Ancient time-tested natural medicine

Preconception Health Care

Cell Phone Usage Linked to

Poor Sperm Quality

Amid increased concern about the causal relationship between modern lifestyle and environment factors on declining fertility, birth complications and infant and baby health, Miami Holistic Center stresses the importance of optimal health and well being of both parents prior to conception. In the same way that athletes go into training for peak sporting performance, it is essential that couples planning a pregnancy optimize their health and wellbeing for the best possible fertility outcome. The practice of preconception health care has been used for thousands of years, and is experiencing a resurgence in the face of modern fertility issues.

The ancient Spartans knew of preconception health benefits more than 2,500 years ago with young women engaging in wrestling, running and throwing the quoit in order for pregnancies to be healthy and strong. Later the ancient Romans recognized environmental effects on fertility when they noticed the reduced conception rate following their installation of lead water pipes. The physicians of ancient Greece recommended that young women take no alcohol in preparation for conception and during pregnancy and many traditional societies today also feed special diets to their young women and men of childbearing age.

Preconception health care is a way for both prospective parents to improve their fertility through:

Healthy lifestyle
Good nutrition
Natural treatments
Diagnostic care
Counselling and relaxation techniques
Charting and timing techniques

Preconception health care lays the foundations for the best conception chances and grooms the body, mind and spirit for a healthy, vital pregnancy and birth. The chances of having a healthy conception, pregnancy, birth and baby are highest if both prospective parents take part in the program, lifestyle and dietary protocols are followed and general and reproductive health issues for both parents are resolved to a sufficient degree during this time.

Success Rates

Natural and holistic treatments often succeed when orthodox treatments such as drugs and surgery fail. Because the HLHC Natural Fertility Management Program is individually created for the unique health requirements of each couple, reporting on comparative success rates is difficult, however despite the fertility challenges facing many of our clients, clinical observations and major university studies strongly support a high rate of fertility success.

Foresight Study 1995
Foresight, the Association for the Promotion of Preconception Care, was established in the United Kingdom in 1978. A Foresight study, conducted in conjunction with Surrey University (published in the Journal of Nutritional & Environmental Medicine 1995), clearly shows the effectiveness of preconception health care.

Foresight Study Results: The women participating in the study ranged in age from 22-45 years, the men from 25-59 years. 41% of the couples had no previous adverse reproductive history, but among these were the older couples.

Study Involved:

367 couples and lasted 2 years
Age of females: 22-45 years
Age of males: 25-59 years

Presenting with a Previous History of:	Percentage in Sample
Infertility	37%
Miscarriage	38%
Therapeutic abortion	11%
Still birth	3%
'Small for dates' or low birth weight babies	15%
Malformations	2%
SIDS	1%

Results:

No miscarriages, perinatal deaths, malformations
No baby admitted to intensive care
Normal Expectation - 70 miscarriage, 6 malformations

Outcome	Percentage in Sample
Live births	89%
Live births to those previously infertile	81%
Average gestational age	38.5 weeks
Earliest gestational age	36 weeks
Average weight of males	7lb 4oz (3303g)
Average weight of females	7lb 2oz (3232g)
Lightest baby	5lb 3oz (2367g)

Note: Our Natural Fertility Management Conception Program covers the same treatment methods used by Foresight and extends these by using natural therapies to enhance and resolve health issues.

Foresight Study (current)
Foresight is currently completing a further, larger study with 1,061 couples. The unpublished statistics from this already show similar excellent outcomes, with a preliminary conception rate of approximately 78% for the infertile couples on the program (leading to a healthy baby) within two years of following the program. This is despite some problems encountered with providing a full preconception health care service during the study. This study also suggests a more than doubled conception success rate for IVF, following preconception health care.
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Effect of cell phone usage on semen analysis in men attending infertility clinic: an observational study.

Agarwal A, Deepinder F, Sharma RK et al. Fertil Steril 2008; 89(1): 124-128

This study investigated the effect of mobile/cell phone use on sperm parameters among patients undergoing evaluation at a male infertility clinic in the United States. Three hundred and sixty-one men were divided into four groups according to their self-reported active cell phone use: group A: no use; group B: less than 2 hours/day; group C: 2–4 hours/day; and group D: more than 4 hours/day. Sperm count, motility, viability and normal morphology decreased in cell phone users as the duration of daily exposure increased. The decrease in sperm parameters was independent of the initial semen quality.