Tag Archives: Vitamin Deficiencies

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Male Exposure to Chemicals, Alcohol, Diet and Drugs, linked to Longer Time to Conceive

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I was going to add some further information to the last post of how males need to be held more accountable in the fertility journey and look after their health better, but I found some research that explained some more about this subject.

There is so much more research on how a man’s diet and lifestyle and exposure to chemicals, does affect his ability to conceive and also what he passes onto his future offspring. Often issues in a man, are actually a bigger factor in not falling pregnant, yet most of the time, women are the ones under the microscope. It really just does not make sense.

It’s well known that what a woman eats, drinks, breathes and puts on her body while she’s pregnant or nursing can all affect her reproductive system and the health of her baby. But there is plenty of research to show that a man’s exposure to harmful chemicals plays an important role, too.

Research has found that the concentration of heavy metals,  persistent organic pollutants, alcohol, drugs and phthalates in a man’s body had more effect on how long it took a couple to conceive than the concentrations of those chemicals in the woman.

In this study, researchers looked at data from the Longitudinal Investigation of Fertility and the Environment (LIFE) Study at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. The study explored the relationship between environmental chemicals and fertility by following 501 couples for up to a year while they tried to conceive, tracking such factors as time-to-pregnancy, miscarriages, infertility, birth size and more.

The research published in the April edition of the journal Andrology, measured the amounts of certain chemicals in the urine and blood samples of both partners. Male exposures were associated with as much as 30 percent reduction in “couple fecundity,” as measured by the amount of time it took them to conceive.

Reference: – http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/andr.12171/abstract
Things such as alcohol exposure, heavy metal exposure, cigarette smoking, recreational drug use, endocrine disruptors and dietary exposures cannot be measured in a semen analysis.

To be honest, a semen analysis is just a brief overview of what is going on for a males reproductive system. Just because a man meets the minimum parameters on a semen analysis, does not mean he has good sperm to conceive naturally, or with assisted reproduction, quite the opposite actually. Semen analysis is not what normal sperm, for natural conception parameters should be, or are based on.

Semen analysis parameters are only an evaluation for Assisted Reproduction levels only, and we know that these parameters only need to be very low to meet the requirements for IVF and ICSI.

If you meet the minim parameters of this test, it does not mean you have good sperm, or sperm good enough for natural conception. Quantitively normal semen, does not mean it is qualitatively good. Plus, you can’t measure DNA damage and other environmental damage to sperm on a semen analysis. This is why so many couples are still having failed cycles, because they are told everything is OK, when in fact it isn’t.

This is why I always treat both the female and male, because over 50% of fertility issues are related to males and 85% of miscarriage issues are related to chromosomal factors relating to the male. It takes two people to have a baby, not just the female, unless you are a single female doing it on your own, or are in a same sex relationship.

Even then, sometimes the frozen sperm has issues too and a new batch is required to bring about success.

If a man is really serious about having a baby, then he will have no issue in giving up the things that are known to affect sperm. It is all about where his priority lies. If alcohol, cigarettes, drugs etc are the priority, then it begs the question, is this the right person to be trying to conceive with.

If you aren’t having success and need some answers, you can call my friendly staff and inquire about my fertility program that has assisted over 12,500 babies into the world… and counting.

Regards
Andrew Orr
Women’s & Men’s Health Crusader”
-Leaving No Stone Left Unturned

-The International Fertility Experts

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Men’s Diet, Drinking Habits and Health Affects The Health of Their Unborn Child.

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Men should have a healthy diet before conceiving, because the fathers health and everything he puts in his body, is then transferred to his future offspring via DNA in his sperm.

This is something that I have always promoted at my clinic and why I always make sure I treat the males as well as the females. Biology 101 tells us that it takes a sperm and an egg to make a baby, not just an egg. This is why preconception care is so important and why men need to be healthy prior to conceiving, just as much as the females. Healthy men produce health sperm, which then goes on to help produce a healthy baby.

Just treating the female is not ethical practice for assisting a couple for fertility purpose. By just treating the female, that is just hormone regulation and is not helping the couple. Men need to be evaluated and have their health managed and any conditions treated as well.

Semen parameters can change by as much as 20% in a given month and change daily, week, monthly and yearly. Just because the sperm has been OK, weeks, months, years ago, does not mean it is OK now.

It takes up to 90 days for a sperm to fully mature and so what you have done now, like excessive drinking and eating bad foods, can affect your sperm in that 90 days later. This is often why we see poor sperm quality in semen analysis post the Christmas and New Year periods.

Faulty DNA can be passed onto the unborn child through the sperm

We also know that many miscarriage issues are related to poor quality sperm and DNA damage of sperm as well. Up to 85% of miscarriage issues can be related to faulty DNA in a man’s sperm and this can all be due to what he eats and drinks and puts into his body.

DNA damage to the sperm that cannot be measured by normal semen analysis and requires specialised testing. If the DNA is faulty then through the mode of genetic inheritance this faulty DNA is then passed onto any future child. This can lead to many future health and developmental consequences for that offspring.

Genetic inheritance is something we all need to consider and fetal origins of disease.

Endocrine Disruption

It has been well established that environmental chemicals (endocrine disrupters) are reproductive toxicants and can be associated with impaired semen quality and reproductive potential in animals and humans.

An endocrine disruptor is defined as:

“as an exogenous agent that interferes with the synthesis, secretion, transport, binding, action or elimination of natural hormones in the body that is responsible for the maintenance of homeostasis, reproduction, development and/or behavior.”

Research has shown that poor fetal nutrition to adult-onset diseases including coronary heart disease, Type 2 diabetes and metabolic dysfunction,and has formed the basis for the developmental origins of health and disease paradigm, which similarly posits a correlation between perinatal health and the eventual development of chronic diseases. Toxicologists have also identified neonatal development as a ‘critical window of exposure’, such that chemical exposures (e.g., endocrine disrupters) have been linked to adult-onset reproductive cancers and many other diseases

Taken together, these models support the extreme sensitivity of the neonatal period to environmental influences, as shown by research, the models provide an explanation for fetal origins of adult obesity risk and other disease states, including infertility.

There are treatments for DNA damage and poor quality sperm

As part of my fertility program I talk to couples about what can assist male sperm quality and assist with DNA damage to sperm. Proper medical testing and evaluation and screening is done prior to commencement of treatments and ongoing management.

At my clinic and as part of my  fertility program, I always make sure the male is part of the whole process and ongoing health management, when helping couples have a baby.

Just remember, Biology 101, tells us it takes a sperm and an egg to make a baby, not just an egg. This is why it is so important for men to step up and be as healthy as they can prior to have a baby and do things that can help with their sperm quality as well.

Regards

Andrew Orr

-Women’s and Men’s Health Expert

-No Stone Left Unturned

-The International Fertility Experts

01 Dr Andrew Orr

healthy diet

Adherence to a Healthy Diet a Must For Fertility Success

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Is it time you that you got your diet healthier to help assist you getting the baby you have been longing to have?

While eating a health diet isn’t going to be a miracle cure to having a baby, it may help you increase your fertility and chances of a healthy pregnancy.

Of course, there are so many other factors to fertility and proper evaluation and assessment is crucial, but research does show that by adherence to a healthy diet can increase pregnancy rates by up to 80%. (American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) 61st Annual Clinical Meeting: Abstract 96. Presented May 6, 2013.) + (Fertil Steril. 2012;98[Suppl]:S47)

It is well known that healthy couples produce healthy sperm and healthy eggs and healthy parents produce healthy babies. A proper healthy diet may also help assist with gynaecological conditions as well, alongside medical management.

When I talk about diet, I am not talking about it in term of dieting. I am talking about it in terms of the proper way to way. Diet is such a crucial part of my  fertility program that has helped with assisting over 12,500 babies into the world.

So many people neglect a healthy diet and don’t try hard enough to adhere to it. Preparation for falling pregnant is just as crucial as preparing for a marathon. If you don’t put in the work, nutrients and the training, you won’t make the distance, or get a result.

It is so sad seeing people go through cycle after cycle and not doing anything to change their diet and lifestyle and then getting a failed cycle time and time again.

Of course their can be other factors to take into consideration as I said before. But, you can’t go into a cycle, or try to fall naturally, if you not eating properly, or if you are overweight, or underweight for that matter.

Medically we know that the risk of miscarriage, preterm delivery, complication etc is high in women who are either under, or overweight. (Lifestyle management before fertility treatment -Obstetrics & Gynaecology 2007;110:1050-1058.)

So many people think they have a good diet, only to find out that what they have been taught is not right. It isn’t their fault. Some people really just do not know what a healthy diet its either.

A poor diet that is high in High GI Carbohydrates causes inflammation and this has a negative impact on fertility. Inflammation is causes by high sugars, which then spikes your insulin and this causes the inflammatory response. This may also affect hormones as well.

High inflammatory response then causes oxidation which may then affect your egg and sperm quality and this may then result in damage to the DNA of the sperm and egg.

As I shared before, a healthy diet is a big  part of my fertility program and those on the program then know what a good diet is supposed to be like. Yet we see many ignoring it and wondering what has gone wrong, or what else they can do.

One of the answers is, be good with your diet!

Close enough is not good enough in this case. It is all or nothing, because this is so important. This is about having a baby. But, while having a baby is one thing, we also need people to realise that a healthy diet is also important for living a long and healthy life long after baby has arrived.

If you are overweight, you need to lose weight and if you are underweight you need to put some on. Many people are looking for miracles and go looking for an answer that doesn’t exist, or blame something else, when the fix may be as simple as adhering to a healthy eating regime.

Again, obviously diet is only a small piece of the puzzle when it comes to fertility, but it is an important one at that.

There is so much medical research out there showing that adhering to a low GI diet and the diet I promote at my clinic and for those of my fertility program

  1. The nurses study of 17,500 women showed that a diet with protein, full cream dairy, multivitamins and supplements, good fats etc increased fertility rates exponentially. (Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Nov 2007)
  2. Harvard medical schools study on 19,500 women showed that having full fat diary increased fertility while low fat dairy decreased it by 85 % and had an anovulatory effect. (Journal of Fertility and Sterility Feb 2008)
  3. A recent study in the Journal of Fertility and Sterility showed that diet increased embryo quality and pregnancy rates by as much as 80%. In a study presented at the American Society of Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) in 2012, IVF patients who switched to a low-carbohydrate, high-protein diet and then underwent another an IVF cycle increased their blastocyst formation rate from 19% to 45% and their clinical pregnancy rate from 17% to 83% (Fertil Steril. 2012;98[Suppl]:S47).

Even non-IVF patients with polycystic ovarian syndrome and endometriosis have improved pregnancy rates after making dietary and lifestyle changes.There are many other research papers out there showing this.

So if you are having failed cycle after failed cycle, or not being able to conceive naturally, you need to start looking at your diet and lifestyle as a major factor.

If you are overweight, or underweight, the same applies. An easy way to work out what weight should be (roughly), is take 100cms off your height and this will give you what you should be in body mass.

So if you are 165cms tall, then you should roughly be about 65kgs (give or take a few kilos).

All men should have a waist size of 94cm or below for good health, and all women should have a waist size of 80cms or below for good health. This is measured from the belly button around, not higher, or lower than this point.

If you are on my fertility program you should be doing this. If you aren’t and need assistance, then you can call my friendly staff and find out more about my fertility program.

I always tell my patients that the time for making excuses is over. If you do want to have this baby you have been longing to have, then you need to prepare the body as though you were about to train for a marathon. We always say that the ones that do everything right have a much higher chance of getting the results.

Is it time you got your diet and lifestyle back on track?

Take care

Regards

Andrew Orr

-No Stone Left Unturned

-Women’s and Men’s Health Advocate

-The International Fertility Experts

Womens Health Consultations 1 1

Women’s Health Consultations

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*Need help with a Women’s health condition?
*Suffering from a long term chronic disease state?
*Not getting the answers and care you deserve?
 
Many of these issues are not normal, but more importantly many of these issues can easily be treated quite easily with the proper investigations, treatments and proper management. 
 
Everyday I see women who are sick of being ‘missed’ and ‘dismissed’ by everyone they see and they just want to get some sort of normal life back. This is where as a healthcare practitioner with over 20 years experience in assisting with reproductive issues, pregnancy and women’s health conditions, I may be able to assist you. My motto is “No Stone Left Unturned” and I apply this to every person I have helped.
 
I am proud to announce that I now have a better way of being able to doing consultations for anyone needing help with women’s health conditions and reproductive issues. It doesn’t matter where you live, now I can help more people from around the globe and get them the answers they should be getting. 
 
Before we only had skype, which had limitations of not being able to screen share the important information that I need to share in a consultation with patients
 
Well, now I can do consultations through Zoom and these are nearly the same as if you were with me in person and share the same information, just the same as if you were in person.
 
Reports and Treatment medicinals and supplements are then mailed to you.
 
This is for patients who live out of the Brisbane area, or are interstate and overseas and it gives so much more scope to help everyone who wants my help.
 
If you want to get the best advice, best care and see someone with over 20 years experience in helping people, who has a Masters of Reproductive Medicine (medical) and Masters of Women’s Health Medicine (medical) as well as having qualifications in complementary medicine (Doctor of TCM, Nutritionist, Complementary Medicine etc), then you need to see book in with me.
 
My multi-modality approach has helped with assisting over 12,500 plus babies into the world and assisted tens of thousands of women with women’s health conditions and Reproductive issues, along side medical interventions. 
 
As a healthcare practitioner with a special interest in reproductive and women’s health, my motto is “No Stone Left Unturned” and I apply that to every person I help. It is because I care and want to help care for you as well.
 
If you would like to organise an online, or in-person consultation with me, please give my staff a call on +61 7 32795697, or email info@shentherapies.com.au. You can also submit an online enquiry through my website www.drandreworr.com.au too.
 
I hope to be able to help you and care for you all soon
 
Regards
Andrew Orr
-No Stone Left Unturned
 -Women’s and Men’s Health Advocate
vitamin D

Vitamin D deficiency increases risk of chronic headache

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New studies have shown that Vitamin D deficiency can increase the risk of chronic headache, according to a new study from the University of Eastern Finland. These new findings were published in he journal – Scientific Reports.

The researchers from the Kuopio Ischaemic Heart Disease Risk Factor Study, KIHD, analysed the serum vitamin D levels and occurrence of headache in approximately 2,600 men aged between 42 and 60 years. The research showed that in 68% of these men, the serum vitamin D level was below 50 nmol/l, which is generally considered the threshold for vitamin D deficiency. Those with low levels of Vitamin D were more prone to Chronic headache occurring at least on a weekly basis.

In Australia over 97% of the population are known to be Vitamin D deficient. This is because we are now staying indoors longer and sunscreens are also blocking some of the absorption on this necessary vitamin. Plus, you need to be outside in the sun at certain times of the day, for certain periods, without sunscreen on for proper absorption to occur. Our diet is another source of vitamin D and we are also lacking there.

Vitamin D deficiency is also linked to other chronic disease states and is a big part of people developing osteoporosis. Vitamin D is very much needed for healthy bones and also a healthy immune system

At my clinic I have helped and assisted people with all sorts of Vitamin, Mineral and Nutrient deficiencies. I also carry a high potency practitioner only Vitamin D supplement that may assist in getting your Vitamin D levels back to where they should be.

If you would like to book in a consultation with me, please call my friendly staff, or using the automated emails system on the website. Let me hold your hand and care for you and assist you in every step of the way to better health and a better way to live daily.

When was the last time you got your Vitamin D levels checked?

Regards

Andrew Orr

-Leaving No Stone Left Unturned

-Women’s and Men’s Health Advocate