Page 46 - Special Issue: Healthy Baby

Taking oral tivity to smell. Because sexual interest is com- or insulin resistance—as well as depression and

contraceptives municated through smell, the pill may decrease even psychosis.
women’s sex drives.

If you have taken hormonal contraceptives
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depletes users In Solved: The Riddle of Illness, Dr. Stephen and feel they have taken your cycle out of sync
of key Langer writes that “the pill. . . can cause severe and negatively affected your health, eating a
nutrients… bodily damage in hypothyroidism.” traditional diet with emphasis on vitamin A-rich

Oral contraceptives may aggravate insulin foods, and sleeping primarily in the absence of
critical for the resistance and long-term risk of diabetes and light (a technique that I described briefly in the
development heart disease. 13 Spring 2004 issue of Wise Traditions and more
Other hormonal contraceptives may also be fully in The Garden of Fertility), has helped
of the baby‚ problematic. Depo-provera, an injectable contra- numerous women to return to health and normal
including the ceptive, requires a shot every three months. Even cycles.

optimization one shot before a woman is twenty-one can result
of baby’s in bone loss. Adolescent women who use Depo ASSISTED REPRODUCTIVE
may be more likely to suffer fractures when they TECHNOLOGY
intelligence. reach menopause than those who never took the In The Elusive Embryo: How Women and
injections. Men Approach New Reproductive Technologies,
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Women who take Depo-provera shots for two anthropologist Gay Becker describes couples
years or more before they are twenty-five have who pursue their desire for a child “until emo-
an almost tripled risk of breast cancer. tional and financial resources are exhausted.” She
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Dagmar Ehling, a doctor of Oriental med- observes that with the proliferation of assisted
icine, explains that “In its listing of the side reproductive technologies, the emphasis has
effects of oral contraceptives, the Physician’s shifted from diagnosing and correcting abnormal
Desk Reference includes increased blood clotting, physiology to achieving a pregnancy in the fastest
uterine bleeding, and carcinoma of the breast and most direct manner possible, regardless of
and endometrium. In Oriental medicine, these the cost or invasiveness. This approach aggres-
conditions could be categorized as blood stasis, sively augments the natural reproductive cycle,
a kind of ‘pattern of disharmony.’ Blood stasis or bypasses it altogether, and aims for results
describes sluggish blood circulation, which might regardless of the underlying infertility diagnosis.
manifests itself as blood clotting, varicose veins, If you are considering using reproductive
tumors, nodules or cysts. While acupuncture and technology to help conceive, please first research
herbs can address these conditions, from an Ori- its potential hazards—to yourself and to your
ental perspective, the longer a woman stays on potential offspring.
the pill, the more she increases her risk for these Clomiphene citrate, also known as Clomid,
kinds of problems.” a common drug prescribed when a woman has
Many women taking the pill have reported difficulty conceiving, works by binding itself
weight gain—a sign of estrogen dominance and/ to estrogen receptors in the brain so that natu-

THE PILL AND NUTRITIONAL DEFICIENCIES

Taking oral contraceptives depletes users of key nutrients including folic acid, vitamins B , B , B and vitamin C.
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2
12
6
These nutrients are critical for the development of the baby, including the optimization of baby’s intelligence. Thyroid
hormones are also depleted by the pill; they are crucial to optimal development of intelligence in the fetus. Drug
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companies include a warning statement in their handouts about the pill that women should avoid conceiving within
six months of discontinuing it.
To ensure a healthy baby (and a healthy mother), women who have taken the pill need to favor foods rich in
vitamins A and E, B vitamins, essential fatty acids, magnesium and zinc. 23,24 Foods containing iodine and vitamin D
are also recommended. We have constantly urged that for six months or longer before trying to conceive, parents-to-
be should eat liberally of superfoods like cod liver oil, butter from grass-fed cows, raw milk, liver, eggs from pastured
chickens and wild seafood. This advice is especially important for women who have been on the pill.

44 Wise Traditions