Dad Matters: The Reason You're Not Getting Pregnant Part II
The father's impact on future generations has been more closely studied through a factor called epigenetics.
Infertility in women is a widely discussed topic. Stress levels impact both DHEA and cortisol levels, which in turn have an effect on a mother's estrogen and progesterone levels. These levels dictate reproductive health, and being anxious about getting pregnant, or anything else, isn't going to help matters. But here’s where it gets even more interesting: according to the National Infertility Association, 30% of fertility issues can be attributed to the father’s health, stress level, and overall well being [1]. And many of these issues are largely overlooked and unaddressed.
In recent years, the father's impact on future generations has been more closely studied through a factor called epigenetics. Epigenetics refers to the chemical reactions that create changes in genetic expression without changing the DNA sequencing. In plain English, a parent cannot choose the genetic material they pass on to a child, but they can influence it by overall health and lifestyle choices before the child is born. In fact, a study recently published by researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center claims that fathers are contributing much more to their children than previously thought.
With male infertility playing a big role in the chances of getting pregnant, it is important to look at the father’s lifestyle choices.
Sperm quality can be linked to nutrition, nicotine use, age, and caffeine consumption [2]. And this is a generational cycle. Behaviors of the potential parent’s father and even grandfather could have an effect on future children. While this may sound like it's all out your hands and predetermined, this is far from the truth. In fact, epigenetics itself tells us that you're still in the driver's seat to a degree, especially when it comes to fertility.
Emotional stress can interfere with certain hormones that are involved in sperm production. If the brain fails to release enough gonadotrophic-releasing hormone (GnRH) due to stress, a disruption in this hormone can lead to a lack of testosterone and diminished sperm production. Eliminating stress and other underlying issues from the father's life can bring GnRH and testosterone back to normal levels and increase the chances of successfully conceiving a baby. Removing stress will also influence the genetic traits passed on to a child, creating a healthier life for the child from the get-go.
If you are struggling to get pregnant, the best way to achieve success is through proper testing and correcting the cause. Many of these causes are not only affecting your fertility but are also likely holding you back from leading a healthy life, which will impact the health and wellbeing of your future children (epigenetics). Fixing the "why"
is always the best and healthiest solution. It’s time to start taking charge of your fertility, and functional medicine can help.
Go here to read Part I of this series. Stress The Real Reason You're Not Getting Pregnant
https://resolve.org/infertility-101/medical-conditions/male-factor/
http://natural-fertility-info.com/studies-male-infertility.html
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Heidi Toy Functional Medicine Blog
Did you know most people didn’t have refrigerators in their homes until well into the 1900’s? It wasn’t even invented for large scale commercial use until the mid 1800’s [1]. So how did people keep their milk cold and make their food last longer? Fermentation. It sounds like a gross concept, because we often associate fermentation with a bad odor, but foods like cheese, yogurt, sauerkraut and pickles are all fermented foods. And those aren’t gross, are they? Well, some might disagree with me about sauerkraut, but that’s beside the point. Fermented foods are digestive aids. Microscopic living organisms in fermented foods help extend the food’s shelf life, enhance flavor, and help the body absorb minerals. These organisms pre-digest the food, getting rid of harmful components, and create more vitamins and enzymes than the food began with. Enzyme-rich foods have many benefits including [2]: Increase digestibility of food we eat Boost immune system Increase alkalinity; neutralizing pH levels Provide a healthy balance of friendly flora in the gut (Learn more about your microbiome in my other blog posts ) Tone the colon and help with elimination Control cravings for unhealthier foods Eliminate toxins and undigested wastes in the body In the “old days,” people use to ferment all kinds of foods through pickling, canning, pasteurization and added salt. Nowadays, however, large scale fermentation has lost many of its nutritious benefits due to the need for speed to get the product on the shelf as fast as possible and as cheap as possible. The only true fermented foods you will find are sauerkraut, kombucha, yogurt and kefir, beans, wine and beer, some meats (such as salami and pastrami), legumes and nuts (such as tofu, soy sauce and miso), sourdough bread, and various kinds of vegetables [3]. Fun facts about sauerkraut: The Germans “stole” it from the Chinese! Sauerkraut (probably not labeled as such for the Chinese, but the same recipe) was one of the main foods for those who built the Great Wall of China. Genghis Khan brought it to Eastern Europe during an invasion. It also contains high levels of vitamin C, and sailors often took it on long journeys to prevent scurvy.
How can we best keep blood sugar stable? Do what our body is designed to do – use fat for energy. Our species did not survive the Ice Age because of vanilla coffee lattes and cheesecake. Throughout most of our history, we ate a diet that was likely 50-70 percent fat. Look at the old family photo albums, specifically pictures of people in the first half of the 1900s, before we had so many processed foods. You won’t see many fat people--in fact, most look darn skinny. If they lived on the farm, they ate lots of eggs, meat, milk, and vegetables out of their own backyards. “Diet foods” were non-existent. Heart disease was almost non-existent. Our metabolism is designed to work much better with fats better than with sugar. Fats provide the slow and steady fuel our body likes to use for energy. Think of fats as a slow-burning log on the fire. One log (i.e. one meal containing fats) lasts for hours. Starchy carbs, on the flip side, are like kindling. You constantly have to throw more twigs (chips, pasta, bagels) to keep the fire burning. The first step is to know your sugars by reading the labels, and then avoid said sugars as much as possible.
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Omega-3 and Omega-6 are considered “essential” fatty acids because they cannot be produced by the body--we get them from the food we eat. They are biologically active upon ingestion, which means the body utilizes them right away and cannot store them up for later. They are essential because they help with both inflammatory and anti-inflammatory responses.
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