Nourish the Soil Before Planting the Seed
If Symposium 2015
When I first heard of the first Integrated Fertility Symposium I instantly knew I wanted to be there. It was one of those decisions, I made almost instantly with an inner knowing. I was 8 months postpartum but knew that my baby would be about 15 months postpartum by the time of the trip, and my husband agreed to help us make it happen. Thank you, babe, for the support!
I stayed up late packing, and excitedly talking with my husband about meeting one of the pioneers in my field, Randine Lewis, author of best selling The Infertility Cure. Who am I kidding, THE pioneer in my field. I also was just excited about getting out of the house and doing something for myself and career. I love being a mom. Being a mom and starting my own business is quite the balancing act. I am always on the look out for ways to make sure I am doing self care. I will admit, I was VERY excited to be on the plane by myself and sleep in my own bed without any little boys climbing over me and waking me up. The plane ride was gloriously quiet and I was able to hear myself think! I don’t know what I was more excited about, my own bed and time alone, or the conference! In the end, I was too excited to sleep each night so I didn’t come home feeling rested, but I did come home feeling super INSPIRED to help others.
I landed in Vancouver and it was cool and moist. I shared my hotel room with one of Naturopathic doctor friends who I went to grad school with. When I got in, I met her and a bunch of other acupunks in the hotel lobby for dinner and drinks and then we all walked across the street to SFU Harbour Center for the American Board of Oriental Reproductive Medicine(ABORM) Reception. The place was buzzing with amazing energy and tons of beautiful Acupuncturists specializing in Reproductive Medicine!
The conference was Friday-Sunday and each day we had several lectures available to us. I really enjoyed the Opening Address by Dr. Paul Magarelli, MD, PHD, FACOG Evolving Towards “One” Medicine. He is a Reproductive Endocrinologist married to a L.Ac. He challenged our profession to focus on not just how acupuncture can benefit those that are undergoing Assisted Reproductive Technologies ( ART) but really put our attention on what we do best, preparing couples for a healthy pregnancy through all that we do –Acupuncture, nutrition, herbal medicine, supplements, stress reduction, and lifestyle changes. A lot of what he said got my wheels spinning as he questioned established paradigms in thinking. I love people who constantly challenge me to grow and think differently about what I do and why I do it. Ultimately the goal is just to help people heal in the best ways possible. Another speaker, Dr. Paul Turek, MD, FACS, FRSM shared also on the importance of our medicine in preparing couples’ bodies for a healthy pregnancy. His talk, Male Infertility as Biomarker for Health shed light on the importance of men’s health in pre-conception. He presented new research showing correlations of infertility in men and later developing cancer/disease. He talked of the importance of not just bypassing or ignoring men’s fertility issues with IVF and other ART procedures as that might not really be helping the couple in the end, even if they do conceive. He reiterated the value and importance of what my profession does in preparing men and women not just to conceive, but to be healthy overall. He refers his patients to acupuncturists to ” get all sorted out” as he put it. He said he loves when patients come to him after being treated by their acupuncturist as they come with many of their health issues being resolved or treated at the root. Issues that affect fertility such as being overweight, poor nutrition, poor lifestyle choices such as smoking, drinking alcohol, stress, and not sleeping enough are the ones that can greatly affect a man’s sperm and overall sexual health. He knows that all of these can be addressed by regularly seeing their acupuncturist. In one case, he found that after a man quit his overnight shift job and started getting regular sleep, his sperm count increased dramatically, morphology and motility normalized, and his wife was able to conceive naturally. It was wonderful to see his enthusiasm and appreciation for our medicine.
I absolutely loved the talk by Brandon Horn, PHD, L.Ac, FABORM, Key Concepts In Facilitating Embryo Implantation. One part of the talk I liked was about specific nutrition around the time of implantation and during those first few weeks. As a culture, we are all on the decrease inflammation bandwagon as a way of preventing disease. However, he pointed out that the body at implantation is needing some inflammation and that local inflammation may facilitate implantation. He suggested that during days 1-3 of this time, fat soluble vitamins and iron are very important but not too much olive oil and fish oil as those are anti-inflammatory. A diet rich in seeds, nuts, red meat, bone broth, sauerkraut( histamines are good) and certain oils is very beneficial. He’s on the faculty at UCLA and has published his research in Fertility and Sterility so I really soaked up his lecture. This guy is super smart and very good at explaining research! He also found information regarding TSH and infertility showing that a TSH below 2.5 reduces fertility rates. Many Reproductive Endocrinologist’s are recommending a target TSH of 1-2. So for those that have patients on thyroid meds or that are hyper or hypo thyroid, this is valuable knowledge. The Hypothalamus-Pituitary -Ovarian axis as well as the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis is such a delicate feedback loop keeping all our hormones in balance.
I loved how Randine Lewis, THE pioneer I was talking about earlier, balanced out the conference with her spiritually framed mindset. Her Daoist approach in getting back in balance with nature was refreshing after all the reductionist musings and research reviews. One of the lectures I attended of hers was on a concept called “Wu Wei”. This essentially means the action of non-action. It means “go with the flow” or “in line with natural cycles”. This state of being is at ease, totally flexible and from this state the appropriate action spontaneously arises. There is no force. It is a way of being, not of doing. It is rooted in Spirit. She talked about when we as practitioners work from this space, healing happens. The symbol for Wu looks like someone dancing the spontaneous dance of life while losing themselves in the dance. It does not need knowledge. This was a reminder to just be PRESENT with those that come to me. This space is pure and with an empty heart. It is not polluted with future talk, goals, desires, and especially not fear or stress. Often with couples seeking help in conceiving a child there is a lot of stress over the unknowns and feeling like their own bodies have failed them. There is fear, longing, disappointment and future focus which robs the present. She does a 5 element inquiry process getting patient in touch with who they are and asks such questions as , ” who wants this?”. Basically, her wisdom is in getting to the spiritual root and healing from there. She also came right out and said that as a culture we have become like 2 year olds saying, ” I want, I gotta have it..now!” For some, IVF can help them have a child when it was physically impossible. For others, it isn’t always the case, especially if nutrition, hormone imbalances, stress, and infections haven’t been addressed first. I love Randine! It is very important to have the yin yang balance in life. Thank you for recognizing SPIRIT as being so important in conception and pregnancy.
My kids are sleeping soundly, so I can write, but I have a feeling, I could go on and on about each and every lecture. So I will stop here. Oh, a few last things that were important. As you probably know, your gut health is very important as well as a healthy immune system. Chris Axelrad’s 4 R’s program: Remove, Restore, Reinoculate, and Repair was a a great reminder that gut health is so important for reproductive health. He covered supplements such as NAC ( great for many fertility challenges) which is a precursor to glutathione. This protects against autoimmune infertility cases. He reiterated the importance of methylated Folate instead of folic acid, especially for those with MTHFR gene. Many women have this gene and don’t know it. Those with this gene have a much harder time getting and staying pregnant, but addressing antioxidant status and getting the right kind of folate can really help a lot of women! I also really liked the talk on PCOS by Dr. Fiona and Kirsten Hurder-Karchmer’s talk Increasing Live Birth Rates: Clinical Strategies to Reduce Miscarriages. In her practice, she has treated over 7,000 fertility patients. She has been able to reduce miscarriage rate in her practice down to 5% from 20-25% in fertile women and 40% in infertile women. She discussed the importance of in-depth BBT charting analysis, accurate constitutional diagnosis, and herbal tinctures for all 4 phases of a women’s cycle. I learned a lot from this specific lecture in practical ways that I can start using in my clinic this week. I loved her! I wish I could go to her clinic and just be around her.
One of the best parts of the conference was being able to connect with others in my field that are just as passionate about fertility medicine as I am! Every night, five of us went to dinner and discussed the lectures and what we learned for HOURS! It was so helpful to synthesize, and digest all the material with awesome colleagues. This is what acupunk dorks do for fun : ) I would be buzzing with so much energy by the time I walked to my hotel room, that I could hardly get to bed. This is how you know you chose the right profession. Mommyhood is my first profession, and oh so rewarding. I feel so honored and blessed that I GET to do both. I guess I love being a mom so much, that I cannot think of a better calling than to help others on their journey.
Good night, lovelies. As always, thanks for listening to my ramblings. If you know someone that is really wanting to take charge of their health and/or fertility, I would love the referral.
Joy
Nourished Roots Acu LLC
nourishedrootsacu.com
Here are a few pics from the Rainforest a few of us girls went to after our last lecture.
This one, after 3 days of fertility lectures, looked exactly like egg and sperm to us…we all started laughing so hard
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