Practically Fertile
If you wanted to get pregnant yesterday, but you're confused and overwhelmed by all the noise on the internet, then this is the right podcast for you. Hosted by Dr. Adrienne Wei, Doctor of Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine, Fellow of the American Board of Oriental Reproductive Medicine (ABORM), functional medicine practitioner, and functional nutritionist. Here, you'll find zero fluffy, useless information or rah-rah motivation. You'll only find practical strategies and "how-tos" for identifying the root cause and amplifying your fertility by using a proven method of combining science with tradition.
Practically Fertile
Episode 3 - Five Things You Can Do to Boost Fertility That are Absolutely FREE
Do you ever feel like getting pregnant is starting to feel like a job that you're not getting paid for? In the process of searching for answers, you've spent thousands of dollars on supplements, lab tests, and treatments. What you might not realize, however, is that spending more money isn't going to help if you're not consistently taking action on a daily basis. In fact, there are many things you can do that can boost fertility and don't cost you a dime.
In this episode, you'll learn practical advice on enhancing fertility through simple and cost-free actions. Here is what to expect:
• Three core principles of the Practically Fertile® Methodology
• The five simple yet powerful tweaks to make today
• How focusing on small, sustainable changes leads to significant results
Download the list of 10 things that are free, click HERE.
Follow me on instagram @dradriennewei
Website: www.adriennewei.com
Welcome to the Practically Fertile Podcast. I'm Adrienne Wee, doctor of Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine, functional Medicine Practitioner and Functional Nutritionist. I specialize in using an evidence-based method, blending principles of East Asian medicine and modern functional medicine to help women optimize fertility and get pregnant. I believe in a world where every woman who wants to be a mother becomes one. If you're tired of being told that you're infertile and you want to take the right steps to get pregnant naturally and quickly, this podcast is for you. Hey, fertile friend, welcome back to the podcast. Thank you so much for being here today. Before I get into today's main topic, I want to take a moment to introduce the idea behind Practically Fertile. Practically Fertile has two meanings. Number one I believe that every woman can get pregnant. She's always one fertile cycle away. She is practically there, just needs to figure out what the obstacles are and come up with a plan to overcome these obstacles. Number two I've designed my protocols to be practical and each step would build on the previous step. Nothing extreme, easy to follow and inexpensive, sustainable. Trust me, you don't have to take a thousand supplements a day. You can tuck that money away for nursery decorations. You don't need to spend thousands of dollars on lab work. There are easier and quicker ways to figure out the underlying causes. Let me share with you the three core principles of the Practically Fertile methodology. It's the guiding principle behind how our protocols work. Core principle number one infertility is not a disease. It's a reflection of your health. If you're experiencing a delay in getting pregnant, it's not because you're infertile. So get it out of your head right now. You are not infertile. What you're experiencing is your body's way of telling you that something isn't quite right. Core principle number two root cause is the cure. Having PCOS is not a root cause. Endometriosis is not a root cause. Low AMH is not a root cause. It's important to discover the true underlying issues, otherwise Band-Aids don't fix bullet holes, borrowing a line from Taylor Swift. But it's true. You have to get to the bottom of the reasons why and then you'll know how to fix them All right. Core principle number three Small actions add up to big results. Most people underestimate the power of tiny baby steps. The go big or go home method never works.
Speaker 1:I don't know if you're familiar with this guy named James Clear, but the example that he used to convey this concept is genius. He says ice melts at 32 degrees Fahrenheit or zero degrees Celsius, and water boils at 212 degrees Fahrenheit or 100 degrees Celsius, but until they reach that threshold, it seems like nothing is happening. Have you ever tried to watch a pot boil or watch an ice cube melt to water completely? It takes a long time. It's a very slow process, but the thing is behind the scenes. Something is happening. Water temperature is increasing steadily, one degree at a time, and this is the same when you're trying to achieve a goal like getting pregnant you have to reach a certain threshold in order to see results. Getting pregnant, you have to reach a certain threshold in order to see results. You have to keep putting one foot in front of the other. So today's episode aligns perfectly with this core principle.
Speaker 1:Number three I want to share with you five practical and powerful tweaks you could make right now to boost fertility without spending a dime. They're all completely free and they will have huge impacts on your fertility. So let me get started. What I'm seeing a lot right now is the online fertility coaching space. They use this fear-based messaging tactic. I mean, come on, are you really not going to get pregnant if you eat regular bread versus sourdough bread, or if you have one cup of coffee in the morning, are you not going to get pregnant? You might have felt this way, right. As a result, you might have spent hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars on supplements, coaching programs, gut tests, whatever lab work, and you still feel like you're not seeing results. Yes, other times when you do need to do these things, though, of course and that's how I design my protocols is to take you through a step-by-step process so that you can seriously boost your fertility without blindly throwing money at the problem right off the bat. Tests and supplements should be added in strategically when you need them. Anyway, my point is there are many, many things you could do on a regular basis that are simple yet powerful. In fact, they're so simple you don't even think that it could possibly make a difference. I have made a download for you with the 10 things you can do to boost fertility that are free. I'm going to go over five of them here, but you can download the entire list and keep it for yourself and see if you can incorporate them into your lives, and then take notes of how you feel and see if you feel different. I'll tell you at the end of the podcast how to get your hands on this.
Speaker 1:All right, the first thing that you should do, that you could do, is take a walk. That you should do. That you could do is take a walk. This doesn't have to be anything strenuous, and you're not walking for exercise. That's a whole different thing. You're simply going to take a stroll around the block. Here's why Even just 10 minutes of walking will reduce your cortisol level. Walk for 20 to 30 minutes. Your body releases endorphins. That's that feel-good hormone. This isn't always practical, though, depending on your schedule, but if you choose to walk around lunchtime, that's even better, because you'll get a boost in vitamin D production. Vitamin D is made from sunlight on our skin naturally, and low levels of vitamin D have been linked to low AMH. And if you're walking right after lunch, the added bonus is blood sugar regulation. It improves insulin sensitivity. If you have time, walking for 45 to 60 minutes fully reset your nervous system and promotes the parasympathetic nervous system, and that is the rest and digest nervous system response that we want. Any walking outside is good for you anyway. You look at it and again, this is low stress, not focusing on calorie burning type of walking, just taking a stroll around the block.
Speaker 1:Second thing you can do is to cut off screen time an hour before bed. There's a lot of research on this. Blue light disrupts melatonin production and can disrupt sleep. It makes your brain think that it's daytime instead of nighttime, and why do we care about sleep? If you're not sleeping, you're not resting, and if you're not resting, your body can't recover from the stress that it accumulates during the day, and so many of our biological processes happen at night, when we're resting. If your sleep is disrupted, your body can go into a fight or flight survival mode. Instead of screen time, you can read a book, or another thing I've been teaching a lot of my patients to do is use this time to process any negative feelings that you have accumulated during the day. Give yourself half an hour to an hour set of time, and it's very important to set a timer. Use this time as your stew and dwell time. The challenge is, though, is to cut yourself off when the time is up. The challenge is, though, is to cut yourself off when the time is up If you're having trouble relaxing before bed. That tells me that there's an imbalance that needs to be resolved, and Chinese medicine takes sleep very seriously, so definitely cut off screen time and prioritize sleep.
Speaker 1:Moving on to number three, you can practice gratitude. That is absolutely free. This doesn't have to be a big deal either. It can simply be thinking about something you're grateful for while getting water, while getting the mail, while you're walking outside. It doesn't have to be anything formal, structured, or you don't have to have a dedicated time for it. It's whatever works for you. You don't have to have a dedicated time for it. It's whatever works for you. Practicing gratitude isn't as sexy to talk about as the latest supplement or a new superfood, but the impact is tremendous and more, way more, than the latest trend. And here's what the evidence tells us Gratitude practices can lower cortisol levels. It's that stress hormone. Again, it can interfere with fertility. Practicing gratitude can help you sleep better and longer if you practice it before bed, and we just talked about how important sleep is for fertility. Grateful individuals also exercise more, they eat better and they have better interpersonal relationships. So these three things that we just talked about can all help to reduce stress and promote emotional well-being.
Speaker 1:When you're in a better mental state, you think differently, you're more resilient, you feel more hopeful, you feel less anxious and depressed. Depression fuels the risk of infertility. Infertility struggles fuel depression. In this latest preconception depression study, published in 2024, of the 16,521 couples analyzed, the risk of infertility increased by 17.8% if the woman was diagnosed with depression. 8% if the woman was diagnosed with depression. It increased by 46% if both partners were experiencing depression. Not that these couples were never able to conceive in the study. The study only followed them for 12 months, and the technical definition of infertility is trying to conceive longer than 12 months. The researchers found that the depressed couples just take much longer to get pregnant. So mindfulness practices are not just new agey woo-woo. They have a real impact on fertility and your health.
Speaker 1:All right, the next two items I'm going to discuss with you are based on the tried and true Chinese medicine principles. They might seem a little weird at first, but they I want you to stop putting ice in your water and stop drinking cold drinks. Okay, iced water and cold drinks is a big part of the diet in Western culture. The water that comes straight from the fridge is cold. The water at a restaurant is cold, sparkling water is cold, so why should you drink room temperature water or non-iced water? All right, to start with. Did you know that the refrigeration is a modern invention. The concept of refrigeration dates back to the late 1800s, but by then only the wealthy could afford it. The first electric refrigerator was not invented until the 1913 in America by a man named Fred Wolfe. So up until that point, many people didn't have the means to make ice or chill their drinks.
Speaker 1:When it comes to taking the ice out of your water, of course, the scientific data on this is very, very limited. A study that I found said that the blood pressure increases temporarily when drinking cold water. I think, since it's temporary, it's probably not a big deal, but just to show you that this could have been caused by a stress response from the cold water. Another study I found showed that drinking cold water slows down the movement of the digestive tract, which makes sense to me, because cold makes things slow down and contract. The argument from the study was that the participants ate less because they felt full for longer periods of time. I do think that's a terrible argument for weight loss. The fact that the digestive system slows down can cause so many other problems. The nutrient isn't absorbed at the right time, it could mean constipation and the toxins will stay in the body longer. So this to me seems to make the argument that drinking warm water is better for your digestion.
Speaker 1:Chinese medicine has always advocated for warm drinks instead of cold, and here is why. First of all, we just said cold contracts, warmth expands. Cold slows down the blood flow and warmth increases the blood flow, and this seems to match up with a previous study that mentioned the digestive tract slowdown Through the interconnectedness of the body's systems and meridians. The coldness that was introduced to the body will affect all parts of the body, including you guessed it ovaries and uterus. If you already have circulation issues, like cold hands and feet, chances are adding more coldness to the body will not improve your circulation. It will make it worse. Another reason has to do with balancing and shifting of available resources.
Speaker 1:The function of the stomach in Chinese medicine is to process the food and grind them into a slurry to be used by the body, and this is the same as Western medicine. So I think it's pretty cool that the two medical systems seem different, but in fact they actually have a lot of similarities. They just interpret things differently. The foods that we eat need to be ground up so that it's easier to extract the nutrients. To do this, the stomach is naturally at a higher temperature than the core body temperature of 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit, depending on the source. Some say it's 99.6, degrees Fahrenheit, depending on the source. Some say it's 99.6, some say it's 100.
Speaker 1:When ice-cold water, typically at 32 degrees Fahrenheit or zero degrees Celsius, is introduced to the body, it causes a temperature difference of 68 degrees between the water and the stomach temperature. If that's not a huge shock to the body, I don't know what is. And then, after you've ingested this ice cold water, now the stomach has to work extra hard to bring the temperature back to where it needs to be in order to function properly. So if your stomach needs to the extra energy, it's going to have to borrow it from somewhere in the body very quickly. It needs fire to heat up the coldness. Think about how long it takes to boil a pot of cold water. When the stomach needs to borrow energy, it borrows from anywhere, and this could impact the amount of energy available for the ovaries and the uterus. Clinically, when my patients start to ditch the cold water, they feel warmer, they have more energy, their digestion improves, which means they're absorbing the nutrients better. Some of them get pregnant and that was the only change they've made. So it's a small change that you could do, that you can make today. That could make a huge impact.
Speaker 1:We're not going to talk too much more about the Chinese medicine digestive system on this episode. We will in the future. Let me move on to number five. The last thing I want to mention on this podcast also has to do with improving circulation and blood flow, and that is taking a warm foot bath. If you can do it every night, that would be fantastic. If not, every couple of days or a couple of times a week, it's better than none. And if you really don't have time, do it every night. That would be fantastic. If not, every couple of days or a couple of times a week is better than none. And if you really don't have time, do it during your period. And also do it during the last week of the luteal phase, about a week before your period is due.
Speaker 1:Warm foot baths directly introduce the warm energy into your body through the bottom of the feet, into your body through the bottom of the feet. That also happens to be where the kidney meridian starts. Kidneys are the most important organs for fertility For now. Just know that they are the foundations of life and they contribute to every single process in the body, like reproduction. The kidney energy can't be replenished, it can only be conserved. They also have similar functions to the Western medicine definition of kidneys and adrenal glands. Anyway, the kidneys provide reproductive energy for menstruation, puberty, conception, pregnancy, birth, delivery and then menopause and beyond. Anytime you have to borrow energy, like in the case of drinking cold water, you are borrowing it from the kidneys, so it has less for other things. Keeping the body warm is a great way to reduce the drain on the kidney energy.
Speaker 1:Taking a warm foot bath is a great way to introduce the warmth into the body. This is especially important during the last week of the cycle. If there's implantation and possibly pregnancy. You want the uterus to stay warm. The uterus in Chinese is known as the child's palace. Isn't that great. I love that name. We want the child's palace to be nice and warm and cozy and inviting, not cold and chilly.
Speaker 1:This also doesn't have to be a big deal. You can just draw up a foot bath and stoke your feet for 10-15 minutes or until the water gets cold. You can also use this time to unwind and meditate and practice gratitude. So there you have it, virgo friend, here are the five things that you can start doing today that won't cost you any money but will have major impacts on your fertility. You could take a walk, practice gratitude, stop putting ice in your water, draw a warm foot bath and cut off the screens an hour before bedtime.
Speaker 1:Keep in mind that life does happen. You won't be able to do every single thing every single day, but remember, small actions add up to big results. It's not about being perfect. It's about being consistent, stepping one foot in front of the other and making your way towards a big fat positive. If you haven't downloaded the 10 things to boost fertility that are free, you can do so at adrienneweecom. Slash 10 things and that's the number 10. One, zero things. All right, fertile friends. That's all I have for today. Thank you so much for tuning in and please do subscribe to the podcast. If you haven't done so already, and if you know anybody that could benefit from it, please share it with them. Until next time, take care of yourself and your amazing body. You are one fertile cycle away from getting pregnant.