Avsnitt
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In today's episode, Katy discusses the small but mighty nutrient iodine. She reveals the system in the body that completely relies upon this mineral, and why getting the balance right is SO important, particularly for people with Hashimotos.
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Today, Katy makes some reflections on the podcast and her current practice, and discusses how widening out her focus to Women's Health can better serve YOU. During the episode she reveals her brand new comprehensive fertility service, which is designed to be a one-stop shop for fertility support, supporting you to reach your goal sooner than ever.
00:00
Hello, I am Katie Bradbury, a registered nurse, and nutritional therapist. Today's podcast episode is called, why I'm branching away from fertility, and how I can still help you.
00:27
So hello, hello. Welcome to today's episode, I'm really happy to be back for the second week on the trot after having a bit of an extensive period where I was getting quite sporadic with my podcast episodes, and what I wanted to do today, as I alluded to last week is just to come and chat to you, I guess a bit of a behind the scenes chat to just fill you in. Because I know that I've got a number of listeners who are really regular listeners to the show and who really enjoy it. I've had quite a few people get in touch to kind of ask about the absence of episodes when things had slowed down a bit. And I think what I realised is that part of the reason that I hadn't been coming to record the podcast every week is because I was just I don't know, I was finding that there was a resistance there. And usually, when we find some resistance in our lives, it's really worth actually sitting down with that and exploring it a little bit and hadn't had the chance to do that I was just it was just coming under the kind of the excuse, I guess of like, Oh, I've just been really busy. As you know, the summer has been really busy. But then, of course, the summer came and went and I was still putting off doing the podcast whereas actually, it used to be something that really lit me up. It used to be something that I used to really look forward to coming and doing. And I do, I enjoy coming into the studio at the bottom of the garden and making myself a cup of tea and coming and chat chatting to all of you, I really do. And so I was a bit puzzled as to why I was putting things off. And so this is what I'm here to talk to you about today. And I'm going to spend the episode just having a little chat through where I'm at at the moment. So it's a bit of a self-indulgent episode but hopefully, I'll just help you to make sense of things for where I'm at just now. And what it's made me realise is that I need to switch up the way of doing things a little bit. So what I've come to tell you today is just a little bit more info on where I'm going to be going next in terms of the services that I'm offering to you. So don't feel disheartened. Please, please listen on, I'm not saying that I'm packing in my fertility work at all. Very, very different to that. In fact, I'm figuring out a way to make it more comprehensive than it's ever been. But do stick around and listen to the episode I hope that you can join me today in whatever you're doing whether you're out for a walk or cooking or you know walking the dog or doing some chores or in the car or on your commute. Just settle in and have a little listen because I realised actually that I'm coming up to my two-year anniversary of when I set up my limited company Katie Bradbury Health. And although I was practising before that the birth of Katie Bradbury Health was really when I started to put my energy into supporting people in my private practice as opposed to anything else. So um, so that's kind of what my main focus has been for the last two years now.
04:26
My when back then in November 2020. My own fertility journey was still so raw, then actually and I'd, I'd not long had had my second child who I'm, you know, extremely blessed to have had. So she was born in June 2020. And then in November so when I set up as Katy Bradbury Health as I say my own fertility was just really still quite raw in. And for anyone who doesn't know about my own fertility journey that there is a previous episode, I can't remember what number it is off the top of my head, but I'll link to it in the show notes. So if anyone just want to go back and listen to my story, who doesn't already know it do, do go back and listen to that, because I go into the backstory a bit there. So if you're interested, you can do that.
05:33
But I so really still quite raw from my own fertility journey. And what I was determined to do then was help as many people as I could. And so I was at the end of embarking in a year-long programme that specialised or that taught me exclusively about fertility nutrition. So it was really so I was already you know, a nurse, I was already a nutritional therapist, I already specialised in women's health, I'd already got, you know, eight years of clinical experience by then, but this additional year's training was solely on fertility, male and female side, you know, fertility is a is an all-encompassing topic and looking at the underlying causes. And I was really determined, to specialise in fertility and to help as many people as I could, what I didn't realise two years on, is that I would end up holding the space for quite as many people, as I do, and that's an amazing thing, right? You know, I'm, I'm doing what I set out to do, which is helping as many people as I could. But what's happened recently is I've been feeling a little bit depleted. And I think that part of it seasonal, you know, of course, I think as we move away from the summer, that it's natural at this time of year, isn't it for your energy to shift. But part of it is because and this is, this might sound a little bit dramatic, but, hopefully, you can understand and, I will explain a bit further. But part of it is because for every person that I speak to who is struggling with their fertility, and whether that's, you know, an intensive one-to-one client, whether it's people who are in my membership, and that I support as a group, whether it's people in my Facebook group, whether it's people that reach out to me on the DM'S and Instagram, whether it's people who I speak to in this podcast, whether it's people who I indirectly work with, through a company in the states who I do some clinical mentorship for, it's, you know, there's a lot of people out there, and for each of those, and this is I don't mean for this to sound dramatic, but this is just the impact in me. But for a little, for each of those people, a little piece of me goes with them. And it's because it's a topic that I care so much about. It's very, very difficult to be really boundaries and to just leave that behind at the door, right? And so, what happened recently a couple of weeks ago, is I was at a bit of a crescendo, I guess, with quite a few people, you know, these journeys, of course, they ebb and flow, right? And so, sometimes you're up sometimes you're down. And the thing is, it's such a long journey, in a lot of cases, because lots of the people who come to me have actually got some really complex stuff going on. And it's not instantaneous, you know, it takes, can take time. And so the journey can last quite a long time. And then even when, you know, if a pregnancy does occur, it's not always all sunshine and roses, it's then Oh, hang on, we need to wait at least three months now before we can actually relax and then even then it can feel worrisome. So as I say, it's difficult to kind of be boundaries and leave that behind. And whilst I have got a lot better with my boundaries, in terms of I don't know, you know, being very clear in the way that I respond to people. It doesn't, you can't just leave, leave the emotional aspect of that out and so what happened a few weeks ago, is a few, I had a few people in my world who had you know, were coming to a bit of a kind of a crescendo whether that's, you know, they had IVF going on, or they've been pregnant, you know, they got pregnant, but that had a history of miscarriage and you know, there were quite a few people that I was talking to and it was quite intense and I was quite anxious for all of these people and I started in one of my journaling practices, I started writing out a prayer. And I started writing out a prayer for and it started just fit for each of these, I think there were about five people who one of them is a close friend.
10:16
And, you know, it's, it's I, as I said, one of them was like, in and out of hospital whos a client. And so I started writing about this prayer. And in this prayer, I, you know, I was asking for each of these people to get what they say, wanted, I was asking that, you know, that these, these IVF cycles would be successful, or that they, these pregnancies would work out. And I wrote, I wrote quite detailed messages in this in this letter, in this prayer. And then it all started spilling out. And I ended up then starting to think about other people who weren't kind of in this it sense of immediacy, you know, who didn't actively have this stuff going on, but who were still in my world and that I was supporting. And so I just carried on writing. And I carried on writing and writing and writing and pages later. And lots of names and lots of hopes and wishes and prayers later, I and I hadn't even stopped you know, I was full flow and I just realised my goodness, no wonder I'm feeling a bit on edge recently, because I'm holding this, right? And this isn't me being dramatic, by the way, because I have every, I completely know that it's far, far more intense for you than it ever could be for me. But a lot of it is, there's an element of kind of, and again, this sounds very dramatic, but it's just me being completely open, there's an element of, of re-traumatising there, because it's so close to my own heart in that I went through this myself, even though I'm so blessed and thankful to be on the other side of that. These are all feelings that I hold inside me because I've seen them and I felt them. And so I wrote out this prayer, I just realised like, gosh, okay, I'm holding this for a lot of people. And I realised in writing out this prayer that I can't actually keep going in the same way that I am, I can't, I can't keep going like this, because I really want the people who I am committed to, to get the absolute best of me. And that's not just my clients, and, the people that I speak to about their fertility journeys. But my family, my friends, and of course me, you know, I want me to get the best of me too. And then also very recently, sadly, my neighbour died. And it was really sad. He was, you know, any death is sad, of course. But he, you know, he left behind a wife and two twin boys, not young boys, not young at all, you know, they're at university now, but it's still really a really, really tragic loss. And it just, losses that are so close to home, really, really do make you reflect on how short and how precious life is. And so, you know, I want as I say, I want everyone in my world to get the best of me and I want me to get the best of me I want to be the best, the best I can be for everyone. And so I realised this is very self-indulgent podcast. But as I say, I think it's really important that I speak about this because this is the reality.
14:13
So what I found naturally recently over the last few months is that I've started attracting people coming to me for supporting me with other aspects of women's health, not just fertility. So I've had people coming to me to support them with the hormonal roller coaster, that's perimenopause. And even you know, lots of my, some of my current and former clients are also navigating peri-menopause. So it's kind of been an area that I've been quite interested in. And, also I've had some people coming to me for help with their Hormonal Health, or their women's health issues who aren't actually trying to conceive it's, it's just they just want to, they want to help regulate their cycles and to just feel as good as they possibly can. And as I say, for people who are coming to me for things around their Hormonal Health, it is about helping them to feel as good as they possibly can and to help them enjoy their lives and to do what they want to do with flow and with joy. And helping people like that as like a bit of a balance, it really helps to restore my battery as a practitioner and as a person, because the focus isn't entirely dependent on this thing happening, that they're so desperate for, and that I can remember so clearly and vividly how desperate it feels. So it's helped me to feel that bit more balanced. And when I've reflected on this, what I realised is that actually, what I do is the same regardless, because, in terms of my approach, there's no, there's no fertility, you know, there's no magic approach that's specialist to fertility. And then another approach that specialists for people who are struggling with their hormones that don't want to conceive. There's no you know, there's no different approach for people who want help with their perimenopause, for example, or their post-menopause. You it's all the same? Well, it's not all the same, because it's, the point is, it's different for everybody. But what is the same is investigating the underlying drivers. And that's different for everybody. So what is the same is that you know, someone comes to me with X, Y, Z. And typically, the thing with our hormones and our reproductive system is that it is essentially it's like an extra vital sign, right? Because our reproductive health is often a reflection of what is going on with the rest of our health. And of course, some things are unavoidable, you know, there is no stopping the menopause. Of course, it looks different for everybody, and it happens at a different time for everybody. But in essence, there are fundamental things that are the same regardless. And so reproductive health in general, is, is really what I'm passionate about. And that that's, you know, that's not, that's not bound by just being fertility or just being perimenopause or anything like that. So it's, it's made me realise that I just need to have that little bit of balance. And this, what I'm about to say is why you don't need to worry. Because if you're listening to this thinking, Oh, my goodness, you know, it, especially if you're a current client or someone who's in my world, at the moment, it doesn't mean that I'm gonna dump you don't worry. It just means that I'm going to be changing the way that I work a little bit. And so if you are already a client, that absolutely we will carry on working together in the same way that we have that will not change. But in terms of the way that I do things now. I'm going to be changing slightly and particularly for fertility clients. What I've been reflecting on as well is how, not reflecting on but thinking hard about is how I can really, really accelerate people's results and maximise their chances of success. Because I'm, I'm at the end of the day, I'm a lone practitioner, right? And without tooting my own horn, I'm a good practitioner, I'm comprehensive, I'm very well informed, I'm well educated, I've got good clinical experience, etc, etc. So, as far as practitioners go, I, you know, I know that I'm a good practitioner, but I'm only one person. And what I know and what I teach, of course, if you've been in my world a little while, you'll know this, is it can't just be one thing, right? So if we're just focusing on nutrition alone and nothing else, it's not going to be anywhere near as effective as if we do things in a really comprehensive way.
19:41
So if we were combining the nutrition piece, with the investigations into underlying causes, which again, it's another big part of the way I work in my one-to-one practice, but you know not everyone I work with does get that kind of really digging into the underlying causes. And that's, that's either because, you know, they don't want to, or they don't have the funds to look at that. But certainly, the people that I support on a group level, don't get that, because it's so it's general support is not personalised. But then, so there's the nutrition piece, there's the investigations piece, there's, but then there are these whole two other pieces, which are really significant, which is movement, which is huge, you know, really really important. And then there's the stress side, okay. Now, I do talk about movement, a lot, I advise on movement. But at the end of the day, I'm not a qualified personal trainer, I'm not qualified in any kind of physical therapy at all right, or movement. So I can advise, you know, and my advice is, usually make sure you are moving, and you know, do something you love, you know, doing anything that you love is better than doing nothing in the movement front. I often advocate strength training as well. But I can't go away and give you a strength workout to do, because I'm not qualified to do that. And the other side is stress. And again, I do everything I can to help buffer people's stress levels, I try my best to create a really nurturing and supportive environment. So my sessions are, my one-to-one sessions are, I'd like to think quite therapeutic. And I have my membership for that group-level peer support. And I have my Facebook group. And I have people within my online programmes, I have a number of tools, videos, workshops, etc, that can help with the stress side. But again, I'm not qualified in any additional modalities that help with the stress piece. So what I am really blessed with over the last few years is that I've really built up an incredible network. And I've been fortunate to meet some amazing practitioners on my journey. And so what I want to do now, in terms of the fertility package that I offer, for one-to-one work is to bring it all together into a really comprehensive package. And what that will look like is essentially I'm going to be getting a team of people together, to help me to actually carry out this really important work in the most effective, and the best possible way where you're getting everything all together in like a really nourishing and nurturing package. So I've spoken to a number of practitioners, and I got some incredible people on board. And so what I want to be offering now, moving forward for my one-to-one work, yes, for my, for my one-to-one work is you will be seeing one of my team, one of my fertility nutritionists who have got the exact same fertility, nutrition training as I have and who have been seeing clients in the same way that I do, because there is a group of us. And we're all amazing, even if I do say so myself. So you will be seeing one of my team of amazing fertility nutritionists. For your nutrition support, you will be getting included, so rather than having all of the testing done separately, the tests that you need will be included in the package. So everyone that comes on board will have these tests done, that will start to look into the underlying causes, because the way I describe the fertility of the reproductive health piece, is that you need it.
24:31
In order to make a healthy baby. It's like a chain of events has to happen, okay? And this chain of events is quite comprehensive. And there's a lot that has to go right in order for a successful pregnancy and a healthy baby to come out the other side of that. So what we're doing is within this chain of events through doing this testing and through investigating the underlying drivers for you as an individual is we are looking for any gaps across that chain? Okay? Because it is a game of odds at the end of the day. And so if we can find where your gaps are in the chain that is your life and your health and all of the systems in your body that are connected, then we can, we can then plug those gaps, we can find what your unique gaps are, we plug each of those gaps, and then we can move forward. And so each gap that you're plugging is increasing your chances of things going, right? Okay? So, um, so it's going to include the testing, it's going to include the nutrition side, and the personalised supplements that will help, be helping to plug those gaps. But then you will also be working with a fertility specialist personal trainer, who will be so so she works on an app. And so she will get you onto her app, and then you get regular fertility-focused exercise routines, just for you to do you get interactions with her, there's a little community on there as well. So you get the movement side incorporated into your programme as well. You also get so, also onboard is a wonderful hypnotherapist that I've been doing some work with, um, I'm not giving any names out at the moment because we're still in the final, the final stages of planning here. But I'm just letting you know what will be involved. So you will also then get a package of hypnotherapy with this fertility-focused hypnotherapist and that can be focused around natural conception and also that it can have some focus on IVF if you're on that journey. And so that then is an incredibly powerful combination, because we're doing the investigations. So we're doing the digging to look at you and the messages that your body is giving us so that we can then plug those gaps. You've got a specialist nutritionist that's giving you your tailored protocols and your tailored advice and supporting you through actually making the changes to your nutrition and lifestyle that will help to plug those gaps that we find. You've got the movement, so you've got this support from a personal trainer who is very well notified in fertility. So you've got support from her as well to get the movement side in. And then you've got this hypnotherapy support as well, which is really then focusing in not just on the stress piece, but on that subconscious piece as well. And working through some of that. So it's going to be really, really comprehensive programme. And far, far more than the sum of its parts, okay? So this is what I'm going to be delivering now. And it's you know, that is what is going to be available for people coming to me, as you know, the top level of support that we can offer. So you know, there can be varieties of this as well. But this is what I want to offer people so that we are really doing everything we can to maximise the chances of this healthy pregnancy happening, which is ultimately what you're wanting if you're listening to this. So as for this podcast, I did talk at the beginning about the podcast and kind of how all of this was started by me reflecting on why I'd been a bit resistant to recording some of the podcast episodes.
28:58
What I'm likely to do is continue recording for the rest of this year, for the rest of 2022 and finish the micronutrient series that I've been involved in quite a few of you have been enjoying that so far. So I'm really glad about that, that you've been finding that helpful. But for 2023, I'm going to butterfly out a bit. So I'm going to start talking about I'm going probably actually change the fertility in the first 1000 days podcast, I'm probably going to actually start a new podcast with a different title. And this will still be here, don't worry, all of these episodes will still be here and I can still direct people back to particular episodes that will be helpful for them. So this will always be here as a resource for you. But I'm going to probably talk, start a new podcast that's talking about women's health more broadly. Because as I say there is so much the same when it comes to women's health in terms of addressing the underlying causes. So what I don't want to do because my passion really is women's health and family health across the board. I don't want to alienate anyone or leave anyone out by just focusing on fertility. And especially because lots of the people who have been my clients who have, have needed help with their fertility and then, like me have come out of the other side of that journey. Lots of people actually then want ongoing support. They want the support with navigating their pregnancies. They then want support with like the crazy ride, that is parenthood, they want the support with perimenopause. And so I'm really here for all of that. And so, as I say, I'm probably going to be branching out to talk a little bit more about women's health in general, and the other thing, of course, is that if you are on a fertility journey, yes, of course, that is like your massive focus, and it can be really difficult to find anything else. But such a significant part of that journey for me, and what made it so traumatic, is because I was focused on that, above anything else. And I was not putting myself first, I was not thinking about all of the things that I could be enjoying, and feeling, gratitude and love towards in my own life, all I could do was everything on this thing that wasn't happening. And so lots of what I talk about in my group is around that is around, finding you, again, actually, and who you are, as a person, as a woman. And the things, you know, focusing in on the things that do light you up. And so I really do want to explore that side of things a little bit more within, within the things that I talked about in the in the show, as well. So that is my plan. If you have listened all the way to the end, thank you so much for sticking with me. I know I've wittered on. But I'm very, very excited about my slightly new way of working, I'm really excited about this new package that I'm going to be offering for one-to-one clients, that is going to be just so comprehensive. And really just trying to you know, move through this process as quickly as you can and actually get your baby you know, as quick as we can. And of course, as I say it's for some people, it is a slow process. And there's nothing we can do about that. But I'm really confident that this new package is going to be helping people in the most comprehensive way. So that's it for me today. Thank you for listening. I'd love to know if you've got any thoughts. Excuse me, please do share. drop me an email. I love hearing from people listeners of the show, drop me an email on [email protected]. If you are listening, and you're thinking actually, yes, that programme does absolutely sound like a bit of what I need right now. Please do get in touch. I'm not taking bookings for it at the moment. But hopefully, we'll be up and running with this new programme imminently. So if you want to be one of the first people to actually benefit from that, then do drop me an email at [email protected] as for my other offerings. I still do have my Facebook group fertility in the first 1000 days. So if you want to come along and join that, please do and I also have what else do I have? I also have my membership in which we meet every Wednesday at 5 pm UK time. And so if you want to come and really get involved in that peer support, then you know, please, please do drop me an email and I can tell you a bit more about that as well.
33:58
All right, have a lovely, lovely week everyone. I will be back next time to carry on with the micronutrient mini-series and continue to talk to you about the minerals that are really important for reproductive health. Take care bye bye.
WAYS THAT YOU CAN GET KATY'S HELP:
Fertility and the First 1,000 Days Membership:
Fertility and the First 1,000 Days MembershipFundamentals for Fertility online course:
12-Week Fundamentals for Fertility Course with Katy Bradbury (evergreen)Book a discovery call to talk through your needs for working together 1:1:
Practice BetterMore info can be found about Katy on her website:
https://katybradbury.com/Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/katybradburyhealthEmail:
[email protected]Love the show? Don't forget to leave a star rating and a review to share the love and help it reach others who need to hear this!
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Saknas det avsnitt?
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Today, Katy discusses the minerals potassium and sodium, with regard to their utmost important functions in the body. Whilst these minerals may not directly be linked to fertility, you'll find out why they are so important for everyone to be thinking about, as well as the reason they are so imbalanced in the modern Western diet.
00:00
Hello, you are listening to Katy Bradbury, a registered nurse and nutritional therapist. Today's podcast episode is called the micronutrient series, macro minerals, part three.
00:15
So that is a bit of a mouthful, the micros and the macros. And it has been a little while since I released an episode. I did mention in the last episode, why some of my podcast recordings have been a little bit more sporadic recently. And it's a lot of it is around perhaps wanting to switch things up a little bit. Now just to give you a little update on where I'm at with that, because I've been getting my thinking cap on for the last few weeks about how I might best address this because I don't want to have fallen out of love with my podcast, you know, this is a passion project, for me. It's something that my listeners really value. And so I've been trying to get my head around the best ways that I can serve you as my listener using this podcast as a platform, whilst also meeting my own needs, frankly, and keeping it as something that I actually really enjoy doing. And I look forward to doing it. So I will come and talk to you probably in the next episode about some of my thoughts around that. But for today, I wanted to just continue and finish off within the micronutrient series that I've been doing. So back earlier, in the summer, I decided that actually it probably be really helpful to talk about some of the micronutrients in a little bit more detail as to their importance for health and well-being and particularly of course, around fertility. So I have been doing that and I've covered the vitamins so far. So if you are a new listener, or you're a regular listener, although my episodes haven't been regular recently, if you are a devout listener, I should say then you might want to go back and just revise some of those because some of those particularly the vitamins that we've been through so far, is really really important to understand in the context of reproductive health. So do go back and give those a listen. But I wanted to cover today the last in macro minerals, if you like which are, I guess four of the main minerals that our body uses. Now, I covered in the last two episodes, magnesium super duper important mineral and as I said in that episode, magnesium is probably the most nutritional therapy if you ask them what their favourite mineral is, and yes, that is a valid question. Most would probably start spouting off about magnesium because it is just such an important nutrient. But today, I wanted to talk to you about two together. And I did talk about calcium, of course last, last episode as well. So do go back and listen to those. But today I'm going to cover sodium and potassium in one go. And that's because it's very difficult to talk about one without the other. And what I think you'll probably learn from this episode, and it's going to be a fairly quick episode actually because the sodium I know that most people are listening to this because they're really keen to hear about the way things might impact their fertility and their reproductive health. Now, there are not really links as such around sodium and potassium directly to fertility. But they are essential, essential minerals for human health. And they are essential because they are involved intricately or inextricably, I should say, in homeostasis. And homeostasis is really the narrow balance that our body needs to be in, in order to stay alive. And so you know, with that in mind, it is, it is important to all aspects of our health. So I'm just going to briefly give a summary today about sodium and potassium and how we might be able to think of them in the context of our health and our diet. So sodium, first of all, is essentially salt, so sodium and chloride together, equal salt.
05:22
And so is one of those things that has had a bit of a bad rap over the years. And it's been, it's hard to the finger pointed at it for, you know, risks of hypertension, which is high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease. So we're going to talk about sodium and potassium today in the context of blood, high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease risk because it's a really important one to understand. And this might be ringing bells for you, if perhaps if you have high blood pressure or cardiovascular disease running in your family, and it might be ringing bells for you if you've had genetic testing done. And some of the genes have come up for you, which puts you at higher risk of some of those. It might be that you have had a previous pregnancy, where you had issues come up with your blood pressure or had something like pre-eclampsia during pregnancy. And so that might be why alarm bells come up for you at the mention of blood pressure. Um, but sodium is it's an electrolyte. And so what that means and there are other minerals that are electrolytes too, potassium is one of the other major ones. But magnesium and some of the other ones that I have spoken about, and will talk about are also electrolytes. But typically speaking, we talk about sodium and potassium as being some of the key electrolytes in the body. And what electrolyte means is that it has an electric charge, guess what? our bodies need electrical charges, in order to function because we need to be able to create energy. And you know, our hearts, for example, our heart conduction requires electricity, you know it, it requires an electrical charge, in order for it to actually beat. So. So as i say really, really important just in this context of staying alive and maintaining homeostasis. So sodium is an electrolyte it has this electrical charge, and sodium and potassium have this electrical charge at a cellular level. And so every single cell in our bodies has got pumps, essentially. So, so pumps on in and out of the cell, that are designed purely for managing the traffic of sodium and potassium in and out of the cell. Because sodium is mostly supposed to be outside of the cell, and potassium is mostly supposed to be inside of the cell, sometimes they can get muddled up and that balance can get shifted in the wrong direction. So these pumps have to work hard to make sure all the time, that they are in the right place so that they're not causing havoc, because that would be dangerous. So this is what's happening at a cellular level all the time. Now sodium is also linked with fluid balance. And so sodium is connected with our kidneys and our renal function. And it's involved in our ability to wee. And you might, you know, weeing might just seem so fundamental, such a kind of everyday occurrence that you don't really think about. But again, it's an essential part of our health, not just because it's excreting things that we don't want to be in our body anymore. It's one of the modes of excretion alongside pooing and sweating and various other things, but it's and breathing, but it's also maintaining that, that really important fluid balance in the body. So blood pressure and fluid balance, again, are inextricably connected because our blood pressure is, our blood is fluid, right? And so the pressure of our blood in our body needs to be maintained by sodium and also by potassium.
09:54
So sodium, as I say, does get a bit of a bad rap for being responsible you know there's again a massive drive perhaps in the 70s. As this science emerged in the connection between sodium and blood pressure emerged around having high blood pressure and having cardiovascular disease and a high salt diet. So lots of people went full pelt the other way. And this is the same with fat. And this is one of the things that I talk about a lot is the fat piece, we're not going to go into that today. But this kind of this notion that all fat is bad, it's complete rubbish. But that's, that's a topic for another day. But salt got a bad rap because of this association. And so then lots of people ran, you know, the other way, and it's low salt, this low salt that must include salt in my diet. But again, guess what? Salt is really important. So then subsequently, there is a bunch of research that came out, that showed that actually people who had like, low salt in their urine, because that's a marker of seeing how much salt is in the body. Were also at risk of these cardiovascular events and cardiovascular disease and hypertension. So just like with everything else, and I feel like a bit of a broken record here, it has to be in the right balance. So salt, if we think about the typical Western diet, I guess, the take home message here, and I'm not going to start talking about how many milligrammes of salt you should be having, because actually, I think that that kind of information can be really unhelpful. And what that does is adhere to this one size fits all approach for health, which actually just, it just is simply not true. Essentially, I guess what my advice would be to you, if you did want to consider this is just this notion that most people in the Western world, the majority of the salt, the majority of their sodium intake, comes from refined and processed foods, right. And refined and processed foods are laden with refined salt, which is also full of loads of additives and undesirable things. So most people in the Western world would benefit from significantly reducing the amount of processed foods that they're eating. And then so if you move away from processed foods, and move towards whole home cooked foods, then you're naturally going to be drastically reducing your sodium intake, at which point, you can safely be including non refined salt in the food that you're cooking. So, you know, again, it's really about balance. So it's that that's really the principle that I would be teaching here is really trying to move away or significantly reduce those processed foods, and then including some, some unrefined salt, so not like your typical table salt, you know, again, that's, that's kind of heavily processed, and has lots of undesirable additives in it. But just like, you know, a good quality sea salt, you can't go wrong, really. So adding, adding that into the food that you're making at home, then you know, fine, do it. Now, of course, this is different for everyone. You know, if you have got hypertension, if you're on blood pressure medication or anything like that, these you know, these recommendations probably need to be made more personalised to you. But for the for the Average Joe for kind of, you know, a healthy member of the population at reproductive age, which is what this podcast is aimed at essentially, then that that would be a good idea. So moving on, oh, and just a couple of other notes about sodium is just to say that if you you know, things that might be reducing your your sodium or increasing your sodium output would be things like sweating. So if you're really active if you work out a lot, if you're just one of those people like me that sweats a lot naturally.
14:34
If you if you like wee a lot if you have frequent loose bowel movements. Even if you purge, then you might need to consider replacing some of the lost fluids and salts or if you live in a hot country, you might need to consider replacing lost fluids and lost souls. So those are just some of the things to consider when it comes to sodium.
15:00
Potassium. So again, as I say potassium, it goes hand in hand with sodium. So also an electrolyte works with sodium, as I say, in every cell in the body. And, you know, through via the sodium and potassium pumps in the cells to make sure that the balance is right. So really, really important. And really, one of the big themes that we see here, in terms of maintaining that homeostasis, maintaining that healthy body, maintaining a healthy blood pressure and, and reducing cardiovascular disease, one of the big themes and part of the reason that cardiovascular disease has been on the rise is because, again, a lot of the modern Western diets does have, does include these diets that are really high in processed foods that by proxy contains lots of refined salt. And then they are also diets that are very low or a lot lower than they should be in things like fresh fruits and vegetables, which would be containing the potassium. So potassium is widely found in the Fruit and Vegetable world, but not in that high an amount. So you do need to have a diet that is really abundant in plant foods, in fruits and vegetables, in order to actually make sure that you're getting enough, you know, covering your basic needs for potassium. And if you're not, so if you're not eating as much fruit and veg as you need, and you are eating refined, processed foods that contain lots of salt, then the combination of those two things is going to be increasing your risk of cardiovascular disease, right. And so I know that this has turned into an episode that is talking about cardiovascular disease and not fertility. But as I always talk about, there are so many moving parts when it comes to reproductive health, that we need to make sure that this ground work, this is a part of our foundation, right? This is a foundational piece when it comes to health. And if this part of our body is out of whack, if our blood pressure is through the roof, and we're battling with, you know, with a metabolic imbalance, that means that we're at risk of cardiovascular disease, our body is going to be focusing on that, our body is going to be focusing on desperately trying to maintain the homeostasis and not perhaps going to be prioritising as much the reproductive health because it's got other things to be worrying about. So that's mostly what I have to say about those two, to be honest, sorry, it's not more linked to fertility. But you know, I didn't want to just leave them out because they are so important. So I just thought I'd include them and talk about them in that context. So in terms of where we can find potassium, as I say, they are available in lots of different fruit and veggies. But check this. So in order to get like your really basic needs for potassium a day, you're looking at, if we take leafy greens, which are some of the highest sources of potassium, we need to have between three and five cups a day of leafy greens, right to get our basic needs for potassium. So as I say, lots of other foods do contain potassium. So celery is a really nice one. And if you want to give your body a really nice boost of potassium, then juicing celery is a really nice idea. That's like a nice way to get that potassium boost. Potatoes contain some potassium, bananas are like the classic one people think about with regards to potassium. And really, the truth is, as I say, there are lots and lots of foods like fruits and vegetables generally do contain potassium, but just in small amounts. So we need to make sure that we've got lots and lots, this is why we talk about, you know, 10 plus portions of fruit and vegetables a day, in order to actually meet your micronutrient needs. So this is, this is a part of that this is a part of the picture. And part of the reason that people like me are always banging on about getting enough of the fresh food, the fruit and vegetables in your diet.
19:16
So that's it. That is it from the episode today. Thank you for bearing with me, as I say it's a little bit of a diversion from exclusively talking about fertility today. But, you know, we all know someone, don't we either through that we're related to or just through people that we know, that have got high blood pressure or who are suffering from cardiovascular disease. And so this is never more prominent than it is now today because cardiovascular disease is one of the biggest killers and for women, for people with ovaries who are listening to the show. I know that right now your focus might really be on fertility and reproductive health. But if we fast forward a few years down the line into those Peri and post-menopausal years, which is something that will happen, it's an inevitable part of life. Really, it's cardiovascular disease, post-menopausal, that is the biggest killer for women. And it's to do with the impact that our hormones have, or the lack of oestrogen and progesterone having a protective role to play in terms of our cardiovascular health, that puts us at greater risk of cardiovascular disease later down the line. So, I know that you might not be thinking about this now. But if we're thinking about future proofing, then what you do now with regards to reducing your risk of cardiovascular disease, that's what matters for the future. So, I'm not trying to scare monger you know, it's just to say that this stuff is important, wherever you are, whatever kind of health journey you're on, you know, minimising your risk of cardiovascular disease is an important message for everyone to receive. So thank you. Thank you so much. It's nice, actually, to be back, and back on the mic and talking to you. So thanks for listening. And I will be back next time. I'll probably have a little just bit of a meander podcast episode next time and give you some of my musings about where I'm at with regards to the podcast and what my plans for the future are. And then I'll probably spend the rest of the year. Then just finishing up on the micronutrients and going through some of the other really important minerals because although these four, the sodium, potassium, magnesium and calcium, that I've just covered are as I say that the kind of the macro minerals. By macro, I mean that we have them in, we need them in milligrams rather than micro grammes. The micro minerals, the smaller ones that we need to trace amounts of they are really, really important too. So, you'll find out about those in the subsequent episodes that I will cover across the rest of the year. So, thank you, again, really lovely speak to you. If you've got any feedback about the podcast, of course, do drop me an email on [email protected], give me a few stars give me a rating. I always love to hear from you. Of course, you can always come and join my free Facebook group as well. Fertility and the first 1000 days, or if something in this episode has spurred you to think, I really need a bit of extra support with this stuff. I don't really know what I'm doing or I'm worried about my health. I'm worried about my fertility and I really need some personalised guidance. Then you can use the link in the show notes in the description of the episode in whatever player you listen to on to book a 30-minute call with me to kind of talk through your needs and talk about what it would look like to work together on a one to one. So, thanks again and I will speak to you again soon. Take care.
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**COMPETITION TIME** - listen to the first 10 minutes of the episode to hear about the competition in more detail - or head straight to this link to enter!
00:00
Hello, you are listening to Katy Bradbury nutritional therapist and registered nurse. Today's podcast episode is called The Micronutrients Series, Macro Minerals, Part 2.
00:15
So hello, and welcome to this week's episode, I really hope that you're doing well, I can't believe that we are now in September already. And I don't know about you, but it really feels like the season is changing already. I'm really noticing here in the UK anyway that the nights are starting to draw around now. We've seen a shift in the weather and you know, it's broken, finally. The drought has lifted a bit and we've seen some rain over the last week or so. So it really feels like there's quite a lot of change on the cards at the moment. So I'm feeling quite excited about that actually.
01:14
I'm continuing the episode today with the Micronutrient Series. So if you're a regular listener, then you will know that over the last few weeks with one or two things, intermittently, punctuating it, I've been doing a Mini series or not, not so mini series because there's a lot to cover on micronutrients. So I've covered the different vitamins so far from the fat soluble vitamins to the water soluble vitamins. And now I'm gradually working my way through the minerals. So i've been starting with what we call the macro minerals because there are four minerals that are just of upmost importance for the body when it comes to maintaining homeostasis and really needing to have tight levels, serum levels in the bloodstream of those vitamins so that so that we can stay alive actually so and we measure the macro. The reason I'm referring to them as the macro minerals is because we refer, we measure them in milligrammes or sometimes even grammes rather than micrograms. So we thought that those four would be a good place to start. Now, last week, I covered actually it wasn't last week, which I'll cut I'll come back to in just a moment. But last episode, I covered magnesium. Today, I am going to talk about calcium. And in the next episode, I will talk about the other two together in all likelihood, rather than doing an episode each on potassium, and sodium. So it might not feel like particularly exciting, but actually, feeding your knowledge with information on these micronutrients, and the role that they have to play in the body. Sometimes directly related to fertility and sometimes indirectly related, then it is really important to just help empower you. And to help you understand why some of the principles I talk about are so important. So when I talk about things like the Mediterranean diet, when I talk about things like including a range of, you know, multicoloured, eating the rainbow, and all the different range of plant foods and eating enough protein, and all of these kinds of things i'm not just telling you those things for the fun of it. Part of that is because of the macronutrient content. And part of it is because eating a nutrient dense diet, like the covering the principles that I've just mentioned, will enable your body to get enough of the micronutrients that it's so needs in order to improve your fertility and make a baby ultimately.
04:13
So I wanted to before I actually get started on talking to you about calcium today, because I've got a few things that I wanted to share with you on calcium. I did just want to cover what I touched on very briefly there, which was that I didn't do an episode last week. And indeed, if you are a regular listener, you might have noticed that over the summer. These episodes have been a little bit sparse. They've been a little bit few and far between. Now, I'm going to be perfectly honest with you about this because, you know hopefully, if you have been listening for a little while then we've got to know each other and you know, you know that a lot of what I talk about is around being congruent and being true to yourself. And so I've been sort of making excuses over the summer of you know, or well, you know, it's the summer we going away, we've got this on, and we've got that on. And that's why I'm not recording a podcast episode this week. Actually, if I'm going to be really, really true to myself, a part of the reason that I haven't been recording the episodes as regularly as I have previously, is because in some ways, I feel like I've started falling out of love with the podcast. Now, that's not because I don't enjoy coming to talk to you, I really, really do, I guess I feel in some ways that I might have lost my mojo with it a little bit and run out of steam. And so when I was thinking about that, because I actually feel sad about that. When I, you know, I've toyed with the idea of maybe stopping doing the podcast. But actually, I do think that would be a real shame, because the feedback that I have had from people is that most of my regular listeners do really love it. I guess how it feels, sometimes, if I'm going to completely put myself in a vulnerable position here is sometimes it feels when you're recording a podcast that you're just speaking to nobody. And I know that I've got some of my regular listeners. And that's great. Most of the people that I know, are my regular listeners are people who are already in other parts of my world. So there are people that I interact and engage with, either in my Facebook group fertility in the first 1000 days, or through working with them directly. So in my group work, like through my previous group programmes, or through my membership, which is also called fertility in the first 1000 days, all through direct one to one work. So I do connect with those people directly. And I'm so grateful to have them in my life, because you know that this is who I do it for right? I do it for you and to connect with you. Because I know exactly how difficult this journey can be. But I guess where it feels a little bit ungratifying is that I know there are lots of people out there that do listen, that I've never spoken to me that have never reached out. And it feels a bit like I'm talking to thin air sometimes in that respect. So what I would, what I was thinking about is, how can I get my mojo back with the podcast? And how can I get your mojo back as well, because you might even be feeling like, oh, you know, you know, it could be better, or, you know, I'd love to get a bit more on board with it or a bit more engaged with it, or even, you know, reach out to me to chat to me for the first time if you haven't before. So what I thought I would do, and I'm going to be running this over the next few weeks is, is do a little competition. And what the competition is going to involve, it's actually very exciting for you, because I'm giving away a huge amount of value in prizes. And is do a do a prize draw. So I'm going to be doing a prize draw. And in order to enter that prize draw, which is going to have hundreds of pounds worth of prizes to give out. In order to enter the prize draw, what I'd like you to do is fill in a feedback form for me. So I've created a Google form. And it's something like 10 questions, they're all pretty straightforward. There's nothing crazy in there, you can really put as much or as little as you want in them, obviously, the more the better. But you know, it shouldn't take you too long to complete. So it's 10 questions, and I'm going to pop the link to it in the episode description. So whatever platform you listen to the podcast on, you should be able to click on the episode to look at the description. And I will add the link there's a few links in there as well of like ways you can work with me and this kind of thing. But I will add in there the link to the competition and to the to the feedback form in order to enter the competition. And what that feedback form is gonna give me is a little bit of a contact with you with my listenership so that I can start to feel a bit more connected to you. Because my aim for this podcast and I hope that this is true and certainly the feedback I have had so far. This is the case for, is I want it to feel like I am sitting in your living room having a chat with you and having a heart to heart that's that is my goal for this podcast. It's also to provide information and empower you and all of the other stuff but you know the reason why I just do it is me talking to you is because I want you to feel connected to me because this is a field that I have committed years of my life too, and I want you to know that I see you and that you are not alone in your journey. So I'm hoping that if you are a regular listener, then you do feel connected to the podcast, you do feel connected to me in some way. And what I will get out of this feedback form is I get to then feel a bit more connected to you and understand you, my listeners a bit better. Now, I do also recognise that not all of my listeners are going to be people that are struggling with their fertility. Some of my listeners might be other practitioners, or might be just people who are interested or just like listening to podcasts or, you know, have a have a passion for women's health. So I really, really want to get a sense of what proportion of my listeners are other practitioners, what proportion are people that are just interested and enjoy listening to health podcasts, and what proportion of my listeners are actually people who are going through this fertility journey, and are benefiting from a bit more directly from the content of the episode. So whatever your status is, in terms of who you are, and why you listen, I really want to hear from you. So as I say, I'll send out the the form, the google form with the questions. And at the bottom of the form, you can enter your email address in order to win one of the three prizes. So the three prizes are, drumroll drrrrrrrrr, I need a little, I need a little pad, don't know which sounds but that's, that's my version number drumroll. So professional. So the three prizes are a one to one consultation with me. And that is actually worth £279. So that is huge value. And that is a 90 Minute initial consultation with me, one to one. And that what that will involve is me looking at you in more detail looking at all of the systems in your body, chatting through things in more detail with you. And at the end of that conversation, I can then give you some of my, my recommendations in terms of things that you could be doing to improve your circumstances, whatever they may be, probably helping with your fertility. So really helping to understand where some of the root causes might be and helping you to understand whether any additional testing might be helpful. I can also then give you a personalised supplement plan, and just really personalised recommendations on the things that I think based on my extensive clinical experience, you should be focusing on next in terms of improving your fertility. So that's worth £279. The second prize is my fundamentals for fertility online course. Now this is a DIY Do It Yourself course it consists of six modules designed to be undertaken over a 12 week period. And they cover gut health which is at the start, its got to be the foundation of all things with related to fertility. So it starts with gut health. It goes through fertility, like the nutrition for fertility, it goes through egg health and vaginal health goes through sperm health, it goes through discusses stress in great detail. And it also discusses lifestyle. So it's it's really comprehensive, it covers the six fundamental things that you need to be addressing in order to improve your fertility. So that is worth £149, you will get that for free. If you are one of the lucky three winners, or you if you if you, Yeah, so one of the prizes, not, Oh my goodness me I'm tripping over my words now. Not all of the winners will get all three prizes. Of course one one winner will get one prize each. And so and then third and final prize is one month free trial in my fertility and the first 1000 days membership now that at the moment is still on the low cost offering of £50, the price will be going up soon because that is it's insane value for money, the £50 a month, but the one month free trial will be given to you absolutely free. And that is to come in to our membership, join our weekly support calls and get access to an online library of really practical resources of things that you can be doing to support your fertility. We also have a monthly guest expert coming in. And so we've got we've had a we've had a session on movement for fertility, we've had an amazing breathwork session, and we've got someone coming in to talk to us and help us do an audit of our sleep. Coming soon, we've also got a hypnotherapist coming in soon. So there's lots of exciting people coming in to talk to my members. So that's a really, really great offer as well. So those are the three prizes that you can win, I will put the link in both the show notes. So if you do have a look at the show notes on my website, then there'll be there and also in the description for the show.
15:22
So without further ado, I can now go ahead to actually talk to you about calcium. So I'm going to just have a little cheeky sip of water, I'm not going to bother pausing because you know me. Okay, so I have been talking really fast there because that was a lot of information that I wanted to cover without wasting too much of the episode. So what I want to talk to you about, I'm going to just slow down my pace a little bit now and slow down my thinking, and just consult with my notes here. So I've already mentioned at the very start of the episode that I am continuing now, with the macro minerals, which are magnesium, which I covered in the last episode, calcium, sodium and potassium. So calcium today I guess calcium, I wouldn't say it gets a bad rap because it doesn't get a bad rap. But it's not the most sexy of minerals. Put it that way. Like I think I mentioned last week or last episode, rather when I was talking about magnesium. That magnesium, if you ask any nutritionist what their favourite mineral is 90% of them are gonna say magnesium, because it's just so it's such an important one. And it helps so many people. And it's responsible for so many things. Now, calcium is so so important. But there are I don't know that there are many nutritionists out there where if you ask them what their favourite mineral was, and yes, that is a question that a nutritionist might ask each other. I doubt that anyone would say calcium. So it's not a sexy mineral, it's not like, it doesn't get a lot of attention these days. And so it's often then overlooked.
17:17
Now, although calcium status or calcium is a is a nutrient might not directly relate to fertility, it's really important to know that a growing baby and a nursing baby need it in abundance. So in order to grow a baby, you know, you need calcium. Now, the good thing is your body does have a lot of calcium, you know every body contains calcium in abundance. But that doesn't mean that it's available calcium flowing through the bloodstream, it means that the majority of the calcium in your body is locked up in the hard tissue so it's locked up in your bones and your teeth. And that's where it should be like your bones and your teeth need calcium in order to stay strong and dense. But what will happen if you're if you're if your blood levels if your serum levels of calcium are not high enough, and this is monitored very carefully and feedback loops in the body, if your body senses that there is not enough calcium in the bloodstream, it will leach calcium out of those hard tissues in order to bring the the serum levels of calcium up. And that's because as I said at the start of the episode, calcium is such an important mineral in terms of it's a life or death mineral right we need enough calcium in our bodies to stay alive. So it's as I say it's required for homeostasis. So what I mean by homeostasis is things like your blood pH volumes, your blood pressure, your heart conduction and so your blood levels as I say need to be the right range and if it's not if it gets low, then it will bleach the calcium from the bones if required. So whilst I don't worry that you, whilst it's not a matter of life or death for a grown baby in utero because the fact of the matter is if you're you know your baby will leach calcium from from your bones in order to grow in during pregnancy. And the same for nursing as well. You know breastfeeding can, requires calcium because you are probably aware that dairy milk is one of the biggest sources of calcium. So breast milk requires a lot of calcium too so whilst your breast milk is not going to be calcium deficient if you if you end up breastfeeding, and whilst you're, your baby is not going to not grow bones properly, if you don't have enough calcium in your blood, because it but it will take from you. So what it means is that you will become depleted, your bones will become less dense. And then what that does is put you at risk for a number of health conditions later in life. And especially for women, especially for people who menstruate later in life in those postmenopausal years, that is when you are at higher risk for osteoporosis and other conditions anyway. So this is something that we really need to be thinking about.
20:45
Now, I know that for a lot of my clients, and a lot of, probably a lot of people who listen to the podcast, you're not, you're so fixated on, you know this, this outcome of getting them so pregnant, that that is dominating a lot of your thoughts and your priorities. But I ask you to just when we're thinking about calcium is just to zoom out and take a bit of a macro view of the situation in terms of you as a person and your lifespan and health risks for the future. So as I say it doesn't directly relate to fertility as such. But what it does do and, I'll give an example, shortly of some of the things that, to just help it make a little bit more sense and a little bit to click into place for you as my listener and as to why this might be important. So although it doesn't directly relate to fertility, there are reasons why it is still important. So as I say, really important nutrient for things like cell signalling. So this is involved in like, blood vessel dilation and constriction. So in terms of your blood pressure, as I say, your heart conduction, muscle contraction, and nerve cell conduction as well. So the nervous system, calcium plays a really important role. So really, really important nutrient.
22:08
Now, some of the things that can impact calcium status, as well as what we're actually eating is vitamin D status. So vitamin D is required for calcium absorption. Now, I did cover vitamin D in, in an earlier episode as part of this micronutrient series. So if you're interested in vitamin D, because vitamin D is a super important nutrient for fertility, and for pregnancy, do go back and listen to that one, it was covered just a few episodes ago. And the optimal vitamin D levels, of course, for where we thinking about fertility are between 100 and 150 Nano moles per litre. Now that unit of measurement might differ, depending on where you are in the world. So you know, you know for example, if you're looking at the American units, then that's going to be a very different number. So what else impacts calcium absorption, sodium, so I'm going to be talking about sodium next time. But just important to be aware in the context of calcium, that sodium is associated with increased calcium loss in the urine. And that's because it competes with sodium. So people who have a really high salt intake, that may mean that they are excreting more calcium in their urine and losing it that way. Another factor that impacts calcium status is low protein. So low protein in the diet or not getting enough protein in the diet is also associated with reduced calcium absorption. And also reduced magnesium status, as I spoke about last episode is often associated with low calcium status as well because the too often go hand in hand. So in terms of risk factors, and things that low calcium levels can be linked to is having hypertension, so high blood pressure. So if you have a family history of high blood pressure, that might be something that you need to be mindful of. PMS, so this definitely relates to a lot of my clients in terms of hormonal disruptions. Pre-eclampsia as well. So again, a risk factor for pregnancy, osteoporosis, which I've already mentioned, kidney stones, the relationship between calcium status and kidney stones is quite a complicated one. I'm not going to go into that in detail here and the literature is a bit mixed on this but it's It's just something to note is that the association between calcium status and kidney stones, and also colorectal. So risk, there is a risk factor in terms of calcium status and colorectal cancer as well. So come really practical examples of some of the situations that a lot of my clients might find themselves in. And things that I see a lot in my clients are things such as people who come to me on a plant based diet or a vegan diet. So, as you're probably aware, dairy is one of the highest or most abundant sources of calcium. Now, there are other sources as well, which I'm going to mention in just a moment. But people who avoid dairy either because they are vegan, or because they avoid dairy, because dairy causes some issues. Now, I have done a podcast just on dairy, I will link to that in the show notes. Dairy is a bit of a complicated ones. And for some people, I do recommend that they actually give up dairy. That doesn't necessarily mean everyone trying to conceive should be giving up dairy. But lots and lots of people don't tolerate dairy very well. And lots of people that don't tolerate dairy very well don't realise that they don't tolerate dairy well. So that is definitely one to experiment with. And you know, to come and chat to me about directly if you do want additional support on that.
26:31
But if you are avoiding dairy for whatever reason, then that could mean that your calcium intake is suboptimal. Low vitamin D as I say, like, I routinely blood test vitamin D for everyone that comes through my doors as a new client in terms of one to one work. And I see it suboptimal a lot. So low vitamin D status could be impacting calcium status as well. So high salt diet as well, like lots of people who are struggling with their fertility and you know, have complex relationships with food because that, you know, it's such an emotional journey. And then there can be emotional eating. In my experience, emotional eating tends to either look like sweets, or sugary foods are the go to or like the salty like crisps and those kinds of foods. So if you do have a high intake of refined salt in your diet, then that could be impacting your calcium absorption as well. And then another kind of possible picture in terms of risk factors for osteoporosis in the future, as I say, which is something that I worry about for anyone who might be depleted in calcium is also people who have hypothalamic amenorrhea. So lots of people that come through my doors as clients or who are in my world through various means, do not have a menstrual cycle, because of hypothalamic amenorrhea. Now, if you don't have a menstrual cycle, because of hypothalamic amenorrhea, then you may be or who for people who have premature ovarian insufficiency and you know, who have like go through the menopause early, it may mean that your sex hormones, so low oestrogen and low progesterone also are impacting that bone density. So it may be putting you at even higher risk of osteoporosis. And then if we team possible not enough calcium in the diet as well, then that is an additional risk. So it's kind of to two risk factors playing in together. So you know, these are all reasons. These are all examples practical examples of people that I often see in my practice, where I might be thinking, actually, we do need to make sure that they've got enough calcium in their diet. Now calcium is best consumed via food. It's very, very rare that I would recommend a standalone calcium supplement. So it is, it is best consumed by food. So I wanted to give you a list of some of the foods dairy not included. That are nice rich sources of calcium. So generally speaking an adult. The adult kind of daily recommendation is about a gramme to. A gramme is 1000 milligrammes so 1000 to 1200 milligrammes of calcium a day. So, just to give you a rough idea, it is actually really quite easy to get enough calcium in your diet if you are having a really nice nutrient dense diet. So, so, this again, this, this first example is a bit of a controversial one as well. So, tofu. Tofu is actually really, really rich in calcium. Now, again, tofu is a bit of a complicated one. I don't know recommend everyone go in and start having tofu every day. Lots of people do struggle with with soy products for various reasons. But for the sake of talking about calcium, then 115 grammes of tofu equals 775 milligrammes of calcium, so you're getting like, you know, three quarters of your daily intake from 150 grammes of tofu. Nought point, so a quarter of a cup of sesame seeds is 350 milligrammes and the nice thing about sesame seeds is you don't have to go and eat a whole load of sesame seeds but one of the big, really great source of sesame seeds is tahini. So adding in tahini, to your smoothies or your spreads or like into your hummus or, or just having a spoonful of it, you know is is a really nice way to increase your calcium and sardines. So eating sardines, the types of sardines that have the bones in them because as we know, calcium is in the bones. So 90 grammes of sardines is about 346 milligrammes of calcium, and then we're looking at the greens so dark green, leafy veg, so, one cup of collard greens is about 268 milligrammes, a cup of spinach is about 245. A cup of bok choy is about 160 A cup of swiss chard is just over 100 A cup of kale is about 100. So there's, you know, eating a diet rich in dark green leafy veg is going to keep your calcium levels nice and high too, as well as your magnesium and then cinnamon, so, two teaspoons of cinnamon, which again can be added, you know, into like your pancakes or your smoothies or, you know, sprinkled on top of food, and two teaspoons of cinnamon is 52 milligrammes of calcium, and then back to the Greens again, so, a cup of cabbage is 63 milligrammes, a cup of broccoli is 62, a cup of green beans is 55, an orange is just over 50, a cup of fennel is almost 50, half a cup of parsley is almost 50, a cup of asparagus is almost 50. So you can see that those green veg are really the way to go. And if you do have an abundance of green veggies in your diet, then you will be getting a nice amount of calcium.
32:41
So that's all from me today. As I said at the start, please, please do go and fill in the Google Form to A, give me some feedback and B, enter into the amazing competition where in which there are hundreds of pounds worth of prizes for you up for grabs. So I will link to that in the show notes. And in the description of the episode today. So you can easily just go and click that form takes about five minutes or so to complete so I really cannot wait to hear from you, my listeners about where your at and just get a little bit more interaction going on with you. So take care really, really great to chat to you today. And I will be back again next week to talk about potassium and sodium. Take care. Bye
WAYS THAT YOU CAN GET KATY'S HELP:
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00:00
Hello, you are listening to Katy Bradbury, a registered nurse and nutritional therapist. today's podcast episode is called Micronutrients Series, Macro Minerals, Part 1.
00:27
So hello, and welcome to the show today, I'm really happy to be talking to you again. It's been a couple of weeks. So, if you're a keen and regular listener, you might have noticed that episodes over this time have been a touch sporadic. And that is, by no means a reflection on my desire to come and speak to you. It is just a reflection of how busy this summer has been in being away. And quite frankly, me just not being organised enough to pre-record episodes too, you know, so that I'm releasing them while, while I'm away. So accept my apologies for that. I'm actually going to be getting back on to the micronutrient series, this week. I took a little break from it with the last episode and shared a few strategies in the last episode I recorded a couple of weeks ago on how, how to navigate some of the trickier times some of the trickier points in the road when you are on this fertility journey. So, it just came at a time for me when quite a lot of the people that I was talking to were at a bit of a crossroads with regard to their fertility journey. And I just thought, Look, if I'm talking to a lot of people for whom this is relevant for right now, I'm sure it's going to be helpful for a lot of you. So if you did listen, I hope that you found it helpful. It involved a practical exercise. So please let me know how you got on with that I love hearing from you can always contact me on Instagram @katybradburyhealth or by email on [email protected].
02:36
But anyway, without further ado, I'm going to continue talking about micronutrients this week, which for me as a nutritional therapist it is a super exciting topic. And I hope that I've been able to keep your interest in talking. As I have so far I've covered the range of different vitamins. So I've covered the fat soluble and the water soluble vitamins as they pertain to fertility and getting and staying pregnant. So hopefully, what I've shared so far has been interesting and informative. And I'm going to move on now from the vitamins to cover some of the minerals and what I've decided to do is divide it into what we call the macro minerals. And, and then some of that some of the smaller minerals, the trace minerals, so when we're talking about macro minerals, we're talking about the larger minerals, so minerals that we might typically measure in milligrammes rather than microgrammes. And there are four main macro minerals, and they are calcium, magnesium, sodium, and potassium. So, I'm going to talk to you today, just about magnesium, because if you ask any nutritional therapist, and this may not be a question that you ask people very often, but in my world, it's a fairly common question. If you ask any nutritional therapist, what's your favourite mineral? I can guarantee that 90% of nutritional therapists would say that magnesium is their favourite mineral. And the reason for that is because magnesium is responsible for so, so much in the body.
04:46
At, we're learning more and more about magnesium and indeed all nutrients but I think at last count it was it was, you know, over hundreds of processes in the body that magnesium is associated with. And that's because there are things that directly require magnesium. And there are also things that require magnesium as a co-factor. So a part of the process in, you know, some kind of conversion within the body that requires magnesium to be there. So, and that includes things like hormone production. So, I wanted to talk to you just about magnesium today, I may group some of the other minerals together in future episodes, but magnesium, there is quite a bit to say about it. Now, I'm not going to go into detail about the hundreds of processes that magnesium is responsible for, but I am going to give an overview.
05:44
So one of the first things that we think about when we think about magnesium is its role in energy production. So the unit of energy in the body, so that the currency, if you like, for energy is called ATP. So every cell in your body, every process that happens in your body at any given time, requires units of ATP to be able to work. And so it's, it is just like, as I say, it's the currency for energy in your body. And magnesium is directly involved in the production of ATP. So there's something called the Krebs cycle and the electron transport chain. And they are parts of the energy production process. And they require magnesium. So really, really important. So often, you know, people who are like super tired, super low energy, we might be thinking about magnesium for, for those people. Now, I know that that doesn't pertain to fertility, in the most direct sense, but you know, if we're thinking, as I say about every process in the body, requiring energy requiring ATP, then it's pretty fundamental. One of the things that actually links into that, I'm just going to jump slightly from my intended order of play, if you like. And one of the things that that links to in terms of the energy and ATP is sperm, because what needs to move pretty quickly and in the right direction, its sperm, so ATP, so magnesium has a role to play in the motility of sperm. So if you're, if you or your partner has had their sperm tested, then you'll know that one of the measures of sperm is motility. And that is how efficiently the sperm actually moves because it needs to get to the right place. So magnesium is involved in that process, because those those little guys need ATP, they need magnesium in order to actually get to where they need to go. So that's, that's one consideration.
08:11
Now, the next thing that magnesium relates to, when it comes to processes in the body, involving fertility or things, fertility is a pretty important one. And that is that it is required for a number of steps during the synthesis of DNA, and RNA. So when we're thinking about, again, making a baby, so once we've got a fertilised egg, the thing that needs to happen next is that, yeah, that needs to be the DNA needs to be synthesised, right. So really important for there to be adequate magnesium, amongst other things to actually help that DNA do what it needs to do to actually make that baby. So really important in DNA synthesis its also involved in glutathione synthesis. So glutathione for anyone who is not familiar, is is kind of known as the master antioxidant. So there are lots and lots of different antioxidants. A number of the vitamins that I've spoken about already within this mini series are antioxidants of their own accord. There are other antioxidants as well and I often talk about having a diet rich in antioxidants. And one of the best ways to do that is by eating a whole range of different colours in your fruit and veg because all of the different coloured pigments contain a different type of antioxidant. But glutathione is yeah it's seen as the master antioxidant. And we know that these antioxidants, what they're important for when it comes to fertility is we're really thinking about the health of the egg, and the health of the sperm. Because it's oxidative stress, which can be higher as we age, it can be higher as we are exposed to different stressors, whether they are chemical, whether they're things that we're breathing, you know, air pollution, whether they are like exposure to plastics, whether they are pesticides in our foods. Lots, you know, stress even, you know, actual emotional stress, all of those things can cause oxidative stress and reactions in the body. So, the antioxidants, what the antioxidants do is help to mop up that oxidative stress. And of course, this directly impacts, so the oxidative stress, the level of oxidative stress in the body does have an impact on the health of your sperm and the health of your egg. So if you, you know, if you've got issues with sperm, if you are worried about the health of your eggs, then really important thing to consider.
11:51
Some of the other things that magnesium plays an important role in is, one is methylation. So methylation is something that I talk with my clients a lot about. It is a process that happens constantly in your body in most cells all of the time. And methylation is actually involved in again, DNA synthesis and repair. And it's also involved in the way that we metabolise hormones, particularly oestrogen, but also thyroid hormones and other things. So really, magnesium acts as there are lots of co-factors within the various methylation cycles that have to occur. And magnesium is one of the co-factors along with all of the B vitamins, zinc and a number of other compounds. So really important to consider in the context of methylation as well. And hormone production. So we're already building up a picture, that magnesium is pretty essential across the board, for many of the different things that we might be considering with regards to fertility. Some of the other things that magnesium is involved in so is involved in our, it has a role to play within our kind of absorption process, for vitamin D and calcium. And then some of the other, I guess, less direct things that magnesium has a role to play in. And this is a really interesting one is that magnesium has been linked in the research to systemic inflammation. So I talk about inflammation a lot. It is something that we really want to try and reduce or avoid when it comes to fertility for a number of reasons. If you don't know why, then do go and check out my one of my earliest podcast episodes that I refer back to all the time, which is called the Fire thats stopping you from getting pregnant. It's a really, it's an essential listen if you're trying to get pregnant. So please do go back and listen to that episode, if you haven't already. So systemic inflammation, so there was a study, this is interesting, there was a cross sectional study of over 11 and a half thousand women. And what that looked at was women who had the highest quintile, so the highest fifth of magnesium intakes had the lowest prevalence of metabolic syndrome. So metabolic syndrome is linked. It's linked to inflammation. So metabolic syndrome is it's a bit of a, an umbrella term that covers things such as it's things like insulin resistance, obesity, hypertension, so high blood pressure, dyslipidemia, and those are, people with metabolic syndrome are people who are at higher risk of developing things like type two diabetes, cardiovascular disease and some types of cancer. So when we're thinking about cardiovascular health and diabetes, they link to inflammation because inflammation is bad news for the body. And inflammation is also bad news for fertility. And so this inflammatory condition metabolic syndrome was in lowest prevalence in women who had the highest fifth of magnesium intakes. So it's associated with inflammation in that respect. And there are also a number of randomised controlled trials that report a reduction in C reactive protein CRP, which is a direct blood marker of inflammation, following magnesium supplementation, so lower inflammation has been found in people who supplement with magnesium. So that's, that's really interesting. Now I realised that this is talking, you might be wondering why cardiovascular disease and diabetes and those kinds of things are linked to fertility, they may not be directly but as I say, they are linked to inflammation. And inflammation is one of the things that we really, really want to try and reduce when we're thinking about trying to get pregnant.
17:09
So, as I say, links to high blood pressure. So when we're thinking about a bit later down the line, so you know, still part of the fertility journey, but once you're actually pregnant, you know, a fertility journey doesn't end there, Right? The end goal is having a child and having a safe pregnancy. So hypertension, high blood pressure, is of course, a risk factor in pregnancy, so women who are pregnant will get their blood pressures checked regularly. And that's because of the risk of developing pre-eclampsia, which, which can be quite dangerous in pregnancy and put both mom and baby at risk. So really, when we're thinking again about moving on to have a healthy pregnancy, then having a good magnesium status can be linked to you having a healthy blood pressure. And also studies have linked it specifically to to pre-eclampsia as well. So that's really interesting as well, I thought and just generally speaking, magnesium is helpful for ensuring good blood flow to and through the placenta and into the uterine environment, which is important not just for getting pregnant, but for during pregnancy as well. So lots, lots and lots of different links to magnesium and fertility. And one of the other ones which I kind of touched on there with regards to diabetes is the role that magnesium has to play in terms of insulin resistance and blood sugars. So magnesium again, really, really important nutrient for maintaining a healthy blood sugar. Again, if you have ever done my blood, done my sugar reset challenge, then you will know just how important a healthy blood sugar balance is. For fertility, for hormones, for getting and staying pregnant. So that's really important too. And if you haven't done my sugar reset challenge in the past, then you can go back and listen I do have a couple of previous podcast episodes around, around the the impact of sugar on fertility as well. So do go back and listen to those and I can't remember the episode numbers off the top of my head but I will link to those in the show notes for sure. So do go back and listen to those again, If you haven't already.
20:02
So as I say, there are lots of other things like things around bone health, which you know, perhaps less linked to fertility. I'm just trying to look through my notes here to see if there's anything, Oh, the other, the other one that I wanted to mention actually is around with the other two, in fact, are around mood. So, magnesium is a nutrient that is involved in the production of serotonin. And what we find, or what we often associate, magnesium with is, is mood. So mood disorders. So people who have got a current or history of mild to moderate depression, and or mild to moderate anxiety, magnesium will often play around in the therapeutics there from a nutritional therapy point of view. So magnesium, you know, it's so, so important for our emotional health and well being as well. So lots of people again, who, who I work with do have problems with mood, whether that's a history of anxiety, or whether that is as a result of the fertility journey. And I know I certainly did, I struggled massively with anxiety when I was trying to get pregnant and to the point where I really started having panic attacks and you know, and all sorts, so magnesium is is strongly implicated or indicated there as well.
21:42
Now, one of the other things I said, there were two more things that I wanted to mention. Another thing that I wanted to talk about is bowel movements. So magnesium, another reason that I will often prescribe magnesium for my clients. And these are this is a particular type of magnesium is helpful here is if they struggle to open their bowels regularly. So magnesium is really helpful for people struggling with constipation because it helps to relax muscles across the board. So it helps. It helps with it's a muscle relaxant. So people who have any kind of like tight muscles, muscle spasms, things like twitchy eye any of those kinds of things, I'm often wondering what their magnesium status is. And similarly that that kind of bowel motility, the magnesium can help with that. So it can help to, it can help people to have regular bowel movements. So that's a really important factor as well, because again, anyone who has listened to me for a while will know that having regular bowel movements is really important, not just for having a healthy microbiome, but also for having, clearing out your sex hormone metabolites. So, to have really, you know, great healthy oestrogen function, we want to make sure that the bowels are moving really regularly and not getting stagnant, not getting stuck. So magnesium can be a really helpful mineral there as well.
23:31
So lots of things, guys, lots and lots of really helpful things in the context of fertility. Now let's talk about food sources. Because actually, magnesium is really really widely found in the food world. And if you are having a diet as I advocate that is mostly centred around all foods, then you will be eating magnesium. So things like dark green leafy veg, so chlorophyll that's you know, the pigmentation in the green colour that that is magnesium is a part of that so magnesium is a lovely sorry dark green leafy is a lovely source of magnesium. So are nuts and seeds, so are like beans and legumes and avocados and whole grains. So lots and lots of really great sources of magnesium in the plant world. So you might wonder like, well hang on a minute, why are we surely we must be getting enough if we're eating you know, a diet that does contain lots of plant foods as I do indeed advocate. And yes, absolutely. You should be getting a decent amount of magnesium from your diet. If you do eat a diet rich in plant foods. However one of the things about these minerals is that because of our modern farming practices like mass farming, what we're finding in the modern world is that magnesium, well, once it might have been abundantly available in a lot of those plant foods, it's actually getting less and less. And that is because of the farming practices we use today. And it's really because, you know, we're using because magnesium is found in the soil. And that's why it's available in these plant foods, because it comes from the soil. Because we're using, you know, fields over and over again, and crops, you know, we're kind of just doing crops and crops and crops and crops, we're not really giving the soil that time for the magnesium to naturally replenish. So it, it can become depleted in the soil and therefore depleted in the foods we eat. So magnesium insufficiency is becoming quite a widespread problem. And also what, you know, if we're thinking about magnesium being used up you know, more quickly, so, you know, for example, in, in ejaculation, then, you know, that is that requires energy, right? So it's going to use magnesium, and lots of these other factors, like, you know, if we, if magnesium is involved in antioxidant production, and we need our body is finding that it needs to produce more and more antioxidants to counter the impact of our modern lifestyles, which are naturally higher in things that cause oxidative stress. Then again, we're gonna be using more and more magnesium. So perhaps, and this is my hypothesis, rather than any specific research that I found, but you know, that perhaps we're using magnesium in our bodies at higher rate as well. And, you know, what we know as well is that we live more and more stressful lives, right? So stress is at an all time high in the modern world, and if our magnesium is involved in the stress response and serotonin production, and again, it may be that we are using, burning through that magnesium at a faster rate. So it's, you know, it's two pronged, it's that we are, magnesium is depleted in the soil. So magnesium rich foods are perhaps not as rich. And also we are likely using more magnesium than we might have done once upon a time. So lots of people do you know require a bit of extra supplementation with magnesium. Now, it is not my job to start prescribing magnesium supplements to you on the show, because I hope that I've made this very clear by now. But I really am a strong advocate for, things being individualised in terms of prescribing because magnesium comes in lots of different forms, I use different forms for different people, depending on their clinical presentation. It also there are drug nutrient interactions with magnesium. So I really don't recommend, you know, just taking magnesium off the cuff unless you are doing that with under the, you know, under the guidance of a professional like myself. So, if you do want some one to one advice, and you want to know, you know, whether you need magnesium, whether you need any of the nutrients that I speak about on the show and getting really personalised recommendations, you know, looking through test results during investigations. These are all things that I do on a daily basis with my clients in terms of trying to get to the underlying causes of fertility issues. And then, you know, prescribing really individualised protocols, dietary recommendations and supplement protocols to help plug any of the gaps that we find which are going to be really unique to you. Then please do go ahead and book in a call with me to talk through your needs. And talk about what it would look like to work together, one to one. So the link is in. It's in the show notes. And it's also if you go into the show description, you will find a link there to booking a discovery call with me. I do have a couple of slots opening up in September. So if you want to take one of those slots, then please do book in a call and we can we can talk through working together. All right, all the best to you and I will be back next time talking about one or perhaps two of the other mackerel, mackerel. It's nearly dinnertime, I've got fish on the brain, not mackerel, minerals, macro minerals.
30:13
Alright, nice talking to you today. Have a lovely, lovely week and I'll speak to you again soon take care.
WAYS THAT YOU CAN GET KATY'S HELP:
Fertility and the First 1,000 Days Membership:
Fertility and the First 1,000 Days MembershipFundamentals for Fertility online course:
12-Week Fundamentals for Fertility Course with Katy Bradbury (evergreen)Book a discovery call to talk through your needs for working together 1:1:
Practice BetterMore info can be found about Katy on her website:
https://katybradbury.com/Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/katybradburyhealthEmail:
[email protected]Love the show? Don't forget to leave a star rating and a review to share the love and help it reach others who need to hear this!
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In today's episode, Katy talks about some of the places she often feels people feeling stuck and unable to know what to do next on their fertility journey. She walks you through a practical exercise to enable you to open up to whatever the future holds.
00:00
Hello, you are listening to Katy Bradbury registered nurse and nutritional therapist. Today's podcast episode is called 'How To Know When It Is The End Of The Road'.
00:28
So hello, and welcome to this week's show. I'm taking a little break from the micronutrient miniseries having wrapped up the conversation covering all of the vitamins from the fat soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K to the water soluble vitamins, C and the various B vitamins.
00:57
Now, I thought I'd take a break - I do want to revisit the micronutrient series and run through some of the really important minerals, because minerals have just as important a role to play for fertility as the vitamins do, particularly some some key minerals. As it's quite a long miniseries, I wanted to scatter a few other topics into the mix as well and I thought that ending the vitamins was a good little opportunity to do that.01:37
Now, I wanted to talk to you today about how to know when it's the end of the road for your journey. Now before you switch this episode off thinking that either it's not relevant for you, or that it just feels a little bit too bleak and it feels maybe a bit too painful even to listen to an episode like this, please, please give it a chance. Because actually, regardless of where you are on your fertility journey, whether it has felt like a road that is far too long travelled or if you're just starting out the contents of this episode, it's a practical episode today. And the contents of the episode is really to give yourself some warm, nurturing space to actually explore some of these options in a really safe setting and will allow yourself some space to feel what comes up and to explore in writing what some of your options are for the future. So I urge you - even if you're not at a point on your journey where you're thinking it might be time to pack it in - I urge you to listen and to take part and to actually do the exercise with me today because so much of the fertility journey (and I remember this so well from my own) is tainted with fear. And it's tainted with the fear of 'what if it never happens'. And I can remember that that was the thing - that was the thought that was in my mind the entire time for me. And that is a horrible thought to be living with every day. So regardless of whether you feel like you've got a long battle ahead, or you don't know, or you're nowhere near giving up just now, the purpose of this episode isn't to tell you to give up, absolutely not. It's just to have that space to explore.03:44
So the reason I'm recording this episode is because it has come up as a bit of a theme across a few of my clients recently. They're people, typically, who have undergone multiple rounds of IVF, or they've had losses that have been really painful emotionally. And perhaps they feel like they've got a decision to make. So for a few of them, they've got embryos in the freezer, and they just don't know if they can handle doing it again. I've got a couple of people in that situation. I've got a couple of people who feel like maybe they're just too old now and at what point do you call it a day when when you're getting older and it hasn't happened? So there are a number of people in my world who I speak to, who have got these thoughts running through their head and I thought, if they do, then there's a good chance that you do too, as a listener. Some of the circumstances that you might find yourself in at the moment - I've given a few examples already - you might be tearing yourself apart as to whether to put an embryo (if you've got an embryo) in the freezer, whether to put it in, whether to give it a go or not. It might be knowing whether to invest in one more round of IVF - and that could be because you said the last one was going to be the last one - or whatever it might be. So knowing whether to invest in one more round of IVF. It might be making the decision with your partner to stop actively trying, it might be deciding not to go ahead with a donated cycle and changing your mind. As I say, the circumstances in which you might find yourself are vastly different, but it's such an important exercise, regardless of your situation. This exercise gives you that little chance and that opportunity to actually face some of those fears that you might be living with every day and that you might have lived with for a very long time. What I'd love for you to do today is actually (and I don't know where you listen - maybe you listen while you're doing something else, so perhaps you listen while you're on your commute, or if you're walking the dog or or cooking) and now might not feel like the best time to sit down and do an exercise and by all means just listen along and use this episode as a reflective tool. But if you can give yourself the space to actually sit down and do the exercises that I'm going to walk you through today, I promise you will feel (you might not have the answer) but you will get some clarity and you will have some emotional processing that happens as a result of this, that can just help you with day to day life, of feeling the weight of such big decisions ahead.07:00
So first of all, I really want you to sit with a question. So we're going do some some deep breaths in a minute together. But before we take the deep breaths, I want you to close your eyes and have a think about what that question might be for you. And it's a 'what if?' question. It's going to be pertinent to your situation - it might be 'what if we don't go ahead with the next round of IVF?'. 'What if we never have a baby?'. 'What if we never give my child a sibling?'. Whatever it is, whatever your biggest fear is at the moment, whatever the question is that's causing you the most turmoil at the moment, I want you to sit with that question: 'what if'. So, whatever comes up for you here, this is your opportunity in a really safe space (because you are safe at the moment listening to this, listening to the sound of my voice) you're absolutely safe, and I want you to sit with whatever feelings come up and whatever feelings come up for you are completely valid. Maybe those feelings are so raw for you right now that it brings up tears straightaway and you might even feel that blubbery 'can't control the tears', and that's okay, let them come. Let those tears come if that is where you're at right now. But it might be that different feelings come up, so we're going to just sit down now, we're going to do some breathing together, knowing that you're safe and knowing that you're going to take the time to do some journaling after this so that you're allowing yourself the space to let these feelings pass through. So it's perfectly safe to feel whatever comes up. So let's do some deep breathing. I'm going to guide you through deep breaths. We're going to breathe in for the count of four, hold for just a moment at the top of the breath, and we're going to breathe out for six.08:59
If you're listening to my podcast I'll be counting along with you but if you're reading this and doing it yourself at home, repeat the breathing in and out for two or three minutes to relax yourself.11:41
So just giving yourself a little moment to reflect on whatever feelings came up for you by allowing yourself that time, allowing yourself that space and allowing yourself those breaths, to sit with the question, or those questions, whatever it was that you asked yourself at the start of the exercise. Now what I'd like you to do is get your pen and paper ready because we're going to do some journaling and we're going to ask some questions around what came up, so you might want to press pause after each question (if you're listening to the podcast rather than reading!) to really give yourself the space to answer the question properly. So question number one is, 'what feelings came up for me?'. And when we're talking about what feelings came up for you here, I want you to be really specific, I want you to really get into the nitty gritty of what feelings came up. So if it was a sadness, what kind of sadness was it? Was it a longing? Was it a feeling let down? If you were feeling scared, what was what was the fear? Was it feeling terrified? Was it like a dull feeling in the pit of your stomach? Really trying to get specific on what those feelings were and what those feelings are that are dwelling within you, that you've been living with, potentially for a long time. Get as specific as possible about the feelings. Then question number two, once you've had a chance to talk through and explore some of the feelings that came up specifically, is 'what thoughts came up behind those feelings?' So some of the thoughts - really, really give yourself the chance to sit with this. And if you need to sit down and rewind and do some deep breaths again, to really sit with yourself and allow whatever thoughts they are to come up so that you can write them down, that is fine. Do whatever it takes because what I want for you is to get down, physically on paper, using your hand, what your feelings were and what the thoughts were. And some of these thoughts, as I say, could be surprising - some examples (I'm not putting these thoughts on you by any stretch of the imagination) that could have come up for you might be 'I don't know if I'd be a good enough mother'. 'I've let everybody down'. 'I can't imagine a life without children'. 'I feel so hurt from this journey, I don't know if I can do it any more'. 'I'm scared my partner will leave me if we can't have children'. All of those are really valid thoughts and there are hundreds of other thoughts that might come up for you. Those are just a few examples. So sit with it and give yourself the space to explore what those thoughts are for you.15:09
The next question is to ask yourself 'what are my options?' 'Where could I go from here?' 'What would life look like with each of these options?' So we're talking about options that can help you with your decision, if you feel like you've got a decision to make, if you are exploring if this is the end of the road for you. And really be very clear on what your options are here; is your option to try a round of IVF? Is an option to use the embryo that you've got in the freezer? Is an option to just keep trying for a while longer and can you put a time on timeframe on that? Is the option to accept a child free future? Is the option to consider other options, such as surrogacy, such as egg or sperm donors, such as adoption even? And I do realise that that is a really, really sensitive topic and by no means, please do not mistake this as me saying, 'oh, well you can't get pregnant, you can always adopt'. That's not what I'm saying. I'm just saying allowing yourself to explore what options will be possible for you. Some of them might suggest really exploring, again, on paper, and writing down what all of the feasible options are for you that you might consider. And then I'd like you to narrow it down, to between one and three options. And they could be completely different options. They could involve accepting a child-free life, or they could involve trying again for another five years, just narrow it down - they don't have to be the same or similar options, but narrow it down to between one and three options. And do write this all down as well please, so that you've got it on paper. And then finally - because this isn't about you having to make or force a decision right now, this is purely you giving yourself the space to explore and throughout each of these questions that you're asking yourself - is exploring the thought processes and the feelings that go with those. So in writing down your options you might have a whole page of things to write about what that option brings up for you. It could bring up a whole host of thoughts and feelings, so it's really, really important to try and get those out on paper. So write down the options, and then write down what that option brings up for you as well. And then once you've narrowed it down to your one to three options, this is the final part of the exercise. It's quite a simple exercise really, but it's just my way of helping you process.18:09
The final step is to write an 'I Am Enough' statement. 'I Am Enough' statements are really powerful and for each of those options that you've narrowed it down to, I want you to write an 'I Am Enough' statement. So you need to insert the word - you are 'what'? enough, so some examples of 'I Am Enough' statements include: 'I am strong enough'. I am good enough. A really big one - 'I am powerful enough'. 'I'm content enough'. 'I'm happy enough'. 'I'm open enough'. Again, sit with those words, or any word that comes up for you, but choose which one is most pertinent to you or where you'd like to be and write down an 'I Am Enough' statement and write it down for each of your one to three options. For example, I'm going to use the word good, because 'I am good enough'. I think a lot of us think that we're not good enough ultimately and have that really deep seated belief so: 'I am good enough'. I think if you can't think of an 'I Am Enough' statement, then go with 'I am good enough', because that does underpin a lot of what a lot of us think about ourselves. So I'm going to use an example here; 'I am good enough to try IVF again', 'I am good enough to accept a child-free future'. 'I am good enough to explore options for an egg donor'. For whatever your one, two or three options are that you're going to explore, I want you to write down your 'I Am Good Enough' statement for each of those options. And if you could write down your three 'I Am Good Enough' statements on a piece of paper on its own, or write it in the notes of your phone (Ideally, if you write it down by hand on a piece of paper) and take a picture of it, and then have it in the background on your phone, or put it as something that you look at often and it's just there to serve then as a reminder that really, whichever of those options that you go with (and you don't have to choose right now, you don't have to choose even in a year's time) you just know that you've given yourself the space to explore those options, and you know that whatever happens, you are good enough, you are strong enough, you are content enough or powerful enough, whatever it might be. And you've got those there as a reminder - a regular visual reminder - that you are good enough, you are strong enough, or whatever it might have been. So that's the end of the exercise, I really hope that you did do it, I hope that you actually did go away and pause and do the deep breathing. And if you didn't, and if you were in the middle of something, and you didn't have the space to do that right now, that's okay. But please, please do come back to this episode and please do find yourself a half an hour, or an hour, where you can actually sit and do this exercise. So that's it for me today.21:29
I did want to just let you know - a little reminder - about my 'Fertility and the First 1000 Days' membership; there are four slots available left at the introductory price of £50 a month. What you get for that £50 a month is worth way more than £50 a month! What we do is every single Wednesday evening as a small group, is get together and talk through where you're at on your journey, how the week has been; it's all about debriefing, it's all about being able to share your experiences and you'll also get the opportunity to have some accountability, some focus. So I'm there to advise you around nutrition, I'm there to advise you around all of the lifestyle things that impact fertility and together, we form the loveliest and most supportive group space - it really is the most wonderful group. So if that sounds like it would be helpful, this is the kind of exercise that that we might do, so I might recommend that people do similar exercises to this in the group depending on where they're at that week. It's always really individual to where you're at. If you feel like you could use a bit more personalised guidance and group level support in a really, really lovely, fun and emotional and nurturing space, then I really do welcome you to come and join the 'Fertility and the First 1000 Days' membership. I'll pop the link in the show notes and in the description of this episode. There are just four spaces left now at the introductory price of £50 a month before it goes up to £75 a month so if you'd like to be one of those four to come and join at that hugely reduced price, I'd love to see you there. Take care and have a lovely week! Bye bye!WAYS THAT YOU CAN GET KATY'S HELP:
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00:02
Hello, I'm Katie Bradbury, nutritional therapist and registered nurse. Today's podcast episode is called The Micronutrient Series - Water Soluble Vitamins - Part Three.
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So hello, and welcome to today's episode. I really hope that you're doing well. I am continuing this episode with the final instalment of the vitamins section of my micronutrient mini series. Now, that might be a bit of a mouthful, and it might not sound particularly exciting. If you're on a fertility journey, and you're new to the podcast, you might want to start an episode that feels more relatable to you in terms of where you're at right now. I've got plenty of previous content, including things such as how gut health relates to fertility, and I've got episodes on pregnancy loss, I've got lots of episodes on nutrition and nutrition as a whole and its' impact on fertility. I've got episodes on stress and impact of disordered eating and vaginal health and sperm power. So lots and lots of things to choose from. If you're a bit of a 'Fertility and the first 1000 days' podcast connoisseur, then this is absolutely the right place for you. And even if you've got an in depth knowledge or an in depth interest in nutrition, then this could be really interesting for you. So the micronutrient mini series, I've been just shining the spotlight on the micronutrients. So the micronutrients, mainly we're thinking about the vitamins and minerals - and there are lots and lots of different vitamins and minerals. I'm slowly working my way through them because I speak a lot about the balance of the macronutrients in terms of carbohydrates, and proteins and fats. I speak a lot about proportions - what sort of proportions on a plate we should be looking at, ideally in terms of those three food groups and how vegetables fit into that as well. But really, within that are these little superheroes, which are the micronutrients and the micronutrients are responsible for hundreds or thousands of processes within the body. That includes for fertility; whether that's to do with hormone synthesis, whether it's to do with egg health, whether it's to do with gene transcription, when we're actually creating a baby, whether it's to do with any kind of chemical messaging within the brain. Each of the micronutrients has a super important role to play and if you've been listening to the micronutrient series, within this podcast so far (because I have already covered the fat soluble vitamins, so vitamins A, D, E, and K, and I've covered most of the water soluble vitamins, so vitamin C, and I gave a bit of an overview of the B vitamins last episode) if you have been listening to that so far, then hopefully you're starting to get an idea of the importance, individually, of some of these nutrients. So it really is a matter of letting no man be left behind when it comes to these micronutrients. I'm hoping that with these episodes, it will help you to reflect on what your current nutrient intake looks like at the moment. I'm not thinking about supplements here; I'm thinking about diet, I'm thinking about what you're what you're actually consuming, because we always need to be thinking about nutrition first, the diet always comes first and the supplements are there to supplement that. So thinking about your own diet and hopefully this might help you, this micronutrient mini series, to identify whether there might be any possible nutrient, even if not nutrient deficiencies then nutrient insufficiencies, like not getting enough for your needs from a fertility point of view. So without further ado - I said last episode that there are quite a few B vitamins, so we've got B1, B2, B3, B5, B6
05:02
B9 and B12, so there are quite a number of them - and rather than shine the spotlight on every single one of them as an individual in each episode as I've done it in the previous episodes, because the B vitamins, as I explained last week, work really well collectively together. That's why they're often found in a B complex in supplements and in vitamin products. And there's a lot of overlap, there's a lot of crossover in the roles they play. So overall, as I said, last week, we're thinking about energy production, we're thinking about gene transcription. And I thought I'd just following last week's episodes, where I gave a bit of an overview on the B vitamins as a whole, I thought I'd just shine the spotlight this week on three of my favourite B vitamins because I do have favourites. And these are ones that I'm often thinking about in the context of fertility, and they're often ones that I'm wanting to ensure are found in adequate amounts for my fertility clients. And I often check their levels of some of these B vitamins using blood testing. So starting from B6, where as I explained last week, about the B vitamins as a whole being linked to energy production and metabolism, and I guess, being quite excitatory in that respect for our cells, B6, although it is involved in energy production, it's genuinely seen as quite a calming micronutrient. And the reason for that is because it's linked in with our neurotransmitter production. And it's specifically it's a bit of an enzymatic precursor to serotonin, which is, you know, it's quite, it's a bit of a happy hormone, I guess. And so, I'm often thinking about vitamin B6. And I'd love to know if this is you, because this is a lot of my clients. And a lot of my clients are really caught up in their head. And that's easily done when you're on a fertility journey, because it's a rough ride, and I get that, but lots of the people that come to me as one to one clients are, and I'm the same I've done a lot of work on this, but my predisposition, is to be quite high anxiety and lots of people are and so if you are typically a bit of an anxious person, and especially if you get anxious or angry even around the time of your menstrual cycle, so you know, in that pre menstrual period, then I'm often thinking about B6 for those kind of clients. And wondering whether their B6 might be either a bit on the low side because of dietary intake, or because they're using it up a little bit faster. And because of that anxiety disposition, so B6, that's why it's one of my favourites because it is quite a calming one and it's often overlooked as well. So B6 in terms of its, of course, it does still do all those other functions around helping to convert food into energy. It helps to make red blood cells as well which is super important. And critically, it helps to maintain and these three super B vitamins if you like these B6, B9 folate and the B12 that I'm talking about today, these all worked together really beautifully these three to help maintain normal levels of homocysteine in the blood. Now homocysteine is an inflammatory marker. So when homocysteine is elevated over time, for various reasons, it can contribute to long term inflammation and it is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease and those big killers in the modern world. Now I know this podcast isn't about kind of cardiovascular disease and overall health. However, if you listen back to my most quoted podcast in the series, which is the fire that stops you from getting pregnant, we can really pinpoint that inflammation and various inflammatory mechanisms over time
09:57
is really one of the key drivers that we want to be minimising, we really want to be dampening down those inflammatory responses when we're thinking about fertility, because when we're thinking about if the body is inflamed for whatever reason, then it's going to be prioritising that, because inflammation is critically associated as far as that on a cellular level with a threat to life. And so our body will always be prioritising the threat to life over reproductive health. So we want to be keeping inflammation in check. And so these three B vitamins work together to actually help recycle homocysteine into another product called methionine, which in turn turns into a product called SAM-e, which is called a methyl donor, which just helps in the methylation process, which is responsible for normal hormone production and general metabolism, detoxification and gene transcription. So all of those things, all of those processes are really important in the context of fertility, the three super B vitamins that I'm talking to you about today, the B6, B9 and B12, they all work together to help to normalise levels of homocysteine in the bloodstream and thus lower inflammation. So good sources of B6 include fish, so things like salmon, tuna, halibut, any kind of fish really, but those three are probably the highest. Poultry - so chicken, turkey, duck, and also nuts. So hazelnuts, walnuts, pistachios, those are all really nice sources of vitamin B6. So to move on to vitamin B9, which is folate, so I do have a whole podcast episode related to folate in a previous one. So this is a bit more of a snapshot of folate, but if you do want to hear more about the importance of folate, and how critical it is for reproductive health, please do go back and listen to that episode. I'll link to it in the show notes. But folate, vitamin B9, you may know it as folic acid. So lots and lots of people do supplement with folic acid and indeed the NHS recommendations of everyone who's trying to get pregnant to supplement with folic acid for at least three months before trying to conceive. And the reason for that is because of this link. And it's actually because of this link to that methylation process that I just mentioned. But how that plays out is, it was found in the research, that people who had lower levels of folate are at higher risk for having birth defects, namely neural tube defects like spina bifida. So as a preventative measure for that the NHS guidelines is to take 400 micrograms of folic acid prior to conceiving to help reduce the likelihood of that, now, that is a bit of a contentious issue. I'm not going to sit here and talk about the debate between folate and folic acid today. If you want to know more about that, feel free to talk to me come and join my free Facebook group 'Fertility and the first 1000 days' and we can definitely get the conversation started in there about the difference between folate and folic acid. The key difference just to briefly touch on it is that folate, or 5-methyltetrahydrofolate (5-MTHF) is the natural and active form of folate. So if you take folic acid, it has to be converted into 5-methyltetrahydrofolate in the body in order to do what it needs to do within the methylation cycle. And what
14:12
a lot of people have going on is that they have genetic variants. So up to 40% of the population have genetic variants, which can impact their ability to actually convert that well, from folic acid, which is the synthetic form, into folate, or 5-methyltetrahydrofolate, which is the active form. Now, whether that applies to you or not, we don't know - things that I run in my practice to help us ascertain that include doing DNA testing, so we actually facilitate people to run genetic tests in my practice to see whether they have these predispositions but also just testing the levels of folate in the blood as well. So these are all a really important part of your clinical picture. So before any of you run to go and take really high doses or choose which form is right for you, just from listening to this podcast, please know that it is different for everyone. And I couldn't possibly tell you in this podcast, which would be right for you. If anyone does want to explore that, though, if anyone is interested in looking at testing, for fertility in these kind of really in depth ways and wants to get really specific nutrient advice for them as an individual, then please do get in touch. There's a link to book a call with me in the show notes if you want to talk about what it might look like to work with me. So the folate I've kind of given an overview there. So congenital abnormalities, neural tube defects, DNA transcription, again, modulating that impact of homocysteine and in the blood so that, that inflammation, all really really important part of the picture for folate, so super important. So specifically really important for the DNA synthesis, support cell growth and repair. And unlike a lot of the other B vitamins, folate is actually linked to the the Latin word, which escapes me now off the top of my head, but it links to the Latin word for foliage. And so when we're thinking about folate, it actually is found a lot more in plant foods compared to the other B vitamins. So things like dark green leafy vegetables are just lovely forms of folate. And also legumes, so things like beans, peas, and lentils. Any of your dark green leafys are going to be really great sources of folate. Folate is quite depleted in the population at large. So lots of products out there like cereals, breads, etc, are actually fortified with folic acid as well, just for your information. So that's it for folate, that's kind of like an overview of folate, and you can start to build this picture now of the way that these three vitamins work together. And then vitamin B12 is great, I love vitamin B12. Again, it's really, really associated with that energy production. But also, it is very much involved in the methylation cycle that I just described. And as that relates to homocysteine and gene transcription and everything else. But it also is an interesting one, because it takes a lot to actually absorb vitamin B12. Once you consume vitamin B12, it has to go through a hell of a process, starting in our stomach, that kind of breaks it down and then something else sticks to it and carries it to another place and then that needs to be broken apart. And then lots of lots of different actions have to happen before it's actually transported into the cell in its usable form. And what that really means is that our digestive health, and particularly our stomach acid, really needs to be on top form to actually absorb vitamin B12. And again, there are genetic predispositions that actually impact our ability to methylate vitamin B12, our ability to convert it into that usable form. And so, in some people, it's all very well and good having enough vitamin B12 in your diet, but if you're not absorbing it properly, then we really do need to be thinking about that.
19:05
So inadequate levels of vitamin B12 can actually cause inflammation in the gut as well so is very much linked with the gastrointestinal tract, and so vitamin B12 and folate as well are linked to a type of anaemia as well in terms of our red blood cells, called megaloblastic anaemia, so if we have folate deficiency or vitamin B12 deficiency, then sometimes that can present then with this megaloblastic anaemia. And if we've got any conditions, any kind of anaemia, regardless of the cause, then we really do want to be addressing that before pregnancy, because anaemia in pregnancy your blood volume increases by one and a half times and your blood is there to actually nourish your baby in utero. We really really do want to make sure that there isn't any anaemia happening before you even get pregnant. So it's definitely something that's worth looking at. So, vitamin B12 absorption or ability to absorb does also decrease with age because stomach acid tends to decrease with age. So it's just worth noting that as well. So really, as I say, thinking about the stomach acid. Again, to sound like a broken record, these three together do impact this homocysteine metabolism, and help to keep that inflammation in check. It's also involved in neurotransmitter reduction as well. So really important picture in terms of that. As with the B6, in terms of anyone who has that anxiety presentation, then I'm always wanting to test B12 as well. The other thing to say or to note about B12 is that it is involved in hormone production. And indeed, people who have been on the oral contraceptive pill for years and years and years are often depleted in the B vitamins by the time they come off and particularly B12. So overview of B12: It helps to make red blood cells that's why it's linked to anaemia, required for proper nerve function and helps to maintain normal levels of homocysteine in the blood. Lots of people who have numbness in the their extremities or tingling in their extremities - that can often be linked with vitamin B12 deficiency as well. So if that is you, then it's always worth getting your B12 levels tested. Another point is that over the counter antacids, so any medicines that are there to help with heartburn that actually reduce your stomach acid, as I said at the start, because you need adequate stomach acid to actually start that B12 absorption process, and the over the counter antacids will impact vitamin B12 absorption as a result of that. So as I say symptoms of B12 deficiency include low energy, tingling and numbness in the extremities, nerve damage and memory loss even, so it's really important to note, so in terms of sources of B12. Vitamin B12 is only found in animal products. So what that means is that if you are a vegan, unless you're supplementing, and unless you're having foods that have B12 added in, then you will not be getting any. So seafood is really good source of B12, poultry, red meat again. So more or less any animal product is going to contain some vitamin B12. So really, just be mindful of that, that if you're on a vegan diet, that is something that we need to look out for. And typically this often happens that, vitamin B12, we can store vitamin B12 in our body. And usually after about a couple of years, our B12 stores will run out if we're not consuming it. So
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lots of people who move on to a vegan diet feel really, really great at first because they're naturally having a lot more plant foods. And so lots of people feel really great at first and then after a couple of years, the energy levels will plummet, they'll be like 'what is wrong with me, I felt so good when I started doing this'. And actually that is the reason why, typically speaking is because their B12 stores have run out. And once they run out, then they're not getting any through the diet. So really interesting stuff. B6 is not something that you typically get tested in your blood, but folate is and so is B12. And those are tests that I run really commonly with a lot of my clients. So I will always do comprehensive blood testing as standard with all of my one to one clients so that we look at this. And it's really important to get a unique picture of where you're at, so that we can take you as a whole individual person into account and make a plan that is suitable for where you are at and the messages that your body is telling us. So overall, I hope that's been helpful. That really wraps up the vitamins as a whole. It's been a real pleasure to come and talk to you. I hope you can tell that a lot of this was the real bread and butter of my studying nutrition. We went into so much depth about the vitamins and I just find it fascinating. I really do. So I hope that you have found it interesting too. And I look forward to coming back and speaking to you next time, where I'll be starting to talk about some of the minerals which believe you me are equally as exciting! So I will speak to you again soon. Have a lovely, lovely week and take care. Bye bye
WAYS THAT YOU CAN GET KATY'S HELP:
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Fertility and the First 1,000 Days MembershipFundamentals for Fertility online course:
12-Week Fundamentals for Fertility Course with Katy Bradbury (evergreen)Book a discovery call to talk through your needs for working together 1:1:
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[email protected]Love the show? Don't forget to leave a star rating and a review to share the love and help it reach others who need to hear this!
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00:00
Hi, I'm Katie Bradbury, a registered nurse and nutritional therapist. Today's podcast episode is The micronutrient series, water soluble vitamins part 2.
00:29
So, in today's episode, I'm going to be introducing you to the second set of water soluble vitamins, and that is the B vitamins. I've thought long and hard about how to do this because there are actually quite a number of B vitamins. So there's vitamin B1, B2, B3, B6, B9, and B12, and they all work quite synergistically, so it's kind of difficult to break them down, like the other ones where I've done for the fat soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K, I covered those in an episode per vitamin. And again, with the water soluble vitamins part one, which was vitamin C, I covered that in one episode as well. So the B vitamins are a bit of a funny one, and I've wondered how best to actually present this episode because it felt as though there was too much to say about the B vitamins to do it all in one episode because some of them have particularly significant relevance for fertility. But equally, it didn't really make sense to go through and have a whole episode on each of the six B vitamins. So what I decided to do and I started writing some notes this afternoon about going through some of them, and I was going to group them together. I was going to do in today's episode, I was going to do B1 through B3, or possibly through to B6, and then I was going to do separate episodes on B9, which is folate. I have already done an episode on folate, actually, but it was quite a long time ago now, and I have referred people to it a few times, but I think because it is such an important nutrient for fertility, I think I will do an episode on B9 specifically and then on the B12 as well as that's also another really important one for fertility. But I will tell you what I'm going to do instead, and that is to just give you a general intro today and a general overview as to the B vitamins as a collective, and then in the next episode, I will shine the spotlight specifically on some functions around fertility. So I will shine the spotlight on B9, which is folate and B12, as I said, and the reason I'm going to do it like that is because I don't actually want to spend too long in my husband's studio tonight. And it's absolutely not because I don't want to come and talk to you because I love coming to talk to you. I've been doing it for a long time now, and I am especially full of VAVA voom to come and talk to you because if you're a regular listener, you will know that I took a little break last week when I was on holiday. And it was just delightful. So I'm like full of beans, and I'm raring to go. However, I'm gonna have to tell you this story as any of you who are based in the UK or Europe at the moment will know that we are in the midst of a bit of a heatwave. It's going to be descending in on us a little bit more over the next couple of days, but my husband and I today, as it's Sunday, it's been the weekend, so we've been around the house this weekend. My husband and I today have been adopting the principles in a bid to keep the rooms in the house as cool as possible. If it's hotter outdoors than it is indoors, then the windows and curtains stay closed to try and retain the coolness in the house. If it's cooler outdoors, then we open the windows and doors. So it's Sunday evening now, and we have just got back from my parent's house for dinner. And you know, the air has cooled down a bit, so we're kind of going through the process of opening all the windows and doors. So the studio where I record this podcast which is my husband's music studio at the bottom of the garden, which a lot of you regular listeners will know already, we'd thrown the doors open when we got back, and my husband devotedly set up the podcast for me.
05:07
And then I came in, and I was just sitting here kind of just finalising, well, you know, carrying on with a few of my notes and preparing what I was going to say to you today, and we get quite a lot of mosquitoes around where we live, God knows why we live in the middle of London, well not in the middle, but we live in the East End of London, we don't live near any stagnant water that I know of, we live like fairly close to the River Thames, which is flowing water, I've no idea why there was such an abundance of mosquitoes in our area. And it's so bad that we can't actually leave the windows open at nighttime because we just get bitten to shreds. I'm sitting in the studio and just preparing what I was going to say to you, and the doors were wide open in this bid to keep the studio, to cool it down because my husband has to come and work in here all day tomorrow. And Oh, I noticed a couple of mosquitoes, right. And that's nothing unusual. As I say, we do get quite a few mosquitoes. And I kind of, you know, clapped a couple of my hands to kill them. Sorry, if anybody is a devout mosquito lover, you might want to not listen to the next part. And then I was like, do you know what, like there are quite a few mosquitoes in here now, and I'm in here with the light on, and the door is wide open, so I'm just going to shut the door while I record and then I will leave it open again afterwards to cool the room down. So I closed the door, and then I turned around to look back at the wall. The walls in this room are painted a brilliant white, and it was like something out of a horror story. I just turned around and looked, and they were just everywhere. There must have been about 30 mosquitoes in here just like sat like across the ceiling, and the wall was so just before hitting play on this episode. I've just been on a mosquito massacre. And yeah, my adrenaline was properly pumping. So that's what I've just finished doing. Thankfully, none of them were bloody, so none of them have got me, and I'm hoping that I've got all of them, and then there weren't any sneaky ones hiding. But you know, when you kill them, I'm gonna have to come and clean my husband's walls tomorrow because there are just mosquitoes smeared all over the walls. I feel really bad anyway. So for part of that reason, I don't want to spend too much time in the studio this evening because I don't want to get eaten alive by any, ah! And I've actually just seen one, there, Oh you little sneaky you. So there are definitely still a few lurking about, and they've got their eye on me because I've killed their cousins. So, yeah, that's my little story out of the way.
08:07
What I thought I would do today actually is just have, instead of going through the B vitamins one by one, just give you a bit of an overview about the B vitamins in general because B vitamins are really, really important. For fertility, yes, as for specific parts of fertility. But just generally, in terms of the way our body can function like we could not function without B vitamins. And the reason for that is because the B vitamins are the vitamin that is primarily associated with energy. Primarily associated with our body's ability to actually convert the macronutrients that we eat, so the proteins, the fats and the carbs into actual energy. And so the unit of energy that our body uses at a cellular level to complete hundreds of 1000s of different things is ATP, which stands for, can I even remember what ATP stands for now? It stands for adenosine triphosphate, which, as I say, it's the unit of energy that is used for so many cellular processes across the body, so energy metabolism. So, how many of you have low energy, right? Probably a lot. It's really, really common to have low energy. And I'm not saying that that's because you're deficient in B vitamins, necessarily; although you might be, B vitamins often have a lot to do with it. And so, there are lots of things that can deplete the B vitamins as well. And one of the big ones is the oral contraceptive pill. So that's really significant, isn't it and the amount of clients that I've had that have come to me, and I was in this situation as well, I was on the oral contraceptive pill for probably about 11 years or so before I came off, and I didn't even start to try to conceive immediately when it came off the oral contraceptive pill because I knew it might take a while for my body to regulate again. But one of the things that I would have been depleted in after taking the contraceptive pill for so long would have been B vitamins. So yeah, that's, that's really the overview of the B vitamins. And another really important role that they play is in DNA synthesis. So again, that's one of the reasons they are important for fertility. So those are huge reasons in their own right as to why B vitamins are really some of the first vitamins that we should be thinking about making sure that we have enough of from a fertility point of view.
08:52
Lots of us, as I say, the reason that you might be depleted in them is that you don't have enough of them in your diet. They are widely found, B vitamins are widely, and they're slightly different. Each B vitamin is found in slightly different or is high in slightly different sets of foods. But generally speaking, when we're thinking about the B vitamins, we're often thinking about animal products, right? So we're often thinking about meats, fish, and poultry, but they are found in lots of other things, they're found widely across the food world, but we just might not have quite enough of them to meet our needs a lot of the time. So all the things that I talked about if you're eating a Mediterranean diet, and you're having like your dark green leafy veg, and your nuts and your seeds and your variety of plant foods. And if you tolerate it well, then some dairy, and then there's fish, legumes, beans and also there are some fortified foods as well, that have been fortified with B vitamins.
11:19
So if you are eating that Mediterranean style diet, then you will have a nice amount of B vitamins in your body. And, but they can often become depleted because we actually have a higher need for them than normal. So as I say, the reasons for having low numbers of B vitamins in our system could be that we don't actually intake enough, but it could be that we have increased requirements. And things like strenuous exercise, stress, pregnancy, and the oral contraceptive pill, all of those things mean that we have a higher requirement for some of the B vitamins, so they can all have an impact as to why our B vits might be low. So definitely worth thinking about all of the above.
13:29
Some of the other things that the B vitamins do as well work to actually feed the brain and the nervous system. And like a deficiency in B vitamins can be associated with like some of those, I mean, this probably isn't something that you're thinking about right now. But for you know, in terms of future proofing is things like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease, so you know, in terms of doing the work now to ensure that kind of health later on, so not just from a reproductive health point of view, but from a general health point of view, the B vitamins, I could not be more important.
14:08
So I'm gonna talk a bit more in the next episode. I'm gonna zoom in a little bit on as I say on folate and b 12, specifically, but for now, I just wanted to give you that really I guess, overview, and one of the most important things to say about the B vitamins is that they work synergistically. So if anyone is supplementing with B vitamins, which many of you may be, it's usually a good idea to take them, and as you know, I don't give supplemental advice over the podcast because it would be unsafe for me to do so. But just to let you know, as a general principle, if any of you are taking specific B vitamins, then you might want to consider taking them in a complex, which is a mix of all the B vitamins because they all impact one another and they work synergistically. And often, one can't work properly without another, for example, B1, which is thymine and if you have low folate and low B 12, that can impact the absorption of thymine, B1. So you know that, as I say, they all work synergistically. And one of the things that they do require is that solid, and please, please do go back if you haven't listened to the digestive health mini series that I did a little while back. But one of the big things is that you need really great digestion enabled to actually absorb and assimilate those B vitamins properly, because some of the B vitamins, especially b 12, which I will talk about next episode, a lot has to happen to B12 from the moment it actually enters our mouth to the point where it's actually able to be utilised by the cells. The critical part of the equation there is the B vitamins in the digestive tract being optimised from top to bottom. So if you haven't listened to the digestive mini series, please do go back and listen to that because you might think that digestion is not related to fertility, but I can promise you it is. And it's very, very uncommon for me to have a fertility client come through the doors that don't have some kind of gastrointestinal issues going on.
16:42
So I will leave it there for today. I hope none of you has been put off by my mosquito massacre story. I hope that if you're listening to this, you have a happy heat wave. I'm gonna say a happy heat wave because I feel like there has been a huge amount of scaremongering about this heatwave, and we've all got like really terrified about it. And if you are struggling with the heatwave, please be safe. Of course, be safe, but you know, enjoy it as well. If you can, you know, enjoy some snippets of sunshine if you get a chance to, and you know, just remember it's only a couple of days that we've got ahead. And if you're in the UK, that is, if you're in South Spain, then not so much. But yeah, okay, well, I will leave it there for today. Next week, will be a spotlight on a few really important B vitamins as they relate to fertility. If you've got any questions on B vitamins that you would like me to cover in next week's episode while I wrap up the vitamins section of the micronutrient series, then just let me know. You can contact me as always at [email protected], or you can find me on Instagram @katybradburyhealth, or you can, of course, come and join my wonderful Facebook group 'Fertility and the First 1000 Days' it's the same title as this podcast, and I'm always happy to answer any questions in that group too.
18:23
Alright, take care, and I will speak again next week.
WAYS THAT YOU CAN GET KATY'S HELP:
Fertility and the First 1,000 Days Membership:
Fertility and the First 1,000 Days MembershipFundamentals for Fertility online course:
12-Week Fundamentals for Fertility Course with Katy Bradbury (evergreen)Book a discovery call to talk through your needs for working together 1:1:
Practice BetterMore info can be found about Katy on her website:
https://katybradbury.com/Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/katybradburyhealthEmail:
[email protected]Love the show? Don't forget to leave a star rating and a review to share the love and help it reach others who need to hear this
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00:00
Hi. I'm Katie Bradbury, nutritional therapist and registered nurse. Today's podcast episode is called, I'm taking a short break, and so should you.
00:14
So Hello, good evening. I'm saying good evening because I'm recording this on a Sunday evening, as usual. I would love to hear from you, actually, where you listen to the podcast and when I know that I do have quite a few loyal listeners. But I'd love to hear a bit more about where you tend to listen to the podcast, whether you sit down and listen, whether you listen to podcasts in the evening when you're all doing your relaxing, or whether you listen to them on the go, like maybe on your commute to work, or while you're out walking the dog or while you're prepping food. I'd really love to hear where you listen. You can always tag me on Instagram at KatyBradburyHealth.com or do a story and tag me into that story. So that I can hear from you as to when and where you listen, I'd love that.
01:33
But to get on with the contents of the show today. Some of my regular listeners might have been expecting a podcast to start talking about some of the B vitamins today, which is part of the micronutrient series I've been doing. I've been really enjoying it so far, actually. So I've covered fat soluble vitamins, which are vitamins A, D, E, and K. Last week, I spoke about vitamin C, which is the first of the water soluble vitamins. My plan for the next instalments of the series is to run through the B vitamins. However, I've decided to take a very, very short break from the podcast, mostly because I'm going to be away next week, so I'm not going to be here anyway to record next week. I'm just going to share with you why I'm not going to do a proper episode this week and why I've decided to come and talk to you briefly about this instead because I'm pretty sure that lots of you will relate to this. So as I just mentioned, I am going away next week, this coming week rather and in the lead up to me going away, so over the last couple of days, I've noticed that I started feeling quite stressed. I started getting a bit anxious, and I realised that it's because I've got a lot to do still before I go away, and I've had to slot in quite a lot of one-to-one clients; well, I haven't had to, but I wanted to, who were keen to get an appointment in before I went away. And over the last couple of days, like yesterday morning, I woke up, and I found myself being a little bit irritable with my husband. He was like, Oh, what's the matter? You know, he recognised this, he said, What's the matter? And I said, oh gosh, I'm just like, I said, Danny, I'm really sorry if I'm like a bit agitated over the next couple of days, it's because my mind is now starting to ramp up over basically just thinking ahead to the next three days and wondering how on earth I am going to fit in everything that I need to do before I go away, and that's like in terms of sorting out the house stuff, sorting out the washing stuff, sorting out family stuff, sorting out clients stuff, sorting out my stuff, and not even thinking about packing and sorting out who's gonna look after the cat and yada yada yada, making lists and sorting out travel stuff. We've seemingly barely any time to do it, and I was starting to get quite anxious, and I said look, you're just going to have to bear with me over the next couple of days because I might be a bit irritable, so I'm sorry in advance. I started thinking today, again, my mind was wearing with all the things, and I was like, oh gosh, thinking about all the things I had to do and on my list of things to do today, of course, with it being Sunday was to plan and record the latest podcast. And I just thought you know what, I'm going to lead by example here because I'm always saying to people, you need to do what you need to do. And a big, big theme for me over the last six months, so over 2022, has been looking after myself a lot better, being a lot more boundaries, trying to really, really reduce my own stress levels. I've like, implemented some really solid morning routines. I have really started meditating a lot more seriously, a lot more regularly, doing breath work a lot more and really, really trying to buffer my own stress levels. And lead by example, in that respect, and I've had the help of a fantastic coach who I've been working with. And I just thought you know what, sod it, I'm not going to do the podcast today. I will come because I love coming in talking to you each week, but I would just come and do a very quick episode and explain where my head's at.
06:31
A big thing for me is that, with regards to stress and well-being, is that I know from some of the genetic testing that I've done on myself, because I know I'm always talking to you guys about testing, and I do, I've done all the tests on myself as well. So I've done genetic testing on myself, and I know from that, that I have some genes that predispose me to have slow clearance of catecholamines. With catecholamines being some of the big fight or flight response hormones that are produced by the adrenal glands, so adrenaline, noradrenaline, and I clear those slowly. So once they're there, once they're in my system, once my body has had that release of those stress hormones in my body, it tends to, and this isn't always the case, the genes are the gun, and the environment is the trigger, right. But I know this to be true for myself, is that once those stress hormones, once those fight or flight responses have happened in me, it takes me a long time to calm down, and I get really anxious, and I get really jittery. And I know all of these things about myself, and I woke up this morning, I found myself getting anxious and jittery, and I said, you know what, I'm going to pare down wherever I can, I'm going to really take the time to not stress because what I really don't want to do and what none of you should be doing is that classic thing, where you, and I'd love to know if you can relate to this, I know a lot of people that I work with do, is where you go all out, you feel as though, there's thing isn't there, there's almost a cultural thing, even where, if we know we're going to have some time off, which we know we're going away we feel like we need to like work ourselves into the ground before we do. And it's almost; there's almost like a self-worth piece in there. Like, oh, I don't deserve this. I don't deserve to go away, and I don't deserve a break. I'm not worthy of that break, and therefore I must, must, must, must, must, must, must just like almost burn myself out before I go to even vaguely deserve it. And I know that's not true. I know that's not true for me. I know I deserve a break, and I know you do too.
09:06
So I'm here to ask of you today, and I'm going to wrap up in just a second, to use the time that you would usually spend listening to this podcast and thank you, by the way, for showing up and for being here as one of my wonderful listeners, I really, really appreciate you. So what I ask is that you spend the remainder of the time that you would normally be spending listening to me every week, so you know, half an hour or so. Do it today. This time that you've allocated, just spend the next 15 minutes or so doing something that's going to help you slow down. That's going to help you take a break. So whether that's sitting and doing meditation, whether it's just sitting and contemplating, whether it's just going outside in nature and looking at the trees and just admiring what they look like, whether it's maybe even just doing a little bit of meal planning and thinking about how you can next nourish your body, whatever it might look like but something that is really gentle and really nourishing for either your dy or your soul. Just spend that time, spend the rest of the time this week and also, because I'm not here next week, allocate yourself half an hour next weekend, or whenever you would typically listen to the podcast to just do some deep breathing, whatever it looks like for you take that break, because you honestly, you honestly do deserve it. And the repercussions that you get from prioritising yourself and for just slowing down and giving yourself that space, that loving space, are huge. They're golden, actually, and we so rarely do it enough.
10:53
So that's what I've come to say to you today. I would love to hear from you. I'd love to hear what you're doing to hold you accountable. I'd love to hear what you're doing at this time and how you're going to use his time today, now, and also next week in my absence. So that's it; I'm gonna wrap up to give you your space and your time. And I will be back again in a couple of weeks, coming and resuming the micronutrient series to talk to you all about those really super important B vitamins and how they relate to fertility.
11:33
Over and out. Bye bye
WAYS THAT YOU CAN GET KATY'S HELP:
Fertility and the First 1,000 Days Membership:
Fertility and the First 1,000 Days MembershipFundamentals for Fertility online course:
12-Week Fundamentals for Fertility Course with Katy Bradbury (evergreen)Book a discovery call to talk through your needs for working together 1:1:
Practice BetterMore info can be found about Katy on her website:
https://katybradbury.com/Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/katybradburyhealthEmail:
[email protected]Love the show? Don't forget to leave a star rating and a review to share the love and help it reach others who need to hear this!
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00:00
Hello, hello, this is Katy Bradbury, a registered nurse and nutritional therapist. Today's podcast episode is called The Micronutrient Series, Water Soluble Vitamins Part 1.
00:29
So welcome to today's episode. I will cut straight to the chase today as we are moving swiftly through the micronutrient series. If you're a regular listener, you will know that I have spent the last four episodes talking through the fat soluble vitamins, which are vitamins A, D, E, and K, as they relate to both general health but also to fertility. So I'm moving on now, I've wrapped up the fat soluble vitamins, and I'm just gonna spend the next certainly two, probably three, possibly four episodes talking about the water soluble vitamins. And the reason I'm not sure exactly how many episodes this would take is that the B vitamins, so the water soluble vitamins are vitamin C, which is a relatively straightforward one that I'm going to talk to you about today, and then the B vitamins. But there are, in fact, eight different B vitamins. They all work synergistically, which is why they are clumped together. But they are all really important. I don't think I'm going to spend a full nine, sorry, eight episodes go running through the B vitamins. I'm not going to do them with such a fine tooth comb because they are interrelated. But some of the B vitamins do deserve a bit of a spotlight in their own right, for example, B12 and folate B9. So I think I will probably do it over two, but possibly three episodes, the B vitamins.
02:33
But today, we're keeping it simple, partly because I want to go and watch Glastonbury, and I'm going to go through vitamin C with you today.
02:47
So Vitamin C is a really important nutrient for fertility. It's quite a well known one actually in the fertility sphere. So if you have been on your fertility journey for a little while, if you've been reading up if you've been doing some research if you've been thinking about possibly what supplements you should or shouldn't be taking, then you might have come across or considered vitamin C already. Now, I'm not here to tell you whether or not you should be supplementing with vitamin C, as you know if you are a regular listener, and if you're a first time listener, then I will introduce this concept to you right now, which is that I do not advise on supplements in the podcast. I don't advise on supplements in the podcast. I don't advise on supplements in my group programmes. And that is because it simply would not be appropriate for me to do so because everyone's supplement needs are different. Everyone's stresses and strains on their body are different. And the reasons why you should be taking any supplements are different and unique to you. So I'm not here to tell you whether you should or shouldn't be supplementing with vitamin C, but I'm very happy to tell you that you can get a wonderful amount of vitamin C from the diet.
04:12
So Vitamin C is contained in most plant foods, so it's really abundant in nature. The reason we need to get vitamin C from our food, unlike some other animals, such as dogs, for example, which synthesises their own vitamin C, we do not. So we need to obtain our vitamin C from vegetables and fruits, and plant foods. This is why some carnivorous mammals don't need to eat fruit or vegetables because they synthesise their own vitamin C, so they don't need it, but we do.
04:58
Now we first learned about the importance of vitamin C back in the days when we were doing a lot of sailing. And what was happening when we were doing a lot of the sailing was people getting scurvy. So the sailors were going out for months and months at a time. And after a short period of time, they would, of course, run out of fresh produce because they weren't carrying fresh produce with them. They were relying on tinned preserved foods. Actually, I say tinned. I don't know if they had tinned foods back then, but they certainly preserved foods. But they didn't have refrigeration or anything like we do now. So dried foods, that kind of thing. So they quickly ran out of fresh foods, which meant they quickly ran out of vitamin C, and you can survive without vitamin C for a few months. But once you become truly deficient in vitamin C, it causes scurvy. And scurvy is when your collagen, which is basically responsible for supporting your connective tissue in your body, so your muscles, your joints, etc., start to degrade and even haemorrhage because your blood vessels can't hold themselves together properly. We need collagen inside our bodies. I know that collagen is dubbed a bit of a modern superfood. I know that it's considered in anti-ageing and all of these kinds of things, and absolutely, collagen is important for the elasticity of the skin, and we do produce it on our own because it's really important for holding our muscles and blood vessels and tissues together. But we need to be able to synthesise that collagen from vitamin C. So Vitamin C is really important, we do really need it, but thankfully in the modern day, it's very, very rare that people would actually get scurvy. But nonetheless, we can see how important it is.
05:48
So I've mentioned already, there I've given the game away, one of the main functions of vitamin C, which is the collagen synthesis and kind of working in a cofactor format, I guess, to help with collagen synthesis. It's also really important for brain health. So Vitamin C helps to produce certain neurotransmitters in the brain, so it really supports the nervous system, specifically Serotonin. Serotonin is known as the happy hormone. It's quite calming Serotonin, and it helps to relieve stress and anxiety. So we need vitamin C in order to produce Serotonin properly. We also need great gut health to produce Serotonin properly because the majority of our Serotonin is actually produced in the gut. So that's just a little random side note.
08:31
So neurotransmitter brain health, nervous system collagen, you're maybe starting to get a picture for why some of these things might be important for fertility, but I will expand. The third major function of vitamin C is that it is best known as an antioxidant. So I've spoken already about antioxidants. I mentioned already about the antioxidant properties of vitamin E, and I covered vitamin E and vitamin A as well. There are lots and lots of antioxidants. So lots of phytochemicals, Polyfinos have antioxidant properties that you might have heard of. Components of things like green tea and resveratrol, and I mean there are tones there are tonnes of antioxidants, but Vitamin C is a really potent one. And the lovely thing about antioxidants, or the important thing to remember about antioxidants, I should say, is that it's important to have a mix of both fat soluble and water soluble antioxidants. So when I spoke about vitamin E, that's a great example of a fat soluble antioxidant which is super important for fertility but equally is the water soluble too, so Vitamin C is a really great example of a water soluble antioxidant.
10:06
Now antioxidants are really important for fertility because they help to reduce oxidative stress. So any kind of stress on the body that comes from exposure to chemicals, bad diet, processed foods, anything that our body just doesn't enjoy having and that needs to be processed out of the body, we need antioxidants in order to do that. So factors such as, I'm not a big fan of this term if you know me already, but for want of a better phrase, advanced maternal age, or anyone who's tried to get pregnant in their late 30s into their 40s, you might have been told that the health of your gametes, so your egg health, your sperm health can deteriorate with age. I've certainly done podcast episodes on those things before, so do go back and listen to the podcasts that I've done specifically around egg health and sperm health. But certainly, age, any kind of disease in the body, any unhealthy lifestyle, environmental pollutants, or anything like that can increase oxidative stress in the body. When we have oxidative stress, it can create reactive oxygen species (ROS). So some of you might have heard about that in the context of sperm health, and you can actually look at that and check the levels of ROS in the sperm, but it's the antioxidants, so it's these lovely sources of dietary antioxidants that help to keep that oxidative stress at bay and counter the negative effects of them.
12:09
So those are the main functions of vitamin C, and possibly the most important one around fertility is the antioxidant properties. Again, specifically around fertility, Vitamin C is essential for hormone production and ovulation. It, Oopsy daisy, I just dropped my phone. I'm not going to bother editing that out, so apologies, so it supports the adrenal glands as well. Vitamin C helps normal adrenal function, and if you're not sure what I'm talking about when I say adrenal function, please do go back and listen to the episode I did on the HPOAT axis again if that was complete gibberish to you. Just go back and listen to the episode, and it will all make sense, but really important stuff as far as fertility is concerned. So it supports sperm health and DNA in the sperm. There have been research studies linking vitamin C supplementation with improved sperm motility, sperm count and morphology, and it is also suggested that again, vitamin C supplementation, there has been a study that links it to when taken three months links it to reducing the damage of DNA. Sorry, the level of DNA damage in the sperm, as well. So definitely important for male fertility. For egg and vaginal health, it's a key component in follicular fluid and also a key component for the corpus luteum, which is what is leftover of a follicle. So after a follicle releases an egg, it's the corpus luteum that is left behind, and it's that which is responsible for secreting most of the progesterone in the luteal phase, which is important for allowing a pregnancy to progress. So lots of layers to that, really. It also works really well with Vitamin E. So it works synergistically with vitamin E, and it's been shown together with Vitamin E to help support endometrial lining as well and also to counteract ovarian ageing, both in terms of number and quantity, that's in a mouse study that last one.
15:14
So quite a lot of layers there, really. You can understand when you think about the powerful antioxidant effects of vitamin C. You can understand all of the positive impacts that it has across the sphere, as far as fertility goes. So very, very interesting. Does it mean that you should run out and shove as much vitamin C as you can down you? Well, that is not for me to say. But I will say that vitamin C, you can only tolerate so much of it. So if you start to shovel vitamin C down your throat, you may notice that after a little while, you get loose stools because you can only take so much you excrete out what you don't need out of vitamin C. However, if you build up too much in one go, then you might get a rather funny tummy, so I will just put that out there to warn you.
16:12
The thing that I love about vitamin C, as I alluded to at the start of the episode, is that it is found in abundance in nature. So it is actually really easy to get. If you're following a good diet and following a lot of the dietary principles that I recommend around a Mediterranean diet and, you know, filling up your plate with 50% vegetables, then you're gonna be getting a good amount of vitamin C in your diet, and dietary sources of nutrients should always come first. So some of the best sources of vitamin C we often think of citrus fruit. That is not a myth. It's true that citrus fruit is an excellent source of vitamin C. However, one of my biggest bugbears is people saying, Oh yeah, drink a load of orange juice, and you'll get your Vitamin C. I'm sighing because there's just so much ill-informed diet advice out there, and I hear this one all the time actually, which is one of the final things I wanted to mention about the benefits of vitamin C which I haven't done already is that it is also really important for iron absorption. So for people who have low iron or are having to supplement with iron for whatever reason, it's often recommended that they have that iron alongside vitamin C to help the body actually be able to utilise that iron. But the advice that that comes in a lot of the time, a lot of the time for medical professionals as well, is Oh, here you go, take this iron tablet and buy some orange juice and have it with orange juice, and that will help. No no! Shop-bought orange juice is heat-treated, for the most part, and the thing about Vitamin C is it is super unstable. So anything like heat, air and time, so if you have an orange, for example, if you were having chopped orange and you've cut it open and the longer you leave it, so if you chop your orange into slices and then went and had a bath and then came down and ate your orange, the vitamin C content of that orange would have significantly reduced already. If you have orange juice that has been heat-treated to make that carton of vitamin c (post-recording note - I meant orange juice) that you might get, you're not going to have a huge amount of vitamin C in there; I'm afraid to say. Freshly squeezed orange juice, yes, absolutely. Freshly cut oranges, absolutely. Lemons, limes, you name it, are all great sources of vitamin C, but the fresher, the better.
19:19
Another great source of vitamin C in the plant world, papaya, is a great source, probably the highest source of vitamin C. So one medium papaya will actually get you almost 170 milligrammes of vitamin C, which is great. But who eats papaya that often? No, I certainly don't.
19:44
But things like bell peppers, your cruciferous veg, so broccoli, Brussel sprouts, cauliflower and kale, they're all great sources of vitamin C. Cabbage, bok choi, any kind of dark green leafy veg so any kind of dark greens so spinach, turnip greens, beet greens, mustard greens, collard greens, Swiss chard, all of those, they're all good sources of vitamin C. The citrus fruit I've mentioned already, so oranges, limes, lemons and grapefruit are all good. Berries as well are a lovely source of vitamin C. Pineapples. Kiwi is a great one, and kiwi is often one that I recommend for people who have a tendency towards constipation because there is some good research out there around having two Kiwis a day to help alleviate the impact of constipation. So if that is you, then you could be giving yourself a nice little double whammy through having some kiwis. So dark greens I've mentioned already, and that also includes parsley, tomatoes, also a nice source of vitamin C and also lycopene. So lycopene is another nutrient really important for sperm health Asparagus, sea vegetables, and then herbs such as fennel and thyme and squash. Berries, I've mentioned already watermelon, beans, carrots, plums, so many like, honestly, there's, you know, the list of foods containing Vitamin C is long. But just think fresh plant foods.
21:33
If, like me, so, for example, one of my favourite things to do with vegetables for like really easy lunches is to roast them, because I just find it so easy to just chop up some veg, put them in the oven, and then I've got myself a nice lunch. The downside of that is that a lot of the vitamin C is going to dissipate from that. So if you want to really focus on your vitamin C intake, then raw veggies, say like salads and stuff like that, and nice and high in vitamin C. Or if you were roasting veggies, you might want to squeeze some lemons over, for example, to help bring some of that fresh vitamin C to the equation. Lightly steaming as well is, is fine.
22:21
So that's vitamin C in a nutshell. I hope that's been helpful. I will be back next week to talk about some of the B vitamins, not all of them in one go, but I hope to get started on the beginnings of the B vitamins next week.
22:44
So look forward to speaking to you then. If you have not joined my free Facebook group, by the way, please do. It's called the same title as this podcast, fertility and the First 1000 days. I've loved it in that group recently because lots of my members who are in my low-cost membership, which is super accessible, and such a lovely, lovely group. We meet every week, we don't actually have a designated Facebook group for ourselves, so lots of the ladies from there have been very kind in sharing food recipes and inspiration ideas within the Facebook group. So it's a really cool place to be, actually. And there are some nice discussions. It's a really lovely supportive space as well. So do come and join fertility and the first 1000 days on Facebook; love to see you there. And of course, as usual, please do get a star rating and leave a review for the show. A) to help me know who's actually listening and who's finding it helpful if you're finding it helpful. And also, just to help it get bumped up in the charts a bit to help more people who need to hear this.
24:10
Alright, great speaking to you today. Have a fabulous week, and I'll speak to you again next week. Take care
WAYS THAT YOU CAN GET KATY'S HELP:
Fertility and the First 1,000 Days Membership:
Fertility and the First 1,000 Days MembershipFundamentals for Fertility online course:
12-Week Fundamentals for Fertility Course with Katy Bradbury (evergreen)Book a discovery call to talk through your needs for working together 1:1:
Practice BetterMore info can be found about Katy on her website:
https://katybradbury.com/Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/katybradburyhealthEmail:
[email protected]Love the show? Don't forget to leave a star rating and a review to share the love and help it reach others who need to hear this!
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00:01
Hello, you are listening to Katy Bradbury, a registered nurse and nutritional therapist. Today's podcast episode is called The Micronutrients Series, Fat Soluble Vitamins Part 4.
00:15
So Hello, good evening, or at least it's evening, as I'm recording this on a Sunday night as ever here in the UK. I am continuing the talk this week, and I've been shining over the last three episodes, the light; I've been shining the light on a few of the micronutrients. So I've been starting with vitamins as they relate to fertility, so been giving a little bit of background, what they found in various facts about them and the things that can impact the status of those vitamins. Now, you may hear, especially if you're a regular listener, that my voice sounds a bit strange today; I do have a bit of a cold going on. I wondered whether it might be COVID. Actually, I did a COVID test yesterday. Here in the UK, at the moment, COVID is definitely on the rise again. I think it's about one in 40 people have it; we've got a variant of Omicron going around that it's like super duper transmissible. So loads and loads of people are getting it or getting it again at the moment. But I didn't actually test positive, so I think it might just be a run-of-the-mill cold. But in any case, I am grateful for your sake as well as mine that today is going to be a relatively short episode because vitamin K, which is the final vitamin in the fat soluble group of vitamins, which covers the A, D, E and K group of vitamins that I've already spoken about. So vitamin K, there's not a huge amount to say about vitamin K. That doesn't mean it's not really important. It is important, and I will run through some of the reasons for that today. But it's not one that I have to go into a huge amount of detail about.
02:33
So I have already covered in the last three episodes some information about fat soluble vitamins, genuinely the things that can impact the absorption of fat soluble vitamins. So do go back and listen to those episodes if you haven't already. If you are a new listener to the show, then perhaps today might not be the best episode to start with. Welcome if you are a new listener. I'm really, really glad to have you here, but starting with a spotlight on vitamin K perhaps isn't the best introduction to me and to my podcast. So do go back and have a listen to perhaps something that is a little bit more relevant to where you're at on your fertility journey. There are plenty of episodes to choose from. I think we're on episode number, oh gosh, 65, 66 now, so there's lots of stuff. I'm sure you'll find something that's pertinent to you and your situation, and then once you've gone and listened to some previous episodes and you're familiar with me and the way I talk and the way I operate, then you know, come to you come back and listen to these this micronutrient mini-series that I'm doing because it is important. I'm just going to pause to do a cheeky sneeze.
03:53
Hello, I just gulped down a cup of steaming hot lemon and ginger tea before I started recording the episode in the hopes that it might help my voice of it, but I don't think it has, so I will spare you having to listen to me for too long because people normally say I've got a soothing voice, but I think today I sound more like a, I don't know a crocodile.
04:22
So vitamin K. So really, there are two main things that we associate with vitamin K, and you might listen to these two things and think this has got nothing to do with fertility. Why am I even bothering? But the truth is Vitamin K is an important nutrient for fertility, just as every single vitamin is important for fertility. The reason for that is because vitamins, by their very nature, are essential micronutrients, and an essential micronutrient means that we do not produce enough of that nutrient within our own bodies without any help from an external setting, so we need to get it externally in order to actually get enough of it.
05:15
So, with that in mind with that principle in mind, every single micronutrient that I talk about here, every single vitamin that I speak about in this mini-series, is essential. It's really important for the general functioning of our body and, thus, fertility.
05:32
So the main thing that we think about when we think about vitamin K, and you may be aware of this already, is clotting. So vitamin K helps our blood to clot, and we often think about blood clotting as being a bad thing. So blood clots are often thought of as a negative thing. If you're listening to this for fertility, which you probably are, then you might think of blood clots in terms of your menstrual cycle in getting lots of clotting. So you might think, Oh, actually, I already get a clot. So I don't want any more of those things. Or you might be thinking about it in terms of cardiovascular disease and thinking about how blood clotting is a risk factor. And that's absolutely right. It is a risk factor for serious life-threatening diseases. But it's also life-saving. So just like everything, if you've listened to me for quite a while now, then you probably have caught the gist of that. Just because too much of one thing is bad doesn't mean that too little of it is good. It has to be somewhere in the middle. So blood clotting, what would happen if our blood didn't clot, and we got a paper cut, for example, or we nicked ourselves shaving, then our blood might not have the clotting factors, it needs to actually stop that bleed. And so we could, you know, we could end up bleeding out for something really simple, like having a cut. So in that respect, blood clotting is there for a reason. We need our blood to clot in those situations. So blood clotting is really important. And you may be aware of the role of vitamin K in newborn infants as well. So if you're listening to this podcast, and you are pregnant already, or you know you've been working with me, and you're pregnant, or you've had a child already, and you've got secondary infertility, then you may well be aware that most infants, well all infants really in the UK, are offered a vitamin K injection at birth, or a Vitamin K oral solution at birth. And the reason for that is because a small percentage of, it's a public health drive, so a small percentage of babies are thought to have depleted stores of vitamin K. And so as a prophylactic measure is a preventative measure to stop them from or to help prevent those small percentage of babies from having a haemorrhage or being at risk of having a haemorrhage, then the Vitamin K is offered, so it's really quite a potent medication.
08:33
Now, really important to note here the vitamin K because of this, this link with blood clotting, is a vitamin that is that does have interactions with medications and potentially supplements as well. So, for example, lots of people that I work with are taking fish oils, and fish oils are a natural anticoagulant, which means it's a blood thinner. Lots of people, not many of my clients, but lots of people in the UK, in the United States, and in the western world, are on anticoagulant blood-thinning medications. So if that is you, please bear in mind that there can be interactions here, and please always speak to your health care provider if you're concerned about any of this. Always be sure before you supplement with any, even over-the-counter, supplements. Please always make sure that they are safe and suitable for you. So really important for blood clotting. But just in that respect, really important for foetal development as well. So we want our blood flow to be as normalised as possible during pregnancy because there is one way in, one way out in terms of via the placenta and how we actually how our blood supply reaches our unborn child during pregnancy. And so really important during pregnancy and foetal development that our blood is as normalised as possible in terms of how it's made up in terms of its constitution.
10:27
Blood clotting is the main thing that we think of with vitamin K, and the other thing is bone health. And bone health, again, you might be thinking, what has bone health got to do with me? Well, first of all, bone health, again, has got a lot to do with a growing foetus, right. So when you're growing a baby, when you're growing a baby from scratch, you're growing bones from scratch. So we need to make sure that there are enough of all of the nutrients that are helpful for bone health and bone development. Vitamin K is one of those. So certainly, although vitamin K might not directly be associated with egg health and sperm health and all of those other things, the repercussions for newborn babies for foetal development are significant. So we want to be thinking about this stuff now and wanting to be making sure that we are getting an adequate intake of all of these essential nutrients.
11:36
So involved in bone support, vitamin K is linked to our bone mineral density. So lots of people get that done as a reading. They get their bone mineral density measured. And whilst it's true that people, particularly women in their later years, are more susceptible to lower bone mineral density and therefore at higher risk for breaks, fractures, etc. There are certain people in the pre-menopausal years who are also at risk of frequent fractures and bone breaks, etc. So vitamin K may be worth thinking about in those situations.
12:24
The other thing, of course, that we linked to bone mineral density is that it tends to deplete in the postmenopausal years and because it links in with our Hormonal Health, right. So lots of people who struggle with infertility struggle because they have suffered from POI, so premature ovarian insufficiency, or anyone who has been told that they are at risk of going into menopause early. This is certainly something to be thinking about just in terms of your long-term health. So definitely something to consider, as I say no direct links to fertility as such, but plenty of things around foetal development and general health.
13:22
Now, the final thing I want to say about Vitamin K is that, before I talk about the different sources and how we actually get it, is that it can also be linked to our vitamin D status. So vitamin K is thought to help vitamin D to absorb. Now, if you actually look into the mechanisms of this, it is really, really super-duper complicated. And it's not in the same way that, for example, vitamin D helps to absorb calcium. Although it is in a similar thread to that, it is a lot more complicated. However, some people do choose to have a vitamin D supplement with a K2 supplement alongside it to help the absorption. So oftentimes, if you're taking a vitamin D supplement, some people may look at the bottle and say, oh right, yeah, it is. It's often labelled as like D3 K2. So vitamin D3 and Vitamin K2 that is the typical kind of presentation. Now I'm not going to tell you whether that's right or wrong because, as you know, as one of my listeners, I do not give supplement advice on the podcast. It would not be safe for me to do so. So I'm just advising you have what is out there.
14:51
So, where do we actually find vitamin K? Well, actually, really, really easy to remember. And it's kale. So vitamin K we can often think of as Vitamin Kale because by far the densest concentration of vitamin K in food form is found in kale. So a cup of kale has over a gramme of vitamin K in it.
15:22
But there are lots and lots of rich sources of vitamin K out there as well. So all of your dark green leafy vegetables are fantastic for vitamin K. So your spinach, mustard greens, collard greens, beet greens, Swiss chard, all of those. And then things like Brussel sprouts, broccoli, and parsley, are all really good forms of vitamin K. Even lettuce like romaine lettuce, asparagus, cabbage, bok choy, celery, basil, so just really thinking of those lovely green vegetables in the plant world, but also things like green beans, cauliflower, even to some extent cucumber, tomatoes, green peas, blueberries, so all of those foods have got some vitamin K in them. Also, things like grapes, carrots, squash, and chillies. So lots of different foods do contain some vitamin K, even things like aubergines, plums, melons, peppers, cranberries, and pears. So lots of sources out there.
16:37
Now worth understanding that there are three different forms of vitamin K. There is, so I just mentioned before the supplement that might contain K2. Most of the sources that I just recommended are sources of vitamin K1 and K1. Now can I remember what K1 stands for? So K1 is, they've all got like really long and complicated names, and I can't remember what K1 stands for, which is why I'm just stalling while I look up the name. Where are we, vitamin K? I've actually got some of my old nutrition college notes up here. I was inspired last week when I spoke about vitamin E, and I found, if you listened to the episode last week, you remember that I found one of my old college essays on vitamin K. And so I just remembered that I have all of these outcome old notes for most studies. And I thought I'd bring that up today. Anyway, that stalling has helped me find what I was looking for, so and to be honest, you really don't need to know this. I'm just showing off, but phylloquinone is Vitamin K1, and that is the normal dietary source, which is found in most leafy vegetables, and other plant foods that I've listed. Menaquinones is K2. Now very, very interesting here, which because we often think about food being our primary sources of certain nutrients, with the exception, of course, being vitamin D, which I spoke about a couple of episodes ago, which we tend to synthesise ourselves from sunlight. But vitamin K2 so menaquinones, I'd love to know if you already know this, because it's actually really fascinating, are actually synthesised largely not from the foods we eat, not from the sunlight that we absorb for our skin, but through our gut bacteria. So it's actually, so I always talk about the gut, and I did a mini-series just like this one within the podcast a couple of months ago now about digestion. And so if you go back and listen to that mini-series, if you haven't already, because really, really important stuff in there and digestive health and gastrointestinal health is super duper important for fertility. And if you don't know that already, then please do go back and listen because it's integral to the way that I operate with any of my clients; we always look at the gut first. Now, what is really interesting is that K2 is synthesised by bacteria in our large intestine. So again, it's a testament to us needing to have the right kind of bacteria in our gut needed to have that great gut health in order for our gut microbiome to do what it does best and produce some of those compounds and other things, I had a mind blank there, other things that our body really needs to reduce inflammation, for homeostasis to take place, for normal hormone production to take place and for inflammation to be reduced. So it's really important to get that gut health in gear. There is a k3 as well. Mostly the K3 is synthetic, and that would then be metabolised in the body to that K1 form.
20:38
So really interesting stuff. I think that there's a bit of a gap there, there could be more evidence, or there could be more research done on Vitamin K. To be honest, there is some out there, but I would really love there to be a bit more about how the menaquinones, the vitamin K3 that is synthesised by a gut microbiome. I'd love to see a bit more research into how that is actually uptaken and how that is actually used by the body because it's just fascinating stuff. But if you're not a geek like me, you might not be as fascinated by that. But hopefully, you've at least found it interesting to hear that that's where some of our vitamin K2 comes from.
21:19
So that's it for me today. Thank you for putting up with my croaky voice if you've listened to it all the way to the end. I did want to send a little reminder as well. If you are a regular listener to the podcast, or if you've listened to this episode and enjoyed it, please do go and give me a star rating on whichever platform you listen to. Please do give me a review of the show. Let me know what you think. And I will be back to speak to you again next week. Take care
WAYS THAT YOU CAN GET KATY'S HELP:
Fertility and the First 1,000 Days Membership:
Fertility and the First 1,000 Days MembershipFundamentals for Fertility online course:
12-Week Fundamentals for Fertility Course with Katy Bradbury (evergreen)Book a discovery call to talk through your needs for working together 1:1:
Practice BetterMore info can be found about Katy on her website:
https://katybradbury.com/Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/katybradburyhealthEmail:
[email protected]Love the show? Don't forget to leave a star rating and a review to share the love and help it reach others who need to hear this!
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00:01
Hello, hello, you're listening to Katy Bradbury, nutritional therapist and registered nurse. Today's podcast episode is called the micronutrient series, fat soluble vitamins part three.
00:29
So hello, and welcome to this week's episode. If you have been following the show over the last few episodes, you will know that today, or in the last few weeks, I have decided to focus back really intricately on nutrition within the podcast. And part of the reason for that is because I really felt as though the spotlight really deserved to be shone on each individual vitamin and mineral as it relates to fertility. So I thought I'd work my way through, really starting off with vitamins and then continuing on to talk about some of my favourite minerals with regards to fertility. And I guess this is really to highlight, ultimately, the fact that a balanced, varied whole foods diet trumps anything else, and if you are getting a balanced, varied whole foods diet, and as I've mentioned time and time again, as a general principle, the Mediterranean diet is the best researched diet for fertility. It's not only because of the macronutrient balance, the proteins, fats and carbohydrate balance within the Mediterranean diet that makes it favourable for fertility. I'm hoping that by shining the spotlight on each of these vitamins and minerals, it can really help you as my listeners to understand some of the real reasons why I might be telling you, like why I bang on about flaxseeds all the time, for example. And you know why there are certain things which I will sound like a broken record about when it comes to making suggestions. And a lot of that is because, through the suggestions that I make through the diet and lifestyle recommendations that I advocate, you are getting the full spectrum of these vitamins and minerals. So I'm starting off with vitamins, and within the vitamins, I'm starting off with the fat soluble vitamins. And this is the third episode. So today, I'm going to be covering vitamin E. There's only one more left of the fat soluble after this. So they are vitamins A and vitamin D, which I covered in the last two episodes. Today we're going to talk about vitamin E, which I'm really excited about. Next week, we'll cover vitamin K, and then I will move on to the water soluble vitamins, which will be the B vitamins and vitamin C, before going on to talk about the minerals. So I'm really excited about this, and it might seem like a boring topic, but I hope it's not. I hope that I've managed to present it in a way that is interesting and relevant for you and where you're at in your fertility journey because I am thinking about these all of these as they relate specifically to fertility and also pregnancy having a healthy pregnancy.
04:00
So vitamin E, I actually, when I was thinking about what to talk to you about with regards to vitamin E, I had a memory, and I remembered back in my nutrition college days. I wish I had a date for this assignment. I don't know, but it was quite a few years ago, and all of the references that I've used are quite old because I wish I knew when it was, but it was years ago anyway. And I did. We had an assignment in college where we had to create a fact sheet about we had to choose four. We had to choose two vitamins and two minerals, and I suddenly had a flashback to this assignment that I did back in the back in nutrition college, and I was like, I wonder if I can find that assignment anywhere, and I did. I managed to dig it out. And it was really interesting for me to look at this because this was, you know, really at the very start of my nutrition. I mean, I trained in nutrition for three years. And I would say that really it despite that, and I learned so much, I found it incredible, just absolutely incredible. It blew my mind.
05:24
But despite that, it's really only in the years since qualifying in nutrition that I've really learned, like, half as much as what I know now. So if that even makes sense, it's Sunday evening. Forgive me, forgive my ramblings. Anyway, the point being, I was interested to look back at this assignment on what I'd written about vitamin E. Back, I guess, in my really early days, because of this, this was one of the early assignments as well back in the early days of my nutrition studies. Anyway, like it was pretty alright, you know, I gave myself a little pat on the back because it was quite interesting. And one of the really, bear in mind this is before I was really on a fertility journey of my own as well, so I was reading through this, and some of the things that I've highlighted in this sheet are that so that vitamin E, as I've said, already fat soluble micronutrients, its essential. And essential means not that it's essential for life although it is, it's essential in that the body cannot produce enough Vitamin E of its own. So we have to get it from elsewhere; we have to obtain it externally. And so fat soluble, so I've already mentioned just to reiterate, again, the fact that fat soluble vitamins require adequate fat in the diet to actually be transported properly and to be absorbed properly. But also we need to be able to digestively absorb the fats in order to also absorb and transport the fat soluble nutrients, so so really important that if there is any level of fat malabsorption going on in the body, then that that really does need to be addressed. So do go back, and if you haven't already listened to my episodes, my mini-series on digestive health or digestion, please, please do go back and listen to that. Digestion might seem unrelated to fertility, but it's not; it is the backbone of fertility because if you have all of these nutrients in your diet, but you're not absorbing them right, then it's pointless; they're not going to be doing their job correctly.
07:56
So I'm coming back to vitamin E, and it is, so it's got like four or eight actually different components, different types of isomers, they call it in terms of its chemical structure. And it's broken down into two. So you've got tocopherols and tocotrienols, and tocopherols are genuinely the better absorbed in the body. So when we're thinking about vitamin E, generally, then tocopherols are better absorbed than tocotrienols. And when we're thinking about vitamin E, the really the thing that we're really thinking about is antioxidant. And there are a number of antioxidants. Vitamin C is an antioxidant. I will talk about that another time. There are lots and lots of antioxidants. But Vitamin E is one of them. And vitamin E is an important antioxidant because it is a lipid antioxidant. It's a fat antioxidant. So what that means, and the way I like to explain this is that on a cellular level in our bodies, each and every one of our cells, every single cell of the millions and millions of cells that we've got in our body, it is held together by a lipid membrane, and so it's the wall of the cell its the lipid membrane. And lipid means fat, fat and lipid are interchangeable. So we have these lipid membranes in every cell in our body, and the health of our lipid membranes is so important for the rest of our body because that is how everything is transported in and out of the cell all of the time. And that's whether we're talking about units of energy, whether we're talking about electrolytes, whether we're talking about vitamins, whether you're whether we're talking about nutrients. And these transactions are constantly happening, this exchange of things coming in and out of the cell. And it's all via the lipid membrane. And so, we need our lipid membranes to be functioning as optimally as possible. But unfortunately, cells are pretty small, and they're pretty delicate. The lipid membranes can be subject to oxidative damage. And the way I like to think about that is if we think about fats and oils, sometimes you might open a bottle of oil that has maybe been in the cupboard or maybe even left outside of the cupboard for some time, maybe had a lot of exposure to direct sunlight and heat. Maybe you've been open for a long time, and you open that bottle, it's like, oh, like a rancid smell comes out of it. Right. And that is that means that that fat has oxidised that oil has been subjected to oxidation. And it's the same in our lipid membranes. Our lipid membranes can be subject to oxidative stress to damage. Antioxidants, so the fat soluble antioxidants like vitamin E, like coq10, are great for helping to repair and mop up some of that free radical damage, which, if I'm using terminology that you're not comfortable or not familiar with here, please see it very simply as damage, right damage, and this is helping to mop up some of that damage. So really important, and really important in the context of cholesterol, as well. So again, vitamin E helps to inhibit the oxidation of LDL cholesterol, which in turn can be a risk factor for cardiovascular disease, etc.
08:47
Now, you might be wondering, hang on a minute, Katy. I thought you were going to talk about this in the context of fertility. I absolutely am. And it's really important to remember that when we're thinking about fertility as a symbol, a bit of a clue into what might be happening in terms of the rest of the body and drivers for health and disease. In terms of drivers for health and disease, then we do need to consider all of these things. And so if someone's high risk of cardiovascular disease, metabolic syndrome, and all of these kinds of things, because of the amount of oxidative stress that they're under, then that is naturally going to be impacting their fertility as well. That doesn't mean that someone with high blood pressure can't get pregnant. But it does mean that the more, the more risk factors that a person has for their health in general, then the more you know, in terms of optimising health and optimising fertility, we really would want to be driving these things down driving these risks down, so that your body is a place where your reproductive system can say, oh, okay, great. We know that this is a really safe place. We know that this is a place where we can have a healthy pregnancy. Let's switch it on. Let's get going.
13:36
So specifically in terms of, Oh, one interesting thing, actually, that came out of this assignment, right at the bottom, I've got a little section. And I've spoken about in this assignment, my old assignment, I've spoken about the antioxidant properties, the cholesterol, cardiovascular disease, heavy metal, all of these things that I've already mentioned, how it links in with the immune system even. And then right at the bottom, I've got this tiny little section, where I've just said, and bear in mind, I didn't really have much interest specifically in fertility back then. I've said Vitamin E is also associated with the reproductive system and the term tocopherol. So if you remember, I said that vitamin E is divided into tocopherol and tocotrienols. So the term tocopherol is derived from the Greek words tos and phero, together meaning to bear children. So that is really interesting, and I wish that I'd expanded on that point back when I did this assignment, but I didn't, unfortunately, but really the point of that is that we have known for a long time that vitamin E is associated with reproductive health.
15:14
Now, the Research Board core evidence is varied on vitamin E., and in terms of kind of medical trials where Vitamin E might have been supplemented, I think I said similar to the vitamin D piece last week as well like with vitamin D, there's loads of evidence that says that vitamin D deficiency of vitamin D insufficiency is associated with all of these poor fertility outcomes, and how vitamin D, replenish and like good levels of vitamin D in the blood were associated with more positive outcomes, but not much in the way of clinical trials that say, Okay, well, if we do a trial where we give X amount of vitamin D to X amount of people in X circumstances, then does it increase the likelihood that they will have, you know, better pregnancy outcomes. So this is where some of the data is a bit lacking, to be quite honest. And, you know, perhaps this is an area where there should be more research. However, as I say, what we do know about vitamin E is that it is a powerful antioxidant. There is research around it in terms of both male fertility and female fertility. From a female fertility point of view, it's understood to have an impact on egg health, so it can be used to help to prevent ovarian ageing. So for anyone who's worried about that, who maybe has got a lower AMG, or they're worried about their age, then Vitamin E is definitely a really important nutrient. Just to, you know, if nothing else, to help prevent that oxidative damage. And we know that eggs on a cellular level, the health of our eggs, we really want to be preventing that oxidative damage to and the same with sperm. For females, it is also thought to improve the endometrial lining.
17:21
So when given for three months, this is in supplement form. I'm not going to talk about doses because I don't do that on this podcast. I don't ever want anyone to run out and start taking supplements on the basis of something I've said in this podcast because it's not appropriate. And you really need to get an expert eye cast on your situation and your individual circumstances before you start taking supplements. And I hope that that is really clear if you are a regular listener. So vitamin E supplementation for three months, I'm not going to talk about type. I'm not going to talk about dosages. But it is thought to be helpful for thickening the endometrial lining. So again, if you're in a situation where you know you've got an issue with either your egg health, your partner's sperm, or the endometrial lining, then Vitamin E could be a super helpful nutrient for you to consider.
18:26
Now I have to say that in my own practice, and whilst I do sometimes recommend vitamin E supplements, I love just recommending that people get enough vitamin E through their diet. Vitamin E is abundantly available in foods and eating, and this is where the Mediterranean diet comes in, which you'll see in a moment when I start talking to you about some of the really great sources of vitamin E. So really, when we're thinking about vitamin E, the first things that springs to mind are those oily foods, so things like nuts and seeds, olive oil, oily fatty fish, but also dark green leafy vegetables. And in fact, if we look at some of the top sources of vitamins E and vitamin E, sunflower seeds are really high up there. And then next in the kind of excellent range if you like a big height highest in vitamin E are a series of dark green leafy veg. And if you think that dark green leafy veg has to be limited to things like spinach and kale, You're so wrong. Like, I'm going to give you a few examples here, but we've got things like yes, spinach, swiss chard, turnip greens, asparagus, beetroot greens, mustard greens, broccoli, yes, kale, collard greens. So, so many different types of dark green vegetables are really great sources of not just vitamin E, but all sorts of other nutrients like folate and vitamin C and even vitamin A, or beta carotene anyway, so dark green leafy vegetables are just hands down one of the best things that you can be eating on a really regular basis, as are those really great sources of healthy fats and so things like sunflower seeds, avocados are really rich in vitamin e, and then oily fish such as salmon, mackerel, anchovies, sardines and herring. Shrimp even is a good source of vitamin E and extra virgin olive oil. And then even things like green beans, leeks, carrots, kiwi fruit, raspberries, cranberries, they all have some vitamin E in them. And, of course, the rest of the nuts as well, like walnuts. So really, if you're thinking about like a nice range of vegetables, and daily healthy fats in your diet, then you're going to be giving your body a really lovely dose not just of healthy fats, but vitamin E as well. And this has such a protective impact on our health at the cellular level, including our egg health and including our sperm health. So really vitamin E, I always think of as this just really nourishing, and I own nutrients and nourishing, but I see it as so like healing almost and nutritive. And it works really well with vitamin C as well. So again, if we're having those kinds of dark green leafy veg, which are also high in vitamin C, it's a really nice combo because, as with all antioxidants, if you have too much of them. And I don't think that you could get too much vitamin E from diet alone. But if you were supplementing with really high dose vitamin E, then you could be then at risk that that becomes bro-oxidative. And so we don't want that. And so it is a balance to be struck, but the Vitamin C helps to actually mop up any possible any, like oxidative damage that might come from the vitamin E itself. So those two working in combination together work very synergistically. They complement each other beautifully.
22:54
So really, in a nutshell, it is to say that we know and have known for a very long time that vitamin E is really important for fertility. There is not a huge amount of research in the way of clinical trials in terms of supplementing it. But there is a lot of research into diets that contain a lot of vitamin E naturally and its impact on health and fertility.
23:24
So that's, that's about all I have to say on Vitamin E, to be honest. Hopefully, that's been helpful. Really, I guess one of the big reminders to you, as I said at the start, is really optimising that digestion to make sure that you haven't got any issues with absorbing it. In case any of my listeners are still scared of fats or still feel that fats are bad. Please, please, it's high time we started to move away from that concept now. And if you're not getting enough healthy fat in your diet through nuts, seeds, extra virgin olive oil, and good quality oils, then you're just not going to be doing your body any service in terms of its reproductive health of so many levels.
24:17
So I hope you found that helpful today. I'd love to hear how you feel your vitamin E intake is at the moment and whether you have found this episode helpful. So do go ahead, give me a review, and get in touch. I've got all of the ways you can get in touch with me on the show notes, which are also within the iTunes app if you click on the episode today and read the description. So do get in touch. Let me know where you're at on your journey. And if you feel confused at all about anything that you feel you should be doing for your own health and your own fertility. I do have a couple of spaces opening up for one-to-one work in July, so if anyone listening thinks that it actually is really time that it got some tailored support with this stuff and started to do some digging started to do some of the investigations. I do have just a couple of slots for July. So if you would like to go ahead and book a discovery call with me, you can do that. The link is in the show notes, and we can have a little chat through and figure out whether I am the right person to help you.
25:29
Okay, speak to you next week. Have a lovely week. Bye-bye.
WAYS THAT YOU CAN GET KATY'S HELP:
Fertility and the First 1,000 Days Membership:
Fertility and the First 1,000 Days MembershipFundamentals for Fertility online course:
12-Week Fundamentals for Fertility Course with Katy Bradbury (evergreen)Book a discovery call to talk through your needs for working together 1:1:
Practice BetterMore info can be found about Katy on her website:
https://katybradbury.com/Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/katybradburyhealthEmail:
[email protected]Love the show? Don't forget to leave a star rating and a review to share the love and help it reach others who need to hear this!
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00:00
Hello, you are listening to Katy Bradbury, registered nurse and nutrition therapist. Today's podcast episode is called The Micronutrients Series Fat Soluble Vitamins Part 2.
00:15
So in today's episode, I am continuing to talk to you about micronutrients. So, over the next few weeks, I will be covering the full spectrum of vitamins and minerals that are associated with fertility for lots of different reasons. And I just thought it might be a nice idea, as I explained last week, to go through these micronutrients in a bit more detail and give a spotlight to each and every one of them. And that's not to say that we should get fixated on any particular one of these micronutrients. It's more just to aid your understanding of why a varied diet, a nutritious diet that is full of different plant foods and all the different colours of the rainbow. And a varied diet generally, because it's not all just plant foods, is really, really important for fertility. So without further ado, I'm going to talk to you about vitamin D today.
01:45
Vitamin D is a really well known micronutrient; it's a really well known vitamin when it comes to fertility. And this is one that actually fertility clinics will often test. And if it's found that your vitamin D levels are subpar, then it may be that you need to go away and improve those levels before you have your fertility treatment. And that's because there's a wide body of evidence now that talks about this. So I'm going to talk to you today about what vitamin D is and what it does in the body. I'm going to give a brief review of some of the evidence in relation to fertility. And we're going to talk about things that can impact our vitamin D status and how we can improve it. So vitamin D, as I started last week with vitamin A, so I'm currently running through the fat soluble vitamins. So vitamin D is one of the fat soluble vitamins. That means that it needs adequate fat to be able to be absorbed and utilised. So unlike water soluble, which are water soluble, the fat soluble vitamins need adequate fats. So if you have an issue with either not having the right kind of fats in your diet or not absorbing your fats very well, then it may be that your vitamin D levels are depleted.
03:24
So vitamin D for fertility. So the role of vitamin D in general, so probably most of you are aware that vitamin D is the sunshine vitamin, right? We are able as humans to synthesise our own vitamin D via the skin using sunlight using UVB rays. So once the UVB rays hit our skin, we are then able to synthesise vitamin D and use that vitamin D. There is some vitamin D in some foods, but you couldn't really get enough vitamin D from diet alone. It's not just about the foods you eat. We do need that sunshine to help us along.
04:20
So vitamin D is really important when we're thinking about bone health because it helps us absorb calcium, so it's like a bit of a lock and key mechanism in our ability to absorb calcium. The reason that's really important in terms of hormones and fertility is because it is really important for foetal development, right so you got to actually be able to produce the bones that will be the skeletal structure for your baby. We need to have enough vitamin D. It's also really important in those early years of rapid rowth, rapid rowth! Of rapid growth in childhood development. So it's a really important one for children and adults alike. And when we're thinking about the ageing process and getting older, we know that vitamin D is really important for bone health and preventing osteoporosis and these kinds of things. So really important actually across the whole lifespan.
05:24
Vitamin D is immune modulating, so it supports the immune system. And it really got quite a name for itself over the last few years in relation to the COVID pandemic. There was lots and lots of stuff coming out about how important vitamin D was in its role in our immunity and about it possibly having a protective factor against the severity of COVID. It's also important in the context of autoimmunity. So it is thought to be immune modulating and so having a good vitamin D status is really important in the context of autoimmunity as well. Lots of the clients that I have come to see me do have autoimmunity, more often than not with the thyroid, but in other parts of the body as well. Blood sugar regulation and metabolism generally. So vitamin D does have a really important role to play is thought to be, so people who have obesity and diabetes etc., are thought to have lower vitamin D status. And then it is also thought to have a key role in sex hormone synthesis. So sex hormones, male and female, need vitamin E tut vitamin D to be able to produce properly. And we do also know that all of our reproductive organs, all of our reproductive tissues, male and female, have vitamin D receptors within them. And that goes to show that vitamin D must be really important within those reproductive organs. Otherwise, they wouldn't have vitamin D receptors.
07:34
So lots of different things, lots of different roles that Vitamin D plays in the body. And within the context of fertility alone, there's been a lot of research into vitamin D. It is one of the biggest and most well researched vitamins that there is actually, and it's almost vitamin D almost ought to have a hormonal effect because a hormone is a chemical messenger, and vitamin D, such as the importance of vitamin D. That is, it is akin to being a hormone in of its own right.
08:14
So vitamin D and fertility. So there have been a number of systematic reviews and meta-analyses. So these are really, you know, there's really widespread data available in this in the scientific literature, you know, looking at certain samples of 1000s of 1000s of people. So, findings from the research suggest that it's, it's mainly looking, by the way, the research mainly looks at vitamin D status. So there haven't been that many randomised control trials where there's been an intervention of a certain dose of vitamin D being given versus a control group where the vitamin D isn't given to see whether that might impact things. And part of the reason that I think randomise, sorry, yep, randomised controlled trials aren't necessarily, ran RCTs randomised controlled trials are seen as the gold standard when it comes to medical research when it comes to scientific research in general. However, they do have their drawbacks. In this, in a case like vitamin D, I think it's more powerful, too. And we could, of course, association does not always equal causation. But what we're seeing time and time and time again in the literature is that vitamin D status, so people who have low levels of serum vitamin D, so low levels of Vitamin D in their blood are more likely to have this whole host of complications with fertility complications with pregnancy complications with their health in general. So that really speaks volumes. And where it becomes difficult to say, Okay, well, let's then do a randomised control trial is because all sorts of things can impact people's vitamin D status. And the dosages are going to look different for everyone. So I don't know that we can necessarily say, Okay, well, guess if we supplement everyone with this amount of vitamin D, then we're going to solve all the fertility problems in the world because it's just not that simple in bodies and more complex than that. But what we do know, as I say, to come back to my original point about the research, is that these observational studies on 1000s and 1000s of women do say that people who are women who have deficient or insufficient vitamin D status are more likely to have or sorry. So women who have insufficient levels compared with women who have good levels of vitamin D in the blood. So, women with good levels, or replete levels of vitamin D is quite a nice way of putting it, have more live births, more positive pregnancy tests, and more clinical pregnancies. So that's really interesting. Across fertility clinics, all of those measures are higher in women who had adequate vitamin D levels. And there's been lots and lots of research that has found similar. There has been some research to say that women who have really quite a low vitamin D below 50 nanomoles per litre might be more likely to suffer from early pregnancy loss.
12:33
There are some studies that observe an association between vitamin D status and AMH Anti-Müllerian Hormone, which is one of the indicators of egg reserve. Vitamin D status is also connected with conditions medical conditions that we know impact fertility, such as polycystic ovary syndrome, PCOS, and endometriosis. So, really lots of lots of ways in which vitamin D impacts female fertility or is associated with female fertility. And then there is also research now quite a bit of research associating vitamin D again, vitamin D, low vitamin D levels, with low serum testosterone, for men, and in their sperm quality as well.
13:38
So that is really interesting, isn't it, that across the male and female spectrum of fertility, vitamin D status is associated quite strongly and quite robustly with poor outcomes in terms of or good outcomes depending on the status for fertility. So undeniably a really important nutrient for fertility or a really important vitamin for fertility, I should say, because we don't always get it from our food.
14:14
So things that can impact vitamin D status, like why might someone's vitamin D status be low? Well, we know that it can be used for all sorts of things in the body, as I already described. So it may be that at different points in our lifespan, we use up more vitamin D than others. Things such as our genetics play a role. So we have a gene called the vitamin D receptor gene, the VDR gene, and that is involved in the methylation process, which I've spoken about on the podcast before. And it really is the vitamin D receptor gene, having a genetic variant on that gene that can really impact the way our vitamin D is actually used in the body. But other genes as well. It's not just the vitamin D receptor gene. It can be genes that are linked with our cholesterol status. And a number of other genes can have a proxy impact on vitamin D as well.
15:19
Lack of sunlight, so we know you know that we get vitamin D from the sun or we synthesise vitamin D from the sun. So having a lack of sunlight, particularly during the autumn months, if you live in the, you know, away, the further away from the equator you live, the less hours of sunlight you get during the autumn and winter months, and that can impact your vitamin D status. Another interesting piece of research around fertility, you know, suggested that the fact that most babies are born in the northern hemisphere, or you know, in the north, in the northern countries, most babies are born, or there's a drive for births when people got pregnant, basically during the summer, the summer months. So how many April babies do you know, for example, April is a really popular month for having babies, and it's hypothesised that vitamin D might have something to do with that. So, exposure to sunlight, the genetics.
16:34
So sunscreen, sunscreen blocks UV rays, right, that's how it protects our skin. And I'm not for a moment suggesting that anyone any of you go out all day in the sun unprotected because, of course, we need to protect our skin because we know that the sun's rays can be extremely harmful. So it's right that we protect our skin. However, if we, you know, if we put some cream on from before we even leave the house, and we reapply it all day long, and we never ever actually get any direct sunlight on our skin, then that can impact our vitamin D status. So I always say to people, you know, doing sort of 10 minutes or so, in the morning before the heat of the day can be a really nice idea.
17:23
Age, so there is an age-related decline in vitamin D status, and mineral status can impact it. So magnesium levels are thought to be associated inversely with vitamin D. Skin colour as well. So people, essentially humans, evolved. So, historically speaking, as we moved out of Africa and away from the equator, human beings' skin got lighter and lighter. And that is thought to be because there was then an evolutionary what's the word I'm looking for selective pressure on us because we because there were fewer hours of sunlight or less powerful sunlight the further away we got from the equator. That is why we have evolved lighter skin tones. And if you think of people from like Scandinavian countries, where there is really not a huge amount of daylight in the winter months, you know, they tend to have much paler skin tones, don't they? They're very, very fair. And a part of that is to help them actually absorb and synthesise vitamin D. So what that means is that people who have darker skin tones, especially people who have darker skin tones who don't live in equatorial or within the tropics and don't have that quite into that higher intensity of sunlight, they may be more likely to to be deficient or insufficient in vitamin D. So skin colour, sunscreen, age, mineral status, oh and fat absorption.
19:28
Fat absorption. I spoke about this last time in my introduction to this mini-series that our ability to absorb fats as a macronutrient impacts our ability to absorb and utilise the fat soluble vitamins.
19:46
So food sources vitamin D, and this is an interesting one because there aren't that many. And as I said earlier, you can't really get enough vitamin D from food alone. There are a few foods that contain some vitamin D, with salmon being the highest. Sardines contain some, and tuna contain some. Pasture-raised cow's milk also does contain a little, eggs contain a little, and shiitake mushrooms contain a tiny amount as well. So definitely think about those kinds of foods if you are concerned about your vitamin D, but do know that lots of people do need to supplement.
20:33
So when I'm working with fertility clients, I always test vitamin D, and I like to see vitamin D serum vitamin D levels are between 100 and 120 nanomoles per litre. So that unit is really important because, for any of my American listeners or any listeners anywhere else in the globe, you may use different units. So I know over in the states, they use nanograms per millilitre, and that is different to nanomoles per litre. So please make sure that you're aware of that distinction. So I look for 120 nanomoles per litre for my fertility clients. And if people are below that, then I might consider supplementing and indeed Public Health England, because if the vitamin D insufficiency is deemed a public health crisis in the Northern Hemisphere, Public Health England recommends that everyone, everyone in the UK take 400 international units of vitamin D between the months of October to March. So that's, that's universal. But levels that I might recommend supplementing with really vary between 400 and 5,000 international units per day, sometimes even a little bit more on certain days of the week for certain people, but it really really does depend on the individual. So I would never recommend that any listeners ever go away and decide to supplement themselves without the guidance of a qualified practitioner because it really does depend on the individual. However, you know, if you are following the Public Health England guidance and supplementing with your 400 international units per day during those autumn and winter months, then please do look for D3, vitamin D3, as opposed to vitamin D2. It's far more readily absorbed, and your body does not have to undergo a conversion process. So when you're looking for a vitamin D supplement, please go for D3 over D2.
23:10
So that's it for me today. That's a whistlestop tour with the spotlight on vitamin D in the context of fertility, pregnancy etc. So if you found that useful for anyone that noticed, and you might have noticed that I am a day late and recording the podcast today. The reason for that is that I was bloody knackered last night because we had a wonderful long bank holiday weekend here in the UK with the Queen's Jubilee. So we had a four-day weekend, and it also happened to be my mom's birthday and my husband's birthday. So we had family visiting, and we had a bit of a party, so it was all go. I came to record my podcast yesterday, and I was just too tired, so so I'm recording it on a Monday today. I will be back as usual next week talking about the remaining fat soluble vitamins E and K in relation to fertility, so I really can't wait to speak to you then.
24:07
Just a quick reminder that the doors are currently open to my brand new membership. We had the first call last week, and it was so so wonderful to connect with the most incredible group of people again. And I'm really, really excited to be opening up this group way of working again is so nurturing and so powerful. So if that sounds like it could be helpful for you, please do take a look. There are just a couple more slots in the cheaper price bracket, the introductory price bracket of £50 a month. So it is an incredible, incredible value deal. If you want to come in and join us that you know there is, you can cancel at any time. But I don't think you'll want to once you get a taste of what it's like in there because it genuinely is such a wonderful, wonderful space. So I will leave the link to that in the show notes for anyone that wants to take a look, get all the information, and you can sign up on the spot. Or if you have any questions for me about the contents of today's show or about anything, or you want to talk about how ways in which you can work with me, whether that's one to one or in a group setting. Then drop me a DM on Instagram is usually best at KatyBradburyHealth, or you can always send me an email at [email protected]
25:44
All right, lovely to chat with you. And I will speak to you again next week. Bye
WAYS THAT YOU CAN GET KATY'S HELP:
Fertility and the First 1,000 Days Membership:
Fertility and the First 1,000 Days MembershipFundamentals for Fertility online course:
12-Week Fundamentals for Fertility Course with Katy Bradbury (evergreen)Book a discovery call to talk through your needs for working together 1:1:
Practice BetterMore info can be found about Katy on her website:
https://katybradbury.com/Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/katybradburyhealthEmail:
[email protected]Love the show? Don't forget to leave a star rating and a review to share the love and help it reach others who need to hear this!
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00:00
Hello, you are listening to Katy Bradbury. Nutritional Therapist and registered nurse. Today's podcast episode is called 'Is the Fertility and the First 1000 Days Membership Right for You?
00:28
So, hello, hello, good evening. I'm coming to you from the studio at the bottom of the garden, as you will probably know by now if you're a regular listener. Unfortunately for me, I am also joined by a rather large moth in the studio this evening and, put it this way, I'm not the biggest moth lover. They used to really freak me out, actually. Does anyone else get a bit freaked out by moths? I think it's the erratic nature of the way they fly, like they're just a bit all over the place, putting you on edge. They're a bit unpredictable. Anyway, I think he's settled down a bit for now. So I've got a special guest today, it's the moth!
01:27
So I wanted to come and talk to you today about my fourth coming membership, which is the same title as this podcast 'Fertility and the First 1000 Days'. I am really, really excited about finally getting this membership up and running. It has been in the pipeline for a very long time. Yeah, I would say even the best part of the year. It's been something that I had the idea of more or less a year ago. The idea was that the people who first joined my group programme would have something to flow seamlessly into if they wanted to. It didn't quite happen that way. As a business owner and someone who works part-time and has my own responsibilities, lots of you will know that I was fortunate enough to come out the other side of my own difficult fertility journey and now have two very small children, it's been a bit of a juggle this last year, as my business has grown and I've had the pleasure and the honour of supporting more and more of you. It's been wonderful, actually and hand on heart, I love helping people like you so much that it was really the best decision I ever took to do this. But the membership has taken me a while to get set up partly because I've had lots of things on my plate and juggling lots of things. Partly just because I wanted to get it right, and it takes a lot of work to set up something like this and a lot of figuring out what the best way is going to be to actually make it the best possible service and the most effective one. So I can finally say that I'm about ready to open the doors. I have mentioned this before, I think I mentioned it a while back in December because I was hoping to open the doors earlier on in the year, and for a number of reasons, there was a bit of hold up. But I wanted to talk to you about five reasons why this membership could be ideal for where you are on this journey right now.
04:40
So five reasons, so first of all, and I haven't said exactly in this episode, what the membership actually is going to be? Hopefully, me explaining these five reasons is going to help to shed some light on it. Of course, I'm more than happy to answer any questions. So if you get to the end of this episode, you're like, okay, cool. Katy, I understand the reasons why this sounds like it could be just the ticket for me, but I'm still not exactly sure what it is or how to do it; then just drop me a message. I will also make sure that the link to sign up is available in the show notes because the plan is to get started this week. The first ten people to sign up for this membership will get it at a reduced price, which I'll talk about in a moment. And then after that, it will go up to the full price, so there's a really big incentive there to shift and to try and bag one of those first ten spots, and quite a few of which have not been taken because I haven't opened the doors yet, but quite a quite a few of which have gotten names put to them, shall we say.
06:07
So anyone, reason number one that it could be just the right thing for you is that it is practical. So this membership is really set up to be for the busy person because I know that so many of you are busy. If that is you, thank you for actually taking the time to be a regular listener to this podcast. I really do recognise that and appreciate that you come back each week and listen because I know that it's time-consuming. From what I've heard back from most of you, you get a lot out of it, so I'm really glad about that. But really, it's an honour to yourself that you do come back and give yourself this time each week to listen to this podcast, so that's a little side note, so thank you. So it's for the busy person it's not filled with reams and reams of information, so it's a bit different from my 12-week programme. Some of you listening will have done my 12-week programme already, some might have heard of it or considered doing it, and by the way, that 12-week programme I've switched up the way I deliver that now and that is actually now available as a stand-alone package as like a do it yourself. So it's something that you can move through their six taught modules, and you move through it in a do-it-yourself manner. That is now available for just £149. I wanted to make it really, really accessible. So I do have that for people who want to really sink their teeth in and learn all about those fundamentals for fertility. But the membership, the 'Fertility in the First 1000 Days' membership, isn't like that; it's different to the 12-week programme in that it is super duper Practical, not full of reams of information. It's got a few sections, really, really practical. So it's got a section on nutrition, a section on stress, a section on moving your body, and a section on toxic load and how to reduce your toxic load. And it's got a section on functional testing for fertility, so all of the info is designed to pack a punch. It's not lengthy. It's a mixture of content of videos and stuff like that, some PDFs etc. Still, it's all focused on taking action to ensure that you are shifting your body into a state of becoming more fertile by the day. Hence, it's really practical, and it's all about taking action. There is, of course, a little bit of learning in there, but it's largely about the action taking.
09:28
Now, whilst it is going to be, just a caveat that, whilst it is going to be focusing on getting your body more fertile by the day, what I'm not promoting here, just to be very clear, because if you know me already, you will know that this is not what I'm about. I'm not promoting a quick fix here. Yes, I want it to be action-taking. Yes, I wanted to have as much impact as possible for the least amount of time. However, Every fertility journey is very, very different. And sometimes, there are lots of complex layers and reasons as to why you might be struggling. And that looks different for everyone. So all of the complex layers and the reasons are different for everyone. So whilst it's designed to pack as much of a punch as possible. I'm still not promising a quick fix. You know, it's about unravelling, breaking the chain in as many places as possible, and really just working to build up your fertility. What that means is to improve the chances, and everything around fertility is a game of odds. There are so so so so many factors that can increase the odds of you getting and staying pregnant. There are so so many factors that can decrease the odds of you getting and staying pregnant. So what we are doing in this membership is working every single day to increase those odds. But for some people, it will take longer than others. So it is practical action taking, but it's not a quick fix.
11:19
Number two, reason number two, it's affordable. So one of the biggest blocks that I get and I get a lot of inquiries, talk to a lot of people, and talk to a lot of you. And one of the biggest blocks I get from people is money is the financial side, and I get it because it's an investment working with me one-to-one and getting that expertise. And lots of people are doing things like saving up for IVF and having other treatments, etc., that are costly. And so I really wanted to be able to provide something that is really, really great service for people who might not be able to afford one-to-one support. So it's affordable. It's a fraction of the price that it is to work with me one-to-one. But the brilliance, the joy of it, is that if that is you. You are saving money or having to pay out for IVF or other treatments. This membership will increase the chances of IVF working and decrease the need to even resort to IVF. So it's low cost, and you get a lot of bang for your buck. So you know, if money has been a barrier to you being able to work with me in the past, then this really could be your chance.
13:02
It's supportive. Number three, it's supportive. So the big thing about this space that I'm creating is that it's not just a membership area online. So it's got the online library, where you get your login, and you can access all the tools or the practical things under those different sections that I mentioned already, the nutrition, the moving your body, the stress, the reducing toxic load and the functional testing. So there's loads of practical stuff in different mediums and modalities. But the really big thing about this membership is it's supportive. And what I mean by that is that we meet every single week in a group setting to run through everything, and that is what I'm all about, right? It's creating a space that is for you, that is open and nurturing and trusting and non-judgmental. And it really is going to be a place for you just to honour your journey, whatever that looks like for you. It's a place to share the realities, celebrate the wins, and be held through those toughest moments.
14:31
Now, feedback from anyone that has worked with me in a group setting before, because my 12-week programme used to be run in a group setting, so the feedback from that has always been overwhelmingly positive from that group model of working and anyone who has worked with me whether one to one or in a group setting, will know that my approach, whether in a one to one, or any setting where I'm holding that space for you in our dedicated space is one of kindness and I always hold love in my heart. And I know that sounds really cheesy, but I really do. I really do just feel so strongly about being able to support you, and that is what this is all about. So yes, it's about moving in the right direction. Yes, it's about increasing your fertility. Yes, it's about improving the chances of IVF success and reducing the need for IVF and having a healthy pregnancy. It's all of those things. But it's also about supporting you on what can be such a difficult and lonely journey. And I know because I've been there, I know because I've got years of supporting people in this position. And without tooting my own horn too much, I know that I'm really bloody good at holding the space for people. It's something that I've spent many years doing in different capacities, and I love doing. So it's having that space held for you that is supportive.
16:33
Reason number four is that it can grow with you. So one thing that I really, really love about the way I work is that many of my clients stay with me, so many of my fertility clients choose to stay with me, I'm talking about one-to-one clients here, choose to stay with me throughout their pregnancy, and well into the postnatal period, and this is my whole thing, right? Its fertility and the first 1000 days, it's not just, okay, get you pregnant and leave you there. It's really appreciating that this journey into and through motherhood is a pretty wild ride from the very start. Going through that fertility journey, right the way through, and then transitioning into parenthood is really a remarkable journey. It's a journey in which our modern society doesn't really appreciate or pay as much mind to what it once would have done when we lived in more collective bands of people and had more extended families, etc. And that support just isn't there for women now. So it can grow with you.
18:04
The point of this membership is that it covers the fertility side and then what will happen as people start to move into the next phase of the journey through the pregnancy phase. Is that a different section of the membership that will open out for you. There'll be a dedicated meetings that are focused around pregnancy. There'll be dedicated resources focused around pregnancy, and then the same for the postnatal. So anyone that knows me will know that my expertise and experience cover fertility, and the first 1000 days it covers the whole journey. And I've got many years in my nursing in my public health nursing, my health visiting backgrounds, of supporting people, right the way through that journey. I just love it; I truly do. This is where my passion lies. So for you, this means ongoing tailored support as you journey through pregnancy and into parenthood.
19:10
The fifth reason is that you get discounts. So anyone who comes into this membership, as long as you're in the membership, will get a 10% discount with any of my one-to-one services, a 30% discount, so a whole third of the fundamentals for fertility course that I mentioned earlier, which is the 12-week programme. So if you haven't done that before, you can get that for a third off and then use the weekly membership calls to help support you through that programme if you haven't covered the fundamentals already. And also things that I have in the pipeline like retreats. This is holding retreats, and having special dedicated weekend breaks set up around this is very much in my pipeline. So there will be exclusive discounts on retreats as well. So lots and lots of discounts. And I know that people who have worked with me in a group capacity before have enjoyed the benefit of getting a discount on Adhoc one-to-one appointments. So again, if you haven't been able to work with me on a one-to-one package, then there is the option to sort of dial up and dial down the intensity at which you might want to work with me. And of course, if you did utilise that and get some extra one-to-one support with me during your time in the membership, I'm able to give you more tailored and personalised advice. I can give supplement advice. We can do testing or whatever you might need to do. So that's there as an option at a discounted rate should you need it at any time.
21:00
So that's the five different benefits. If you haven't got the picture already, what this membership looks like is access to an online library of resources that are practical in nature. They cover the five areas of nutrition, movement, stress, reducing toxic load and inflammation and functional testing for fertility. And then alongside that, we have our weekly meetups on zoom in a group setting every week. It is all about group coaching, it's about implementation, it's about accountability, and it's about emotional support. So it's a really, really special thing that's about to start. And I know that I'm going to be attracting the most amazing group of people because I always do like I absolutely love my clients and the people I get to work with. So I know that there will be an amazing bunch of people coming into this space. So ultimately, what you're getting here is comprehensive, holistic and evidence-based support at a fraction of the price of my one-to-one services.
22:24
So the cost, I don't think I've mentioned yet, I have in previous episodes, but just to remind you, at the cost of this membership is, for what you're getting, it really is an incredible deal. So the first ten people who sign up will be getting access, lifelong access for just £50 a month. So as long as you stay in the membership, that is what you will pay. So if you're one of those first ten people, even if you stay in the membership through pregnancy, through the postnatal, it doesn't matter if the rest of the membership goes up in price in the future. You will always have that initial price on it. So the £50 a month will stay in place for you. Anyone who joins after the first ten and gets that discounted rate, it's not that much more at £67 per month. So as I say, it's a fraction of the price of working with me one-to-one, and you really do just get so, so much.
23:28
If you're wondering about timings, the group call at the moment they're scheduled to take place on a Wednesday at 5 pm every Wednesday, and that's UK time. Every few weeks, the plan is to get a guest expert in to run some kind of practical session with you. So it won't be me every single week. It will be me most weeks, and then one of the weeks, it'll be a guest expert to come and deliver a really, really high-value session with you to support you on this journey. So as the membership expands and grows, I will probably start adding more times in, but for the moment, while it's still small, it will be on a Wednesday at 5 pm.
24:18
So that's it from me for today. Just in a nutshell, again, to remind you of the five reasons about whether Fertility and the First 1000 Days membership might be right for you, number one is that it is super duper practical. Number two is that it's affordable. Number three is that it is really supportive and nurturing. Number four is that it can grow with you right the way through your fertility journey through pregnancy and into motherhood. And number five is that you get discounts on my one-to-one services, on my fundamentals for fertility programme, and on any future retreats that I will be running.
25:03
If you've got any questions, if you're thinking, Oh, that sounds like it could really benefit me, but I'm not sure, or you've got anything to ask, please just drop me an email drop me a DM. If you follow me on Instagram at Katy Bradbury Health, I love chatting to people on DMS on there. If you're in my Facebook group, you can always pop a post in there and ask about it. You can drop me an email at [email protected], and if you're hearing this and thinking, oh my goodness, get me in, I need to be one of those first ten people, then I will be putting the sign-up link in the show notes, which you can find at katybradbery.com which is my website, /podcast. That's where all my episodes are and all of my show notes. So www. does anyone even say that anymore? I feel like that's a proper 1990's thing to say. Anyway, I'll say it again. www.katybradbury, and that's Katy with a y KATYbradbury.com/podcast, and you'll find all of the show notes in there. The show notes usually come out on a Tuesday, by the way, so if you go there and the show notes for this episode aren't quite up yet, then that might be why. But if you can't find it for whatever reason, just drop me a message or email.
26:29
All right, well, I can't wait to see anyone who wants to join in there. And I will speak to you again next week. Take care.
https://katybradburyhealth.thrivecart.com/fertility-and-the-first-1000-days/
WAYS THAT YOU CAN GET KATY'S HELP:
Fertility and the First 1,000 Days Membership:
Fertility and the First 1,000 Days MembershipFundamentals for Fertility online course:
12-Week Fundamentals for Fertility Course with Katy Bradbury (evergreen)Book a discovery call to talk through your needs for working together 1:1:
Practice BetterMore info can be found about Katy on her website:
https://katybradbury.com/Instagram:
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-
00:00
Hello, you are listening to Katy Bradbury. Nutritional Therapist and registered nurse. Today's podcast episode is called 'Is the Fertility and the First 1000 Days Membership Right for You?
00:28
So, hello, hello, good evening. I'm coming to you from the studio at the bottom of the garden, as you will probably know by now if you're a regular listener. Unfortunately for me, I am also joined by a rather large moth in the studio this evening and, put it this way, I'm not the biggest moth lover. They used to really freak me out, actually. Does anyone else get a bit freaked out by moths? I think it's the erratic nature of the way they fly, like they're just a bit all over the place, putting you on edge. They're a bit unpredictable. Anyway, I think he's settled down a bit for now. So I've got a special guest today, it's the moth!
01:27
So I wanted to come and talk to you today about my fourth coming membership, which is the same title as this podcast 'Fertility and the First 1000 Days'. I am really, really excited about finally getting this membership up and running. It has been in the pipeline for a very long time. Yeah, I would say even the best part of the year. It's been something that I had the idea of more or less a year ago. The idea was that the people who first joined my group programme would have something to flow seamlessly into if they wanted to. It didn't quite happen that way. As a business owner and someone who works part-time and has my own responsibilities, lots of you will know that I was fortunate enough to come out the other side of my own difficult fertility journey and now have two very small children, it's been a bit of a juggle this last year, as my business has grown and I've had the pleasure and the honour of supporting more and more of you. It's been wonderful, actually and hand on heart, I love helping people like you so much that it was really the best decision I ever took to do this. But the membership has taken me a while to get set up partly because I've had lots of things on my plate and juggling lots of things. Partly just because I wanted to get it right, and it takes a lot of work to set up something like this and a lot of figuring out what the best way is going to be to actually make it the best possible service and the most effective one. So I can finally say that I'm about ready to open the doors. I have mentioned this before, I think I mentioned it a while back in December because I was hoping to open the doors earlier on in the year, and for a number of reasons, there was a bit of hold up. But I wanted to talk to you about five reasons why this membership could be ideal for where you are on this journey right now.
04:40
So five reasons, so first of all, and I haven't said exactly in this episode, what the membership actually is going to be? Hopefully, me explaining these five reasons is going to help to shed some light on it. Of course, I'm more than happy to answer any questions. So if you get to the end of this episode, you're like, okay, cool. Katy, I understand the reasons why this sounds like it could be just the ticket for me, but I'm still not exactly sure what it is or how to do it; then just drop me a message. I will also make sure that the link to sign up is available in the show notes because the plan is to get started this week. The first ten people to sign up for this membership will get it at a reduced price, which I'll talk about in a moment. And then after that, it will go up to the full price, so there's a really big incentive there to shift and to try and bag one of those first ten spots, and quite a few of which have not been taken because I haven't opened the doors yet, but quite a quite a few of which have gotten names put to them, shall we say.
06:07
So anyone, reason number one that it could be just the right thing for you is that it is practical. So this membership is really set up to be for the busy person because I know that so many of you are busy. If that is you, thank you for actually taking the time to be a regular listener to this podcast. I really do recognise that and appreciate that you come back each week and listen because I know that it's time-consuming. From what I've heard back from most of you, you get a lot out of it, so I'm really glad about that. But really, it's an honour to yourself that you do come back and give yourself this time each week to listen to this podcast, so that's a little side note, so thank you. So it's for the busy person it's not filled with reams and reams of information, so it's a bit different from my 12-week programme. Some of you listening will have done my 12-week programme already, some might have heard of it or considered doing it, and by the way, that 12-week programme I've switched up the way I deliver that now and that is actually now available as a stand-alone package as like a do it yourself. So it's something that you can move through their six taught modules, and you move through it in a do-it-yourself manner. That is now available for just £149. I wanted to make it really, really accessible. So I do have that for people who want to really sink their teeth in and learn all about those fundamentals for fertility. But the membership, the 'Fertility in the First 1000 Days' membership, isn't like that; it's different to the 12-week programme in that it is super duper Practical, not full of reams of information. It's got a few sections, really, really practical. So it's got a section on nutrition, a section on stress, a section on moving your body, and a section on toxic load and how to reduce your toxic load. And it's got a section on functional testing for fertility, so all of the info is designed to pack a punch. It's not lengthy. It's a mixture of content of videos and stuff like that, some PDFs etc. Still, it's all focused on taking action to ensure that you are shifting your body into a state of becoming more fertile by the day. Hence, it's really practical, and it's all about taking action. There is, of course, a little bit of learning in there, but it's largely about the action taking.
09:28
Now, whilst it is going to be, just a caveat that, whilst it is going to be focusing on getting your body more fertile by the day, what I'm not promoting here, just to be very clear, because if you know me already, you will know that this is not what I'm about. I'm not promoting a quick fix here. Yes, I want it to be action-taking. Yes, I wanted to have as much impact as possible for the least amount of time. However, Every fertility journey is very, very different. And sometimes, there are lots of complex layers and reasons as to why you might be struggling. And that looks different for everyone. So all of the complex layers and the reasons are different for everyone. So whilst it's designed to pack as much of a punch as possible. I'm still not promising a quick fix. You know, it's about unravelling, breaking the chain in as many places as possible, and really just working to build up your fertility. What that means is to improve the chances, and everything around fertility is a game of odds. There are so so so so many factors that can increase the odds of you getting and staying pregnant. There are so so many factors that can decrease the odds of you getting and staying pregnant. So what we are doing in this membership is working every single day to increase those odds. But for some people, it will take longer than others. So it is practical action taking, but it's not a quick fix.
11:19
Number two, reason number two, it's affordable. So one of the biggest blocks that I get and I get a lot of inquiries, talk to a lot of people, and talk to a lot of you. And one of the biggest blocks I get from people is money is the financial side, and I get it because it's an investment working with me one-to-one and getting that expertise. And lots of people are doing things like saving up for IVF and having other treatments, etc., that are costly. And so I really wanted to be able to provide something that is really, really great service for people who might not be able to afford one-to-one support. So it's affordable. It's a fraction of the price that it is to work with me one-to-one. But the brilliance, the joy of it, is that if that is you. You are saving money or having to pay out for IVF or other treatments. This membership will increase the chances of IVF working and decrease the need to even resort to IVF. So it's low cost, and you get a lot of bang for your buck. So you know, if money has been a barrier to you being able to work with me in the past, then this really could be your chance.
13:02
It's supportive. Number three, it's supportive. So the big thing about this space that I'm creating is that it's not just a membership area online. So it's got the online library, where you get your login, and you can access all the tools or the practical things under those different sections that I mentioned already, the nutrition, the moving your body, the stress, the reducing toxic load and the functional testing. So there's loads of practical stuff in different mediums and modalities. But the really big thing about this membership is it's supportive. And what I mean by that is that we meet every single week in a group setting to run through everything, and that is what I'm all about, right? It's creating a space that is for you, that is open and nurturing and trusting and non-judgmental. And it really is going to be a place for you just to honour your journey, whatever that looks like for you. It's a place to share the realities, celebrate the wins, and be held through those toughest moments.
14:31
Now, feedback from anyone that has worked with me in a group setting before, because my 12-week programme used to be run in a group setting, so the feedback from that has always been overwhelmingly positive from that group model of working and anyone who has worked with me whether one to one or in a group setting, will know that my approach, whether in a one to one, or any setting where I'm holding that space for you in our dedicated space is one of kindness and I always hold love in my heart. And I know that sounds really cheesy, but I really do. I really do just feel so strongly about being able to support you, and that is what this is all about. So yes, it's about moving in the right direction. Yes, it's about increasing your fertility. Yes, it's about improving the chances of IVF success and reducing the need for IVF and having a healthy pregnancy. It's all of those things. But it's also about supporting you on what can be such a difficult and lonely journey. And I know because I've been there, I know because I've got years of supporting people in this position. And without tooting my own horn too much, I know that I'm really bloody good at holding the space for people. It's something that I've spent many years doing in different capacities, and I love doing. So it's having that space held for you that is supportive.
16:33
Reason number four is that it can grow with you. So one thing that I really, really love about the way I work is that many of my clients stay with me, so many of my fertility clients choose to stay with me, I'm talking about one-to-one clients here, choose to stay with me throughout their pregnancy, and well into the postnatal period, and this is my whole thing, right? Its fertility and the first 1000 days, it's not just, okay, get you pregnant and leave you there. It's really appreciating that this journey into and through motherhood is a pretty wild ride from the very start. Going through that fertility journey, right the way through, and then transitioning into parenthood is really a remarkable journey. It's a journey in which our modern society doesn't really appreciate or pay as much mind to what it once would have done when we lived in more collective bands of people and had more extended families, etc. And that support just isn't there for women now. So it can grow with you.
18:04
The point of this membership is that it covers the fertility side and then what will happen as people start to move into the next phase of the journey through the pregnancy phase. Is that a different section of the membership that will open out for you. There'll be a dedicated meetings that are focused around pregnancy. There'll be dedicated resources focused around pregnancy, and then the same for the postnatal. So anyone that knows me will know that my expertise and experience cover fertility, and the first 1000 days it covers the whole journey. And I've got many years in my nursing in my public health nursing, my health visiting backgrounds, of supporting people, right the way through that journey. I just love it; I truly do. This is where my passion lies. So for you, this means ongoing tailored support as you journey through pregnancy and into parenthood.
19:10
The fifth reason is that you get discounts. So anyone who comes into this membership, as long as you're in the membership, will get a 10% discount with any of my one-to-one services, a 30% discount, so a whole third of the fundamentals for fertility course that I mentioned earlier, which is the 12-week programme. So if you haven't done that before, you can get that for a third off and then use the weekly membership calls to help support you through that programme if you haven't covered the fundamentals already. And also things that I have in the pipeline like retreats. This is holding retreats, and having special dedicated weekend breaks set up around this is very much in my pipeline. So there will be exclusive discounts on retreats as well. So lots and lots of discounts. And I know that people who have worked with me in a group capacity before have enjoyed the benefit of getting a discount on Adhoc one-to-one appointments. So again, if you haven't been able to work with me on a one-to-one package, then there is the option to sort of dial up and dial down the intensity at which you might want to work with me. And of course, if you did utilise that and get some extra one-to-one support with me during your time in the membership, I'm able to give you more tailored and personalised advice. I can give supplement advice. We can do testing or whatever you might need to do. So that's there as an option at a discounted rate should you need it at any time.
21:00
So that's the five different benefits. If you haven't got the picture already, what this membership looks like is access to an online library of resources that are practical in nature. They cover the five areas of nutrition, movement, stress, reducing toxic load and inflammation and functional testing for fertility. And then alongside that, we have our weekly meetups on zoom in a group setting every week. It is all about group coaching, it's about implementation, it's about accountability, and it's about emotional support. So it's a really, really special thing that's about to start. And I know that I'm going to be attracting the most amazing group of people because I always do like I absolutely love my clients and the people I get to work with. So I know that there will be an amazing bunch of people coming into this space. So ultimately, what you're getting here is comprehensive, holistic and evidence-based support at a fraction of the price of my one-to-one services.
22:24
So the cost, I don't think I've mentioned yet, I have in previous episodes, but just to remind you, at the cost of this membership is, for what you're getting, it really is an incredible deal. So the first ten people who sign up will be getting access, lifelong access for just £50 a month. So as long as you stay in the membership, that is what you will pay. So if you're one of those first ten people, even if you stay in the membership through pregnancy, through the postnatal, it doesn't matter if the rest of the membership goes up in price in the future. You will always have that initial price on it. So the £50 a month will stay in place for you. Anyone who joins after the first ten and gets that discounted rate, it's not that much more at £67 per month. So as I say, it's a fraction of the price of working with me one-to-one, and you really do just get so, so much.
23:28
If you're wondering about timings, the group call at the moment they're scheduled to take place on a Wednesday at 5 pm every Wednesday, and that's UK time. Every few weeks, the plan is to get a guest expert in to run some kind of practical session with you. So it won't be me every single week. It will be me most weeks, and then one of the weeks, it'll be a guest expert to come and deliver a really, really high-value session with you to support you on this journey. So as the membership expands and grows, I will probably start adding more times in, but for the moment, while it's still small, it will be on a Wednesday at 5 pm.
24:18
So that's it from me for today. Just in a nutshell, again, to remind you of the five reasons about whether Fertility and the First 1000 Days membership might be right for you, number one is that it is super duper practical. Number two is that it's affordable. Number three is that it is really supportive and nurturing. Number four is that it can grow with you right the way through your fertility journey through pregnancy and into motherhood. And number five is that you get discounts on my one-to-one services, on my fundamentals for fertility programme, and on any future retreats that I will be running.
25:03
If you've got any questions, if you're thinking, Oh, that sounds like it could really benefit me, but I'm not sure, or you've got anything to ask, please just drop me an email drop me a DM. If you follow me on Instagram at Katy Bradbury Health, I love chatting to people on DMS on there. If you're in my Facebook group, you can always pop a post in there and ask about it. You can drop me an email at [email protected], and if you're hearing this and thinking, oh my goodness, get me in, I need to be one of those first ten people, then I will be putting the sign-up link in the show notes, which you can find at katybradbery.com which is my website, /podcast. That's where all my episodes are and all of my show notes. So www. does anyone even say that anymore? I feel like that's a proper 1990's thing to say. Anyway, I'll say it again. www.katybradbury, and that's Katy with a y KATYbradbury.com/podcast, and you'll find all of the show notes in there. The show notes usually come out on a Tuesday, by the way, so if you go there and the show notes for this episode aren't quite up yet, then that might be why. But if you can't find it for whatever reason, just drop me a message or email.
26:29
All right, well, I can't wait to see anyone who wants to join in there. And I will speak to you again next week. Take care.
https://katybradburyhealth.thrivecart.com/fertility-and-the-first-1000-days/
WAYS THAT YOU CAN GET KATY'S HELP:
Fertility and the First 1,000 Days Membership:
Fertility and the First 1,000 Days MembershipFundamentals for Fertility online course:
12-Week Fundamentals for Fertility Course with Katy Bradbury (evergreen)Book a discovery call to talk through your needs for working together 1:1:
Practice BetterMore info can be found about Katy on her website:
https://katybradbury.com/Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/katybradburyhealthEmail:
[email protected]Love the show? Don't forget to leave a star rating and a review to share the love and help it reach others who need to hear this!
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00:01
Hello, you are listening to Katy Bradbury, nutritional therapist and registered nurse. Today's podcast episode is called What can we learn from our ancestors about fertility?
00:28
Hello, and welcome. It feels really strange actually coming to you today. I am recording the episode, would you believe, on a Saturday, not a Sunday, which is very bizarre. It doesn't make a difference to you because I will still be releasing on Sunday night, as usual, but I just found myself with a spare moment. And I was feeling really pensive. I've just been into my Facebook group and done a live video there. And I thought now's a good time to come and talk to you on the podcast. So here I am.
01:11
Welcome. As usual, I'd love to hear from you. I absolutely love hearing from my listeners. So if you're a regular listener and you haven't given me a rating or a review yet, please do take just a minute and do that. That would be absolutely amazing, not just to give me a massive confidence boost but to help the people who really need to hear this to actually help it reach more people. So if you're a new listener, then welcome to you too.
01:52
I wanted to talk to you today about a topic that is very close to my heart, actually, because it was something that first sparked my interest many years ago. Back, back, back when I was a teenager and I'd finished my A levels, I'm going to give you a bit of backstory here. I was a teenager, and I was finishing my A-Levels sorry, I hadn't finished them. I was finishing them. And we were at the point where we were applying for university. And I knew I definitely wanted to go to uni. That wasn't the issue. The issue was, oops, of course, turn my phone on silent, okay. The issue was that I didn't know what I wanted to study. Now, I knew I was definitely interested in things. And I knew that I was interested in particular things, but I couldn't quite put my finger on what. I already knew that I was ultimately interested in people. I love people. I love connecting with people. I just find people; I find humanity just incredible, actually. And I find it fascinating. And I find all of the multifaceted layers of what it is to be a human being just so interesting.
03:40
I always have done, and I was doing my A levels that I chose at my A levels which I thought would really quench my thirst for everything I just said about my kind of quest to know and understand more about humanity. And I chose for my A-levels, two have my A -levels anyway, I chose psychology and sociology thinking yeah, brilliant, like, understand the human mind. Understanding humans at a social level like that is going to be great. I'm going to love it. I didn't! I actually hated studying psychology and sociology. And I think that part of it was maybe that I didn't connect with my teachers that well, I did with a few of them, and part of it was just the time in my life. You know, I was a teenager, I was looking for more. I was questioning things. I just wasn't satisfied with it. But one of the big things that bugged me about psychology and sociology was this whole piece around everyone theorising everything and people being on one side of the fence or the other. So you've got different types of psychologists, and they will argue with each other, right? It's the same with philosophers. They all argue with each other. And they will say, No, no, no, no, no, no is this way, my way is the right way.
Of course, you know, a bunch of old men. By old men, I mean, like, olden times, men. And they all just were waving their flags and trying to get everyone on their side. And to the point where it just blinkered their views, they started to try and explain the whole world through their narrow lens of the theory they'd come up with. That's just not right. It's just not right. And I got so annoyed with that. And I was like, can't people see that this is just wrong, like, the world is more complex than that. And people are more complex than that. And there's a bit more nuance here, guys, like, come on.
06:08
So, and I realise I'm being a bit long-winded in my introduction here, but it's important to give the backstory. So I didn't know what I wanted to study. I was like, 'there must be something, there must be something that is to fire up my interest. And that is going to be about what I want it to be about'. We went to a sample lecture. We went to our local university, which I'm from East London, so it was the University of East London. And we have a little open day thing there as part of a college trip to the University of East London. And they very kindly put on a load of sample lectures for us to help us decide on our subjects. And so we were looking, we could do four or five different seminars, I think, in the day. And I was looking on this piece of paper at the list. And we had to tick the boxes for the ones we wanted to attend. And I was looking down this list, and I saw a word that I'd never seen before, and it was anthropology. And I was like, Oh, right. Okay, I've never heard of that before. I have no idea what anthropology is. I tick that box because I don't know what I want to do. Let's tick the box and go and see what anthropology is about.
07:27
I went to this seminar on anthropology. And honestly, my jaw was on the floor for most of it, and I came away thinking bloody hell, like this, this is what I want to do. This is the missing link for me. This is what I've been looking for. This is incredible. And that's what I did. Now, I remember the lecture I went to; they were ultimately trying to sell the University of East London. They were trying to get us on board with UEL because that was their uni. And, of course, universities are all money-making establishments now. But they were talking about their particular course. And the fact that their course was special because their anthropology programme was biological and social anthropology combined. And this was special because there are only a handful of universities in the country that did those two together.
07:29
And I realised that I had to do a combination of biological and social anthropology because doing social anthropology alone, which I guess is more the traditional type of anthropology that a lot of people think of when they think of anthropology, was just not going to be enough for me, I needed it to be more comprehensive. It was going to be just a little bit too sociological, but with different cultures, if I did just social anthropology, so I went on a quest. I didn't particularly want to go to UEL because I wanted to go away for uni and live away from home etc. And the University of East London was on the doorstep for me. I did apply there, but I didn't choose in the end, so where I went to Durham. That was the polar opposite of on the doorstep because that was 300 miles away on the other side of the country, right up in the northeast. So off I toddled to Durham University. I spent three years studying biological and social anthropology, and I loved it. I absolutely loved it. And that was my first foray really into understanding the world through the lens that I now understand the world.
10:05
And a significant part of that lens, a significant part of how I view the world, is through an evolutionary lens. Because we are animals, just like any other animal on the planet, we're not just like any other animal on the planet, we're very, very different. We're very unique from any other animal, but we are mammals, and we are primates Aad our bodies, our current human body, what we look and how we present now, in our current form, hasn't changed a huge amount, right? It hasn't changed a huge amount in the last 20,000 years. And that's not very long in evolutionary terms, 20,000 years. But one of the main reasons for that is because we, instead of having to, so the thing about evolution is that animals or any organism, any living thing, has to adapt to its environment physically, right. And so animals are incredible, like mind-blowingly, adapted to their environment. If we look at the finches in the Galapagos Islands and we look at all the different characteristics they have, each one of them is just beautifully suited to the environment in which they live. And, and that's beautiful, that is symbiotic with nature. And that's the way it's meant to be for them. But humans are very interesting because our brains are so big for our body size, right? So we got a lot of brainpower, and we developed this prefrontal cortex in our brain, which is the real thinking brain. So we're able to have abstract thought, we have complex communication skills, arguably, most of us anyway. And, you know, we're really quite incredible beings. And what we started to do as humans was, instead of our bodies having to adapt to the environment, we started changing our environment to suit us. So that's how eventually, we came from being cavemen to living in small societies and building huts and then starting to work the land a bit and starting to use tools and working together. And then the agricultural revolution, farming, and then the world just changed, you know, we took over. Because we didn't need to be in a set environment anymore, we could change our environment. And that is so powerful.
13:21
However, there is a mismatch, and although we have been very, very clever in being have changed our environment, in a lot of ways, our environment has changed so rapidly, in the last, well, certainly in the last 20,000 years. But even in the last 100 years, even in the last ten years, five years, our environment has changed dramatically. And that looks very, very different from the world in which we developed biologically. And so there is a mismatch between that kind of natural world, living in small bands of people living in a natural environment, compared to the way we live now. And so the pressures and strains on us are very, very different now.
14:18
Now, the reason I'm talking to you about this today, the reason I wanted to come and talk to you about this, is because, as I say, this forms the backdrop for a lot of the way I think about the world because of my background in anthropology. I wanted to just have a quick think today about some things that we can learn from our ancestors about fertility. Because one of the most striking facts about fertility or infertility, people who struggle with fertility, is that people didn't use to struggle. Fertility is decreasing. We know this, sperm health is decreasing, egg health, we know that people, statistics of people struggling with fertility in different forms, whether that's reproductive conditions, or just unexplained infertility, whatever it looks like. All of those cases are on the rise rapidly. But it didn't use to be like that. And I'm not saying that nobody ever, in the caveman days, I'm not saying that nobody ever struggled with fertility. I'm sure they did. We have to be very careful about over-romanticising those times because there was a lot that was really harsh about those times, right? We didn't have the comfortable lives that we do now. We didn't have the kind of social setup that we do now, either. So I think that life could be pretty brutal at times, and people died a lot younger and died mostly from infectious diseases. You know, we didn't have antibiotics, we didn't have modern medicine. So life looked very, very different. But one thing that people weren't doing was struggling on mass with fertility.
16:20
So I got a list of 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 things here that are examples of things that we can learn from our ancestors about fertility. And I've spent a really, really long time given the backstory there. So I'm going to whiz through some of these because it's not rocket science. But it's a really, really helpful reminder that these are the things that in the modern world, for all of its wonders, for all of its conveniences for all of the amazing things about it. There's a lot that we're not doing that well. And there's a lot that we're not doing that well, that we did do that well, once upon a time. And that that is the way our bodies were created. And that was the way our bodies are biologically suited to, and there is a mismatch now between the way our biology is set up, what it's geared up for, and what we're actually presented within our day-to-day reality.
17:34
So you can probably guess the first thing is nutrition. Nutritionally, things look very different now from what they did once upon a time. We talk about the Mediterranean diet and whole foods diet, and back then, people literally lived off the land. And so it was what was available to them. It was seasonal eating. It was freshly slaughtered meat or preserved in some way. Freshly caught fish and then whatever was hunted or gathered in the immediate environment. So lots and lots of plant foods, maybe as treats, access to honey and those kinds of foods. But ultimately, diets and nutrition look very, very different back then. And that is the environment to which we are adapted. We did not have convenience stores. We didn't have supermarkets. We didn't even have some of the products that are available as a result of mass farming, in particular grains. Now, I'm not saying that those foods shouldn't have a place in our diets today. I'm just saying it's worth thinking about the fact that lots of people will, for example, have bread, pasta, or some kind of modern grain for breakfast, lunch and dinner. And that is the staple part of what is on their plate. And that just isn't suited to what things used to look like for us. And even the amount of fibre I think I mentioned in one of my podcast episodes on digestive health, there is a huge difference between modern hunter-gatherers and Westerners in terms of the weight of their poos. So, modern hunter-gatherers, their poos are so heavy because they're super dense because their diets are full of fibre. And for the most part, in the modern Western world, we just don't get anywhere near enough fibre. We do not Eat anywhere enough plant foods, whole plant foods, I should say. So nutrition is one.
20:08
Movement, those ancient societies, those ancient ways of life, they moved their bodies, all day long chairs were not a thing, chairs were not a thing. And now, especially in the post-COVID era, so many of us just sit at a desk all day at home, you know, we don't even have to go out to go to work anymore half the time. And if we look at the chair, you know, our optimal position for sitting is to squat. And if you look at a baby or a young child, what do they do? Naturally, they squat, and their squat form is on point. I go to the gym, and I try to squat like a baby; it's just nowhere near as good. But that is, that is how we should sit, squatting. That's what we're designed for in terms of our legs, pelvis, etc. But we don't. We're lazy. We take the path of least resistance. And over time, over generations, and over decades, we get too comfortable sitting on a flat chair and being immobile. And then the squatting becomes really uncomfortable and feels unnatural, but actually, it's the natural thing. Moving our body walking around, being naturally active as part of day-to-day life—number two.
21:35
Communities, the third one. In tight-knit communities, so many people now undergoing difficulties with their fertility feel alone. And so you could feel like you're connected with the world around you in that, you know, you might have a job, go to work, have a partner, and have a family. But it's not the same. It's not that kind of everyone is up in everyone else's business. Now, of course, there are benefits to privacy.
22:10
And I think that personally, I am quite a private person. But there is something to be said for that sense of community. Because it means that as much as everyone's up in your business, it also means that people are holding each other. And to be told is to be nurtured, and to be nurtured is for a problem to not feel as bad as what it might do otherwise.
22:37
Sleep as well. So again, we didn't have; okay, we might have mastered fire, but we didn't have electricity back then. And so, once the sun went down, we were exposed to darkness. And darkness meant that our melatonin could properly produce our sleep hormone. And sleep was of a lot better quality. So even though we didn't have beds and all of those nice, cosy Modcons that we have now, we were living in tune with nature. And that's the next one connecting with nature. That was a huge difference. Like now, we live in the comfort of our house. We live in four brick walls, and it always feels strange to be out and about. If you've ever been, for example, here in the UK, we've got, I'm going to use the example of the Lake District, and we love going; it's one of those beautiful places in the world. But wherever that is for you, we've got loads of amazing places of natural beauty here in the UK. We're very fortunate. And you could go to any one of those on a trip, right? And you might go out walking, and have you ever been on an experience where you've been out walking, and maybe the sun has started to come down? And in your head, you're starting to freak out like, what happens if we get lost out here? And the idea of having to spend the night out in the wilderness is quite scary, isn't it if you've ever been in that situation?
24:10
And isn't that incredible, the idea of spending that, I'm not talking about camping and camping is different because again, camping is quite comfortable. All of those things, but the idea of having to just be out in the wild, can fill us with quite a bit of fear. That is very different because we used to live out in the wild. It was no big thing like that was how we lived. So it's this disconnect from nature. It's the fact that we live our lives and then go out in nature, we go for a walk, you know, rather than being completely immersed in nature.
24:48
Spirituality as well. So we know from research, and this isn't an exact match from what I'm saying, but we know from research that there are some zones in the world that have been studied, and they're called the Blue Zones. And the people who live in the blue zones have the highest numbers of people who live over 100 years old. And so there's been research done on those parts of the world. I can't remember how many; I think there's maybe like eight or nine of them, these blue zones across the world; there's a place in Greece, I think there's somewhere in Japan, I can't remember the rest of them. And the research looked at the commonalities, and it came up with this list of things. And it's not that different to some of the things I've spoken about here. But which is why I'm connecting it because I think that those people are living more in tune with perhaps how we might have once lived. But one of the things that came out in the Blue Zones research is spirituality of some description. It doesn't matter what but having some connection to something bigger, whatever that might be, whether it's a God, whether it's a religion, whether it is even nature, but something bigger, whether it's some kind of universal force that you connect in with, at a deeper level, outside of your kind of immediate physical, external environment, has been found to have a huge positive impact on health and well being. So I thought that was really interesting as well.
26:37
So what have I said so far? I've said nutrition, I've said movement, I've said community, I've said sleep, I've said connected with nature, I've said spirituality, and the other one is stress.
26:48
You might argue that our ancestors might have been even more stressed because they were faced with life or death situations, probably, fairly regularly, whether that was the threat of wild animals or whether it was the threat of starvation, or, you know, survival. However, yes, those stresses were real, and they were big. But the way our bodies are adapted physically and physiologically is that our bodies are adapted to those stresses. So those threats to life stresses and how that is mismatched with the modern world is that you know, 999 times out of 1000 distress that you face is not a life or death stress. It's not. It's work stress, financial stress, relationship stress, traffic stress, road rage stress, or hanger. It's like back pain or inflammation. It's anything; infertility and those stresses are very different. But because of the evolutionary mismatch, our bodies treat it in the exact same way that they would have done once upon a time, which was a threat to life. And when we are pummelling and hammered with the same stresses day in and day out, over and over again, and we're not doing anything to buffer them, we're just trying to muddle through and get through it somehow. And we're not taking measures to activate that parasympathetic nervous system, the calming nervous system, and we're in this heightened state all of the time. Our bodies think that we are under constant threat to life. And that has huge repercussions for fertility. Because for a lot of people, it can simply mean that the reproductive system is switched off because the body doesn't deem it safe to reproduce. So there's a huge mismatch there with the stress as well.
29:09
So there's a lot there, right? What can we learn from our ancestors about fertility? It's what we put into our bodies. It's what we eat; it's how we move. It's the way we connect with other humans community. It's sleep; it's night and day and connecting with nature. It's having some kind of spirituality, whatever that looks like. And it's how we manage our stress. It's not rocket science, but those are the things that it has to come back to. And those things are significant.
29:40
So those are some of the examples of what we can learn from our ancestors about fertility and a bit of backstory about my love of anthropology. But that's it. That's what I'm going to talk to you about today. Those are really all of those things are the reason that in my group I work, so in my membership that I'm just about to open the doors for, there are still a few paces places left at the cheap early bird price of 50 pounds a month. These are the cornerstones that we cover. And it is practical. It's not a load of teaching. There is a little bit of teaching there, but it is practical tools. And it's meeting with me every week in a group to share your experiences, get group coaching, work through this stuff at your own pace, be accountable, and share the highs and lows and everything else. So if you feel like you want my support, then this will be the best value way to get it. There are a few spots left at the 50 pounds a month early bird price. So if you do want to get in, please let me know now because I've been a bit held up opening the doors to this membership. But we are starting imminently. And when I say imminently, it's going to be in the next week or two. So by the end of May 2022, we'll be getting going. I will put a link in the show notes to sign up for anyone who wants to sign up, and if you're lucky, you might catch one of the early bird 50 pounds a month slots. If not, it's still only 67 pounds a month, so it's still incredible value. If you want to know more, if you want to know more about what it would be like to work with me, whether that's in the group setting or with one-to-one support or with my group, my 12-week programme, which is just a DIY pre-recorded programme. Drop me a line; let's talk. I am happy to talk anything over with you to think about how I can best be of service.
31:59
So that's it for me. I hope you had a lovely weekend and I'll speak to you again next weekend.
32:06
Take care bye
WAYS THAT YOU CAN GET KATY'S HELP:
Fertility and the First 1,000 Days Membership:
Fertility and the First 1,000 Days MembershipFundamentals for Fertility online course:
12 Week Fundamentals for Fertility Course with Katy Bradbury (evergreen)Book a discovery call to talk through your needs for working together 1:1:
Practice BetterMore info can be found about Katy on her website:
Katy Bradbury | From fertility to the first 1000 daysInstagram:
https://www.instagram.com/katybradburyhealthEmail:
[email protected]Love the show? Don't forget to leave a star rating and a review to share the love and help it reach others who need to hear this!
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0:01
You are listening to Katy Bradbury, a registered nurse and nutritional therapist. Today’s podcast episode is called “Five Lessons Learned from Attending the Fertility Show Live.”
0:14
So hello, hello. I can’t believe it’s been a week already since I last spoke to you. So I hope that you have had a lovely week, wherever you are and whatever you’ve been doing. I thought I’d come and do a very special little episode today, and this is actually the second podcast that I’ve recorded this week, not for one of my own, but I was a guest expert on another person’s podcast this week which was wonderful. If you don’t already know it, and if you are one of my listeners who has got a current eating disorder, or has had an eating disorder in the past, then her podcast is called ‘Bulimia Sucks’, and her name is Kate Hudson Hall. She was absolutely lovely, and it was a real pleasure to go and talk to her this week all about eating disorders in relation to fertility. So it was a really lovely, warm conversation, and I believe it’s the 20th of June that the episode is going to be released. So I will put it on all my platforms, and hopefully, you can enjoy listening to that as well.
0:33
But for this week, I wanted to come and share some lessons with you because I have been at the Fertility Show in London, Olympia, and it’s been a really long weekend. Actually, it’s been a really long day today. I am exhausted, and I actually felt like just going to bed. I was like, no, I will go and record this podcast because, on the way home, my mind was buzzing from all the wonderful people I spoke to and who I connected with. It was just such a lovely event to attend as a practitioner. Myself and some of my colleagues from the fertility nutrition centre had a stall. So we were lucky enough to be able to speak to all sorts of different people and also to be able to have a wander and connect with some of the other incredible people and services that are out there. I spoke to loads of people, I learnt loads of things, and I just wanted to come and share with you five of the lessons that I learned from attending the fertility show.
3:32
So the first lesson was, and I did already know this but talking to so many people in such a short space of time really, really just reminded me that no two stories are the same. There are so many different journeys and stories through fertility out there. And oh, it was incredible talking to some of you. I was honestly so struck by the resilience and openness and the strengths, I guess, of everyone I spoke to. I spoke to people from all different types of IVF journey, so a lot of the fertility show does have IVF exhibitors. So a lot of the talks, etc., are very much geared around IVF, which I will come on to one of my later points. So lots of the journeys were around IVF and all sorts of journeys from people who had had multiple rounds of IVF that hadn’t worked, so lots of people who were really feeling like they were struggling with implantation and people who had embryos in the freezer at the moment, and we’re kind of questioning what their next steps should be. I spoke to single women who were getting sperm donors. I spoke to women in their 50s who were getting egg donors. It was just incredible. It really, really was, and people were just so open and willing to share their story and happy to be listened to, I think, actually. So it was wonderful. I absolutely love connecting with people on this topic. I know that it can be a really difficult and unfortunate journey for a lot of people. Still, I really do love connecting with people who are on different journeys. I just think it’s incredible. I really do. So that was my first lesson, and as I say, it wasn’t, you know, it wasn’t a new lesson. It was something I definitely already knew. But it was just wonderful to connect with so many people in so many different stories.
6:32
The second lesson, and this is sliding into the nutrition talk now, is that so many people are low in Zinc. So at our store, we were doing some zinc testing. Now, it’s not the most rigorous Zinc testing. We weren’t doing serum, and we weren’t doing blood testing or anything like that. But what we were doing is using a solution, a zinc solution, it’s called Zinka test, and you can use it to check to give an indicator of what your zinc levels might be doing. Zinc is really commonly deficient, or people often have insufficient levels of Zinc and magnesium as well. There are two minerals that, although they are widely found in the food world, we often find that levels are quite depleted. So like levels are, especially for things like magnesium, levels are depleted in the soil because of our farming practices in the modern world, not allowing the soil time to replete its nutrients. So the knock-on effects of this are quite big. And also, lots of people don’t have a particularly nutrient-dense diet these days. So we were doing the Zinc testing. It’s a little solution, and it’s quite fun. You swirl it around in your mouth, and depending on what taste you get in your mouth after swelling around in your mouth, it gives an indicator of what your zinc status might be. And the very vast, vast majority of people had insufficient levels of Zinc. I think I did one or two people where their levels seemed like they were probably pretty good. And most other people are not that great. There was no one who, so with this zinc test, if you taste nothing at all after you’ve switched it around in your mouth, then that is an indicator that you’re zinc level may be quite depleted. So there wasn’t anybody that said they couldn’t taste a thing, but there were quite a few people who weren’t really getting much through. So the good news is, is that the zinc tests that we were doing actually gave everyone that was taking a good old dose of Zinc, so at least they came away having had some, but I do think that that was really interesting and absolutely testament to how lots of people who really feel as though like you know they have a pretty good diet or they take certain supplements or whatever might still be depleted in Zinc and other nutrients. This isn’t a call for everyone to go and start supplementing with high-dose Zinc by any stretch of the imagination because it has to be tailored to you. We had to be very cautious about, you know, just going all-in with supplements, but it was certainly interesting.
10:00
And that leads me to my next point. So lesson number two was that many people are low in Zinc. Of course, Zinc is a really important nutrient for reproductive health, so it’s a really great one for sperm health. It’s well researched for the health of sperm. But it’s got many, many processes in the body, including being enzymes and cofactors, for all sorts of different things. But it’s also a really important nutrient for the immune system. And we know that when we’re thinking about things like inflammation, being a driver for struggles with fertility, that very much links in with the immune system. So Zinc is a really important nutrient. It’s not. I know I’m joking about it that many people are low in Zinc, but actually, that means we need to think about this, right? It’s just a nutrient. It’s not nothing. It means we really need to be thinking twice about what we’re doing and thinking about whether nutrient deficiencies could be playing a role in your fertility issues. So that was number two.
11:27
So number three, kind of leading on from that point, really, lots of people are taking supplements that are completely inappropriate for their needs. Now, we were not able to really discuss supplements in much detail today because our regulatory guidelines say we can’t just dish out supplement advice willy-nilly. It has to be tailored to the individual. And if you go back and listen to one of my previous episodes, I’ll double-check the number as I talked to you so that I can tell you which episode it is, but I did do an episode recently on prenatal’s it was called ‘Which Pre Natal Should I be Taking’, and the take-home message from that episode was, not to tell you which prenatal you should be taking, unfortunately, as much as I would love to, it’s episode number 44. But the take-home message really from that was they aren’t all created equal. And what is suitable for one may not be suitable for another, and the quality of some of them, even some of the more popular brands, isn’t that great? So some of the more popular brands, even though they are quite expensive, and everyone else takes them and that what might be what is recommended on the NHS or whatever else might not be that great for you to be honest, because the levels of the nutrients in them might not be great, they might not be that absorbable. They might not be in forms that are appropriate to you, and they may contain things that aren’t suitable for you, or they may not contain enough of things that you need more of. So when we’re thinking about supplements, and the vast majority of people that I spoke to, who were taking a lot of supplements, when I asked them, ‘Okay, so you’re on this big list of supplements whose told you to take them?’ the vast majority of people were not taking these supplements under the guidance of a skilled and knowledgeable practitioner. They were taking supplements, and I don’t. By the way, if this is you, please don’t feel as if I’m pointing the finger. I’m just saying that there’s a lot of misinformation out there, and it is a really complex web of information. So all the people that came that chatted to me who were taking lots of different supplements were all bright, intelligent women who were clearly spending a lot of time doing research, and, you know, reading up on these things, and that’s great. That is, you know, that is incredibly empowering. But it has taken me years of training to get to my current knowledge of what is suitable for people and why. And my recommendations for supplements will always be based on lab testing as well to actually back up what we’re doing because sometimes we do lab testing, and it Oh! Okay! That supplement would not be good for you. In fact, it could be detrimental. So we need to tread with caution with supplements, and that was my lesson number three is that lots of people are taking supplements that are completely inappropriate for their needs.
15:22
Number four is to say that it’s a growing field, fertility is a growing field, and there is more and more research out there which is really exciting. And there’s more and more technology out there as well and the advancements, advancements, is that even a word advances, sorry, I’m really tired, I’ve got brain fog. It’s been a long weekend. Advance, I know I’m going to go with advancements. The advancements in technology are quite incredible, actually, in this really exciting things going on. Again, we need to tread with caution because just because there’s an advancing technology doesn’t always mean that it’s a good thing to do. But in practical terms, we were opposite a stand, and I was chatting to the guy there, and they developed a new supplement for sperm, specifically for sperm. There was some pretty decent research behind it. I’m always a little bit wary because there are 1,000,001 new supplement companies, and when we’re nutritionists, we kind of get bombarded by companies wanting to get us onboard. But I chatted to this guy, and considering I’m a bit of a sceptic with new things like I need to know that supplement is really good before I recommend it, and I am quite excited by this one for sperm health. I’m not going to share what it is because I don’t want anyone to just rush out and buy a supplement just because they’ve heard it on a podcast because of the reason that I just spoke about before is that not all supplements are suitable for all people. But it was really exciting to hear. And I actually got a bottle, a three-month supply of this supplement, which was worth over 100 pounds. I’m very, very excited to send that to one of my current clients who I think it will be perfect for.
17:38
Now, what else did I want to talk about with some of the exciting advancements and developments? I wanted to talk about that. Oh, and the other thing about sperm health that I wanted to talk about is this emerging availability of at-home semen testing. And I really do think that that is going to be so helpful for people because it’s, for want of a better expression, it is a bit of a ball ache. I don’t know any man that is thrilled about having to go to a clinic and produce a sperm sample. It’s awkward. It’s uncomfortable. And whilst I don’t have that much sympathy, because I think that the women, if you’re familiar with wonder, then you will know, I think ultimately the women get it worse and no question. But nonetheless, it can be a barrier, and I’m always for males getting involved and also having the appropriate testing done, et cetera, because it takes two to tango. In a couple situation, that is, in a heterosexual couple situation, but it’s just trying to break down those barriers, isn’t it trying to get there to be as few barriers as possible. The whole home sperm testing thing is not new. I know of a company that does it already, which is great, but the company that I already knew about was not doing semen morphology, and that, for me, is a key part of the equation. So I learned about a new company that is starting to offer at-home sperm testing where you go, and they’ve got this special packaging, which means that the sample is collected by the courier and it’s preserved well enough to actually make that sample viable. So that was very exciting to hear about. And the third example that I wanted to give you is, is a device; I need to go away and look at this in a bit more detail, but it’s certainly interesting; it is a device, and I can’t remember the name of them now, but it’s a little device. It’s a vaginal device, and you pop it into your vagina after sex, and it’s almost like a cap, it’s almost like a moon cup, actually, but it’s higher up. So it goes around, essentially the rim of the cervix. And it holds the sperm in place, and you keep it in for an hour after having sex, and it literally helps the sperm stay in place. So, for example, you know, that may be helpful. I know; I’m guessing here because I haven’t had the chance yet to sit and actually look at some of the studies that have been done on this product. But for examples where there might be issues with motility, swimming in the right direction, etc., then that could be helpful. And they were really pleased that they were having some good success rates with that. So I just thought it was really interesting to hear about some of the different things that were available. So that was the fourth is; it is a growing field, and there are some exciting new developments out there. And even some of the IVF clinics were, you know, talking about some of the new developments that they’ve got and some of the research that they’re doing, et cetera.
21:26
But that leads me on to my fifth and final lesson learned from today. And I’m ending on a little bit of a not-so-great note. I’ve spoken about a mixed bag of things, some positive and some not so positive. But the last point is a bit of a bugbear, maybe not the best point to end on, because it’s going to be me getting my ranty pants on. But what really, really struck me, perhaps more than anything today, as people are getting mixed messages.
22:03
And it’s already a really confusing place to be. If you’re in that place where you’re struggling with your fertility, whatever that journey looks like. And you’re trying to do something about it. You’re trying to learn. Perhaps you’re under a fertility clinic. Perhaps you’re under a doctor for this. Perhaps you’re even under a doctor for something else as well. And then perhaps you also, you know, maybe you’re working with a nutritionist, or you’re keen, or you follow nutritionists on Instagram, like me, and you’re trying to get information from us as well. And it just turns into this big mishmash of information, which can be really hard to process. And then what happens is, if that’s not kind of bad enough, this big ball of information that’s hard to process is that you get people pooh-poohing things. And we attended some talks. Today, there were different talks going on that were largely being delivered by fertility clinics. And there were quite a few talks around. So I went to one that was all about implantation failure, why that happens, and what to do about it. And then there was a talk right at the end of the day about how to improve IVF success. Now, you would think, I would have thought that nutrition would at least be mentioned in some of these. And the talk that I went to earlier on, there was a very, very, very brief mention of nutrition and lifestyle in amongst the rest of the technologies that the clinic was offering. But the talk at the end of the day, I didn’t attend, and I’m glad I didn’t, because it would have made my blood boil, but I was told by some of my colleagues afterwards that the doctor, Professor, in fact, I believe he was who was delivering the talk at the end of the day on how to improve IVF success not only did he not mention nutrition, but he pooh-poohed it, and he categorically said, and bear in mind all the people that were sat in that talk were people like you who had come up to us and chatted to us and listen to what we had to say and taking it all in. And then they go to this talk right at the end of the day. And this big guy, big shot Professor in a suit, stands up at the front of the room and says there is nothing that can be done to improve egg health or sperm health using nutrition and lifestyle. There is nothing that you can do. Honestly, I mean, it is just laughable. I laugh because it is laughable, and I just can’t quite believe that there are people that are as sceptical as that because of nutrition, and this is another interesting thing. I’m going to just tag another cheeky lesson off the back of this one, actually, which is that people’s perception of nutrition, like lots of people that did speak to us, and this is again, it’s not I’m not blaming anyone here, because I think it’s fascinating, listening to the language that people used when they spoke to us, but lots of people considered us as an alternative therapy, like complementary therapies and this kind of thing.
25:47
And I don’t mind being put in that bracket, but complementary therapies are, for me, things like acupuncture, reflexology, etc. And I truly believe that those therapies can be incredibly helpful on fertility journeys. But nutrition is not an alternative therapy. Nutrition is life. It is literally life. And if we didn’t need nutrients, then we wouldn’t need to eat. It’s as simple as that. Eating is about more than just calories. It’s about more than just energy. And I’m sure I can feel myself getting on my high horse about here, but I’m sure that if you are one of my listeners, if you’re a new listener, then hi, welcome, but if you are one of my listeners, I’m sure I’m not preaching. No, I’m sure that I am preaching to the converted here because you will all hopefully know from listening to the podcasts just how important nutrition is and that it’s not a side thing. It’s not like an additional thing that can give you a boost. It is the thing. It is everything. And I just think it’s such a shame. I think it’s incredibly disheartening not just for me and my colleagues in our profession. But for everyone out there who is being let down by people who they feel like they should trust and should be listening to. So we, as a society, we put doctors and professors etc., on a pedestal, right? We really feel as though we should be listening to them. And I’m sorry to say that they’re not always right. And again, I’m not Doctor bashing here, and the point about this being mixed messages is that there was, conversely, there was a talk on the Saturday by a wonderful female gynaecologist; I believe it was, again, I didn’t go to that talk, but my colleague spoke very highly of it. And she was talking in detail about all the ways in which nutrition and lifestyle can impact things. And so, and that’s great, she clearly is upon it. And when we’re thinking about nutrition, there is so much research out there now that looks into nutrition and fertility and certain nutrients, deficiencies and the pressures and strains that are on the body that nutritional therapy can help to unpick to discover and to fix.
28:48
And I just found it really disheartening that again, as I say, the these mixed messages that people are getting and I find it in my practice as well, you know, is people coming to me and then they’ll go to their doctor, or they’ll go to their fertility clinic. And then they basically get told, It’s all just a load of B-word because this is a clean show. And I always feel difficult having conversations around that with my clients because I don’t want to then turn around and make them feel pulled in multiple directions by saying, Oh, no one, what they’re saying is a b-word. And then it just gets into silly pettiness, and I’m not about that. But what I am about is giving people information that they can trust.
29:40
And just be mindful like, I’m not anti-IVF. I think that IVF can be the most incredible thing. But I do think that people are almost spring-loaded and kind of fast forward into these IVF journeys, where they needn’t necessarily be and then nothing is done to say how that journey might be supported with nutrition and lifestyle. Now, there are some incredible clinics out there, IVF London, Alpesh from IVF London, here at the fertility nutrition centre, we’ve got a great relationship with them, and they do appreciate these things. So it’s not all bad, but it’s tiring, frankly. And it’s frustrating. And it’s annoying to me that we are in this day and age where there is so much research out there. And there is so much evidence. It’s not woo-woo, it’s not complementary therapy, it’s science, and it’s still being disputed by the medical profession. And I just think that it’s such a shame.
29:40
So sorry to end on a down note. I should have done that in a different order. Really? Shouldn’t I?
30:24
I think overall, it was an incredible weekend. And I just absolutely loved talking to all of you. So if you did attend, if any of my listeners did attend, and if any of you came to talk to us at the fertility nutrition centre stall, then huge, big, big love to you and thank you. Thank you for sharing your stories and for being so amazing, actually, on this journey that you’re on.
31:38
So thank you as well to my listeners, and do give me a star rating on the podcast if you’re a regular listener. I know there are a lot of you actually that I’ve spoken to. They’re like, Oh, I love the podcast, but I haven’t. I must get around to reviewing it, review it. Review it now; now is the time because it really just helps to get the message out there to the other people that could benefit from hearing it.
32:04
Anyway, I am done. I am going to go to bed exhausted. I will come and speak to you again next week. I can’t wait to connect with you again then,
32:15
Take care, bye-bye
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0:02
Hello, you are listening to Katy Bradbury, nutritional therapist and registered nurse. Today's podcast episode is called the Self Love Episode.
0:27
Hi, welcome back if you're a regular listener, and a very warm welcome to you if you are a brand new listener. I am sitting in the studio as usual at the bottom of my garden. I'm recording this episode today because if you are a regular listener or if you happen to listen to last week's episode, last week was called The Love Episode. It was really all about love in the context of partner relationships. The impact that some of the things around a fertility journey can bring to a partner relationship in terms of some of the challenges, and then I guess giving some tools and things that you might want to focus on and work around with regards to some of those things. Now, when I recorded the episode last week, I was well aware that there was a portion of people that were being excluded from that episode because it was all about partner relationships. I think I mentioned a few times across the episode that if you are someone who is not in a partner relationship who is trying to conceive or planning for pregnancy, then you might have felt a little bit left out. I was thinking about that after I recorded the episode last week. I was like, aww, I know for sure that the majority of people that I do and have worked with have been in relationships. Still, I had this little niggle, and I was it did leave a proportion of people out. Low and behold, the very next day is a stark reminder of this fact, I had a call with someone who was a prospective client, and she'd been on my radar for a little while. I was aware of her and her situation. I didn't know her new situation because previously when we last spoke, she was in a relationship. But we spoke last Monday, so literally, the day after I recorded the episode last week, and we spoke the next day. She told me, I haven't had an update for her for a while, Katy. Since we last spoke, my partner and I have split up. It wasn't right for us but what I've decided to do is to go it alone. I really want to be a mum, and I'm going to go down the donor sperm route, and it's happening. Can you help me? Let's do this, let's prep for this IVF cycle that I'm gonna have; I'm super pumped, and I'm honestly so excited for her, and I'm delighted to help her actually on this journey. I'm so so excited. It just reminded me; that the timing of it was impeccable because I just recorded this episode all about partner relationships. As I say, whilst the majority of people that I work with are in partner relationships, there was a part of me, when I recorded the episode last week, was like, Oh, just something didn't quite sit right. Then I had that call, and I was like, "oh man, yeah," there are probably quite a few people that did listen to the episode last week that were a bit like ", oh!"
4:33
Now, of course, not every episode is going to be right for every person. What I did want to do today was come back and talk about self love. Because, of course, Self Love is the way that we feel about ourselves generally and is a huge part of the fertility journey, and oh my goodness, it can be a roller coaster, can't it? Honestly, I think that my relationship with myself deteriorated. That was the thing I think for me that just snowballed and deteriorated when I was struggling with my own journey. That was the thing that then started causing the panic attacks and started causing this really acute stress and anxiety. I cannot tell you the amount of people that I work with who come to me saying, Katie, I feel like my body is broken. And that's just so sad, isn't it? Like, how upsetting is it to feel that way about your own body about yourself, because then it brings in the entire rhetoric, it brings in so much negative self chatter. It can really snowball quite quickly. So that's one of the reasons I wanted to talk about self love is because this relationship with our bodies can be really difficult on this journey. And we also often take it upon ourselves, and let's face it, and please don't get me wrong, there are so many partners out there that are super supportive and just wonderful. But more often than not, as women, we are the ones who take it upon ourselves when we're undergoing some kind of fertility journey and bear the brunt of the responsibility.
On top of that, layered into that, is the fact that it's cyclical, right. So assuming that you do have a menstrual cycle, whatever that looks like for you. You could just take a battering, right? Like every time your period comes, it can just feel horrific. It's almost like, and I'm working on the assumption that there is a monthly cycle going on here. But every month, it's just like, bam, you're not pregnant, bam, you're not pregnant, bam, you're not pregnant, and it can just feel like waves crashing over you that can just get worse every time. Then if you're someone who has an irregular period, which lots of the people that I work with do, and I did, I don't anymore. Still, I did. Some months, my cycle would be like 26 days and then other months, it'd be like 66 days, and it's just like, What the hell is going on? I just couldn't understand why my body was letting me down so much, and I felt like such a failure. Then for people who don't have a menstrual cycle, that brings a whole new tier for things as well because it's just like, hang on a minute, like, how am I supposed to get pregnant when I'm not even cycling. There are lots of different ways and tiers that this can present as. I'm not trying to put words on you, and I'm not trying to describe your own experience because it is different for everyone. But these are common themes that I see across the majority of people that I work with.
On top of that, all of that, the feeling like your body's broken and you don't know what's going on, the confusion, the feeling of let down. And also that linking into your very essence of femininity and womanhood. You could also just feel like you've lost yourself because, on a journey like this, you can end up having thoughts and feelings that just don't feel line up with who you thought you were. When I say that, I'm really referring to feelings like jealousy and bitterness when it comes to other people, right? Because you don't go through this journey in isolation. You go through it in the context of a person in a friendship group with family and within society. There is no way that you can go through this journey without knowing someone that gets pregnant or having someone in your periphery that gets there before you do. That can elicit some really horrible thoughts and feelings that you don't even recognise, like hang on a minute; that's not me, what is going on here? Which are all normal, by the way. All normal thoughts and feelings.
10:04
Then tiered on that, I've already mentioned this sense of womanhood and that kind of like, it can feel like that very essence of your femininity isn't working for you. And then for some people, for example, who've had ectopic pregnancies, or who've had tissue or even organs removed as a result of endometriosis, for example, that can exacerbate that even further, right, if you've had endometrial tubes taken out. That can have a huge impact on your sense of self with regards to Fertility as well. If you are overweight, and you're told that that's to blame, or you're underweight and told that that's to blame, this is completely tied into our bodies and the way we connect and relate to ourselves.
11:10
It's just so easy to get caught up in that it's so easy to get caught up in those waves of emotion and the negative self-chat, and that can take over. For me, it did, it took over, to the point where eventually it was running the show, and I could barely function. Actually, I really struggled. I don't want that for any of you, and a huge part of my work now is not just the nutrition, not just the lifestyle, but actually providing some of that emotional support as well.
11:51
Another thing is that many of you, many of the people that I work with, I see focusing on the negatives. I did this as well, and I'd still do this. This is my natural tendency that I've had to do a lot of work on and continue to do work on, but many of you I see focusing on the negatives, even when there are positives to be drawn. So for me, for example, I'm the type of person, and I know so many of you are as well, where you can achieve something, you can meet a goal, you can do something that you hoped you would do. And instead of celebrating that, your mind just automatically goes to the next thing or why that thing wasn't as good as what it should have been. As I say, it's just this constant negative self-chat that can really, really take over.
12:49
In the episode today, I just wanted to remind you of something that I say time and time again, but it's always worth being reminded of. And that is that fertility is a game of odds. And while there are certain conditions and certain imbalances in the body that can impede those chances of having a baby, it does not mean that there is no chance. It's very rare that someone in my sphere comes to me, and ive just said there's just no chance is not going to happen. So it's a game of odds. And if it's a game of odds, then we need to be focusing on improving those odds, right? If the odds are 100 to one, it's difficult to count the odds Exactly. But we know the things that can be done to improve those odds and to make it more likely. And I started using the analogy here; that's really not great for me because I don't know what 100 to one means in 10 to one means is 10 to one better than 100 to one, I don't know 10 to one. Yeah, I don't know. So I've used a terrible analogy there. So you can definitely laugh at me. But regardless of my knowledge of it 10 to one and 100 times, it's still a game of odds. We want to be in whichever direction that is in. We want to be working to improve those odds. And that is absolutely possible. And what that means is that there are small things on your journey that are absolutely to be celebrated because they are increasing those odds.
14:46
Things like these are some of the examples of things that have happened to people within my world. Clients, group programme participants, people in my Facebook group, people I chat to etc. and its things like improving the husband's motility parameters through working hard on diet and lifestyle, through things like shortening the number of days spotting before a cycle, going from like four or five days spotting to two days spotting, that's amazing. Has your period returned after not having one for a long time? That's huge, increasing the number of follicles seen in a scan, improving AMH, and getting a higher fertilisation rate in an IVF cycle. All of these things are things I see week in and week out with people that I work with. So I guess I just wanted to go through a few things today that can help bring a little bit of hope. But also just a few tools and tips. I've just got three things here to talk about.
16:03
So first of all, just hats off to you, really, and kudos to you because it really does take, regardless of odds and regardless of anything else, or how let down you feel by your body, or anything else that I've spoken about today, the fact that you are on this journey at all, takes an incredible amount of strength and resilience to withstand a journey like this with all of the peaks and troughs and hope and a lot of the time shattered dreams takes a huge amount of strength and resilience. That is within you that strength and resilience has not come from anywhere else; it has come from within you.
16:51
I was talking in a recent Instagram video that I did about research that has found that an infertility diagnosis or struggling with infertility in women has a similar emotional impact to a cancer diagnosis. And yet, when you're struggling with infertility, many of you, the people in your life, won't even know you're expected to just go and carry on functioning as normal. You still have to go to work. You still have to socialise and be a person, right? Yet you might be feeling like you've just had this crushing blow.
17:33
So, three things that we can be doing or you can be doing to elicit some self love, because I am absolutely congratulating you. I'm congratulating you for being on this journey at all and for the strength and resilience it takes. I'm congratulating you for being here listening to this podcast and taking an interest in things that you can do to improve your chances. And I am congratulating you, just for being you and for being the incredible person that you are. So a few things that you can do to help on that self love side of things, which I think ultimately is something we could all do more of.
18:28
Number one is to keep track of the successes. So this is something that I've already touched on. Don't dismiss those successes. You might not be pregnant yet. Or you might not have your baby in your arms yet. And that might be something that feels really difficult as milestones go past where you'd assumed or hoped that you would have your baby by now. But each step you take gets you closer to that goal. So keep track of the successes, and celebrate those successes. This isn't me saying that you have to wear rose-tinted glasses about everything. It's not me saying that we don't acknowledge when things are really crappy. It's not me saying that we don't kind of stay true to ourselves. But it is about not dismissing the things that are really significant, as some of the things that I mentioned before. So absolutely. I'm celebrating you if you have had some successes, and I'd love for you to celebrate yourself too.
19:36
Number two is affirmations. Now, affirmations, if you're familiar or not familiar, are about using words using the power of words to just create a more, I guess, just a more hopeful and, some say, a positive mindset shift. And again, it's not about creating false positivity. It's not about forcing it. It's just about opening up to the possibility. Because when we're thinking about things, and we're dwelling on how awful everything is, and we're stuck in that space because it really can leave you feeling stuck. And I was massively stuck when it was me, and how I didn't have that support. Partly my own fault because it's not like I didn't have anyone supporting me in my life. I just don't think I opened up. I just didn't really feel like anyone truly understood me. And I got stuck, I got stuck in a rut, and I felt let down by my body. And I just get, as I say, I let myself spiral. But there are things that you can say to yourself, and if you remind yourself have them every single day, then your body and your mind can open up to that possibility. And you can start to just release some of that negativity and some of that stuckness. And just be and feel that bit more open to the possibility that things could go your way. So affirmations can be really, really simple. And I'm going to give a couple of examples in a minute. But some of the things that you can actually do with those affirmations, you might take a short daily practice where you write them down, you might write them down, like you know, a few times in a row like, like Bart Simpson and the Blackboard writing down his detention notes after school, right. So you might write them down, you might like, take a picture of them and put that somewhere you see a lot. So, for example, you might write them down and then put them on your fridge. Or you might put them as your screensaver or your background on your phone, somewhere where you look, you see a lot, and you will see them, and you will read them, and they will be going into your subconscious. But also some people, and this is something that I do with my own affirmations now, recording yourself, saying them and then playing them back. So you're listening to my voice right now, right. So if you're a podcast listener, then audio might be a medium that does it for you. And so maybe that would work really well for you is recording yourself, just on your phone, saying a few of these affirmations a few times over 6,7,8,10 times over for each one and then record while you're cooking the dinner or out of your walk wherever it is that you might usually listen to this podcast and listen to yourself saying those affirmations. Some examples of affirmations, and I'm just giving you a couple here because really, they need to come from you, and they need to come from the heart. But some examples would be I'm stronger than I know. I trust and love my body. My hormones are working in perfect sync to create new life. I am safe. I am loved. And even just listening to those, even for me, saying those words out loud. Brings a nice little warm feeling to my heart. Words are powerful. They really are. And they can have a really wonderful impact if we commit to something like that. By the way, if you if, there's a sceptical part of you listening to that, thinking yeah, right. Okay, I'm just gonna manifest my baby into life. Please don't think that's what I'm saying. I'm not naive. I know how sceptical it can feel when you're on this journey. All I'm saying is that affirmations can be a powerful tool for just alleviating stress and just opening yourself up to the possibility. That's all I'm saying.
24:25
Then the third thing is to join a community. And there are a number of communities out there. There are some really wonderful ones out there. But one community that is imminent. An offer on offer to you as a listener is my new community, my membership community which is a really affordable monthly membership. Where we can meet up every single week, and it's a real community where you get instant access to tonnes of tools. So you'll have a resource library available to you with things that can help with all of this that I'm talking about today, but also really practical things as well, with regards to nutrition and lifestyle. The main thing is the space each week during our live calls to come and share, connect with others on this journey, and just be you. And that can mean crying if it feels horrific that week. It could mean celebrating and sharing wins and encouraging others, and ultimately just being in that space that is safe and loving and nurturing. And to allow yourself to be supported in taking steps and having accountability towards taking those steps towards a healthier and more fertile body and mind. So I would love for you to come and join my community. And it's going to be called Fertility and the first 1000 days. I do already have my free Facebook group, which is also called Fertility and the first 1000 days. It's my thing; obviously, this podcast is the same name. But this is like the community times 100. Right? It's a community that really stepped up a notch. So it's not a half-hearted thing. It's like, okay, this is us, this is my tribe, these are my people. And so, if that sounds like it would be a nice thing for you for where you're at right now, to learn a bit more about steps that you could be taking to maximise your Fertility. And to connect with others who are in the same boat and to just get my expert help and support and advice week in and week out, then it can be a really, really great option. So I will put the link in the show notes to sign up for that if you want more. But if you are just curious to know more and you want more info, then drop me an email at [email protected], or drop me a DM on Instagram at Katy Bradbury health. I'd be more than happy to chat with you about this.
27:33
But ultimately, if you listen to this episode today because you're feeling rotten, and you're having a day or a week or a month or even a year where this journey just feels insufferable and horrific, then please know that I know how horrible it can be. And please know that you do not have to be going through this alone. You can love your body again. I promise you can fall back in love with yourself again. And please just come and chat with me if you need to.
28:05
Sending you lots and lots of love today. And I will speak to you again next week.
8:09
Bye
WAYS THAT YOU CAN GET KATY'S HELP:
Fertility and the First 1,000 Days Membership:
Fertility and the First 1,000 Days MembershipFundamentals for Fertility online course:
12-Week Fundamentals for Fertility Course with Katy Bradbury (evergreen)Book a discovery call to talk through your needs for working together 1:1:
Practice BetterMore info can be found about Katy on her website:
Katy Bradbury | From fertility to the first 1000 daysInstagram:
https://www.instagram.com/katybradburyhealthEmail:
[email protected]Love the show? Don't forget to leave a star rating and a review to share the love and help it reach others who need to hear this!
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0:00
Hello, you are listening to Katy Bradbury, nutritional therapist and registered nurse. Today's podcast episode is called 'The Love Episode.'
0:27
Hello, hello, hello. It feels like ages since I've spoken to you all, actually. I missed last week's podcast as I warned you that I might do if you're a regular listener on account of being away on holiday. For any of you who follow me on my socials at Katie Bradbery Health or are in my Facebook group' Fertility and the First 1000 Days', you'll probably know that I've been away and seen some of my pictures and stories etc. So we had a lovely holiday. I actually recorded the episode before last before we went away, so for me, it feels like ages since I've spoken to you, although for you, it might not feel as long because I've released the pre-recorded episode while I was away.
It actually feels really funny recording this because my ear on the flight; we were away for nearly two weeks, and on the flight out to Spain, I don't know if this has ever happened to you, but my ears popped really, really badly on the flight on the landing. And sometimes it can feel a bit uncomfortable for a day or two; this has actually lasted the full holiday. I don't know what I did to my ear. But it was quite painful for a few days, and then it's felt like I've been underwater ever since, but only in my right ear, so it's quite disconcerting. I've got used to it now, and it's a lot better than it was, but coming back to the studio and hearing my voice amplified a little bit through the microphone is a bit weird for my ear. So hopefully, it doesn't sound weird to you. But one of the reasons I was away on holiday, and again, anyone who follows me or knows me might already be aware of this, is because I went to one of my best friend's weddings. Her name is Holly, and she has married a Spanish man. So Holly is one of my oldest and dearest friends from university. And she moved to Spain temporarily, quote-unquote, about seven years ago, so quite a while. She moved out to Codabar, and she decided she really wanted to learn Spanish and the best way to do that was to go and live in Spain for a year. She went out there to go and teach English, and she loved it so much, and I think this sun, the whole lifestyle there, I think was just for her, and she never came back, much to our dismay. And then she met a lovely Spanish man called JC and they just got married. So we're really, really happy for them. It was a beautiful day.
3:39
The reason I'm telling you all of this is that going and being at the wedding; I haven't been to a wedding for a while actually obviously COVID, this wedding itself was meant to happen, I think it was it was rescheduled twice due to COVID. Quite a few of our friends got married at similar times a few years back, and then obviously COVID happened, so there were no weddings, and so it's been ages since we've been to a wedding, and it was such a beautiful day. It really was; I'm getting a bit weepy just thinking about it. But it really was a wonderful day. It was interesting attending a wedding having been married because my partner and I got married in 2015, so we will be celebrating our seventh wedding anniversary this year, which is crazy. It's really nice going to a wedding as someone that's been married for seven years because when they were saying the vows, and by the way they formally did their signing of the papers a couple of days before and so the ceremony that we had was purely ceremonial, and it had some of their loved ones. So JC's sister and my friend Holly's brother said lots of wonderful things. And of course, the father of the bride did a speech, and they said a few vows to one another, as well. And it was just really lovely seeing all of those wonderful things that are said at weddings, with such hope and such sincere meaning. It was really nice.
5:39
I wasn't sitting next to my husband actually, because I was a bridesmaid, so I was sitting next to one of my other wonderful friends, Sarah, but it was really nice to come together with my husband after the ceremony was done and just, I don't know, we're not very romantic people, generally speaking, but it was just, we got quite gushy, and it was quite sweet because it made us remember what it felt like to be married and to get married, and it made us, all of those things that they say it's not just about the wedding day, it's about the marriage, and it's about how you navigate all of these things together. In the time that my husband and I have been married, we have been through the journey of infertility and come out the other side of it, thankfully. And we now have two girls, and it made us reflect a lot on everything that we've been through and the fact that we still stand side by side, despite plenty of bumps in the road, as all relationships have. It inspired me to come and do an episode with all of you just to talk about love because I think one of the things about when you are on a fertility journey, that is regardless of whether it's a first child or subsequent child, assuming that you are in a relationship, and I'm not wanting to exclude anyone that's not in a relationship in terms of the general content of my podcast, because, of course, lots of the things that I speak about with regards to fertility are still applicable to you if you're not in a relationship, but still wanting a baby. But this particular episode is applicable for people who are in that relationship and who are going through the journey of struggling with fertility together because it can put a hell of a lot of strain on a relationship. And there are so many ways in which you can do that. And I just wanted to reflect a little bit on some of those things today, really, and also to give a little bit of practical, not advice, because it's different for everyone, and I couldn't possibly kind of advise you on your situation. But what I wanted you to get from this episode is to come away feeling a bit like lovey and gushy in the same way that I did after my friend's wedding, and just maybe having that new appreciation for your partner, or you know that new kind of sense of love and respect for them.
8:33
What I'd really like you to do for this episode, and I don't know where you listen to the episode, whether it's while you're out and about or in the car or on your headphones while you're out walking or running. Or if you do it while you're doing something else, like making dinner or whatever it might be. But if you do have the opportunity to do this, during the episode, or to come back and do it, it's better if you do it during, because otherwise, it turns into one of those things where you say you're gonna come back to it and you never do. So if you do have the opportunity to do this right now, I'd love for you to grab a pen and paper, and I'm going to just have a little chat with you about a few things. Towards the end of the episode, I'm going to get you to just write a few things down and to pause me talking and to just time yourself to do a couple of really brief written exercises.
9:26
So, thinking about this wedding day and lots of what came up in the vows and the speeches and everything that was the rhetoric that was coming up time and time again was, you know, the things that really matter, in a marriage or in a relationship are things like laughing together and being compassionate and caring for one another and being respectful even when you want to throttle them. I guess those are the things like, are you laughing with your partner? And I know that was certainly one of the things in mine and my husband's relationship that I was just so grateful for, and continue to be so grateful for, is that we do laugh, we share a great shared sense of humour, and we laugh together, about so many things. That's super important for us. But also, it can be just things like, how well do you know your partner's goals and hopes and dreams? And vice versa? Are you standing by each other sides while you work towards achieving those goals? Now, of course, that can feel really strained when you're on a fertility journey. But I guess another layer to that understanding and mutual respect for one another is knowing that things won't stay the same in any relationship. Regardless of whether you're going through fertility struggles or anything else, things won't stay the same; things will always change, and any hardship in a relationship presents the opportunity to change and grow together.
In my field, in my work, I've worked with couples in lots of lots of different circumstances. At the moment, I work primarily with couples who are trying to conceive, but I've worked with couples who are expecting children and couples who have recently had children. Within that journey, I see the full spectrum, I see partners who are fully engaged in the process, thinking about my current work supporting people on their fertility journeys, and doing investigations and using nutrition and lifestyle to get to the root causes of infertility, and I'd address those imbalances that can cause infertility. I've worked with couples who are fully engaged in the process, I've worked with couples who are like, yeah, working with me as a pair attending appointments together, doing things together, whether that's exercising together, or meal planning, or, meditating together and really using this journey as an opportunity to be with one another and stand by each other.
12:37
I've also worked with couples where the partner has been sceptical of the work that I'm doing and hasn't wanted to be involved. I've worked with couples where the partner has been disengaged in the fertility journey. I've also worked with people who have been in relationships where the person that I'm working with feels like they've done so much inner work on their journey, like meditation and counselling, et cetera. and is moving forwards in a way that respects, and doing so much inner work and the partner just wasn't and, the person that I'm thinking of her, she just didn't feel on the same page as him anymore, because she was doing all of this growth, and work on herself, and she just didn't feel that he was meeting her there. They were just on different planes. And that was a cause of much frustration for her.
13:31
So I've seen it all, and this is not about pointing fingers or saying that one person or relationship is better than another because we all just are where we are, right? That's life. But it's about recognising where you are right now in your relationship and giving that, wherever you are at right now, the time and honour and respect that it deserves. Whether that's being super grateful about where you're at right now and how engaged your partner is and sharing that with them, or whether it's acknowledging that things are tough right now. And perhaps even allowing this episode to be the catalyst for creating some change.
14:22
So what I'd like you to do is do a little bit of an exercise, and I'm just going to share a little bit about my own story to help you start to reflect on yourself and your own life. I've been with my husband for 14 years now; as I say, we've been married seven years, but we were together for seven years before that, and that's a long time. We were in university when we first met. I was studying anthropology at Durham University, and I think it was in my second year. So my husband's from Newcastle, he's a Geordie, and of course, Durham, if you know England and the Northeast of England, Durham and Newcastle are geographically quite close together, they're about 30 miles apart. My husband was a DJ, and he was DJing at my student union one day, and some of my friends dragged me to like go. I didn't even feel like going out, I remember, and some of my friends dragged me to the Student Union to go and see these DJs that I wasn't particularly into. I had been into once upon a time, but I like felt as though I'd outgrown them, and I was like, I was just far too cool to go listen to these DJs anymore. So I spent the majority of it in the upstairs room in like room two. I have the cool, quirky room, and my now husband was DJing in there, and we just got chatting, and the rest is history. So we got into a relationship, and I know this sounds really cheesy, but we just fell head over heels in love, and it was great. We had so much fun because we were at Uni and that's what we did. We had a shared love of music, and we had shared ethics and politics. We just had great conversations, and we're interested in similar things. We had great, great fun; it was fantastic. But, we're now in our mid-30s, we've got we've been married seven years, we've got two children, we struggled with fertility, and we've been through a heck of a journey together. Our life now, of course, looks vastly different to what it did back when we first started working together.
17:07
I guess I'm just telling you just to help you start to reflect on where you're at right now. As you can imagine, there has been a lot that's changed since we first got together. There have been times where we've had major wobbles; some of them, I wasn't even sure if we would make it through. I've truly believed that those moments in people's lives, whatever the relationship, whether it's a familial, a friend or a romantic relationship, I do truly believe that those moments in people's lives have the potential to go either way. It's how we handle and move through them that really matters. I'm not for a moment suggesting here that people stay in unhappy relationships, and nor am I wanting to exclude any of my listeners who might not be in relationships, as I already said. What I am saying is that if you are listening to this, chances are you are with the person who you intend to be with long term because you're trying to have kids with them, right. And fertility journeys, as I spoke about a few episodes ago now, on a life stage. Being on a fertility journey is the life stage that can cause a strong sense of togetherness but also a strong sense of friction and even disassociation, and at its worst, it has the potential to result in miscommunication and arguments and put a complete strain on any kind of intimacy and sexual relationships, and also carry a big financial burden.
So what I'd like you to do now and thinking about the practical part of the episode, and if you can't do the practical l side of things right now, don't panic. Maybe you could just spend a few moments as I'm talking, just thinking this through. If you do have a pen and paper, and you're able to do this, then fantastic. So I want you to spend a few moments just thinking about when you first met your partner. What were the things that first made you click with them? When did you realise you loved them? What are some of your most cherished memories together? If you can, I'd love for you to put a timer on your phone and spend two minutes on each of those questions. So just jot them down and literally put a timer on your phone and say the three questions. What were the things that first made you click with your partner? Number two is when did you realise you love them? And number three is what is your most cherished memory?
18:55
So just put a timer on your phone; I'm going to continue talking. So hopefully, you've paused me, and if you haven't, then pause me now and do that exercise. Once you've done that exercise, whether you've been able to jot it down or if you've just been thinking about it, I want you to fast forward to now to the present day.
20:22
I'd like you to just spend; you don't have to do two minutes on each of these, but just write down or think of three things that you're grateful for your partner for today, right now. Then after that, after you've written those three things down or thought about them, I would like you to write down the one thing that is causing the most strain with your partner right now.
Now, that could be a really big thing, or it can be a small thing. I don't think there are any people that live in the absolute perfect, most incredible relationship all the time. If you are in that space right now, where you feel like everything is as good as it could possibly be, then I don't want you to start seeking out problems. I think probably for most people, there is something, and I'd like you to just write that down, write down the one thing that is causing the most strain with your partner right now. That could be a shared strain; it could be something that's glaringly obvious. Or it could be something that is an issue that you've got that your partner might not even be aware of. Just to add to that, I just looked at my notes again and realised I wanted to add that it could be the thing that is causing the most strain, or it could be the one thing that you wish you could change about your relationship where things are at right now or just something that you wish you could communicate to them.
22:02
What I'd like you to do is just spend two minutes journaling. If you're not familiar with a journaling practice, don't freak out, it's fine. Just spending two minutes just writing down what it might look like to have that conversation with them. And what comes up for you? What feelings does it evoke for you when you imagine having that conversation with your partner? And just work through those, and see what blocks you're encountering when you're considering having that conversation with them. Just spend two minutes now, again, put me on pause, and just write down, have a little conversation with yourself about what comes up for you because it's going to be different for everyone. When you've done that, and the reason I wanted you to do that and to spend a little bit of time working through that is because when we think about tensions with our partner, it is so easy to become physically tense. When we become physically tense, we become governed by the emotions that come up for us. We get into a mindset that is kind of linked to scarcity, and all these uncomfortable things, feelings, and sensations can come into our bodies. They can include anything from fear to worry, anxiety, and those things, in turn, make us couldn't make us feel defensive.
23:45
Thinking about the example that you just gave, and it's going to be vastly different for everyone, but thinking about the example that you just gave, what would it look like to have a truly open and respectful and non-judgmental conversation around that thing with your partner? You don't need to write this down, but just imagine it so what would be the best time of day when you're both feeling relaxed and not too stressed? How could it be presented in a way that conveys your feelings but without making them feel under attack? It can be helpful to use the 'I' language rather than the 'you' language. When you say 'you,' it can be quite pointing the finger. Whereas if you say 'I' as I'm, I am feeling like x y Zed about x y Zed situation, it can open up the doors for more positive communication compared to saying you did this, you, you you you you because that person then feels that it's completely on them. In turn, thinking that through again, if that conversation then does result in your partner's back getting up or in them becoming defensive, because it's very easy for us to become defensive when we feel uncomfortable. If that does happen, if your partner did respond in a bad way, whether that would be whatever their kind of bad way responses, whether it's kind of shutting down or, getting angry or becoming short or becoming evasive or joking, even whatever it might be, How could you then acknowledge that? Is there a way then that you could say, oh, I can see that this has made you feel angry or feel upset or feel like I'm accusing you or feel uncomfortable, but what I'm trying to do here is show you how I feel about this. Is there a way, and you can ask this to them, is there a way that we can work through this together even though it feels uncomfortable for both of us. It might be that you can then have a respectful conversation about whatever it is and open up those lines of communication. But it might be that you can't, it might be that your partner, in that place in that time at that moment, they're not in the right space to have that conversation there and then, and that's okay, too. We need to be respectful of that. It doesn't mean that you have to put it to bed forever. It just might not be the right time, it doesn't mean that it can never be broached again, and chances are if you've mentioned it, then it's going to be ticking away in their mind and probably is something that they reflect about later, and might even bring up with you themselves later. So I just wanted you to consider some of those things and hopefully, if there is something that you're not feeling so great about at the moment, hopefully, give you some of the tools that might help you to have that conversation in a really open and respectful way with one another.
27:12
The final thing that I want you to consider today in this Love Episode Is Love Languages. When we're talking about communication with our partners, in particular, it can be really helpful to understand what our partner's love languages are. Love languages refer to the things that mean the most to us, from our partners; it doesn't always have to be from our partners; it can be in any relationship. There is a quiz, and I've actually never done this quiz before, and it's been something that I've wanted to do for a long time. Before I did the episode today, I did actually go and do the love languages quiz myself. There's a website, there are lots of different ones, but I think the official one is called Five Love Languages.com. It's just a series of questions that you do yourself, but if your partner was open to doing this as well, it'd be so helpful because they can be different, right? And what means a lot to us in terms of the things that we wish our partner could say or do or act towards us, to show them that they love us, that might be completely different for them. So understanding each other's love languages can be so helpful because it's different. It means that expectations of one another can be different.
I'm going to share what mine was because The Five Love Languages, according to the quiz, are quality time, words of affirmation, acts of service, receiving gifts, and physical touch. So for me, in terms of my Love Languages, physical touch and receiving gifts were pretty low on the agenda. For some people, they're really high on the agenda and for some people, having that shoulder squeezed, having that massage, having that whatever it might be, are the things that really mean the most to that person. But for me, the one that came up as Top Trump was quality time. So for me, it was thinking about, and this was actually one of the wonderful things about going to my friend's wedding as well, is that my partner and I had some quality time together, and it was wonderful. The second and third, quality time, came up as 30% for me, but then both came in at 25% were words of affirmation and acts of service. The first thing where this quiz talks about what that means is, can vacuuming the floors really be an expression of love? Yeah, yes, it absolutely can, Words of affirmation as well, so for me, I'm a big giver in all areas of my life, and it can often make me feel unappreciated or taken for granted. And so, for me, when someone conveys their appreciation, that means the world to me. When someone acknowledges and tells me the reasons why they think I'm great or the reasons why they appreciate what I'm doing, that means so much more to me than receiving a gift, for example.
30:35
For other people, it's the other way around, and that's different for everybody. So there's no right or wrong here. It's just understanding yourself and then maybe conveying that to your partner and understanding your partners to make sure that you can appreciate them and speak to them in their love language as well. That can be a really helpful tool, like a really simple but really helpful tool in understanding what your partner is going to be most grateful for.
31:06
So I'm going to leave it there for today. Hopefully, you've found that interesting, it's not about fertility, per se, but it's just an acknowledgement that this journey when you're going through it with a partner can be really rubbish and really hard. It might leave you feeling like you're not on the same page. I just wanted to use this episode as an invitation for you to acknowledge and appreciate your partner and maybe as an invitation to open up some lines of communication with them. If you feel as though there are things that need to be communicated that aren't being communicated or aren't being communicated well, you can absolutely have respectful conversations about things that are sources of tension. It doesn't have to result in arguments; it doesn't have to result in huge struggles and tensions. It can take the place of a respectful conversation.
So that's it for today; I will be back again next week. I'm not jetting off to Spain again anytime soon. I look forward to speaking to you again, and I would love to get some feedback from you on the show. So if you are one of the people that have been listening for a while, or even if you're a new listener, and this is your first episode, and you've found it helpful, please do give me a rating on the podcast, drop me some stars and if you can leave a review that would be even better because what that does is it helps us to reach the people that really need to hear this stuff.
Thanks so much. I'm speaking to you again next week. Take care
WAYS THAT YOU CAN GET KATY'S HELP:
Fertility and the First 1,000 Days Membership:
Fertility and the First 1,000 Days MembershipFundamentals for Fertility online course:
12-Week Fundamentals for Fertility Course with Katy Bradbury (evergreen)Book a discovery call to talk through your needs for working together 1:1:
Practice BetterMore info can be found about Katy on her website:
Katy Bradbury | From fertility to the first 1000 daysInstagram:
https://www.instagram.com/katybradburyhealthEmail:
[email protected]Love the show? Don't forget to leave a star rating and a review to share the love and help it reach others who need to hear this!
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Hello, I'm Katy Bradbury, a qualified Nutritional Therapist, Private Health Visitor and qualified nurse. I have worked in Women's Health, Maternal and Children's Health for many years.
Today's podcast is called "Five Examples of this S**t Working". In this episode, I run through some examples of clients struggling with their fertility in different ways (including PCOS, endometriosis, IVF support, low egg count, hormones imbalances, gut issues, and inflammation) who have worked with me in either 1:1 or a group programme. The examples show specifics of how our work together has created tangible results.
Due to confidentiality, I am not sharing anyone's real names, so all the names are fictional for the purpose of the episode. The examples and background are factual.
00:00: Introduction
01:26: A group programme success after nearly giving up
03:00: Sharing stories from people at different stages
Samantha's Story04:40 One of the first participants in the group programme
06:30: An A-type personality and FULLY committed
09:36: Successful first IVF and expecting twinEmma's Story
10:00: One of the first participants in the group programme
10:19 12-week Fundamentals for Fertility – what is it?
12:10: Our new Monthly Membership waiting list
12:54: Hormonal imbalances, digestion issues & emotional trauma, and she was convinced she would need IVF
13:48: Digestion mini-series
15:00: Testing
15:58: Became pregnant naturally, even before her first IVF session
Sian's Story
16:22 1:1 client with PCOS and was under a fertility clinic
17:19: Unfortunately, Sian suffered a miscarriage after electrical stimulation
18:10: Now has a four-month-old daughter
Deborah's Story
18:37: Success but not that has resulted in a pregnancy
19:41: Over 40 years old with a list of health issues, including a miscarriage and failed IVF
21:05: 1:1 client with a lot of testing but both her and her partner are committed
21:45: Recent scan showed 4-5 follicles in the left ovary and 3-4 on the right ovary
Sarah's Story
23:11: Group programme participant, three rounds of IVF, which did result in some fertilization but no pregnancy
25:04: Round 4 of IVF and 9 out of 10 eggs fertilized, triple the fertilization from previous rounds
26:37: Currently in her two-week wait – we wish her the best
28:46: IVF is gruelling
29:30: Even though the 12-week Fundamentals for Fertility programme is a group session, it is still tailored to you
30:48: Today's episode is to celebrate all my clients
31:20: This S**T does work
33:41: A confession from me
35:20: Please leave a review or stars
LINKS MENTIONED IN THE PODCAST:
Membership Waiting List
Episode 51 – The Digestive Series Part 1
WAYS THAT YOU CAN GET KATY'S HELP:Fertility and the First 1,000 Days Membership:
Fertility and the First 1,000 Days MembershipFundamentals for Fertility online course:
12-Week Fundamentals for Fertility Course with Katy Bradbury (evergreen)Book a discovery call to talk through your needs for working together 1:1:
Practice BetterMore info can be found about Katy on her website:
Katy Bradbury | From fertility to the first 1000 daysInstagram:
https://www.instagram.com/katybradburyhealthEmail:
[email protected]Love the show? Don't forget to leave a star rating and a review to share the love and help it reach others who need to hear this!
- Visa fler
