What is inflammation, and how does it affect Health and Fertility specifically?
I had great pleasure in discussing this with Joanna Plant, Nutritionist and Functional Medicine Practitioner.
What does a Functional Medicine practitioner do?
Well, they uses advanced clinical testing and personalised nutrition to prevent, diagnose and treat health conditions and illnesses. So rather than suppressing symptoms, which is quite often what you'll get if you go and see a GP, you'll be given some sort of medication, which tends to be to treat the symptoms that you're getting, rather than addressing the cause.
Joanna came to this line of work after healing herself from depression which she was diagnosed with at the age of 16, and recovery from significant digestive issues. As with many therapists, this journey of self discovery lead to to a pasion to learnmore and help others.
Yes, Inflammation can be a factor that negatively impacts fertility, but its much bigger than and as ever we travel up stream to improve the whole body and general health and wellbeing.
Joanna gave an excellent analogy of likening our immune system to an army of soldiers, but these soldiers are overworked and rent being equipped with the right equipment. As a result resources are drawn from other areas and these areas are being shut down, Reproduction being one of them.
We discussed how its important to add to the diet first of all, rather than looking at removing things, which for anyone who has tried to make changes Im sure youll agree will be an easier option.
As we know getting pregnant isn't always as straight forward as it should be, and when this leads to restriction, it can make our Fertility journey all too consuming.
One of my take homes was thinking about the army of soldiers, how I can support them to do their job and adding chia seeds to everything! It adds some texture and crunch and doesn't taste of anything, but a great way to add more omega 3's.
If you want to read the transcript, its available here
You can find more about Joanna via Linkedin
Her website is being updated currently
or you can contact her at joanna@joannaplant.co.uk
