hormones Archives - Center for Holistic Medicine

The fertility journey can be a life-changing challenge — physically, mentally, and financially. Not only do you have to undergo extensive (and expensive) rounds of shots, hormones, and invasive procedures, but there’s no guarantee of success.

Studies show women under 35 have only a 39% chance of getting pregnant from IVF (in vitro fertilization), and women over 40 have an 11.5% IVF success rate. The chances are even lower with the less-invasive IUI treatments: a 10% to 20% chance of getting pregnant if you’re under 35, and a 2% to 5% if you’re over 40.

That’s why, if you are in the process of undergoing fertility treatments, you want to do everything you can to maximize your chances of conceiving.

So what are the most important things you can do? Tanya Tanzillo, DNP and a functional medicine practitioner at the Center for Holistic Medicine, says reducing your stress, eating a healthy diet, and avoiding toxins are should be at the top of your list.

Here are some of key lifestyle changes you can make to increase your IUI or IVF success rate:

Do deep breathing
Everyone always tells you that stress is counter-productive to getting pregnant, but did you know why? Tanzillo says stress causes an imbalance between free radicals and antioxidants in our body, and that affects the function of our cells. “When we have excessive stress, those minerals that are essential for cell function are depleted,” Tanzillo explains. And that makes all of our systems not function properly, including everything involved in fertility.

Although it can be extremely challenging to let go of worrying about whether your fertility treatments will work or not, it’s key to try to keep your stress under control during this time.

Tanzillo recommends trying to do some deep breathing techniques, such as belly breathing or box breathing. In belly breathing, you can sit up straight or lie on the floor and place one hand on your upper chest and the other hand on your belly. Take a deep breath in through your nose and out through your mouth, breathing from your diaphragm so that your breath causes your belly to rise and fall. In box breathing, breathe out slowly, emptying your lungs of oxygen. Then breathe in slowly for a count of four, filling your lungs with oxygen. Hold your breath for a count of four and then exhale slowly for a count of four. Repeat until you feel calm.
Try Acupuncture
Another great way to potentially improve your IVF success rate is with acupuncture. Acupuncture can slow down your central nervous system, which allows your blood vessels to dilate, bring more blood flow to your uterus and helping with implantation of an embryo. And it can help reduce stress, which can greatly impact fertility rates.
Eat more fruits and vegetables
Because creating an embryo is all about generating healthy new cells, it’s especially important during fertility treatments to avoid eating anything that has a lot of free radicals (like junk foods cooked in saturated fats) and increase your intake of fruits and vegetables, which are full of antioxidants. “I tell my clients to eat the rainbow, and I don’t mean Skittles,” Tanzillo says. “You should be eating five to 10 servings of fruits and vegetables a day.”

She also recommends upping your intake of good fats, such as those from avocados, olive oil, nuts and seeds, as well as healthy proteins, too.
Go organic
Did you know that toxins in our environment can mess with our fertility cycles? Turns out that many everyday items we use — such as flame retardants used in plastics, foams, and building materials; chemicals used in sunscreen lotions; weed killers; pesticides and more — contain chemicals called xenoestrogens, which are chemicals compounds that mimic estrogen in our bodies. When these get inside our bodies, they can confuse the body’s endocrine system, causing everything from early onset of puberty, breast cancer, infertility and more.

During fertility treatments, doctors are carefully balancing your estrogen and progesterone levels to stimulate your egg production, so it’s especially important to stay away from anything that can throw that hormone balance out of whack.

That’s why Tanzillo recommends eating organic produce (especially if it’s anything you’re going to be eating the skin of), as well as eating all organic, grass-fed and non-GMO proteins.
Cut back on alcohol
We all know that drinking during pregnancy is a big no-no, but did you know that drinking during fertility treatments can affect your chances of getting pregnant at all? Tanzillo explains that alcohol elevates prolactin levels, which can throw your hormones out of balance and affect everything from your periods to ovulation and more. “It can definitely influence hormone expression and fertility,” Tanzillo says.
Take supplements
Another easy way to boost your IVF success rate is to add a few supplements to your daily routine. Tanzillo recommends chasteberry, an herb that has been shown to help with infertility; as well as Vitamin B, which is vital to cell function and is commonly depleted by free radicals; Vitamin D, which is also a key ingredient in cell function; and fish oil, which also supports optimal cell function. She also recommends taking an iron supplement because often infertility can be caused by an iron deficiency, as well as probiotics, which can help balance out the acidity of your vaginal canal, which may play a factor in conception as well.
Get to a healthy body mass index
Being at a healthy body weight is another important part of fertility, Tanzillo says. If you’re under 20% body fat, you may be getting a period, but not actually ovulating. And if you’re over 25% body fat, the excess fat may be increasing your estrogen and affecting your fertility as well.

If you haven’t started fertility treatments yet and would like to set up appointment to have your hormone levels tested and get recommendations on how to naturally improve your fertility, contact us to set up an appointment today.

Have you noticed your hair is thinning, you’re perpetually exhausted, your face is puffy, and you can’t stand going out in the cold? These are all signs that you might be experiencing hypothyroidism, specifically Hashimoto’s disease.

Hashimoto’s disease is an autoimmune disorder, also called chronic lymphocytic thyroiditis, in which your antibodies attack healthy thyroid tissue and hamper the function of your thyroid gland. When your thyroid gland isn’t producing an adequate amount of certain hormones, you can start experiencing a host of unwanted symptoms, including:

Fatigue
Weight gain
Sensitivity to cold
Brain fog
Constipation and bloating
Dry skin
Depression and/or anxiety

Hashimoto’s disease is the most common cause of hypothyroidism, responsible for approximately 90 to 95% of cases in the United States. Luckily, when you work with one of our functional medicine or holistic practitioners, you can implement several changes to your diet and lifestyle to naturally improve your thyroid function and combat the root cause of Hashimoto’s disease. Here are four natural things you can try:

1. Change Your Diet

Dr. Jerry Gore, MD, a holistic general medicine practitioner and psychiatrist at the Center for Holistic Medicine, recommends a diet free of white sugar and trans fats. Patients experiencing the draining effects of Hashimoto’s disease may turn to sugar and caffeine to counteract their fatigue, but this will only exacerbate the issue. “It’s important to practice good nutrition and get rid of anything that will cause inflammation or anything that will cause the body to make antibodies for the thyroid,” Dr. Gore says.

Going gluten- and dairy-free has also been shown to improve the lives of people with Hashimoto’s disease. The connection between gluten and thyroid disorders is well established. The protein portion of gluten, called gliadin, has a molecular structure that is almost identical to that of the thyroid gland, and the same reaction that prompts their body to attack the cells of the thyroid also occurs when gluten is in the body because the body thinks it’s thyroid gland tissue. So eliminating gluten from your diet removes the possibility that your system is attacking the gluten proteins in your bloodstream in addition to your thyroid gland.

So what foods can you eat? Dr. Gore recommends incorporating foods with good fats — such as avocado, fish, nuts, flax seed, olive oil, and coconut oil — and adding protein to your diet in the form of grass-fed meats and eggs. And, of course, try to eat as many nutrient-dense vegetables as you can.

Also, Dr. Gore recommends eliminating foods from your diet that you already know cause a negative reaction. When your body detects inflammatory foods it dislikes, your autoimmune system will be sent into overdrive, which further aggravates your symptoms.

2. Check Your Gut

As Hippocrates once famously said, “All disease begins in the gut.” Testing your gastrointestinal function is a crucial step to ensure your gut is healthy and not contributing to your Hashimoto’s disease.

“It’s important to ensure patients have the right probiotics onboard and that they are not harboring any infections they didn’t previously know about,” says Dr. Gore.

Normally, your thyroid gland produces a thyroid hormone called T4. Most of it must be converted to T3, a more biologically active form of the hormone, for proper thyroid health, and 20% of this conversion takes place in your gut. If your gut microbiome has been damaged, this process may be disrupted. Building back your gut microbiome with the correct probiotics is a common natural treatment for Hashimoto’s disease.

3. Take Natural Supplements

Your adrenal hormones and thyroid hormones are connected, and most people who suffer from Hashimoto’s disease often experience adrenal fatigue.

If you come into the Center with Hashimoto’s disease, you will be tested for vitamin and mineral deficiencies, which can detect naturally low levels of vitamins, such as the B vitamins, magnesium and vitamin C in your body that help support your adrenals.

Then, once your levels are determined, your doctor may recommend you take supplements to get your adrenal hormones and thyroid hormones working properly. “For people with Hashimoto’s, zinc and selenium and iodine are really important supplements,” Dr. Gore says.

4. Reduce Your Stress

“Stressful lives can cause major problems” for people suffering from hypothyroidism, notes Dr. Gore. At the Center for Holistic Medicine, new patients with symptoms of Hashimoto’s disease are taught stress-reduction techniques like mindfulness and breathing exercises to help reduce cortisol and keep your stress under control.

Dr. Gore offers a salivary test to measure adrenal cortisols and takes a thorough history to get a good handle on the stress and lifestyle factors of Hashimoto’s disease. Dr. Gore also may recommend that people take natural supplements like amino acids and vitamins to naturally fight both anxiety and depression.

Are you ready to take control of your Hashimoto’s disease? Schedule an appointment with Dr. Gore or another functional medicine practitioner to assess your symptoms and form an action plan to treat your hypothyroidism with holistic, natural methods.

Tag: hormones

7 Ways to Boost Your IVF Success

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