PODCAST: Minerals that impact ovulation

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In this episode I chat about ovulation  - and some of the nuance around it for women in relationship to two key minerals. These minerals are imbalanced to some degree in everyone today. 

Listen to episode #138 : Minerals that impact ovulation - Find: A Joy To Be Me - On: iTunes, iHeartRadio, Stitcher or Spotify 

Okay ladies (and guys this is important to know about your lady) I’ve gotta be honest with you - I’m a little surprised how many women do not know the phases of their cycle. Let’s change this please cause you need to know -it affects you every month in 4 different phases and tuning into your hormones helps you know how to take really good care of yourselves.

The four phases are: menstruation, follicular, ovulation and luteal
Your hormones are completely different in each of these 4 phases.

I happen to currently be in my ovulation phase and wanted to share some insight specifically about this phase with you today - BUT I do encourage you to learn your phases and start to pay closer attention. You can use an app like MyFlo or read a book like Woman Code - or do some research to read up on them now. I did a podcast episode on how to get in sync with your cycle back in 2020. Episode 30 if you want to check that out.

During ovulation specifically there is a rise in follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) which is followed by the rise in luteinizing hormone (LH) which stimulates the follicle to release an egg.
During this phase estrogen increases further to thicken the uterine lining. Testosterone begins to surger, driving desire, and then drops - our verbal and social centers of our brain are stimulated by these hormones which makes it a great time of our cycle to talk about what we want to create - it’s a good time for conversation and connection and to enjoy being so ON! Also it’s a time of the cycle we will have more energy to burn which makes it a great time to do higher intensity type of movement/workouts.
Food wise it’s a great time to increase fiber, glutathione to help you body more easily metabolize and eliminate any excess estrogen. It’s also a good idea to help your body with vascular and antioxidant support for your ovaries - but also we can use targeted mineral balancing to help us during this phase as well.

As you know we need a balance of all mineral to optimize health, I tend to prioritize a few in most of my female clients because of the common patterns imbalances I see - those include magnesium, zinc as well as the regulation of copper and then the pair of iodine and selenium as well but before I go too far with all of these -let’s just focus on zinc and copper for right now because we are dealing with a long term issue with the balance of these two in particular and in my HTMA work the reading of zinc and copper correlate with the sex hormones.  Zn roughly correlates with progesterone effect in women, testosterone effect in men. Cu roughly correlates with estrogen effect in both sexes.

Zinc regulates women’s cycles. Zinc nourishes the ovarian follicles and therefore promotes ovulation.

Follicle-stimulating hormone, also known as FSH, stimulates sperm production in men and egg production in women. Luteinizing hormone, released by the pituitary gland, stimulates production of testosterone in men and causes ovulation in women.
One study of zinc and FSH found that there was a statistically significant drop in FSH levels for study groups who consumed both the lowest or the highest amounts of zinc. This study concluded that zinc is "beneficial" to sex hormones, including FSH, at specific physiological levels.


Zinc reduces androgens (testosterone) and raises it. This depends on what the person needs. If you are a female with PCOS you may need zinc to reduce testosterone, whilst a male low in testosterone will benefit from zinc to bring testosterone back to healthy levels. 

Zinc supports the stress response. Inadequate or excess cortisol (the stress hormone) affects the production of estrogen and progesterone in women. Either too high or too low levels of estrogens can cause issues with menstruation, mood swings, early menopause, infertility and more.

Zinc supports thyroid hormones. Zinc is one of the nutrients needed to make our thyroid hormones.
Low levels of thyroid hormone can interfere with the release of an egg from your ovary (ovulation), which impairs fertility.

I did a whole series on copper in the summer of 2020 those are episodes 19, 20, 21 and 25 if you want to go back and check those out.

Copper also builds up in the testes and ovaries when zinc deficiency is present.

Estrogen rises up until ovulation at which point progesterone takes over as the dominant hormone and helps bring down estrogen (and copper).  But when the woman is estrogen dominant (low progesterone) or already copper toxic, the cycle build up of estrogen leads to a further increase of copper along with its correlated emotional symptoms. 

Copper accumulation occurs in everyone today, thanks to weak adrenal glands.  Somehow, this affects the body’s ability to transport and remove copper.  Copper is abundant in vegetarian food such as beans, seeds, and nuts, in particular.  Using birth control pills or a copper IUD can drastically increase the copper level in the body.

A slow metabolic rate for any reason increases copper in the body.  Copper is found in some medical drugs, and sometimes in cookware and even jewelry.  Copper is also used to purify hot tubs, swimming pools, and even drinking water.  Copper water pipes are rarely a problem, however, because drinking water flows through the pipes rapidly.  Hard water is safer, in this regard. 

Heavy metals affect your ovaries too: such as cadmium (which competes with zinc).

Cadmium is the most toxic of the poison metals.  It often accumulates in the testes and ovaries, causing a host of problems.  That  include:Low sex drive or low libido. Low energy, even if the thyroid and adrenal glands are not too bad. Pain in the testes and ovaries.Cancers of the testes and ovaries. Low fertility in both men and women.

Cadmium is common in the environment.  In cities, it is in the air because it is used in the brake linings of cars.  This is inexcusable and unnecessary, and must be stopped.

Cadmium is abundant in cigarette smoke and in all marijuana.  This is one of the horrors of marijuana because the depletion of zinc is subtle.  However, as it is replaced by cadmium from marijuana, one’s energy goes down, one becomes irritable and negative, and health declines badly.  Please avoid all marijuana and do not listen to the medical reports that it is “harmless” or “better than alcohol”.  This is nonsense, although alcohol is not healthful, either.

Did you know?

Cadmium is used as a catalyst to harden or hydrogenate vegetable oils to make products such as margarine, commercial peanut butter, vegetable shortening and related items.  Every time you eat these products, you will get a little more cadmium that is a residue from this type of food processing.  
 

Ways you can care for your ovaries (and guys can care for their testes)

1. Eat organic food.  This will reduce your exposure to toxic chemicals, some toxic metals and genetically-modified food.  This is not enough, but it is an excellent first step.  

2. Reduce your exposure to all toxins.  This can be done without too much difficulty.  Do not use a lot of medical drugs, toxic chemicals in the home, toxic body care products including cosmetics, soaps, lotions, nail polish and much more.  Also, do not have your children vaccinated.  To read more about this, read Vaccination – A Medical Abomination on this site.  Be careful with everything you buy and use.  I wish this were not necessary, but it is at this time.

3. Eat a zinc-rich diet. This means including red meat in your diet.  If you eat loads of cooked vegetables with it, you will not get cancer or heart disease from eating a little red meat.  It is not necessary to eat it more than a few times per week, in most cases.

4. Reduce stress, go to bed early, and get plenty of sleep. This is to help conserve your zinc. 

If you’ve already delved into that list and feel like you still need support to take your health to the next level - a lot of times women get so far then realize they need more clarity on their current biochemistry to tweak things to meet their bodies needs and correct deeper patterns/issues/symptoms. Head over to my website lydiajoy.me and learn more about how you and I can work together to do just that. I’ll also drop a direct link in the show notes for you as well. 

Check out my online dispensary, nutrition & coaching services! Plus my two courses; Remineralize & The HTMA Practitioner Jumpstart.