Three Ways To Naturally Support Fertility
Do you want to increase fertility? Have you been wanting to optimize hormone balance? In this video, Dr. Hayden and Dr. Horsley discuss three things you can do to help improve hormone balance and can create a healthier environment for conception.
Stay tuned over the next few days as we continue to send out short videos to help inform and inspire you to take control of your health during this time of uncertainty.
Transcript from Video:
Dr. Hayden: The most common request we get from patients in the office is what they can do to help to balance their hormones – sleep disturbances, weight gain, difficulty getting pregnant, PMS, mood swings… hormones do a lot of crazy things in our life. Today we wanted to give you a couple of quick things that you can do in your life to help if you are trying to get pregnant. Fertility is a common request that we have in the office from a dietary standpoint. Though we are chiropractors we see see a lot of patients for nutritional counseling, plus, Dr. Horsley is an acupuncturist. There are a lot of requests in the office for these non-chiropractic therapies as well.
Dr. Hayden: We are going to make a list of the top three things that individuals could do in their life that would potentially try to increase their odds of getting pregnant. What might be the first things that you may suggest, Dr. Horsley?
Dr. Horsley: The first things I would way is blood sugar management. Blood sugar is key to hormone balance.
Dr. Hayden: So when you say blood sugar management, what does that really mean?
Dr. Horsley: Blood sugar deals with many different aspects of hormones because it deals with how we bring sugar into our cells. When we’re going through our day we often have different crashes in energy, in which we will often reach for a sugary snack, resulting in a spike in blood sugar – increasing our perceived energy. However, this will rapidly drop again as this sugar floods into our cells – making us feel tired again. This roller coaster of blood sugar results in certain symptoms such as getting “hangry” or dramatic levels of fatigue in the middle of the day. Those are symptoms that are related to blood sugar imbalance. Our hormones will not be able to balance because the body prioritizes proper blood sugar management over feeding our different glands that are in control of hormone production.
Dr. Hayden: Often we we think of the term “blood sugar” we think of diabetes. However, you’re saying that you don’t have to have diabetes to have blood sugar issues and how it affects the potential of having issues with fertility.
Dr. Horsley: Diabetes is more when sugar levels rise in the blood, and stay risen, due to insulin resistance. This results in an inability for the sugar to come into the cells. Whereas, what I’m more talking about is reactive hypoglycemia. This form of blood sugar mismanagement is very common in society. In this pattern, we do have the sugar coming into the cells, but it has the more roller coaster pattern. What is tricky about reactive hypoglycemia is that hemoglobin A1C, or things that look at long term blood sugar, may look normal. This is because hemoglobin A1C looks at average blood sugar over a period of time, and what is the average of a roller coaster – right about normal. This may result in many of these conditions flying under the radar.
Dr. Hayden: So therefore, if someone wanted to balance out their blood sugar, they would look for a lower carbohydrate diet – they would get off the sweets and the sodas and candy. They may look into trying to eat more frequently throughout the day instead of having the ups and downs like you’re talking about. Those may be the first things that you would recommend for someone who is trying to conceive that may have had a little struggle with it?
Dr. Horsley: Yes, that would be a great start.
Dr. Hayden: The second thing that I would recommend if you’re going to look for things to help with fertility would be to look at other ways to support the nutritional system – herbally or supplementally. One of the most common and researched herbs for fertility is chaste tree extract. Chaste tree has a way of helping to support the progesterone pathways in the body. Estrogen and progesterone are two female hormones that are often disrupted in individuals that don’t get pregnant as quickly as they would like. Blood sugar mismanagement causes estrogen to go up, when estrogen goes up, progesterone goes down. If we balance out blood sugar that allows estrogen to change. Doing something like chaste tree is a way to get the progesterone to come up to a better range, so conception can happen. So obviously there are a lot of herbs or supplements or minerals that someone could potentially do, but if I was randomly walking down the aisles of Sprouts or Whole Foods or something and I was a female that was looking to try to increase my progesterone potential because I was looking to get pregnant, I’d probably look at something like chaste tree. Dosing is going to be different for everyone – different requirements for different people. Obviously talk to someone who knows what they are talking about for nutritional support and therapeutic interventions. Chaste tree could increase progesterone, therefore helping someone to more likely conceive, at the same time as they are trying to balance blood sugar – bring that down, to help lower estrogen and make hormone stability a little bit better.
Dr. Hayden: So first two tips: 1. manage this blood sugar more efficiently and 2. possibly look at different herbs, something like chaste tree, that increases progesterone activity in their life. What would be the third thing someone could do to help increase their possibility of having a baby?
Dr. Horsley: Acupuncture is a great therapy that has been used for centuries and has been shown to have some efficacy in helping with fertility. A lot of the benefits of acupuncture are achieved by its influence on blood flow. For instance, by helping to change blood flow more to the ovary and uterine region, this helps to increase the potential for conception. Acupuncture has been shown through actual peer reviewed case studies to help with fertility. What was very interesting to me that there was a lot of research with acupuncture and in vitro fertilization. There were several studies last year, in 2019, that electroacupuncture helps to increase oocytes (egg production) as well as increases fertility in a lot of women undergoing in vitro fertilization. There are a lot of other research studies that show acupuncture helping to increase natural fertility, natural conception as well.
Dr. Hayden: So I should go get some sewing needles and just find some random spots throughout my body and just start sticking needles?
Dr. Horsley: Haha, no – potentially not.
Dr. Horsley: I would highly encourage finding someone that is well trained in acupuncture as opposed to grabbing some darts or sewing needles. There are definitely specific points that can be used to help with that optimization process.
Dr. Hayden: So as a non-acupuncturist, as a chiropractor that still works with women that are pregnant, there are certain areas of the body that I know I should avoid, is that true with acupuncture as well? Is it possible that something like acupuncture that stimulates the body can also be used as a way to prevent the body from getting pregnant or help the baby come out once the mother is already pregnant?
Dr. Horsley: Yes, it can definitely be used to help with stimulating labor. There are certain points in a pregnant woman that I tend to avoid because how they stimulate movement, and how over the centuries they have been associated with potentially stimulating labor. So there are points that can be used during that later end of pregnancy to stimulate labor. Therefore, there are also points that I typically use or points that I avoid specifically when trying to increase fertility.
Dr. Hayden: So if I understand correctly, if I was someone who was trying to increase fertility, male or female, balancing out blood sugar would be a good start. Additionally, herbal applications – we mentioned chaste tree, for helping progesterone in women, but whatever is specifically needed by that individual. Also, something like acupuncture can be used therapeutically as something to increase fertility, increase the possibility of bringing the body back into balance to allow for conception.
Dr. Horsley: One thing I also want to mention, since we mentioned chaste tree for women, there are also a couple other herbal extracts for men that are great options. One of them is tribulus, because of how that works in the testosterone pathway. Which is going to be very important for men in that fertilization process as well. So that’s whats great – male or female, balancing hormones and using certain herbs that are best for your hormonal pathways can be very beneficial in association also with acupuncture. So these are some great options to try during this time of trying to balance hormones.
Dr. Hayden: These are three different things that you can do to possibly implement to help balance the body and create an environment that is possible for conception.