Episode 354: Trying to Conceive? How to Support Your Body for Optimal Fertility
Listen on Apple Podcasts | Listen on Spotify
If you’ve ever felt frustrated or confused about your fertility journey, you’re not alone. In this episode, Erin is talking to our lead practitioner Rachel Heintz, MS, RDN, to break down the key factors that influence female fertility beyond just age and ovulation. They dives into how stress, gut health, and nutrient deficiencies can all play a role, and what you can do to optimize your chances of conception naturally.
You’ll also learn the biggest misconceptions about fertility, how to recognize the signs your body is sending, and practical strategies to support hormone balance. Whether you’re actively trying to conceive or just want to better understand your reproductive health, this episode is packed with insights.
In This Episode:
The importance of hormones in female fertility [04:52]
How stress and lack of ovulation can affect the menstrual cycle [08:11]
The role of melatonin as a powerful antioxidant that protects egg cells [09:15]
The impact of gut health on hormonal balance and fertility [16:07]
Rachel shares her favorite supplements for supporting mitochondrial health, like CoQ10 and NAC [24:02]
A comprehensive starting point for foundational labs and lifestyle changes to support your fertility journey [29:42]
Resources mentioned:
Funk’tional Nutrition Academy™ https://www.funktionalnutritionacademy.com/
Organifi supplement powder (save 20% on your order with code FUNK)
LMNT Electrolyte Replenishing powder (Use code FUNK get a free sample pack with any purchase!)
Qualia Senolytic (get up to 50% off and an extra 15% off your first purchase with link + code FUNKS)
Bon Charge (Use code FUNK to save 15%)
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Erin Holt [00:00:00]:
I'm Erin Holt and this is the Functional Nutrition Podcast where we lean into intuitive functional medicine. We look at how diet, our environment, our emotions and our beliefs all affect our physical health. This podcast is your full bodied, well rounded resource. I've got over a decade of clinical experience and because of that, I've got a major bone to pick with diet, culture and the conventional healthcare model. Many, they're both failing so many of us. But functional medicine isn't the panacea that it's made out to be either. We've got some work to do, and that's why creating a new model is my life's work.
Erin Holt [00:00:37]:
I believe in the ripple effect, so I founded the Functional Nutrition Academy, a school and mentorship for practitioners who want to do the same. This show is for you. If you're looking for new ways of thinking about your health and you're ready to be an active participant in your own healing, please, please keep in mind this podcast is created for educational purposes only and should never be used as a replacement for medical diagnosis or treatment. I would love for you to follow the show, rate, review and share because you never know whose life you might change and of course, keep coming back for more. Hello, my friends. Today I've got Rachel Heinz on the show. She's our lead practitioner and we're gonna talk about optimizing female fertility. So before we even get into this conversation, Rachel, when should start thinking about this?
Rachel Heinz [00:01:26]:
Honestly, I say it's never too soon to start thinking about it. Even if you think you want to start trying to get pregnant in 12 months or 18 months. Like Now's the time to take some of the tips that we're going to chat about today and put it into practice.
Erin Holt [00:01:38]:
Yeah. So start thinking about it sooner than you might think you need to. So I want to just clarify. Infertility is really defined as the inability to conceive after 12 months of actively trying to conceive. So, like giving it the old college try, if you're a woman older than 35, it's after six months. Now, we don't specialize as a practice, we don't specialize in infertility. However, we do know that more and more couples are struggling to conceive. And actually it was Rachel that advocated for doing more of this work in our practice because she's like, more people are coming to me struggling.
Erin Holt [00:02:16]:
This is something that we should really help people with. And as we'll talk about today, there's a lot of different contributing factors and even lifestyle factors that can contribute to a couple's ability to conceive. So when we work on everything that we will discuss today, we can see people successfully get pregnant. I always joked that we had YHR babies. YHR is your hormone revival. It's our three month hormone program. And now we're seeing more TFN babies pop up, which is really wonderful. It's obviously extraordinarily rewarding work.
Erin Holt [00:02:51]:
There's nothing quite like the feeling of a client sending us a screenshot of an ultrasound. So we do work with people to help them focus on more of that preconception care so that we can set you up for success with a healthy pregnancy. And that's definitely something that we're actively doing in our practice.
Rachel Heinz [00:03:12]:
Definitely. And I also feel like preconception care is oftentimes boiled down to just take a prenatal and everything will be okay. And sometimes it can be a little bit more complicated than that. Today we're gonna chat about some strategies you can use to optimize fertility, the groundwork for healthier pregnancies. It's important to acknowledge that a variety of factors can impact the amount of time it takes to conceive. This includes your nutrition status, your age, the quality of your eggs and the quality of sperm. The other part of the equation, toxin exposure, and then overall health, which includes hormonal health. And I like to say that everyone's fertility journey is unique.
Rachel Heinz [00:03:56]:
And when we're supporting our clients and the women that we work with, we like to take a body systems approach to supporting their health and their fertility. So today we'll chat about some areas to consider, looking into if you're trying to conceive or even if you're a practitioner who's working with clients.
Erin Holt [00:04:13]:
And one little teaser of an announcement that I want to make before we get into this conversation is that we are reviving your hormone revival. So this is our 3 month hormone rebalancing program and we have not run it live in close to two years. The last time we ran it live, we thought it was going to be the last time because we just did not have the bandwidth or the woman power to run it anymore. And now our team has more than doubled in size. So we do. And with all of the hormonal issues going on and so many people really wanting a clear system to follow to begin to rebalance their hormones, we are going to be launching this pretty soon. So keep your eyes and your ears open because this is something that we are all for, very, very, very excited about. But today, today we're going to focus on fertility and supporting conception.
Erin Holt [00:05:05]:
So let's start with the obvious hormones, specifically sex hormones. Talk to us about those.
Rachel Heinz [00:05:10]:
So Lily Nichols is a women's health dietitian, and she says that a healthy menstrual cycle sets the stage for a healthy pregnancy. And so if you're thinking about conceiving, start by taking a look at your cycle currently, because your menstrual cycle is really a reflection of what's occurring with your overall hormonal health, your blood sugar balance, inflammation levels, and more. Sometimes you'll hear people refer to this as the fifth vital sign as well. You know, when we think about the menstrual cycle as a whole, each month you build and shed your uterine lining. Your uterine lining is what will basically be the home for the fertilized egg. And if everything is working well, you should be ovulating and releasing an egg each month. And it's really important to note we need to be ovulating in order to get pregnant. Once we ovulate, once the egg is fertilized, it'll implant into the uterine lining.
Rachel Heinz [00:06:02]:
This is also called the endometrium. So we might, like, go back and forth and call it both different things on our chat today. And in order to have a healthy endometrium, we need healthy levels of estrogen and progesterone. Estrogen thickens your uterine lining in the second half of your menstrual cycle. And then progesterone, it helps to support and maintain the uterine lining.
Erin Holt [00:06:26]:
I had to pull up this graph for part of a presentation that I gave last week, and it's cool to see when you are. If you're looking at estrogen and progesterone on a graph for a pregnant woman, both of them are increasing, and it's really to stabilize the health of that endometrium. So it's kind of interesting to see. But with all sex hormones or with all hormones, we always want them in balance. So, yes, we need appropriate levels of estrogen and progesterone. But then we also see and work with a lot of women who are making either too much estrogen or they're not clearing it out of their body. And that can create its own host of issues. So, for example, too much estrogen can lead to fibroid growth.
Erin Holt [00:07:03]:
These fibroids can release inflammatory cytokines, and that can impact implantation. So when we're talking about hormones, which, you know, obviously we will be today, we're always talking about them in balance. What about adrenal hormones.
Rachel Heinz [00:07:17]:
So the hormones that are released in a stress response can also inhibit the secretion of estrogen, progesterone, and then also luteinizing hormone. So luteinizing hormone, AKA lh, it's part of the hormone cascade that's responsible for ovulation. So if you're dealing with really high cortisol because of high stress or inflammation, this can inhibit lh, and then this can cause delayed ovulation, or you might not even ovulate that month that much or that month. And honestly, many of my clients will see delayed ovulation during seasons of really high stress, a lot of travel, or even sickness. And we saw this a ton with COVID or, like, something that I tell my clients a lot is like, let's say you're supposed to ovulate today and there's an earthquake today. Your body might be like, whoa, now is not a good time to get pregnant. Let's try again next week. Similarly, if you got sick around the time that you were supposed to ovulate, your body would be like, not today.
Rachel Heinz [00:08:14]:
Let's try again later or next month.
Erin Holt [00:08:17]:
So if there is delayed ovulation, would you also see just a little longer cycle in delayed menstruation as well, or not necessarily?
Rachel Heinz [00:08:24]:
Yes. So basically, if all systems are working well, we should see someone get their period roughly 13 to 14 days after ovulation. So if ovulation is delayed, the cycle will be longer, too.
Erin Holt [00:08:38]:
So I don't track ovulation anymore. I just. I have a lot to keep track of. Ovulation is not one such thing, but I usually know when I'm ovulating just because of signs, and I'm sure we've talked about that here on the podcast, but my period is late right now, and we didn't have an earthquake. I was under so much stress in, like, the good kind of stress, the excitement stress, but a lot of stress for the training that I just led at the time of this recording. It was just last week. And so that really has impacted my cycle. And so just be aware of that, that huge periods of stress, even just like lifestyle stress, can really impact your ovulation and your menstrual cycle.
Erin Holt [00:09:16]:
So obviously this can impact your overall fertility, too. So we want to keep stress at bay as much we can. Melatonin is also a hormone, too. So tell us about that.
Rachel Heinz [00:09:28]:
We love melatonin. Melatonin is a powerful antioxidant that protects our egg cells, and we really want to make sure that we're supporting a Healthy sleep and wake cycle on a daily basis. I also sometimes call it the light and dark cycle. But basically the reproductive hormones that are released from our brain are also influenced by your circadian rhythm. So making sure you're getting a good amount of sleep each night, limiting your screen use sl spending time outdoors can really help to support healthy melatonin production, lead to healthy egg quality, and then those reproductive hormones can really be supported as well. Sometimes I think about like, is there a little bit of an environmental mismatch for us with how much we're using screens and how little time we're spending outdoors? And so tweaking your routines can be really supportive of fertility as well.
Erin Holt [00:10:17]:
When we are looking at infertility and the inability to conceive, we're seeing that with increased uptick, we're seeing a lot more of that. And we have to look at the overall environment. I don't just mean like the environment, what's in the skies, but like every aspect of our lives. And so it's not surprising and, or shocking to me, as disheartening as it might be that we are seeing this, the body just isn't feeling safe in our current environment. And so when you get deep into the journey of infertility, there's a lot of things, lot of different ways that can support you. But what we're looking at are mechanisms that can be contributing to the inability to conceive. And let's look at our lifestyle, let's look at how we're living our day to day. Let's look at the easy lifts first and foremost and see if that can move the needle.
Erin Holt [00:11:08]:
So even just exposing yourself to the. So we. So weird when I say that getting outside and exposing your body to natural light throughout the day can make such huge, huge shifts. So let's work on the basics before we freak out. That's essentially what I'm trying to say. Well, I think when we talk about hormones, what can often get lost in the hormone or even the fertility discussion is thyroid health. But holy smokes, can it play such a huge part?
Rachel Heinz [00:11:36]:
Oh, definitely. And thyroid issues are so common in women with fertility issues. We see this a ton in practice. And all of the cells in our body, including our ovaries and our egg cells, have receptors for thyroid hormones. And when we see that a woman has low thyroid function, we know that this can affect the production of GnRH. GnRH is one of those hormones that's involved in ovulation. It's gonadotropin releasing hormone. I Never feel like I say that.
Rachel Heinz [00:12:04]:
Right. But something else that we can see with the thyroid hormones is TSH, Thyroid Stimulating Hormone. When it is less than 3, it's associated with higher markers of ovarian reserve. Basically what this means is the more normal your TSH is, the more eggs you have available to release and to ovulate. We also can see in many of our clients that elevated thyroid antibodies, they can be associated with having a harder time conceiving and then even pregnancy complications as well, even when TSH, T3 and T4 are normal. That's why we love running thyroid panels on our clients.
Erin Holt [00:12:43]:
In a full thyroid panel, we're not just looking at tsh. And if you are somebody listening that has been struggling to conceive, get a full thyroid panel, like kick down doors like the goddamn Kool Aid man, if you must. But this is something that absolutely is so critical. You need to know your thyroid health and thyroid physiology. This is why we run a full thyroid workup in your hormone revival. I mean, this not just because people are trying to get pregnant, but because it's so important for overall health and overall hormone health too. There's a lot of eyes on sex hormones, estrogen, progesterone, testosterone. There's a lot of talk about cortisol.
Erin Holt [00:13:23]:
I don't think there's enough understanding or discussion about how thyroid physiology can feed into both of those. So seeing the full picture is so huge. So we're always running this in our onetoone practice. We do offer this in yar, you know, so come work with us if you need the help. But if you're working with somebody and they're not running a full thyroid panel, like really, really demand it if you're struggling with infertility, okay, immune function.
Rachel Heinz [00:13:48]:
So immune dysfunction is also a pretty big risk factor for suboptimal fertility. We can also see more pregnancy complications if there's an issue with the immune system. And the way that I think about it, a lot of it boils down to inflammation. Inflammation really can influence our overall hormonal levels and then also the level of inflammation at, like, the endometrium itself and the ability of the uterus to accept an embryo. So I say this all the time. We do a lot of inflammation, inflammation hunting. In practice, we like to identify, okay, what's putting so much demand on your immune system in the first place. Something else that we like to see on blood work is hscrp.
Rachel Heinz [00:14:27]:
It's high sensitivity C reactive protein. It's a marker of inflammation on blood work and Then in practice, when we're thinking about, okay, what are some drivers or what are some sources of this inflammation, it can be food sensitivities, it could be infections, blood sugar imbalances, insulin resistance, and then also toxicity. And what I'm seeing a little bit more in practice now is autoimmunity, especially things like Hashimoto's can impact fertility. So we always want to try to get autoimmune activity controlled or reduced prior to trying to conceive.
Erin Holt [00:15:00]:
And we're always screening for early clues for autoimmunity, again, both in our practice and in the blood panel that we do in yhr, because if we can catch it early, we can really, really help to stabilize the immune system. And what we are seeing is that infertility, a big, huge, chief contributor to this infertility explosion that we're seeing is autoimmune in nature. So we just need to get ahead of it. Crp, like Rachel said, is, is a great way to begin to assess, like, is there levels of inflammation going on in the body? It's one of the markers we look at. It is non specific, meaning that if CRP is elevated and we want. I mean, you'd agree with this, Rachel, like, we want CRP pretty much as low as it can go. So as close to zero as we can get it, essentially it's nonspecific. So it's not going to tell us where the inflammation is.
Erin Holt [00:15:46]:
It's just going to tell us that the inflammation is there at the time of the blood draw. And then we have to get a little bit of. A little crafty and figure out, okay, where is that inflammation coming from? Which is what Rachel said, we go inflammation hunting. But screening for this early and often super, super important. And that insulin resistance piece, that blood sugar piece, insulin resistance resistance can be a huge contributing factor in somebody's inability to conceive. So we want to get that blood sugar balance as much as we can. Another driver of inflammation is what's going on with the gut, definitely.
Rachel Heinz [00:16:20]:
So our gut, it's home to so much of our immune system. Our gut plays a big role in our metabolic health and our blood sugar control. And then our gut health is oftentimes linked to or poor gut health is oftentimes linked to hormonal imbalances as well. One thing to consider is we process our hormones in our liver and then we send those hormones to our gut to be pooped out. And if there's any type of imbalance in the gut, we can see hormonal issues as a result. So one of the enzymes that we have a lot of attention on is called beta glucuronidase. And this enzyme is involved in recycling estrogen in the gut. If levels of beta glucuronidase get too high, this basically means your body is reabsorbing estrogens that should have been pooped out.
Rachel Heinz [00:17:03]:
And when we see high levels of, of this enzyme, it can be associated with endometriosis, symptoms of estrogen dominance, fibroids, and this can really influence overall fertility and hormonal health. Some of the causes for this can be too much bad bacteria on a stool test and or not enough good bacteria on a stool test. We use the GI MAP to assess for this in practice. So that's one consideration that's like a big connection between gut health and hormone health. And then it's also really important to keep in mind that pregnancy, ovulation, fertilization, growing a human, is a really nutrient dependent process. And if you're not digesting your foods well, if you're not absorbing those nutrients well, you might be deficient in some of those key nutrients. So we like to test for this, we like to assess for this on a GI map and then we also like to treat and assess for dysbiosis, bacterial overgrowth, and a leaky gut as well. These are all things that can contribute to that inflammation in the endometrium.
Erin Holt [00:18:05]:
I just recently did an episode where I mentioned pcos, which we all know PCOS can be a contributor to trouble getting pregnant. And there are links to leaky gut. With pcos, there's links to GI imbalance. So if somebody comes to us with pcos, we're like pretty much always testing the gut. So just, just a good thing to do. One thing that's interesting, last year I think I was having really brutal periods and typically my estrogen levels have always been on like the lower side, never really on the higher side of things. And liver wise, I clear them out pretty well because I'm always about once a year I'm testing my hormones with the Dutch test and I do like to do a GI MAP as well stool test once a year. And my beta glucuronidase levels were really, really high.
Erin Holt [00:18:47]:
And that is what was contributing to these like super, super heavier bleeds and really tender breasts and just like mood imbalances that I hadn't been experiencing before. So those hormone symptoms weren't really coming from my hormones, they were really coming from what was happening in my gut. So just interesting to know so you mentioned that all of this pregnancy, carrying a baby is a nutrient dependent process. What specific nutrients should we have eyes on?
Rachel Heinz [00:19:15]:
Honestly, most of them. There are some specifics we can get into. To quote Lily Nichols again, she says, think of your nutrients stores as a savings account. Pregnancy and breastfeeding are a season with a lot of withdrawals. And really optimizing your nutrient status just has an amazing effect on pregnancy outcomes and then how you can feel in general throughout that season. Nutrition really supports overall egg health and sperm quality too. But some specific nutrients that I like to focus on, and a lot of this you can get on some basic blood work. Specifically, vitamin d levels greater than 30 have been associated with better rates of pregnancy and higher ovarian reserve.
Rachel Heinz [00:20:00]:
Basically, like more eggs available to ovulate. Iron is also a really important nutrient for pregnancy. It helps to deliver oxygen to tissues, and we need iron to build that healthy uterine lining. And, you know, I see this so much in practice where my clients will get pregnant and then they're told that they are anemic in, you know, the beginning stages of pregnancy or later stages in pregnancy. And I'm like, let's focus on opt, optimizing iron status ahead of time. Another nutrient that I think about with fertility is glutathione. Glutathione is our most potent antioxidant in the body. It's really involved in detoxification, and as an antioxidant, it reduces reactive oxygen species.
Rachel Heinz [00:20:46]:
And we want low levels of reactive oxygen species. When we're thinking about egg quality, we want a ton of antioxidants. We can test for glutathione on organic acids testing. We actually test for glutathione on the Dutch test as well. And there's some hints and clues you can gather from blood work that look at glutathione status too.
Erin Holt [00:21:05]:
Yeah, glutathione. I did a lot of talking about glutathione last week. Really important to prevent leaky gut. Really important for immune stabilization as well. So glutathione is a big one that we want to look at. So with this, all of this in mind, what is, is a diet that supports fertility? What would that look like?
Rachel Heinz [00:21:24]:
Honestly? I say a diet that really focuses on, like real whole food is optimal for all the different stages of life. You know, a diet that supports fertility, specifically, it should be delicious and nourishing and it shouldn't feel like it's full of deprivation really foundationally. We think about balancing your blood sugar because balanced blood sugar leads to balanced hormonal health. We want plenty of antioxidant, rich foods. Your brightly colored fruits and veggies and fresh herbs. And then something that I encourage my clients to be mindful of is their intake of, like, barbecued foods or really fried foods. These fried foods, they're high in those ages. The advanced glycation end products, basically like the burnt parts of the meat that you barbecue.
Erin Holt [00:22:07]:
The tasty stuff.
Rachel Heinz [00:22:08]:
Yeah, the good stuff, the char lines on the hot dogs, they can accumulate in our follicles and increase oxidative stress and influence our overall egg quality. So incorporating fresh herbs into your diet can help to minimize the effect that ages have on your body.
Erin Holt [00:22:26]:
And, you know, you had said a diet shouldn't be full of deprivation. A diet full of deprivation or under eating calories is also not conducive to carrying a baby. That is a huge contributing factor that we would see with infertility or wonky cycles is just not eating enough overall calories. Female bodies really need to feel safe in order to appropriately ovulate, and part of that is feeding it appropriately, too. So that's something to keep in mind. Okay, so you mentioned prioritizing antioxidants in our diet. Tell us a little bit about how that can be supportive of mitochondrial health or why we should support mitochondrial health for fertility.
Rachel Heinz [00:23:07]:
So mitochondria is basically where our bodies produce, like, all of their energy. And we need. We. We basically need to produce a ton of energy during the precondition conception phase and then also during our, like, pregnancy season as well. Our egg cells actually have the highest amount of mitochondrial DNA in our entire body. And these eggs in our ovaries, they're exposed to oxidative stress all of the time pretty often. This is quite normal. For this to occur, we just need to make sure we have enough antioxidants in our body to protect them.
Rachel Heinz [00:23:40]:
And this ties into optimizing your glutathione status. Optimizing melatonin, which we spoke about. Eating those fresh fruits and vegetables can be really, really key. And what we can even see for certain individuals is they can start to experience premature ovarian insufficiency, where there's just too much unchecked inflammation in their body that can cause atrophy within the ovary, affecting the quality of our eggs and aging them prematurely as well.
Erin Holt [00:24:09]:
So outside of diet, are there other things that we can do to support mitochondria for fertility?
Rachel Heinz [00:24:15]:
Definitely. So from a supplemental perspective, I love CoQ10. I also love resveratrol, CoQ10 has been shown to preserve ovarian reserve. Some other supplemental options that I really like are L carnitine, N acetylcysteine, melatonin, like I've mentioned, and then green tea as well. Drinking green tea or matcha is great. We use a lot of great blends for mitochondrial support in practice. And we also test for mitochondrial function on the Dutch test as well, which is great.
Erin Holt [00:24:46]:
It is great. That is really great thing that we do. So we know that our exposure to toxins and overall toxicity of the body can impact our ability to be fertile. So can you tell us a little bit about that?
Rachel Heinz [00:25:01]:
Definitely. So environmental toxins, they can absolutely increase rates of miscarriage. We also know that exposure to toxins can influence our ability to manage our blood sugar. It can also contribute to the development of pcos. And so the most common toxins that we can see influencing overall fertility status includes things like pesticides, mercury and phthalates. These are really found in cleaning products. These are found in our produce items. And so these can be associated with fibroids, endometriosis, miscarriages, like I mentioned, and hormonal imbalances.
Rachel Heinz [00:25:38]:
So I always encourage the women that I watch work with to assess. Start by assessing their personal care products and the fragrances that they have around the home.
Erin Holt [00:25:46]:
Fragrances is a really, really big one that, like, it's so ubiquitous and so many people are getting exposed to it. And still, even though I've been beating this drum for so many years, if people still don't recognize it because it's so normalized and it's so commonplace, people don't recognize it as an endocrine disruptor, as something that could potentially disrupt their hormones and their fertility. You run a fair amount of tox pan in practice. Are there certain toxins that you're consistently seeing over and over?
Rachel Heinz [00:26:18]:
It's a decent amount of, like, the organophosphates and like, pesticides that I'll see a lot of people get exposed to. This can obviously be from diet. Sometimes I've identified where people will have gardeners or like pest control come to their home or like the complexes that they live in. And sometimes the toxic tox panels will detect the, like, bug sprays basically on their tox panels as well. And this is really a problem because these ongoing exposures to toxins that it can deplete your glutathione, which is again, essential for egg quality.
Erin Holt [00:26:52]:
We don't really talk about it that often, but it's so crucial to overall hormone health.
Rachel Heinz [00:26:58]:
But circulation, yes, we need healthy blood flow through our reproductive organs, our pelvis. This is really essential to support supporting a healthy uterine lining and good circulation. We want fresh blood flowing to our reproductive organs all of the time. Not exactly the same thing, but we also want to make sure that we're producing healthy amounts of like, cervical fluid. And we need good blood flow for healthy cervical fluid production to occur. We need good hydration for cervical fluid production to occur. And I love encouraging my clients to track their cervical mucus production if they're trying to conceive. We usually see an uptick in cervical mucus a day or two before ovulation occurs.
Rachel Heinz [00:27:41]:
So some foundational things to think about are hydrating, are you drinking enough water, eating omega 3s in your diet. This ties back into that, like, anti inflammatory conversation. We've been having chia seeds, hemp seeds, fatty fish, and then a supplement that I love for supporting healthy cervical mucus is NN acetylcysteine or NAC. NAC is a mucolytic. I use it for so many different things. But nac, it helps to thin mucus. So some people will take NAC when they're sick to help, like, expel the phlegm in their throat. It can also help to thin your cervical mucus so that it's more fertile.
Rachel Heinz [00:28:16]:
This cervical mucus protects the sperm. It stores it before ovulation occurs. And it can help to increase your chances of conceiving as well.
Erin Holt [00:28:26]:
When I'm sick, like, if I have something like where I'm like really mucus y or like, you know, when like mucus feels like it's just sitting in your chest. Instead of using Mucinex, I will use an acetylcysteine for that.
Rachel Heinz [00:28:36]:
On social media, I've seen, like on TikTok and Instagram, people are like, I'm trying to conceive. I started to take Mucinex and it worked so well. I'm like, oh, just take some neck instead. It does the same thing.
Erin Holt [00:28:46]:
Yeah, it really does. Although one time I took too much of it and I got a nosebleed. I started getting nosebleeds because it thinned out my nasal mucus, which is not good. Okay, so let's pull this all together for folks. Where do they start? Where should we start?
Rachel Heinz [00:29:01]:
I would say, like, start with some foundational labs before thinking about diving into those functional labs. Nutrient markers, like B vitamin markers, vitamin D, iron status would be really good. Hscrp, if we can get it on your blood work to assess inflammation, would be an awesome Marker. And then a full thyroid panel would be ideal as well. So start with the basic blood work. As far as supplements are concerned, I'd love to get you on a prenatal. And an omega 3 like a fish oil would be great. From a nutrition perspective, start with the basics.
Rachel Heinz [00:29:32]:
Balance your blood sugar, increase those antioxidants, and maybe lay off the hot dogs. And then from a lifestyle perspective, prioritize that stress management. Support your circadian rhythm, spend time outside without sunglasses on, limit your screens in the evening. And that would be really foundational stuff to start with.
Erin Holt [00:29:55]:
And then what if they wanted to take more of a functional medicine deep dive to get into? If there was presence of inflammation, for example, or suggestions of inflammation, and we wanted to go inflammation hunting, where would you want to start?
Rachel Heinz [00:30:06]:
I love starting with stool testing. I do a lot of stool testing with my clients. And then depending on what someone has going on, I would love to run a Dutch test. The Dutch test, it looks at your cortisol curve, your adrenal function, your sex hormone levels, and then also how is your body processing your sex hormones. We look at that Dutch test in your hormone revival. And I don't always start here, but we do want to consider toxicity testing if we're not getting the answers that we're hoping for, maybe from that blood work or that stool testing or hormone testing as well.
Erin Holt [00:30:42]:
And then let's give everybody a couple of resources that we love to close this out.
Rachel Heinz [00:30:47]:
So there are two books that I love. Lily Nichols, I've quoted her a few times. She wrote a great book called Real Food for Fertility with Lisa Hendrickson. Jack. I have it on my desk right now, and it's such a wealth of information with nutrition and lifestyle to support your fertility. And then also tips and tricks for tracking your cycle and ovulation as well. And then for the men, we didn't get into supporting male fertility today, but they're another. They're 50% of the equation.
Rachel Heinz [00:31:18]:
A resource that I love recommending for my clients is Fueling Male Fertility. This is written by Lauren Manaker. She's a registered dietitian. It's a short and sweet book, so it's perfect for the men. Lauren just taught an awesome masterclass in FNA last month on supporting male fertility, too.
Erin Holt [00:31:36]:
Yeah, it was great. She was great. So definitely those are. Those are two books to have in terms of how to support fertility and especially nutrition for both of those. So thank you, Rachel, for coming on. And if you are eager to work on any of that, this stuff, Dear listener, then you can join us in our OneToOne or keep your eyes peeled for the upcoming youg Hormone Revival. We actually will have a link in the show Notes where you can get on the wait list for that and be notified when we do decide to open that up. Thank you for being here.
Erin Holt [00:32:08]:
Thanks thanks for joining me for this episode of the Functional Nutrition Podcast. If you got something from today's show, don't forget to to subscribe, leave a review, share with a friend, and keep coming back for more. Take care of.