Infertility Problems and Nutrition


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Nutrition and infertility Nowadays lots of couples have infertility problems. Infertility means not being able to become pregnant after a year of trying. If a woman keeps having miscarriages, it is also called infertility. It’s very important to underline that about a third of the time infertility can be traced to the woman. However, in another third of cases, it is because of the man. And in the rest of cases, it is because of both partners or no cause is found.

If you or your spouse is affected by infertility (age-related or secondary), it may be connected in large part to nutrition-related conditions. These include subclinical undernutrition, food allergies, digestive disorders, pelvic constriction, metabolic syndrome, circulation inhibitors, overhydration, and fertility disruptors in presumably healthy foods and supplements.

Undernutrition and Infertility

Undernutrition is a borderline state between adequate nutrition and malnutrition. Even subclinical, marginal undernutrition may precipitate male and female infertility for the exact same reasons that outright malnutrition causes amenorrhea in women and impotence in men. Besides infertility, spontaneous miscarriages, and preterm births, maternal undernutrition is also behind some of the nastiest congenital birth defects, such as spina bifida and heart defects, or neurological disorders, such as autism.

Infertility and Food Allergies

Infertility can be connected to food allergies to common foods, such as eggs, milk, wheat, soluble fiber, soy, peanuts, tree nuts, and etc. Food allergies can cause intestinal inflammation, blocking off nutrients, and contributing to undernutrition. Eventually food allergies culminate in systemic inflammation that may also affect the lining of the cervix, uterus, and fallopian tubes, and, in turn, block the passage of the sperm toward the egg.

Systemic inflammation may prevent the implantation of the fertilized egg in the endometrium. In addition, it causes a spontaneous miscarriage that is easy to confuse with a scheduled period. In men, inflammation may obstruct sperm-carrying ducts, and, in turn, damage the sperm and dramatically reduce its count and motility.

Next on the list is pelvic constriction. Reproductive organs share the abdominal cavity with the stomach and the intestines. When these organs expand in size from excess food, fluids, gases, stools, and inflammation, the intestines distend and protrude further down into the pelvic region, and may obstruct reproductive organs with their substantial weight and bulk.

The ensuing constriction may affect the pickup of the ovulated egg by the fallopian tube from the surface of the ovary, or cause the obstruction of fallopian tubes and the uterus in women, or sperm-carrying ducts in men.

Digestive Disorders as Cause of Infertility

Digestive disorders are often precipitated by undernutrition, overhydration, food allergies, and pelvic constriction. They range from heartburn to irritable bowel syndrome and everything in-between, and diminish fertility by interfering with digestion and assimilation of essential nutrients, such as fatty- and amino acids, vitamins, minerals, and microelements that are central for fertility, critical for safe pregnancy, and vital for lactation.

Metabolic Syndrome

Metabolic syndrome is the next possible culprit. It disrupts endocrine functions and impacts body weight. If a woman is underweight, her body may not be producing enough hormones essential for ovulation and fertilization. Alternatively, if she is overweight, her body may be overproducing estrogen that, in turn, may disrupt ovulation or provoke miscarriage. In both cases, a woman may be affected by a range of related conditions commonly associated with infertility, such as thyroid disorders, adrenal dysfunction, prediabetes, diabetes, and etc.

One of the most prevalent contributors to infertility are circulation inhibitors caused by foods. This condition affects ovaries and testes. This is a well-known fact that cutting blood flow to testes or ovaries leads to their dramatic shrinkage. The two factors that connect nutrition and circulation are elevated insulin, a vasoconstricting hormone, and triglycerides, or blood lipids, because they increase the viscosity of blood.

Acting together, elevated insulin and triglycerides aren’t potent enough to obstruct blood flow in larger vessels, but not so in the tiny capillaries that nourish egg-, sperm- and hormone-producing cores of the testes and the ovaries. Deficient hormones, low sperm count, and a failure to ovulate are the most likely outcomes of poor ovarian and testicular microcirculation.

Fertility Disruptors

Next in the list are fertility disruptors. These are the foods that contain animal estrogen, estrogen-like substances, or growth- and lactation-stimulating hormones. Commercial dairy and soy are two such foods with the potential to disrupt ovulation, damage sperm production, provoke miscarriage, and cause birth defects. Despite these obvious contraceptive and teratogenic properties, soy and dairy are broadly recommended before and during pregnancy.

Overhydration is Prevalent Contributor to Infertility

The last factor but not the list is overhydration. This is one of the most prevalent contributors to infertility. Unfortunately, overhydration is widespread in the United States because of the systematic overconsumption of bottled water, milk, tea, juices, sodas, coffee and foods naturally high in water, such as soups, fruits, and vegetables.

When water absorbs from the intestines into the blood, it shifts the blood’s chemistry. To restore proper balance, the body immediately instructs the bones to release extra ions of calcium and magnesium from bone matrix, a process known as bone resorption.

When too much water is consumed, this normal condition causes gradual depletion of calcium and magnesium. Eventually it results in osteopenia, or low bone density. Calcium and magnesium are required for building up the fetus and turning out a large volume of breast milk. So the evolutionary circuit breakers inside the body prevent fertility or cause miscarriage when these minerals are depleted below a certain threshold, hence the inability to conceive or carry pregnancy to term.

In case of infertility you can take fertility-enhancing drugs, fertilize eggs in vitro, and implant embryos. However, you should keep in mind that it’s very important to analyze, whether some or all mentioned nutrition-related conditions, disorders, and disruptors are present in your diet and affect your health. Remember, that as long as your body isn’t ready to conceive, or keeps rejecting the embryo, or self-aborts the fetus, all these efforts and expenses may end up wasted.

Anyway, before you begin to take any fertility treatments, you should start to eliminate nutrition-related factors behind low sperm count, female infertility, miscarriages, and birth defects.

Fertility-centric nutrition can be the way out. Besides improving the vitality of one’s sperm, fertility-centric nutrition boosts the overall health, energy, stamina, libido, and the well-being of the dad-to-be.

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