Lifestyle Factors Affecting Fertility

By Yemi Adesanya-Famuyiwa, MD

Montgomery Fertility Center

. http://montgomeryfertilitycenter.com/

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Lifestyle Factors Affecting Fertility

What Is Good For the Brain Is Good For the Gametes

Part 1

For years infertility specialists have advocated lifestyles that will enhance the environment in which gametes (eggs and sperm) grow and develop. The environment of these developmental stages is extremely critical to the development of high-quality eggs as well as sperm.

It turns out that what is good for the brain is also good for the gametes.

For proper development of eggs and sperm it is important to control what is introduced into the body. The common element in all this advice is to maintain a lifestyle that leads to low inflammation in the human body.

As it turns out this type of lifestyle is also conducive to diminishing the risk of degenerative brain disease. The latest book by Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Keep Sharp, highlights ways to enhance the health of your brain as well as to protect the decline that occurs with progressive dementia. The recommendations for dementia prevention mirror the same advice fertility specialists have always advocated for enhancing fertility.

Exercise is the great vitamin Ex. The market is awash with numerous supplements that will provide specific vitamin this or specific vitamin that. It is easy to overlook that exercise and proper sleep and relaxation do wonders for the body as well as the brain. Exercise decreases all-cause mortality. It also boosts your immune response thereby indirectly boosting your fertility potential. As little as 20-30 minutes of walking can make a difference. Exercise will help reduce stress and depression both of which can complicate the fertility journey.

Exercise will help to decrease blood sugar levels and there reduce the risk of insulin resistance. The importance of this in treating Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCO) related infertility cannot be emphasized enough. If you have PCO it is imperative that you incorporate exercise into your lifestyle. Floor exercise and or even yoga will help reduce the troublesome abdominal obesity that increases insulin resistance, increases risk of diabetes, and even back pain.

Try a simple regimen of 10 Cat-Cow stretches, followed by 10 Opposite-Arm-Leg-Reach, 10 leg lifts, 10 glute bridges and repeat rotation twice or thrice. If you are adventurous add 40 pushups, 100 flutter kicks, two-minute planks per rotation.

Daily stretching will also starve off chronic back pain. Exercise will also decrease your incidence of dementia as you get older.

Sleep is the great vitamin Sl. Sleep is the body’s mechanism for healing and reducing inflammation. Chronic sleep deprivation has consequences that can lead with a domino effect to infertility.

Lack of sleep is associated with high blood pressure, weight gain, obesity, diabetes, and even cancer.

Incidentally, chronic sleep deprivation is linked to dementia. Lack of sleep leads to increased inflammation and accumulation of beta amyloid, the brain protein associated with Alzheimer’s disease. Increased brain amyloid is also associated with major depression. Depression can make the fertility journey exceedingly cumbersome.

 Nutrition is another big issue for a lot of patients, which we will discuss in next month’s article.