June 25, 2018
(working title)
You are ready! You want a baby! Awesome!
In order to do the best job that you can to prepare for your little bundle of joy, we need to do something. We need to understand why and how this system works. In essence, we need to understand the science behind the natural order of things in order to properly conceive, carry a baby to a term gestation birth and ultimately make it to the toddler years where
the immune system and the healthy microbiome are mature. This is functional medicine 101. Prevent any issues from coming to pass before they have a chance to.
I am a big fan of Elon Musk's first principles dogma. What are the basics building blocks needed for a child's successful rearing and growth from the union of sperm and egg to a "crazy tearing your house up" 2 year old. It is critical that we understand how the system was meant to work. Then and only then can we tackle the variables that modern life is throwing at us that can disrupt the balance point.
We will skip over the obvious. I.e. mom and dad and ....
This is essentially a gross outline of the pages to come in no set order yet.
1) We need an unstressed mind for mom. A healthy mind is critical to keeping the fight or flight system in check. Stress is a clear failure point for conception and also can disrupt the healthy epigenome for your offspring. I have seen countless cases of stress induced infertility only to abate with the adoption of a child or complete release from desire. We will look at Moshe Szyf's work on epigenetics and stress receptors. Mom also needs a village of support as she goes through this process.
2) We need mom and dad to be physiologically well nourished with healthy balanced macronutrient calories, clean water and also micronutrients to feed the human biological system's root functions as well as our newly understood friendly microbes. This is going to be a large part of the book as there are many points of failure here.
3) We need to avoid drugs, toxins and any epigenetic chemical that can alter the intended genetic function of the babe. This section will be very critical. The more that I read and learn, chemicals, of which we have 86000+ in circulation that are untested in humans for safety, are a root cause of dysfunction at all levels. We will look at the 10 Americans study and the work of Randy Jirtle on epigenetics to get a basis of understanding.
4) We need to physically move to stimulate normal lymphatic, detoxification and metabolic functions. The human body loathes sedentary behavior. Biological functions begin to break down with prolonged lack of movement. There is clear epidemiological evidence for movement promoting longevity and enhanced health.
5) We need to ensure proper elimination via sweating, defecating, urinating and breathing to release unknown inhaled or ingested toxins.
6) We need adequate sun exposure to turn on the tolerant side of the immune system. This may be the easiest to fix of the most problematic issues.
7) We need to be exposed to dirt and microbes that prime our immune systems into a tolerant state of being. From the earliest days of life and until we die, we need friendly microbes to, as Dr. Sydney Baker says, "tune the immune system". This issue looms large as young women are developing autoimmune diseases at younger ages putting their bodies in a state of inflammation and biological dysfunction which dramatically effects the newborn in utero and afterward.
These 7 broad categories are grossly repeated after birth until 2 years old. There will be other additions including nurturing, parenting and understanding childhood exposures to name a few.
As I wrote out this brief outline, I realized that much of this has already been written in previous newsletters that will be updated for the ebook rollout. As we move through this experience together, throw out any ideas on topics to cover in this ebook. The only topic that will not get covered until the end is vaccines. It will be as an addendum as I do not want it to spoil the rest of the book for those that truly believe that vaccines are bad. If you fall into this camp, the remainder of this book will still be right up your alley.
As I often tell my kids, we need to be informed. Wise men and women can disagree on certain topics and still find much common ground on which to act, if they look for it.
Dr. M
Definitions Page:
Epigenome - is the mammalian system of chemical structures that can regulate gene expression of DNA.
Epigenetics - is the study of how chemicals can alter gene expression without change to the actual DNA itself.
