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Nourish Your Body for Fertility Series, Part 3: Minerals Matter · Nourished Fertility

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  Welcome back to the nourishing women podcast.
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  This is Victoria Myers, your podcast host, period recovery specialist
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  and fertility registered dietitian.
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  And remember, we've been talking all in this series about how fertility
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  is an energy intensive process, right?
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  It requires a lot of energy.
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  And to make that energy every cell.
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  And your body requires minerals.
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  Minerals are the spark plug to your cells.
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  Every cell requires minerals to make energy, to make hormones, to signal
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  hormones and make enzymes, which is the focus of today's episode.
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  Part three in this nourishing your body for fertility series.
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  So welcome and let's dig in.
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  We need to replenish minerals because most of our food doesn't
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  have enough of it anymore.
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  And because when we are highly stressed, as all of our clients are
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  that we work with, you know, everyone is type a highly professionalistics
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  tends to struggle with anxiety.
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  And that relates a lot to their food and body image struggles.
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  It means that we demand more minerals because we're burning
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  through them so much more quickly.
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  But it's also because you've been dieting for years.
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  The sad truth is that dieting, disordered eating, and eating disorders
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  are incredibly damaging to the body.
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  I do not say this to upset you, but rather to empower you that your desire
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  to heal is truly what your body needs.
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  More than anything with our clients, we focus on every single area of healing
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  required so that your body becomes truly healthy, truly nourished as a result,
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  therefore restoring your fertility.
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  And this does mean identifying food rules and challenging those food fears you
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  have analyzing what's really underneath the silly little rules I've dictated
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  most of your life, which, you know, 99.
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  9 percent of the time is about your beliefs, about your body.
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  It means allowing the body grief, giving yourself unconditional
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  permission to eat and make peace with food, as well as eating enough and
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  truly giving your body enough of the foods you've had off limits for far
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  too long, especially carbs and fat.
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  But, It also means replenishing your minerals after years of not eating enough.
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  After years of dieting, your body needs mineral support just as much as it needs
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  healing your relationship with food, body image healing, nervous system regulation,
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  nutrient dense foods, and eating enough.
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  These are all the areas that we support our clients with, and it's why we are so
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  passionate, too, about mineral support,
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  it's part of our unique signature methodology in how we help our
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  clients in our Premier Program.
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  And, you know, this, this need for mineral support, it's true whether or not
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  fertility is involved, But if fertility is the focus, it is a necessity to a
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  healthy pregnancy and while eating enough is the focus of how to turn back on
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  the ovulation switch and create enough hormones, minerals are involved in the
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  signaling of hormones as well as the other areas of preconception planning.
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  According to Aya Barmer, preconception planning involves
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  hormone balance, allowing for follicle development and ovulation.
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  This is our key area with our clients, but we also help with next steps too.
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  It involves identifying and timing intercourse for the fertility window.
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  Why fertility tracking is so important is something we also do with our clients.
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  Uh, number three, healthy cervical mucus to allow sperm to survive and make their
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  way to the egg, is dependent on hormone balance as well as good nutrition.
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  Egg itself must be of good quality, and this is why part two was so important.
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  There's nutrient dense foods that really support mitochondrial health,
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  DNA programming, and epigenetics.
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  All of that, again, in part two, as well as sperm with good motility, morphology,
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  and overall quality to make its way to the egg and allow for fertilization.
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  Again, another reason why nutrient dense foods and then men also
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  nourishing their bodies properly for fertility is important.
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  Number six, fertilization, and then embryo development.
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  Finally, number eight, fetal development period, first trimester and beyond.
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  And finally, number nine, maintaining pregnancy, lowering
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  the risk of miscarriage.
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  So this is all.
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  Preconception planning.
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  So know that minerals are involved in every stage of this.
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  Minerals are the foundation to fertility.
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  Minerals like magnesium, potassium, sodium, calcium, copper, zinc, and iron.
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  We want before pregnancy, To be a time of mineral replenishment, you want
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  to be in the positive because nothing demands more nutrition than creating
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  human life and your body's needs in the process to making that beautiful baby.
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  Nothing will deplete you more than pregnancy and postpartum.
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  So we don't want to start off in a deficit and this is by
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  with every client we work with.
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  After they get their first recovery period, we order an HTMA or hair
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  tissue mineral analysis to assess their mineral status and develop a
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  customized game plan based on their personal results, their unique needs,
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  so that they can start off pregnancy in a state of nutrient replenishment.
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  This is why it's important to eat nutrient dense foods, but also why.
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  Testing is important so we can supplement specifically to your unique needs and even
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  look at other ways to increase minerals like through daily mineral mocktails.
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  Minerals are also involved in how vitamins function, which is crucial
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  for how DNA programming happens.
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  Remember that egg and sperm quality, Those nutrients that we talked about
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  last week, like B12, folate, well, they all need minerals to support the DNA
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  programming that they are in charge of.
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  Minerals help everything in the body work properly.
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  They are essential too for mitochondria because they help with energy
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  production, protection, and repair.
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  You can think of minerals like the tools and building blocks that
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  mitochondria need to function properly.
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  So how do we test?
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  We test again through an HTMA or hair tissue mineral analysis, which
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  tells us key mineral imbalances identifying imbalances of essential
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  minerals like calcium, magnesium, potassium and zinc, which plays
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  a crucial role in body function.
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  It also tells us about heavy metals and can detect toxic metals
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  like lead, mercury, and aluminum, which can impact health if they
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  accumulate in the body over time.
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  And they can also test for metabolic patterns.
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  The HTMA can indicate trends in metabolic health, such as adrenal
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  and thyroid activity, the stress response, and oxidative stress levels.
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  Some key mineral deficiencies that may impact your hormones and fertility
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  include a deficiency in magnesium since it's so essential for progesterone
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  production, reducing stress, preventing miscarriage, Another one would
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  be zinc, which is crucial for egg quality, ovulation, and sperm health.
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  We want to be aware if there's a mineral deficiency in selenium because it
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  supports thyroid function and reduces oxidative stress on reproductive cells.
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  We want to be aware if there's something going on with your copper and iron
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  balance, especially because excess copper or low iron can cause estrogen dominance
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  or poor oxygen transport to the uterus, As well as deficiencies in calcium
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  and potassium, which are essential for proper cell signaling energy production,
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  and that can impact ovarian function.
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  The HMA also assesses ratios between minerals that can indicate
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  underlying hormonal imbalances, for example, calcium and magnesium ratio.
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  This affects estrogen progesterone balance.
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  Your sodium potassium ratio, which indicates adrenal function, stress levels,
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  and thyroid activity, and your zinc and copper ratio, which influences estrogen
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  metabolism and overall fertility health.
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  The HTMA can also assess thyroid function without blood work, since
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  the thyroid is critical for fertility.
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  The HTMA can show imbalances in minerals, which support thyroid health.
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  You know, most of our clients have signs of an unhealthy thyroid,
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  even with normal lab values.
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  due to the malnutrition and the way dieting impacts the thyroid.
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  So it's important to note here that if you have been diagnosed
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  or believe you have hypothalamic amenorrhea or HA, your thyroid is
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  also affected from the low intake and high stress that your body is under.
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  This is why too most people with HA almost always struggle with cold
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  hands, brittle hair and nails, fatigue, afternoon slumps, constipation.
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  It's because of your thyroid functioning.
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  Again, even if your lab values come back normal.
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  We always want you to do a full thyroid panel with your doctor,
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  but also, you know, this test can give us more insight into what's
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  going on with your thyroid too.
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  Ultimately, an HTMA or hair tissue mineral analysis can help us, instead
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  of guessing, provide a data driven insight into what specific minerals
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  your body needs for fertility.
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  It supplementation is truly needed and guides proper electrolyte
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  balance, which is crucial for egg maturation and implantation.
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  So minerals matter.
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  They matter so much, and they are an important role
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  in supporting your fertility.
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  For you, if you have a missing or an irregular period, an annulatory period,
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  or even short luteal phases, We have gone through this series in a very
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  specific way because I do not want you focusing on minerals before you focus on
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  eating enough but minerals matter too.
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  Each of these four parts of this series is areas that we address
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  with our clients and honestly, this is the way that we address it.
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  We focus on eating enough and then nutrients, foods, and then minerals.
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  And then next week we're going to talk about lifestyle choices, your habits.
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  We call it wellness without obsession here.
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  We're going to talk about that and how that impacts your fertility too,
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  but please know that your minerals are a part of this important process
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  of boosting your fertility too.
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  And if you're interested in HMA testing, whether you do that through
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  our Premier Period Recovery for Fertility program, or you buy tests
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  just on its own, both of those links are included in our show notes.
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  Thank you so much for listening to today's episode.
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  I will be back for part four next week.
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  Until then, love to each of you.