How Genetically Engineered Foods Are Affecting Our Hormones, Fertility, and Offspring

For those of you that are about thirty or older, I invite you to think back to when you were an elementary school kid and it was your birthday. You were able to bring in any sort of snack you wanted, and the whole class was able to eat it.

There was also probably only one kid in the class that was really overweight and there was always one in the class that couldn’t sit still. I’m sure you vividly remember those kids. I do – I even remember where they sat in the classroom.

Things have changed. These days, certain foods may not even be allowed in the classroom due to severe allergies. I have been in classrooms where there is a list of all the children that have food allergies, and that list is posted on the cabinet with the basket filled with epipens.

It seems that, these days, half the classroom consists of children with some sort of attention or learning disorder and the overweight kids are just as prevalent as ones that aren’t.

What happened in the past 25-30 years? Why are kids today less healthy than before?

It’s not just one factor. There are many factors, and they all are of significance, but the quality of our food and environment play an enormous part.

I am passionate about how nutrition relates to reproductive wellness because our nutritional state doesn’t only affect our own bodies, but studies show that it can affect our offspring, and even their offspring.  If we don’t have optimal levels of nutrients in our own bodies, what will our fetuses have to pull from? If our bodies are laden with toxins, they will pass on to our babies, increasing likelihood for a whole host of problems.

In study after study, scientific medical, environmental and agricultural journals, have concluded without doubt that pesticides, including the ones associated with genetically engineered crops, are linked to hormonal and reproductive problems in both men and women. Infertility is only one of the conditions in a long list of others, which I’ll address in a moment.

What are symptoms of hormonal imbalance/endocrine disruption? Hormonal imbalance – PMS, period problems, night sweats, insomnia, cyclical headaches, PCOS, endometriosis, fibroids, miscarriage and infertility. For men, it’s low libido, man boobs, increased body fat and poor sperm count and quality.

What causes hormonal imbalance and infertility?

Because reproduction is not essential to life, our endocrine systems (which make our sex hormones) are the first things to take a stress or toxin hit. Our body knows what is first priority, and when it encounters a stressor, whether it be emotional, physical or stress from toxic chemicals, it essentially robs Peter to pay Paul.  From an evolutionary perspective, the stressor would have been something that wanted to eat us for dinner. When you are running from a bear, your body isn’t thinking “hmmm, now would be a good time to get pregnant.” These days, it’s a chronic state of low grade stress (again, not just emotional stress), that now takes the place of the bear.

Glyphosate, one of the active ingredients in Roundup and other herbicides, is a known endocrine disruptor, meaning it interferes with hormone balance in the body, able to introduce health issues with even a small amount of exposure. Aside from infertility, endocrine disruptors can affect mood and metabolism and have been linked to some cancers as well.

But what if our bodies can’t ever out-run the bear or get rid of the stressors? We have seen proof that glyphosate DOES bioaccumulate in the body, despite what Monsanto has stated. Found in 93% of blood samples of pregnant women and 80% of umbilical cords tested. It has been found to be toxic to human umbilical, embryonic, and placental cells and has also been found in the breast milk of mothers.

We can see that exposure to glyphosate and other toxins can accumulate in the body and cause problems – serious problems that affect not only our own health, but the health of future generations. This is why saying “Oh, a little bit won’t hurt” isn’t true. It is this repeated exposure of low levels (and a lot of times exposures that we aren’t even aware of) that leads to accumulation in the body. They add up, working slowly and insidiously, sneaking up on us until one day we have a diagnosis and say “How did this happen?” By the way, many of the foods we ate as children still look the same, but the levels of chemicals in and on the foods are unprecedented. Just because we can’t see them doesn’t mean the danger is not there.

Studies showing links between GMO’s and reproductive problems

  • Low birth weight and preterm labor and birth – check visual at table

  • Birth defects – even small levels of exposure, but also have been found to be quadrupled for some farming communities that use glyphosate.

    • Malformations of reproductive organs, neural tube defects and major portions of brain, skull and scalp unformed.

  • Miscarriage and stillbirth rates rising

  • Infertility and third generation sterility

  • High infant mortality – Rats given GMO feed had babies that regularly died within weeks of their birth (sometimes as many as 99%), compared to only a 10% mortality rate for those fed regular feed.

  • Decrease in sperm production, quality, morphology, and motility. Overall decrease in testosterone.

And it’s affecting our DNA, which we pass on to our children! Did you know that by four months gestation, a female fetus has made all the eggs she will ever have? That means a woman carries the egg of her future grandchild!. Compromising egg quality can happen at any point, even in utero, so it’s important to keep them healthy.

DNA alterations have been shown after ingesting even the smallest amount of GMO foods. –

  • It’s not just a matter of “Oh, I know GMO’s aren’t good for us.” They are wreaking havoc on a cellular level- bad things happen when our DNA goes haywire. DNA is our blueprint for life.

Hormonal imbalances and fertility problems create a growing demand for ART (which is much more expensive than buying organic).

And then, in addition to all the reproductive problems, if you do get lucky enough to have a baby, it’s underdeveloped immune, digestive and neurological systems are certainly not equipped to handle the toxins in today’s world. By improving the factors we have control over (the food we choose to buy), we can lessen the incidences.

  • The EPA and National Academy of Sciences reports that children are more susceptible to chemicals than adults because

    • They encounter the same amount of pesticides as grown ups but whose bodies are much smaller.

    • Also, the rapidly developing organ systems of fetuses and children are more vulnerable and less able to detoxify chemicals.

    • The journal Toxicology and applied pharmacologystated Reproductive toxicity begins with parental exposure to toxicants. Preconception, conception, prenatal, and postnatal periods are all windows of opportunity for adverse reproductive outcomes.

Also higher incidences of learning disorders, behavior problems, attention disorders and skin allergies, food allergies, autoimmune diseases and chronic infections undeniably plague our children more than ever before. It is not just “luck of the draw” that your young child has allergies or learning disorders.

Our gut health affects every aspect of our health, from digestion to immunity to mental and emotional functioning. It’s known as our second brain.

Glyphosate affects our gut health by wreaking havoc on our trillions of good gut bacteria. Along with a decline in gut health comes compromised immune systems, characterized by colds and sicknesses we just can’t shake, catching every bug we encounter, allergies, autoimmune diseases. All on the rise. Other well-known factors that affect the integrity of the gut are oral contraceptives, antibiotics and stress.

Our bodies were designed to get rid of toxins and pathogens, but not anywhere near the level of toxins and pathogens we are exposed to in today’s world.

What are the outcomes of hormonal imbalance and toxins? The most blatant proof of our toxic world is what we are seeing happening in our kids. Sure, babies can be born with 10 fingers and 10 toes, but what about neurological development that affects learning and behavior (of which there is a ton of research on pesticides and brain development)?

So after hearing all this doom and gloom, (I just wanted to share with you the severity of the situation) what can we do?

  • Buy organic products or ones that have the non-GMO project label.

  • Instead of stressing out trying to buy all organic, buy organic for the foods that you eat most often. By the way, we shouldn’t ask why organic food is so expensive, we should ask why GMO foods are so cheap.

  • Spreading the word – Raising awareness creates change – many countries in the world have partially or completely banned and rejected GMO’s, and many others require labeling.

  • Show your support for GMO labeling – if we can’t stop Monsonato, we can at least ask that they be held accountable for transparency and require labeling. Since we don’t know the long term effects, we are just asking for our right to know what is in our food. If these foods are supposedly not harmful, why is Monsanto spending over 100 million dollars to fight labeling?

  • Consult with a natural health practitioner for recipes, meal plans and ways to upgrade your diet.

When you choose non-GMO items, you are supporting your health and the health of your future generations.  It creates more of a demand for local farming, organic farming, and small farmers, all while driving the cost of organic down.

I know it’s so easy to say “I ate it am I turned out okay” but DO WE REALLY WANT OUR CHILDREN TO JUST BE OKAY OR DO WE WANT THEM TO MEET THEIR FULL POTENTIAL? In the way that “Oh, it’s just a little bit” can accumulate and eventually cause a negative impact on our health, if we each make the personal decision to vote with our forks, we’ll begin to drive business away from Monsanto.


References:

  • American Academy of Environmental Medicine: http://www.aaemonline.org/gmopost.html.

  • Arbuckle, T. E., Lin, Z. et al. 2001. An exploratory analysis of the effect of pesticide exposure on the risk of spontaneous abortion in an Ontario farm population. Environmental Health Perspectives 109: 851–857.

  • Arbuckle, Tye E., Zhiqiu Lin, and Leslie S. Mery. “An exploratory analysis of the effect of pesticide exposure on the risk of spontaneous abortion in an Ontario farm population.”Environmental health perspectives 8 (2001): 851.

  • Aris, Aziz, and Samuel Leblanc. “Maternal and fetal exposure to pesticides associated to genetically modified foods in Eastern Townships of Quebec, Canada.”Reproductive Toxicology 4 (2011): 528-533.

  • Benachour, N., Sipahutar, H., Moslemi, S., Gasnier, C., Travert, C., Séralini, G-E. 2007. Time- and dose-dependent effects of roundup on human embryonic and placental cells. Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology 53: 126–33.

  • Benachour, Nora, and Gilles-Eric Séralini. “Glyphosate formulations induce apoptosis and necrosis in human umbilical, embryonic, and placental cells.”Chemical research in toxicology1 (2008): 97-105.

  • Benitez-Leite, S., M. L. Macchi, and M. Acosta. “Congenital Malformations Associated with Toxic Agricultural Chemicals.”Pediatría (Asunción) 2 (2007): 111-121.

  • Brasil, Flávia Bittencourt, et al. “The impact of dietary organic and transgenic soy on the reproductive system of female adult rat.”The Anatomical Record4 (2009): 587-594.

  • Cox C. 2004. Journal Of Pesticide Reform. Vol. 24 (4) citing: Garry, V.F. et al. 2002. “Birth defects, season of conception, and sex of children born to pesticide applicators living in the Red River Valley of Minnesota.” Environ. Health Persp. 110 (Suppl. 3):441-449.

  • CRIIGENhttp://www.criigen.org/SiteEn/

  • Dallegrave, E., Mantese, F. D. et al. 2003. The teratogenic potential of the herbicide glyphosate-Roundup in Wistar rats. Toxicol Lett 142(1–2): 45–52.

  • Dallegrave, E., Mantese, F. D. et al. 2007. Pre- and postnatal toxicity of the commercial glyphosate formulation in Wistar rats. Arch Toxicol 81: 665–673.

  • Damgaard, Ida Norgil, et al. “Impact of exposure to endocrine disrupters inutero and in childhood on adult reproduction.” Best Practice & Research Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism 16.2 (2002): 289-309.

  • Garry, Vincent F. “Pesticides and children.”Toxicology and applied pharmacology 2 (2004): 152-163.

  • Jeffrey Smith. “Genetically Engineered Foods May Cause Rising Food Allergies – Genetically Engineered Corn.” 2007 IRT Spilling the Beans Newsletter.

  • Jurewicz, Joanna, et al. “Adverse health effects of children’s exposure to pesticides: What do we really know and what can be done about it.”Acta Paediatrica s453 (2006): 71-80.

  • Leah Zerbie and Emily Main forcom. “9 Crazy Things Pesticides Are Doing to Your Body.”

  • Louise Sarant for Egypt Independent. “Tests on rats suggest genetically modified foods pose health hazards.” Published December 8, 2012

  • Mesnage, Robin, et al. “Glyphosate exposure in a farmer’s family.”Journal of environmental protection 09 (2012): 1001.

  • National Research Council. 2000. Scientific frontiers in developmental toxicology and risk assessment. Washington, DC: National Academy Press. Physicians for Social Responsibility, The National Environmental Trust, and The Learning Disabilities Association of America. 2000. Polluting our future: Chemical pollution in the U.S. that affects child development and learning.http://www.net.org/health/tri_report.pdf

  • Paganelli, A., Gnazzo, V., Acosta, H., López, S.L., Carrasco, A.E. 2010. Glyphosate-based herbicides produce terato-genic effects on vertebrates by impairing retinoic acid signaling. Chem. Res. Toxicol., August 9.http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/tx1001749

  • Richard, S., Moslemi, S., Sipahutar, H., Benachour, N., Séralini, G-E. 2005. Differential effects of glyphosate and Roundup on human placental cells and aromatase. Environmental Health Perspectives 113: 716–20.

  • Romano, Marco Aurelio, et al. “Glyphosate impairs male offspring reproductive development by disrupting gonadotropin expression.”Archives of toxicology 4 (2012): 663-673.

  • Romano, R. M., Romano, M. A. et al. 2010. Prepubertal exposure to commercial formulation of the herbicide Glyphosate alters testosterone levels and testicular morphology. Archives of Toxicology 84(4): 309–317.

  • Rull, Rudolph P., Beate Ritz, and Gary M. Shaw. “Neural tube defects and maternal residential proximity to agricultural pesticide applications.”American journal of epidemiology8 (2006): 743-753.

  • Samsel, Anthony, and Stephanie Seneff. “Glyphosate’s suppression of cytochrome P450 enzymes and amino acid biosynthesis by the gut microbiome: pathways to modern diseases.”Entropy 4 (2013): 1416-1463.

  • Savitz, D. A., Arbuckle, T. et al. 1997. Male pesticide exposure and pregnancy outcome. Am J Epidemiol 146(12): 1025–1036.

  • Spiroux de Vendômois, J; Roullier, F; Cellier, D; Séralini, G. (2009) “A Comparison of the Effects of Three GM Corn Varieties on Mammalian Health.”Int J Biol Sci 2009; 5(7):706-726. doi:10.7150/ijbs.5.706

  • Velimirov, A; Binter, C; Zentek, J. (Nov. 2008) “Biological effects of transgenic maize NK603xMON810 fed in long term reproduction studies in mice.”

  • Walsh, L. P., McCormick, C. et al. 2000. Roundup inhibits steroidogenesis by disrupting steroidogenic acute regulatory (StAR) protein expression. Environ Health Perspect 108(8): 769–776.

  • Yousef, M. I., et al. “Toxic effects of carbofuran and glyphosate on semen characteristics in rabbits.”Journal of Environmental Science & Health Part B4 (1995): 513-534.

Four Quick Ways to Tell If Your Multivitamin or Prenatal Sucks

I judge the quality of a restaurant by the type of lettuce it uses in salads. If it’s iceberg lettuce, the spot either doesn’t know what good quality food is or else it doesn’t care about quality and just buys the cheapest ingredients.

The same goes for supplements. You can tell so much about the quality of a supplement based on which forms of nutrients it uses.

Deciding which vitamins to buy is confusing for lots of people and making a wrong choice can cause you to, quite literally, waste your money. If your vitamins aren’t able to be used by the body, they’re doing you about as good as if you’d put them in your pocket instead of your mouth. Actually, for many of the supplements that you buy at big-box, chain stores, putting them in your pocket may actually be safer than swallowing them.

Keep these four points in mind when purchasing a multivitamin or prenatal supplement and you’ll at least avoid the ones that are complete junk.

#1: The first thing you should do when reading a vitamin bottle’s label is to go right to the “other ingredients” list. If there’s a paragraph situation goin’ on, ditch it. If there are food dyes, hydrogenated oils, polythylene glycol (the FDA found this ingredient to cause hypothyroidism!!), polyethylene glycol (the main ingredient in antifreeze – also found in Miralax), soy or corn (especially if they aren’t organic, which means they are genetically modified – for more about the health effects of GMO’s on our future generations, read a blog I posted about it), it’s going to tax your body more than it will help it. I know this tip isn’t so much about the form of a vitamin, but it’s the easiest tell-tale sign of crappy vitamins.

#2: The second easiest way to tell if your supplement is el cheapo is if the form of calcium used is calcium carbonate. This is chalk. It’s limestone. Our bodies weren’t designed to eat rocks, so why put them into a supplement? Because it’s the cheapest form of calcium, that’s why (and with supplements, you usually get what you pay for). I like algae-based or food based calcium because our bodies evolved off of eating those forms and know exactly how to utilize them.

Here’s another tidbit about calcium. It needs the help of other nutrients, called cofactors, in order to be taken into the bones. Unless your diet or supplement contains vitamin K2 and other nutrients like vitamin D3, magnesium, strontium and vanadium, the calcium you supplement with maybe getting deposited willy-nilly in soft tissue, like arterial walls. In my opinion, calcium supplements are overrated anyway. I feel it’s magnesium that’s the unsung hero. Rather than supplementing with calcium, eat more leafy greens with pastured butter (rich in vitamin K2), and canned salmon and sardines with the bones (which are anti-inflammatory and great for brain health to boot). When you do this, you get all the forms and cofactors you need.

#3: Folic acid. So many times we are told that we can get folic acid by eating leafy greens. This is erroneous! Folic acid is a synthetic supplement created in a laboratory. It is not found anywhere in nature. Its name sounds like the folate that is found naturally in food, which is often in the form of foliage. Get it?

Supplement companies are now starting to switch from folic acid to the active form (which means readily used by the body) of folate, methylfolate. This is because of the rising awareness of MTHFR. MTHFR stands for methyltetrahydrofolate reductase. MTHFR is a gene that produces an enzyme of the same name that is involved in the conversion of folic acid into its active form that is used by the body for so many important functions. There are other genes/enzymes involved in this multi-step conversion process, any of which can be compromised by genetic polymorphisms. It is estimated that about 40-60% of the population has some form of MTHFR variants1, meaning that a large percentage of people wouldn’t handle folic acid well. This is why they should stop mandatory fortification of enriched cereal grain products (or at least use a more ideal form) and also why you might want to steer clear of them. Since this may become a bandwagon for supplement companies that want to look like they deliver quality, be certain that the form of folate is either from food or else is labeled folinic acid, L-5MTHF or 6(S) L-MTHF form. Dr. Ben Lynch wrote a post about it here (WARNING: Get ready to launch yourself down a gazillion rabbit holes if you click that link!).

#4: Vitamin B12 is known as cobalamin. It is necessary for the proper nervous system and brain functioning, as well as for detoxification and energy production. There are a few different forms of B12, with the most common being cyanocobalamin. This is a synthetic form of B12 that needs to be converted to its active form in the body. Some people are genetically predisposed to having poor production, transport or absorption of B12 so the cyanocobalamin form is less than ideal. This would also be true for people with a lack of good gut bacteria and/or digestive malabsorption.

B12 is an essential nutrient in the methylation pathway. Methylation, which is simply the transfer of one methyl group (a carbon atom attached to 3 hydrogens) is essential for making and repairing DNA, for detoxification, neurotransmitter production, and healthy immune system functioning. Methylation is said to happen a billion times a second in the body so that should speak volumes about how important of a process it is for health. Ironically, some people take B12 to help drive their methylation processes but don’t realize that the cyanocobalamin form actually requires and uses methyl groups to be converted to its active form. Cyanocobalamin, which is actually a cyanide molecule attached to B12, is the cheapest form, but it does have one slightly redeeming value – it’s extremely stable in pill form.

Just like the folic acid scene, the form that you will start seeing more often, now that MTHFR is a buzz word which cheaper quality companies are finally catching on to, is methylcobalamin. This is the active form of B12 so it needs no conversion. If you have had genetic testing done, you may know your methylation status. High doses of methylcobalamin may not be the best choice if someone is an over-methylator, however, the amount in a multivitamin is likely fine for most relatively healthy people. If you do find that you are over-methylating, hydroxocobalamin is a good choice.

Hydroxocobalamin is the primary form of B12 that is found naturally in food. It does require conversion to the active form of methylcobalamin, but the body completes this conversion much more easily than it does with cyanocobalamin.

You might not see adenosylcobalamin on supplement labels as much as you do with the other forms. Adenosylcobalamin is an active form of B12, and it also is converted to methylcobalamin. They have different functions in the body, as adenosylcobalamin is the major form found in the mitochondria, as opposed to the cytosol where methylcobalamin is found. The downside is that it is not very stable in a regular pill form.

One way to be certain you’re getting bioavailable (active and usable) forms of nutrients is to buy whole foods-based supplements. I have recommended these to clients before, but with two caveats. The first being that two of the highly regarded whole-foods based retail supplement companies (products you can pick off a shelf without having to get through a naturopath or chiropractor) were bought out by multimillion dollar corporations a few years back, so who knows what’s happened to the quality since then. And second, the whole foods-based vitamins have a ton of different types of fruits, veggies, and other foods that some people can have sensitivities to, such as histamine or immune cell reactivity.

While there are many other not-so-well-absorbed forms of nutrients, those are the biggies in my opinion. And chances are if a supplement company uses the active forms for folate and B12, along with a body-friendly form of calcium, the rest of the vitamins and minerals will be decent forms.

References:

1. Multivitamin Supplementation During Pregnancy

3 Factors Of Hormonal Imbalance Your Doctor Hasn't Mentioned

One in six couples have difficulty conceiving...
Even more struggle with PMS!

When I was apprenticing with a midwife, I was surprised by how many women would come in to see her because they had been trying to get pregnant without any success. And the numbers of miscarriages were much higher than I could ever have guessed. I knew some people didn't have it so easy when trying to achieve or sustain a pregnancy, but I had no idea that so many couples struggled with this.

I have combined my passion for reproductive wellness with my expertise in preventative nutrition to help my clients optimize fertility and increase their chances of giving birth to a robust and brainy baby. Read on to learn 3 factors that affect hormonal harmony.

1. A low fat diet: Our brain is approximately 60% fat. We need good quality fats to support its functioning. Our bodies' production of hormones, especially the reproductive ones, is directed mainly by the brain (particularly the hypothalamus and pituitary). The bottom line is that we need fat to make hormones. Cholesterol is the precursor to many of the sex hormones we need for healthy menstrual cycles and reproduction. Check out this diagram:

Cholesterol is only found in animal products, so make sure you are eating the cleanest sources of animal products. Non-pastured and non-organic animal products are chock full of hormones, pesticides, GMO's and other funky business that have been shown in scientific studies to derail hormone balance.

2. The Expression of Your Genes: We are born with the genes we will have for life, but we have the ability to control whether those genes are expressed in certain ways. This is what the field of epigenetics studies. This emerging field is vast and complicated to understand, so I'll keep it simple.

While there certainly are dozens of genes that affect fertility, there are also dozens more ways these genes can be expressed. The scary thing is that the way the genes are expressed can be passed on to future generations! I'll only go into one specific gene here, as this one is becoming quite the hot topic lately, although this is only one tiny piece of a very large and complex puzzle, which is what I specialize in (read more about it here).

MTHFR is an enzyme produced by the body, made by the gene of the same name, Methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase. This is just one enzyme in a whole pathway of enzymatic and genetic importance, the methylation pathway.

Having a polymorphism (a "mutation" of sorts) in this gene could potentially cause serious physical or mental health imbalances of various types (I could go on for days about them but don't want to lose your interest). In the case of fertility, it means that the folic acid that we are advised to take during our reproductive years (and that is added to many of our foods) isn't being used by the body. The MTHFR enzyme (along with a few other enzymes that may be less well-known but even more important) plays a part in taking synthetic folic acid and turning it into a form of folate that our bodies need for many functions, three of which are:

  • Making and repairing DNA

  • Preventing miscarriage

  • Preventing birth and developmental problems our children

Yes, that's right - the folic acid that is pressed upon us is not the form that our bodies can immediately use, like the folate in green veggies and other whole foods (*stay tuned for my "Does Your Prenatal Vitamin Make the Cut?" download!). If you are like roughly 40+% of the population, your MTHFR gene is not "up to snuff," when it comes to converting folic acid into folate. This causes a double-ended problem. Firstly, the unmetabolized folic acid builds up in the body because it isn't being used (which causes a whole 'nuther set of problems), and secondly, the body becomes deficient in the folate that is needed to achieve and sustain a healthy pregnancy.

As I already mentioned, there are many other genes that can affect your ability to get or stay pregnant. There are genes that are responsible for making hormones, transporting hormones, and degrading hormones, and if there are polymorphisms in these genes, or the genes that interact with them, then there could very likely be hormonal imbalances (by the way, the same is true for neurotransmitters as it is for hormones). 

In my fertility optimization consulting practice, I offer clients a genetic test that provides the raw data of your genetic profile. I've had over 6 years of research in the field of epigenetics and am able to interpret the raw data to help clients make sense of the results and instruct them on ways to compensate for genetic variants that affect fertility and health. One thing to note is that just because someone has certain genetic polymorphisms does not mean that he or she is doomed to have them express. Our diets and lifestyles determine roughly 80% of that. 

3. Liver overburdened with toxins: Our livers have many functions aside from filtering toxins, and when they become overworked from chemicals, processed food, toxic body care products, pesticides, chemicals in plastics (xenoestrogens and bisphenols like BPA) and over-use of alcohol, they don't do a very good job of estrogen removal and hormone regulation. This is where hormone levels get really out of whack and things like endometriosis and infertility occur (and make PMS feel like a cakewalk).

On a completely related note, we have genes that determine our bodies' ability to detoxify, so going back to the epigenetics topic, these are also factors I look at when someone comes to me with hormonal imbalance.

A lifestyle that is mainly composed of clean food (mostly organic and unprocessed), natural body care products, and a healthy everyday environment can keep your liver and the expression of genes in favor of hormonal health and balanced reproductive functioning.

For more information, follow me on Instagram @Functional Fertility Solutions and sign up for my emails so you can be the first one to receive cutting edge info on how to support your/your clients’ hormones and fertility. If you are a practitioner, take it to the next level and join my Facebook group for practitioners.

Here's to hormonal balance and a life free of PMS!
In health,
Jaclyn

Getting the Most Out of Your Genetic Testing: Part 2

In the first part of this article, I discussed what SNPs are and how they occur, what’s included with a 23andme genetic test, and the very basics of MTHFR.

I also clarified the difference between folic acid and folate.

Let’s Continue On, Shall We?

Methylfolate is a form of folate, which is also called vitamin B9. Folate helps to rebuild and repair DNA, it helps to convert homocysteine (a marker for cardiovascular disease) back into the amino acid methionine, it plays a part in neurotransmitter production and is essential for growing a fetus.

It is also well known for playing an integral part in the methylation pathway.

What the Heck is Methylation?

The simple definition of methylation is the addition of a methyl group (CH3 – one carbon with three hydrogens) to DNA. This methyl group helps to determine how a gene expresses. Just because you “have the breast cancer gene” (everyone has the gene, but as I described in the first post, “having a gene” usually means having the risk allele/defect copy) doesn’t mean it will express, but having a lack of methyl groups increases the likelihood that it will express… Got it?

Methylation is critical for a seemingly endless amount of essential functions in the body, including DNA synthesis and repair, neurotransmitter functioning (mental/emotional health), expression of genes, detoxification (especially of heavy metals) and immune system regulation.

It affects numerous other pathways and cycles in the body, including the urea cycle and the Krebs Cycle that is responsible for energy production.

So, yes, super important.

The body uses folate for many chemical reactions related to methylation.

The Two Main MTHFR SNPs

There are numerous MTHFR variants, with even more genes & variants involved in the folate conversion pathway, but most of the research conducted has been on two forms of MTHFR: A1298C and C677T.

To strip MTHFR down to bare-naked layman’s terms, the C677T variant has been highly associated with cardiovascular issues and poor detoxification, while the A1298C variant has been linked with mood disorders/neurotransmitter imbalances and issues associated with elevated ammonia levels.

To recap, if you are heterozygous (defined in Part 1) for one of these variants, your MTHFR gene is working at about, roughly, a 30% reduced efficiency. If you are homozygous, that can be reduced as much as 70%. If you have one copy of each, you are considered “compound heterozygous” and efficiency can run anywhere in between those percentages.

It has been estimated that 40-60% of our population has some form of MTHFR variant. That’s quite a lot of people that don’t effectively process folic acid and therefore likely have less than optimal detoxification or other factors associated with methylation. This variant also has been associated with miscarriage.

Check out this article from the US National Library of Medicine/NIH on issues surrounding folic acid fortification (among which are autism, colorectal cancer, Alzheimers and other neuropsychiatric disorders, and insulin resistance in offspring). I bet it’ll make you feel as disconcerted as it made me feel.

Now that you’ve determined you have an MTHFR SNP, a little folate supplementation might not do any harm for some, but might cause others to “flip their lids” in different ways. And it may not happen immediately. You might feel pretty great at first, but then crash and burn after a week or two. This is because there are other SNPs that should be addressed before addressing MTHFR or the rest of the folate pathway.

There is an order of action to remediating or compensating for MTHFR SNPs. Just throwing methylfolate into your picture can make your protocol backfire.

I like to use the analogy that if a building is on fire, you wanna call the fire department, not the construction crew (folate is needed to build and repair). If there is some degree of inflammation in the body, that is what most definitely needs to be extinguished first and foremost. Throwing folate into the mix right off the bat can surely exacerbate issues.

Mitigating inflammation is a pretty hefty first step, as it can come from a gazillion different things with diet and lifestyle – food sensitivities, gut issues, toxicants, stress, etc. But from a genetic perspective, one’s genes can cause a predisposition to inflammation from issues like:

  • Mitochondrial dysfunction (symptomized by low energy/chronic fatigue)

  • Poor fatty acid utilization/metabolism (which also affects mitochondrial energy production, since fat is needed for the mitochondria to make ATP).

  • Iron oxidation (iron that is not properly used by the body can oxidize and cause inflammation. This can happen even if you have been diagnosed as anemic!)

  • Excess free radical production – Free radicals cause oxidative stress, which has been inked to chronic diseases and disorders of all kinds. Similarly, free radicals and oxidative stress can come from many different sources. **Go ahead and Google “Oxidative Stress and disease” and have your mind blown by scientists for an afternoon.

  • Elevated ammonia levels

  • Excess glutamate

  • Poor detoxification – either from not enough antioxidants, or levels of toxins above the body’s ability to clear them.

I generally recommend that clients work to lower inflammation for at least a few months before beginning to target methylation issues (lowering inflammation alone will begin to enhance methylation capacity).

Rather than reducing MTHFR (or any SNP for that matter) to a single problem that needs one nutrient to help compensate, it is crucial to look at groups of SNPs, or even more importantly, entire biochemical pathways and the diet/lifestyle of the person to determine a route of action.

The SNPs just give clues as to what could be causing an issue.

Once the so called fire is extinguished, it still would be jumping the gun to start with folate supplementation if, for instance, B12 levels are low, or if there are SNPs that could possibly be causing an increase in sulfites, glutamate and/or ammonia.

Also, unless you have adequate glutathione levels, taking methylfolate will make you more inflamed. If detox abilities or pathways are not up to par, stimulating methylation will spur detoxification and can cause problems if the body isn’t able to adequately deal with the toxins that are stirred up. The reason for this is because if you are low in glutathione and start taking methylfolate, you stimulate Phase 1 liver detox and that creates toxins that have to be cleared by Phase 2, which involves glutathione.

Regarding B12

If B12 levels are low and someone supplements with a higher dose of folate than the body can handle, “methyl trapping” can occur. Methyl trapping is problematic because methylfolate cannot work without cobalamin (B12). The folate is not properly utilized and serum folate rises while intracellular folate levels suffer.

Having SNPs in certain genes can indicate potential problems with B12 (TCN, GIF, FUT2, MTR, MTRR). These SNPs may affect the body’s ability to produce B12, transport it, or absorb it. The form of cobalamin to supplement with is also something to consider, but that may be a topic for a future post.

Regarding Ammonia and Glutamate

Quite a few different SNPs can predispose people to elevated ammonia and/or glutamate levels (in addition to other factors, like inadequate beneficial gut bacteria), both of which can cause anxiety, quick irritation, brain fog and adrenal fatigue. These genetic predispositions seem to manifest when someone has multiple SNPs in the related genes, such as the CBS and BHMT genes, or SNPs involved with glutamate precursors and conversions in the urea cycle*. These issues need to be addressed prior to adding folate because, first, elevated ammonia is very inflammatory, and second, because adding methyl donors like methylfolate will “fuel” the ammonia production if there are SNPs in something called the transsulfuration pathway.

So, what I’m basically saying is that this shiz is complex and it’s probably a good idea to have a practitioner guide you through your results and interpretation.

While there are some specific supplements that can help target and compensate for SNPs, lifestyle and diet upgrades are at the heart of healing.

Making Use and Making Sense of Your Interpretation

There is a rapidly growing number of genetic testing interpretation services. They all vary in how many SNPs they include and which ones. Many are solely done via computer, leaving you sitting in front of your computer for hours Googling yourself down deep, deep rabbit holes to piece together a not-so-clear picture of what the hell is going on with your particular SNP ensemble.

The software I use is the Functional Genomic Analysis software.  It currently looks at over 200,000 SNPs, grouped into areas of genes and SNPs involved with:

  • The Krebs cycle/ATP production

  • Gut health predisposition

  • Histamine clearance

  • Detoxification capacity

  • The folate and methionine cycles

  • The potential for elevated ammonia and glutamate levels

  • Proper neurotransmitter degradation.

These results contain different types of information than the health report that 23andme provides (more on that below). But the best part is, you get a live human practitioner that walks through the highlights of your report based on your health history intake form.

The info that is used for interpretation services is the “raw data” that looks like a bunch of mumbo-jumbo coding. This is where a practitioner that is certified in Genomic Analysis can provide you with a video interpretation that discusses of your specific genome based on the information you provide in a health history intake form.

How the 23andme Health Reports Vary From the MethylGenetic Nutrition Analysis Reports

The 23andme health reports vary from the Functional Genomic Analysis reports and other interpretation services in that 23andme’s health reports tell you information like whether or not you are a carrier for certain diseases and syndromes (such as Maple Syrup Urine disease and Tay-Sachs disease), or if you likely flush when consuming alcohol or if your ear wax is wet or crumbly. It does not give an idea of what could be causing your inflammation or neurotransmitter imbalance.

A variety of clients come to me in regards to interpreting their raw data. Some just want me to help them make sense of it, so they are “one and done” type of clients. Other clients want to go deeper into lifestyle, diet and supplementation upgrades so they can improve their situation, like how to improve detoxification capacity, slash inflammation, or learn what order of action should take place to support their genetic variants.

Whatever your interest is in genetic testing, know that it is rapidly becoming the rate limiting factor in personalized health care – whether from an allopathic approach (called pharmacogenetics) or from a naturopathic/functional/integrative approach that uses targeted supplementation combined with dietary, environmental, and lifestyle upgrades.

Feel free to drop me a line if you have any questions or interest in learning more!

If you would like to learn what your genetics can reveal about your health and fertility, click here. If you already have done a 23andme DNA test and would like a video interpretation of your results, click here.

Getting the Most Out of Your Genetic Testing - Part 1

I originally wrote this article as a guest post for RebelHealthTribe.com.

**NOTE** I no longer recommend the 23andme DNA test when used for learning about your genetic predispositions for health related things IF the kit was purchased after August 2017, when they changed to version 5 chips. I now recommend this DNA spit test kit that comes with a personalized interpretation video of your specific genome.**

MTHFR is the buzzword lately. You’ve probably heard of it. Maybe you’ve even burrowed deep into rabbit holes in an attempt to learn more. Lots of people are getting genetic testing done because it’s a main “jumping off” point for learning about epigenetics, and many medical doctors are now providing testing.

Before I get into the topic of MTHFR, let’s talk about salivary genetic testing and why someone might want to get it done.

What Kind of Info Does the Genetic Testing Provide?
One small tube of saliva can be filled with a wealth of genetic information. Because 23andme is the service that I use personally and professionally, I’m going to write in reference to that (and receive no compensation from them for writing this). It does not require going through a doctor or practitioner at all! Just receive your kit, spit in the tube, send it away and wait…and wait. Waiting the eternity of weeks for my results made me feel like a kid excited about Christmas morning.

Like most other people, I opted to get the testing done to see if I “have” MTHFR, but also was excited to learn about my ancestry, since my mom was adopted.

My ancestry information came first, about 4-6 weeks after mailing my spit. This info was super cool because I now know I am precisely 48% Japanese. My dad is an All-American Mutt with ancestors from northern Europe and the results also confirmed which parts. There was way more information about my lineage and ancestral migratory path than I was able to read at any given time (and still have plenty more to read).

Because I opted in to receive emails when someone new has DNA in common with me, I get emails somewhat regularly that tell me when I have a new relative (most are distant – somewhere around a 6th cousin or more).

So my general takeaway on the ancestry tip is that the info is abundant and interesting.

The Raw Data
A few weeks after my ancestry info arrived, my raw data was finally ready for me! Because the software I currently use was not yet available at the time (this was a few years ago), I uploaded my raw data into a few low-cost services that would interpret a small handful of my genetic SNPs (more on what those are shortly). I did end up having a single copy of one of the MTHFR variants, and the less risky one at that, but I also found out that I had some SNPs on other genes that increased my potential for health risks relating to cardiovascular issues, mental health, need for B12 and a good potential for inflammation.

What is a SNP and How Does Someone Get One?
DNA replicates, we all know that. Sometimes there are errors in coding replication, just like when we are copying a recipe and accidentally put a tsp instead of tbsp. All recipes copied from that erroneous one will have that error unless another mistake is made somewhere down the line. While most of the population has the original “ancestral allele” that has been passed down for generations, the “risk allele” is the variated/defected version that is less common within a population. This is a SNP, or single nucleotide polymorphism (pronounced “snip”).

When someone “has MTHFR” or “has the breast cancer gene,” they mean that they have the SNP that has been linked to increased health risks, and there are thousands of them for all kinds of genes.

So, having a SNP (or for simplicity, a defected copy of a gene) means is that they inherited a defected copy from either one parent (which is called being “heterozygous”) or one copy from each parent (in which case they are “homozygous”). Or they may not have inherited a defect copy from either parent, in which case they’d technically be homozygous for NOT having the SNP. Generally speaking, if someone has a heterozygous SNP, the efficiency of that gene to code for producing an enzyme is reduced by a certain amount. If they have two copies of the SNP (homozygous), the efficiency is reduced even further.

According to Genetics Home Reference, a part of the NIH, “SNPs occur normally throughout a person’s DNA. They occur once in every 300 nucleotides on average, which means there are roughly 10 million SNPs in the human genome.”

Most SNPs have no effect on health or development, but some have proven to impact our health greatly. SNPs can affect our biochemical processes in an almost endless set of ways, for example how we look, what our taste preferences are, or if we are naturally predisposed or resistant to certain diseases.

Again, Genetics Home Reference puts it succinctly, “Researchers have found SNPs that may help predict an individual’s response to certain drugs, susceptibility to environmental factors such as toxins, and risk of developing particular diseases.”

SNPs can be caused by things like replication errors, errors in DNA repair, nutrient deficiencies, toxins and radiation. HOWEVER, just because someone has a SNP does not mean it is doomed to express!! It has been estimated that 80-90% of what determines whether a SNP will express is due to environmental and behavioral factors.

An article in Environmental Health Perspectives states, “The presence of a particular gene or mutation in most cases merely connotes a predisposition to a particular disease process. Whether that genetic potential will eventually manifest as a disease depends on a complex interplay between the human genome and environmental and behavioral factors [like alcohol consumption, all forms of stress, poor nutrient intake, and cigarette smoking]. Although genes are critical for determining function, nutrition modifies the extent to which different genes are expressed and thereby modulates whether individuals attain the potential established by their genetic background.”

Genetic testing interpretation is able to provide information to you about your potential for certain health challenges, it can help to identify the root cause of physical and emotional health problems, and it can help people make more informed decisions about how they want to manage their health care. It does not diagnose or treat any illness or disease.

What is MTHFR? And Why Would Someone Want to Know If They Have It?
Okay, let’s say you’ve done your 23andme test and have determined that you have an MTHFR SNP. There are thousands of genetic SNPs that humans can have, and MTHFR variants are ones that have been widely researched.

MTHFR is a gene that provides coding for the production of an enzyme called methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR). It plays a critical role in the conversion of synthetic folic acid into the bioavailable (useable) form of folate, although it has many other functions.

I just want to stop the bus and make sure to mention that despite what major health publications (and maybe even your doctor) say, folic acid is not naturally found in food! Folic acid is synthetic and found nowhere in nature. Folate is the correct form, which is found in foliage like leafy greens, as well as in eggs, liver and other fruits and vegetables. Folic acid is found in supplements of questionable quality and in refined grains and other fortified foods like cereal and bread  … Okay, the bus can proceed.

The common response to having an MTHFR variant is to compensate by taking high doses of folate and avoiding folic acid (I explain why in the next post). While I agree with avoiding folic acid, supplementing with high doses of folate is not the first (or only) step in managing MTHFR and all its “quirks.”

In Part 2 of this post, I’ll dive deeper into MTHFR and methylation, why supplementing with folate for an MTHFR variant right off the bat can backfire, and the proper way to go about it. I’ll also discuss getting your genetic testing done and interpreting the results. I look forward to seeing you again soon!

{End of part 1}

Oxidative Stress Affects Fertility and Hormonal Harmony

You know what’s crazy? That we spend more time preparing a nursery for a baby than we do preparing our bodies to nourish a growing baby. That’s our baby’s first home!

When women or couples ask me what they can do to optimize their bodies before they start trying to conceive, I get really excited. Like, double high fives excited. These clients are about as rare and magical as spotting a unicorn because, in our society, getting pregnant isn’t given much thought until difficulty achieving or sustaining pregnancy occurs.

Starting to optimize even just a few months before trying to conceive will greatly improve your chances of not only getting pregnant, but also of having robust, smart children and an easier postpartum time. However, what we do to our bodies years before we get pregnant – what we put in them, on them, or put them through – can play a huge part in the betterment or detriment of our own health and the health of our offspring.

One reason for this is because it takes about 120 days/4 months for a female egg to mature to be ready for ovulation and roughly the same amount of time for a man to produce a healthy batch of sperm. The sperm a man starts producing today will be the sperm that gets to run free four months from now, in hopes of fertilizing an egg. The quality of your sperm and egg are an accumulation of everything you’ve done with your diet and lifestyle, but especially in the past 4 months.

Oxidative Stress’s Role in Fertility

Oxidative stress causes damage to numerous parts of the cell. This is where I make an obvious statement that our eggs (oocytes) and sperm are single cells.

It is a key component in any aging process and chronic health condition (1). Free radicals are what induce oxidative stress, and antioxidants are what neutralize them. To put it simply, a free radical is an atom with an unpaired electron in the outermost shell. Electrons like to be paired and stable, so the atom that is “unstable” will steal an electron from a stable one, causing that one to be unstable and so perpetuating a free radical cascade/domino effect.

What causes free radicals to form?

This topic can get pretty technical with rabbit holes galore. I don’t want to bore you so just know that the shortest answer is “almost everything.” Anything that creates stress on the body, whether it’s physical, emotional or environmental stress, can lead to oxidative stress – which promotes aging and disease… and infertility! The usual things you would think of – toxic exposure, nutrient deficiencies, and poor detoxification and over exercising – are all widely known to increase free radical formation.

Free radicals do, however, have a beneficial role to play in fighting bacteria and viruses, but problems arise when there aren’t enough antioxidants to keep them in check. Our bodies produce their own antioxidants (endogenous), as well as getting them through nourishing foods and quality supplements. 

It’s when the level of free radicals surpass the body’s ability to neutralize them that our cell membranes and DNA can get damaged. This causes imbalance in organs, tissues and glands, which further results in malfunctioning of systems and creates chronic inflammation and disease… So, pertaining to fertility, oxidative stress causes hormone imbalance and can damage sperm and egg cells.

As I mentioned before, our bodies are able to make antioxidants. These are things like:
• Glutathione (the “master antioxidant”)
• Superoxide dismutase (which neutralizes the free radical superoxide and turns it into hydrogen peroxide)
• Catalase (enzyme that turns hydrogen peroxide into oxygen and water).
Each person has varying degrees of antioxidant production based on their genetics/epigenetics. For example, my ability to produce glutathione (which is super-duper important for fertility) may be less optimal than yours because of genetic variations called SNPs (single nucleotide polymorphisms).

We may also have genetic variants that contribute to free radical production. Again, my genetics could cause me to create more peroxynitrite* than yours, creating inflammation and increased susceptibility to chronic diseases, poor mental functioning, and poor hormone metabolism.

*Peroxynitrite is an incredibly nasty free radical because it can damage a wide array of cellular molecules. I mean, even its chemical formula is (screaming) ONOO-.

Our genetics can affect how much oxidative stress our bodies create, as well as the type and amount of antioxidants that neutralize it, but there are also genes that affect hormone production, transport, and metabolism. There are genetic variants that are correlated with increased chances for all sorts of things related to reproduction – from preterm labor to placenta previa (when the placenta is covering the opening to the cervix).

There are hundreds, likely even thousands (as scientific research may discover) of SNP’s that can contribute to oxidative stress in the body. The software I use to run clients’ genetics currently (as of writing this post) looks at over 200,000 possible SNP’s. Remember, as mentioned in a previous blog, that a SNP is a common type of genetic variation that represents a difference in a single DNA building block (2). The SNP’s the software examines relate to fatty acid metabolism and cellular energy production, variants that impact gut health and digestion, detoxification capacity, the folate pathway and methionine cycle, tendencies to create elevated ammonia and glutamate levels, neurotransmitter production and clearance, and quite a few other areas. Variants in many of these SNP’s can cause imbalance in the body, setting the ground for oxidative stress.

But even with the understanding of what your genetic predispositions are, they are just that: predispositions. Just because you have certain variants doesn’t necessarily mean that they will be expressed.

The CDC (3) has found that our genes account for a surprisingly small percentage (about 10%) of human disease. What this means is that diet and lifestyle are major determining factors of whether a gene is expressed (like a light switch turning on). This is exactly the reason why one identical twin can get a disease in which the other does not.

Nutritional Cofactors Are the Head Mo-Fo’s in Charge

Each of our genes has a specific function to produce a protein or enzyme. Most genes are named for the enzyme they produce. For the gene to produce these enzymes and proteins, cofactors (think of them as necessary helpers) are needed. These cofactors are amino acids and nutrients. If we aren’t giving our bodies proper amounts of amino acids, fats, vitamins and minerals, the enzymes and proteins aren’t adequately made and your body has to “rob Peter to pay Paul” and steal them from another place. Often times, this place is your reproductive system since reproduction isn’t necessary to remain living.

This is the reason why I am so passionate about eating nutrient dense food – not just “healthy” food. I know how the nutrients contained within the food I eat are used by my cells and genes to carry out their functions. Saying “food is energy” is such an understatement. Nutrient dense food is part of our blueprint for optimal programming and functioning.

So when a woman goes to her doctor for matters of hormonal imbalance, you can see how merely just prescribing the pill or hormonal therapy isn’t addressing the root cause and it certainly isn’t helping to create a healthy body that is able to optimally nourish a fetus.

Because our bodies have an innate desire and ability to heal themselves, it is totally possible to overcome reproductive challenges, from period problems to infertility; we just have to give them the right tools. The right tools are different for each individual person, so functional and genetic testing is a good place to identify what they are. However, there are some things that everyone will benefit from, like having a healthy way to manage stress, avoiding pesticides and toxins in food and body care products, and moving your body in a way that feels good at least a few times a week.

Improving your level of oxidative stress is an important place to begin for overall health and for fertility. Here’s to healthy egg and sperm cells!

 

#1:  Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2684512/
#2 https://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/handbook/genomicresearch/snp
#3 http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/exposome/

Natural Selection (of Feminine Products)

We think about toxins in our food, but not our feminine products

Most of us are aware that processed foods laden with chemicals, preservatives, dyes, texturizers and flavor enhancers are harmful to us. Many of us have even made the switch to more natural grocery items and cleaning products to the best extent we can, as they don’t contain harmful chemicals known to derail hormones, disrupt brain functioning, and cause cancer.

But a vast majority of us don’t even consider the bodycare products we use, especially the feminine products that come into intimate contact with our feminine body parts (I’ll save the “lotions and potions” topic for another newsletter, but just know that our skin is our largest organ and it absorbs everything we put on it).

Most girls and women I know use the big-name brand tampons or pads. I’m writing today to drop some truth bombs about why most of these products are no bueno.

First of all, these products are not easy to research, mostly because their producers are not required by law to disclose the materials used. They are a mix of synthetic petrochemicals and absorbants, fragrances, pthalates and other funky ingredients that have no business being down in your netherparts… for hours on end, days at a time, month after month and year after year.

Let this quote just blow your mind for a minute: 

“The vagina is like a sieve,’ explains Philip Tiemo, Jr., M.D., director of clinical microbiology and diagnostic immunology at New York University’s Medical Center, ‘Whatever is in there goes right into the blood circulation.”

Synthetic products are a very recent invention since the whole span of homoerectus ever came about. Synthetic chemicals, while they certainly do have their benefits, don’t bring a whole lot of wellness to the human body – our bodies don’t know how to break down synthetic chemicals, so they wreak havoc on organs, endocrine systems and brains.

And when you think about all the pads and tampons you’ve used in your lifetime – thousands of them – I’d like you to consider their disposal. These synthetic materials are not biodegrading into the earth anytime soon.

PLUS, consider your cost each and every month. That adds up because those jawns aren’t cheap.

Reusable feminine products, if that doesn’t totally wig you out, are a great way to save money and our planet. If you absolutely don’t want to try reusable products (I mention a few below), then at least be sure to buy organic cotton pads and tampons. Because it’s not a food crop, people don’t consider the amount of pesticides that are sprayed on cotton. Conventionally grown cotton uses more insecticides than any other single crop and it is in the top 4 of genetically modified crops. The Rodale Institute states on its website that up to 98% of cotton is now genetically modified. And where are all those by-products of it’s manufacturing going? Back into our food and water supply.

Here are my favorite re-usables:

Diva Cup: Medical grade silicone cup to catch your flow! I love these because they hold a lot and I don’t have to tend to it as often as other products – up to 12 hours! To insert, squeeze in half, then halve it again, Give it a tug to enable suction, which keeps it leak-proof and in place. To empty, grab hold of the stem and gently tug until you feel the base of the cup, then pinch it to release the suction-seal. Obviously, if you are going to be away from a personal bathroom (not a big bathroom with a bunch of stalls, where the sinks are away from the toilets), this is not the optimal option.

 

Sea Sponges: The first time I heard about these, I was pretty grossed out. I mean, sponges are a bacterial hotel, aren’t they? But once I gave ’em a whirl, I was in love. They are so comfortable (as long as you are comfortable reaching way up there to insert or remove), way more comfortable than a tampon. Again, just like the Diva Cup, you wanna make sure you are able to remove and rinse periodically, so they are not the optimal choice for a day at Six Flags. But, I just rinse every few hours depending on how heavy things are going, and then at the end of my cycle, I clean thoroughly with Dr. Bronner’s Tea Tree Castille Soap and let air dry.

Organic Cotton Pads and Pantyliners: Gladrags have been around forever, and now there are lots of other companies making these. You can buy some super cute ones on Etsy or even make your own. Sure, they may stain, but you’re the only one seeing them, and breathable, organic cotton is way nicer than synthetic funkiness. Totally worth it. They have everything from pantyliners to postpartum pads.

These types of products are not generally talked about, so I wanted to do you a favor and bring up this conversation. If this was enlightening for you, please take a moment to share it!

Here’s to healthy periods and reproductive organs,
Jaclyn Downs

Thyroid Markers to Ask Your Provider For!!

Has your doctor told you that your thyroid is "fine" but you know deep down that something is definitely off?

Are you losing more hair then you think you should? Have you suffered from miscarriage? Or terrible postpartum depression? Do you have uncontrollable mood swings? Mental fogginess? Are your hands and/or feet cold much of the time?

If so, then your thyroid is likely not "fine."

Most doctors only check TSH and maaaaybe T4. This does not give you the whole picture!!

First of all, the conventional range for thyroid markers is derived from blood levels from the average person that has gone in for blood-work. The average person in this country does not have an optimal functioning thyroid!

In a moment, I want to talk about functional medicine ranges for thyroid markers, but first, I'll explain functional medicine. While modern conventional medicine is excellent for injury and trauma, in other areas like chronic disease, it merely works to stop symptoms.

Got high blood pressure? Take this pill. Got high cholesterol? Take this pill. Have an inflammatory condition? Take this pill. Got acid reflux? Take this pill! Got low functioning thyroid? Take this pill!

Functional medicine seeks to get to the root cause of why the blood pressure or cholesterol is high; what’s causing the inflammation or reflux or sluggish thyroid.

When we address and target the root cause, the downstream effects usually fall into place.

Functional lab ranges are derived from optimally functioning bodies. This is a much tighter range.

Okay, back to the thyroid:
The reason only checking TSH and T4 doesn't give you the whole picture is because we want to see what's happening in the whole pathway - production, conversion and uptake.

If we only look at these one or two markers, we can't tell how well the body is using what's produced, if it's even being produced enough.

TSH is a measure of how much the pituitary is trying to stimulate the thyroid gland. If TSH is off, it may be that there's nothing wrong with the thyroid, it could be that the pituitary's messages are garbled.

T4 is the inactive form of thyroid hormone. Most of it needs to be converted to T3, the usable form.

Many things, especially this day in age, hinder T4 to T3 conversion - gut issues, stress, toxins, basically anything that creates inflammation and cortisol wonkiness.

Your T4 could look fiiiine, but that's not telling us how much the body is getting of the stuff it needs to spark the cells to do their jobs.

There are quite a few other markers that should be checked in a complete thyroid panel (like thyroid binding globulin and T3 uptake), but i'm just going to touch on ones your provider would likely oblige you with. Either way, antibodies must be part of the panel!

Antibodies are proteins that the immune system produces against something it "flags" as offensive to the body. If someone has elevated antibodies, they likely will be diagnosed with Hashimoto's, the autoimmune disease that attacks the thyroid.

This is essential to know, because it will determine if you have a true sluggish/hypothyroid issue, or if it's an immune system issue, where the immune system is seeing the thyroid as a foreign enemy and destroying it, thereby lowering it's functional ability.

Grave's disease is a less common autoimmune thyroid condition where the thyroid enlarges and becomes overactive, causing hyperthyroid symptoms.

This information is out there, hiding in plain sight on the internet and in books like Why Do I Still Have Thyroid Symptoms When My Lab Tests Are Normal? by Dr. Datis Kharrazian, so I'm baffled as to why this info seems so obscure (well, not really).

So here ya go, a list of markers to ask for and what the optimal functioning range should be.

We want more than to just be within the "normal range." We want to be in the optimal functioning range.

Do you want to be "not sick" or do you want to feel like your body is optimally functioning?!

By the way, thyroid imbalance isn’t a cause of something; it is an effect of something further upstream!

How are the adrenals functioning? Do you have a viral or bacterial infection that was never fully dealt with? Is your body dealing with toxic load? Do you have nutritional deficiencies? Is your gut all jacked up?
If thyroid levels are off, we need to dig deeper into the root cause.

So whip out your past lab tests and feast your eyes on these ranges!

NOTE: If your thyroid numbers fall within functional ranges but you are still having symptoms, it could be thyroid resistance, where the thyroid hormones aren't getting into the cells where they are needed, causing hypothyroid symptoms. This could be a receptor issue (partially due to thyroid receptor genes predisposition) or caused by chronic stress/cortisol dysregulation.

While optimal functional ranges vary from practitioner to practitioner, the range is still tighter than the conventional medical range. These are the bare minimum markers you should ask for.

  • TSH: 1.8 - 3.0 mU/L (I've commonly seen this as 1-2 as well, especially in women trying to conceive, so I personally like to see it between 1 and 2.5). Conventional range is 0.45-4.5!

  • Free T4: 1.0 - 1.5 ng/dL

  • Free T3: 3.0 - 4.5 pg/mL

  • Reverse T3: 9.0 - 35 ng/dL - Reverse T3 is produced in cases of extreme or chronic stress, trauma or infection. Rather than producing T3, rT3 is created, which is an unusable form of T3. This slows down your metabolism so that the body can conserve energy. If this is elevated, it's your body's way of saying it needs to rest and repair.

  • Thyroid Peroxidase Antibodies and Thyroglobulin Antibodies: These vary the most between functional medicine practitioners. Some say you want them less than 20, some say less than 10, and I've even seen quite a few ranges say less than 2! I gauge my clients based on symptoms and how they react to certain substances that can indicate

Hopefully your doctor will be receptive to testing for these markers, as well as interpreting them within a functional range.

Also, I'm considering making a video about nutrients that support thyroid functioning, INCLUDING ONES YOU MIGHT WANT TO AVOID. I check nutrient levels and support them before I recommend an outright thyroid supplement like a glandular. Leave a comment if this would be of interest to you!

(If you would like scholarly references, or would like to work with me, please feel free to contact me)

My Bed: The Most Satisfying Purchase I Ever Made

After sleeping on hand-me-down beds for pretty much my entire life, with the end result being an air mattress for about 6 months (til the cat popped it while happily 'kneading bread'), I was ready to make like a grownup and buy a mattress.

But I wasn't just going to buy what was on sale at the local store. Nope, not even. Being the passionate holistic health practitioner I am, I had to be neurotic about chemicals, metal coils, and most importantly, the sag/compression indents that come with nightly use and are terrible for spinal health.

To put it bluntly, I researched the shit out of beds. I went down some deep rabbit holes. I learned more about beds than I ever thought I would, or would care to. I researched memory foam, organic cotton, organic wool, latex, Sleep Number, and even the beds that other health practitioners rave about.

There were two main reasons for my neuroticismFirst, I was pregnant and planning on co-sleeping at least some of the time (and heard that chemicals in beds are toxic). And second, because of my frugality and the endless lengths I will go to to not have to pay a lot of money for something.

If I was going to buy a bed, it had to be The One. I rarely make large purchases and didn't want to feel lifelong buyer's remorse over it.

I gotta tell ya, and I have been telling everyone, "My bed kicks your bed's ass." Because it does. I'd bet money on that statement. 

So what did I end up getting?

A Spindle. The Holy Grail of beds. No, no, it's the pasture-raised, organic bacon of beds. All other beds are just bologna and baloney.

I've had it for about 6 months now and still get giddy thinking about it and how it was the hands-down, best purchase I've ever made. Here are 10 reasons why:

1. Customer service was so awesome that I felt free to tell them all about my horrible sleeping situation (which included finding mold on the underside of the memory foam topper that sat atop my air mattress) and also to ask every question that came up during my crazed research sessions. 

2. My husband and I both like a firm mattress. Spindle's mattresses are customizable due to them being three 3"natural latex foam layers. We chose firm-firm-medium. If we happened to have thought it was too firm/not firm enough, we could ship the layer back and exchange it for the firmness we desired. But get this: YOU HAVE AN ENTIRE YEAR TO DECIDE if that's the sweet-spot of firmness for you!* *please note that it is $150 to make this change, shipping included (because those layers aren't light!).

3. My husband often stays up late working so he comes to bed after I'm asleep. But I don't notice when he does because the "motion transfer" is pretty much non-existent.

4. The outer cover is organic wool. Wool is a natural flame retardant so I could rest easy (pun intended) knowing that my newborn babe wasn't inhaling nasty toxic chemicals that are known to disrupt hormones and cause cancers, infertility and birth defects (and a whole slew of other gnarly problems). Oh, and the wool is from humanely raised sheep!

5. We've all heard stories about mattresses that were supposedly new but were definitely not new on the inside. I know what's inside my bed! It arrived at our house in three boxes. We unrolled the latex foam layers and placed them into the organic cotton and wool cover. It took about 20-30 minutes to assemble (it is a two-person job). Easy peasy.

6. Made in the USA! No sweat shop up in here!

7. The warranty. When I purchased my bed there was a 25 year warranty on a 3/4 inch compression! Holy BALLS! All of the other mattresses I researched had warranties, some of them even for 10 years, but none of them covered compression (you know, the indentation or sag that happens when you sleep in the same spot for a while?). This is what sold me. I didn't get an organic cotton mattress because I had read they get compression rather quickly. This warranty has since changed, but not because of a change in quality. You can read more about it here.

8. No metal coils. According to Scientific American, sleeping on metal springs can act like an antenna for EMF's. Check it: “As we sleep on our coil-spring mattresses, we are in effect sleeping on an antenna that amplifies the intensity of the broadcast FM/TV radiation. Asleep on these antennas, our bodies are exposed to the amplified electromagnetic radiation for a third of our life spans. As we slumber on a metal coil-spring mattress, a wave of electromagnetic radiation envelops our bodies so that the maximum strength of the field develops 75 centimeters above the mattress in the middle of our bodies. When sleeping on the right side, the body’s left side will thereby be exposed to field strength about twice as strong as what the right side absorbs." And most everyone I know sleeps with their cell phone within a few feet of their bed.

9. The price. Price was at the heart of my research. Once I knew I wanted a latex bed (as opposed to a toxic memory foam or metal spring mattress), they were all completely out of my price range. I think the cheapest one I had found started at $2,300 for a queen. Pssh. Spindle rocks their queens at $1,350 - an entire grand cheaper than all the others and WAAAAY better on every level. This is because you get it direct from them - no middle men. And free shipping to boot!

10. Awesome sleep. When my husband woke up after our first night sleeping in the bed he said, "I don't think I moved at all." Me too. We slept so darn soundly. Also, he's got two funky back injuries from snowboarding so his back is super sensitive.

So there you have it. My most satisfying experience involving a bed (joke!). I love my Spindle and I'm a customer for life. You could be too - mark my words, you will not regret it.

I highly recommend you contact them if you have any questions. And if you do want to purchase one, you can use this link and you'll get a 5% discount (that's about $70 for a queen!) and I’ll get a few bucks for sending you their way.

Here's to thrillingly restful sleep!