Episode 59: How Nutrition Impacts Your Fertility and Pregnancy, with Brandy Cummings

Hi, I'm Dr. Tabitha, the functional gynecologist. I'm a board certified, OB, GYN and functional medicine physician. I've embraced the world of functional medicine and wellness through my own personal health journey. And I'm super excited to share my wisdom and unique perspective as it pertains to women's health. So if you're struggling with hormone imbalance, weight gain, period issues, anxiety, insomnia, you name it, then you've come to the right place. I want to be your functional gynecologist. So welcome. Hi friends. So today we're having a good conversation, super important with Brandy Cummings. We are talking about nutrition and how important it is that we take care of our bodies before we start having babies while we're pregnant and postpartum. So Brandy is a certified nutritionist. She specializes in preconception, pregnancy and postpartum care. She calls this the pannatal phase of life. And she supports women and families through this important life changing journey. The comprehensive blueprint addresses nutrition, lifestyle, genetics, environmental toxicants, stress, resilience, movement, sleep and the level of integration of all these factors is why we have such a profound and powerful lasting impact. So as a certified nutrition consultant with a master's in human nutrition and functional medicine and she clearly defines an up to date, effective and life changing health journey and roadmap so that people can not only impact their health and well being during their pregnancy, but beyond the pregnancy as well and into the lives of their children and for generations to come. So we talk about this today in the episode. It's awesome. I think it's so interesting to sit back and think about how different life is for us women trying to get pregnant in this day and age. How different it is from when our grandparents and our great grandparents were having children. We have so many more burdens to deal with and carry that I think it's important to stop, acknowledge that and address it because that is going to give you the healthiest pregnancy, the healthiest outcome for your baby. There's so much research now coming out that shows that the health of the mother determines the genetic predisposition and outcome of the health of the child. So for example, you could have the genes in a fetus that are gonna create a beautiful, healthy person with no issues with obesity, no predisposition toward diabetes, like virtual clean slate healthy human being. But because of the effects of the mother's current state of health during conception and pregnancy, if mom is overweight or has insulin resistance or cardiovascular dise, elevated leptin levels, different things like that the baby's genes can be altered to turn on these predispositions and lead them down the road of obesity themselves and diabetes themselves or asthma. You know, the list goes on and on. So what I'm saying is we're all clean, perfect slates at conception if mom is, you know, healthy and without dysfunction. And so it's super important that we give our children the best start at life, right? And the best way to do that is to make sure we optimize our health before we get pregnant and then keep that during the pregnancy and postpartum. So I will say I didn't do that. You know, I'll be the first to admit the first time I got pregnant, I was 17 years old. I lived on junk food.

Food.

I. I lived a very unhealthy life. My body was very dysfunctional, and I ended up developing Hashimoto's thyroid disease because of it. And so I'm not saying that any of us are perfect or capable of being perfect, but I want us to learn from each other. I want you to learn from my mistakes and learn from each other's. And many of you listening have probably already had babies. Maybe you're going to have more, maybe not. Maybe you're on to grandchildren, right? But the important part is I want you to realize that what we put in our bodies not only affects today, but our future generations. And so I love Brandy's mission. Like, she's passionate about providing education on the up to date research of how nutrition affects our genes. It's called nutrigenomics and it's pretty amazing and powerful. So listen to this episode. It's awesome and definitely I would love for you to shout me out on Facebook or Instagram, tag me, hit the subscribe button. I really appreciate all your support, but if this is bringing you value, I want to know and I want to know what else you want to hear about. So. So shout me out at Dr. Tabitha T A B A T H A. Okay. Brandy has a. A really cool channel. It's called Marco Polo Me pivotalorigins. And it is the most up to date current research on nutrition and health. And so this channel that she runs, she's giving you one month free subscription if you use the code VIP trial. So all that's in my show notes. Just click the links and check her out. But let's meet Brandi. All right, here we go. Well, welcome, Brandi, to the functional gynecologist podcast.

Thank you so much.

I'm excited for this conversation today because it's so Important to dial in your nutrition when you're thinking about getting pregnant, right?

Absolutely.

Oh, my gosh. So. So many women are like, I don't even know where to start. There's so many different diets out there. There's so many different options, like, what's right for me. You probably get that question all the time as a nutritionist, don't you?

Definitely, for sure.

And what do you do with that? Like, where do you tell them to start?

Well, it depends on when they come to me. If they come to me before they are pregnant, then I take a very functional approach. We dive deep and look into what's going on and where imbalances might be or insufficiencies might be. Do we need to do some detoxing? Do we have a high total body burden? Just dive in and see where we're at and what we need to do to really optimize the things before conception happens. If they come to me when they are already pregnant, then my approach is a little different. And at that point, we're just doing everything we can to support the mom and the baby and make sure that all of those really important nutrient needs are met during such a really important time. You know, I often find, you know, preconception, health is so important, and I find that it's not known how important it is to kind of try to focus on things before you can, before you conceive. And even I hear people say all the time like, oh, I'm pregnant now. You know, now I can eat whatever I want, or I'm eating for two. And it's almost like this excuse to go and the opposite direction. So really, it's a lot of education about, you know, how much growth is happening even in like the first 11 weeks, and how, you know, how much we can do to support all of that growth that's happening.

Yeah, for sure. It's so important. And I think that women might not realize that some foods can be inflammatory to their system and, you know, set them up for illnesses during the pregnancy or risk factors, you know, preeclampsia, gestational diabetes, things like that. You know, I myself am gluten free because I have Hashimoto's, but some people can handle gluten, that type of thing. But I do find that grains are often inflammatory. Do you find that there's one particular diet that most women do best on?

Yeah, I think that grains, particularly how grains are processed in the U.S. you know, in our country, tend to be inflammatory. It's also interesting because I Find a lot of women have kind of carbohydrate cravings in that first trimester. And so we do, we do a lot to address that, to kind of mitigate those and keep those at bay. But yeah, I find that good quality animal proteins, you know, the best quality that your budget can allow. Lots and lots of good fats and nuts and seeds for some people and making sure we have enough EPA and DHA and B12 and folate. And so I'm a fan of liver during pregnancy. I know that that's a little bit controversial because of the preformed vitamin A content, but as long as you're working with somebody that is keeping an eye on that and making sure that you're not getting too much of that vitamin A, you know, a few ounces of liver per week can do so much to just really beef up all of all of your nutrient stores and keep things going. So yeah, I mean, I think overall it's very clean. You know, limiting processed foods, grains, seed oils, that's a big one. And I think that during pregnancy it's really about quality of food, making sure that we have the very best quality that we can. Because especially during the first trimester, you know, the fetus is so susceptible to pollutants and other things coming from the environment. And so whatever we can do to reduce that total body burden and keep things as clean as possible, you know, they test cord blood and there's hundreds of chemicals that are in babies when they're born, you know, like day one. And so it's a lot about quality as much as the food itself, I would say.

Yeah, I think that's such an important point. I can't emphasize that enough. Like it depends on what the animals ate themselves. Right, that you're eating. Because if they're being fed GMO corn, you know, pesticide laden grains to fatten them up, you're going to be fattened up and you're not going to be healthy. You're going to be carrying all those pesticides and toxins with you, all those hormones they inject, the antibiotics, that all goes somewhere and it goes to you and your baby. So I think that was a super important point. What other toxins are you thinking about? Preconception that you're, you know, educating your clients on?

So I'm thinking a lot about environmental things, you know, like how's the quality of your air? Are you exposed to, you know, even simple things that we're just exposed to all the time and we might not think about like vehicular exhaust, you know, it's horrible. You know, and so making sure that we have the. When we're driving down the road, especially in the city, when you're not on the freeway, is to not have the intake on in your car where it's pulling in air from the outside, you know, and keeping that little things like that that people don't think about. Also, I'm thinking about what's in your water. Are you filtering your water? What's coming through in there? Of course. What's coming through in your food. I'm also thinking a lot about what are you putting on your body in the morning before you even leave your. What's in your shower, what's in your bathroom, what's going directly on your skin.

Do you talk to your clients about, like, the use of tampons and pads and things that can have toxins in them and affect their fertility, or is that kind of beyond your scope as a nutritionist?

You know, we definitely address those. I. You know, it's funny. It's like sometimes you get in like a bubble and you forget what the rest of the world is doing outside of your bubble. And I was actually just talking to somebody about this just the other day, so it's hilarious that you bring it up. But, you know, I was just thinking about. I haven't used a tampon in years. You know, it's just. It's not on my radar. And sometimes you can forget that's totally normal thing that so many people use. But, you know, I just. I just. For health, I think that there's healthier alternatives. So I don't. But, yeah, definitely. It's crazy how much. How many chemicals and bleach is in those products and even how they're sealed. You know, it's not. It's called a sanitary napkin, you know, but it's not like sealed. It's. You know, it's. So, yeah, I think that that's definitely a piece of it.

Yeah, for sure. That was just a funny side note. So when clients are working with you, what is your main objective?

So my favorite is when people come to me before they have conceived. Because, like I said, the health of a person prior to conception is so important, not just for them, not just for their baby, but it has a direct implication on future generations. You know, we've seen this in times in history, like with the Dutch hunger winter, when people were. That was a winter in 1944 in the Netherlands, and it was a particularly bad winter, and the Nazis cut off their food supply People who are pregnant during that time, they have tested the health of the babies that were born and then also the grandchildren that were born. And there's higher rates of disease, higher triglycerides. Those babies were born bigger or smaller. When we think about. To me, when I look around and I see where we're going as a population, it's not good. We're not going, you know, it doesn't look good. We have lots of chronic illness going on, lots of autoimmunity kids having illnesses that they never had before. And I think about what is the best way to turn this ship around. And to me, the ultimate in preventative medicine is to catch these people two generations before we're born, before they're born. But if we do everything that we can now before we conceive, well, when those babies are having babies, it's going to be a much healthier population. But the problem is we don't have a lot of focus on how important our preconception health is and what the implications can be down the road. And so my objective is to bring that to the forefront and do everything that we can to optimize and harmonize things. Because for me, as on a personal level, though, you know, the whole reason I do what I'm doing, I'm thinking long game. You know, I'm thinking about 40 years from now and how I can make an impact on that population. And so to make the best impact, the time to do that work is now. So that's my objective.

I love that. I think that's so important. We need that now more than ever. Like you're saying, honestly, going through conventional medicine training, I was taught to be very reactive. I was taught to handle disease and keep people from dying or having the worst outcomes. But there's no teaching about prevention. There's no, let's prevent preeclampsia, let's prevent gestational diabetes. It's all, how do you diagnose it? What medications do you use once it's diagnosed? You know, and there's a smidgering of diet in there, especially with gestational diabetes. You know, they say, okay, let's try diet first. But it's almost like just this flippant attitude of we'll do that for a couple weeks, and then most likely you'll have to go on metformin or insulin. Insulin, you know, and that's just how it is. You know, we just expect disease to progress and advance and that patients will just continue to live with these issues when they're Completely reversible and through something as simple as revamping your diet, you know, and I probably shouldn't say simple because, you know, it is difficult to change how we eat. It has so much to do with our feelings and our emotions and our family and our behaviors and our habits. What are some of the biggest things that you find clients have a challenge with when they're trying to make these shifts? Is it usually mindset?

Yeah, I think that there's a few kind of big ones. One is budget. You know, when I talk a lot about quality and I emphasize quality so much when we're talking about food during pregnancy, especially those foods have a higher price tag, typically. And so then I do a lot of work about breaking that down, you know, and I, when I did my undergrad, I was in business management and I remember sitting in economics class and, you know, learning about opportunity cost and the cost of doing the opportunity cost of something is what you didn't have to spend on something else. Right. And so we talk a lot about that. And yes, these foods might be higher price tag, but what is the cost of not doing it? And when we break that down and dive into it, then we discover that the cost of not doing it is actually much higher. So it's a lot of mindset work around that. So that can be an initial challenged when switching one's diet. Also, support system, you know, what is it like? Are you the only one in your family that's wanting to make these changes? Do you have support? What are they? You know, what's the feedback you're getting from the people that are in your kind of close proximity? Because that can be really detrimental if you have somebody that is really against the changes that you're wanting to make and can't kind of hop on that train with you. I also find a tendency. This is kind of an interesting observation that I've noticed. I find a lot of people have this all or nothing mentality. You know, some people are moderators and can do good with moderation, and some people are more abstainers and do better with like an all or nothing, yes or no type of situation. And there's pros and cons to both personality types when it comes to what you're eating. But when it comes to people who have this kind of all or nothing mentality, when we're making huge shifts, these are the people that go completely gung ho and try to do all the things on day one. And they're all in and like, yes, I got it. Let's go. But when we're making such a dramatic shift and if we're talking about food and then we're talking about switching out your hygiene products and your cosmetics and what you're cleaning your house with, I mean, if we're talking about all the changes and mindfulness and meditation, I mean all these things that we dive into, you know, when I'm working with my clients, it's not meant to happen overnight. And some people I find just go for it. And it's hard to maintain that when you try to change too many things at once. So I try to monitor that and you know, pull people back sometimes and, and remind them that consistent small change is much better than inconsistent or short lived rapid change, you know?

Yeah, I think that's so important. I see that all the time and I know for me, I'm an all or nothing kind of person, you know, so I get that. But it is. Does make it harder in the long run, you know, and I love that you're weeding that out and you're figuring out individuals because that's, that's how you're going to have success. Right. And I think the budget is so important. I tell people you're going to pay for it one way or another is either you're going to pay now or you're going to pay later with your health. So pay now with my checkbook. Right. Oh my gosh. So important. So you have patients do these radical shifts in their diet. You're cleaning things up, getting rid of the processed foods, eating clean whole foods, lots of vegetables and lean proteins and healthy fats. I mean, that right there is going to help somebody get hormonally balanced and help get them pregnant. Right. So that's awesome. And then you're working on the detox, you're working on the mindset. So you're like doing a comprehensive program with your clients. Right.

It's very, yeah, it's very in depth. You know, we're just kind of breaking things down piece by piece. You know, I do functional lab testing in the beginning and just kind of dive in and look under the hood and see where we're at and where do we need to offer more support? Of course. Correct. And just, and then just build a program from there. So yeah, it takes time. Ideally, you know, I would love for everybody to have a like a six month window before they get pregnant, just to really have the time to work through all these things. It's a lot. And unfortunately it's not normal. Like it's not Our normal way to live. I wish things were different. I wish we lived in a world that wasn't full of all these toxins and our soil wasn't deployed, depleted, and we had all, you know, support system around us and we didn't have chronic stress. And, you know, I wish our world was different, but it's not. So it takes time to dive in and get through all these things.

Yeah, exactly. I think back to just when our grandmothers wanted to have babies. You know, they weren't necessarily working full time as professional women and raising families and running households and trying to be fit and in shape and having to worry about all the toxic burdens. You know, we didn't have all the plastics in the environment. Like, I think back, all the toys we've created over the last 30 years and all of the food packaging that never existed before. Like, if you literally stop and think about how different things are than they were for our grandmothers, you'll realize what kind of toxic burden we're, you know, dealing with here. And it just accumulates. And I don't know about you, but I find that a lot of women have high lead levels, high mercury levels. You know, lead was in our gasoline up until I was a little kid. You know, it was in all of our paint. It's in our water supply. I mean, and just in my state alone, Flint was a crisis because the lead was so high. And yet we act like this is some obscure thing that doesn't really pertain to us and doesn't affect our health, when in reality it does. Right. I mean, you probably see it too, with the mercury. You know, it was thimerosal, was in our vaccines until what, 2001, I think. And so it's super important we look at all that. I mean, is that kind of stuff that you're working with your clients as well, looking at toxins or doing a detox diet sometimes?

Yeah, absolutely. Definitely. Looking into, you know, heavy metals, mycotoxins, you know, there's a lot of Lyme and parasites, and all of these things have a really profound impact. And, you know, yeah, you're right. It's just such a different world and it's so much harder to kind of navigate and, and really pull things back to how kind of we're meant to live and live our healthiest life. But then you take all of that and you add on just the process of having a baby. I just feel like in general, our culture around the support that we give to people that are having babies, you know, recovering from Childbirth is just so below where it should be. So we're taking this kind of difficult world that we're living in, and then we're adding a situation that doesn't have the support that it should on a cultural level. You know, here in the US that's just tough. You know, it's so important to have that support and, you know, really figure out how to optimize things and bring things back. And, yeah, a big piece of that is looking into these underlying infections and other microorganisms that you might not realize are even there. You know, like the parasites or the Lyme or the mold or all of those matter in a really big way.

Exactly. What's the most common complaint that women are coming to you with or seeking you out for? Is it that they are having difficulty getting pregnant or they just really want to optimize their health and they're not necessarily having issues?

Yeah, so it's usually. I find that people don't typically seek out support unless there's an issue, unless they've had trouble getting pregnant or trouble staying pregnant. That's when they're starting to seek out support. So that's when I catch a lot of people, you know, going kind of back to when I was talking about my personal kind of big goal and why I do what I do, and just my vision for the impact I want to have on this world. That's my goal. It's my goal to have people that come to me and they're like, okay, nothing's wrong. But, you know, I know it's important to kind of focus and dial things in before we want to conceive, and that's our plan. So here I am, you know, tell me what to do. That. That's my goal. I just don't. People don't seek out that kind of support until there's a problem, because I think that it's just not well known how critically important it is.

Yeah, exactly. Well, I'm glad that you're getting the word out, because it's so important, and not only for our immediate health and our own selves, but for our children and our children's children. Like you said, so super important. So tell me about this Marco Polo channel that you have.

All right. So this is very exciting to me. You know, I find that a lot of people that are kind of aware of the functional space, integrative space, you know, they're starting to ask questions. They're starting to realize that maybe there's more than what they're getting from their Conventional doctors and they're trying to Google things and listen to podcasts and read blogs and just trying to kind of jump into this new, new to them way of thinking about health and medicine. And what can be really tricky is that there's a lot of conflicting information out there. And the average time that it takes for published research to reach clinical practice is like 17 years. And people don't, generally don't have either the time or the know how or the desire even to jump into what the current research says. You know, it's just not on people's radar. And so I created this Marco Polo channel where I am, you know, I keep up on all the research anyway for my own practice. But it's a place where I share the current articles that are coming out about a wide variety of functional nutrition topics. You know, autoimmunity and environmental toxins, gut health, hormones, I mean, diet. There's a wide variety of topics. Whatever the current research that's being published, I present it, I give the link, I break it down, kind of, you know, what do the statistics mean? And just make it easy to understand. And we chat about how this can maybe apply to you. And my whole goal was starting the channel was that so that people could jump in to that driver's seat and play an active role in their healthcare instead of just kind of sitting back and passively waiting 17 years for things to catch up. So it's a way for them to get this information and feel empowered and then have that data, have that research and then have a dialogue with your practitioner about it and you know, see and really have a two way street. Sometimes I feel like when people go see their doctors, it's just their doctor talking at them and there's. It's not a dialogue, it's just a monologue. And so I started this channel to help people just stay up to date with what's coming out in the research in an easy to understand way and so that they can have those conversations with their providers and yeah, take their power back when it comes to their health. So it's a paid channel, but I'm happy to give, you know, all of your listeners a free month so they can hop into the channel and see and just join us and join the conversation we're having over there.

Oh, that's so awesome. I just love that idea. I think that's like so empowering that, you know, the average person can see the data, the science, and they can use it to start a conversation with their doctors and their practitioners. So thank you for doing that. That's really awesome. And for giving them a free month. I'll put the links in my show notes. That's awesome. Where can my listeners follow you?

I am on Instagram and Facebook. My handle is Pivotal Origins, and then my website is pivotalorigins.com awesome.

Very good. Well, thank you so much, Brandy. This has been great. And I hope that people will start to implement some of the things that you've talked about today, or better yet, just seek you out and work with you. Right. Because. Because I think having a coach to guide them and, you know, just hold their hand, keep them accountable, and show them what's best, I think that's the best way to success.

Yeah, for sure. Just like it takes a village to raise kids, you know, it takes a village to maintain our health, too. You know, you need a team of people that have your back and know what your goals are and are really moving you forward to where you want to be, so.

Yeah, exactly. Well, cool. Okay, everybody, so reach out to Brandi. I'll have those links in my show notes. That's awesome. And you can start getting healthy whether you're going to have a baby or you already had a baby, Right? I mean, it all matters. So thank you for having an awesome conversation today.

Thank you so much. I had a great time. Take care.

Okay. Wasn't that a good conversation? So I know that it can feel overwhelming when we start talking about everything that we deal with and that our bodies encounter on a daily basis that we are supposed to be worrying about and dealing with, you know, and it's hard because we are busy women and we're taking care of our families, we're doing our career, we're doing all the things, and then we have to sit and worry about, like, what we're putting on our skin, our mouths, what we're breathing while we're eating. Like, it all gets to be too much. But if you start to incorporate little changes consistently over time, they will have a huge impact. Like Brandy was saying, it's better to be consistent with little changes all along the way than to, like, dive into a bunch of stuff and then not have it be lasting because it's too overwhelming. So the most important part, I just want you to think, okay, I need to really clean up my makeup and personal care regimen because there's so many bad chemicals I'm using and all the cheap products, all that stuff has to get switched out or, yeah, I'm like, living unprocessed food. Everything is out of boxes and bags. Everything's through. A drive through. I'm drinking pop. I'm doing drinking too much alcohol. Maybe that's your thing. Maybe that's where you need to make your changes. Or maybe your diet is clean and whole foods and you got all that diet dialed in and you just need to bring your stressors down more. Maybe your plate's over full with, you know, soccer and football and meetings and dance classes and all these things. You know, maybe you just need to bring that down a notch. So figure out what you can take away from this episode. One golden nugget that you can start incorporating on a regular, ongoing basis. That. Because consistency creates change. Okay? So I really want you to be mindful. Take something from this episode and make it work for you so that you can be your best self. And then share with your friends. Share with all your sisters and your moms and everybody else that you, you know, because we're in this together. This is a sisterhood. We're trying to support each other, help each other be our best. So go out and have amazing week. Shoot me your questions, send me your wins. I want to hear like, hey, I incorporated this. I'm doing this and I'm doing awesome. Or, here's my struggle. How can I make this work? What? Have you seen how? Because we are in this together. I'm here for you. Okay? Let me be your functional gynecologist. All right. Go out and have a kick ass week, ladies.

Bye.