Toxin Awareness: What to avoid when you’re trying to conceive

By Spence Pentland, Dr. TCM, FABORM, CAOOM, author of BEING FERTILE
“The essence of strategy is knowing what not to do.” ~Michael Porter

We’ve talked a lot about what to do to increase your chances of pregnancy but if you’re doing everything right and conception is still stalled, you might want to look at what not to do.

This chapter is of particular importance for women of advanced maternal age, with unexplained infertility, endometriosis, fibroids, cysts or polyps and for men since sperm are highly sensitive.

Environmental toxins are a very passionate topic in my life. My desire to create awareness through strong emphasis on the negative impacts of these substances and products may, at times, create fear and the feeling that major damage has already been done. This could then be followed by a sense of despair, resentment and not knowing what to do. I apologize if any version of this is your experience, but to some degree if it is, I have done my job! That said, beginning the process of reversing damage caused by toxins is simply a matter of starting to incorporate choices that lead to a cleaner, less toxic personal environment. Start today, it’s easier than you think.

No one is immune to the health ailments that are being caused by environmental factors and educating yourself is key not only for conception, but also for parenting. Health challenges like Autism and cancers are rising steadily for kids and have been linked to common pesticides. Learn as much as you can and avoid what you can.

There are over 80,000 manmade chemicals existing in the marketplace today. Most have been introduced since the end of World War II when the petro-chemical companies no longer had a market for chemical weapons, so they found uses for their products in the form of home and agricultural pesticides and fertilizers, food preservatives, household cleaners and personal care products. Current estimates place the existence of over 200 of these industrially produced chemicals in the human body at any given time. The time when a human is at greatest risk of the effects of these toxins is during fetal development, hence the added relevance for this book. Many of these chemicals are known toxins that disrupt hormonal balance and are contributing factors in infertility, PMS, irregular menstrual cycles, polycystic ovary syndrome, endometriosis, premature ovarian failure, recurrent pregnancy loss, anxiety and cancer of all kinds.

I recently heard a statistic that one half of all Americans will have cancer at some point in their life. It is time to start taking a deeper look into the potential causes, such as toxic personal care products. Did you know that sixty percent of what goes on our bodies gets in our bodies! Researching skincare and beauty products is hugely important.

Read the ingredient list on everything you buy and if there isn’t one, know that this is a very bad sign! Fortunately there are more and more companies getting on board with healthy alternatives (i.e. Taslie!). By doing your homework and buying products that don’t contain harmful ingredients, we increase the demand for them. Even though many cosmetics and beauty companies have been selling us products that can have fatal effects for many years, the consumer is in charge. Don’t buy it and they won’t sell it. It’s time for a beauty revolution!

Spence Pentland, Dr. TCM, FABORM, CAOOM, author of BEING FERTILE
Yinstill Reproductive Wellness, locations in Vancouver, Surrey, & Kelowna
604.873.WELL (9355) | http://www.yinstill.com

…..Click here to learn more about IVF & acupuncture and here for Dr Pentland’s recently published research on the stress relieving effects of acupuncture during IVF.