MINERALS

Pregnancy is a stress!

Dr. Tom Brewer found that the cause of most issues during pregnancy are related to food deficiency.

It is no secret pregnancy, on one hand is an incredible gift, and on the other a tremendous stress to a woman’s body.

According to Robert Thompson, over the course of a 265 day pregnancy, the baby takes about four pounds of minerals from the mother or about 10% of her total mineral supply.

The human body is magnificent and strong and resilient but we each have a threshold. Where and when we will each meet that threshold is the unknown. It is not uncommon for women to enter into a pregnancy in a malnourished state (energy and mineral deficient). This is often the case for women who experience toxemia, high blood pressure, gestational diabetes, nausea and vomiting, etc. For women with multiple pregnancies, especially within 2 years of each other, the stakes are even higher.

Baby’s will take what they need from mama, which is the way it should be but it is a sacrifice and it will leave mom depleted. Pre, during and post pregnancy nutrition is the greatest gift you can give yourself and your baby. Here are some guidelines…
👶🏻 Apply the RTN dietary guidelines to develop a strong nutritional foundation that supports your energy needs.
👶🏻 Make sure to consume at least 120g a protein a day to prevent toxemia. 
👶🏻 Salt all your food to taste and/or consume 2 Adrenal Cocktails per day. The sodium will help to regulate blood volume and prevent eclampsia.
👶🏻 Eat liver or take desiccated liver. This will help you regulate bio-available copper, which turns serotonin. An important process that ensures there is enough oxygen being delivered to the uterus.
👶🏻 Utilize metabolic carbs (fruits and roots) to help support the increased energy need required by the adrenals and thyroid pre, during and post pregnancy.
#thyroidpregnancy#thyroidsupport#pregnancysupport#pregnancyminerals

How does mineral balance impact hormone balance and endocrine function? Here’s why! 

Minerals are the body’s “spark plugs.” Around 95% of all minerals are located outside of the bloodstream, sequestered in the tissues and cells of the body. This includes storage sites in the organs, brain, ligaments, bones, and tissues.

Minerals are what helps each cell in the body function properly, and the creation of energy at the cellular level is dependent upon a proper balance of mineral cofactors in those cells.

Without minerals, we cannot make hormones, digest our food, regulate our blood sugar, get restorative sleep, mobilize toxins, operate our !mmune system, heal from infections, etc. 

Adequate levels of minerals also protect our tissues and organs from toxic heavy metals and assist their excretion from the body. 

Our hormone balance and endocrine function is dependant upon minerals for several reasons.

First off, the organs that make up our endocrine system- such as the thyroid, ovaries, pituitary, adrenal glands- all depend upon these minerals for optimal function. Every cell of these organs has enzymes that require mineral and nutrient cofactors in order to function. 

Secondly, minerals- along with vitamins and cholesterol- are the building blocks of our hormones. Without these, we cannot make adequate hormones. 

Finally, we know that stress is extremely disruptive to the endocrine system, and our adrenal glands rely on proper levels of minerals like sodium, potassium, and magnesium in order to effectively manage stress. Stress (physical & emotional) depletes us of these valuable mineral cofactors. The efficacy of our body’s response to stress is dependent upon proper balance of minerals at the cellular level. 

⬆️Check out the slides above for information on 4 of the minerals that can influence our hormone balance & endocrine function! 

❓Do you have any questions about minerals and hormone balance?

Stress is a broad term used to describe demands on your body that exceed your ability to handle at one time.

Stress is often confined to emotional stress or life demands, but it can also originate from your nutrition, blood sugar control, and environment.

We all have our own unique stressors and timeline of stress that can tell us a lot of where we are today.

Why is that?

Stress, no matter the source, depletes us of vitamins and minerals, which dictate the production of antioxidants and ability to control inflammation, hormonal and blood sugar balance, and energy to name a few.

When you lose those nutrients, it’s no surprise that many will struggle in many of the above areas.

“The idea of a bidirectional relationship between magnesium and stress was first introduced by Galland and Seelig, in the early 1990s  and then referred to as the vicious circle. This vicious circle implies that stress can increase magnesium loss, causing a deficiency; in turn, magnesium deficiency can enhance the body’s susceptibility to stress.” - Pickering et al 2020

We can look to supplement with vitamins and minerals or eat the food that has the nutrient, but if we don't look at what’s causing the loss, we aren’t improving anything.

This would be similar to filling up a bucket with water that has holes in the bottom.

It will never truly fill until you plug the holes.

This is why identifying your past and current sources of stress are crucial to plugging the holes so you can refill your bucket and solve big contributors to blood sugar imbalances and resolve symptoms, like fatigue, mood and appetite swings, food cravings, insomnia, and poor resilience to stress.

If you would like to learn more about how you can identify these stressors so you can improve your blood sugar and feel better, you can join my free Facebook group by visiting the link in my bio!

I call potassium the “forgotten mineral" because everyone loves to put other minerals like magnesium in the spotlight, yet potassium is just as foundational, but is often discussed as an afterthought.

Potassium is an essential dietary mineral and also an electrolyte. The term “electrolyte” refers to a substance that dissociates into ions (charged particles) in solution, which makes it capable of conducting electricity. 

Potassium (K) is the principal positively charged ion in the fluid inside of cells (it's an intracellular mineral.) Sodium, which I discussed in my post last month, is the principal ion of the extracellular fluid.

Potassium and sodium should be adequately present in each of your 30 trillion cell membranes, and this synergistic relationship creates an electrochemical gradient known as the "membrane potential." This mechanism is maintained by ion pumps in cells, especially the sodium/potassium/ATP pumps. These pumps use ATP (energy) to pump sodium out of the cell, in exchange for potassium.

Besides the foundational aspect of creating a charged gradient in the cell membranes, potassium also has many other roles in the body! Check out the slides for the roles it plays and common symptoms of deficiency. 

The lower someone’s tissue potassium is, the more they’ll need, to bring themselves to sufficiency. That's where knowing your levels can come in handy! The hair tissue mineral analysis test I use in my practice is analogous to a non-invasive tissue biopsy. The hair responds to lymph, blood flow, and mineral input similarly to our other body tissues, and is a good indicator for getting a “snapshot” in time of what occurs at the tissue level. I run blood labs and HTMA with my clients which can help show the interaction between the blood and tissues.

Food-based sources are recommended to start, and I advise starting slow when adding in new minerals to allow your body to adjust. I find that people tolerate the whole food forms of potassium better than supplemental, especially when they first start adding this mineral back in!

❓❓Do you have any questions about potassium?

Temperatures are heating up, so let’s talk hydration! 

Arguably one of the most shocking things about transitioning to a metabolically supportive diet is realizing that drinking half your weight in water, a gallon of water, eight glasses of water, or whatever other crazy advice we’ve heard is not actually doing us any favors. 

now, this isn’t to say that we shouldn’t be drinking water, but there are a lot of variables to consider. The first being, what is your water quality like? Go search for EWG‘s tap water database, enter your ZIP Code, and take a look at your local water. If your city is anything like mine, it’s quite atrocious. Now imagine drinking a gallon of water every day with cancer-causing chemicals like arsenic, bromate, chloroform, just to name a few. No thanks 🥲🥲.

there are better ways to prioritize hydration, and there are better ways to get water! Swipe through the slides above for all of my water tips! 

we recently invested in a home master under the sink remineralizing filter and absolutely love it (and yes, I’m still a big fan of Berkey! I always re-mineralized my Berkey water because while it is the best filtered water on the market, it does not re-mineralize. It’s a great starting place for those who don’t have money to invest in a remineralizing system quite yet! Just add sea salt or trace minerals to your cup.)

while processed electrolyte drinks can have some really good marketing, there are better homemade options ❤️

and to help you get started in your mineral rich hydration goals, swipe to the last slide for my Berry Basil Lemonade from Batch! The cream of tartar is for extra potassium 💫

While there are certainly genetic factors at play in our health, a lot of what we deal with as adults arose when we were very young. The way Mother Nature has designed reproduction is quite the miracle and at various stages of development we are intended to receive perfectly timed minerals and nutrients to support our development.

If we don’t receive the minerals in the right place at the right time, our bodies adapt by changing the way we develop. There are many back-up plans in place for us, so most of us do make it to adulthood, even if we don’t get the ideal mix of minerals and nutrients, but the consequences to our health can be long-lasting. 

One paradigm worthy of another look is the paradigm of so-called “good genes” or the flip-side “bad genes.” It is true that our genes influence our development and our health, but no one is talking about just how important our minerals are for our development and our health. Good genes (whatever those are) will not save anyone from nutritional deficits. And, what is often attributed to so-called “good genes” is often just a sign that a person had a well-mineralized mom and received all the well-timed downloads during their early life.

The good news is that we can work with our minerals as adults.

Sources: (Robbins, M.); (Cerami, C. (2017)); (Shanhan, M.D. “Deep Nutrition”)

#mineralshaman#rootcauseprotocol#mineralmafia

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