have touched upon the nutritional needs of the mother, but what of the man, the father? He is not going to nurture the baby inside his body, but the health of his sperm is also dependent upon his diet for the three months before conception. That is how long it takes the testes to make healthy sperm. Too much alcohol, cigarettes and drugs, working with certain harmful chemicals, eating too many processed foods and too few vegetables and fruits may lead to sad-looking and possibly defective sperm. A low sperm count may be due to environmental factors, such as oestrogenic pesticides, but a poor diet will also lead to weakened or deformed sperm.
Research has shown that some chemicals can cause mutations to the sperm. Instead of the head of the sperm being oval, it can be too large or too small, or become pear-shaped, and these changes also cause chromosomal abnormality. Moreover, ‘it takes 120 days for sperm production to recover after exposure to chemicals’.26
Putting a sorry-looking sperm into a starving egg and implanting the resulting embryo into a sick womb is a recipe for disaster. In the UK about 750,000 babies are born each year, but more than 40,000 are born early and are too small. One in 150 babies is lost through stillbirth, and one in four pregnancies ends in miscarriage, up to 60 per cent of which are due to defective sperm.27 Every miscarriage is a bereavement, the loss of a loved one. It is a very unhappy and traumatizing experience for everyone involved. Time can heal the grief, but there is always a part of the sad experience which lingers on.
For a healthy pregnancy, a healthy diet and digestive system are essential. Your diet counts for both the potential mother and father. Let that be the message to remember. Healthy babies are what everyone wants most of all. All children deserve the best start in life and, by eating nutritious food for at least three months before you contemplate becoming pregnant, you are making a commitment to improve the health of your future child.
• CASE STUDY •
Mary F of Chicago
I cannot for the life of me remember exactly what nutritional measures I made and what supplements I took (outside of evening primrose oil) when I was trying to conceive; it was three years ago. I wish I could be of more help because you certainly helped me! All I can tell you is that I believe that the nutritional measures you suggested played an integral role in my conceiving my second child.
I did have surgery for my endometriosis, but very little was found. After being on your suggested regime for three months, I conceived naturally and eventually bore a beautiful daughter. I only wish I had known more about nutrition and the role it plays in endometriosis when I was trying to conceive for the first time. I’d had a wonderful son, but not until I had taken an ART hormone therapy, which I would have liked to have avoided. You enabled my husband and me to complete the perfect family we always dreamed of having.
NUTRITION COUNSELLING
In 1971 Agnes Higgins described the Montreal Diet Dispensary Study: ‘Twenty-three years ago, we were impressed by the research findings concerning the relation between maternal nutrition and birth weight, infant mortality and morbidity. Accordingly we decided to develop, for disadvantaged pregnant women, a nutrition counselling method that would compensate for individual differences in income, nutrition, weight, and special conditions of stress, with a view to improving the weight and condition of the newborn’.28 Why then, so many years later, are we still debating the same point and not putting it into action?
Foresight (The Charity for Preconceptual Care of Great Britain), has looked at research by Dr Weston Price, Dr Francis Pottenger and Sir Robert McCarrison into the influence of sound nutrition on health.29, 30, 31 Their conclusions are that the quality of the food you eat confers good health. Healthy food emanates from healthy soil and good farming principles. Dr Roger Williams also points out that we are all biochemically different and that individuals’ requirements for recommended daily amounts of nutrients may differ due to their unique body biochemistry.32 A recent study noted that ‘in pregnancy it is known that nutrient requirements alter. Women on good diets are seen to have healthier babies than those on poor diets’.33
In the UK, Foresight has reported pregnancy outcomes for 367 couples who, from 1990 to 1992, followed their suggested nutrition programme. The average ages were 34 for women (22–45 years) and 36 for men (25–59 years). Fifty-nine per cent of the couples had a previous history of reproductive problems; 37 per cent had suffered from infertility for between one and 10 years; 38 per cent had had between one and five miscarriages; 3 per cent had given birth to a stillborn child. Of the children born, 40 were small for dates, 15 were of low birth weight, and seven were malformed. Forty-two per cent of the men had reduced sperm quality.
After both partners followed the Foresight nutrition programme, an astounding 86 per cent of the women had become pregnant by 1993, and 327 children had been born (137 males and 190 females), all of them healthy at birth. Birth occurred at a mean of 38.5 weeks of gestation and the average birth weight was 3,265gm (7lb 3oz). None of the infants was malformed and none had to go into special-care baby units.34 This shows what can be achieved by dietary changes and by addressing genitourinary infections (such as chlamydia) which may be preventing conception. The programme involves no drugs and no expense save that of buying good food, and requires minimal guidance.
REPRODUCTIVE SYSTEM SUSCEPTIBILITY TO VITAMIN B-COMPLEX
The hypothalamic–pituitary–gonadal axis is highly sensitive to the intake of the B vitamins (see figure 2.1). This axis is the main highway along which the hormones (chemical messengers) travel. The vital hormone messages which pass from one end of the highway to the other must be correct. As a recent study explains: ‘Low intake of B vitamins depresses gonadotrophin releasing hormone (GnRH) secretion from the hypothalamus and thereby affects the development of the eggs and sperm in the gonads (ovary and testicles).’35 Moreover, as another source elaborates: ‘Low intake of B vitamins may also slow down the ripening of the egg before conception and be affecting fertility. The hypothalamus in other mammals reacts to a severe deficiency of any of these B vitamins (particularly riboflavin [B2]) by inhibiting GnRH secretion and so causing infertility.’36
The liver has an important role in maintaining the body’s oestrogen level within a normal range, and B vitamin deficiency may impair the liver’s oestrogen-inactivating capacity. A healthy liver is vital for normal hormone balance.37
Many people eat a diet of overrefined foods. Convenience foods are low in essential nutrients, such as magnesium, zinc, selenium and iodine, which are removed during the food-processing techniques. Fresh, unrefined foods are always the most nutritious.
FEMALE ENDOCRINE HEALTH
The length and frequency of the menstrual cycle is an important biological marker when looking for toxic chemical effects on reproduction, but these effects are difficult to distinguish from the effects of poor nutrient intake. As a published report explains, ‘The highest susceptibility to nutrient deficiency in the female ovary is during ovulatory maturation and embryonic development; the first 30 days after conception are crucial’. The research indicates that ‘a 70-fold increase in sensitivity in the ovary (to nutrient deficiency) occurs between 11.30 a.m. and 7 p.m. on the day preceding ovulation. It is therefore calculated that the period of highest susceptibility could be as long as 60 hours prior to ovulation’.38 This suggests that women should eat a healthy diet and reduce toxic overload at least one month before attempting to conceive, as should men. A recent study explains: ‘Most of the defects in ova leading to miscarriage are already present in the embryo immediately after fertilization, and they have their origin in male and female ova and sperm before fertilization’.39 This implies that the couple should both make sensible lifestyle changes for up to three months before trying to conceive to enhance their chances of achieving a successful pregnancy. The same study notes: ‘The ova lie dormant from 15 to 45 years in a mother’s ovaries until their turn comes to ripen, and when the dormant chromosomes are tightly packed and apparently very resistant to any external influence’.40 Keeping chemical exposure to a minimum would seem to be advisable. If you or your partner work with or near strong chemicals,