The Dependence of Effective Reproduction upon Optimum Nutrition
This fully scientifically referenced article reviews a wide range of nutritional research that supports the sometimes controversial idea that a healthy diet, often supported with effective natural food supplements when combined, deliver optimum levels of key nutrients that can be demonstrated to safely support people with fertility issues, or alternatively for preconceptual care, or during and after pregnancy, while breast feeding and into young childhood.
1. Introduction
The start of each fresh pregnancy is an exciting moment to all prospective parents. The birth of each new life is unique, and we soon learn that each one will differ from ourselves in personality. All that we should expect or desire for our children is to grow up free and strong and able to cope and, above all, to express their own personalities as they wish to do. We do, of course, want them to have the chance to realise their own full potential. All this requires a healthy mind in a healthy body.
What this article sets out to show is that some degree of disadvantage will always be suffered if the nutrition of a mother is significantly below the best standards. There will be a relationship between the degree of nutritional lack and the degree of disadvantage that will result. Small deficiencies in nutrition are more likely to lead to small disadvantage, while great deficiency is associated with greater problems and more serious outcomes.
Did you know that the most common reason that women, between the ages of 20-45, visit their GP are issues with infertility?
2. Inherent Strengths and Weaknesses
Genetically inherited diseases will not be overcome through nutrition and we should not expect that. But where genetics are normal, excellent nutrition can greatly enhance our expectation of strong and healthy organs and body systems. We should bear in mind that each one of us enters Life with an inherited “constitution”. Geneticists have been finding genes that confer relative vulnerability to one chronic disease or another. Possession of one of these genes does not condemn you to suffer the disease itself but does increase the chances that you will do so.
3. The Theory Behind the Special Need for Nutrients
There are several a priori reasons to view the reproductive processes as being by far the most critical, the most sensitive, the most easily disturbed of all our body processes:
The Production and Storage of Gametes
The gametes are the eggs of the female and the sperm of the male. These are produced by a “reduction division” of the cells. What is certain is that the DNA strands, which carry the genetic data to the next generation, will be more vulnerable to damage than the double-stranded DNA of body cells. When there is only one strand present, as in the gametes, there is no back-up possible and information lost or altered can be lost or altered permanently.
In the male, normally ten to thirty billion sperm are produced each month. The time taken to produce sperm is about 64 days, during which the sperm DNA must be protected.
The Vulnerability of the Gametes and of the Early Embryo
Nutritional deficiency during the reproductive process is positively linked to both total loss of the foetus and to a wide variety of birth defects. Moreover, it appears that what passes today as “average nutrition” may not be enough to prevent these things from happening.
Furthermore, nutritional deficiency in a grandparent may well lead to the effects of nutritional deficiency in the grandchildren, showing that the results of nutritional deficiency can jump a generation. Research with mice showed that pregnant mice given a zinc-deficient diet produced offspring with defective immune function even when those offspring were fed a zinc-adequate diet.
The Role of Toxins
We are all exposed to environmental toxins and to some toxins that are produced within our bodies. The cells involved in the reproductive process are much more vulnerable to these toxins than are the cells of the adult body. The group of environmental toxins referred to as dioxins may be among the most worrying toxins for human health. Animal studies show that dioxin exposure is associated with decreased fertility and litter size and inability to carry pregnancies to term.
All mothers should be encouraged strongly to avoid smoking at all through any of the reproductive phases. Smoking contributes a very wide range of toxins to the body including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, N-nitrosamines, aromatic amines and many other compounds.
4. Outcomes of Nutrient Deficiency & The Power of Nutrition
The Foresight organisation makes the statement that one out of six couples is infertile, one in four pregnancies end in miscarriage, one baby among 17 is malformed and one child in four has learning difficulties. They further make the claim that by applying proper nutrition and lifestyle corrections 78.4% of the previously infertile couples have healthy babies compared to the mere 22.6% success rate of IVF.
Furthermore, with these nutritional and lifestyle measures only 3.5% of pregnancies result in miscarriages instead of 25% (a reduction of 86% in miscarriages) and only 0.47% of babies are malformed instead of 6%, a reduction in malformations of 92.2%. Prematurity drops from 6% to 1.3%.
These outcomes were corroborated by a study on “Preconception Care and the Outcome of Pregnancy” undertaken by the University of Surrey (Ward 1995).
7. The Need for Oils
Both Omega-6 and Omega-3 oils (essential fatty acids) are very important in pregnancy. The long-chain fatty acid DHA (docosahexaenoic acid), with 22 carbons in the chain, appears to play an essential role in the development of the foetal brain and eyes. The only way the foetus can obtain this is from the mother’s blood stream through the placenta.
The daily DHA intake of pregnant or lactating American women averages 60-80mg, which is only 20-25% of the 300mg/day recommended by at least one expert body. It is therefore essential that pregnant and lactating mothers increase their dietary intake of DHA in order to provide an adequate supply of this fatty acid to their infants.
8. Diet for the Expectant Mother
The diet for the expectant mother should exclude the major errors of the UK diet but it does not have to be a fully naturopathic “treatment” diet to the highest degree. Only some simple rules need be followed:
- Whole organic grain products should be used, not refined flour products, so as to maximize fibre and nutrients
- Fresh vegetables and fresh fruits should be eaten at levels well above the UK average
- All meats and fish should be fresh, never tinned and never “made up” products
- Up to 50% of animal-derived foods can be replaced with protein-rich plant foods such as lentils, chickpeas, and kidney beans
- Avoid using unnecessary salt
- Avoid liver, since its Vitamin A content can be too high
- Avoid all foods considered as “junk” foods and food additives where possible
9. Non-Nutritional Lifestyle Factors
Clearly no one should smoke at any of the stages of reproduction. Alcohol is very strongly contraindicated too and adverse effects are clearly seen at 18 to 20 units of alcohol per week. These include babies of low birth-weight and “foetal alcohol syndrome”, characterized by restriction of growth-rate, neurological abnormalities, developmental delay, intellectual impairment and facial deformities.
There are also many hazards from drugs in pregnancy. It is obvious for expectant mothers to exclude street drugs, but prescription drugs should also be avoided wherever this is possible and safe, so the doctor should be consulted about their use.
10. Distinctions Between Preconception, Pregnancy & Lactation
For the most part the same programme of diet, supplements and naturopathic living may be applied throughout preconceptual care, pregnancy and lactation. During lactation there is a very large need to supply calcium and Vitamin A. During lactation, the suggestion is to take 500-600mg/day of supplementary calcium, preferably supplied as the citrate.
The Government Committee recommendations provide for increases in lactation also for riboflavin, niacin, Vitamin C, magnesium, zinc, copper, selenium and Vitamin B12. These make good sense.