Ep. 123- Preparing for an Optimal Pregnancy & Fertility with Dr. Christine Maren

Hey y'all and welcome back to Upload Fit Nutrition Radio. I'm your host Lacey Dunn, registered dietician here to spread the scientific knowledge in the world of fitness and nutrition. I'm so excited about today's episode so make sure you listen in and get ready to learn. [Music] Hey y'all and welcome back to Upload Fit Nutrition Radio. Today's guest is Dr. Christine Marin. She is a top-rated functional medicine physician, all about thyroid and gut connection, talking about pregnancy, nutrition and fertility nutrition today. And I'm so excited to have her on. I found her on Instagram and I was like, "Oh my gosh, I love this girl." So I'm so excited to have you on. Thank you so much for taking your time to come on my podcast. You're amazing. Oh, you're so sweet. Thank you. Can you tell my listeners a little bit about who you are, what you do and what got you so passionate about your field? Yeah, I'd love to. So I'm Christine Marin. I am a DO, so it's a doctor of osteopathic medicine, and I'm trained in functional medicine through the Institute for Functional Medicine. So I have a virtual telemedicine practice where I see consultative functional medicine patients in Colorado, Michigan and Texas. And the reason I started practicing this way, I really always had a holistic mindset and I came to medicine really wanting to practice differently. That's part of the reason I trained in family medicine because I knew it would give me this broad overview, but it was sort of like the collision between my personal health issues and my professional life that got me to where I am today. So, and it really all started with pregnancy stuff. So when I was a resident, I was pregnant with my first and I had gestational diabetes and that was super crazy because I had like zero risk factors. And I really took a deep dive into nutrition at that point. I started checking my blood sugar four times a day. It was like determining not to bond medications for this and to manage it with nutrition. But I learned a lot about healthy foods and what that meant for me at that time in my life. For me, healthy foods was like sprouted wheat bread and a green smoothie that maybe had to much sugar in it. So I really made some adjustments there, but it wasn't until I started trying for my second and I suffered through recurrent pregnancy loss that I really took the deep dive into functional medicine. So that was, you know, it's a hard time in my life and in my husband's life and I knew there was like something wrong. I knew there was something going on with my body. And, you know, thyroid, gut, mold exposure, like it all sort of came together. I've done a ton of works in-sen. I got healthy enough to have my seconds. And then, you know, I was feeling really good and I moved and I was doing great. And then I had like a surprise third. So I always tell my patients when your health returns so does your fertility. So be aware of that. But yeah, it's been a journey. Well, I can't even imagine with residency and being pregnant. I can't even imagine residency. I know, especially, I mean, at this point with COVID, like I don't even know if you could do that. I wouldn't recommend it. It was hard. I'm pretty sure they would be like, you know what? You should probably stay home. Yeah. I'm pretty sure things have changed. But it sounds like that is another reason why you're so passionate about helping women more specifically. So let's talk about eating for pregnancy. So preconception nutrition. Why is it important? And what are the key critical foods and nutrients that a woman could implement in their day to day life in order to power up a healthy pregnancy? Yeah, it's such a good question. So it's a big deal because already so many of us are sort of taxed even before we get pregnant. We're sort of like at the point where there's not a whole lot more we can handle much of the time. And so it's like an important time to really like boost up your nutrient stores. And like I said, your fertility is going to be better the healthier you are. And so adding whole, you know, healthy foods to your diet is a big deal. So there's some specific nutrients. I think that people really need to sort of focus on the one we always talk about and most people know about is folate. And that's sort of an umbrella term, you know, people think folic acid. But as your listeners might know, I'm a big fan of methylated folate or folate that comes from nutritional sources. So that's a lot of like leafy greens and things like that. So folate the big deal. But the less known one is coline. So coline is also a really important nutrient. And just like folate, it's important for something called methylation. And that is just an important biochemical process that happens in all your cells at a very basic kind of explanation. You need like folate and B12 to drive these cogs in a wheel and produce neurotransmitters and glutify on. But coline is also a big methylation nutrient that you need. And it's really under recognized in pregnancy and preconception health. It has just as much literature to support decreased risk of neural tube defects just like we do with folate. So coline is a big deal. You can get a lot of coline from egg yolk and so I'm a big fan of pastured egg yolk for those who tolerate egg. And then organ meats. So most people don't love organ meats, but they're kind of an nutritional powerhouse when it comes to preconception nutrition. Not only because of coline, but also the next thing I'm going to talk about, which is vitamin A. So vitamin A is also a big one. It's not when you want to supplement with high dose because it's not safe too much isn't safe, but too little is also a problem. So I try to get vitamin A from foods. And that's like I said organ meats, cod liver oil, wild salmon. Those are all great sources. So vitamin A is a little bit tricky because the pro vitamin A is actually called beta-carotene, but it's not vitamin A. It's beta-carotene and many of us don't have the genes to convert beta-carotene to vitamin A. And so that's called BCM1. But the vitamin A is a big deal. There's other, you know, really important nutrients like antioxidants. So those are things you get from fresh fruits and vegetables mostly. And I think it's important to, again, it's one of those where you don't want too little, but you don't want too much and it depends on a lot of other things such as, you know, if people have hashtenotos, I really don't do iodine. But for somebody who doesn't have hashtenotos, it's in his other ways healthy. I like to integrate really just tiny little doses of iodine. So C-weat is a great way to do that. C-vegetables, seafood, as long as it's low in mercury. That brings me essential fatty acids. So it's another big powerhouse nutrient when you're trying to get pregnant. There's actually some interesting studies looking at. Couples too weak fish are more likely to conceive. But with fish you got to be careful, you know, doing the low mercury fish is a big deal. So that's not tuna, you know. So wild salmon, dover souls, a good choice, scallops are a pretty good choice, sardines are awesome. So I think all of those are really like kind of nutritional powerhouses. And some of this is a nutrient, so really focus on when you're trying to conceive. I'm so glad you mentioned those. And I would also throw in vitamin D in calcium. On incorrect levels because we don't want too much calcium, we don't want too much vitamin D. So making sure to work with your practitioner to find a good blend. And a good prenatal vitamin, I always suggest. I know nutrition is amazing. But let's be real, the power of food. You can't get all your nutrients just from food nowadays, especially when it comes down to your needs for methylfolate. So I'm a big fan of prenatal vitamins. And I do want to ask, what are some of your favorite prenatal vitamins? That's a good question. And it's so loaded. So coldine is sort of the way that I determine if a prenatal is really what I want. Not always, but there's a lot of different good brands on the market. One of my favorites is called vitamin IQ. Because they have the sufficient amount of coline, well let me just start by saying like this is what I look for in the back of the bottle. So I want methylfolate, not folic acid. I want methyl cobalamin or adenosyl cobalamin, not cyanocobalamin. And that's a form of B12. I also want coline. So coline is often in doses of 10 milligrams. You're looking for like 450 milligrams. Sometimes you can hack that by adding something called trimethyl glycine. But essentially, you know, like in one of my favorites, there's I think 350 of coline and 100 of trimethyl glycine or so. I don't know. Don't quote me on the trimethyl glycine. But it's enough to make up for, to basically give you enough of those coline needs. The other thing I like to see is the vitamin A component as a mix of beta-carotene and retinal palmitate. So that's preform vitamin A, not just the beta-carotene because of what I just mentioned with vitamin A. So those are all sort of the big, you know, some of the bigger ones I look for. And then of course, like making sure that prenatal isn't full of dye and gluten and just a bunch of crappy fillers. So some of my favorites is vitamin IQ is a really good one. Iron is also a big one here. So like if a thorn prenatal has a pretty high amount of iron, it's like 45 milligrams. So that could be too much for some people. Iron could be, you know, if it's too high, it could be a bad thing. And then a lot of us start out iron deficient. So it really just depends. It's one of the things where you got to work with your practitioner. Like literally yesterday, I had a patient who her iron is plenty high. She doesn't need any additional iron. So I actually chose the seeking health prenatal for her because it doesn't have any iron in it. So seeking health is a really good one. I also like metagenics. They have a prenatal pack called plus one and it has extra coline. It has alkaline teens. So for women who have blood sugar issues or maybe have a prior history of a baby that's large for gestational age or had gestational diabetes, I like the metagenics plus one for that. I love those brands. All about those three party tested, clinician, supplements, huge fan. And I would also, I'm so glad you mentioned the iron because in reality, the iron, your iron needs are very much tied to what your iron is like before pregnancy and then also how far are new are in your exact pregnancy. So when you're doing prenatal vitamins, you might want to think of a pre a different prenatal pre pregnancy and then another when you get in the line in your trimesters. Yeah, it's nice to have labs, right? Because you have no idea what your iron is unless you test it. So I mean definitely like for women who have really heavy periods, I mean that's like a whole other show, but you know, but that might put you at higher risk of having low iron if you have heavy periods. Also, you know, if you have gut issues and you don't absorb iron as well, that could put your at higher risk for having low iron, but there is definitely like the subset of people who don't have low iron and don't need that much. Exactly. So some of my favorite brands, I'm on the same boat for you. I love the worn metagenics, purine capsulations and seeking health. Big fan also of, I don't know if you've heard of the full circle one. And then I also like new chapter. They have a, I don't know, okay, prenatal and multivitamin, but I would say women, I know a lot of women, they see gummies and they're like, oh, you know, the gummy, I'm like, please go about the route of the capsule. If you can, because that's going to give you your most bang for your butt. Totally. Yeah, the gummies are not ideal because some of the nutrients just aren't stable in that form. But like you know, like you said, with the capsule, it is a way to get a lot of nutrients. I mean, as long, you know, they don't have a lot of filler in them when you have those capsules generally. And sometimes you can open them too, which is nice, you know, especially for women in first trimester, if they're like a little nauseous, not tolerating well, it's nice to have the option to open it and like stick it on a smoothie if you need to. I tried to do that the other day with an herbal blend and I didn't even think about it. Like, smell it and I'll say, maybe, and then I put it in my water and went to drink it. I was like, oh my god, that's not happening. Yeah, yeah. Was there like Valerian root in there or something? I was like, that smells like feet. So oh my god, it does smell like feet. The struggle is real. But yeah, I'm a big fan of Valerian, actually, for sleep. So glad you moved to Valerian. Yeah. Okay, so let's talk about the top, what are your top, let's say the top three foods that women should implement into their day-to-day diet if they want to get pregnant? Okay, pastured egg yolk. Yes. This might not be like the most tasty, but sardines, like if you like sardines or wild salmon, right? Like, I'll give you a choice there. And leafy greens. That was just my brain. Okay, what's your favorite leafy green then? I'm such a fan of kale. I mean, I just am. I love kale. I love shard. I am like literally a lot of my life revolves around lemon juice and olive oil and putting that on top of kale. So I'm a kale fan. Love it. Really, whatever, right? Whatever leafy green you got is good. Right. I think my top three would be eggs, salmon. Oh gosh, that's hard. Yeah, eggs, salmon, and either leafy greens or berries. Yeah, berries are great too. Totally. Lots of antioxidants. Those are great ones. And I mean, let's just have four, you know, you've got it like really nice colorful plate there. And I'm leaving liver out because I personally just like, I can't do organ meats. Like it's not, I've just never really been created eating organ meats and I've tried it. Oh yeah. No, no, thank you. What are your thoughts on the supplementation of organ meats, especially when it comes to pregnancy? Because I know why I have my thoughts. I know. I just have my concerns with purity. And I know there's one capsule out there that is a supplement that is, it has some brain in it, which I'm not a fan of. So I would prefer if you're going to do organ, I would actually just take the organ meat and cut it into little pieces and swallow that rather than doing a process capsule. But tell me what you think about it. Yeah, you know, I think it could potentially put you at risk for having too much vitamin A. And we definitely do not want that happening. So yeah, I'm agree, I agree with you fully on purity as well. We don't know what the sources of that liver and the bioavailability, either of the nutrients in there. Yeah. So I would like to go down the route of, if you want to eat the liver, eat the liver, have your levels checked throughout your pregnancy. But yeah, I'm not for the supplementation. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And then like if you can do a prenatal that has preformed vitamin A in it, I think that's probably, you know, best enough, like don't add additional vitamin A because it can be unsafe. Right. So the vitamin A we want for the rapid cell proliferation and the fetal brain development, but too much causes those cranial facial malformations and abnormalities. And nobody wants a baby to come out with issues. So be careful. Mm-hmm. All righty. So we talked about nutrition. Let's dive into something that a lot of women don't even think about. And that's environmental toxins and how they can impact both your fertility and your baby's future health. Because this is something a lot of women do not know. I know it's such a big deal and such an important point. I mean, even like the American College of Obsessedure and Gynecology, there's a quote from them talking about patient exposure to toxic environmental chemicals. Is ubiquitous? Because it's really everywhere. And pre-conception and prenatal exposure to toxic environmental agents have a profound and lasting effect on reproductive health across the life course. It's pretty wild and like they said, ubiquitous. So that means like we all get exposed to stuff every day. So we just have to do our best to limit it. We can't make it perfect, but we've got to limit it. And so like kind of going for some of the big ones. It's like organic foods and I always choose organic, especially for somebody who's pregnant or have some kids at home. Pesticides also for your lawn, you know, really trying like I would not spray your home or lawn or guarding with pesticides. Ideally like simple things you can do are literally like not wearing your shoes inside because that's when you track in a lot of pesticides and chemicals from the outside world. Other really simple things are things like opening your windows and improving your ventilation. So one of the big deals is air quality in the home. Air quality in the home is usually worse than it is outside of the home. That depends on where you are. And you know, if you live in a golf course in their spring pesticides, that's a different story. But for most of us, our air quality inside is worse than our air quality outside. And so really opening your windows to improve natural ventilation are the way that we build homes now. You know, we build them so tight so there's like no natural ventilation. The other really easy like totally free thing to do is to use the exhaust fans in your bathroom and also in your kitchen. So when you cook, you have to use that dent hood over your stove because you make, there's a lot of toxins that come out when you cook, especially if you're cooking on a gas stove. And then in your shower like when you have that seamy vapor, you know, it's best to suck it out of the room so you don't have a humidity issue inside. So all those are like literally free easy things to do in your house. Other big ones like plastic is huge. So a lot of people have switched from, you know, a regular plastic to like a BPA free plastic, but even another BPA free, it still has BPS, you know. And that's just as bad. So just trying to eliminate plastic. Go for glass. Cheap way to do that is literally like mason jars are so inexpensive and super versatile. My kids all drink kind of mason jar actually because they don't break that well or that easily. But I also use them for storing food and I use them for making salad dressings and all sorts of stuff. So mason jars are awesome. So just really switching out like the stuff you cook with too. So if you're cooking with like plastic spatulas, switching that out for stainless steel or for silicone. And then same with like your pots and pans, like trying to get rid of the tough lawn and not heating food and plastics and stuff like that. So swapping that out one of my favorites is cast iron, which is also cheap. So it's, you know, kind of a win-win. Other big ones, fragrance. So you really try to avoid all the stuff with fragrance. So any of the scented candles or scented cleaning products or scented laundry stuff or air fresheners or whatever and just going with fragrance free or even, you know, using essential oils if you really want something. And then water filtered water, like clean waters of big deal. All this stuff, I mean here, I'm based in Boulder and, you know, if you look at our water tests, we've got too much testosterone in our water as well as a bunch of other chemicals. So I tell my patients like the city takes our water and disinfect it to get out the E. coli, which is important, but they send it back to us with a bunch of chemicals in it. And so we have to filter those chemicals out and drink pure water. So, you know, I have a burky at my house that used to have a river seismosis. I have a whole house water filter on my main water line. But even, you know, if you don't have the luxury of doing all that stuff, even like just using like a countertop filter is like better than nothing, you know. Exactly. I would rather somebody use a Britta, even if it's not best. I would rather than use a Britta and use nothing. Exactly. Yep. And I'm glad you mentioned the water because I know some people are like, oh, you know, in the United States, I water safe. If you look at water testing in your area, you can get a better feel for what it may be like. I get you not Houston. and we are, we have churramium 66 in our water. - Yeah. - So definitely I do not want to be ingesting that a lot and then a lot of places fluoride is added in our water. And yeah, fluoride might not be bad in small amounts, but fluoride is a halogen that can displace iodine and lead to hypothyroidism. So yeah, definitely do want to go down that route. - Yeah, and when we talk about like how these things impact fertility, I mean many of them are known as endocrine disruptors. Your endocrine system is that hormone system. And so like why do so many women struggle with hormone problems? Like why do you think we have an environment full of chemicals and we know that they are endocrine disruptors. So that's sort of one piece, but then like you mentioned with the thyroid, I think you're, you know, your thyroid's like a magnet for all these environmental toxins. And so putting fluoride in our water, I think is kind of insane. If you look at the backstory on fluoride, it is literally like an industrial waste product that we are sticking in the water. There is good data to support topical fluoride for our teeth, but not ingesting fluoride, right? So like I don't personally use a toothpaste with fluoride. I use hydroxyapatite, that's a whole other story, but yeah, I don't recommend ingesting fluoride. And if you can filter that out, that's ideal. Because fluoride like chlorine and bromine will displace iodine from your thyroid. And like you said, cause thyroid issues, which all that stuff is super important for fertility. And healthy pregnancy. - Mm-hmm. And I would also like to say, you know, be careful too when it comes down to fire retardants. And there are a lot of, and it's scary, honestly. You know, there are a lot of different mattresses, there are rugs, there's furniture, that has a lot of fire retardants that can also cause endocrine disrupting. So I would just be careful. I don't say you have to like throw away all your products, but if you get a new product that may have, you know, the fire retardants, it's gonna off gas. So if you get a brand new mattress, you might wanna set the mattress outside or put it in a room that you're not always in and let off gas release all those chemicals and have a good air filter, of course. Cause you don't wanna be sleeping and just ingesting that on a day-to-day basis if it's coming off in rapid amounts. - Yes. And I think too, it's like, put, you know, invest in this stuff where you spend the most time. You know, so that's a mattress, right? Like you spend half of your life in bed. I mean, not quite half, but like, you know, we're in bed a lot. Like that's where we sleep. So I think investing in a good organic mattress is a big deal. And there's luckily, there's a lot of options now that aren't like crazy expensive. You know, there's a lot of new options coming out. So that's awesome. And I think too, like the one deal breaker we didn't talk about and for people in Houston, this is a big deal as mold. You know, if you got a mold in your home, it's like that is a deal breaker. So for women who have recurrent pregnancy loss or infertility and like weird stuff coming up and like nerve stuff and, you know, people who live in a moldy home, it's like you can eat all the organic food in the world. It's not gonna help. So if you have like water damage or any issues like that in the home, I think those are, those are big ones to address and not a DIY kind of thing. Like you need a really high-quality mold inspector who appreciates the health effects of mold. - Exactly, high quality. When that's not gonna charge you $500 and be like, "Yeah, you're fine." - Yeah. - Yeah. - I was just telling my interns last week about molds and I was telling them, you know, sometimes you will have a patient or a client and you've done everything. You've gone through the GI test, you've gone through the Dutch and they're not getting better. And I told them, you know, most of the time when it comes down to it and they're not getting better, look at mold because I kid you not. It is extremely common to be hidden up in the air vents, under sinks and you don't necessarily think that it's there, right? There might be a little bit of wood peeling or there might be a little bit of a musty smell and it's not even always caught when you're doing like the easy, do-it-yourself mold tests. So you have to be very, very careful who you trust. - Yeah, totally. You're so right. - Yeah, and it's like the person who's doing everything, you know, she's doing everything right. She's eating all the right foods. She's buying all organic. She's got the organic mattress. She doesn't use fragrance. It's like all those things and she's still struggling with her health. That's when it's like you gotta look at mold. - Yeah. - It's not always mold, right? But like that's, it's pretty dang common and it is, it can really rob you of your health. - It sure can, it sure can. Okay, so some other ways to kind of like change up the endocondistrupters, I would say stick to the glass, the porcelain, the stainless steel, instead of going the BPA-free route. Just like you said, we don't know the safety of the BPA-free plastics, never in microwave plastics, you guys. Try and go for, if you can, if you go for electronic receipts, versus paper receipts because that transdermal or inhalation of the BPA is an issue. And then you discuss like swapping different products, so going to the cleaner, the safer skin care, shampoo's and whatever you're washing, you're laundry detergent or spraying, cleaning your house with. I'm a big fan of branch basics and biopsy. - Me too, girl. - Oh good, yay, they converted me. They were like, do you want us to send you a sample? And I was like, sure. And I got it and I was like, you know what? This is like five billion times better than seventh generation. I know, I agree with you. And yes, I'm a big fan. I, somebody helps me clean my house and she was like, this stuff works a lot better, just FYI. Like, oh good, okay, well, stick with it. And I use it for everything I was left 'cause I'm like, I cleaned down my countertops with it but then I also like use it as a frequent vegetable wash. - I haven't even thought about doing that. - She's genius. - She's the green one, the all-purpose one to like wash the streets with. - Well, that's so much better than using vinegar because I, I swear I use vinegar for everything and it's so potent. Yeah, it is stinky. I like to put some of the citrus-based essential oils in mine too, so it smells really nice. - Love it. Okay, so we talked about environmental toxins. Now, let's talk about a very, very important topic here and that is stress and stress impacts on fertility. - Yeah, I mean, stress is such a big deal. So, I mean, this kind of refers to your HPA axis and that's your hypothermic pituitary adrenal axis. So, it's really HPA-TG, which is hypothelmous pituitary adrenal thyroid gonads or ovaries. Your hypothelmous and your pituitary are in your brain. And so, really all this stuff starts up in your brain and since signals to your other organs and to your endocrine system. And your HPA axis for some people more than others is highly impacted by stress. And, you know, I don't know exactly what it is. Like, most people know that they are just really sensitive to stress when they, you know, if they're that person, they usually have figured that out, you know? But yeah, the HPA axis is a big deal. And if, you know, if your body's in like this fight or flight mode all the time and you're like, parasympathetic nervous system is kind of shut down and you're in the sympathetic dominant state, you're not in a right place to get pregnant. Like, just think about it from an evolutionary perspective. Like, why would you get pregnant if your body's like things that's running from a lion? You know, it's just not the right time. And so, really like, rainy in that stress and figuring out what it is, whether it's like my body stuff or prayer or exercise or maybe all those things is a big deal. I think one of my good friends sort of set it best when it comes to fertility and when it comes to sort of your plans for a family. Like, we all have these plans and sometimes I work with clients and they come see me right before they're getting pregnant. And it's like, we've got a lot of work to do, but they're like, no, I want to get pregnant right now. Like, I don't have three months, I don't have six months. So, anyways, there's a lot of pressure and a lot of stress that people create around that timeline. And I think what's important is just like surrendering and just sort of like just kind of surrender. And, you know, if you're a person of faith, just like, put it up, it's God's plan and just surrender that and do all the other stuff that you can, but I think having that timeline and having, you just have to realize, right? Like, everything, things are not on our plan. COVID's a great example of that, right? Like, this was not anybody's plan. - 2020 was not anybody's plan. - 2020, what? 2020, girl. - Yes. - Yeah, I absolutely love that. Big fan of Jesus here, Jesus letter. So, I say, give it to God, give up the stress, give up the anxiety, and it's not something easy to do. But, you know, if it's not in your control and you're worrying about it, what's that gonna do for you? - Mm-hmm. - So, big fan of that. And we know the stress, the cortisol, the adrenal, the thyroid, the hormone connection. My listeners know that I've talked all about that in my previous episodes. So, if you guys have any questions about cortisol about hormones, you guys know I am OCD and have covered that in full tap though. So, hit those podcasts up, but I'd like to say, you know, sometimes when it comes down to it, the reason you, it's so hard, I hate saying it, but the reason you aren't getting pregnant is because you are stressing about getting pregnant. - Yeah. - So, let it happen on God's timing. Focus on what is in your control. You know, there's some things like food, like diet, like meditation, and taking care of yourself. And of course, if you're following fertility awareness method, trying to get frisky on those ovulation days, but all in all, just you have to focus on what is not necessarily in your direct control. Mm-hmm. You have to focus on what is in your direct control. Not what? but it's not. - Yeah. - Awesome. Okay, and I wanted to ask you because a lot of practitioners and clinicians, they don't do this, and they just focus on baby. And I wanted to ask you, what are your top key tips, post pregnancy for revamping the nutrient supply of mommy because a lot of clinicians and even dietitians, they focus on, oh, what's good for baby? Or what's baby need post? And they forget about mommy, and you need to repeat mommy in order for mommy to have her best health. - Totally, it's such a good point. And moms are, I mean, this is a big passion of mine 'cause I feel like just as a mom of three, like moms are really forgotten about postpartum. And it's sort of like, you know, you deliver a baby and it's in our modern world, especially now with COVID, it's like people have less support, they have less people around them. So it's a big deal, like from all facets, just getting support from your family, from your friends, from your partner, and taking all the help you can get safely, and then really just trying to nourish your cells with really good food. And so it's a hard time if you're breastfeeding, especially, and especially if you're a new mom, like I remember this so well with my first, the whole day would go by. And I'm like, it's nine o'clock at night. I'm still in pajamas. I didn't take my shower yet, I'm still trying to breastfeed. And my husband's literally like sticking food in my mouth because I've got both hands on a baby and my boobs and just trying to figure it all out. So it's hard when you're a new mom. So that's where I really, I love the Ayurvedic approach to postpartum in that initial time, it's like your body needs these really warm, nourishing foods. So lots of Ayurveda, they preach a lot of nut milk and cinnamon and cloves and nutmeg and those sort of warming spices. So I love that. They also use a lot of congee, which is actually like a race base. But for postpartum women, it's like, how do you get really nutrient-dense foods? And so I love soups, I love smoothies because one, they're easy and two, they're a little bit more digestible sometimes that they can also be really nutrient-dense. And it's a lot of the same nutrients that you need to get pregnant, that you need to heal. I would add lots of things with collagen. So maybe that's just like vital proteins, collagen peptides, or maybe it's meat that's stewed on the bone. However you want to do it, collagen's a big one for healing. Vitamin C too, and lots of those antioxidants are gonna come into play. And then as a breastfeeding mama, you've got really high nutrient needs and actually your caloric needs are higher when you're breastfeeding than they are when you're pregnant. So making sure you're getting enough food and you're taking time to really nourish yourself. And like everybody says, when baby sleeps, you should sleep. It's really hard to do when you're a new mom 'cause you're like, I do laundry again. But it's true, like just really trying to sleep because when we talk about cortisol and adrenals, it's also a really hard time on your adrenals 'cause it's hard to sleep. And your sleep patterns all messed up when you're taking care of a new baby. That's just kind of part of it. So that's when I add adrenals support too. - Love it. I'm a big fan of ashwaganda, literally my favorite adopted one. - Yeah. - Me too. - So I would like to say, you know, make sure you're working with a clinician or a dietician when you're coming off of having a baby because a lot of women, you know, they've been on birth control before they got pregnant and they already have depletion of nutrients. - Right. - And they're more at risk for post-partum depression. And then if you're not getting adequate nutrients, zinc, B12, folate, vitamin D, then you're more at risk for post-partum depression. So just like to say, as much as you can, make sure you're working with somebody that can help you out. - Yes, I think like those post-partum labs are really sort of forgotten about too. I like all my post-partum ladies to get their lab strona like six weeks. Check your iron levels, check your, sometimes I'll do, you know, B12 and folate, omega-3 index. Like there's all sorts of nutrients you can check at Quest or Lab Core. And they're a great guy. I mean, if you had a traumatic birth also or surgery, you know, 'cause you had a C-section, like that can be a big deal. So there's a lot you need there, but the other really big one is thyroid. Like thyroid stuff and auto-munity comes up a lot post-partum for women. And I find that often, you know, people, like post-partum women are sort of forgotten about like I said. And it's like, you know, you're new mom, you're tired. This is normal, but it's not always normal, you know? So just work with somebody who understands that and can check your labs and make sure you're, you know, advocate for yourself. - Right, and somebody who's gonna check a full thyroid panel, TSH, free T4, free T3, TPO, TGA, but TGAB antibodies. Because when it comes down to it, you know, when you have an autoimmune disease, you can have hyperthyroidism, quote unquote, you can have thyroid toxicosis and then go into hypo and I've seen that, women that will have their labs checked and like just a TSH and it's low and their doctors like, you know what, you're hyper. So let's do this. And then in reality, it's just a thyroid toxicosis scenario and then they're going into hypo and shooting themselves in the foot and not getting the care they need. So just frustrates me. - Yeah, the postpartum thyroiditis is real. And it's one that I think is kind of under-recognized 'cause nobody's checking labs, right? - Right. - And, you know, and maybe it's even somebody who's struggling in like their friends or their community is like, you know, it's normal, it's hard to be postpartum, but like get your labs checked. If you're not feeling right and things are just not making sense, like labs are a big help there, you know? And they're not, they're not actually all that expensive sometime. I mean, you know, there's a lot that goes into that, but yeah, get your labs checked because like I've worked with a lot of women who have postpartum thyroiditis and it's like, sometimes I don't even, it's something we look at in retrospect 'cause, you know, somebody's like, tells me about their postpartum timeframe and how it was a big challenge. And so we'll go kind of look at their labs and say like, oh, well, I think this is postpartum thyroiditis. Or maybe it's a new onset of Hashimoto's, you know? It's a hard one to really figure out, but it's when you need a doctor to, or a practitioner to really like kind of walk you through. - So, I have one more question for you. And we've kind of like already covered the prenatal aspect of supplementation, but what are your top supplement recommendations when it comes down to pre pregnancy? - Mm-hmm, yeah. So it depends on the person. If definitely like, co-Q10 is a big one especially for someone who is trying to conceive and maybe a little bit, you know, older on the older timeframe, like I'd say 35 and over, but probably even in your 30s, I would be on a higher dose of co-Q10. And so I like 300 to 600 milligrams of co-Q10. So that's a big one, Colleen like we talked about is a big one. And then when it comes to fertility, I have some favorites besides co-Q10. That line I talked about earlier, vitamin IQ, they have one called conceiv, and it has a little bit of co-Q10 in there. Also has L-Argenine, so that can theoretically help blood flow to the pelvic organs and improve fertility that way. What other big ones are there? What am I missing? I know, honestly, folate, we know with neural tube defects in methylation, some of the Bs are really important. B2 is also a big deal. This is a place where I really like to check a homocysteine level. A homocysteine can be like a functional marker for methylation for some people. So that's a big one as well. And it depends too. If somebody has problems with hormones, some of my favorites are chase tree or vi-tex for that, which supports healthy progesterone levels, you gotta have healthy progesterone levels to maintain pregnancy. So chase is one of these a lot. Somebody has PCOS or problems with blood sugar than there's other kind of supplements I use for that. And my anositol is one of those. So I think it really depends on the person. I'm also a big fan of magnesium. I use lots of magnesium. What else? What am I missing? That's a pretty good overview. I like to say in omega-3 fatty acid always, but very, very good job, very thorough. When it comes down to omigoshin vi-tex and my anositol, I call them the combined queens of pregnancy, 'cause I swear they can be very helpful for many people, especially if somebody has a history of estrogen dominance or maybe PCOS and high testosterone, they can be very powerful to help. - Yeah, totally. - And they're pretty safe. Like if somebody gets pregnant, I would even say that it's totally okay to stay on top of taking my anositol through our pregnancy. - So yeah. - Love it. Well, thank you so much for your time. It's been such a pleasure and an honor to have you on my podcast. - Oh, you're amazing. I love your page. And one day I'm gonna have muscles like you, girls. - Well, thank you. If you adopt cats and dogs, apparently that's the way to do it. - Yeah. Yeah, my three kids don't help. - Oh my goodness. I give props to all parents. I cannot imagine. I feel like my fur babies are enough. So I can't imagine having like children that actually talked. - I know, right? Especially in the time of COVID, it is a hard time. 'Cause I'm like, what's gonna happen in the fall? Like really? What's gonna happen? - Sending major prayers. And sending prayers for all the teachers that might have to deal with masks being shot across the room. - I know. Well, or just having to teach on Zoom. I feel for them. My sister is a Zoom teacher and honestly, I think she's doing just fine. She cracks me up. I could do not She took a photo of herself kind of like acting like she was listening and she will use it as a background Well, or she claims she does she will use it as a background when she wants to look like she's Listening but wants to go and quickly go do something That's awesome. I'm like you're amazing. You're amazing. Yeah, seriously. I could not be a teacher So thank you teachers right same. Okay, awesome. Well, thank you so much for your time Can you tell my listeners where they can find you and follow you and reach you if they need if they want to work with you Yeah, for sure so my website is dr. Christine Marin that comments and they are EN and you will find me on Instagram at the same handle dr. Christine Marin that's where I'm there a lot And Facebook same thing. So I am based in Colorado, but I do lots of work with patients in Colorado Michigan and Texas because I'm licensed in all three of those dates Hala love it. Will you guys make sure you go follow her because she posts a lot of nitty gritty wisdom tips for you guys So thank you so much for coming on my podcast again, and I hope you guys if you enjoyed it Please make sure you subscribe make sure you review review this podcast because the more reviews the more we can reach other people Awesome! Thanks for having me!