Recurrent Miscarriage & Infertility

How to Prevent Pregnancy Loss and Recurrent Miscarriages

Part Three: Identifying the Underlying Causes – Page 3

prevent pregnancy loss

Part Three:
Strategies You Can Follow To Help Balance Your Body & Potentially Reverse Infertility — Page 3

Even if you do not work with a Functional Medicine practitioner to address and correct these problems, there are several strategies that you can follow on your own to help balance your body and potentially reverse infertility.

Strategies You Can Follow To Help Balance Your Body & Potentially Reverse Infertility

 

Eat Clean

  • Remove processed foods, sugary foods and industrial seed oils (vegetable oils like canola, safflower, etc.).
  • Increase the good fats (olive oil, coconut oil, butter, avocado, and nuts) and increase lean animal protein.
  • Remove inflammation promoting foods like dairy, gluten/wheat products and non-organic soy.
  • Eat the rainbow! Go for 10 servings a day of brightly colored fruits and veggies. 1 serving = 1 cup of leafy greens, ½ cup of solid veggies or fruits.
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EAT CLEAN

Strategies You Can Follow To Help Balance Your Body & Potentially Reverse Infertility

 

Take Your Vitamins

  • Make sure you are taking adequate vitamin D, omega 3s, and methylated forms of B vitamins like folate, B12 and B6.
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TAKE YOUR VITAMINS

Strategies You Can Follow To Help Balance Your Body & Potentially Reverse Infertility

 

Balance Your Gut

  • Optimizing gut health is the key to reversing chronic disease and improving hormonal balance. If you suspect you have gut issues like leaky gut, IBS or GERD/reflux, work with a Functional Medicine practitioner to correct them.
  • Make sure to feed your beneficial bacteria with fermented foods and food sources of fiber, also known as prebiotics.
  • Take a daily probiotic to support a healthy gut ecosystem.
  • Consider an elimination diet if you have food sensitivities (i.e. remove gluten, dairy, soy, corn, eggs and sugar for 2 to 3 weeks) and see how you feel.
  • Look for any infections or overgrowth of yeast, parasites or small bowel bacteria and treat them appropriately.
  • Consider taking digestive enzymes with your food if you have digestive issues.
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BALANCE YOUR GUT

Strategies You Can Follow To Help Balance Your Body & Potentially Reverse Infertility

 

Exercise Regularly and the Right Amount

  • Studies show that moderate exercise 30 minutes for 5 days a week has many health benefits including reducing heart disease risk, cancer risk and diabetes risk.
  • Consistent exercise is also important for balancing hormones, reducing sugar cravings and improving fertility.
  • Moderate exercise improves fertility among overweight and obese women. However, normal weight women should avoid vigorous exercise as this has been shown to increase miscarriage risk. (15)
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EXERCISE REGULARLY & THE RIGHT AMOUNT

Strategies You Can Follow To Help Balance Your Body & Potentially Reverse Infertility

 

Reduce Your Stress

  • Stress is a part of everyday living, however, chronic, unremitting stress may lead to hormone imbalance, insulin resistance, leaky gut and infertility. (16)
  • Consider including stress reducing activities DAILY such as yoga, meditation, walking outside in nature, dancing, daily gratitude journaling – whatever helps you to distress. Playing video games, watching television, posting on Facebook and/or watching Youtube will not provide the same level of stress reduction and in fact, can create the opposite effect.
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REDUCE YOUR STRESS

Strategies You Can Follow To Help Balance Your Body & Potentially Reverse Infertility

 

Get Good Sleep

  • Studies confirm that sleep disturbances can affect hormone balance and contribute to infertility by affecting the circadian rhythm. (17)
  • 8 hours of quality sleep night can improve your general health, hormone balance and reduce risks of infertility.
  • Aim for getting to bed by 10pm.
  • Eliminate blue light exposure (computer, Ipad, Iphone, TV screens 2 hours before getting to bed).
  • Avoid giving in to the “second wind” phenomena: if you stay up late enough and avoid going to bed when you are tired, you will get a rise in cortisol that will keep you wide awake for hours.
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GET GOOD SLEEP

Strategies You Can Follow To Help Balance Your Body & Potentially Reverse Infertility

 

Reduce Toxic Exposures

  • Avoid drinking out of plastic water bottles or eating or storing food in plastic containers. Instead use glass, ceramic or stainless steel.
  • Filter your water and consider showerhead filtration systems.
  • Consider getting a home air-filter to reduce indoor toxins.
  • Eat lots of vegetables and fruits to boost your natural internal cleansing capacity.
  • Try to use more natural personal care products. Also, read the labels: if you don’t understand an ingredient, it is probably best to avoid it. Beware of perfumes and “natural fragrances or natural coloring.”
  • Sweat it out, take advantage of saunas to sweat out the toxins through your skin.
  • Take a nightly magnesium salt bath.
  • Try to eat organic food when possible, focus on the “dirty dozen” list of the 12 fruits and vegetables with the highest pesticide content and buy those organically when possible.
  • Check out the Environmental Working Group’s page (http://www.ewg.org) to learn about reducing chemical exposure.
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REDUCE TOXIC EXPOSURES

prevent pregnancy loss by sweating out toxins

Following the above strategies will help you achieve optimal health and lower your risk of pregnancy loss. If you still don’t believe in the connection between optimal health and a healthy pregnancy, consider the following research:

Infertility Data:

  • One study compared 600 women in the UK whose most recent pregnancy ended in first trimester miscarriage and 6,000 women whose pregnancy had progressed beyond 12 weeks. Women who took vitamin supplements during early pregnancy reduced their risk of miscarriage by 50%. (6)
  • Eating fresh fruits and vegetables daily or on most days of the week, reduced the risk of miscarriage by 50%. (6)
  • Regular or high alcohol consumption during the first trimester had a significantly increased risk of miscarriage. (6)
  • Vitamin D insufficiency is associated with increased risk of first trimester miscarriage, according to a study published in the American Journal of clinical nutrition, 2015. (7)
  • A meta-analysis published in Fertility and Sterility Journal reported that obese women had a 67% increased risk of miscarriage compared to women of normal weight. (8, 9)
  • A review of the literature published in 2015 supports a link between healthy diet and lower risk of pregnancy loss. (10)
  • Higher maternal intake of folate was associated with reduced risk of miscarriage in the first trimester and reduced risk of stillbirth. (11)
  • Exercising one hour or more a day increases miscarriage risk by 270%; risk drops after 18 weeks. A study investigating the association between exercise during pregnancy and risk of miscarriage among more than 90,000 pregnant women found that exercising 1–44 minutes/week was not associated with an increased risk of miscarriage. However, the largest risk estimate was seen in women who exercised more than 419 minutes, especially high impact exercise. No association was seen between exercise and risk of miscarriage after 18 weeks of gestation.(14)
  • Smoking and obesity are factors directly related to infertility and increased miscarriage rate. (12)
 

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Women who took vitamin supplements during early pregnancy reduced their risk of miscarriage by 50%.

 

%

Eating fresh fruits and vegetables daily or on most days of the week, reduced the risk of miscarriage by 50%.

 

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Obese women had a 67% increased risk of miscarriage compared to women of normal weight.

 
A meta-analysis published in Fertility and Sterility Journal reported that obese women had a 67% increased risk of miscarriage compared to women of normal weight.

Determining whether you are leading a healthy lifestyle through your own assessment and/or a Functional Medicine practitioner is crucial to achieving your goal to prevent pregnancy loss. Once you determine the areas that you need to improve, employing the above strategies will help you ultimately achieve optimal health and lower your risk of pregnancy loss and infertility. In this regard, also consider the following:

  • Create as much health in your body as you can to assure a successful pregnancy. This is largely ignored by both health care specialists and patients alike. As discussed above, research shows healthy (and unhealthy) lifestyle factors can directly impact a pregnancy.
  • Taking steps to assess your lifestyle factors and optimize your health takes patience and time commitment. For those of you suffering from infertility, a history of a stillbirth or repeated miscarriages, there is a sense of urgency to quickly achieve a pregnancy. In these circumstances, getting these fundamental pillars of health in order is simply not on the agenda as a critical part of the process, partly because this is not recognized as a powerful treatment option but also because for most of us making these lifestyle changes seems too time-consuming and too difficult to master. But aren’t we interested not ONLY in getting pregnant, and preventing pregnancy loss or miscarriage but also in helping to develop and grow a healthy baby?

Thus, I urge you to consider taking a deeper look at your health and well-being. Your body is highly intelligent and can teach your practitioner all they need to know to help you to achieve optimal health, optimize your fertility and to have a healthy pregnancy. One of the most empowering ways to take charge of your fertility is to eliminate any feelings of insecurity you may have when you embark on your pregnancy journey. Leave no stone unturned and create the optimal internal environment both physically and emotionally that will give you the best chances for a healthy pregnancy outcome. If you already have pre-existing conditions (diabetes, hypertension, autoimmune disease, colitis, inflammatory bowel disorders, blood clotting disorders, gynecologic conditions, multiple miscarriages or have been diagnosed with unexplained infertility,) it is best to consider working with a Functional Medicine practitioner who has expertise in this area. However, YOU can take key steps on your own to improve your health and fertility by following the steps outlined.

References:

  1. Evaluation and treatment of recurrent pregnancy loss: a committee opinion The Practice Committee of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine. Fertility and Sterility vol. 98 No. 5 November 2012.
  2. Excerpt from Miscarriageassociation.org
  3. Anesthesia, Pregnancy, and Miscarriage: A Study of Operating Room Nurses and Anesthetists. Anesthesiology vol 35 No.4 October 1971.
  4. Occupational exposure in dentistry and miscarriage. Occup Environ Med. 2007 Feb; 64 (2): 127-133.
  5. Occupational exposures among nurses and risk of spontaneous abortion. Presented at the 3rd North American Congress of Epidemiology, Montreal, QC, Canada, June 21-24, 2011, and the National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA) Symposium 2011, Cincinnati, OH, July 12-13, 2011.
  6. BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology online Risk factors for first trimester miscarriage – results from a UK-population-based case-control study. 2007 N Maconochie, P Doyle, S Prior, R Simmons. Department of Epidemiology and Population Health, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, UK, BJOG.
  7. Vitamin D insufficiency is associated with increased risk of first-trimester miscarriage in the Odense Child Cohort; Andersen, Jorgensen et al. The Am J Clin Nutr, July 15, 2015.
  8. Effect of women’s nutrition before and during early pregnancy on maternal and infant outcomes: a systematic review. Ramakrishnan U, Grant F, Goldenberg T, Zongrone A, Martorell R Paediatr Perinat Epidemiol. 2012 Jul;26 Suppl 1:285-30.
  9. Fertil Steril. 2008 Sep;90(3):714-26. Epub 2008 Feb 6. Does high body mass index increase the risk of miscarriage after spontaneous and assisted conception? A meta-analysis of the evidence.
  10. Curr Nutr Rep. 2015 Sep;4(3):265-272. Epub 2015 Jun 25. Prepregnancy Nutrition and Early Pregnancy Outcomes. Gaskins AJ1, Toth TL2, Chavarro JE3
  11. Obstet Gynecol. 2014 Jul;124(1):23-31 Maternal prepregnancy folate intake and risk of spontaneous abortion and stillbirth. Gaskins AJ1, Rich-Edwards JW, Hauser R, Williams PL, Gillman MW, Ginsburg ES, Missmer SA, Chavarro JE.
  12. The Impact of Lifestyle Risk Factors on Female Infertility. Susan Kelly-Weeder Ph.D. and APRN and BC & Cheryl Lorane Cox Ph.D. and RN St. Jude Faculty, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, 332 North Lauderdale Street, Memphis, TN, 38105
  13. Reprod Biol Endocrinol. 2013; 11: 66. Published online 2013 Jul 16. Lifestyle factors and reproductive health: taking control of your fertility Rakesh Sharma,1 Kelly R Biedenharn,1 Jennifer M Fedor,1 and Ashok Agarwal 1
  14. Leisure time physical exercise during pregnancy and the risk of miscarriage: a study within the Danish National Birth Cohort M Madsen, et al Department of Child Health, Copenhagen, Denmark, Department of Epidemiology. September 2007, Published OnlineEarly.
  15. Fertil Steril. 2012 May. Epub 2012 Mar 15.A prospective cohort study of physical activity and time to pregnancy.Wise LA1, Rothman KJ, Mikkelsen EM, Sørensen HT, Riis AH, Hatch EE.
  16. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 1998 Jun;83(6):1853-9. Stress-related cortisol secretion in men: relationships with abdominal obesity and endocrine, metabolic and hemodynamic abnormalities. Rosmond R1, Dallman MF, Björntorp P.
  17. Sleep Med Rev. 2015 Aug;22:78-87. doi: 10.1016/j.smrv.2014.10.005. Epub 2014 Oct 18. Sleep, sleep disturbance, and fertility in women. Kloss JD1, Perlis ML2, Zamzow JA3, Culnan EJ3, Gracia CR4.