The Wholesome Fertility Podcast

On tomorrow’s episode of The Wholesome Fertility Podcast, Alana McGlashan of @thenurturedwomban_ shares her personal fertility challenge story and experience with Asherman's syndrome. She discusses the complications she faced after a miscarriage and the diagnosis of severe Asherman's syndrome. Alana shares her journey of healing and preparing her body for conception, as well as her experiences with pregnancy and loss. She emphasizes the importance of connecting with the heart and womb, and the power of self-trust in the healing process. I was deeply moved by her story of hope and how she found strength to listen deeply to her soul’s calling and knowing that she was meant to have her children. Be sure to tune in! Description : Alana experienced miscarriage, Ashermans Syndrome & infertility on her journey to conceive. Navigating Asherman's Syndrome was one of the hardest times of her life as she was told due to the severity she may not be able to have children. Sending her on a healing journey that although may have taken 2 years, she now has 2 children later. The medicine she found on her journey she now shares with women in her 1:1 energetic womb explorations, helping women to rewrite the story they have been told on their own fertility journey & setting the foundations for profound healing. You can find her on Instagram @thenurturedwomban_ For more information about Michelle, visit www.michelleoravitz.com Clickhere to find out how to get the first chapter of "The Way of Fertility" for free. The Wholesome FertilityFacebook group is where you can find free resources and support: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2149554308396504/ Instagram: @thewholesomelotusfertility Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thewholesomelotus/ Transcript: [00:00:00] Michelle: Welcome to the podcast, Alana. Alana: Hi, how are you going? Michelle: Good. So I'd love for you to share your story. I know that it's been a very personal fertility challenge story and definitely defied the odds from what you were told. And I love stories of hope. So I'm very excited to have you on and share your story and your experience with Asherman's syndrome, which I think a lot of people aren't really aware or may not even be aware that they actually have. Alana: Yeah, absolutely. And at the time, you know, I had no idea what it was and it was something I was searching for in the hopes to hear hope, because I was just hearing a lot of stats and a lot of Let's say stories that I didn't, I didn't want to hear at the time. So I felt pregnant and lost that little baby at 10 weeks. Alana: And I was a scientist working in Sydney, which is from [00:01:00] where I live, two hours travel away. And I went to the early early pregnancy. room, and they gave me all these options of what you can do next. And. At the time, everything, I would say I was heavily in my masculine energy. Like all just do the things, list out the steps and we will follow them to become parents. Alana: And because I traveled so far away, I took the option of a DNC, which is a dilation and curette. I'm not sure if that's called anything else anywhere else. And it's just basically the surgical removal. Yeah. Okay, cool. And yeah, and I woke up to complications after that. And, you know, after being told like, it's so routine and I just thought, you know, it would be simple. Alana: We do this and then I have a bleed and we can start trying again. And I woke up to, yes, as I said, complications. And [00:02:00] feeling really disorientated and I just felt really in my gut like wow what what just happened and they kind of just brushed me off and My doctor, then later, just was like, okay, well it's been six weeks, you haven't got your bleed back. Alana: Sometimes women need a little bit longer. And I just knew in my gut things weren't right. And for me, I had no period. So 12 weeks, post that surgery. I still had no period. Yeah. And I think maybe around the eight weeks I, I was like, no, my gut's telling me something's not right. I'm going to book a specialist appointment and because they take so long to get into, I thought I'm just going to book it now. Alana: And if I don't need it, then I can cancel it. Michelle: Did you, did you know anything at the time? Did they say something was off or you just kind of felt Alana: yeah, they, there was nothing ever mentioned of Ashman syndrome. The only thing that they mentioned, I mean, they obviously mentioned some risks that can happen and the risks, risks are a perforated uterus, but it's so [00:03:00] routine that if that was to happen, that was really negligence. And that was all that they had described as a potential risk. Alana: So I hadn't even heard of Ashman's by this point, like, and so I followed my gut, made this appointment and it must have been around the four month mark after surgery and I told him my story thinking I was just going in there to get a tablet that would just help kickstart everything. Maybe I just needed some help to get things along. Alana: And again, you know, I was, I was very naive at that time on, of my cycle and understanding my body. And I walked in and told him my story. And basically he said, we, there's something called Ashman syndrome, and I feel that this is, this is your situation. And. We need to get in and have a look like, cause he could do it via scans and then go in and do surgery, but he's like, due to the nature of how long you've already waited and the scar tissue that would be there if it was [00:04:00] confirmed. Alana: We need to get this cleaned up ASAP basically. Michelle: Before we continue on the details, I want people to know like, what is Asherman's syndrome? Alana: So Ashman's syndrome is basically where scar tissue grows inside the uterus and reduces your fertility as a result from some form of surgery. So they might try and say just from DNC, but if you have a baby and maybe there's retained placenta and they clean it out that way, any sort of surgical intervention within your uterus, Could potentially scar. Alana: And I think what's important for women to know right now is that any change in your period. Or if you're experiencing difficulties falling could be a sign. I have no women after, so the percentage is actually quite low. I forgot to look it up before we jumped on today of Ashermans. But The other women that I had sort [00:05:00] of searched for to bring awareness to our local hospital and their procedures, they had their period, but their periods just were different, a little bit lighter, maybe they didn't go as long, there was just a lot less. Alana: small signs, which they quite easily then got fobbed off as just being paranoid in a sense. And then all turned out to have different stages of Ashman's, whereas I had none and my stage was quite high. Actually the highest he had seen in my local area. So that was not good news for me. Michelle: Yeah. Alana: yeah, so long story short, he said we need to operate and Confirm, and if so, it's a 20 minute procedure, I'll be in and I'll be out. Alana: And, I thought, oh, I thought my legs were pulled out from me at that moment, but from that surgery I woke up and I felt really disorientated, as you do, and he's standing there waiting for me to wake up to tell me that, [00:06:00] yes, I've confirmed it's Ashman's Syndrome, however, it is so severe, I I've been in there for four hours and I can't see without risking damage to your uterus. Alana: And I need to do some further tests before we continue. And I remember the first thought I thought of was, am I going to be able to have children? And he had this solemn look on his face and he goes, I have no idea what's possible right now. And I was just. Gutted. Absolutely gutted. Michelle: Wow. That is so real. I mean to be in a situation like that and just thinking, okay, I'm going to go in and have the surgery and everything's going to be fine, it's going to be, what did he say? 20 minutes? And to actually see that it's really severe so what happened after that? Alana: Yeah, so I then had to go you have to allow a little bit of [00:07:00] time for some healing and they put in, I think it depends for the surgeon, but I got a gel put in that just kind of tried to help what he did pull away with the scar tissue not to reform because there is a risk that as he opens it up, like the little spindles might. Alana: touch and then start to pull together. So they put in this gel that lasts, I think, for four weeks. So I had to wait a mont

In today’s episode of The Wholesome Fertility Podcast, Mike Berkley shares his personal journey with acupuncture and herbal medicine in fertility treatment. He highlights the value of integrative medicine in fertility enhancement. Mike explains how acupuncture and herbal medicine improve fertility by increasing blood flow to the ovaries and testes, enhancing egg and sperm quality. He also discusses the importance of preparing for IVF and the timing of treatment. Mike Berkley, LAc, FABORM, is a licensed and board-certified acupuncturist and a board-certified herbalist. He is a fertility specialist at The Berkley Center for Reproductive Wellness in the Midtown East neighborhood of Manhattan, New York. Infertility can be a daunting journey for couples longing to start a family, which is a reality Mike faced with his wife. Luckily, she sought the guidance of an acupuncturist and herbalist who possessed some knowledge of reproductive issues. Despite initial disappointments, after undergoing acupuncture and herbal medicine treatments for seven months, the couple became pregnant and carried the child to term without any complications. Their once seemingly elusive dream had become a beautiful reality thanks to the remarkable effects of acupuncture and herbal medicine. This experience led Mike to obtain his degree in acupuncture from the Pacific College of Oriental Medicine's New York campus and his National Board Certification in herbal medicine. Equipped with the necessary license and fueled by an insatiable thirst for knowledge, Mike studied Western medical approaches and the ancient wisdom of Chinese medicine about infertility treatment. Through rigorous study and invaluable clinical experience, he developed unique acupuncture protocols and proprietary herbal formulas, tailoring them to each individual or couple seeking his assistance. Mike is also a member of several organizations, including the Acupuncture Society of New York and the American Infertility Association. He is writing a book on reproductive disorders and Chinese medicine and hosts his groundbreaking seminars nationwide. Mike has witnessed firsthand the life-changing potential these ancient practices hold for couples struggling with infertility. Together, he can help transform your dreams into reality and create a world where the joy of parenthood knows no bounds. Website: www.berkleycenter.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mikeberkley56/ For more information about Michelle, visit www.michelleoravitz.com Click here to find out how to get the first chapter of "The Way of Fertility" for free. The Wholesome FertilityFacebook group is where you can find free resources and support: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2149554308396504/ Instagram: @thewholesomelotusfertility Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thewholesomelotus/ Transcript: Chapters 00:00 Introduction and Personal Journey 00:30 Discovering Acupuncture and Herbal Medicine 05:16 The Limitations of Western Reproductive Medicine 06:33 The Value of Integrative Medicine in Fertility Treatment 08:59 How Acupuncture and Herbal Medicine Improve Fertility 20:16 Living in Accordance with Nature and the Impact on Fertility 26:11 The Mind-Body Connection and the Importance of Mental and Emotional Health 28:48 The Impact of Acupuncture on Blood Flow 32:35 The Heart and Uterus Connection 33:49 Contact Information Michelle (00:00) Welcome to the podcast, Mike. Yeah, I'm actually really happy to have you. And mike berkley (00:02) I'm thrilled to be here. Thank you for having me. Michelle (00:07) read about your story and I find it fascinating that you guys started out as patients, kind of like how I was. I was working in New York, really close to you, for doing architecture. So completely different life, completely different world. So I went in for my menstrual irregularities and then everything started getting resolved. for the first time with acupuncture. And I know you guys were also moved by it with your own journey. So I'd love for you to share your story and how you got into this type of work. Mike berkley (00:39) Sure, I'd be happy to. So, while I was in acupuncture school, my wife and I were trying to have a baby. And we couldn't. And I had, she had anti -sperm antibodies and I had, I don't remember, motility issues or morphology issues or something. And she went to a... She didn't go to a reproductive endocrinologist. She went to a gynecologist and he wanted to do some IUIs. And then she met or heard about an acupuncturist and herbalist in New York. And she went to this one. And the woman gave her herbs and acupuncture and gave me some then two months later, I was I think I was working and going to school. I can't remember so long ago, but she called me. My wife called me and said that she was pregnant and I didn't know anything about medicine in any way, shape or form. And I said, how do you know? And she said, well, I peed on the stick. And I said, well, that's all well and good, but I don't believe in that. You better go to the doctor and get a blood test. And she did. And now I have a 29 year old son. Yeah. So I got very inspired at that time to pursue knowledge in the realm of reproductive medicine. Michelle (02:03) amazing. Mike berkley (02:17) And so I spent many years studying Western reproductive medicine. I don't mean officially, I didn't go to medical school, but on my own, I studied a lot of Western reproductive medicine and a lot of acupuncture and a lot of herbs. And I've been treating fertility cases exclusively. Like I won't treat a neck or a back or a headache. I've been treating fertility cases exclusively for 27 years. Michelle (02:29) Yeah. Amazing. So that's awesome. I mean, I personally love working with fertility. I first started, it was more general, but I just love it. And the rewards are like insane. You know, when you get the positive pregnancy pictures sent to you and it's really incredible and people are shocked. Oftentimes, because they're like, there's no way. I mean, sometimes five years of nothing like Western medicine. And I think one of the common things is that people think that IVF is a guarantee. Do you find that? Mike berkley (03:17) Of course, of course. I mean, it's, you know, our lives as acupuncturists and herbalists are very interesting, gratifying and ungratifying. I'll give you an example. This has happened to you. It's happened to any acupuncturist listening. Patient does four failed IUIs and three failed IVFs. Michelle (03:18) Yeah. Right. Right, or it helped me relax through the process. Mike berkley (03:43) And then you work with the patient for three months and she does an IVF and she gets pregnant and has a baby. And then I've had patients more than one say, well, you know, it's possible that that what you did helped me. And I'm like, yeah, it's possible, you know. Exactly, exactly. I love that one. You know, it helped me relax. So I think that I'm I think more and more individuals more more couples more women more men are becoming aware of the the efficacy and the value of You know complementary medicine or integrated medicine acupuncture herbs You know diet In the context of fertility enhancement Michelle (04:16) Mm -hmm. Mike berkley (04:34) And I often say to patients, I say, listen, you can go to the best reproductive endocrinologist in the world. I don't care who it is, but that person cannot improve your egg quality. They cannot improve your lining quality and they cannot rectify your husband's sperm DNA fragmentation. I can. So therefore, Michelle (04:37) Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm. Right. Mike berkley (05:03) We should work as a team. And I'm saying this to the patient, but I'm also saying it to society. And I'm saying it to reproductive endocrinologist. The best type of medicine is integrative medicine. You can do something I can't. I can do something you can't. Let's do this. Let's try again. Michelle (05:05) Right, 100%. Everybody has their blind spots, you know, and their strengths. I mean, we don't have the technology, we can't go in there and extract eggs. Right. Mike berkley (05:32) That's right, but who cares? You know, a good car mechanic can fix an engine, but it doesn't mean he can make an engine. So it doesn't matter that we don't have the technology. It doesn't matter that we're not reproductive endocrinologists. What matters is, is that for an IVF to work, you need four things. You need a good egg, a good sperm. Michelle (05:36) Right. Mm -hmm. Right. Mike berkley (06:00) And so the reproductive endocrinologist cannot offer a patient good eggs and good sperm and good line. In fact, there are patients that come to me and they

Dr. Katie Lee is a dentist, speaker, author, and coach who lives in Aurora, Colorado. Dr. Lee graduated from University of Illinois at Chicago in 2010 and was an owner-partner in over 80 DSO supported dental practices throughout the US and served as Clinical Partner overseeing 5 states. Currently, she consults for health technology companies and provides implant education for general dentists. Dr. Lee has two passions in her profession: dentistry itself and making other dentists successful. Her passion about the oral systemic health link comes from personal experience. Dr. Lee was involved in an ATV accident as a teenager, which left her without many teeth and rendered her jaw immobile. Dr. Lee experienced how oral health affects systemic health and the benefits of dental implants. Her first-hand journey in recovering from the effects of dental trauma led her to specialize her career on the mouth-body connection® and dental implants. Dr. Lee searches for proven technologies that improve clinical outcomes and the patient experience and loves to educate her peers on those technologies. Dr. Lee authored a book entitled Saved By the Mouth to educate patients and clinicians on the importance of oral health. Dr. Lee has won many accolades, including Top 40 under 40 Dentists in America, and International Woman of the Year in Dentistry. She has been featured on local Fox and NBC news stations discussing the importance of oral health. https://www.instagram.com/katieleedds/ https://www.facebook.com/katieleedds For more information about Michelle, visit www.michelleoravitz.com The Wholesome FertilityFacebook group is where you can find free resources and support: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2149554308396504/ Instagram: @thewholesomelotusfertility Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thewholesomelotus/ Transcript: Michelle Michelle: [00:00:00] Welcome to the podcast, Dr. Lee. Katie: Thanks. I'm really excited to be here. Michelle: I'm so excited to have you on actually, this is a first, I have never spoken to a dentist on this podcast, but it is such an important topic because there's such a correlation between inflammation in the mouth and also unexplained infertility. And I'm very excited to get started before we get started. I would love for you to give us a little bit of a background on yourself, how you got into the work that you do. Katie: Sure. Absolutely. Thanks for having me on. I feel honored that I'm, I'm the first. Hopefully, I don't mess it up for the rest of us dentists out there. My journey into dentistry was. Of tragedy. So when I was in high school, about 14 years old, I was involved in a ATV four wheeler accident where I crashed into a telephone pole headfirst without a helmet on, broke every bone in my face from my eyebrows down and naturally, or I [00:01:00] guess as expected, lost a ton of teeth and my jaws were wired shut immediately, even though I had lots of teeth that were displaced and broken. Katie: And, they were wired shut for two months. I'm I couldn't eat and so I was on a liquid diet and My family didn't really know anything about nutrition. So I was Having pudding jello ice cream, you know with Hershey's syrup box mashed potatoes You know all the things that you should not eat to be healthy or maintain your teeth And so I just started developing a ton of dental infection And, , that combined with not being able to eat nutritious foods, you know, my body really started shutting down. Katie: , I lost a ton of weight, my liver enzymes spiked, my kidneys started shutting down. And so I learned from a very early age just how much your oral health affects. Not only your mental and emotional health, but your, your physical health as well. And, you know, it was nine surgeries in four years, , that it [00:02:00] took to reconstruct my face and my jaw. Katie: And then once that was done and only then was I able to my teeth and, and finally replace the missing teeth and fix my smile. So that really. Got me interested in what I do. And then once I got into dentistry, you know, I started going down this journey of oral systemic health. And from a personal experience, I had a lot of fertility issues. Katie: I went through about six years in fertility treatment. And so just really started diving into, you know, how can. How does the mouth affect this and what can I do as a dentist to help other people? Michelle: Yeah, I mean it's definitely something that I think a lot of people do not I don't want to really correlate, but let's, let's actually really break this down because like , how can your teeth impact your body? Katie: From a high level? Start there? Yeah. So, , there's a couple different ways that the teeth and gums are really affected to the rest of the body. And, the first way that I About is bacteria. So our body [00:03:00] has types of microbiomes and the first real microbiome that we get or we're introduced to is the one in our mouth and we get that, you know, we used to always think that babies were sterile. Katie: We know that they are introduced to some bacteria when in utero first microbiome that we get introduced to is through the mom's vaginal canal. And then Through breast milk and from family members when we're kissing, , and, you know, eating and drinking after them, we get this whole microbiome and the microbiome in our mouth is super important because it's what establishes and feeds our gut microbiome. Katie: And so we know that when we develop dysbiosis in the mouth, what actually happens is that bacteria then go through our gum tissue, or we swallow 80 trillion bacteria a day. And so the bacteria that are in our mouth. We'll go to other places in our body that they're not supposed to be and start to cause damage. Katie: So that's one way that the mouth affects it. And then the other way is through inflammation. So again, when we have these foreign invaders in our mouth, what we know [00:04:00] is that our body elicits an immune response. And that immune response, unfortunately, doesn't stay localized to our mouth. It will break down our gum tissue, making our gum tissue permeable, again, allowing what's in the mouth to get to the rest of the body. Katie: But it also triggers an inflammatory response in other parts of the body, too. And this becomes really important in fertility, because that's when people can start to develop things like endometriosis, pelvic inflammatory disease, and things like Michelle: yeah. And also, as you're talking about this, I'm thinking about all these like alcohol rinses, you know, mouthwashes. So that's huge because people are like, oh, I want to get rid of my mouth bacteria because I want to really clean mouth. So like, But that messes up the good bacteria. So talk about that. I mean, you know more about this than I do Katie: Yeah, no, I mean, that is such a good point. I'm so glad that you brought that up, because The way I was trained, even 10, you know, back in, I graduated in 2010, you know, we were [00:05:00]taught the, the more it burns, the better it's cleaning, right? Like you want something in there that's burning. You want something that's 99 kills 99. Katie: 9 percent of all bacteria. But what we know is that's actually really bad. And to your point, , those types of products are not selective. So they're killing everything that's there. The good and the bad, when really we want to control the bad, support the good. and kind of let the body do its own thing. Katie: The other thing that's damaging about alcohol mouthwashes is that it dries out your tissues. And we know that when you have dry mouth or dry tissues, the bad bacteria love to go to those surfaces and take up shop. And it really supports them colonizing and growing their little, , microbial communities. Katie: So we want to have saliva. Saliva protects our teeth and gums from bad bacteria. So an alcohol containing product is not good for our health. Michelle: Now what does a person do if they were a c section Katie: Yeah. So, you know, there's lots of things that people can do throughout their life to [00:06:00]support their microbiome, you know, C section babies. We know that unfortunately they, they don't get exposed to the. you know, good vaginal bacteria during birth, but there's lots of things that they can do to support their microbiome. Katie: So I'm a, you know, people always talk about taking probiotics and probiotics are great. And what probiotics do is they're actually going to put bacteria into the body. , so it'll, it'll help replenish the bacteria that is missing from the gut. What people also don't understand is that they need to feed the good bacteria th

Dr. Catherine Clinton, a licensed naturopathic physician, has spent over 16 years helping people overcome their health issues. Diagnosed with two autoimmune conditions and Lyme disease while in medical school, she began the long and difficult journey of healing- a path that led to the commitment to help others to not only heal physically but to return to the relationships we evolved over millennia with for a deeper sense of health and belonging. By healing herself and patients like her, she discovered that true health comes from our relationships. Dr. Catherine has learned how our quantum biological system is intimately and inseparably connected to the world around us. Our relationship with the dirt beneath our feet, the sun, the wind, the water, the plants, the seasons, each other- that is the real medicine. Her mission is to empower as many people as she can with this knowledge to encourage the paradigm shift we so desperately need. Website & Social media links (Facebook, instagram, twitter): Instagram: @dr.catherineclinton Facebook: www.dr.catherineclintonnd YouTube @dr.catherineclinton Website: www.drcatherineclinton.com The Way of Fertility is here! Be sure to check it out here www.michelleoravitz.com/thewayoffertility For more information about Michelle, visit www.michelleoravitz.com The Wholesome FertilityFacebook group is where you can find free resources and support: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2149554308396504/ Instagram: @thewholesomelotusfertility Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thewholesomelotus/ Transcript: Michelle (00:01) Welcome to the podcast, Dr. Clinton. Catherine (00:04) Thank you so much for having me. I know we've been trying to get together to do this for a while and I'm just really excited to talk with you today. Michelle (00:14) I am so excited. I've been actually looking forward to this call for like a while just because I found you on Instagram and I was like, oh my God, this lady gets it. Like your work is so fascinating to me. I'm really into quantum physics in general. And then I'm like quantum biology, like the whole idea and just there's so many things that we're uncovering. It's kind of like the future of medicine. But also, I feel like you're very intuitive in your work. I feel like you're sort of channeling a lot of really fascinating intelligence through your work. So, yeah, that was my initial thing when I started looking at your work and the things that you're posting and sharing. And I would love it if you can share your background and how you got into this field and also how you got into it in the way that you're getting into it. Catherine (01:10) Absolutely, absolutely. Yeah, it definitely feels like I've been talking about this for years and now the energy around it is just like so much momentum, right? It kind of used to feel like I was talking in an empty room, sort of talking to myself, right? And what happened was I was in naturopathic medical school. I was in my second year and it was that initiation year where... they really want to weed people out, right? So it's like, get there at 7 a .m. If you're a couple minutes late, you can't sign the attendance sheet. You have to wait another year to take the class, you know, that kind of like med school initiation, really long clinic hours. And it was the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back. And I was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis and Hashimoto's thyroiditis, two autoimmune conditions and I was diagnosed with Lyme disease. So I just was like spiraling with my health. And that's when, you know, I was in a great place to put my physical body back together, put the pieces back together. I was in naturopathic medical school. I was across the river from an acupuncture school. I was just down the hill from a very progressive, allopathic teaching hospital. And so I had so many tools to work with, but for anybody who's had a chronic illness, getting back to that, you know, productive member of society state, while wonderful to go from debilitated to being able to participate again is absolutely incredible. It still is missing a huge piece of health and vitality. And I was really struggling even after I put... the physical pieces back together, so to speak. And that's when my physician, my physician and also the one I was doing rotations, clinical rotations underneath, said you should really look at psycho neuroimmunology. And that's just a big word for how our thoughts and emotions impact our health and our biological function. And at the time I was researching mitochondrial health because I was like, oh, this is the latest, greatest, newest thing. You know, this was almost, 20 years ago, and I read an article by Martin Picard about how our mitochondria are impacted by our emotions and our state of our thoughts, our internal dialogue. And I was like, oh my goodness, this just kind of blew me out of the water and opened up the doors to quantum biology. And then I started actually reading. I discovered the early... quantum biology research from Greg Engel and Graham Fleming about quantum coherence and quantum superposition. And I was just absolutely hooked because in medical school, I was taught like it's still being taught. We're all taught this way that there's a chemical mechanical reason for illness and for health, right? It's all chemicals floating around mechanical parts of our body, that key and receptor lock where the key bumps around and randomly finds its receptor, unlocks the receptor and action can happen. And we now know that, you know, we're trillions and trillions of cells and for the amount of action that happens in a cell, researchers estimated at, you know, hundreds of thousands of tasks each second. Some researchers even say over a million tasks, right? And for that to be random, for that to rely on this bumping around and hoping to find that receptor is just mathematically not feasible, right? And so that's where quantum biology comes in. It gives us this understanding of the subatomic action happening in living systems. Michelle (05:08) Mm -hmm. Catherine (05:18) that give rise to that chemical mechanical model, which of course that exists, but this idea that it's random, that it's chance, you know, it is just really far from what quantum biology is showing us. It's showing us that there's this intelligence, there's this language happening at the subatomic level, and it seems to be guiding what we see with our eyes, what we see with our symptoms in a doctor's office, on our lab results, right, our blood work. And so it's such an incredible perspective change than what I learned in school. Michelle (05:56) Oh my God, it's a perspective change for life, like for what we learn in life. I mean, there's so many things like, so many things that came to mind as you were talking about, like one of them, I don't remember where I saw this, but it was something about how, like when you first start learning about science, then you start to become like almost like an atheist. You know, you don't believe in God, but the more you uncover science, it actually brings you back to God. It proves God exists and And you could say God intelligence, whatever you want to call it. But it's basically this intelligence that runs the show of ourselves and tells it where to go and what to do. And there's just so many fascinating things. I mean, I think the biggest mystery is like how does stem cells become what they end up being? How do they differentiate when they all have the same? So the whole idea was like, oh, DNA. Well, they all have the same DNA. What is it about the DNA in the blueprint? that changes the way it expresses and that environment aspect of it. But it's just, it's fascinating. Catherine (06:57) Yeah, absolutely. It is. It's so fascinating. And I've just been, I've been sort of obsessed for the last couple of years about the fields, right? The electromagnetic fields and how our cells communicate with electromagnetic frequency, right? Just like a language. and we're able like tuning forks to kind of tune into that. And just like a tuning fork, if you strike a tuning fork that is set at a certain frequency and you have another one that's set at the same frequency, it will pick up that tone and it will start singing that same note, right? It's this communication of resonance and frequency between those two tuning forks. Or if you go into like a piano shop and you press one key, like the C key on one piano, all the C keys on all the other pianos will start to ring in harmony with that. It's absolutely amazing. And we know that our cells are communicating with electromagnetic frequency. I mean, Michael Levine has done incredible work showing this electromagnetic Michelle (07:56) Oh my God, I love that. That's amazing. Catherine (08:17) language, right? He was doing work with, I think it was salamanders, maybe frogs, I think it was frogs. And he was trying to figure out just what you were talking about. We know how our DNA makes proteins, right? We know that, but

In this episode, I'm going to be talking about five things that could be sabotaging your fertility efforts to conceive. And a lot of these things may not be so obvious to a lot of people, I will be covering:

• Why too much of a good thing isn’t so great for your fertility health (you’ll find out what I mean!)
• The importance of sleep and how to regulate it if you’re having trouble.
• Why many fertility disruptors can be hiding in your kitchen and ones that even fooled me!
• Important times to eat during the day and why!

For more information about Michelle, visit www.michelleoravitz.com For more information on fertility diet, you can pick up my free fertility diet ebook in the notes. https://www.michelleoravitz.com/fertility-diet The Wholesome FertilityFacebook group is where you can find free resources and support: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2149554308396504/ Instagram: @thewholesomelotusfertility Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thewholesomelotus/ Links mentioned in this episode: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5457858/ https://www.ewg.org https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4350886/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7400274/ [00:00:00] Could these five things be sabotaging your ability to conceive? In this episode, I'm going to be talking about five things that could be sabotaging your fertility efforts to conceive. And a lot of these things may not be so obvious to a lot of people, So stick around. So number one is over exercise. So while exercise is something that is really good for the body and it can actually improve fertility health. If a person is overweight or if they have not exercised before, it can improve your lymphatic movement, your blood circulation. And increase your overall energy. However, if you over exercise, too much of a good thing is not so good. So while exercise is amazing for the body, in some cases, o ver exercise has been shown to adversely impact reproductive health. So studies have confirmed that over exercising could [00:01:00] impact menstrual cycle irregularities and ovulation. or, amenorrhea, which is when your period completely stops. There was one study done where women underwent a really intensive training for military camp. And what they found was that 68 to 98 percent of them who started out to have regular periods, ended up becoming irregular after the training. So what's been observed with over exercise is that it impacts the luteal phase. So it can cause luteal phase defect in the menstrual cycle, which means that the second part of the cycle, which is after ovulation is shorter than it should be. And the reason that is so important not to happen, is because it's a really important time for implantation to occur. And if it's too short, it doesn't allow for that pregnancy to take place. Over exercise can also increase cortisol and cortisol tends to compete with progesterone, [00:02:00] which is why it can impact the luteal phase since progesterone is the main hormone. that increases around the luteal phase. And it's a really important hormone, not only for pregnancy to occur, but also to support pregnancy, they also found that ovulation hormones such as GNRH, FSH and LH, as well as estradiol were suppressed, and that led to an ovulation, which means that they were not ovulating. And that is why over time it can either make the periods irregular or take away the periods altogether. And as you know, you need to ovulate in order to get pregnant otherwise you're not going to have an egg to fertilize. So that is one of the reasons why overexercising can really impact the body is because it causes a lot of stress on the body. When the body experiences a lot of stress, it also increases cortisol, which is a stress hormone. Cortisol tends to compete with progesterone, which is a really important [00:03:00] hormone, but also the body overall is in a deficit of energy. So this could be also under eating. or over exercising, then it doesn't have enough reserves to ovulate and to have the menstrual cycle or to put it towards reproductive health. And I've talked about this before, is that reproductive health really, in essence, is a reflection of overall health. And in order to have a robust reproductive system, the body has to have enough energy and reserves in order to support it because pregnancy takes a lot of energy. And if it doesn't have enough energy and also enough blood to support it, then it is going to put that off to the side and worry more about survival because it's going to. focus whatever energy it has, if it's at a deficit, it's not going to spend too much. It's going to conserve its spending, which in essence, the spending is towards reproductive health. It's going to conserve the spending so that it can focus more on overall health. So here's another thing [00:04:00] that I'm going to mention is that really this depends on the person and the body weight. So if somebody , is overweight and has a lot of reserves and energy that's really not being used and has been stored, then they benefit with a higher intensity workout. And even with that, not too much, but they can afford to do that because then their body will increase its energy and also decrease insulin resistance. So it actually can help in certain circumstances to increase it a little bit, nothing overdone, but like a little bit extra exercise in certain cases is important. But for women who have a normal body weight and they over exercise, then that can bring them at a deficit. So you look at it like an energetic bank account. We don't want to decrease that bank account, that reserve of energy, because we need that reserve in order to reproduce. So in order to create new life, you're kind of having an extra, an extra something, it's important that the body's able to support that. So what is considered too much? So [00:05:00] anything more than seven hours, seven hours or more of aerobic exercise per week and moderate exercise is ideal, which is one to five. Hours per week and one to five hours per week has been shown to improve fertility. So it's important to keep it within a healthy range and not do too much. And nowadays, a lot of the gyms, they do very high intensity workouts and it's not the end of the world. If you like to do that once in a while, however, doing it every single day and sometimes even doing two. different times of exercising or just really overdoing it that can definitely tax the body and when the body feels taxed and There's too much of a deficit. It starts to feel anxious So the body itself starts to feel like it needs to go into survival mode and what happens cortisol goes high Because it's a stress on the body So yes exercise can be a stress and a deficit of energy can feel like a stress Because then [00:06:00] the body's like, oh what's going on? I need to like, really. Hit the reserves or slow down my energy output and what that equates To is that we can't worry about reproducing right now so typically that is how over exercise can impact the reproductive health so Number two is plastics and i'm sure you've heard about this plastics. Yes. We know that it's not great for the body obviously but a lot of people don't realize that plastics can be hiding out in places that you least expect it. So the obvious ones are plastic bottles, you'll see that everywhere. A lot of people avoid them. You'll see people with glass bottles or stainless steel bottles. And listen, I know this, but sometimes I use plastic bottles when we're away. So all of what I'm saying doesn't have to be done to an extreme. And if it's too stressful, then that causes a whole other chain of events in the body as well. So it's not that you have to [00:07:00] completely avoid it, but for the most part, there are certain things that you really should watch out for. And first things first, did you realize that a lot of sanitary pads Have plastic and that is in the very precious area of your body and you're in there and your blood and you're open when you're having your period, your lining is more open and you're more susceptible to absorbing things when you have your period. So it's important to find sanitary pads that are using organic cotton or a non toxic. And there are a lot of great. Brands out there. Same thing with tampons. You're sticking 'em up there. And you wanna make sure that it doesn't have any toxins or endocrine disruptors or chemicals that can impact your hormones. Here's another one. This is something that a lot of people don't pay attention to, and it was including me until I found out, and I was shocked when I found out, was tea sachets. And they're so pretty looking. I remember when regular normal [00:08:00] bags of tea it went from something really flat and boring to something that's three dimensional and really pretty and shiny. And guess what? The reason why it's shiny is because it has plastics and that plastic and that sachet can leak out a lot of nano particles of plastics in the hot water. Because as we know, many

On today’s episode of The Wholesome Fertility Podcast, Dr. Briguglio, a fertility health expert, shares her passion for empowering patients and addressing the challenges of unexplained infertility and overreliance on IVF. She emphasizes the importance of comprehensive testing and addressing root causes to improve fertility health. Dr. Briguglio also discusses the interconnectedness of physical and mental health and the significance of individualized testing in the initial consultation. Additionally, she highlights the importance of iron and ferritin levels and addresses the challenges of vegan diets and cholesterol. In this conversation, Dr. Samantha Briguglio discusses the role of cholesterol and inflammation in health. She emphasizes that cholesterol is not the villain it is often portrayed to be and that it is needed for hormone production. Dr. Briguglio advocates for a balanced approach to diet and lifestyle, focusing on sleep, diet, and movement. She encourages individuals to find their own natural path to healing and emphasizes the importance of empowering people with information. Takeaways

• Comprehensive testing and addressing root causes are crucial for improving fertility health.
• The physical and mental aspects of health are interconnected, and addressing both is important for fertility.
• Individualized testing and a holistic approach are key in the initial consultation.
• Iron and ferritin levels play a significant role in fertility health, and vegan diets may present challenges in obtaining necessary nutrients. Cholesterol is not the villain it is often portrayed to be and is needed for hormone production.
• Nourishing the liver and eating enough fiber can support healthy cholesterol levels.
• A balanced approach to diet and lifestyle, focusing on sleep, diet, and movement, is crucial for overall health.
• Empowering individuals with information allows them to make informed choices about their health.

Dr. Samantha Briguglio is a licensed Naturopathic Medical Doctor and the founder of Walk the Natural Path Hormone Health and Fertility Care. Dr. Briguglio has a passion for helping women achieve their wellness and/or fertility goals, and she treats – and teaches – her patients from a mindset of natural healing that treats the root cause of their symptoms. Website: www.walkthenaturalpath.com Instagram @walkthenaturalpath Facebook: www.facebook.com/walkthenaturalpath For more information about Michelle, visit www.michelleoravitz.com The Wholesome FertilityFacebook group is where you can find free resources and support: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2149554308396504/ Instagram: @thewholesomelotusfertility Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thewholesomelotus/ Transcript: Chapters 00:00 Introduction and Passion for Fertility Health 04:09 Passion for Empowering Patients 07:07 Challenges with Unexplained Infertility and Overreliance on IVF 11:03 Importance of Comprehensive Testing and Addressing Root Causes 16:35 Interconnectedness of Physical and Mental Health 24:06 Importance of Iron and Ferritin Levels 25:56 Challenges with Vegan Diets and Cholesterol 26:52 The Role of Cholesterol and Inflammation 30:05 Nourishing the Liver and Eating Fiber 35:03 The Importance of Sleep, Diet, and Movement 37:34 Finding Balance in Diet and Lifestyle 43:20 Empowering People with Information 45:30 The Inspiration Behind Walk the Natural Path Michelle (00:00) Welcome to the podcast, Dr. Brigulio, right? Brigulio is how you pronounce it, or Sammy, right? Awesome. Dr. B, awesome. So first of all, I love your Instagram. I'm going to say that. You guys got to check out her Instagram. It's going to be in the episode notes. I kind of want to lead with that because she has fabulous content, really rich with information and tips. Samantha Briguglio (00:05) Yes, you did that nicely. Or Dr. Bean. It's easier. Michelle (00:25) for fertility care and health. And before we get started, I would introduce yourself and also share how you got so passionate in specifically fertility health. Samantha Briguglio (00:39) Yeah, well, thank you so much. It's really fun to have a platform like Instagram to share all this stuff with and help educate people. But hi, I'm Dr. B. Virgulio, Samantha Virgulio. I actually just got married. So legally, my name, I just changed my name. Thank you so much. It's been really, really fun. But I am keeping Dr. B for business purposes. So you can always remind me, remember that. Michelle (00:54) Congratulations. Samantha Briguglio (01:09) I'm Dr. B, so you don't have to worry about any changes. But how I got infertility, I feel like it's kind of a long story, but I'll try to keep it as short as possible because this also has to do with how I got into natural medicine, which actually stemmed from when I was a child. I was pretty sick as a kid. And I was pretty sick. Long story short, my mom really fought for me and found natural medicine. And I went from being on like oxygen treatments like two to three times a day. Yeah, it was pretty crazy to being a total normal kid who played a bunch of sports and just loved running around and just basically natural medicine changed the trajectory of my life. And so I became super passionate about it. Went to college, was kind of like, eh, I don't wanna go to med school. That looks really hard. Michelle (01:38) Oh wow. Samantha Briguglio (02:00) trying to find other avenues, but I always got brought back to natural medicine. I was like, this is just where I'm supposed to be. Actually wanted to go into pediatrics originally and ended up not doing that because I wasn't able to get enough training, like hands on, like one-on-one with kiddos. And I just felt like that was really irresponsible. It's like all of a sudden started a practice where I was working with kids and I didn't feel like ready or trained enough to do that. And... In my last year of school, I actually found a fertility course. It was like an extra like, I don't know, $600 on top of all the other loans I was taking out. So I was like, oh, this looks fun and interesting. I fell in love. Like I just fell in love. I actually, the person who wrote the course is Dr. Jacqueline Chassie at the time. She just changed her last name. I guess it's a few years now. Seamonton, I think it is. If anyone wants to find her, her courses are great. Michelle (02:44) Wow. Samantha Briguglio (02:56) but Hello Fertility is her Instagram actually. But she is an amazing teacher and I went on to join her year-long mentorship in fertility after I graduated, which obviously kind of like changed the course of my life and career. And I just felt so in love with it. Part, I was actually really good at it, right? Like sometimes like you're just good at something or not. And I was like, I don't want to be a jack of all trades anymore. And I just felt like I... Michelle (03:01) Mm-hmm. Samantha Briguglio (03:25) my intuition just went very hand in hand with the fertility practices, treatment, and just diving into that and learning more. I loved it, I enjoyed it. And then later on, I'm talking to my mother and my grandmother, and I'm telling them how I'm so drawn to this, and I find out my mom went through her own journey with miscarriages and loss, and then my grandmother, took her 10 years to conceive, I'm like, no wonder I'm drawn to this. I'm supposed to help all these people. My family had this struggle, so like. Michelle (03:51) Wow. Samantha Briguglio (03:55) Now I get to help and get back. So kind of a long story. I try to give the most important pieces, but there it is. Michelle (03:59) That's incredible. Amazing. No, it's interesting because my mom had secondary infertility with me. tried for a while. So she had a really hard time. She also thought she was going to lose me at different times, like lost a ton of weight. So it's kind of interesting that you say that. And it's pretty wild because it does kind of hit home. I don't know, I do believe that subconsciously we can almost feel something in ourselves. There's just certain things that call to us and we just feel like this is it. This is what we're supposed to do. And I totally understand what you're saying. It really, really resonates with me. So that's cool. Samantha Briguglio (04:38) Yeah, right, you just keep getting pushed down a path where eventually you're like, okay, I'm surrendering, this is what I'm supposed to do. Like that's basically what happened to me. Michelle (04:48) Amazing. Well, you're so good at it and I can feel the passion. I really can. That's one of the things that I love Instagram. I have to say,

Lisa Hendrickson-Jack is a certified Fertility Awareness Educator and Holistic Reproductive Health Practitioner who teaches women to chart their menstrual cycles for natural birth control, conception, and monitoring overall health. She is the author of three bestselling books The Fifth Vital Sign , the Fertility Awareness Mastery Charting Workbook , and her most recent book Real Food For Fertility, which she co-authored with Lily Nichols RDN. Lisa works tirelessly to debunk the myth that regular ovulation is only important when you want children by recognizing the menstrual cycle as a vital sign. Drawing heavily from the current scientific literature, Lisa presents an evidence-based approach to help women connect to their fifth vital sign by uncovering the connection between the menstrual cycle, fertility, and overall health. With well over 4 million downloads, her podcast, Fertility Friday, is the #1 source for information about fertility awareness and menstrual cycle health. Fertility Friday : fertilityfriday.com Real Food For Fertility: realfoodforfertility.com The Fifth Vital Sign: thefifthvitalsignbook.com Instagram : @FertilityFriday Facebook : Facebook.com/FertilityFridays LinkedIn : Lisa Hendrickson-Jack For more information about Michelle, visit www.michelleoravitz.com The Wholesome FertilityFacebook group is where you can find free resources and support: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2149554308396504/ Instagram: @thewholesomelotusfertility Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thewholesomelotus/ Transcript: Michelle (00:00) So welcome to the podcast, Lisa. Lisa Jack (00:03) Thanks so much for having me back. Michelle (00:05) Yes. So having you back again, we had a little mishap, issue with the recording for some reason, but we are on a new recording software. So hopefully this is going to be great and I'm excited to pick your brain again. Lisa Jack (00:21) Well, I'm happy to be here. I mean we can never anticipate the tax nafus. It's part of online business, I suppose. Michelle (00:28) Oh, totally. 100%. So we had so many good things too. That's what's really frustrating. We had such a great conversation about so many things. But for people who are first hearing about this, I know that a lot of people think that there's certain textbooks like menstrual cycles, or they have like sort of an idea in their mind of what a perfect menstrual cycle looks like. And since this is... your absolute specialty and you understand it from like A to Z, can you describe what a healthy menstrual cycle should look like? Lisa Jack (01:06) Yeah, I mean, that's a great place to start. And just to put it out there when I'm working with clients and practitioners, I always say there's no such thing as a perfect menstrual cycle because you're a human, not a robot. And so when we look at what a healthy menstrual cycle looks like, we should be looking at a range. And basically, what I can lay out is the different parameters that we're looking at. Often when I talk about the menstrual cycle, people's minds will go straight to the period. Michelle (01:17) Right? Lisa Jack (01:34) and they'll kind of think, okay, well, what is a healthy period? But then they don't necessarily think about all the other parameters. So when we're looking at what makes a healthy menstrual cycle, we can look at the overall cycle length, which ideally would be somewhere between about 24 and 35 days. We can look at the pre -ovulatory phase in particular. So we can look at the period. So the period is its own category. We want to have a menstrual period that overall is somewhere between three to seven days with an average of about five days. And I always say the period should be like a sentence. It should have a beginning, a middle, and an end, and then it should be over. So if it's like trailing on for days and days of bleeding, if you're getting bleeding throughout your whole cycle, as opposed to just when you have your period, these are things we should be looking at. And although it's really common to have several days of spotting before you start your actual bleed, it's not optimal. So it's helpful to understand that piece of it. And then in terms of pain, Michelle (02:08) I love that, that's so good. Lisa Jack (02:32) It's also extremely common for women to experience menstrual pain. And so there's always this question of like, is it normal or not? And there is debate. So there are definitely people who are more on the like, it's normal kind of, you know, because so many people have it. So it has to be normal. But, you know, outside of your period, pain is thought of as a problem. And so if you thought of any man in your life, anyone, your father, brother, cousin, whoever, friend, boyfriend, if he had pain in his period, in his penis for. Michelle (03:01) in this period you imagine. Lisa Jack (03:02) Right? But if he had pain in his penis for two to three days every month, such that he needed to take medication and possibly couldn't go to work if the medication didn't kick in, no one would think that that's okay. So that's also just a bit of an aside where when we look at what's happening during a menstrual bleed, it is a natural inflammatory process by which you shed that lining. And so in order for your uterus to shed that lining, there does have to be some inflammation. And we do have... prostaglandins that we produce that help to induce those smooth muscle contractions to make this all happen. So what's interesting is that when we look at what the research says, women who have pain, they have a higher level of these prostaglandins. So they have a higher outside of normal inflammatory response. So at very least, pain with menstruation that's moderate to severe is a sign of increased inflammation, something we should be aware of. And at worst, it could be a sign of a more serious condition like endometriosis. So as an aside, although common, we want to consider moderate to severe pain to be not optimal. And we want to be looking a little bit deeper into that. And for many women, they often need that nudge to do so, especially if they've had pain very consistently from their first period, for example. So outside of the period then, when we move into the actual, like the rest of the pre -ovulatory phase, we want to look at when ovulation is happening. So in order to have a cycle that falls within that 24 to 35 day range, we do need ovulation to happen typically somewhere between days 10 and days 22 or days 23. So approximately. So we want to be looking at when ovulation is taking place. And as you approach ovulation, you're supposed to be making some healthy cervical fluid. And typically we would expect to see that for about two to seven days leading up to ovulation. So we want to look at the quality of that, how many days you're seeing. Like if you're not seeing any at all, that can be a sign of. low hormones or an issue with your cervix. If you see it all the time, that can be a sign of something as simple as a yeast infection or something more serious potentially. So it's helpful to even know that that's a thing. And then after ovulation, that period of time, the post -ovulatory phase or luteal phase, as we call it, should be about 12 to 14 days. And so if it's, you know, seven days, that's a problem that could impede your chances of conception. It's a sign of extremely low progesterone. If you have... moderate to severe PMS symptoms, if you have spotting, as I had mentioned previously before your period. So like interesting, right? Because you asked a pretty simple question, what does a healthy cycle look like? So I think what's good about this, just to kind of pull it back then, is that we're not looking for any one factor to be perfect. Within each of those factors I listed, there's a bit of a range. And so you could potentially have one of those aspects that's a little bit off, but overall, the rest of it is pretty strong. And so that can help you to understand that you don't need to have a perfect cycle for it to be healthy. We just need to have it for the most part fall into those parameters. Michelle (05:58) For sure. And I also look at like, you know, as a practitioner, I look at like what's normal for you, because some people have always had a short cycle, but they're normal. Or, you know, it's usually when things become out of whack for you, or it's kind of like not like you're, they almost have like personalities, menstrual cycles, right? Lisa Jack (06:17) Yes. Well, and I agree with you to a point because I used to be one of those people that was like, my cycles are long and that's normal because my cycles are always long. Right. So w

On today’s episode, I will be discussing some aspects that contribute to vitality and fertility health that are often missed on the fertility journey. Here are some topics that will be covered:

1. Integrating Ancient and Modern Knowledge: How aspects of Taoist philosophies and TCM align with current research and what that can mean for fertility health.
2. The Body’s Wisdom: Learn how the body possesses an inherent intelligence for conception and how aligning with our natural biological rhythms can support the path to reproduction.
3. My Personal Experience: Hear about my own struggles with irregular periods and how this led me to explore a combination of medical perspectives and trust my intuition in making health decisions.
4. Patterns and Cycles: Learn about the importance of recognizing natural patterns and cycles, a concept deeply rooted in Chinese medicine, and how this understanding can impact fertility.
5. Interconnectedness: How TCM perceives a holographic nature of the universe, where everything is connected, reflecting a larger whole and its relevance to our reproductive health.
6. Balance for Fertility: The episode highlights the critical role of balance, represented by the yin and yang, and how maintaining this equilibrium is essential for optimal health and fertility.

[Don’t forget to subscribe to the Wholesome Fertility Podcast for more empowering insights and real-world stories on the fertility journey.] Be sure to go to this link to find out how to pre-order The Way of Fertility and receive the special gifts mentioned in this episode! https://www.michelleoravitz.com/thewayoffertility For more information about Michelle, visit www.michelleoravitz.com The Wholesome FertilityFacebook group is where you can find free resources and support: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2149554308396504/ Instagram: @thewholesomelotusfertility Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thewholesomelotus/ Transcript: Way of fertility episode [00:00:00] Welcome to the Wholesome Fertility Podcast. So if you're new to this podcast, my name is Michelle Oravitz and I'm an acupuncturist specializing in fertility health. And for people who know me have been listening to this for a while, you may have heard a couple of different announcements here and there that I am super excited. Because my new book is coming out, The Way of Fertility. And a lot of you guys might be thinking, What in the world is this book about? Is it about Chinese medicine? Is it about acupuncture points? Is it about food? Is it about supplements? What is it about? So of course I can try to explain in the best way I can but it's almost like trying to tell a friend about another friend that you met that you really connected with and trying to put that into words and To describe the person and [00:01:00] of course, there are so many different aspects to it and it's an experience So, you'll have to read it to get that full immersion However, it really is based on ancient Wisdom so a lot of what I share is not only about ancient wisdom, But it's also about some modern research that has been done that has shown and proven some of these things that Chinese medicine has spoken about and the energetics that basically are super important for fertility health, like the heart uterus connection. And ultimately, this book is for the person that has tried everything to conceive and is not sure what in the world is getting in the way. So they're eating the right foods. They're doing the right things. They're having sex at the right time. They're going to the doctor. They're figuring out all the different options that they can do. They're cutting out any toxins in [00:02:00] their life, trying everything almost to the point of being stressed by all of the checklist, But yet not having any success. And so in the book I wanted to speak about a very important aspect of our being that rarely gets attention. And it's not just the mind. I know I talk a lot about the mind, but it's more than that. And And it really comes down to this and really the statement. So unless you have some very unusual reason that's very rare, like blocked tubes or some people are born without a uterus or a genetic component that is not allowing you to conceive, then you are hardwired to conceive. You were designed to reproduce as a human. Majority of people are designed to reproduce and the majority of cases of fertility challenges is. are not true infertility, meaning it's not [00:03:00] like impossible for them to conceive. And this is why people are listening to podcasts like mine because they know and believe that there must be something that they can do in order to improve their ability to conceive. So in the book, I look into this thing, this intelligence that has been spoken about throughout history. It's been referred to the Tao, you know, the Tao, the way. So Taoism, if you haven't listened to some of my earlier episodes, Taoism is really the, religion, or it could be considered a way of life. That is what. Chinese medicine is based on, and a lot of these ancient medicines have a wisdom. So even Ayurveda, it really comes down to uniting and connecting with our nature. And when we are [00:04:00]expressing our nature the way it was intended to be expressed. And when we are connected with our external nature, which is the nature that is also being guided by that same intelligence that we are, then that is really living in accordance to the Tao, accordance to the way. So the Tao translates as the way this is why I was inspired to call it the way of fertility because ultimately when our bodies are fully aligned i n their expression, then that is when our bodies will want to reproduce because it's kind of like a reminder. I think we forget often because we see it as such a challenge, but reproduction is what your body. It's programmed to do because that is ultimately what will continue life here on earth and you'll see it. You'll see it everywhere. I mean, sprouts are everywhere in nature because nature [00:05:00] constantly wants to keep thriving and it will adapt to that. As well. So if you'll see a tree or even cement and through the cracks, you'll see lots of weeds. I mean, nature just constantly wants to keep on thriving and that's what it is gravitating towards. So I speak about what gets in the way of that, because there must be something that's getting in the way of that. If the body is not expressing itself fully, and this is a very personal story for me as well. You may have heard me talk about this a lot in my own. You know, my own journey is that I had 12 years of irregular periods and irregular meaning like two months, three months, just not getting my period on time at all. And o nly given the birth control pill as an answer and getting really frustrated and realizing that while. All types of medicines have their [00:06:00] gifts, not all of them know everything. So there's a time to rely on different types of medications and different types of technologies and different types of medical philosophy. But it's important to know that not everybody knows everything so that when somebody tells us there is no answer, it's important for us if we feel that intelligence speaking to us in our heart to continue getting second opinions or talking to other people and not finishing with just one and taking no for an answer, like right off the bat. And for me, I actually had to go to many different people. Before I got the answer and I had to go to a different modality in order to get the answer. So the modality that I kept going to was just not a great answer. modality for menstrual cycle health. And I've learned that is that every type of practitioner will provide tools and some of them are more fitting. So for example, if somebody [00:07:00] does have block tubes, they would benefit from IVF and the technology. And it's incredible. So. I want to state that all of them are good. There's many, many different options here, but it's important to figure out what option is best for you. And ultimately I speak very strongly about this is that your intuition is this same intelligence that basically tells your cells what to do. It's based on the same intelligence that tells an animal something's not right, or you should eat this or don't eat for a day and fast. This is an intelligence that guides us towards vitality. So when we're starting to be in a state of listening, we will ultimately be guided. So we can analyze tons of information out there and really go through that rabbit hole of Google when it comes to fertility health and just getting like being information dense and that information oftentimes is can be good, but it can [00:08:00] also take us down this path where it's confusing to us. So while it's important to have information, it's also important to tune in to your own intelligence. And I call the difference between that is

Holly Leever is a licensed acupuncturist, herbalist, Arvigo abdominal massage therapist and Fertility Awareness Method educator. She works with women to optimize their menstrual cycles and their fertility. She founded her practice, Rosebud Wellness in 2014, and works with clients locally in Ojai, CA and virtually all over the world. When Holly isn’t solving period problems, she is spending time with her sweet daughter, practicing yoga, gardening or cooking. Website - rosebudwellness.com IG - https://www.instagram.com/rosebud_wellness/ Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/hollyrosebudwellness Free FAM Video - https://rosebudwellness.com/opt-in-free-training-how-to-track-and-chart-your-cycle-to-support-your-body-for-optimal-health-and-fertility Holly’s Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-fertile-womb-natural-fertility-optimization/id1568908543 For more information about Michelle, visit www.michelleoravitz.com For Fertility Resources: https://www.thewholesomelotusfertility.com/fertilityresources The Wholesome FertilityFacebook group is where you can find free resources and support: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2149554308396504/ Instagram: @thewholesomelotusfertility Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thewholesomelotus/ Transcript: Michelle (00:00) Welcome to the podcast, Holly. Holly Leever (00:02) Thank you so much, Michelle. I'm really excited to be here. Michelle (00:05) I'm excited to have a fellow acupuncturist here. It's always fun talking to my Holly Leever (00:09) It is Michelle (00:10) my acupuncture family. Holly Leever (00:10) Yes. Yeah. Michelle (00:12) Awesome. So give us a little background on yourself and what got you into women's health specifically, infertility, acupuncture. Holly Leever (00:20) so it's a long and winding road, like all of our stories, right? But I started studying acupuncture when I was pretty young. I was just naturally really interested in yoga and holistic health and nutrition. It just kind of came out of the womb that way for some reason. And I went to acupuncture school and I learned about how hormonal birth control... could potentially be impacting some of the issues that I was experiencing at the time. And when you're really young, you can get away with a lot. And so I didn't feel terrible, but I hadn't had a natural period. I probably had three in my whole life at that point and I was 24. So I started, yeah. Michelle (01:10) Wait, so give us a background. So when did you first get your period? When did you first start and then when did you get on the birth control pill? Holly Leever (01:18) Yeah, so that's the tricky part, the annoying part, is that I got my first period when I was 14, and I was already on birth control by the time I was 15. So I don't remember exactly how many months, and I would only get it every three months. So I went to the gynecologist and I was like, oh, is that, I mean, I had enough of an awareness to know that it was supposed to happen every month at the time, and they were just like, oh, that's really... Michelle (01:29) Uh. Mm-hmm. Holly Leever (01:46) problematic and here you can just have the birth control pill to regulate your cycle, of course. And I did have pretty significant period pain too. I think it was just young bodies don't just start menstruating perfectly right away and having significant period pain I think also was partially related to my diet at the time. I grew up really just eating Michelle (02:00) Yeah. Holly Leever (02:10) Total crap food, just convenience foods, only snacky kind of things, really had no guidance around nutrition at all. And I think the period pain was partially related to that, and also just being young and my body doing something new for the first time. I did become sexually active really early too, at 15. And so I do think it was maybe helpful that I didn't get pregnant when I was 15 years old. And... Michelle (02:36) Yeah. Holly Leever (02:38) I wish that I had a little bit more education about what it was actually doing to my body. I had a lot of emotional struggles as a teenager and who knows if that's just being a teenager, how that manifested for me or how much of it was related to synthetic hormone exposure at such a young age. And so then I developed a really severe eating disorder during the end of high school, really through college. So that was part of... Even the times, sometimes I would stop taking birth control within that nine year timeframe of from 15 to 24. Sometimes I would stop taking it if I wasn't in a relationship and I really just never would have a period. So it was almost like that part of me was completely removed from my experience of being in a female body. So then when I went to acupuncture school, as I'm sure you know, and maybe a lot of your listeners do too, that... it's a really central piece of understanding a female's overall health and wellbeing is what their period looks like. We were talking about the color of the blood and how frequently it comes. And I mean, there are so much more that I know about it now as a fertility awareness method educator, but even that little seed of women's period is really important for assessing their health. I was sort of like, oh. I guess I'm completely missing that whole part of the equation of, you know, being able to really understand this medicine. And so I stopped taking the pill really immediately after that I found that out. I remember that it was, I started school in September and then by October, November, I stopped taking it, just completely stopped taking it and never, and have not taken it since. But then I didn't have my period for a few years after I stopped taking it because I was still struggling with my eating disorder. And one of the things that I find really interesting about eating disorders and under nutrition is that people think sort of like you have to have this like raging, horrible eating disorder, which at times I really did. I was very severely anorexic at times. Michelle (04:34) Mm hmm. Holly Leever (04:53) And at other times, not so much. Like you could look at me and think like, oh, that looks like just like a healthy woman. You wouldn't really think she's, you know, nutrient depleted, but it was for me, always this relationship with food, you know, not prioritizing optimal nutrition was sort of the issue for me. So it would be, maybe my weight would look okay. Michelle (05:19) Right. Holly Leever (05:22) but I wasn't getting in the amount of protein and fat and carbohydrate structure and having regular meals and things like that. That was really the issue for me. So a lot of my time through acupuncture school, that four years that I was in acupuncture school was spent trying to figure that out. And sometimes I would get a period and I'd be like, oh, what was like the perfect cocktail of things that I did that made that happen? And it was just... So, I mean, now to me, it's so obvious. It was that I let go of the reins a little bit and ate a little bit more. And then I would just be like, oh my God, that was too much. And I would go too far and freak out. And then I would lose my period again. So it's just kind of very intermittently getting it here and there. Then I finally went into residential treatment center a few times for my eating disorder. And that was the catalyst really for... Michelle (05:59) Mm-hmm. Holly Leever (06:20) being able to kick it finally. And it wasn't until I was 32, so not terribly long ago, that I started learning the fertility awareness method because I had been single for a lot of my life. I think anybody that has struggled with an eating disorder understands that it's very isolating experience that you kind of don't wanna date. You don't want anybody to look at or touch your body. And I was feeling interested in maybe Like, can I have children and can I have a family? I'm 32, like, what am I doing with my life? And although I didn't have a partner at the time, I was kind of getting curious about my fertility and if I had kind of destroyed my body at that point, you know, it's like, has it been too long? And so for anybody that has struggled with hypothalamic amenorrhea, which really is what that is, whether it's an eating disorder or if it's just disordered. or under eating or over exercise, stress, like some combination of those things. Anybody that has had that experience, especially if it's been for a significant amount of time, which for me, it's kind of like 10 to 15 years, like most of my adult life was spent not menstruating. And then to fast forward to the end of my story, I do have a daughter. So, when I was 32, I was in th

I'm sure you've been hearing a lot about egg quality if you're searching the internet and trying to figure out how you can improve your fertility health. In this episode, I'm going to be talking about what egg quality is and four different ways that you can improve it. So egg quality refers to not only the chromosomal health, but it also corresponds to something called mitochondrial health. I will be covering:

• What contributes to egg quality
• Ways you can improve egg quality
• Why the digestive system is so important
• Research that shows certain exercises that improve mitochondrial function

My fertility book “The Way of Fertility” is going to launch soon and I would love to have you on the launch team!!! You’ll get to read it first! The application is more formality! https://www.michelleoravitz.com/TWOF-launch-team-application

Be sure to tune in! For more information about Michelle, visit www.michelleoravitz.com The Wholesome FertilityFacebook group is where you can find free resources and support: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2149554308396504/ Instagram: @thewholesomelotusfertility Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thewholesomelotus/ Transcript: [00:00:00] So I'm sure you've been hearing a lot about egg quality, especially if you're searching the internet and trying to figure out how you can improve your fertility health. And you've probably even seen the book, It Starts With The Egg, which I highly recommend if you haven't already read it, it has amazing, amazing information. And today I'm going to be talking about what egg quality is and four different ways that you can improve it. So egg quality refers to how chromosomally normal an egg is. And it also, besides just the chromosomes, it also corresponds to something called mitochondrial health. And mitochondria is It's an organelle in the cell, so it's basically a part of a cell, and it's considered the powerhouse that produces something called ATP, and ATP are basically energy units. And through ATP and the energy, if you [00:01:00] want to compare it to Chinese medicine speak, it really comes down to qi. It's like life force vitality, basically, and how do we produce it? I will talk about that and how to really protect it and support it. So. So Chinese medicine, we talk a lot about qi and a lot about the energy and a lot of the ways that we do support qi. One of the ways is through nutrition. So there's many different ways to really support it. And it's found that mitochondrial health declines with age, as well as oxidative stress. So, you'll find a lot of times oxidative stress increases with age. So, a lot of the anti aging market focuses antioxidants. So antioxidants basically means that it's protecting the cells from oxidative stress. And the mitochondria really is at the heart of it. And the mitochondria can be [00:02:00] protected through these antioxidants. So the antioxidants can protect the mitochondria. And then it provides more energy units in the cells. And then when that is the case, it will help the cells to develop more correctly. So it'll give the energy basically to the cells to fix themselves. So even eggs that end up being really good quality, they're not necessarily always perfect. It's just that if it has a lot of energy And it is able to basically correct itself. So that's why there's always this kind of controversy with checking or testing embryos because sometimes they can start out not being 100 percent normal. But part of the process that it goes through is that as it grows, it can normalize itself. And in order to do that, it really has to have robust energy to do so. So in a sense, really, technically speaking, you can actually. [00:03:00] Decrease or reverse your biological age through choices that you make with your nutrition, with your lifestyle, with the movements you choose, the exercise you have, and your mindset. Lowering stress. I mean, there's many different things that you can do to improve your overall energy and I'm going to be talking a little bit about chi and mitochondria because it's kind of like one in the same. It's just described in a different way. So there are definitely things that you can do to support it. So I'm going to be covering four and number one. Okay. It all starts with nutrition. Nutrition is really important when it comes to Chinese medicine. The spleen and the stomach have a very important role and they play a role in the digestive system. And each organ or organ pair has a direction. And in Chinese medicine, the spleen and stomach are in the center. [00:04:00] So a lot of different ones will be like east, west, south, north. And The spleen and stomach are the center, and that is actually very symbolic because they're really the center and the heart of everything as far as post Heaven qi, which is basically the energy that we have and create after we're born. The pre Heaven qi, and I've talked about this before in past episodes, is all about genetics. However, now in modern day science, we know that there's something called epigenetics and our choices and what we do with our food choices and our lifestyle choices can impact how our genes express themselves. So the same way that it impacts how our genes express itself, it also impacts the genetic protection of our cells. Our cells are just tiny little versions of ourselves. And a lot of those make up who we are. [00:05:00] So it really comes down to our cellular expression. So if we can do that for our own cells, of course, the important cell is our egg cell. But it also for men is the sperm cell. So a lot of what I'm saying for women. does actually also apply to men with sperm health. So nutrition is very, very important when it comes to fertility health and protecting our egg health and supporting it because number one, it is really the source of where we get our chi. It's the source of where a woman builds blood and both of those are really important when it comes to fertility health because reproductive health requires a lot of energy. And the proof to it is that egg cells have hundreds of thousands of more mitochondria than regular cells. Regular cells can have a couple of thousand, [00:06:00] depending on the importance of the cells. So the heart cells a little bit more than a regular cell in the body, but an egg cell has the most. We're talking really, really a lot of mitochondria because it's important for it to be equipped with a ton of energy in order to produce new life. And this is why I always talk about The energy that a person has is really, really important. And when a person's energy stores are depleted, it can impact fertility health because the body's not going to prioritize reproduction. It's going to prioritize survival. And I say this over and over again, because it is such an important point to keep in mind. So when it comes to eating, it's important to really consider number one, your gut health and eating more antioxidants and. I'm kind of throwing in an extra one, the gut health, the gut health really is a reflection of your spleen and stomach condition and it's important because everything that I'm going to be talking about really, as far as the [00:07:00] nutrition goes, depends on your gut health. So if the gut health is optimal, it's able to really transform the food into energy. So number one, Eat more antioxidants. So antioxidant rich foods are super important. So I'm going to give you a couple of examples of antioxidant rich foods. So something you probably have heard before, a lot of people talk about it, but things like berries are probably higher on the antioxidant level. When it comes to fruits, so things like strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, you know, all those dark colors and pigments in the food come from antioxidants, so berries are really important, but then also ones that are not as common, things like acai, tea, tea, Has been shown actually in CCRM. They have their own acai Supplement and they did a study to show that it improves egg quality. So that's really [00:08:00] huge and that's something that you can include in your diet and then foods rich in beta Carotene such as carrots and sweet potatoes are really important and dark leafy greens so you'll see like dark leafy greens such as spinach And chards, and also beets are really important. Now, keep in mind too, beets are root vegetables, and what does that mean? They grow in the earth, and earth is an element that is connected to the spleen and stomach. Earth also has spore based probiotics. And that's actually where spore based probiotics come from, comes from the soil. So that's really, really important if you want to help nourish that energy of digestion. So beets are really important and they also give a groundedness to your energetic being. So you really do feel more grounded. When it comes to Ayurvedic medicine, they always talk about the different doshas that [00:09:00] people have, doshas or body types, and they also have elements. And the dosha that is vata, which is a little bit more air, it doesn't have as much grounding benefits