Eating a Healthy Diet

This is the most important step because good nutrition is the foundation on which your health is built and the key to increasing your chances of conceiving. Look at what you are eating and drinking, buy organic food where possible, eat a good variety of food (including fish, nuts, seeds, fresh fruit and vegetables), and read labels to reduce or eliminate the amount of chemicals, additives and preservatives going into your body. It’s also important to get your weight back into the normal range, if you are underweight or overweight.

Carry on eating well over the four months and until you become pregnant, and through the pregnancy itself.

Checking and Correcting Your Nutritional Status

Where possible, at the very beginning of the Four-Month Plan, you should go to a nutritional therapist. Preferably choose one with experience in fertility and have a full assessment of your vitamin and mineral deficiencies. You will also be checked to see whether you have high levels of heavy toxic metals, such as lead, mercury and cadmium. You will then be given a programme of food supplements for four months to correct any deficiencies and to lower any toxic metals. At the end of the four months the assessment should be repeated, to make sure that the nutrients have been absorbed and the levels are back to normal. Once back to normal, you will be given a maintenance programme to stay on until you conceive.

If you are worried about the cost, bear in mind that IVF treatment is expensive. The investment in seeing a nutritional therapist, together with taking a programme of food supplements, therefore is minimal in comparison and may mean you avoid the IVF altogether. If you still need IVF treatment, the investment is still worthwhile because it increases the chance of it working.

For those who can’t get to see a nutritional therapist, I have devised a proposed supplement programme. Normally the programme would be personalized for you and your partner and would depend on what deficiencies you each had, but here you are both taking almost the same supplements.

Supplement Programme

Take:

• a multivitamin and mineral designed for pregnancy

• zinc citrate or amino acid chelate (total of 30mg of zinc a day, including what is in the multivitamin and mineral)

• l000 mg linseed (or flax oil) a day

• l000 mg vitamin Ñ a day

If your partner has a low sperm count or motility he needs to add 1,000mg of L-arginine a day to this programme for sperm health and 300-400ius a day of vitamin E to help fertilisation.

There are two supplements called Fertility Plus for Women and Fertility Plus for Men.

Fertility Plus for Women contains those nutrients known to help with fertility and you would only need to add the linseed oil and vitamin C. It is designed to provide the nutrients needed leading up to and during pregnancy. It contains the required amount of folic acid (400mcg a day) so you don’t need to take a separate folic acid supplement. It also includes a safe amount of vitamin A that you can take during pregnancy.

Fertility Plus for Men contains those nutrients which are helpful for men trying to conceive, including L-arginine, L-carnitine and also vitamin E.

If you are following this Four-Month Plan without being nutritionally tested then stay on the above supplement programme not just for the four months but until you conceive.

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Let’s look here at some everyday things that anyone can do to de-stress themselves. Some are preventive, in that they mean that the stress will not continue to plague the individual, and others are more curative.

•     Have a good cry. According to one research biochemist crying at times of stress helps remove from the body potentially harmful chemicals produced during such times. To try to get evidence for this theory the researcher compared emotionally induced tears with tears that were the result of eye irritation (such as when peeling onions). He found that most people feel better after a cry. In one survey 85 per cent of women and 73 per cent of men said that they felt better after crying if the cause for their crying was emotional. On the opposite side of the coin, those who hold back their tears are more prone to stress-related diseases such as high blood pressure, colitis, and ulcers. A study of 100 men and women with stress-related disorders found that they were more likely than others to see crying as a sign of weakness or as a loss of control.

•     Talk about it – don’t bottle up ó our problems until you burst with stress. When faced with stress people either bottle it up, explode or resolve the conflict. One study found that people who refused to get angry when faced with conflict had lower blood pressures. One subject, for example, when attacked by his boss would say, ‘Let’s be cool, let’s deal with the problem.’ So explaining the problem in a detached manner is a good way of coping with stress. You acknowledge your anger but are not openly hostile or aggressive.

•     Have more fun in life. Many people run their lives in ways that give them little or no fun. This means that they are always so close to their problems that everything seems overwhelming. Holidays can be of real value because the new events and the very fact of being ‘away from it all’ for a while enable or even compel you to forget your normal stresses. Hobbies can do this on a day-to-day basis but it is vital to have a hobby that does not stress you in the same way that your normal life does. Most people working in this field suggest that you take exercise or indulge in a hobby immediately after or around the time of a stressful event. Recreation can be as effective as drugs in treating stress-related illnesses.

•     Take exercise. This doesn’t need to be organized, structured or even especially strenuous. One study of ten elderly people suffering from stress-induced neuromuscular tension measured electrical activity in the muscles to find out the tranquilizing effect of exercise when: their heartbeats were at 100 beats a minute; their heartbeats were at 120 beats a minute; they were on a tranquillizer; they were taking a placebo. The best of all of these methods, as regards decreasing electrical activity in the muscles, was the mild exercise (taking their heartbeats to 100 a minute). Exercise at the higher pulse-rate level had an insignificant tranquil-Using effect, and the tranquillizer drug and the placebo had no effect on the electrical measurements at all. The researchers concluded that ‘twenty minutes of walking would do the job nicely to reduce stress! With more rigorous exercise you start to release adrenaline and this fires you up more than it relaxes you.’

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What is it?

Many individuals are familiar with this phenomenon but it is one that the medical profession discusses very little. It takes the form of restlessness, lethargy, depression or dullness, or a mixture of them all, after lunch. About an hour after having had lunch is the most common time but it hits some people as late as 4 p.m.

To most sufferers afternoon slump is simply a time each day when they feel at a low ebb-they can’t concentrate, drive poorly, shout at the kids or whatever. Doctors call it the postprandial dip and it is characterized by low body temperature, low blood sugar, fluid retention, a reduced work efficiency and a depression of mood. For some people it is a blight on the whole afternoon.

What causes it?

•     Too much stodgy, refined carbohydrate for lunch. One study found that people who had eaten a heavy lunch were less able to detect signals and couldn’t differentiate as well between varying sizes and intensities of light.

•     We all operate on a 12-hour cycle superimposed on a 24-hour day. Many scientists think that our bodies are crying out for a rest at about this time of the day. In Mediterranean and Latin countries the siesta is the rule rather than the exception-people go home at lunchtime to sleep and then return to work later in the afternoon and work into the evening. People who enjoy a siesta need less sleep at night, so it is not a waste of time sleeping during the day as is often thought.

•     Skimping on breakfast. A research study found that 79 per cent of the subjects studied who complained of fatigue, fluid retention, or both, had skimped on breakfast. After being placed on a high-protein breakfast, forty-nine out of fifty-eight patients reported obvious, in some instances dramatic, reductions in fatigue and fluid retention.

Prevention

•     Eat a 100 per cent raw lunch. Avoid all refined stodge.

•     If you can’t eat 100 per cent raw then remove sugar, honey, refined carbohydrate foods and very sweet fruits such as dates, figs and bananas.

•     Have a glass of orange juice with brewer’s yeast stirred in.

•     Take some light exercise straight after lunch.

•     Eat a sensible breakfast.

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As the meditation process unfolds, some people become anxious when they notice their breathing slowing down. Sometimes it feels as if you are hardly breathing at all. This can be disconcerting at first, especially for people who have this fear. There is nothing to worry about. The slowing down of our breathing indicates we are beginning to relax deeply. It is a positive sign that the meditation session is going well. If you are using a word or mantra technique to meditate don’t worry when the technique becomes distorted or disappears altogether in the course of your meditation. This is another indication of successful meditation.

Some people find they go to sleep during meditation. Although most meditation teachers advise their students to remain alert and not go to sleep, I feel somewhat differently about it in the case of anxiety disorders. Firstly, it is a good sign that the practice is going well. If we can let go and relax enough to sleep, then in the beginning this is all that matters. In this instance, meditation is being used as a relaxation technique. Many people with the disorder have difficulty in sleeping. If meditation means people are able to catch up on sleep, then the practice is successful. Most people who do go to sleep during meditation find they do so for about forty-five minutes, and on awakening they feel the benefits. Take it as it comes. In time we all reach the stage when we actually meditate instead of going to sleep.

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Heart symptoms

The most common fear we have is that we will die from a heart attack. Besides having a rapid heartbeat, some people experience palpitations or ‘missed’ heartbeats. They are not dangerous, and will not hurt us in any way. The more we fear them, the more adrenalin is released, so the cycle continues.

Muscle tension

The fear of having a heart attack is compounded by the tightness or pain which may be experienced in the chest, arms and jaw. It can also be felt in our neck and throat. It doesn’t mean there is anything seriously wrong. Stress and tension cause our muscles to tighten. The tension will disappear once we have begun to let go of the fear and anxiety.

Throat constriction

Another symptom which causes a great deal of fear is the feeling of tightness or constriction in the throat, as it feels as if the air supply will be cut off. It won’t. The tightness is a sign of just how tense we are. When we reduce the tension this symptom will disappear.

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Not only do we live in fear of the disorder, we live in fear of other people knowing we have it. Many of us live in silence in case our employer, friends and family find out. This silence is passed on from generation to generation. As we begin to understand our disorder, many of us realise that one of our parents or other family members also has the disorder. Sometimes, tragically, when our parents or other family members became aware that the disorder was beginning to develop in the next generation, they remained silent, just as many of us are now doing.

This silence needs to be broken. Anxiety disorders directly affect two million Australians, and indirectly affect families, friends, employers and the community as a whole. Together we have an enormous voice which can help to speed up the changes needed in the health care system.

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Everyone who experiences spontaneous panic attack remembers their first attack: where they were, what they were doing and how they felt. There is no other experience with which to compare it. The panic attack usually appears to have little or nothing to do with any personal or environmental situation. Even if we are very distressed about a particular situation it can seem to us there is no direct relationship between the situation and the attack. Whereas in social phobia, obsessive compulsive disorder and post traumatic stress disorder, people may recognise the driving force behind their attack as it is usually specific to a particular situation.

Most people who experience a spontaneous attack will go straight to a doctor or the nearest hospital, sometimes by ambulance, as the attack feels as if it is actually a heart attack. We go through the standard clinical tests which show there is nothing physically wrong. Many of us are now diagnosed as suffering from a panic attack, although a large number of people are still only told they are suffering from stress or anxiety.

There is no relief in discovering that there is nothing physically wrong. The attack can be so severe and the physical reaction so extreme, it is difficult to believe there is not a physical cause. It is impossible not to feel frightened, especially if there appears to be little or no relationship between the panic attack and our current personal situation.

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One study that is often quoted by ‘opponents’ of food intolerance was carried out by Dr David Pearson of Manchester University and Dr Keith Rix of Leeds University. They studied 27 patients suffering from irritable bowel syndrome who believed themselves to have food allergy or intolerance. The study only found evidence of food reactions in 15 per cent of the patients, compared with 70 per cent in another major study. The main reason for this discrepancy was probably their method of testing which only used very small amounts of the test foods.

Dr Rix, who is a psychiatrist, examined half the patients. He identified a variety of mild psychiatric problems, principally neurotic depression and anxiety neurosis, in 86 per cent of them. The conclusion the doctors reached, given the apparently poor response to food testing, was that the psychological problems were affecting the bowel, rather than the other way round, in the majority of patients.

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Description and Possible Medical Problems

Not only can an enlarged prostate make it more difficult to urinate, it can have the opposite effect, making you need to urinate more frequently. Since you’re never able to empty your bladder fully, you’ll probably feel the urge to urinate more often because the signals that a full bladder sends to your brain remain the same.

Besides an enlarged prostate, also known as BPH (benign prostatic hyperplasia), another cause of mote frequent urination can be diabetes; in fact, this is one of the first symptoms a person with adult onset diabetes has.

Treatment

If you have a sensation of needing to urinate more frequently, see your doctor or urologist. He will take blood tests to rule out diabetes and perhaps check your prostate by examining it manually with a gloved fin-get and perhaps a sonogram, which will allow him to determine the degree of enlargement.

If he suspects that diabetes is the cause, he will do a blood test to confirm the disease. If you do have diabetes, your doctor will design a program of diet and exercise and start you on insulin if he believes it is necessary.

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Like the appendix and the spleen, the gallbladder is one of those organs we’ve all heard of. But whenever I ask a patient to describe its function and location, I always get a blank stare.

Okay, function first. The gallbladder is a sac that stores bile, a substance secreted by the liver that helps to absorb fat. It is located directly under the liver, and if you feel a pain in your upper right quadrant under your rib cage, it’s likely your gallbladder is acting up. You may also feel a pain in your right shoulder.

If your diet is high in fat, you may develop gallstones in your gallbladder, and there are two situations where they can cause problems: one is serious, the other isn’t. Here’s the less serious one: Whenever you eat a fatty meal, the gallbladder secretes bile. As it secretes the bile, the stones are swept away with the bile, and they can get caught in the channel that leads from the gallbladder to the intestines, causing pain. You may also feel nauseous. This is known as gallbladder colic.

A more serious condition is called cholecystitis, which can appear whether you’re eating or not. The benchmark Body Signals are fever, an elevated white blood cell count, nausea, severe pain in the upper right quadrant, and vomiting.

Although gallbladder disease has traditionally been thought of as an illness that occurs in women in their 30s and over who are overweight, it has become a growing problem for anyone who eats a diet that’s high in fat. Ironically, gallbladder problems are especially common in people who are overweight and who decide to follow a low-fat diet in order to lose weight. With a low-fat diet, the gallbladder is pretty much at rest. During a binge on high-fat foods, however, the gallbladder will start to contract severely in order to produce the necessary bile, and either the stone that is blocking the channel or the contraction of the gallbladder itself may suddenly cause severe pain.

If you think you have a problem with your gallbladder, your doctor will be able to tell by pushing down on the upper right quadrant underneath the rib cage. If it’s painful, you probably have gallbladder disease. It’s also likely that you have the condition if you find that you fre-quently have severe indigestion and bloating after eating a high-fat food, such as French fries, cheese, or a candy bar.

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