by Jasmine | Jan 29, 2017 | Alternative Health, Fertility, Yoga Health
It is possible to increase fertility with yoga poses: restorative fertility yoga postures encourage human body to be more open to conception. It is not about being more flexible and being able to curl your left leg over your right shoulder: this will not boost your fertility: yoga is about balancing body and mind and not only improving your physical conditional and body flexibility. There are additional external factors that contribute to the fact you might have problems trying to conceive, and these include caffeine, alcohol, smoking, stress, including communication between partners and financial worries etc.
Many people are diagnosed with unexplained infertility, treating infertility with yoga can change that diagnoses. Usually a contributing factor for infertility is stress and stress related issues. Yoga not only tones your body but it is an excellent stress reliever. It also targets specific areas of the body including organs, glandular and circulatory systems. If you start using a yoga practice for fertility your chances of overcoming infertility are three times greater than not using yoga at all. A practice specific for fertility will focus on stress relief, strengthening and toning muscles, and balancing the reproductive organs and hormones. Stress, however, has been shown to reduce the probability of conception.
Alice Domar, who has a Ph.D. in health psychology and is the director of mind-body services at the Harvard-affiliated center Boston IVF, said of yoga: “It’s a very effective relaxation technique, and a great way to get women in the door to get support. It’s a way to get them to like their bodies again.” In 2000, she, published the results of a study in Fertility and Sterility (Vol. 73, No. 4) that showed women who participated in her program, which included relaxation and yoga, were almost three times more likely to get pregnant than women who didn’t. A Gentler Form of Exercise Dr. Domar has an interesting theory about one of the ways that some women seem to benefit from yoga. “I believe that vigorous exercise may reduce fertility in some women,” she says. “We can’t predict whose fertility is exercise sensitive.
Yoga is something they can do that will reduce stress without impacting their fertility. For really chronic exercisers, my clinical impression is that at least half that stop get pregnant. Yoga is the best tool I have for these women.” According to Rahul Sachdev, M.D., a specialist in Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Brunswick, New Jersey, incorporating the health-enhancing benefits of yoga with traditional and innovative medical intervention can relieve the stress associated with infertility, thus vastly increasing the chances for conception. Treating infertility with yoga is a natural and cost effective way to conceive. Did you know that the treatment for infertility business is $2 billion dollar business. Many couples spend thousands of dollars for various treatments that can cause painful side effects, financial strain, and additional stress. Many of these treatments are not successful and the couple continues trying different treatments becoming more frustrated and financially troubled.
The Mayo Clinic recently acknowledged that chronic stress can lead to a variety of health and emotional problems. Yoga is an effective method to reduce stress and anxiety. But in addition, yoga for fertility can help to detoxify the body while relaxing tight muscles and connective tissue. The specific areas in Yoga for fertility of the low back (sacral plexus) hips, groins and pelvis begin to improve in blood flow and circulation-which can aid in healthier gynecological function. As the body relaxes, the mind calms and the nervous system is aided by the breath to help lower stress hormones like cortisol, which can impede reproductive hormone function. This can potentially be beneficial for fertility. Learning to listen to the body’s natural rhythms through yoga and breathing can bring a deep sense of peace and connection to our own innate healing capacity, helping women and couples feel more empowered on their journey.
To treat infertility with yoga there a some basic steps you can take to get you started. This first thing is to make a commitment to start lifestyle practices that will reduce your stress level. Stress can cause your hormones and organs to become off balance. When you are not in balance your body is not working to it’s full potential. Yoga breathing will help calm the body and mind replacing the negative thoughts with positive. There are specific poses in yoga that focus on your reproductive organs and pelvic area to increase blood flow and stimulate energy. There are also poses that soften the abdominal area clearing tension from the uterus, ovaries and fallopian tubes which will increase their productivity.
Yoga will bring balance to your body, mind, and soul specifically your hormone levels. These poses will improve your glandular function which will stabilize hormones. In order for the reproductive process to occur your hormones must be in balance. Yoga is a natural way to treat your infertility by decreasing the stress from month after month of trying to conceive. When your body is stressed and tense so are your organs causing them not to work properly. Yoga will calm and release the tension specifically in the pelvic region which brings increased blood flow to your reproductive organs and allows the energy to flow freely opening and softening the pelvic organs.
See part 2 and 3 for Top Fertility Poses in Yoga.
by Jasmine | May 1, 2016 | Couples Yoga, Fertility, fertility health
Yoga Poses for Infertility at Intimate Couples Retreats or at Studios.
All too often, women trying to conceive get caught up in the frenzy of time running out (hence the phrase biological clock), as if their bodies were bombs ticking away, about to detonate into an explosion of birth or an implosion of infertility. 
Yoga, with its spotlight on dropping into the present moment, helps people avoid becoming fixated on future. It helps would-be parents in other ways, too. One of its main benefits—reducing stress levels—takes the body out of its fertility-hindering fight-or-flight mode.
If the body has to concentrate its resources on controlling stress, energy gets diverted away from reproduction. Since stress can constrict blood vessels, including those in the uterus, a yoga practice designed with the intention of lowering stress can only help with overall health and fertility.
Stress plays a part in every single illness. If you are in a stressed state, you don’t have the hormonal profile of someone who is likely to get pregnant. A gentle restorative yoga practice that pays special attention to the qualities of opening, softening, and yielding are the most beneficial for reproductive health.
Within the yoga lexicon, inverted poses shine as excellent asanas for balancing the endocrine system, soothing rattled nerves, clearing the mind, resting the heart, and increasing circulation. Normally performed at the end of a practice, they can also stand alone as a quick time-out. One of the simplest and most effective poses, Legs Up the Wall Pose (Viparita Karani), restores beginners and advanced yogis alike.
Quality rest, like the one found in Legs-Up-the-Wall Pose in which you lie on your back, palms facing up and feet spread apart with legs up in the air but resting against the wall as well as corpse pose, are the most important poses for fertility. Living in a highly wired world we are in a state of low-lying anxiety all the time. To rebalance our hormones, conscious rest is essential. The quintessential restorative pose for everywoman is Reclining Butterfly Pose, in which you lie over a bolster with the soles of your feet together.
It’s so important in our fast-paced society to rest consciously everyday—it reestablishes hormonal balance. The quintessential restorative pose for everywoman is Reclining Butterfly Pose, in which you lie over a bolster with the soles of your feet together. It helps to open all areas of the reproductive system, the pelvis, the ovaries, the fallopian tubes, the hips and the groin. Since your arms are spread wide and your chest is opened up, it is incredibly heart-opening as well.
Yoga Retreats or Intimate Couples Retreats are ideal venues to work on yoga for fertility. Couples yoga help partners connect on a kinesthetic level at the level of soul. You also enrich your spirit by focusing on your beloved and letting your beloved be focused on you.
What are things you and your sweetie do together to tone up and bond (keep it PG Rated guys)…..? Post your thoughts on our Facebook page.
Jasmine offers beginner and introduction classes that connect you to a place of deep peace that leaves you feeling refreshed and renewed at wallet-friendly prices. She offers partner yoga, couples yoga classes, yoga meditation, prenatal yoga, gentle yoga for the stiff and inflexible and beginner yoga. People that are interested in Yoga Retreats, Yoga and Meditation Classes, Thai Massage, Massage for Couples, romantic retreats, Romantic places in Philadelphia, Philadelphia date ideas or just people just looking for meaningful, and soulful ways to connect will benefit.
by Jasmine | Nov 10, 2015 | Fertility
What are you doing to move your body? What kind of exercise?
Do you lift weights?
Do you do Zumba?
Whatever it is it should fill you with joy and energy and be a practice that is sustainable.
Don’t have “time” for exercise?
How much “time” do you spend staring at your cell phone screen or TV?
How much “time” do you spend getting cocktails or beer at the bar?
None of us have more or less time than anyone else… we just have priorities.
If you want to catch up with a friend, could you go on a walk instead of meeting for coffee?
If you want to have a date night with your sweetie, could you do a partner yoga class instead of dinner and a movie?
You could take a nature hike….. walk on the beach…. turn up the stereo in the house and dance like a lunatic….
How will you move?
Smiles, Jasmine
by Jasmine | Oct 30, 2015 | Fertility, Fertility Boss, Fertility Expert, ivf
After doing some tests, is your doctor recommending IVF as your best option for getting pregnant? Have you spoken to other couples or women that have gone through this and aware of the time commitment and what is involved in the process? Are you prepared to go through this process more than once? What books are resources are you using to educate and inform yourself?
Have you spoken to your insurance to find out what is and what is not covered? IVF can be a time intensive, very painful, very uncomfortable and incredibly invasive and very expensive process that many have to attempt more than once. IVF involves a series of painful, uncomfortable and time consuming procedures as well as giving yourself injections at home. It’s a serious health commitment that will be all-consuming for a period of your life. Being as informed and educated as possible can reduce frustration and confusion so going into the IVF process without doing your due diligence is not a wise idea.
Being prepared for this process both mentally, physically and financially is critical before you embark on this. Make sure your partner is well informed as well since his support is going to be critical. You might need to plan to take some time off of work as well since many visits to the clinic will be involved so plan for some days off during egg retrieval days and after taking fertility drugs as well.
Make sure to nourish and rest before and after procedures so that can feel replenished instead of depleted. Even if you go this route instead of purely using holistic fertility methods, being as healthy and having as much vitality as possible will boost your chances for success.
by Jasmine | Oct 26, 2015 | Fertility, fertility health, Foods For Fertility, infertility
Food has such a direct link between conception and health. If you are not eating foods that are nutrient dense then your reproductive system will be much more challenged. Foods runs our bodies……. in this country we mostly eat food for survival but not to flourish.
Is the produce you are eating loaded with fungicides, pesticides and other “cides”? Do you ever buy organic? How often? Have you ever heard of “the dirty dozen? The top produce that has the most pesticides in them? Usually the produce with thinner skins and peels such as peaches, strawberries absorb more pesticides.
What is a typical breakfast, lunch and dinner for you? Do you make your own food or do you always buy fast, processed or frozen food? How do you feel after you eat? Are you lethargic and ready for a nap or does it give you the energy to keep on going?
How can you “eat the rainbow” more… filling your plate with more colorful fruits and vegetables and reducing empty calories with things like white breads, white rice and white flour.
When you read the ingredients are they filled with chemicals? Making your own food is one of the most nourishing things you can do for yourself and it will have the side benefit of making your wallet happy as well.
Keep your wallet fat, not your waistline.
What is one choice you can make today about the food you eat that can become a habit? Can you eliminate the candy bar after lunch? Can you choose to buy mostly organic?
Can you incorporate a salad into your dinner every night? Can you order a side of vegetables instead of french fries when you eat out. If you are overweight or obese that will make getting pregnant more difficult. Do you need additional support to get down to a healthy pre-pregnancy weight?
Here are some specific nutrients that can boost your fertility health.
IODINE FOR FERTILITY
Iodine, a non metallic trace element, is required by our bodies for making thyroid hormones. As in, if you do not have enough iodine in your body you can not make enough thyroid hormones.
When our bodies are deficient in this element, it affects our thyroid, adrenals, and entire endocrine system. Not only is it important in a fertility diet, it’s essential in the prenatal and nursing period as well.
Infant mortality rates start to climb in areas known for iodine deficiency, and it’s also been linked to higher rates of miscarriage and still birth.
It used to be prevalent in our soil, but unfortunately we’ve destroyed so many of the nutrients with bad farming practices and chemicals that much of what we currently grow is lacking in key nutrients, iodine being one of them.
While it’s not found in our soil near as much, it is still prevalent in seafoods. Our bodies can not make it on their own, so you must consume iodine in your diet.
- Fruits and Vegetables grown by the sea, including coconut products
Blackstrap molasses
- Saltwater fish; haddock, whiting, herring
- Butter from cows fed on iodine rich soil
- Dried Kelp
- Spinach
- Milk and dairy products (at least 20% of iodine is lost during pasteurization so raw is best)
- Eggs
What about Iodized salt?
(and while iodized salt is actually quite high in iodine, it’ can be rather hard for our bodies to assimilate)
The recommended RDA is a small 150 mcgs for women and increase to 220 when pregnant and 290 when nursing, but are you even eating foods that contain iodine in them?
On the other side of the deficiency coin, is that to much in your body isn’t a good thing either. And because iodine directly affects your thyroid and hormones it may be something you want to work with a health professional on.
OMEGA 3 FATTY ACIDS FOR FERTILITY
There are 3 different types of omega 3 fats; alpha-linolenic acid (ALA- plant based), eicosapentaenioc acid (EPA – animal based), and docosahexaenioc acid (DHA – animal based). Plant based ALA can be found in:
Super Foods For Fertility – Eat To Conceive
- Walnuts
- Chia Seeds
- Flaxseed
- Hemp
Animal based EPA and DHA can be found in:
- Egg yolks from pastured chickens {contain two to four times the amount of omega 3’s as conventional eggs and oily
- Coldwater fish like salmon, herring, tuna, cod, and trout
These healthy fats have been shown to help increase a womans fertility by regulating hormones and ovulation as well as increasing both the quantity of fertile cervical mucous and the blood flow to the reproductive organs.
It is also thought that these good fats help women who are suffering from endometriosis.¹
And a study done last year suggests that women suffering from infertility, on average, have lower levels of omega 3 fats.
Men who do not have enough omega 3’s in their system may have issues with sperm production since the DHA within these good fats help protect the sperm from free radicals and damage.
So, how often do you eat foods that are high in nutrients for increased fertility? Other the last few weeks we’ve looked at some of the many things our bodies need – where are you lacking?
by Jasmine | Oct 25, 2015 | Acupuncture, Fertility, Traditional Chinese Herbs, yoga infertility
You’ll meet plenty of women who will gleefully tell you how they just had some acupuncture treatments and also traditional chinese herbs and medicine and got pregnant.
Getting Pregnant With Acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Herbs
Acupuncture helps to clear out blocked pathways that are in your entire system. Stagnation in a general health sense can block all kinds of neural and reproductive pathways. It will often take multiple sessions over the course of at least a few months to possibly get pregnant with acupuncture. Most acupuncturists will also give you some traditional chinese herbs to further bring healthy chi to your reproductive organs. They might even focus on specific organs such as your liver, gall bladder and spleen.
I’ve been to a few dozen acupuncturists over the years for various health issues I have had. It is generally a very relaxing session and you might leave in a state of relaxed bliss…. you might even feel like you are in an altered state at the end of your session. You will probably fall asleep during your session which is a sign that the needles are working on a very deep level to clear out deep blocks and stagnation.
The cost of acupuncture can vary depending on if you are doing community acupuncture ( you are in a communal setting, often in a chair with a few other people in the room) or if you are having a private session. Community acupuncture can range from $20 to $45 a session. A private acupuncture session can range from $50 to $90 a session. If you pay in advance for bulk sessions you will often get a discount.
While this can be the path to pregnancy for some women, it works even more powerfully when it is used an an adjunct to IVF or with other holistic lifestyle changes ( cleaning, food and exercise changes and mindfulness practices) There are some acupuncturists that even specialize in fertility and some who will accompany you to the fertility clinic when you are getting your IVF procedures done.
