Detox Before and During Pregnancy: Removing Toxins for Optimal Fertility

Hi and welcome to How Humans Heal in this episode and video. I'm excited to introduce you to Deirdre Blomquist. She is a functional nutritionist and expert in toxicity, specifically how toxins can impact fertility as well as risk of high risk HPV virus. She is the owner of Always Growing Wellness, which is a virtual holistic nutrition practice. And she is author of Toxic Infertility Detoxification Solutions to Improve Natural Fertility. Thank you so much for joining me today, Deirdre.

Yeah, I'm so excited to be here and be chatting about this with you.

It's so important and I'm so glad to talk about toxins toxicity. What are the toxins that we're being exposed to that we may not even realize we're being exposed to? And what impact could they have on our health as well as if you start to think, hey, maybe I'm gonna do a detox. But then how do you choose which detox to do, how to do it safely, how to not make yourself feel worse in the process. So, and, and what a huge impact it can have when you do do an effective detox. Right. How much it can improve your health. But you what, what would you say? It's important. I mean, from my, because I'm, as a naturopathic doctor, I help so many people with detoxification as well. And, and when, sometimes when people say, oh, I'm gonna do a detox, at first I'm like, whoa, wait a minute. Because there's a lot of detoxes out there that are just the latest trendy thing. So, so talk us through. Like, how did you start focusing in on this area and what are you finding is, is what, what people are coming to you for help with related to toxicity.

Yeah. So, you know, this all kind of started with my little boy. And when he was born, I had done a lot of that. His gut health was in a good spot. I knew how important gut health was and I wanted to set him up with the best possible set of cards for life. And, you know, I felt like I had done all the right things. I hadn't needed to take antibiotics for a number of years. He was born at home, he was breastfed. Like, I did a lot of things thinking about his gut health and setting him up. And then when he was about nine months old, he started developing eczema on his chest and it very quickly turned into a full body. Very angry eczema. I did all the things as a first time mom, you know, I went and talked to his pediatrician who Was integrative and asked, you know, what should we do? She agreed it had to do with gut health. We did allergy testing. Nothing came back. And basically, from a conventional perspective, I was left with, you can put a steroid cream on it and maybe he will grow out of it sort of thing. And I just felt like there had to be more. And I was using a lot of these tools and testing on adults, but I had never worked with kids. And so I decided to do testing on him just to see what would come back. And so I did stool testing and saw that he has huge imbalances in gut health, lots of bacteria. He had parasites come back and was very shocked because I had done all of these things. And so I started asking more questions about why could this be happening? And in looking at toxin testing on both of us, I realized that he had actually inherited a lot of the toxins that I had been exposed to over the course of my life. So things like mercury and amalgam fillings that I had before I had gotten pregnant, mold that I had had been exposed to prior to conception, because we weren't actually living in a home where there was mold. And so I realized that he had a huge toxin burden that was resulting in a lot of pathogen overgrowth in his body. We addressed them, and within the course of just one month, his eczema completely went away and has never come back. And so I started diving more into the research and looking at all of the systems that I knew could negatively impact fertility and looked at all the ways that toxin could be impacting those things like gut health, the thyroid, our liver, all of these parts that we know are so important when we think about fertility, but then tracing it back to how different toxins that we're all exposed to at some point in our lives are causing dysfunction in those organ systems as well. And so now what I've done is, in our practice for fertility, is looking at assessing toxin burden and how that's impacting women's bodies, but also men's bodies, thinking about egg quality, sperm quality, and how that is influencing pregnancy outcome. So we see, you know, a lot of people who have miscarriages come in, and we're thinking about, how are toxins contributing to this and what other organ systems are playing a role as well, so that we can not only help couples conceive to grow their family, whether it's a primary or a secondary infertility case, but also be thinking about healthy pregnancies, good birth outcomes. We know that birth is a hormone facilitated process. And so hormones aren't just important in the conception phase, but then also thinking about how this impacts the next generation of kids, too, so that they aren't kind of behind the eight ball in terms of inheriting all of our toxins as well.

It's such a good point. You know, that's the thing you start to realize, wow, what we can do today to help women, even before they get pregnant or even children, if we start to start to see symptoms, so that it can have a positive influence on the rest of their life and future generations. And, um, and there are. There's so much we can do to help with this. I see this too, the history of frequent miscarriages, like you mentioned. And. And, you know, it has to. We have to start asking why, right? It's. It's about that if we don't. If we never ask why, then we just keep having miscarriages, or we keep having fertility issues, or we keep having other health issues, but we never started looking for these kind of like invisible toxins. So let's go in a little bit more to some that you mentioned. For example, the metals and the mold toxins, because I also find those are two most common that I identify in patients. You mentioned in terms of the metals that you had amalgam fillings in your teeth. So I think that's one of the first questions I would ask anyone listening is, do you have any amalgam fillings in your teeth? Because if so, then there's a possibility you could have some metal exposure. How. How do you usually talk to people about potential for metal exposure and. Or that amalgam fillings?

Yep, absolutely. We're always training people for any amalgam fillings, knowing that they can often carry not only things like mercury, but also other heavy metals that are then being leached into other parts of the body. But there's a lot of ways that we're exposed to heavy metals as well. So, you know, one of the biggest ways that I often see is through drinking tap water, for instance. Depending on where you live in the country, of course, is going to vary. And you can always screen your. Your home water system to see what type of, you know, not only metals, balls of chemicals and things that you're being exposed to, but that's one of the top ways that we're just consuming heavy metals and we might not realize it. I think a lot of people think about heavy metals and mercury in particular as coming from fish like tuna, where they're being contaminated. And that can certainly be part of it, but it's often not the biggest factor. And so, one, I think it's important to think about where you might be exposed in your life, but then also, if you have the capacity to detox those things on your own own. Because I think everyone comes in contact with heavy metals, but they don't bother everybody the same way. Ultimately, so long as our detoxification systems are working optimally to be able to remove those, they're not then going to impact things like the immune system and the liver and the thyroid. Our body has the capacity to clear those as long as it has the right tools to do so.

And that's such a good point that a lot of times people think, hey, I feel okay, or this other person in the household doesn't have any effect. And so then they think, oh, it can't just be. It can't be that because I. You know, because this other person isn't having any effects from it. Same thing happens with mold a lot of times, right? One person can be exposed to mold and another person, two people exposed, and one doesn't have any symptoms, and the other one has severe symptoms. So just to realize, like, we are so individualized in terms of how we detoxify and that that's playing a role in terms of how much of an impact these toxins may be having on your health. So then, yeah, tell us more about, like, so you, like you said with mold toxins, you figured out that it wasn't your current exposure to mold toxins, it was past exposure to mold toxins.

Yep, absolutely. So one of the things that often comes up when we're thinking about mold is people feel like, you know, there's no mold in my current home, so mold can't possibly be impacting me. Or I used to live in a moldy home, but I don't now. So there's no way that it's going to contributing to the fertility issues that I'm experiencing currently. But mold does something called colonization. Mold is a fungus. It produces spores. We inhale those spores, and then they start to colonize and live inside of our body in places like the sinuses and the GI tract. And then they produce mycotoxins, which are the poisonous substances that make us sick. So essentially, what happens is when we live in a moldy building, that mold starts to colonize and live in our body. And then we become the moldy building where we're producing those mycotoxins from the inside out. So when we see those mycotoxins on testing, which is a urine test. It tells us if that there are mycotoxins being excreted out of your body. And the question then becomes, is it a current exposure or is it an old exposure? And the only way to truly know if it's a current exposure is to rule out a current and a current issue in your home via objective testing. Ultimately, what I most commonly see for women is that it is a past exposure. Oftentimes not to say that we don't see couples come in where they are, suddenly realize that there is a huge mold issue in their current home that they're living in. But often it's women that had, you know, a lot of hormonal symptoms when they were teenagers at the onset of their cycle where they had really heavy, painful periods, and nobody really asked why that was happening in the first place. And it's just always been an issue in their life. Or they maybe lived in a dormitory that had mold in it, and then they started experiencing symptoms, but never really connected the dots until they got to this place in their fertility journey where they were having trouble conceiving and having to trace back the timeline of everything.

Yeah, so common. And it's so worth it because I see this too, where, you know, women have been, you know, trying to conceive. And a lot of times what happens with fertility is if you're even, sometimes even women are trying just even a relatively short amount of time and go then jump straight to reproductive endocrinology and get past this idea that, hey, maybe there's something in your environment or your past environment that might be affecting your fertility today. And so any of you listening who are trying to conceive, and you're like, hey, I would like to be able to conceive and, and, and you know, potentially potentially not require IVF or any other kind of intervention, and, or maybe you've already tried ivf and you're like, what the heck? What else do I need to be thinking about? This is where Deirdre and I are like, hey, this is worth looking at because we've both seen cases where we do the urine test that Deirdre mentioned, and we simple, first morning urine test, and it can show you if they're mold toxins. I feel like, I mean, we didn't always have that test. That test didn't exist. I think even only the past five years have we had that test available.

Yep, absolutely. And you know, we know when you, when you conceive in that first trimester, the body goes into a pro inflammatory state, but if there are different factors, factors that are impacting the immune function, like mold. Mold is one of the most common ones that we see in my practice. And I'm sure it's similar for you where mold is immunotoxic and for some people it suppresses their immune system, and for some people it upregulates it where they're having inappropriate response. Immune responses to different things situation. Yes, absolutely. Where. Yes, exactly. We're seeing a lot of MCAs, a lot of historically immune reactions. And then what ultimately happens is when they conceive, they're either unable to mount that appropriate pro inflammatory state that needs to occur in the first trimester because their immune system is so suppressed, or they're unable to mount an appropriate pro inflammatory state where it's too much inflammation. And that's like you said, where they then go into something like reproductive immunology and thinking about how do we mitigate the immune system's impact in that first trimester to carry to term where a lot of these things have to do with toxins and how they're impacting the immune system. And when we remove that, the immune system can regulate itself and have a more appropriate response to everything.

You're probably not going to hear about it from your ob, your gynecologist, even the reproductive endocrinologist. They're not likely to mention mold toxicity. So this is, this is testing that's not at the standard lab. It's a specialty test. Right. So we need to have someone like dear dry or I order it for you and be able to get. But then you can have like in a single test and it's, it is not $5,000. It's probably around $500. But then you can see is, are there mold toxins? And I always say to women, it's to. From my perspective, it's so worth it to invest $500 to find out because then we can guide you through a detoxification protocol. So let's talk about that a little bit. Like, what is, you know, helping women to know what that looks like? Because sometimes it's like you. And I think it's smart to say, I always say, I'm not going to do a test if I don't have a good treatment. And, and I'm not gonna, you know, I'm not gonna do a treatment unless it's likely to be successful and effective and not make things worse. So I, I like women to know, hey, this is a scenario where we can do a test, find out if they're toxins, and then we can do an effective treatment that doesn't cause negative effects. So tell us more, like, tell us more about that so women can feel like, okay, this is worth considering.

Yeah, absolutely. So I think the first thing worth mentioning is that detoxification looks different for everybody depending on the type of toxins that you are either being exposed to or you have accumulated over the course of your life. And the first step is always looking at what levels of detoxification have been impaired and supporting those systems. So keep in mind that when we're testing for mold and heavy metals, often we're using a urine test, which should tell us that everything is going through the urinary tract and the kidneys. So this is one of the big organ system that gets impacted and likely needs some support. But it's also going to be things like liver and drainage, making sure that we're having regular bowel movements. So common with people who have mold toxicity, to have really stubborn constipation, even if it's always felt like that for your whole life, because it changes the motor migratory complex. And we need to make sure that we're eliminating not only toxins that we're being exposed to, but then also the endogenous toxins that our body is producing on a daily basis as well. That's step number one. And it's going to look a little bit different for everybody, depending on what symptoms look like. And testing and looking at the current state of liver and kidney function, then from there, it really does depend on what comes back. So, you know, a lot of people are familiar with heavy metals. And to your point, one of the most common things I see when people are concerned about heavy metals is like, I'm just going to go take a heavy metal binder, like a zeolite, to get rid of it. And it can be really dangerous to jump into something like that without the appropriatory, like the appropriate prep work to make sure that your body's capable of withstanding that. That might be part of your clinical picture to use something like a zeolite. But what we know about different toxins like mycotoxins and heavy metals is they're not all bound by the same things. And so it's very important to have the data to know what your body's dealing with so that when you have a protocol put in place, you know that it's going to be effective. Actually, we're not just throwing spaghetti at the wall and hoping that it works.

And they're also often there's so many binders out there buying their products and they're, they get a lot of marketing. And so it sounds, it's, it's flashy and it sounds good. It's like, yes, I'm going to just take a binder. But what we're saying is you've got to get. Not all binders fit all toxins. You have to get the right binder for the right toxin.

Right.

Your body.

Yep, absolutely. And what happens oftentimes if you jump into a binder and maybe it, maybe it helps, maybe it is hitting all the right notes, but if you're not prepared to withstand that type of binder, you can actually feel way worse while you're using it and potentially be moving different types of toxins that your body has worked so hard to sequester in certain tissues in order to keep you safe. They start circulating, causing oxidative stress. You feel terrible. It feels like, oh, this isn't going to work for me. And then you throw in the towel on it when you just need some more strategy around everything to make sure it's smooth and safe and doing things in an appropriate order at the end of the day based on what is coming back for you. So that might not mean you're dealing with mycotoxins and heavy metals at the same time. Maybe you're doing one at a time based on what came back for you and what your body is able to tolerate. It really does need to be different for everybody. But the way that we usually do it is we're doing, we're thinking about phases of things, doing some prep work, thinking about anything that's happening from a pathogen perspective, what's happening with heavy metals, what's happening with mycotoxins, and doing it strategically to start taking some burden off of each body individually.

I completely agree that the prep is so important. A lot of times people find out that we have toxins and then we're like, we're tempted to just be like, okay, let's get it out fast. And the thing is, you know, that's human nature, I think, is like, let's just deal with it today and be done. But it's, it's really doesn't work that way. It. It's because a lot of times when we jump in too quick and too much at once, like you're saying, then. Then you just feel worse. Then you're more likely to of, you know, being more negatively impacted by the toxins, but also you're more like, so if you start a detox and you've got headache and you're feeling anxious or you're feeling fatigued or you're feeling nausea or you, you know, you have diarrhea or any kind of anything worse. Basically, then, no, you did too much too fast. And Right. It's like, back off. And then we. That's when we've learned the hard way to say, okay, I know you want this gone today, but it's really better to make a plan. Like you're just saying, make a go. Let's pace ourselves and let's go little by little and listen to your body along the way. Right. Because then we can modify. It's not a one size fits all.

Yeah, yep, absolutely. And I would say most of the couples that we work with are working through detoxification anywhere from four to six months, which is a very fast timeline, all in all. But it can feel like so long, especially when you want to try to conceive and you wanted a baby already in your arms. But it just take some patience and working through things strategically so that we can do things safely and then clear you for conception.

And it's so worth it because. And especially too, when I'm working with cases that, let's say, have positive HPV and maybe abnormal cells, and they know they want to try to get pregnant, and then they realize, oh, wow, I've got some gut dysbiosis or leaky guard, and now I've also got some toxin exposure. And you start to go, oh, you know, in one way of looking at it is, oh, my gosh, what am I going to do? I really wanted to be on this pregnancy path and things are coming up in my way. And the other way to look at it is, thank goodness I figured this out and I can get help and I can go through. And by the time we walk through this process of healing your gut and rebalancing your microbiome and getting safely getting the toxins out, then it's way more likely. Like that you are already referring to. Then the immune system is able to protect you from viruses like hpv, and you're way more likely to get pregnant quickly and prevent a miscarriage. So it's like you. It's so worth it to put in that investment on your health because it's going to make a difference not only for your health, for your future, but for the baby's health in their future.

Yep, absolutely. And, you know, one of the other things that people don't often realize is that we know that toxins can negatively impact sperm quality as well, and how important sperm health is for the health of pregnancies. So women who experience a lot of nausea and food aversions, risk of, you know, of course, risk of miscarriage, but then thinking about preeclampsia and these like high risk pregnancies, a lot of that comes back to sperm quality. And so when we're seeing abnormalities in motility and morphology, we're still coming back to toxin burden. It affects men much in the same way, even if they are not always as symptomatic as women are because of the way that hormones are so different between men and women. But it certainly does impact them as well. And so thinking about both sides of the fertility picture is really important for let's make sure that the environment for babies, first days of life is in a good spot. But then also knowing how important the genetic expression is, how that's going to influence the health of the pregnancy and ultimately everything beyond that as well is so important.

Yeah, so it's important to look at and male health, men's health and women's health, you know, because they're both, of course, playing a role. And I was going to say, I'm. I know that a lot of times people ask me about the immune system. And the immune system is of course, something that we're, we're always learning more about. And I think that I know the terminology has changed so much Even in the 25 years that I've been in practice and when I first learned immunology. And I love that you're using some of these newer terms and wanting to help people understand because a lot of times there's confusion related to risk of infection, inflammation, autoimmunity. And sometimes people worry, hey, if I'm going to be supporting my immune system, am I going to be increasing autoimmunity or increasing histamine reactions? And so let's see if we can dissect that a little bit and help people understand how actually when we heal the gut and remove toxins, that they, that this all kind of the whole immune system comes back to optimal. How do you talk people through that?

Yeah. So, you know, one of the most common things that I see from an autoimmune perspective is Hashimoto's, especially because we know that it creates an increased risk of miscarriage. And so when we think about something like Hashimoto's, it's very easy to think that there's a problem with the thyroid or that the immune system is making a mistake and attacking the thyroid. Now, the way that I Think about autoimmunity in the body of the thyroid or anywhere ultimately, is that the immune system is doing the best with the resources that it has. And this is really an immune issue. And so we need to ask what is the immune system so upset about in the first place? And in the case of the thyroid, oftentimes these antibodies that are being produced in the form of developing Hashimoto is going in and trying to clear something from the immune system and take that burden off of the thyroid. Now, in, in the process, damage can certainly be done to the thyroid. But if we figure out what's actually happening to the immune system by looking at gut health, looking at toxin burden and removing that, we create more of an appropriate response. So we know that the majority of the immune system resides in the GI tract. If there is an imbalance between beneficial bacteria and pathogens in the gut contributing to that leaky gut and permeability, we know that you're more likely to have food sensitivities or even develop things like food allergies. And so when we can reduce that, it means that you're less responsive to food, your gut health improves drastically, the immune system in the gut responds properly, and then we can have an appropriate response to things. So not uncommon. I'm sure you see this too. Autoimmune conditions can be put into remission where they're no longer presenting on testing because the immune system is no longer on high alert and mounting a response when we take care of what was actually impacting your unique immune system in the first place.

I've done a lot of detoxes over the years and many of them made me feel a lot worse. Not only that, but I've had a lot of patients come in and tell me how after doing a detox, they have a stomachache and headache and they can't sleep and they're feeling anxious. And I'm like, I can't just recommend that my patients to do a program that's going to make them feel worse. So I finally decided to design my own detox program. It's a 14 day detox program that's not like other detox programs out there in several ways. One is that I'm focused on helping you to get the toxins out in a safe and effective way, using nutrients, antioxidants, and supporting our natural detoxification pathways in the body. Also, I'm helping you to decrease your exposure to toxins by learning the ways that you've been exposed to toxins and how to change your day to day lifestyle to decrease your toxins over time. And I'm helping you to look not just at chemicals, chemical, environmental toxins, but also emotional and energetic toxicity. And yes, it's possible to accomplish all of this in 14 days. I have so many patients who have done the 14 day detox and report back to me how much better they feel. And I think it's also because I help you to know what to eat. You are getting adequate food that tastes good plus protein shakes that I developed that are good for your body, that your body knows how to use these nutrients and take them in and use them to help you safely detoxify without feeling worse. Also I help you to balance your blood sugar levels, get better sleep and introduce things like meditation, biofeedback and other types of, of stress recovery into your day to day routine. So I just am so excited about it. I want to make sure you know about this 14 day detox. I'm going to put the link, you can find it at drdani.com forward/detox-program but I'll also put the link below so you can find the 14 day detox program at Dr. Donnie.com I look forward to, to guiding you through this detox so that you can actually feel better on your way to better health. Exactly. Exactly. To know that the immune like because usually when you, when you go to most practitioners, they're not going to talk about autoimmunity as being able to be reversed. And even with mcas the main treatment is antihistamine. So it's all just how do we suppress the immune system, how do we suppress the allergy response, how do we suppress the autoimmune response? And so this is likely, you know, of course it's not to say that that's not helpful. I mean if you need it, then you've got to take those treatments. But where we're coming from is from a functional medicine perspective we're going to say okay, yes, we can use suppressive therapies as needed, but what if we also figure out why is the immune system like you said, why is the immune system all flared up and upset? How do we take away what, what's the underlying cause that's pushing the immune system in that direction? And by doing that then the immune system can reset. I think about because the immune system really is there to protect us from infections and foreign substances. So if it's like then the immune system can do what it's meant to do, which is fend off viruses, fend off bacteria, even Protect us from mold in a healthy way. It's. But it gets.

With stress exposure and toxin exposure, it gets shifted into this other pathway some.

Yep, absolutely. And ultimately, when we take that type of burden off and the immune system is able to mount an appropriate response, then it can keep these more chronic infections in dormancy and keep them in check. And so, you know, we do see a lot of people who come in and they're concerned about things, even like Epstein Barr, I have hpv. And we're thinking about, okay, what's happening with the immune system as a whole? How do we, you know, from a nature perspective, how is our body meant to function and coexist with these types of infections and do so in a way that doesn't make us symptomatic long term? And I think we just need to be looking more to, you know, the fact that all of us get exposed to toxins at some point in our lives. None of us are immune. And the goal is certainly not to have zero exposure. You will drive yourself crazy if you do it from that perspective. But knowing if you have an overabundance or a burden or you've accumulated things, or if your detoxification pathways are just impaired at this point in your life, supporting that makes such a huge difference for rebalancing everything.

I love that you're saying that because it's not like we're going to live in a bubble and have zero. We're going to have. There's toxins in our air, our food, our water. And yes, we can put every effort to reduce our toxin exposure. And if we realize based on our symptomology or health history, that there's an overabundance of toxins, we can support detoxification. And then we want to prevent it from happening again. Which reminds me there to mention that there is also urine testing for other toxins like plastics and solvents and glyphosate, for that matter. So if you, you know, sometimes we're also testing for those toxins. Right. And helping to get them out.

Yep, absolutely. You know, BPA is actually one of the top toxins that I see impacting fertility. And we know that it can contribute to the risk of miscarriage. So not uncommon to see it with women who have experienced miscarriage, whether it was natural conception. But also we see a lot with women who have conceived via IVF as well. But it change. It is essentially an endocrine disruptor, and it changes the way that hormones function. And so even if your hormone output looks fine on paper, Looking deeper to toxins can be a huge factor. You can look for phthalates and parabens, plastics pesticides is another huge one. Especially you know, I see pesticides be a bigger factor for men in particular. Knowing about things like atrazine and the way that it changes, changes the production of testosterone and estrogen in men in particular does the opposite effect for women. But screening just to look at what's. What is impacting your body, especially if you're just not getting answers anywhere else or you just feel like there is something that's happening, even if everything looks okay on paper and you're just not able to, to grow your family, there's often answers. It's just a matter of looking a layer deeper.

This is often reminds me this is often also associated with endometriosis. So anyone who's found been diagnosed, oh, you have endometriosis. I would also be thinking, okay, where's the toxins? Because often underlying.

Yep, absolutely. We see a lot of mold with endometriosis. And so you know earlier how I was talking about when women start cycling and they have very heavy and painful periods. Well, you may not have been screened for endometriosis at that point in time, but often what happens is we go back in their childhood. Yeah. They lived in a hold where there was home where there was mold and they maybe did some remediation or they just never. It was in the crawl space and we just ignored it. We didn't go down there, whatever it was. Those type of exposures change the way that tissue grows and can create this inflammatory immune response, which is ultimately what endometriosis is. And it can contribute to fertility impairment later in life if it's never been addressed.

So it's so important to know. I'm so glad we're talking about this. What would you say is like if someone's like starting to listen and they're like, okay, I said something I need to start thinking about. What do you suggest that someone starts doing to reduce their toxin exposure in their, in their home and in their environment? What are the places you encourage people to look first and change first?

Yeah. So I would say there's kind of three pillars that are going to reduce the most toxin burden. You actually touched on these earlier. First would be water. So I try to get everybody off of tap water. In my practice we call it infertility water. So I would watch out for the water. Yes, gotta watch out for the water. So tap water we know can be contaminated with things like heavy metals, pesticides, from agricultural runoff, it can have radioactive substances. So for instance, we know that in Texas, for example, 70% of the water is contaminated with radium. So we need to be aware of these things depending on where we live in the country. But we also know that tap water doesn't actually get purified from pharmaceutical drugs. So thinking about things like NSAIDs, antidepressants, things that are changing inflammatory responses in the body is important to understand. Could be coming through tap water, but you can also be to exposed, exposed to things like birth control or plan B medications in tap water as well. So this is huge when we think about fertility. So reducing what you're doing for tap water, cooking and drinking water are like the primary ways I would be thinking about this and switching over to something like reverse osmosis or distillation, both of which you do need to be adding minerals back into your water to make sure that you're not depleting yourself and becoming even more dehydrated. So that's pillar number one. Pillar number two would be air quality. So especially since 2020, a lot of us work from home and spend a lot more time at home, meaning the air quality in our homes is crucial. And a lot of research shows that air pollution in our home or the air quality in our homes is often worse than outdoor polluted air. Combine that with the fact that many, if not all homes have some level of mold and many do have toxic mold. If you have musty smells, but it's not always going to be musty, if you know that there's any water damage or old mold in your home, it's worth considering. But thinking about air purification at home is a huge way to reduce the toxin burden. This is really important we think about mold because mycotoxins are so small that they go directly into our bloodstream via the lungs. They don't get stopped in any way, and so they can make us incredibly sick. And fortunately, now we have so many air purification systems that remove mycotoxins and mold spores from the air in a big, big way. So we can drastically reduce what we're being exposed to and breathing in. And then the third way is via food sources. So thinking about eating organic as much as possible and reducing the consumption of pesticides and herbicides, and then also just understanding where your, your produce and your meat is coming from, getting to know farmers locally and what they're feeding their animals, how they're being treated and raised, gives you a big, a big leg up in terms of not only eating non processed foods, but Making sure that the foods that you are eating are being exposed to the things you want them to and there's no hidden sources there. So those three pillars cover a lot of different bases and are going to reduce toxin burden in a big way. And then of course from there people can go into, you know, personal care items and making swaps and cleaning products and all of those things. But I think oftentimes when we talk about toxins, it can be so overwhelming that there's just so many different things that we can change. And it feels like everything's hurting me, so I might as well just not worry about it. So I think by focusing on those big three things, you're going to reduce toxin burden in a big way. And then if you want to go through all the personal care stuff, you.

Certainly can, or like little by little as you run out and replace it with a new one that's a more non toxic brand. Absolutely. And then in terms of the strategic detoxification that we're referring to, I'm always liking to emphasize that we can do that most times all with nutrients, antioxidants, herbs, you know, we can do it with natural substances. It doesn't have to require a chemical substance or anything that has side effects or withdrawal symptoms like, so tell us more like what is. How do you describe how that looks when you're guiding someone to a detox?

Yep, I absolutely agree. Everything that we recommend is going to be food, lifestyle and supplement based. And this is all holistic, does not have to be medication unless it, you know, it makes sense for you ultimately. But when we're using herbs, we get to work with the way that the body ultimately knows how to function and support it. So the way that I think about toxins ultimately is when we can remove things that don't belong in the body, we can then allow for everything to rebalance. And this can really be very seamless. Herbs, nutrients, working with more food as food is, medicine ultimately is a really more gentle way to support our body. And it's really natural and innate ability to heal. Ultimately. I'm a very firm believer in like our bodies know how to heal. We just need to give it the tools to do so. And we can do a lot of that by using these tools that nature has ultimately provided for us.

It's so amazing when we realize it right, it's like, oh, it's right here, just right here in nature to help us detoxify. Imagine that. And then we need help with which substances for your body and, and even which doses for your body and listening along the way. Right. And there's. Even when it comes to, you know, antioxidants, there's. Depending on which toxin we're trying to move out of the system, we might be choosing, for example, more glutathione or, you know, more nac or, you know, so you'll start to hear these different antioxidants as ways to support. But I love how you emphasize your. Right from the very beginning. We got to get your bowels moving regularly. So because that's one of the main ways our bodies move toxins out is through the stool. So if we're not having a bowel movement at least once or twice a day, the toxins are sitting there and circulating.

Yep. Causing more damage, more oxidative stress, bigger need for antioxidants. Yeah. We have to be having bowel movements on a regular basis. It is truly critical and I think something that people often overlook as for how important it truly is. Especially because so many women in particular have struggled with constipation their whole life and they don't know anything different. But it truly is important for. For so many different processes.

And there's ways to help. And then drinking. We have to drink enough water, but we want to make sure it's filtered water. And then we can also use sweating. Do you talk to your clients about sauna therapy a lot?

Yep. Yep. Love sauna therapy because we do see a lot of mycotoxin illness and heavy method metals. Sweating and sauna therapy is huge for this. So we do have a lot of people who will invest in an at home sauna, which is great, whether that's a heat, you know, just a steam sauna with heat, or doing something with infrared therapy to get a little bit deeper into the skin. But we know that these types of toxins can be eliminated via the skin and we have to be sweating. So to your point, this is another common thing. You know, so many women's antiperspirants are really marketed towards never getting sweaty. And as women, I think growing up, we feel like, I don't want to be sweaty in my armpits. That's not normal. So we try to hide it. But what we don't realize with antiperspirants is they contain aluminum. Aluminum is what makes it so that we don't sweat. And so that's one more way that we are being exposed to heavy metals and we can actually absorb the aluminum in our armpits at greater rates than you might realize from other exposure sources.

We realize where here we are not only decreasing our detoxification, but increasing our toxic load at the same time. It's like, okay, how about we normalize? You know, the opposite. We can. We don't have to smell like deodorant all the time.

Right, Right, absolutely. And like, understanding what healthy sweating looks like, ultimately, so moving your body, understanding that women get sweaty too, and this is normal and very healthy, it's a. It's kind of our body's own. Own way of being able to detox us. And in our culture, we have made this a bad thing, but it's truly not. It's one of the ways that our body is just keeping us safe. And sometimes it does require more stimulation. Doing saunas, or if you don't have access to a sauna, doing Epsom salt baths and getting nice and warm in the bath, taking hot showers, moving your body, getting outside when it's warm outside, all those things can help stimulate sweating, even if you don't have a fancy sauna at home or have access to one in a gym or anything to help promote that detoxification from a different angle as well.

So one of the things that you would say to someone who's like, hey, if I'm thinking about doing a detox, what should I watch out? What would be the red flags for detox? Like, what would you tell you? Whoa, don't go there. Back up, Turn around.

Yeah, absolutely. You know, any big change in symptoms or any worsening of the symptoms that you have is a big red flag for me. So if constipation gets worse, headaches, really severe fatigue where you can't get through the day, changes in sleep, changes in mood, a lot of irritability and anger are particularly what I see a lot of. If you're starting to see big changes, even in the way that your menstrual cycle is happening, in terms of length, length, or heaviness, that can be a big sign that you're going a little bit too fast. Ultimately, even changes in the skin. So I'll see a lot of women in particular who get really bad acne, or if they have things like psoriasis or eczema, it will flare as a response to doing detoxification too quickly. So the way that I'm really thinking about things from a toxin perspective is I don't want it to get worse before it gets better. I want to make sure that things are nice and smooth and you have systems in place and tools so that if things do get worse, you can one slow down. But Then also support detoxification. So maybe that means, hey, we got to get into a sauna more. Or if you're doing things like coffee enemas, what's the frequency that we're doing things like this? Are you continuing to use all those preparatory supports to make sure that we're moving things out? Increasing antioxidants in the diet can be huge. Making sure that we're hydrated, we always forget that all detoxification is reliant on hydration. So if we're getting dehydrated, which is super common, when we start asking more of ourselves, you know, we gotta increase hydration levels and just support our body the way that it needs. And it just doesn't look the same for everybody. So there has to be some trial and error sometimes.

And sometimes again, it gets tempting to, you know, like, go for longer at times of fasting over, you know, increase your. And so this. It's just being gentle with yourself and knowing, hey, it's. It's common to feel like, hey, I'm hearing out here this trend where I can push. Because we can push our bodies pretty hard. But if you start to get these symptoms and Deirdre just mentioning, then that's where you go, whoa, that was too much for my body. Because your body will tell you if it's too much too soon.

Yep, absolutely.

It will give you the.

The communication as long as you are open to receiving it. And I think a lot of times with toxins in particular, like you said, it, we have this natural inclination to just, like, I can push through this. I'm okay, I can withstand this. I can deal with being uncomfortable. But when it comes to toxins, it is a way more delicate dance because of how dangerous they can be when they're circulating in our body. And so it's important that we listen and just back. Back up or navigate that a little bit differently to support ourselves.

And in particular, I'm interested in your opinion on fasting because certainly, I mean, of the fasting, mimicking diet can be used for forms of deto classification or. And improving autophagy, for example. And so we see the science of it and we see where it can be done. And I. What I tend to tell people is we want to use those tools, you know, in a. We need to look at your daily routine and your activity. And we also need to be looking at like, it's this prep part, right? How are your adrenal glands doing? Because the adrenal glands make cortisol and adrenaline, and they are the Stress responders. So if we go into too long of fasting or any other kind of detoxification that then triggers a stress response, then our internal stress response of cortisol adrenaline is going to be activated. And that's often what's causing these symptoms. Right. So we need to be like, how do we. If. If someone wants to be able to do a fasting, mimicking diet, then it's like, okay, let's plan that. When is there going to be some, like, let's make sure your adrenals are ready. And then let's plan a time in your schedule where you're going to have less on your task list and your to do list, and you can put your body in a state where it can get the benefits of, of a, of that type of treatment versus trying to do it in your regular routine. What would you say, Deirdre?

Yeah, no, absolutely. I completely agree. And I think a lot of times it feels like we can just do all the things that we're normally doing. And in those, those. Those situations where you want to be doing more fasting or, you know, you're gonna be putting more of a burden on your body to do some detoxification. I think it's equally as important that we understand that we need to rest and we need to be able to downregulate and not have as much on our plate, whether it's just mentally and using, you know, cognitive function, but also how we're physically using our body. So, for instance, one of the things that I'm often talking with clients about is, okay, you are an avid exerciser. You love moving your body. You like running, you like doing exercise, like hit or CrossFit or whatever it is, we need to pull back on that and give our body some rest while we're putting more stress on the adrenals and increasing cortisol output so that it can do one job at a time. And we're not asking it to split resources and ultimately be low in every. Every area.

Another area that comes up to me is related to the MTHFR gene variations. And it's so interesting to me because this is often a gene variation related to fertility and miscarriages, miscarriage risk, as well. As I look at MTHFR gene variations related to risk of abnormal Pap smears and cervical cancer. And so there's this, this overlap right where we start to go, oh, and not everybody has been tested for an MTHFR gene variation, but those who have been tested or who are dealing with some of these issues it may be worth being tested because we also know that when someone has an MTHFR gene variation, they're more likely to have what are called methylation issues, which could impact detoxification. So maybe you can speak to methylation.

A little bit too. Yeah, absolutely. So most commonly what we'll do is if we see a lot of heavy metal burden, in particular, I'm thinking about methylation capacity and we can see this play out in real time on common blood chemistry markers. So even thinking about, about something like homocysteine levels being elevated can be an indication of overall methylation capacity being impaired. That's going to impair the ability of your body to actually remove things like heavy metals based on its ability to actually utilize B vitamins and put them in the correct form for use. So we, we know that methylation is impaired due to these types of gene variations, at least in part. It could be, you know, nutrient deficiencies, but, but if that's happening, we know the heavy metals are going to build up. That can also result in a lot of imbalances in hormone levels. So for instance, there is methylation of estrogens as well that can be impacting fertility and we want to have things like estrogen, progesterone in proper balance with one another in order to sustain pregnancy in particular. So with that increased risk of miscarriage, not uncommon, that we'll see the elevated homocysteine level showing methylation and inflammation are being impacted. High heavy metal burdens, they're not getting the correct form of a prenatal, for instance, where they can actually utilize all those B vitamins that they're taking and instead those are water soluble vitamins that we're just peeing out ultimately and then thinking about how this impacts the risk of miscarriage and neural tube issues and everything in pregnancy as well. And this obviously impacts all detoxification. The liver is highly dependent on B vitamins. And so if we have one password in the liver that's being impacted, not uncommon, that we see multiple detoxification pathways being impacted there. So a lot of toxin burden occurs very quickly.

Yeah, it's, I would say these B vitamins, they do so much good for us, including folate. Folate is the one we're often hearing about, vitamin B9 related to the mth of our gene variation. But as you're pointing out, it's all the B vitamins come together in, I even refer to the methylation cycle as the B vitamin cycle because all these B vitamins to come together and that's where they do their thing. And as you said, it's so important, these B vitamins. And yet oftentimes women, you know, women are told, oh, just take a prenatal, but we're not really learning. Hey, let's make sure we choose a prenatal that has the active forms of these B vitamins in adequate amounts, because we really do need your body to have adequate methylation activity and, and to start that even months before you're get pregnant. Right?

Yep, absolutely. I'm glad you brought that up, because I think a lot of times what happens is a prenatal vitamin feels like something that you take when you are pregnant, but it needs to be happening preconception. So if you are planning on getting pregnant in the next year, you could start taking a prenatal vitamin now, start taking those nutrients, building them up. You know, a lot of people think that prenatal vitamins are for the baby, and they certainly do help, but they're really for mom to make sure that mom doesn't become deficient, because our babies will deplete us if we have the resources and ultimately we just suffer in a big way. So not only doing some preconception work can be really helpful, but also just want to mention here that I typically recommend that women are taking prenatals for at least one year postpartum as well, and if they are breastfeeding for the duration of breastfeeding as well. Same concept here. We often think like, like it stops when we're no longer pregnant, but we need to build up those nutrients afterwards so that we're not in a deficient state. And then we can prevent some things that often coincide with postpartum, like hypothyroidism and everything.

Oh, so I'm so glad you're mentioning that. And I, I always like to point out to women as we're talking about prenatals, is one of the main differences between a prenatal vitamin and a multivitamin is iron. So prenatals usually have iron in them, and that's because there's an increased need for iron during pregnancy and postpartum. And so that's something that I would also. Right. We've mentioned a few things you can do in regular blood work. You can check rhythm cysteine in your blood work. You can check methylmalonic acid, and we can check your ferritin, which is your iron storage. This way we know if you need that extra iron and, or if you, if you don't need extra iron, you could also use a really good multivitamin but we want those nutrients that's either in a prenatal or a multi, before, during and after pregnancy because then you just know you have this foundation of nutrients. A lot of times people think, oh, it's not going to do anything or is it really worth it? But we see it as fats that's essential as a base that you build on. Right, yeah, we're missing that. We're just, we're now jumping ahead and we don't have what our really what your liver and your cells need in order for just essential daily metabolism.

Yeah, absolutely. And to your point, I think this is why testing and understanding what's happening in your unique body is so important. And so if we can start doing that in the preconception phase, it also sets us up for success during pregnancy, postpartum for the rest of our lives. So that when we are doing any supplementation it really makes sense for our body. I'm very a very from believer in we got to know what's happening. So to your point, maybe not everybody needs iron supplementation. Let's actually take a look at what's happening in your body to determine what the best fit for you is. While we're thinking about, you know, these big ideas in terms of let's get folate in its active form so that you can actually utilize it, but let's make sure that you have everything that you need and testing is what's going to tell us that.

And this is not necessarily testing again that you're going to get at the GP's office or the gynecologist office. So, so that's where you're, we're wanting you so you can ask them for it. Sometimes if you say to your practitioner, hey, I would like to get tested for homocysteine or ferritin or what have you there, there, they could run the panel for you or you can look to work with a functional practitioner who can then help you get that testing because it makes so much difference. Why guess and not and then find out later when you can get the right test and then have the information you need to. And whatever you learn through this process, I love that you're, you're emphasizing that this is, you're learning about your body. We don't come with an instruction manual way to figure it out as we go. And as you figure this out, you start to realize, oh, for my body, I, you know, one person might need to take a little extra iron and another person doesn't. One person might need to take some more folate and another person doesn't, even if they have the same gene variation. So it's, you really have to know your body and individualize it and the testing can make a big difference. I love that you're, that you're offering this service to people. Thank you so much. I know you recently created a new guide that maybe I can share the link to if people want to know more about how you help and how they can get started on this path.

Yep. Yeah, absolutely. So what I have is a new guide and it goes through the different systems that impact fertility. So we'll talk in depth more about gut health. So thyroid, liver mitochondria and how those can negatively impact fertility so that you can screen yourself for dysfunction in those areas to really hone in on what's happening in your body and areas that you might need support.

I love it. Oh, my gosh. Okay, so I can't wait. I'm going to put the link down below. So anyone listening who's like, I want to know this guide. I'm planning on getting pregnant and I want to, you know, dot all my eyes and cross all my T's and get myself ready, which is I. Which is what we recommend that you do. So we're going to have the link down below. You can get the guide from Deirdre. And is there anything else, Deirdre? I mean, I'll definitely share where people can find you online. Is there anything else you'd like them to know as we wrap up today?

Yeah, I mean, the only other thing is if you are interested in learning more about toxins, my book Toxic Infertility is on Amazon in both soft cover as well as in a Kindle edition, and we go through toxins. So if that's an area that you want to learn more about those toxins that we talked about today, there's a ton of info there and there's also a ton of information on starting to make some of those swaps in your personal life as well, to know what to look for and how to do all of that in a way that's really strategic.

What a great resource. Thank you so much for putting that together and for coming today. It's so good to talk this through with you.

Yeah, thanks so much for having me.

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