis even worse.
Casein (the indigestible portion of dairy) and gluten (the indigestible portion of wheat) elicit an inflammatory response in the small intestine, whether or not you’re allergic to them.
Both dairy and wheat tend to slow transit time through the large intestine. This increases estrogen dominance, because your body can’t clear that hormone out of your system quickly enough. When you’re not going to the bathroom regularly, estrogen permeates the lining of the large intestine and makes its way back into your bloodstream, leading to an excess of estrogen in your body.
Everything in our environment, including what we put on and into our bodies, has the potential to disrupt our fertility.
And it should be easy—except for the fact that we live in a complicated world where we believe getting ahead comes at the expense of our bodies.
Inflammation has been well-established as an obstacle to successful conception, whether by natural means or by IVF methods.
Observing the luteal phase of your cycle is key for you to most easily understand how prepared your progesterone levels are to sustain a pregnancy in those critical first few weeks.
Remember that chronic mild constipation can exacerbate estrogen dominance, while IBS with diarrhea can lead to small intestine inflammation that blocks key nutrient absorption.
Skin inflammation means liver congestion and congestion will lead to compromised ability to metabolize estrogen and that will throw off that ideal hormonal ratio for baby.
When trying to conceive, pay extra attention to this, making sure you are:
incorporating sprouted and fermented foods during the follicular phase to deliver as many bioavailable nutrients as possible to the ovary
consuming the majority of your fruits and vegetables raw during ovulation to up egg-boosting glutathione levels
eating liver-supportive sweet root vegetables, like sweet potatoes, and leafy greens from the brassica family, like kale, during the luteal phase to make sure you are eliminating estrogen efficiently and keeping an optimal ratio of estrogen and progesterone for pregnancy maintenance
replenish your minerals during your menstrual phase by consuming sea vegetables, avocados, and/or some free-range animal protein to deeply nourish your endocrine system for the next cycle
From a physical standpoint, shifting your life to make space for a pregnancy and a baby is crucial for conception because shifting your life means slowing down. And when you slow down, you send a signal to your endocrine system (the HPA axis, in particular) that there’s no physical threat to your well-being and that your body is in prime condition for a developing fetus to thrive.
One recent study found that women store omega-3 fatty acids in the fat tissue of our hips and thighs that a fetus depends on while developing in utero. So long before you become pregnant, your diet is crucial for creating an optimal environment for a baby. Since your body can’t manufacture omega-3s on its own, those nutrients have to come from the food that we eat.
Another recent study found that curcumin, the active ingredient in the spice turmeric, is a powerful anti-inflammatory. Inflammation can compromise the genetic material of your eggs, so consuming turmeric in your diet can protect this genetic material, increase blood flow to the ovaries, thus keeping them healthier, and improve the chances of conceiving and of maintaining a healthy pregnancy.
Another study, in Denmark, found that drinking more than five cups of coffee per day reduced women’s chances of becoming pregnant with IVF treatment by about 50 percent compared with women who didn’t drink any coffee at all. This doesn’t surprise me, since excess caffeine can alter blood sugar, overstimulate the adrenals, and affect elimination, all which disrupt your hormonal balance.
Earlier, you learned that it’s helpful for conception that your hypothalamus and pituitary gland must receive the all-clear message from your adrenals that there’s no threat to your well-being. However, if you’re eating a nutrient-deprived diet, your adrenals register this as a form of internal stress, and this response can signal to the brain that this might not be an ideal time for pregnancy for you or baby.
When stress is high, your cortisol levels rise and production of the hormone DHEA—a hormone from which many other hormones, including progesterone and estrogen, are created—drops. In effect, then, internal stress prevents the optimal hormonal environment for conceiving and maintaining a pregnancy.
Fill your daily diet with these foods, which contain a variety of fertility-fueling nutrients:
Buckwheat. This grain is rich in the compound d-chiro-inositol, which has been proven to drop insulin and testosterone levels and increase rates of ovulation, thereby improving fertility.
Leafy greens. Spinach, kale, collards, and escarole, among many others, are high in folic acid, which is essential for healthy ovaries and reduces the risk of spinal cord or brain defects in infants. They are also rich in vitamin E, magnesium, and calcium, which promote menstrual cycle health.
Chickpeas. Just one serving of this legume can maintain proper B6 levels, which are essential for the production of healthy progesterone levels for conception, as well as improving sperm and egg development.
Honey. All honey, but especially bee pollen and royal jelly—the queen bee’s favorite dish—is a nutrient-rich compound with many features. While being fed royal jelly by the worker bees, queen bees lay up to two thousand eggs each day. Bee pollen can help stimulate ovarian function when trying to conceive.
Eggs. These ancient symbols of fertility sometimes get a bum rap. Don’t skip the yolks! Free-range egg yolks contain vitamin D, which is essential in maintaining healthy ovulation.
Sunflower Seeds. Rich in zinc—which helps your body more efficiently utilize your reproductive hormones (estrogen and progesterone) and also helps with DNA production that can support egg quality.
Salmon. Omega-3 fatty acids, which salmon has in abundance, helps in regulating hormones and ovulation, while also increasing cervical mucus and blood flow to the reproductive organs.
Avocados. They’re high in monounsaturated fat, which has been shown to positively affect IVF outcomes.
Cinnamon. In addition to its antibacterial and digestion-improving properties, cinnamon contains a compound that makes fat cells more responsive to insulin, which in turn increases ovulation rates.
Turmeric. Not only will this spice boost the health of your reproductive system; it—along with other similar “warming” spices, such as coriander, cumin, cardamom, and black pepper—helps dispel, according to TCM (traditional Chinese medicine), excessive dampness in the reproductive organs. It helps create a drier, warmer internal environment that’s ideal for conception.
The next time you visit your ob-gyn, ask her to perform a blood panel to obtain readings on key levels of certain hormones: progesterone, estrogen, follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), and luteinizing hormone (LH).
It’s important to take occasional breaks from supplements. Every three to four months stop using them entirely. This break can be a wonderful way to gauge how your body is doing on its own and can help inform you about the ways the supplements are helping you. If you don’t notice a difference when you stop taking them, your body may be doing a beautiful job on its own; in that case, you no longer need the support of those supplements.
For Blood Sugar Stability • Cinnamon • Chromium picolinate • Tea with rooibos, cinnamon, anise, and/or peppermint (drink after a meal)
For Adrenal Health • To support mental focus—ginkgo biloba, rhodiola • To increase energy—ashwagandha, vitamin B12, vitamin B5 • To reduce stress—holy basil (use in tea) • To get off caffeine but feel like you’re drinking black tea/coffee—kukicha, also known as twig tea (made from the stem, later roasted, from which green tea leaves have been plucked)
Acne/Pimples/Blackheads • Increase water • Increase leafy greens • Reduce processed foods • Reduce sugar • Reduce animal protein
Anovulation • Increase warm water • Increase root vegetables • Increase beans/tofu • Increase sea vegetables • Reduce sugar • Reduce dairy
Bleeding: Light/Stagnant • Increase warm water • Increase root vegetables • Increase beans • Increase sea vegetables • Increase healthy oils • Reduce animal protein
Bloating • Increase water • Increase fennel • Increase leafy greens • Reduce salt • Reduce processed foods
Breast Pain or Tenderness • Increase fennel • Increase leafy greens • Increase water • Reduce dairy • Reduce caffeine
Constipation • Increase water • Increase fruit • Increase sweet potatoes • Increase leafy greens • Reduce processed foods
Fatigue • Increase water • Increase sea vegetables • Increase healthy protein • Reduce sugar • Reduce caffeine
