Thursday, February 23

Laptops reduce male fertility

Posted on February 13, 2012 Julie Chang, L.Ac.

Laptops have become indispensable devices in many people’s daily lives. However, the flexibility and mobility offered by these devices to users may come at a price. A recent study published in the January 2012 issue of Fertility and Sterility found that an active laptop computer connected to internet through Wi-Fi induced a significant decrease in sperm quality after only 4 hours of exposure. This effect was due to exposing the genital area to radio frequency electromagnetic waves (RF-EMW) and high temperatures.

Infertility is a common condition that affects up to 1 in 6 couples in the U.S. In 50% of the cases a male factor is involved, either as a primary problem or in combination with a problem in the female partner. A number of studies have shown that male fertility has declined during the past several decades. Such decline has been attributed, in part, to the direct or indirect exposure to certain environmental factors such as RF-EMW.

But help may be available in an unexpected form: acupuncture. Medical experts believe that this ancient therapy from China, which involves placing numerous thin needles at certain points in the body, can help improve fertility in men.

"Acupuncture has been around for over 3,000 years. It's safe and there are no bad side effects from it," explained Julie Chang, L.Ac., founder and director of Zen Fertility Center in San Diego, CA, a natural fertility clinic specializing in the use of acupuncture for the treatment of infertility. "It is often used in conjunction with western fertility treatments to help prepare the body and maximize the potential effects of fertility treatments."

Dr. Deidre Conway, Reproductive Endocrinologist at UCSD Reproductive Partners in San Diego, CA, said that "we encourage the combination of Eastern and Western medicine to enhance the success of our fertility treatments. Occasionally, couples will conceive before they even get to treatment with us, which is always a welcome surprise.”

The actual acupuncture treatment session involves placing very thin needles at specific points in the body. In addition to relieving stress, Chang said that acupuncture can help increase a man's fertility by promoting blood flow to the testes. This improved blood flow can help improve sperm production.

It may also help correct problems with the body's neuro-endocrine system. Acupuncture can help activate the brain to release hormones that will stimulate the testes, adrenal glands and other organs that are involved in reproduction, according to Chang.

In general, women younger than 35 years of age are often advised to try to get pregnant for about a year before seeking treatment for infertility. "But, if you're anxious to get going, six months is a reasonable time to wait to start the fertility work up, including a thorough semen analysis," Chang said. And women older than 35 probably shouldn't wait more than six months, she added.

Conway said “we see more and more infertile couples trying to conceive at an older age, who have postponed childbearing for various reasons. For many couples, the addition of acupuncture to the standard fertility treatments is an invaluable part of the process of realizing their dreams of starting a family.”

Are You Too Toxic To Get Pregnant? - Part II

Posted on January 27, 2012 Julie Chang, L.Ac.

In our last blog, we talked about ways to reduce your toxic load in the foods you eat.  Let's look at how everyday household items can contribute to creating a toxic environment so you can make safer choices.

Chemical Pesticides and Fertilizers

One of the most famous xenoestrogens is DDT which was widely used in pesticides for agriculture until it was banned in the US in 1972 due to its hazardous effects on the environment. However, DDT continues to be used in many parts of the world for agricultural use, insect control and to fight the spread of malaria. It can persist in soil for centuries, so despite the ban, many people around the world are still being exposed to DDT on a regular basis.

Unfortunately, DDT is not the only agricultural chemical that contains xenoestrogens, and many others remain in legal use in the United States and around the world. It's estimated that the average American consumes over one pound of pesticides per year. Among the common products known to contain xenoestrogens are atrazine (used to kill weeds in corn and sugar cane crops), endosulfan (an insecticide used largely on vegetables, apples, melon and cotton), and methoxychlor (a general pesticide for crops and animals).

How to Avoid Them

• Eat organic foods as often as possible
• Use natural pest control in your home and garden
• If you must use synthetic pesticides or fertilizers, follow directions exactly.

Cosmetics and Toiletries

Personal products are some of the worst xenoestrogen carriers around and include lotions, sunscreens, shampoos, makeup, nail polish, baby products, to start with.

Unfortunately, one of the most effective ways to absorb xenoestragens is through skin contact. Xenoestrogens absorbed by the skin are ten times more potent than those taken orally, because they travel directly to the tissues instead of passing through the liver.

Common sources of xenoestrogens, include parabens, phthalates, benzophenone-3, homosalate, 4-methyl-benzylidene camphor (4-MBC), octyl-methoxycinnamate and octyl-dimethyl-PABA, phenoxyethanol, phthalates, and other compounds.

How to Avoid Them

Buy cosmetics and toiletries at natural foods stores. Read labels. If you don’t know what it is, don’t put it on your skin (or for that matter, eat it).

Plastics

Plastics, especially soft plastics, contain many compounds that are considered to be xenoestrogens. Phthalates, a type of plasticizer used to make plastics soft and flexible, are an especially common offender. These compounds can leach out or volatize over time or in response to heat or other stimuli.

How To Avoid Them

• Use cling wrap that does not contain DEHA and replace cling wrap on meats and other foods as soon as you get home from the store, unless it is from a chain such as Whole Foods that doesn't use DEHA cling wrap
• Never heat food with plastic in the microwave, even if it claims to be microwave-safe. Use glass or ceramics instead.
• Avoid Teflon and other non-stick cookware. Cast iron is an inexpensive, durable, and healthful alternative.
• Buy bottled water and other drinks in glass bottles instead of plastic.
• Minimize consumption of foods from tin cans. In the USA, over 85% of tin cans are lined with bisphenol-A (BPA) to reduce the metallic taste that can be present in canned foods. Unfortunately, BPA is a known xenoestrogen that leaches when exposed to heat, such as the sterilization process some cans undergo, or acid. BPA is also present in many plastic baby bottles, food storage containers, and other products.
• Don't drink from styrofoam cups or containers, especially hot beverages.

Household Cleaners

Many household cleaners contain xenoestrogens. Particularly dangerous are laundry detergents and fabric softeners, because residues on clothing, towels, and other items are worn against the skin. Air fresheners and insect repellents are also major sources of xenoestrogens.

How to Avoid Them

• Use old-fashioned household cleaners like baking soda, Borax, and vinegar whenever possible.
• Avoid fabric softeners and dryer sheets.
• Use a simple laundry detergent with few chemicals.
• Ventilate your house frequently and well and avoid the use of air fresheners, insecticide foggers, and other products that release chemicals into the air. Use essential oils to freshen the room.

Are You Too Toxic To Get Pregnant? - Part I

Posted on January 25, 2012 Julie Chang, L.Ac.

Excessive levels of the hormone estrogen are associated with many health problems in both men and women and is commonly associated with a class of man-made compounds called xenoestrogens. Xenoestrogens (literally "foreign estrogen") mimic the effects of your body's natural estrogens. Because they are fat-soluble, they can be stored in the fatty tissues of the body, often for decades.

Avoiding xenoestrogens is an important step towards reducing the many symptoms and health problems associated with excessive estrogen levels, including early onset of puberty, breast cancer, endometriosis, uterine fibroids, PMS, PCOS, infertility, and impotency. It is especially important for pregnant and lactating women, children, teenagers, and those with estrogen-sensitive diseases to reduce exposure to xenoestrogens. Unfortunately, xenoestrogens occur in thousands of everyday items, including everything from food to cosmetics to household goods.

In this article, let's take a look at dietary sources of xenoestrogens.

Meat, Dairy, and Eggs

Meat, eggs and dairy foods can be a source of xenoestrogens. Estrogens are fed to dairy cattle to encourage more milk production and to chickens to increase egg production. They are fed a cocktail of antibiotics, growth hormones, anti-parasitic drugs and many other medicines on a daily basis. These drugs are then passed directly to us the consumers when we consume these foods.

How to Avoid Them

• Choose organic meat, eggs, and dairy products
• Better yet, choose 100% grassfed meat and dairy products, and pastured pork and poultry
• Reduce your consumption of animal products in general, especially uncultured dairy products.

Water

Unfortunately, water treatment plants are not currently designed to remove hormonal pollutants. Water in many parts of America is also contaminated with agricultural runoff, including many pesticides and fertilizers containing xenoestrogens, and urine and manure from animals fed growth hormones.

How To Avoid Them

Don't switch to bottled water, which is unregulated and may be more polluted than tap water. Instead, install a reverse osmosis water system. These can include under sink or whole house systems.

In our next blog article, we will look at environmental sources of xenoestrogens.

The Power of Positive Thinking

Posted on January 17, 2012 Julie Chang, L.Ac.

Whether your goal is to have a baby, get the job promotion you’ve deserved for years, or buy that dream house, your will to achieve that goal is determined by how deeply you want the rewards of reaching your dream, what you believe you are capable of, and how worthy you feel of enjoying higher success.

You can either focus on the rewards of your goal, or you can focus on the difficulties you inevitably face to reach your objective. This unconscious choice then drives your will to succeed.

Focusing on the rewards of your dream energizes you, while dwelling on the difficulties ahead debilitates you, both physically and emotionally.

You can easily demonstrate this with a kinesiology experiment. Here’s how: hold one of your arms up parallel to the ground. Have another person test your arm strength by gently pressing down with their hand on your wrist.

Once you’ve gotten an idea of your actual arm strength, close your eyes and think of the difficulties you face in reaching your goal, what you don’t like about it. Allow 10 seconds for you to think of these unpleasant things while keeping your eyes closed. Then raise the same arm and retest your strength again. You’ll find that you’ve lost almost all of your initial strength.

Next, close your eyes and focus on the rewards you’ll enjoy when you reach or exceed your goals. Again, allow 10 seconds to elapse, and check your arm strength again. You’ll almost always find your arm stronger than it was at first. Focusing on the rewards you’ll enjoy always adds to your natural strength. However, focusing on the difficulties almost always obliterates your natural strength.

Since strength is energy, and our bodies, minds, and spirits are interconnected, it’s logical to assume that our emotional strength is as weakened by focusing on difficulties as is our physical strength.

Positive affirmations are an easy way to train your mind to think in a more uplifting manner.  Go to Zen Fertility Center's Facebook page for positive affirmations that can help you change your life one thought at a time.

Why IVF alone often isn't enough

Posted on January 13, 2012 Julie Chang, L.Ac.

The journey from the time you decide to have a child to conception, then pregnancy, and hopefully a beautiful, healthy baby is a process. For some, this is a relatively brief trip because everything happens as it should. For others, this can seem like an interminable and exhausting marathon lasting years. Who knows why so many women and couples have fertility issues? Many factors come into play such as stress, inadequate nutrition, lack of exercise, and poor lifestyle habits. These are some that you have control over and account for over 95% of infertility issues. The other 5% is due to genetic factors that cannot be changed so require western medical treatment.

Because fertility issues are a result of many controllable factors contributing to a sub-optimal environment which allows a healthy pregnancy to thrive, encouraging this process in a natural way is better in every way than an artificial one.

The process of conception is so complicated that even with the technology we have, the entire process in its minutiae is still unclear. What we do know is that it requires the perfect balance and function of many components all working in a coordinated and harmonious fashion. One misstep and pregnancy will not occur or miscarriage will ensue.

With an overall average success rate of about 30%, IVF’s failures far exceed its successes for the very fact that IVF cannot replace the natural process which is necessary to occur for conception and a baby to take home 9 months later.

The alternative

Chinese medicine uses acupuncture and herbal medicine as the main therapeutic modalities to bring the body back into a state as balanced as possible. Picture a seesaw. Now imagine loading on one side all your stresses including emotional stress, poor nutrition, lack of exercise, poor lifestyle habits. On the other side, put everything that you’re doing to help yourself become a healthier and more vital person. What are you doing for stress relief? Eating organic? Exercising regularly? For 95% of people, the seesaw is tipped very heavily towards the stressed side. Acupuncture and herbal medicine are used to help provide the balance you need to offset the stresses you’re exposed to. This is why, in many cases, acupuncture and herbs work to help one achieve pregnancy when IVF fails. Because the more balanced you can be physically and emotionally, the more likely that you will be able to conceive.

The best case scenario for a woman or couple undergoing IVF is to utilize it in conjunction with acupuncture and herbal medicine. The reason for this is quite simple. When the reproductive endocrinologist retrieves eggs and fertilizes them with sperm the resulting embryo is as good as its constituent components, egg and sperm. Most IVFs that fail do so because of poor egg quality and/or poor sperm quality. The reproductive endocrinologist cannot improve egg or sperm quality; acupuncture and herbs frequently can.

5 Tips to Stay Focused with Your New Year's Exercise Plan

Posted on December 23, 2011 Julie Chang, L.Ac.

2012 is right around the corner, and this is the time when many people think about setting resolutions for the New Year.

Making time for regular exercise is essential to your overall health and fitness plan. But, many people find it difficult to stay on track with their program once the initial enthusiasm of the New Year has faded. Developing an exercise and fitness habit is not an easy thing. If it was, there wouldn’t be so many broken New Year’s resolutions.

So, how can you stay on track in 2012? Here are 5 tips you can take to improve your chances of success.

1. Choose an exercise you enjoy

This seems obvious, but you may be so locked on losing those extra pounds that you overlook the fact that it needs to be done consistently in order to achieve the results you’re striving for. The only way you will be able to stick with any exercise regime is to do something you enjoy or can learn to enjoy. Have an open mind and try different activities. When you choose an exercise you enjoy, it won’t feel so much like hard work.. It doesn’t matter what type of exercise you do, as long as you do it consistently.

2. Find an exercise partner

It’s easier to skip an exercise session when the only one you’re accountable to is yourself. But when you know your friend is waiting for you, there’s little chance you’ll flake out and use the “I’m too busy or tired” excuse. Having a commitment to others not only makes us more likely to stick with it, it also makes it much more fun.

3. Go at your own pace

Start small. If you haven’t exercised regularly for a long time, it would be foolhardy to start by trying an hour of brisk jogging. Instead, start with 20 minutes of walking and work up from there.

Remember, the benefits of exercise come from following a consistent program. Start at a pace that is a little challenging, but not so much that you dread doing the same thing again tomorrow. Exercise shouldn’t be a form of punishment or torture, it should leave you feeling pleasantly tired and invigorated.

4. Set goals for your program

Set a reward and celebrate the achievement of your goals. Then keep your promise to yourself and indulge in your reward. Doing so will help maintain the momentum to keep exercising. Once you’ve achieved each goal, set your sights slightly higher and begin again. This is the only way to keep progressing.

The process of setting goals and achieving them, not only gives you a meaningful path of progress, it helps build your confidence and self esteem, as you begin to see that you can achieve things you may not have thought possible with consistent, disciplined effort.

5. Write it down.

Prioritize your workouts as you would any other meeting or appointment and write them down in your calendar, or make your own workout log. Having a written schedule is one of the best ways to keep the guesswork out of what we’re going to do that day and holds us visibly accountable. Furthermore, by keeping a log of what we’ve done (or haven’t), we can track progress or make up for weeks where we didn’t do as much as planned.

Here’s to a happy and healthy 2012 for all of us!

Chinese Medicine is 2x as effective as IVF

Posted on December 22, 2011 Julie Chang, L.Ac.

Infertility is an issue of major concern, affecting up to 1 in 6 couples. The American Pregnancy Association (APA) estimates that about 6 million American women have fertility challenges every year and about 2 million couples have problems with fertility.

A team of medical researchers at the University of Adelaide have provided a lot of hope for the treatment of infertility in women using Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). In a recent study, the team thoroughly reviewed 30 previously conducted research works which included about 1,800 women participants with varied fertility problems. The researchers undertook comprehensive analyses that consisted of randomized and non-randomized trials with reliable control systems, and thereafter compared the rates of clinical pregnancy achieved with conventional Western fertility treatments such as in vitro fertilization (IVF) against TCM.

According to the authors, their meta-analyses suggest Traditional Chinese Medicine to be more effective in the treatment of female infertility achieving on average a 60% pregnancy rate over 4 months compared with 30% achieved with standard western drug treatment, or IVF over 12 months.

This is especially significant when the typical cost of 1 IVF cycle is approximately $15,000 – that means 1 opportunity to conceive. Depending on age, IVF success rates average about 30%. This is compared to the cost of 1 YEAR of Traditional Chinese Medical care which is under $5000.

The ability of TCM to provide more effective fertility care as at a significantly lower cost with natural remedies that have no side effects makes this an attractive option for a growing number of women and couples.

Source: Ried, K. and K. Stuart. 2011. Efficacy of Traditional Chinese Herbal Medicine in the management of female infertility: A systematic review. Comp Ther in Med (2011) 19, 319-331.

Zen Fertility Center Expands to North County San Diego - Encinitas

Posted on December 19, 2011 Julie Chang, L.Ac.

For many women, having a child is of the utmost importance. While most women are able to conceive easily, for many others it is an uphill battle. There are many factors which can cause infertility such as diet, stress, and lack of exercise amongst others. Natural fertility treatments such as those offered at Zen Fertility Center focuses on helping people understand the need to look after themselves. Relieving stress from the mind relaxes the body which in turn is crucial for any woman wanting to conceive. Our acupuncturists further provide natural acupuncture and herbal treatments that are potent in relaxation, to help keep the body and mind in balance for fertility enhancement.

The effectiveness of our natural fertility program provided by the expertise that can only be obtained from being in practice since 1997 has caused more and more people to use our services. As a result of this increasing demand, we are now expanding from 1 location in Central San Diego – Kearny Mesa to a 2^nd location in North County San Diego – Encinitas, beginning January 2, 2012.

For more information about how Zen Fertility Center can help you achieve your fertility goals in the new year, call us at (858) 495-0771. A fresh approach may be just what you need for the new year.

2011 San Diego Award

Posted on November 29, 2011 Julie Chang, L.Ac.

NEW YORK, NY, November 3, 2011 -- Zen Fertility Center has been selected for the 2011 San Diego Award in the Acupuncture Clinics category by the U.S. Commerce Association (USCA).

The USCA "Best of Local Business" Award Program recognizes outstanding local businesses throughout the country. Each year, the USCA identifies companies that they believe have achieved exceptional marketing success in their local community and business category. These are local companies that enhance the positive image of small business through service to their customers and community.

Various sources of information were gathered and analyzed to choose the winners in each category. The 2011 USCA Award Program focuses on quality, not quantity. Winners are determined based on the information gathered both internally by the USCA and data provided by third parties.

About U.S. Commerce Association (USCA)

U.S. Commerce Association (USCA) is a New York City based organization funded by local businesses operating in towns, large and small, across America. The purpose of USCA is to promote local business through public relations, marketing and advertising.

The USCA was established to recognize the best of local businesses in their community. Our organization works exclusively with local business owners, trade groups, professional associations, chambers of commerce and other business advertising and marketing groups. Our mission is to be an advocate for small and medium size businesses and business entrepreneurs across America.

SOURCE: U.S. Commerce Association

The Lowdown on Sweeteners - Natural and Artificial

Posted on October 6, 2011 Julie Chang, L.Ac.