Pregnant!

sarahevebee

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Jul 31, 2013
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Hello there all you lovely, intelligent folks!

I just found out that I'm pregnant...despite having taken emergency contraception.

I will not be having an abortion.

So I need some advice...should I change anything given my current situation?

I was doing a little bit more aspirin than usual (making sure to get vitamin K - I was eating kale,) because I thought it might help get the estrogen from the MAP (morning after pill) out of my system...but now that I'm pregnant...I wonder if I should be doing anything different?

I've been slacking a bit on my raw carrot salad, but this is (mostly) what a typical day looks like for me (in chronological order):

Coffee concoction (coffee, gelatin, sugar, coconut oil, aspirin.)

Raw carrot salad (grated carrot, coconut oil, white vinegar, salt.)

Milk, cheese, grapes (other fruits as available/ripe,) OJ, potatoes and sometimes beef throughout the day and for dinner, too (unless I eat out, in which case I just try my best to avoid PUFA)

Seafood about 1x a week *I had sushi the other night, I've heard that's bad for pregnant women! Any validity in that...?

I have thought about emailing Dr. Peat but I can't afford to pay him right now and I'm not comfortable asking for advice without sending compensation...(I could ask boyfriend to pay, but he already thinks I'm a Peat nut...don't want to start another debate about saturated fat and sugar, ha.)

If anyone could steer me in the right direction about this, I will send you hugs through the internet :D
 

charlie

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Congratulations!!!!! :carrot :carrot2 :grouphug

I know you said you do not feel comfortable but I would email Ray Peat and then let us know what he says so that future mommies to be will have more information to.

These quotes do not answer your question directly but its what I could find with searching Ray Peats articles. It really looks like vitamin E is really important, progesterone of course, along with getting adequate protein, and everything else that is along the lines of Peating:

Ray Peat said:
I have been concerned about the probable effects on the fetus of the silly panting respiration that is being taught to so many pregnant women, to use during labor. Panting blows out so much carbon dioxide that it causes vasoconstriction. Possibly the uterus is protected against this, and possibly the fetus produces enough carbon dioxide that it is protected, but this isn't known. Especially if the mother is hypothyroid, it seems that this could interfere with the delivery of oxygen to the fetus. Besides vasoconstriction, Buteyko points out that the Bohr effect, in which CO2 causes hemoglobin to release oxygen, means that a low level of carbon dioxide decreases the availability of oxygen. If the Bohr effect applies to fetal hemoglobin, then this suggests that the mother's panting will deprive the fetal tissues of oxygen.

It is normal for the fetus to be exposed to a high concentration of carbon dioxide. Recent experiments with week-old rats show that carbon dioxide, at the very high concentration of 6% powerfully protects against the brain damage caused by oxygen deprivation (tying a carotid artery and administering 8% oxygen). (R. C. Vannucci, et al., 1995.)2
Source

Ray Peat said:
The Shute brothers began using vitamin E to treat circulatory diseases in general, rather than just in pregnant women--blood clots, phlebitis, hypertension, heart disease, and diabetes all responded well to treatment with large doses.

6: Early Hum Dev 1994 Nov 18;39(3):177-88
Vitamin A and related essential nutrients in cord blood: relationships with anthropometric measurements at birth. Ghebremeskel K, Burns L, Burden TJ, Harbige L, Costeloe K, Powell JJ, Crawford M. Institute of Brain Chemistry and Human Nutrition, Queen Elizabeth Hospital for Children, London, UK. Following the advice given by the Department of Health to women who are, or may become pregnant, not to eat liver and liver products because of the risk of vitamin A toxicity, the concentrations of vitamins A and E, and copper, magnesium and zinc in cord blood were investigated. The study was conducted in Hackney, an inner city area of London. Esters of vitamin A were not detected in any of the samples, indicating that there was no biochemical evidence of a risk of toxicity. Indeed, vitamin A correlated significantly with birthweight, head circumference, length, and gestation period. There was also a significant positive relationship between zinc and birthweight. In contrast, copper showed a negative correlation with birthweight and head circumference. Vitamin E and magnesium were not associated with any of the anthropometric measurements, although magnesium showed an increasing trend with birthweight. The data suggest that most of the mothers of the subjects studied may have been marginal with respect to vitamins A and E and zinc. In those with low birthweight babies. a higher intake would have improved their nutritional status and possibly the outcome of their pregnancy. For these low-income mothers, liver and liver products are the cheapest and the best source of vitamins A and E, haem iron, B vitamins and several other essential nutrients; hence the advice of the Department of Health may have been misplaced.
Source

Ray Peat said:
Sixty years ago, progesterone was found to be the main hormone produced by the ovaries. Since it was necessary for fertility and for maintaining a healthy pregnancy, it was called the "pro-gestational hormone," and its name sometimes leads people to think that it isn't needed when you don't want to get pregnant. In fact, it is the most protective hormone the body produces, and the large amounts that are produced during pregnancy result from the developing baby's need for protection from the stressful environment. Normally, the brain contains a very high concentration of progesterone, reflecting its protective function for that most important organ. The thymus gland, the key organ of our immune system, is also profoundly dependent on progesterone.
Source

Ray Peat said:
The blue color of the pregnant cervix, or of the uterus in an animal given an overdose of estrogen, indicates that the tissue isn't sufficiently oxygenated to maintain its normal red color, even though the flow of blood is increased. Some experimenters have noticed that newborn animals sometimes have the postural reflex (lordosis) that indicates an estrogenic state, and that suffocation can produce the same reflex. Irradiating animals with x-rays will also produce the whole range of estrogenic effects.

One of the features of the aged uterus that I studied was the age pigment, lipofuscin, a brown waxy material that accumulates in old or stressed tissues. Prolonged dosage with estrogen accelerates the formation of this pigment, which is largely derived from oxidized polyunsaturated fatty acids. Increased amounts of those fats in the diet, or a deficiency of vitamin E, or exposure to ionizing radiation, or oxygen deprivation, can also accelerate the formation of the age pigment. The presence of the pigment intensifies the effect of estrogen, since the pigment wastes oxygen by functioning as an oxidase enzyme.
Source

Ray Peat said:
Q. Don't women need extra iron?

That's a misunderstanding.

Doctors generally don't realize that only a few milligrams of iron are lost each day in menstruation. The real issue is that you can hardly avoid getting iron, even when you try.

Women absorb iron much more efficiently than men do. From a similar meal, women will normally absorb three times as much iron as men do. When pregnant, their higher estrogen levels cause them to absorb about nine times as much as men. Every time a woman menstruates, she loses a little iron, so that by the age of 50 she is likely to have less iron stored in her tissues than a man does at the same age, but by the age of 65 women generally have as much excess iron in their tissues as men do. (During those 15 years, women seem to store iron at a faster rate than men do, probably because they have more estrogen.) At this age their risk of dying from a heart attack is the same as that of men. Some women who menstruate can donate blood regularly without showing any tendency to become anemic.

Since the custom of giving large iron supplements to pregnant women has been established, there has been an increase in jaundice of the newborn. It has been observed that women who didn't take iron supplements during pregnancy have healthy babies that don't develop jaundice. I have suggested that this could be because they haven't been poisoned by iron. Those supplements could also be a factor in the increased incidence of childhood cancer.
Source

I would read this entire article below, its really good!!
viewtopic.php?f=19&t=289&p=834&hilit=pregnant#p834

Ray Peat said:
In animal experiments that have been used to argue that pregnant women shouldn’t drink coffee, large doses of caffeine given to pregnant animals retarded the growth of the fetuses. But simply giving more sucrose prevented the growth retardation. Since caffeine tends to correct some of the metabolic problems that could interfere with pregnancy, it is possible that rationally constructed experiments could show benefits to the fetus from the mother’s use of coffee, for example by lowering bilirubin and serotonin, preventing hypoglycemia, increasing uterine perfusion and progesterone synthesis, synergizing with thyroid and cortisol to promote lung maturation, and providing additional nutrients.
Source

Ray Peat said:
Recognizing causal connections between premature birth and respiratory distress and retinopathy of prematurity, it would be obvious that the greatest effort should be made to prevent the problems by improving the health of pregnant women. Hospitals, however, are invested in high technology systems for treating these problems, and even though their results are dismal, they can’t make money by getting pregnant women to eat enough protein to prevent preeclampsia, which is a major cause of premature birth, or by treating the problems with salt, magnesium, progesterone, thyroid, and aspirin when the women haven’t had a good diet.

Historically, preeclampsia has been blamed on the mother’s or fetus’s “bad genes,” and that cultural bias was the setting in which these high technology prenatal and neonatal systems developed. High technology “neonatology” derives from the same ideology that motivated Josef Mengele’s genetic research in Auschwitz. The idea of genetic determination is still motivating resistance to reasonable preventive approaches.

Thyroid, i.e., T3, is very effective in accelerating lung development in the fetus, and it doesn’t have any of the harmful effects of the synthetic glucocorticoids. It normalizes the hormones, increasing progesterone and decreasing estrogen, which are needed for full-term gestation, the opposite of the glucocorticoids’ effects. While the cortisol-like drugs damage the brain and other organs, thyroid and progesterone protect them.

Old organisms, like newborns, are easily injured by all sorts of inappropriate excitation. As in premature babies, the aged eyes, lungs, and brain are especially sensitive to damage by stress. But all organs are subject to the same kinds of damage. Medical treatments for respiratory distress and macular degeneration in old people are often the same as those used so inappropriately for babies. The good health practices that can prevent the inflammatory and degenerative diseases can often make it possible for damaged tissues to recover, even in old age.

The pituitary hormones, especially prolactin and TSH, are pro-inflammatory, and darkness increases TSH along with prolactin, so to compensate for a light deficiency, the pituitary should be well-suppressed by adequate thyroid. Armour thyroid or Thyrolar or Cynoplus, Cytomel, would probably be helpful. (Eye-drops containing T3 might be a way to restore metabolic activity more quickly.) Limiting water intake (or using salt generously) helps to inhibit prolactin secretion. The saturated fats protect against the body's stored PUFA, and keeping the blood sugar up keeps the stored fats from being mobilized. Aspirin (or indomethacin) is generally protective to the retina, analogously to its protection against sunburn. Adequate vitamin E is extremely important. There are several prescription drugs that protect against serotonin excess, but thyroid and gelatin (or glycine, as in magnesium glycinate) are protective against the serotonin and melatonin toxicities. Copper and magnesium deficiencies predispose to retinal damage. Red light is protective, blue light (or u.v.) is harmful, so wearing orange lenses would be helpful. Progesterone and pregnenolone, by reducing the stress reactions, should be helpful--in the eye diseases of infancy and old age, as they are in the respiratory distress syndromes.
Source

I would read the entire article below too:
viewtopic.php?f=19&t=211&p=532&hilit=pregnant#p532

Ray Peat said:
When pregnant animals are deprived of protein, the newborn animals have abnormally high levels of serotonin, and the enzymes responsible for that excess tend to maintain the serotonin excess even when they are grown and have adequate protein. This is analogous to the effect of excess estrogen early in life, which creates a tendency to develop breast or prostate cancer in adulthood. It would be interesting to study the gestational experience, e.g., length of gestation and birth weight, of the people who later develop MS.

Although people in the northern countries aren't normally protein-starved, they do tend to get a large part of their protein from the muscle meats. In traditional cultures, all parts of the food animals were eaten--chicken feet, heads, and necks, animals' ears and eyeballs, etc.--and so the amino acid balance was favorable for maintaining a high metabolic rate and preventing stress.
Source

Ray Peat said:
Pregnancy stabilizes blood sugar at a higher level, and progesterone favors the oxidation of glucose rather than fats.
Source

These are searches I did on "pregnant". Maybe if you did "pregnancy" that would turn up some.

And again, a big congrats to you! :hattip
 

jaguar43

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Oct 10, 2012
Messages
1,310
sarahevebee said:
Hello there all you lovely, intelligent folks!

I just found out that I'm pregnant...despite having taken emergency contraception.

I will not be having an abortion.

So I need some advice...should I change anything given my current situation?

I was doing a little bit more aspirin than usual (making sure to get vitamin K - I was eating kale,) because I thought it might help get the estrogen from the MAP (morning after pill) out of my system...but now that I'm pregnant...I wonder if I should be doing anything different?

I've been slacking a bit on my raw carrot salad, but this is (mostly) what a typical day looks like for me (in chronological order):

Coffee concoction (coffee, gelatin, sugar, coconut oil, aspirin.)

Raw carrot salad (grated carrot, coconut oil, white vinegar, salt.)

Milk, cheese, grapes (other fruits as available/ripe,) OJ, potatoes and sometimes beef throughout the day and for dinner, too (unless I eat out, in which case I just try my best to avoid PUFA)

Seafood about 1x a week *I had sushi the other night, I've heard that's bad for pregnant women! Any validity in that...?

I have thought about emailing Dr. Peat but I can't afford to pay him right now and I'm not comfortable asking for advice without sending compensation...(I could ask boyfriend to pay, but he already thinks I'm a Peat nut...don't want to start another debate about saturated fat and sugar, ha.)

If anyone could steer me in the right direction about this, I will send you hugs through the internet :D


Cynomel, Cynoplus, Progest-e are good to take when pregnant.

How old are you?
 

HDD

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Congratulations, Sarah! :dancenanner :carrot

Progesterone, along with eating frequently, can help with nausea.
 

leo

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Congrats and best wishes for a healthy baby.

You will be amused to know that with both of my pregnancies (33 yrs ago) I had severe morning/afternoon/evening sickness. I threw up every hour and just looking/smelling at food made me sick. The only things I could eat, and therefore actually craved were:

whole milk (had gallons a day)
salted tomatoes or salted fries
watermelon

That is pretty basically what I ate every day for nine months each time. Firstborn healthy 9 lb male and second born healthy 8 lb daughter.

It's funny....but I was pretty much Peating the whole time ....but everyone thought I would have very small undernourished babies because I wasn't eating meat.
 

4peatssake

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k1-300x300.jpg


My experience is similar to leo's.

With my first babe - healthy girl 9 lbs 9 oz - (and yes, I was huge. :lol: ), I craved orange juice and drank gallons of it as well as ate copious amounts of french fries with lots of salt. I drove clear across town almost every day to get my fix of fries.

I didn't eat meat either and often ate cooked potatoes and carrots as meals. I probably drank 2 liters of oj a day. I didn't know about Peat or the carrot salad but when I look back at what I craved then, it was all along Peat lines.

I think following Peat nutrition - eating what works best for you according to his guidelines of course - and ensuring to eat enough extra calories for your baby is the best advice I could give.

The only supplement I took was folic acid but today I would consider taking Progest E and thyroid, as I am hypothyroid. I felt my very best when I was pregnant.

Enjoy this very special time.
 

jaguar43

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leo said:
Congrats and best wishes for a healthy baby.

You will be amused to know that with both of my pregnancies (33 yrs ago) I had severe morning/afternoon/evening sickness. I threw up every hour and just looking/smelling at food made me sick. The only things I could eat, and therefore actually craved were:

whole milk (had gallons a day)
salted tomatoes or salted fries
watermelon

That is pretty basically what I ate every day for nine months each time. Firstborn healthy 9 lb male and second born healthy 8 lb daughter.

It's funny....but I was pretty much Peating the whole time ....but everyone thought I would have very small undernourished babies because I wasn't eating meat.


Did you have more symptoms with your girl or boy?
 

leo

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I threw up less with the second pregnancy (girl) .....but the nausea was still there, as well as aversion to food.

In those days you just rode it out.....nothing prescribed for the nausea like now (Kate Middleton). I was skinny as a rail...yet had these fairly big babies. Other friends were huge and had 6-7 lb babies. I don't know if weight automatically equals health in babies, but mine were healthy too, thankfully.
 

HDD

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A family member is pregnant and very nauseous to the point of losing weight. I ordered "0nce a Month..." by Katharina Dalton to look for any information that might help.

Here are a few quotes-

"Progesterone is also helpful for those suffering from morning sickness or vomiting in early pregnancy. This is because the placenta is not yet fully formed and us not producing sufficient progesterone. The symptoms usually pass by the sixteenth to twentieth week ig pregnancy."

This was the case for my pregnancies. Nauseous up to the 16th week with each child. 2 girls, 2 boys. My first born daughter and my third child, a son, were 6 lbs, 6 oz, same length, same head circumference. They resemble my husbands side of the family. My husband is 5'4". The other two babies were 7+, different lengths. All four were healthy babies.

"The placenta is the center of hormonal activity between the mother and her developing baby. It passes nutrients to, supplies oxygen to, and removes waste from the baby. The placenta produces massive amounts of progesterone, and is usually fully formed by the fourth month. In the early days of pregnancy, a woman may experience nausea and vomiting, often called "morning sickness"; the medical term for this is hyperemesis. This is a sign that the ovarian progesterone is insufficient and the placenta is not yet secreting enough progesterone, so progesterone may be given to ease the symptoms."

Dalton says the rules of progesterone treatment are important along with a strict adherence to a 3-hour starch diet.

My family member was prescribed Zofran(Odansetron) which has helped immensely. Since she is unfamiliar with Ray Peat, I have not suggested Progest-e.
 

Black Forest

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Most of the stuff you read here are diet hacks. I'm pretty sure that Ray Peat wouldn't claim to know anything about your health and your babies health. Drop all the hacks and any supplements. Looking for health advice about your unborn child on a website should rate very low on your accepted advice. Good luck and take care of that baby!
 

charlie

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Black Forest said:
Most of the stuff you read here are diet hacks. I'm pretty sure that Ray Peat wouldn't claim to know anything about your health and your babies health. Drop all the hacks and any supplements. Looking for health advice about your unborn child on a website should rate very low on your accepted advice. Good luck and take care of that baby!
:bs
 

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HDD

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Black Forest said:
Most of the stuff you read here are diet hacks. I'm pretty sure that Ray Peat wouldn't claim to know anything about your health and your babies health. Drop all the hacks and any supplements. Looking for health advice about your unborn child on a website should rate very low on your accepted advice. Good luck and take care of that baby!

I was beginning to copy evidence to support my statements but it is very evident that you have not read much of Ray Peat's work.

You need to do your homework before coming on a Ray Peat forum and disputing what has been posted.

Sarah is an adult and can research the advice and evaluate her situation. I am sure she has every intention of taking care of her baby and to imply that what was posted would be harmful is showing your ignorance.
 

HDD

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Black Forest,

I apologize for my knee jerk reaction.

Most people coming to this forum have thyroid issues.

Even though my children were born healthy, they did not remain so. They have my estrogen dominance and hypothyroidism.

It is my understanding that you can change the health of future generations by changing the environment.

This is my hope for my children. I believe learning, understanding, and applying many of Peat's dietary/environmental recommendations will prevent future illness in my family. And hopefully reverse the current problems.
 
OP
sarahevebee

sarahevebee

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Thank you all so much for the great info and loving support!! :grouphug

Looks like I have a bit of reading to do :D

Charlie, I will email Ray Peat and relay our dialogue back to this thread :)

No morning sickness so far...although I don't know how far along I am (haven't been to the doctor yet, this is all very recent.) I'm excited to continue posting my experience and findings here...I'm so thankful for this site :)

Haagendazdiane - Good on you, for taking action to improve your family's health. Inspiring! I have good feelings about it :)
 

Mittir

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Congratulation

RP has mentioned Tom Brewer's pregnancy diet in two of his articles.
It would be a good idea to read those articles. He also talked about
Eclampsia in another article.
http://raypeat.com/articles/aging/eclampsia.shtml
http://raypeat.com/articles/aging/bleed ... ncer.shtml
http://raypeat.com/articles/articles/salt.shtml

I can not remember for sure if it was Ray Peat or someone else said it that
there is a relationship between iron supplementation during pregnancy
and child having jaundice just after birth. You can do some googling
to find out the whole story.If you email RP you can ask him about it.
 

leo

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When I was pregnant there was no internet yet, and I had to rely solely on the doctor's for my health information. Do you think one suggested progesterone deficiency? Fat chance. Instead I was forced to suffer through, with the hopes that it would get better and it never did. I stopped vomiting hours after giving birth only.

And even during a premature menopause at 42, NEVER did a doctor think that my low progesterone might have something to do with it.

So for whoever said to stay away from the internet and get your health info from a doctor well, yeah good luck to ya.

Now...I don't visit doctor's unless it is an emergency. They know nothing of health and nutrition.
 

Jenn

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"Since the custom of giving large iron supplements to pregnant women has been established, there has been an increase in jaundice of the newborn. It has been observed that women who didn't take iron supplements during pregnancy have healthy babies that don't develop jaundice. I have suggested that this could be because they haven't been poisoned by iron. Those supplements could also be a factor in the increased incidence of childhood cancer. "

http://raypeat.com/articles/articles/iron-dangers.shtml
 

catan

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sarahevebee-- how is your pregnancy going? Did you ever contact Peat?
 

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