Something happens to all of us when we feel stressed…we start to breathe differently. Our breaths become shallower, using less of our lungs. The obvious consequence of shallow breathing is less oxygen getting to the brain. This is a stress in itself, which further changes the breath. When our brains are stressed, they don't always make the best decisions. They tend to go on"autopilot" and enact behaviors that are more impulsive, and less intentional. That can include eating, exercising, anything that is more compulsive/impulsive and less structured.
One of the things that yoga teaches, is awareness of the breath. Are you breathing? Are you breathing deeply? Or is it shallow? Do you even stop breathing at times?
Learning to breathe more effectively has been tremendously helpful to me in my own life. I do a lot of counseling and conflict resolution in highly emotionally charged situations with people who are anxious about conceiving, losing weight, feeling better about themselves. I've learned that if I focus on my breath while I'm in these conversations, I am much more grounded…not to mention useful…to the people who are reaching out for help.
Here's an exercise you can do to start to become aware of your breathing, even if you're not yet ready for a yoga class.
Lie on the floor, your sofa, or your bed. Place an object on your stomach, such as a book, a stuffed animal, or a pillow. Practice breathing in a way that this object visibly moves up and down. This is breathing that uses your entire lungs. Does it feel different? If it does you're likely not breathing well in general.
When you feel stressed, or feel the urge to binge, do this exercise for 100 breaths. See if you still feel like bingeing.
When you're in a meeting or otherwise stressful situation where you cannot do this, subtly put your hand on your stomach so you can feel it move up and down.
It's a simple trick with huge benefits…give it a shot!
I'm still working on learning to swim the butterfly stroke. Even though I've been swimming most of my life, something new about swimming occurred to me this past week. As calorically intense as swimming can be, I always leave the pool feeling invigorated. And at night…I fall right asleep and sleep through the night without issue.
I'm a pretty regular exerciser, but the nature of swimming, having to hold your breath, forces me to use my lungs differently than I do with any other exercise. I have to breathe more deeply into my lungs, and hold that air longer, than I do when I run or use exercise machines or rollerblade. My endurance with swimming is a little rusty, so, I have to stop and catch my breath which I don't have to do with any other exercise.
I think, because swimming is using my lungs in a more intensive way, it's better oxygenating my body. And that in turn leaves me feeling more energetic, since oxygen is necessary for healthy metabolism. And I sleep better at night when melatonin is triggered to come out and balance all that oxidation with restorative activity.
How well do you breathe? It is common, when stressed, to breathe more rapidly with shallower breaths. When you don't fully use your lungs, it's hard for adequate oxygen to get to your brain…and when your brain is stressed, it intensifies the feeling of anxiety, shortening breathing even more…thus starting a vicious cycle.
And…since the brain's main fuel is glucose, when you're not breathing adequately, you run the risk of having more sugar cravings.
When you're anxious, it is common to want to have an explanation for it. And the tendency is to blame it on something external, like your infertility, your weight, your appearance, your marriage, etc. It may be, at least some of the time, that your anxiety is directly related to how you're breathing.
Try this exercise the next time you're feeling anxious and see how you feel. Or…rather than waiting till you're anxious, try it several days in a row at a time of day you know you feel stressed (and hungry for carbs), such as when you get home from work just before dinner, and see if you start to notice a change in your mood and your appetite.
Lay down on your bed and place a book or pillow on your stomach. Make yourself breathe so that the object begins to move up and down. If you're breathing shallowly, with the top of your lungs, it will be hard to do this. So if the book doesn't move, focus on breathing into your belly button. Breathe like this for 20 breaths. Next time…30.
This is the kind of breathing you would learn to do in yoga class. It's exactly the kind of breathing I do in the middle of a counseling session or meeting when I feel stressed. I simply place a hand on my stomach to check if my breath is getting into the bottom of my lungs.
Of course, exercise is the ultimate way to do this kind of breathing. But it won't work for you in rush hour traffic, during your midterm, or when you're giving that sales presentation. Keep this technique handy in those situations, and exercise when you DO have time.
I'll be interested to hear from all of you about what you notice when you try this!
I was just asked about tips for stopping smoking. This is a tough one, since nicotine is the second most addictive substance known to man (surpassed only by heroin). Yes, it's that powerful.
I was once certified as a Smoke Stoppers teacher and I thought I'd create a couple of blog posts around this one. Hope you find them helpful.
It's most important, first of all, to understand how nicotine works. It doesn't actually hit your bloodstream until about 20 minutes after it's been inhaled.
So the relief you feel when you light up, is likely due to the deep breath you took, not the chemicals in the cigarette.
The anxiety that you feel when you crave…THAT's the nicotine. It's very tricky timing that works on behalf of Big Nicotine. You associate the wrong thing with relief from the symptoms. You've been associating the wrong stimulus and response all this time!
Practice this technique: Lie down on your bed or sofa, and place a pillow or book on your stomach. Practice breathing in a way that makes that pillow or book move up and down. Notice how quickly you feel less anxious? Now practice that using a hand on your stomach. If you can do that, you can use this technique wherever you may be…at work, in the car, at a party…get used to how it feels to breathe deeply. Associate breathing deeply with feeling better, to help disconnect the association between the cigarette and breathing more deeply.
If you can make it for 20 minutes the urge to smoke often passes. So don't start catastrophizing about how miserable it feels to not be able to smoke now and forever, just focus on the next 20 minutes, breathe deeply, and trust.
If you make it, put the amount of money you saved by NOT smoking that cigarette, in a jar in a highly visible place. Once you start to see that money rack up (it's about $1.50 a smoke), you'll start to question whether or not this is something you really want to spend money on. Especially if you're struggling in other financial areas of your life.
With some breathing room and time to think, I've had a chance to start to plan the next round of couples infertility spa days. These are intended to teach the information you want and need, as well as remind you why you are in the fertility process in the first place! Sometimes that gets lost in the medical office.
If you'd like to be notified of these events when they are planned and ready for registration, sign up here to receive our blog via email, and/or join our Fertile Intentions Facebook group:
• Leaping over tall buildings in a single bound! • Flying without mechanical assistance! • X-ray vision! • Breathing for extended periods under water! • Becoming invisible!
When I was a child, the superpower I wanted most was to be able to shrink down to about one inch tall, so that I could observe the world without being observed. Although that would still be fun, if I had a superpower now, I would want it to be wiping people clean of mental and physical illness and disease. I wish I had a magical capacity to briefly join energetic forces with my clients, and quickly relieve them of what ails them.
And yet, I am a mere human, so I have to deal with my very human limitations. Since I don’t have a superpower, I apply the capacities I do have – empathy, understanding, relating, connecting, validating, offering technical and scientific education, and utilizing my intuition, among other tools – to the practice of psychotherapy. Although remarkable changes can occur quite quickly in therapy, in reality, it’s not magic, and it’s a process that can take months or even years.
The superpower I have as a therapist though is one that you can use yourself. It’s called reframing, and it’s the practice of taking a negative statement and changing it around into something positive, containing elements of optimism. For example:
• “I have really bad hypoglycemia, and now I have to use this stupid glucose monitor to check my sugars and make sure they’re not too low” BECOMES “I have a special machine that allows me to track my sugars and prevent hypoglycemia, so I feel really good most of the time.”
• “I have to go the doctor every three months for tests related to my PCOS, and I hate going to the doctor!” BECOMES “I have the opportunity to monitor my health closely, and prevent complications.”
• “This disease makes me miserable” BECOMES “I have a chronic condition, AND I can manage it effectively.”
See how the first statement in each example contains elements of negativity, fatalism, pessimism, and victimhood? The counter-statements – the reframes – cite a benefit or positive outcome, and take an assertive stance about owning the quality of your life.
Reframing isn’t useful just for therapists, or women with PCOS, or people with chronic medical conditions. It’s useful in all aspects of your life. Once you start reshaping your language, your thoughts will change, and so will your actions. So it’s not exactly a superpower… I'm okay with that, because it’s a highly effective tool to incorporate into your life.
Gretchen Kubacky, Psy.D. is a Health Psychologist in private practice in West Los Angeles, California. She specializes in counseling women and couples who are coping with infertility, PCOS, and related endocrine disorders and chronic illnesses.
If you would like to learn more about Dr. HOUSE or her practice, or obtain referrals in the Los Angeles area, please visit her website at www.drhousemd.com, or e-mail her at Gretchen@drhousemd.com. You can also follow her on Twitter @askdrhousemd.
I'm passing this along since the coexistence of depression and pregnancy is so very high amongst the readers of this blog. Findings like these are a huge reason I am so adamant about finding ways that nutrition and nonpharmacological treatments can keep both mother and baby healthy all the way through conception and pregnancy.
To see this story with its related links on the guardian.co. uk site, click here
Antidepressants linked to premature birth risk
Tuesday October 6 2009 BMJ Group
Mothers-to-be risk having a premature birth if they take commonly used antidepressants during pregnancy, a new study has found. Antidepressants called SSRIs (the group of drugs that includes Prozac) were also linked to a higher risk of babies needing treatment in intensive care soon after birth.What do we know already?
More than 1 in 10 women become depressed during pregnancy. In cases where doctors recommend drug treatment, the first choice is often a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI).
Doctors are advised that pregnant women should take SSRIs"only if potential benefit outweighs risk". Unfortunately, there's little research on how safe these drugs are during pregnancy. We do know that SSRIs get into the unborn baby's bloodstream, and that some babies get withdrawal symptoms soon after birth. Some research also suggests that babies may be more at risk of heart defects if their mother takes an SSRI called paroxetine in the first three months of pregnancy, although this problem is not common.
A new study has looked at 329 women who were taking SSRIs while pregnant. The health of their babies was compared with the health of babies born to women not taking antidepressants. Some of the women in this latter group had mental health problems, while others did not.What does the new study say?
Women taking an SSRI had twice the risk of a premature birth. On average, women gave birth four or five days sooner if they took an SSRI while pregnant. But the results don't tell us the actual numbers of women in each group who gave birth prematurely, so we can't say what the actual risk is.
About 16 in 100 babies needed treatment in an intensive care unit if their mother had taken an SSRI, compared with 7 in 100 babies whose mothers were healthy, and 9 in 100 babies whose mothers had a mental health problem but who weren't taking an SSRI.
Babies also appeared less healthy overall if their mother had taken an SSRI. This was measured looking at their skin colour, how much they moved about, their pulse rate and breathing, and how much they responded to stimulation.
SSRIs didn't increase the risk of having an underweight baby. The study only looked at what happened around birth, so we don't know whether or not SSRIs have longer-term consequences. How reliable are the findings?
This is a fairly good study. Since it also included a group of women who had mental health problems but who were not taking an SSRI, we can partly rule out the possibility that mental health issues affected the baby's health rather than antidepressants. However, it could still be that women taking SSRIs were more seriously depressed than the women they were compared with, or that they had worse overall health. This factor might have affected the health of the babies, and it makes the study less reliable.Where does the study come from?
The women who took part in the research all had antenatal care at a hospital in Aarhus, Denmark. The study appeared in a journal called Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, published by the American Medical Association. Some of the funding came from the Danish Medical Research Council.What does this mean for me?
The study suggests that, in the short term at least, there could be some negative consequences to taking SSRIs while pregnant. What the research doesn't tell us is how the risks of SSRIs in pregnancy compare with the dangers of untreated depression.
Depression itself can affect how babies grow. It can also cause unpleasant symptoms for the mother. There's a high chance of becoming depressed again when women stop taking antidepressants when they're pregnant. So, we can't simply say that pregnant women should completely avoid SSRIs.What should I do now?
If you're pregnant and taking an antidepressant, don't stop treatment suddenly. You could put yourself at risk of unpleasant withdrawal symptoms, and your depression could come back. Your doctor can help you weigh up the risks and benefits of treatment. If you and your doctor decide it's the right thing to do, you'll need to come off your medicine gradually. You could also ask about other types of treatment, such as talking therapy.
If you're taking antidepressants and you want to get pregnant, talk to your doctor. Depending on how severe your depression is, your doctor might suggest slowly coming off your medicine, or continuing to take it.From:
Lund N, Pedersen LH, Henriksen TB. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor exposure in utero and pregnancy outcomes. Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine. 2009; 163: 949-954. BMJ Publishing Group Limited ("BMJ Group") 2009
I receive emails and comments from time to time, suggesting that my suggestions for PCOS management are unrealistic because they cost too much money.
Here is what I think about that.
I've offered expensive courses…no one came. I've offered free courses…no one came. I've tried every price on the scale…and learned that the resistance was not about price point. No matter what the price, people did not come. I am not the only person trying to help women with PCOS who experience this.
I recently spent a morning at a local food bank, with people who REALLY can't afford groceries. We are trying to figure out a way, at Chow Locally, to be sure that the wonderful foods we bring to our customers, in some way, also find their way to less fortunate people. We live in a city where 1 in 4 children goes to bed hungry, and improving access to quality food for everyone of our neighbors is important to us. I have donated a free consultation and kitchen makeover to Share Our Strength, a fundraiser devoted to wiping out hunger. I am acutely aware that hunger is a problem in this community. I am a nutrition professional who doesn't just tweet about it, she spends part of each day doing something to help solve the problem.
The picture above is from the Desert Mission Food Bank here in Phoenix. They have a chef who demonstrates how to make healthy food on a limited budget. All he has to cook with, are a toaster oven and a hot plate. And his food is tasty, nutritious…fabulous.
I was blown away. Here were people who really, truly, justifiably COULD use money as an excuse to not eat well…and they were doing everything in their power to get good, healthy food, and to learn how to use it well. It is hard for me when I see such a disconnect between people who really, truly don't have access to food, working so hard to have so little, and to know I can only help them a little bit, and then in my work day, negotiate with people who really truly do have breathing room that they either may not be able to or be willing to see, and not succeed in illuminating options.
If you need help getting food stamps, ask for that help. If you need help finding places where you can find healthy food within your budget, ask. But understand, no matter how much money you have or don't have, there are things you can do.
If you are eating well, by the way, you are likely spending less, not more money on food. Eating seasonally, eating less fast food, less packaged food, giving up the soda pop…usually adds up to money saved. I'm not asking anyone to eat like kings here. I certainly don't!
If Chef Ed can create what he does for his food bank patrons, given the restrictions he has, and his students can eat well on little to no money, so can you.
It is not your situation that is making you sick. It is how you are choosing to manage your situation that makes the difference.
I believe in you and I work on your behalf. But I can't invest in the changes that will make the difference. If you don't invest in yourself…who will?
I've never experienced infertility. I was overweight as a child/teen, but I've been the same weight for most of my adult life. I'm relatively healthy. I'm not saying this to intimidate anyone, but rather to share an insecurity I've had about what I do for a living.
I always wonder how in the world women who have those issues can even find me relevant and helpful if I've never had to experience them?
The last two months have presented me with a situation that, even though it may not be apparent on the outside, has very much changed me on the inside. I've learned a lot about control, gratitude, and what is truly important in life.
And I feel like this journey, challenging as it is, is molding me into someone better equipped to help the people who come to inCYST for help.
Regular readers of the blog will remember that I wrote about my sick kitty in October. I thought I was dealing with a simple urine crystal issue that a diet change would fix. I'm a dietitian, I know how to change diets. This was simple, or so I thought.
Well, Rodeo simply never recovered from the crystal incident. He would not eat. He became lethargic. About a month after the vet visit, I noticed, he just wasn't breathing well. Being the data fiend that I am, I started monitoring his respirations. They seemed stable, so I figured maybe he was allergic to the new diet he'd been prescribed for his urine crystals. I changed back to the old diet and waited to see if he responded.
Then he crashed. I got the last appointment on a Friday evening with his vet, and learned that he was dealing with one of four potential diagnoses. One was a fungal infection (no problem), one of those was a 100% fatal virus (that would require euthanasia), one was cancer (fatal over time), one was heart disease (manageable but life-shortening).
I had to wait almost a week for the pathology report to come back, and to get an appointment for an ultrasound with a cardiologist. (Yes, my cat has more specialists in his Rolodex than I do at this point).
The good news is, it's not the fatal virus, and it's not cancer, but it is heart disease, and it's a serious problem. There is no cure, but there is a lot I can do to manage the situation.
Sound familiar?
I told the vet,"If you can give me heart disease, I'll take heart disease. I can do that." Two sentences I never, ever envisioned coming out of my mouth at any point in my life.
I can tell you this. I have a reputation for being pretty even-keeled in even the most adversarial of situations. During my eating disorder treatment center gig, it was not uncommon for cans of Ensure to be flung my way after a tough counseling session. Nothing phases me after that!
But the night I came home from the vet with a couple of medications and no idea what was happening, I laid on my bed and cried my heart out. I didn't even notice that Rodeo had jumped up on the bed. He felt like crap, and he was sitting there trying to take care of me. I realized, of my two kitties, he is the one most affected by my emotions. And here he was, more concerned about me than about the X-ray, the aspiration, and all the poking and prodding he'd been through.
That was reality check #1. I knew I needed to allow myself to feel what I was feeling, but I needed to learn how to do it in a way that didn't turn itself back on the problem in a negative way.
As I imagine has happened with many of you, my life changed in a mere instant. I became hyper aware of respiratory rates, fluid intake, food intake, urine output, medication times…my life was filled with new details I had no choice but to learn to live with.
Even though I run a business, it's the holidays, and I had committed to coordinating vendors for a huge market here in Phoenix. Even though my five major plans for December revenue pretty much collapsed within days of getting the kitty diagnosis. Somehow, I had to figure out how to make it all work.
This is where I started thinking of all of you. How many of you readers are busy, successful women, juggling a million different responsibilities, happily living out your lives…when you're told you have to start monitoring what you eat, when you eat it, when you ovulate, when you menstruate, what your blood glucose number is…and on top of it all, every expert on the planet expects you to figure out when to work out, to plan the perfect meal combination, each and every meal, to buy the supplements, and on top of it, manage your anxiety, frustration, and anger over the situation?
Do these health professionals even have a clue? Did I ever have a clue with any of my clients I thought I was helping with inCYST? That's what's been going on in my head in the two months since Rodeo's diagnosis.
Reality check #2 for me was realizing what I was doing any time I had a free moment, especially during the week when I didn't know what I was dealing with. I found myself surfing the Internet, Googling symptoms, reading everything I could find about lymphoma and cardiomyopathy, looking for the worst in kitty, looking for anyone, anyone at all, who could tell me that there was a supplement or pill I could give him that would just make this all go away.
That behavior is known as magical thinking. It is a very common thing to do when faced with a situation that leaves you feeling cornered. Getting older. Cancer. Weight that won't come off. Infertility. It's about trying to find something, anything at all, that can give you the illusion that you're in control of something. Note that I used the word illusion. You're really not in control. You've transferred your need to be in control of outcome to a concrete, more manageable option. That's all. The only thing magical thinking succeeds at, is allowing us to avoid the pain of a situation. In many cases, it keeps us distracted from constructive and helpful things we can be doing.
So…knowing from working with all of you that this is what I was doing, I told Rodeo's vet what I do for a living, that I'm a real biochem nerd, and that I was probably dealing with my stress by reading waaay too much about cardiomyopathy. I told him at any time I was becoming annoying and intefering with his treatment plan and Rodeo's progress, he had permission to put me in my place. We negotiated a few things I wanted to try, one we're using, most we're not.
And I am adhering completely to what the doctor ordered. Even if it means staying up past my bedtime to get a med in, even if it means passing on a social invitation if it interferes with the treatment plan, even if it means using money I wanted to spend on something else to buy medication. The vet is not cheap. But he's incredibly smart. If kitty is going to get better, I can't be bargaining with him because of the inconvenience the instructions impose on my life as I wish it was.
Reality check #3 has been about how much control issues can be triggered when life throws a curve ball. We can do everything exactly perfectly. And Rodeo has a bad day. Or Rodeo can go dumpster diving, eat a fish head, throw it up, and be perfectly fine. At least for a day. How Rodeo feels today, is not at all about what I did for him this morning. It is about the consistency of what we do over time.
Oh, I'm so embarrassed to even be saying this, but this simple reality took me awhile to"get". I wanted him to always breathe perfectly. To eat when I gave him the food. To love the deli turkey. It doesn't happen that way. Some days he eats like he's the size of Zenyatta, other days, nothing strikes his fancy. I have had to learn to roll with it, and to not view one incident as failure, but as a challenge to figure out what another option might be.
On the days when things don't go as planned, I have to adjust my life. Yesterday morning, for example, meds did not go in at 8 am as scheduled. I spent 4 hours getting them in, but realizing that the four hours it took to make that happen was four hours I'd planned to spend making my contribution for a holiday potluck I was to attend tonight…I made the choice to cancel my attendance, focus on medication, and spend the evening tonight taking care of myself here at home.
Reality check #4. You know what happened when I stopped stressing about how I was going to do both the medications and the potluck and OMG what happens if I'm at the potluck and he bottoms out?!?!?! Rodeo settled in to one of the absolute best respiratory patterns and ate better for me than he did all week. I suspect he picked up on my more relaxed demeanor and was able to put energy into himself that he was putting into me. Some of the things I am inadvertently doing affect kitty as much, if not more, than the things I am supposed to be doing.
Reality check #5. I sometimes find myself getting annoyed at people complaining about things that now seem minor in the big scheme of things. All these people complaining about having to much to do for Christmas? In my eyes they are lucky they are able to participate. I have to remind myself, their situations are different and even though I might envy them, in their own scenarios are lessons from the Universe in action that may not include a cat. Still working on that one.
There are many early Christmas gifts this situation has brought me.
First of all, I have kitty happily sleeping on the bed today. He doesn't fit into a stocking and probably wouldn't consent to it if he did…but he's here compliments of two of Santa's finest elves…er…angels in elves' clothing, Dr. Oyan and Dr. Paige.
Secondly, my priorities, as healthy as I thought they were, needed some addressing. I have been able to let go of situations that I simply have no time to accommodate. I have more time to myself, since I'm home more, and that has given me quiet time to think about what inCYST will be for all of you in 2011. I hope you like the inspirations you'll see in the next 12 months.
Thirdly, I feel like I have a much better idea of what it is that you all need from inCYST in the first place. I am still at a disadvantage for not having experience every single thing you all have exactly as you have, but I have been humbled, I'm dealing with a challenge, and it cause me to consider every inCYST choice I make in an entirely different fashion. Humility is never a bad thing on which to base intention.
Fourthly, I've learned that it's not always bad if success has to be redefined. Of course I'd love it if there was a cure for cardiomyopathy. But there isn't. I can be angry about it, not follow the vet's instructions because I managed to find an obscure website on the Internet that contradicted them, turn to supplements which would put more control in my hands than his, or do nothing and hope the Calgon cardiomyopathy fairy will just swoop in and whisk us away to Kitty Tahiti.
None of that is going to happen. I got over it, decided to listen to the vet, and to redefine success as staying informed, being proactive and communicative with new information, and to the best of my ability, prioritize my life so that I can enact the recommendations I've been provided with. It's slowly turning things around. Not curing them. But, gratefully, allowing kitty to breathe. Oxygen in heart cells…is a lot more important than a complete and total cure. We have learned to think simply.
Finally, I still don't know what it is like to be infertile, not be able to lose weight, or live with insulin resistance. But at least I am more aware of how important it is to always remember that no matter who are you are, when you look to inCYST for help, guidance, support, inspiration, your story, especially the part we don't know about, or cannot immediately relate to, is important to consider in everything we say and do.
I hope all of you are enjoying your holiday season, whatever customs you practice.
One last thing. To all of my friends who are tired of hearing me talk endlessly about the cat, now that he's stabilizing I can get back to the gym and put the stress there. I appreciate all of your ears and support.
Everyone’s telling you to “just relax and you’ll get pregnant,” or “take a vacation and it’ll happen.” Isn’t that a huge pressure, besides the basic fact that getting pregnant hasn’t proven to be so easy for you? Getting pregnant can be so frustrating when it involves medical procedures, carefully timed intercourse, self-tests and monitoring, medication, and the like. With PCOS, it’s even more complicated. The good news is, even when it seems like your body just won’t mind your wishes, there are relatively simple and inexpensive things you can do on your own to support yourself in your fertility journey.
If you’ve been dealing with infertility for a while, you’ve likely tried or at least considered some alternative medicine or holistic health practices that you hope will help you conceive. Here’s why you should consider some of the more common approaches to decreasing stress and improving overall health, which include:
Acupuncture is an ancient healing art, part of the system of Traditional Oriental Medicine. It has been used successfully for thousands of years to enhance fertility; you may even find that your physician is able to offer you a referral. Acupuncture is nearly painless – in spite of the needles – and works in conjunction with your traditional treatments. Many acupuncturists also offer nutritional support. Most larger communities have at least one acupuncture school, and their student clinics offer carefully supervised sessions for as little as $20/treatment.
Nutrition – Decreasing or eliminating caffeine, refined sugar, and refined flour will give your body a rest, reduce stress on your digestive system, enhance your immunity, and make your body an optimally healthy place for both you and a baby. If you’re saying “yeah, yeah, yeah, I know all that – and it’s too overwhelming” – start today with a small change, like switching out regular coffee for decaf, or trading in a soda for some iced herbal tea. Your nerves will thank you too.
Yoga is another traditional dating back thousands of years. Yoga is said to massage and stimulate or “tonify” the internal organs, thereby leading to increased health. The slower-paced forms of yoga, such as hatha yoga, or yin yoga, are relaxing practices. But in my opinion, the best thing about yoga is that it helps you love and accept your body, precisely where it is today – not where you hope it will be. If you’re daunted by those fancy yoga studios, head on over to your nearest YMCA or other gym for some great introductory classes. Many yoga studios offer community days, or donation classes, where you pay what you can afford for the class.
Meditation can be as simple as closing your eyes and focusing on the sound and rhythm of your own breath for just five minutes. If you can’t handle five minutes, try three minutes. It can also be a complex and evolving process, if you choose to expand your practice. Regulating your breathing, clearing your mind, and giving yourself time for introspection are all benefits of meditation. If you want more information, do a search for the terms “meditation” or “the relaxation response.”
Positive Thinking/Mindfulness/Visualization – although these are all distinct techniques, the overlap is that they are conscious ways of re-orienting yourself towards remaining in the present, focusing on what is, and using the power of your mind to create the future – or at least improve your experience of the future. As with meditation, the internet is full of information on these techniques, or you may wish to consult with a mental health clinician who utilizes such techniques in her practice.
Optimizing fertility is an activity in which you, the patient, play a very active role. You are already learning how to become proactive in managing your PCOS; this is just an extension of that. Of course your doctor will want to know what other things you’re doing to support your fertility, but you can start right now to take steps to improve your overall physical health and state of mind, thereby reducing the stress actively, instead of just hoping that it will happen “somehow.”
Dr. Gretchen Kubacky is a Health Psychologist in private practice in West Los Angeles. She specializes in counseling women and couples who are coping with infertility, PCOS, and related endocrine disorders. If you would like to learn more about Dr. HOUSE or her practice, or obtain referrals in the Los Angeles area, please visit her website atwww.drhousemd.com, or e-mail her atGretchen@drhousemd.com. You can also follow her on Twitter @askdrhousemd.
A few months ago I received a phone call from a woman who wanted me to help her with a pre-IVF detox/cleanse. As we talked, it turned out, she'd already been through one failed IVF, was feeling fearful that she was going to fail again, and was wanting to do something, anything, to guarantee that it would not happen again.
I've never been through that process so there's no way I can say I know how any of you feel.
But I can tell you how these conversations make ME feel.
Afraid. Very afraid.
If there is ever any time in your life when you should absolutely not be messing with your metabolism, it is during the time immediately preceding, and during, an IVF procedure. The reason you're already in the situation you are in, is because your hormones are not able, on their own, to create the precise and delicate balance required for conception and implantation. Why would you want to push your uterus over the edge when you're already about to put it through something very stressful?
When we're faced with a situation that feels out of control, the natural thing as humans to want to do, is control it. Self-treating and self-medicating are definitely things that, in the moment, give us the illusion of being in control. But if you stop that sentence there, without truly finishing it, by defining exactly what it is that you are in control of, you've missed the point. You're in control of what happens in the immediate moment. But you're not in control of the situation that has left you feeling out of control. In fact, you may be pushing your desired outcome even further out of reach.
In this case, we did identify things that could be done to help this woman be in the absolute best physical and emotional condition possible for the big procedure. And we discussed that her most important goal was not conception, but implantation, in other words, making that egg feel, upon entering mom and looking around, that this was a pretty warm and welcoming place to be calling home for the next few months.
Think of IVF like you did your last real estate deal. Only the repro doc is the real estate agent, the embryo is the house hunter, and you are the person trying to convince that embryo that it wants to live in the environment it's been introduced to by said real estate agent. As the seller, it's your job to create an environment your buyer wants to live in.
You can't hang pretty pictures on the walls or put potpourri on the counter. But there are things you can do.
What does an embryo like to see when it's househunting? How can you stage your uterus to make it desirable real estate? For starters, your buyer doesn't like the ambience of stress hormones. Prefers the calming influence of deep breathing. Doesn't like to be jostled around too much with too much exercise. Kind of likes a house that rocks and rolls a bit, maybe massages with a little bit of yoga, but not tossed around from hours of treadmills, aerobics, or jogging. Really hates knowing it's going to be forced to subsist on caffeine and sugar when it really loves spinach and hard boiled eggs.
And it really gets cranky when it's trying to sleep and its house doesn't have curtains to pull to shut out the light. Don't even think about getting up at 3 am work out, because that is the only time you can fit it in. Reorganize your day and give up some things to make adequate for activity as well as sleep. Research has shown that melatonin is very, very important for implantation. Bad habits like staying up late, especially if it's because you're playing with lit up technotoys, are one of the surest ways to send said buyer packing.
As you know, even the most impeccable home will not appeal to every buyer. So even if you do everything perfectly, every single IVF will not end up in a baby. That's not the goal. The goal is, when the right embryo comes along, that everything it needs to feel like it's the right set up home for 9 months is there and ready. THAT you can control and do lots to make happen.
Bottom line: even though it can be tempting to want to work some magic on the procedure, the very, very best thing you can do, is keep being good to yourself. It reflects in how you stage your home and gives you a far better shot at a sale than any unproven hocus-pocus.
As a skin care therapist I would often be the first one to recognize a serious hormonal imbalance based on the acne that a client might be struggling with. As nutritionist it’s clear that it’s an “inside-out” problem.
Women with PCOS often have elevated levels of free-testosterone, which is one of the markers of PCOS. When the body breaks down the testosterone, one of the by-products that can occur is DHT (Dihydrotestosterone). There are areas on our bodies that are particularly sensitive to the signals from DHT which are the face, neck, chest and back. The message is “make more oil!”.
We do need some oil on the skin in order to keep it protected and supple, but when it goes on overdrive, it literally backs up in the pore. The oil (sebum) we produce is very sticky so it doesn’t allow the dead skin cells to exfoliate easily so it becomes like have a tight lid on a pressure cooker.
The naturally occurring bacteria on the skin, along with dead skin cells and the oil end up creating a pretty nasty “stew” resulting in reddened, painful and pustular acne. If this material cannot get out of the skin, it can break the pore wall underneath the skin causing more acne (you might notice a little “family” of breakouts that always groups together). Most people, (men get it too for the same reason), focus only on trying to treat the skin externally — but the goal is to get the body back in balance.
Some basic strategies are as follows:
1. Try to eat organic and hormone free as much as possible, especially when it comes to dairy products. The hormones that the cows receive to keep them lactating as long as possible go right into the milk and it’s by-products (cheese, ice-cream etc.) which go right into you — creating a further hormonal imbalance.
2. Stress is a huge trigger for increasing DHT — it is critical to create your own menu of"stress-busters" that can be used throughout the day and work for you! A simple one is to just stop for one to two minutes and do deep breathing. This short-circuits the stress hormone release response.
3. Acne in all forms is primarily an inflammatory disease. Fish oils, which are also beneficial for neurotransmitter balance, do double duty since they help tremendously with inflammation.
4. Eat inflammation quenching foods, rich in antioxidants — fruits and vegetables. Remember when fried foods were believed to cause acne? They may not do it directly, but indirectly they are highly inflammatory.
5. Getting hormones especially your estrogen to testosterone ratio back in balance is the key to getting to the source of the problem. Work closely with your In-Cyst trained expert toward this goal.
Next blog I’ll share information on strategies for dealing with the skin from the outside in.
Carmina McGee, MS, RD, LE Registered Dietitian/ Licensed Esthetician 805.816-1629 / Ventura, California www.CarminaMcGee.com Carmina@CarminaMcGee.com
