A Functional Medicine Approach to Fertility, Preconception, and Postpartum Health
Today’s guest blog post is brought to you by Dr. Demetra Mydlo of Whole Hearted Chiropractic located in Dallas, Texas. Dr. Deme Webster Certified to work on clients during pregnancy and children from the newborn age and on. Dr. Deme is currently studying to be a Functional Medicine Practitioner and is awesome at it (if you want Midwife Ashley’s opinion).
What is Functional Medicine?
Functional Medicine operates from a perspective that our bodies are self healing if given the necessary building blocks and environment. Our purpose is to find the root cause of the problem.
The ability to achieve pregnancy and carry a healthy full term baby depends on how well the brain is communicating with the reproductive organs. Sounds simple enough but this pathway of communication can be disrupted by the function of one’s thyroid, adrenal glands, detoxification processes, digestion, etc. That is why the Functional Medicine process uses a whole body systems biology. Rather than just looking at the parts, or reproductive organs.
Functional medicine uses the whole body system
Regardless of the goals of the individual seeking care, we thoroughly investigate the health of the individual. Our goal is to make you your healthiest so that a healthy pregnancy becomes the happy side effect.
On just our first visit, we go through History questionnaires that evaluate everything. From how you were born, any illnesses you have ever had, environmental toxic exposures throughout the lifetime, physical or emotional trauma, your dietary habits, sleep habits, stress of any kind, and any symptoms of any ailments you have ever experienced. This first visit will likely be the most in depth look at one’s health that they have ever experienced. This narrows down areas that we need to focus on. So care is very much based on the individual and their life experience.
Before Conception
Depending on what part of your journey you are seeking care differs slightly in our approach. In a perfect world, everyone would come to us at least 4 to 6 months before trying to conceive and start with our Preconception program.
Ideally, both mom and dad to be are on board. It takes 72 days to regenerate sperm and 120 days to regenerate new eggs. We can take that time to clean up the system and have super healthy egg and sperm. This creates the best opportunity to prevent problems such as preeclampsia, gestational diabetes, and other complications. We do this by regulating blood pressure, blood sugar, inflammation, etc.
Thyroid
In order to know exactly what you need we do some functional blood work to assess nutritional status, overall health status and hormone balance. One of the most important things we look for in Preconception and Postpartum health is the function of the Thyroid. TSH, is a hormone produced by the pituitary gland. It tells us how well your brain is communicating with your Thyroid. If a woman has a level greater than 2.0, she falls into the “upper normal” category according to outdated medical ranges and can often be dismissed. However, we recognize this as “functionally” too high.
Recent evidence is showing mom is at a great risk for miscarriage. Even if mom does achieve and maintain a pregnancy, that baby is at risk for motor and cognitive development issues. To ensure that Mom is making enough Thyroid hormone to support a healthy pregnancy we look at more than just TSH. We order a total T4 and T3 and a free T4 and T3, an Anti-thyroid peroxidase (anti-TPO), and Thyroglobulin Antibodies (TgAb). If TSH is low you may need to be put on medication and we would refer you to your primary provider. If you are already on thyroid meds, you may need a 50% increase during pregnancy.
Postpartum
In Postpartum we definitely want to re-evaluate labs. Pregnancy is so taxing on the Mother’s body. This is because the baby is getting everything it needs to develop from the mother. If she is breastfeeding she continues to share her reserves. We also now know that Postpartum depression can evolve from nutritional deficiency.
Nutritional deficiency is where we are not producing what the body needs to create our happy neurotransmitters such as Serotonin, Dopamine, etc. These neurotransmitters are what allow our body to regulate our emotions, but also energy, pain, cravings, stress and more! We also know that 44% of women who develop an autoimmune disease have onset after the first year of pregnancy. So hopefully we caught any risk with labs before or in early conception.
If you were not assessed for such risks then we definitely want to catch it in the postpartum period before a full blow condition like Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis arises.
Prevention
Although prevention is the best medicine, most people look for help when things just aren’t right. Functional Medicine is a great natural approach to Infertility. We have the same approach as with any patient, but we get a deeper look into her adrenal and hormone health by looking at an assessment called the Dutch test.
For some women, testing reproductive hormones (progesterone, estrogen, etc.) on a single day with the Dutch Complete is sufficient but If we have a patient with a history of multiple miscarriages, failed IVF or IUI, PCOS, luteal insufficiency, long standing irregular cycles, etc, we use a Cycle Mapping test that assesses hormones every day throughout the menstrual cycle. These tests are arguably the most comprehensive assessments of hormonal health available.
Treatment
When it comes to treatment, recommendations vary patient to patient. The foundation is creating better lifestyle habits of healthy diet, sleep, appropriate exercise, and stress management and we support the body through this process with quality nutrition and herbal supplements. We may also discuss how other modalities can help achieve your goals such as Chiropractic, Acupuncture, Talk therapy, etc. Our goal is to help you optimize your health to achieve the healthiest birth experience possible.
Wholeheartedly, Dr. Deme.
If you are in the area and want to schedule a visit with Dr. Deme or read her blog, head over to Whole Hearted Chiropractic.
Do you know how chiropractic care in pregnancy can benefit you? Is morning sickness kicking your butt?
