How to protect your own germ cells

Healthy germ cells are the foundation for healthy children.  If there's a possibility you might procreate in the future, you should take all reasonable steps to ensure the health of your egg or sperm.  Here are some tips:

• Know your own prenatal exposures.  Your eggs (females) or sperm (males) began their lives when you were just a tiny embryo.  If your mother took medications or had other unusual exposures during her pregnancy with you, including dental work, medical radiation, or smoking or recreational drugs, your germline may be affected.  Ask your mother (and even your grandmother, since effects can be transgenerational) about any drugs they may have taken in pregnancy. Of course, we cannot control our prenatal exposures, but knowing of past problems may increase the urgency of your using sound nutrition with pharmaceutical-free pregnancy to achieve the best possible outcome.

•  Avoid endocrine disrupting chemicals, including birth control pills, synthetic hormones, soy, BPA and other plasticizers, and pesticides.

• Know your own past radiation exposure.  X-rays may have damaged your eggs or spermatogonial stem cells, those progenitor cells that continuously produce new sperm.

• Go two to three months without drugs or medication before trying to conceive, as the effects of those medications can affect ripening eggs and developing sperm. (There are exceptions to this, of course, please consult with your health care practitioners before stopping a medication).

 • Reduce or eliminate your need for medication, restore normal hormone levels, and minimize inflammation by following a clean, ancestral-type diet shown to improve health markers and fertility.  Focus on fresh vegetables, fruits, eggs, fish, dairy, meats, nuts, seeds, and healthy fats like olive oil, butter, and coconut oil. Eliminate all sugar, flour, and processed food. Minimize alcohol and stop smoking. For advice on ancestral diets, see here and here, for example.

• Once you are pregnant, eat a diet rich in natural folate, including foods like kale, spinach and chicken liver. Eat plenty of healthy fats and avoid all processed food. For more detailed advice about nutrition and epigenetics, read this book.

• Before resorting to IVF or other forms of toxic, chemically assisted fertility which can impair the epigenetic programming of your child's genome, increase your natural fertility by following advice like that found here or here. (Note: this is for information only; this site has no ties to any commercial product.)