Prenatal
A healthy pregnancy takes preparation…both for the woman AND the man. A woman’s eggs and a man’s sperm are the building blocks of the fetus. When a child is conceived, it’s essential for the eggs and sperm to be in the best possible health. The new buzzword for today is “Green Pregnancy!” It’s also helpful if you know your genetics. What’s your MTHFR status? MTHFD1? PEMT? COMT? Single Nucleotide Polymorphism’s or “SNP’s,” can affect your ability to sustain a pregnancy. It’s not just about MTHFR, but many genes affect a child’s development. If a woman experiences a miscarriage, the week it occurs can provide valuable insight into a possible correlation. Genetics may play a role in this and it’s an especially important area to explore with repeated pregnancy loss.
Postnatal
It’s also important to have regular check-ins with your nutritionist during and after pregnancy. Nutrient deficiencies are common and can create unnecessary duress following delivery. They also may increase the number of times a newborn feeds and how an infant sleeps. Wherever you are on your pregnancy journey, nutritional therapy can support fertility, healthy development in the womb and healthy nursing and development afterwards.
Menstrual Cycle
A woman’s monthly cycle has a dominating effect on her life from her early teens to her mid-50’s. Nutritional deficiencies and genetic vulnerabilities can lead to cycles that are short or long, light or heavy, mood altering or painful. Detoxification and nutrition can make a huge difference. A woman’s cycle can change for the better in as little as a month or two even after decades of being abnormal. The best approach is not to coerce the cycle into regularity through synthetic means. Instead, the body’s natural menstrual rhythm should be supported so that a woman can live without the burdens of monthly…or even daily difficulties.
Hormonal Balance
A woman’s monthly cycle is influenced by hormones that rise and fall at specific times. If certain hormones, like estrogen, stay elevated for too long, the cycle can become dysregulated. This can lead to painful periods, endometriosis, PCOS and even infertility. The right foods can certainly help and nutritional supplements can support improved hormonal regularity. Hormone receptors also need to function properly to receive hormonal signals. Many women feel they are unavoidably predetermined to follow in the footsteps of their mothers or grandmothers because of genetics. Change though, can be made. Microbiomes can be altered; certain foods increased and detoxification augmented. There is hope and it may not take as much to get there as you think.
Urinary Tract Health
Invasion of the urinary tract by bacteria and yeast is common. Urinary Tract Infections, or UTI’s, are not only inconvenient, but can affect a woman’s confidence and lifestyle. Conventional approaches use antibiotics and anti-fungals to kill off infections. It’s important to realize, however, that there are not just “bad” bacteria living there. Beneficial strains also populate the vaginal/urinary areas and maintain this environment. The administration of antibiotics may lead to an imbalance of bacteria and allow for re-infection to occur. There are ways to support your body’s natural ecosystem to make it less hospitable to pathogenic overgrowth. If you’re tired of making multiple trips to the pharmacy, there is another way!
Immune Health
Autoimmunity is on the rise! Hashimoto’s, Lupus and Rheumatoid Arthritis are becoming all too common as women enter their 40’s. Medications can help, but they often involve lifelong commitments and may be accompanied by side effects. Viruses like Epstein-Barr may also re-activate when the immune system is low or inadequately supported by nutrition. There are ways to support the body’s immune system naturally. The right diet and supplementation can optimize health and make a tremendous difference in quality of life.