Inspired with Nika Lawrie

From Food to Skincare: Everyday Chemicals That Impact Hormones and Fertility with Ashley Martinez-Brown

• Ashley Martinez-Brown • Season 2024 • Episode 98

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Join Nika and Ashley Martinez-Brown as they dive into the hidden dangers of everyday toxins and their impact on fertility. We’ll uncover the chemicals lurking in food, personal care products, and household items that can disrupt hormones and harm reproductive health. Discover simple, affordable steps to reduce toxin exposure, make cleaner choices, and boost fertility naturally. Perfect for anyone wanting to lead a healthier lifestyle, especially if you’re planning to start a family.

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Nika Lawrie:

Hey everybody, welcome back to another episode of Inspired with Nika Larie. I, of course, am your host, nika Laurie, and, as I've done in a couple past episodes, we are flipping the script today. I have one of my longest, very best friends in the whole world on the show today, ashley Martinez-Brown. She is going to ask me a whole bunch of questions about fertility and infertility and toxin exposure. We're just going to deep dive into that, so I'm super excited to get to that show, or those questions. I didn't say that very well, but you guys know what I mean. Also, I want to add that Ashley's actually been on the show in a previous episode, so be sure to check that out. I'm going to link to it in the show notes. It was a great, great episode talking about finding your inspiration and serving others. I really loved that episode with you, ashley. But anyways, welcome to the show. I'm so happy to have you back. Thank you.

Ashley Martinez-Brown:

Thank you, Nika. I am excited to be on and I'm excited to flip this script and be able to ask you some questions and put you on the hot seat today.

Nika Lawrie:

Let's do it. I am ready for it, so bring it on seat today.

Ashley Martinez-Brown:

Let's do it, I am ready for it, so bring it on Awesome. So let's start off by talking a little bit about fertility and hormone balance. Okay, so, for people who don't know a lot of this, like myself, how do everyday toxic chemicals in food and personal care products impact fertility, both in men and women?

Nika Lawrie:

Okay, so, other than an infertility issue that could be hereditary, meaning that it's like a family thing that came through the history of your family, like genetics, environmental toxins are going to be the biggest, single biggest factor in infertility or the ability to have children. So, do you want I can break down what environmental toxins are, because I think that's probably that was my next question.

Nika Lawrie:

Okay, so environmental toxins it's it's an umbrella term for a whole bunch of different things, but the general idea is that there are a ton of chemicals in our everyday environment that impact our hormones and impact our health, and in a negative way almost always. So let's look at the big picture of chemicals and then the other picture of quote unquote our environment. So when I say chemicals, currently there's between 85 and 90,000 chemicals registered in the United States as chemicals that can be used in food, personal care, beauty products, you know, manufacturing, making gasoline or whatever, right? Like all the different chemicals that are used to create plastics and all these different things, right? So there's approximately 90,000 of them. Of those 90,000, there's about 42 to 45,000 that are considered in active use, meaning they are currently being used in products that we are using or exposed to on a daily basis. Of those 42,000 to 45,000 chemicals, there's only a handful when I say a handful, it's like maybe 1,500 that have ever been tested for safety for humans.

Ashley Martinez-Brown:

So only 1,500. Only 1,500.

Nika Lawrie:

After the 90,000 that you just said Correct, yeah, and that's not even like full testing, that's just like we're pretty sure it maybe have issues and maybe we should look into it. It's not like rigorous, like let's test this chemical and see what it's actually doing. Of those 1,500, there's only five chemicals that have ever been banned in the United States, opposed to you. Look at the EU, like European countries, there's about 1,500 chemicals that have been completely banned. They are not allowed to be used in the EU because they are known endocrine disrupting chemicals, which I'll explain in a second, or chemicals that we know are going to harm or damage the environment or humans.

Nika Lawrie:

So when I say endocrine disrupting chemicals are known as EDCs, edcs are chemicals that impact our hormone system. Our endocrine system is our hormone system and it's a whole system within our body. That's like the messengers. It's the communication system of our body. So a hormone fires and it tells the body that you're hungry or that you're full, or that you're sleepy, or that it's time to wake up, or oh, I need to run because the lion's coming after me. Right, it's all these different hormones that are going to tell our body what to do and how to react, or when to digest food or whatever it is right.

Nika Lawrie:

When that system gets messed up, our body doesn't function the way it's supposed to, and so these endocrine disrupting chemicals are disrupting our hormones, which disrupts the messages going in our body, and so our body starts malfunctioning, so linking that all the way back to infertility. Our sex hormones that are related to fertility are usually the most easiest disrupted of all the hormones, and so you're thinking about testosterone, estrogen, progesterone. There's some others too. Those are often more disrupted by these chemicals than any of the other hormones in our body, and so when I say these chemicals impact fertility, that is the big picture. Does that make sense?

Ashley Martinez-Brown:

Yeah, that's wild. Yeah, that's some facts right there that I did not know about, so thank you for letting us know that today. So what specific chemicals, in that case, or right ingredients should people avoid when preparing their bodies for pregnancy?

Nika Lawrie:

So the biggest thing. So when we start talking about all these chemicals, it can get really scary, because I didn't really go into what I called quote unquote the environment. But the environment that you live in has everything is a chemical. I mean air is a chemical, right, so you're constantly going to have chemicals around you, but the idea is that some of those chemicals, like we talked about, are more harmful than others. Right, when you're exposed to these different chemicals, it can come from different areas. So there's, you know, pollution in the air. There's pollution in water you can find lead or different things in the water right, that's a potential exposure. There's also these chemicals in the food that we eat, the personal care products that we use every day, the makeup that women are using, the chemicals that we use to clean our house, to do our laundry, the perfumes that we wear all of those different things and a lot of those have really harmful chemicals.

Nika Lawrie:

When we think about fertility or infertility, one of the biggest factors that you'll see is anything with fragrances. So you're going to have phthalates and parabens are two classes of chemicals that fall in a lot of personal care products. These are direct endocrine disrupting chemicals, and so, talking about fragrances, you often will see phthalates used either as the fragrance itself or it's a chemical to help the fragrance last longer. So, thinking about laundry detergent right, we buy these smelly laundry detergents because we want our clothes to smell good and we want that scent to stick around for a while while the clothes sit in the closet. The problem is, is the phthalate that's used to make the scent either the scent itself or make the scent stay in the clothes for a long period of time disrupts your endocrine system when you wear the clothes, because it'll seep through your, your skin, which is your largest organ, right?

Nika Lawrie:

And so, um, fragrances can come in a whole plethora of different things, but you'll find them um. Shampoos, anders, all of your laundry detergent and dryer sheets. Perfumes is a big one air fresheners, or like the Glade plugins or the car scents, all of those kind of things. The biggest factor that I will tell both men and women to do when they're looking to get pregnant is remove as many fragranced products out of their life as humanly possible, like literally get rid of all of it and then give your body some time to detox after you've moved out. So that's the biggest factor.

Ashley Martinez-Brown:

There's some other ones too, but Wow, I'm just all of this is just like hitting me and I'm just thinking of, like what can I go take out right, all of it, yeah, all of this checklist and getting rid of those different items. So, with that what you just said, how do these toxins interfere with the hormone balance, like what? How does that environment really affect what's happening with your hormones and how do you balance it so it can? Why is it important for fertility? Like what? How? What are those two and how do they work together?

Nika Lawrie:

So what can happen is that the different hormones so men and women have levels of hormones that they're supposed to be at right, so like men are going to have higher testosterone levels than women, but women should still have a certain amount of testosterone in their body, same with estrogen or progesterone, those kinds of hormones. The problem is that a lot of times with these chemicals, when they get into your body, they will either lower or increase the amount of a specific hormone. So estrogen is a good example of this. So some of these chemicals will actually replicate estrogen in your body, and so then you get estrogen dominance, and that can lead to a lot of health issues.

Nika Lawrie:

Cancer is a big one that it can lead to, and so it really depends. Each person is going to be different, but the main idea is it's going to impact how much or how little of the specific hormone you have in your body, and when those levels are off, when your hormones are not balanced, your body is in kind of fight or flight mode, and when you're in that fight or flight mode, getting pregnant is not going to be a body's priority, and so fertility decreases, your ability to get pregnant decreases. This also occurs in men and their ability to produce viable sperm as well, and so it's really, really important that we get the exposure to these chemicals reduced as much as possible when looking to be fertile on both sides, male and female.

Ashley Martinez-Brown:

Yeah, because a lot of times it's a lot of men think it's just the women, right, like, oh well, you're carrying the baby, right. It's both sides though.

Nika Lawrie:

It's actually almost more men at this point, and I'm not blaming men, but one of the things that people it's just starting to make kind of public like people are really starting to understand what's happening. Male fertility has decreased. It's something like I don't know the exact number, so don't quote me but it's something like 75% in the last like 30 to 40 years, like it's a drastic percentage. I can find the exact number and put it in the show notes, but it's a huge percentage of males who are now infertile or unable to produce healthy sperm to create an embryo. It's a massive number and a lot of it is due to these environmental toxins. So it's really really key that a couple who's looking to have a child or create a child have both sides tested, because it is just as likely the male that may be struggling as the female. It's dire that both get tested.

Ashley Martinez-Brown:

I love that. And so what are some of the early signs of hormone imbalances that couples should be aware of when trying to conceive?

Nika Lawrie:

Yeah, so there's a bunch of different signs. It's usually easier to be able to tell the signs in women than in men because men, have you know, they're the lucky ones that don't tend to fluctuate in weight that much and their hormones tend to stay more stable. So it's not as obvious usually in men when these chemicals are disrupting their hormones. But it's still really important that they get checked, especially because it'll impact their testosterone and then that can cause a lot of either mental health or physical issues for them as well. So that's a big one for the male side. On the female side, it can be a whole host of things. You can see things like weight gain or weight loss, either direction. If your weight's fluctuating or you've gained 30 pounds in two years, that's a big sign that there's something going on with your hormones. Your body doesn't normally just gain that much weight. If you're having depression, anxiety, headaches, migraines can be a thing. Sleep issues, lethargy or not feeling motivated, anger issues there's I mean basically any health issue you can think of can be led back to your hormones.

Nika Lawrie:

One of the factors that you'll see play in this too is we have really high levels of simple carbohydrates in our diets here in the United States.

Nika Lawrie:

I mean, it's kind of happening all over the world, but in the United States you'll see a lot of people eating more sugar and starchy foods than what is really healthy for us.

Nika Lawrie:

And when? Um our sugar, you know, when our, when our insulin resistance uh, how do I put it? So when we're eating too much sugar and we're eating too many simple carbohydrates, we increase our insulin, we decrease our ability to manage it in our body, and when that happens, that can impact all of our other hormones as well, and so testosterone in women is a big one that can be impacted by that as well, and so you'll start to see the weight gain issues, the headaches so on all those kinds of things. So it's a whole host of things that you can look for. Basically, if you're not feeling great and you don't have good energy and you're not at a weight that's comfortable for your body there isn't really like a set weight that everybody should be at, because everybody's different, but you should be in that healthy range those are signs that you may want to have your hormones checked.

Ashley Martinez-Brown:

Okay, and how can men play an active role in preparing for pregnancy, especially in terms of balancing their own hormones and avoiding toxic exposure?

Nika Lawrie:

Yeah. So this really could be a team effort, or should be a team effort when you go through the house and you decide, okay, we're going to remove all these products that have fragrances or parabens, that so there's phthalates and parabens. There's a bunch of other chemicals as well. We can get into some of them, but it can be a team effort, right and like okay, so we're going to identify these products and we're going to remove these products where we're going to replace them with healthier, less toxic options. So that's a husband and wife or a partnership conversation that you can have there. Then you can also look at how you're eating. How you're eating is really, really key for both partners to produce healthy sperm and healthy eggs. And so, looking at, are we eating like we talked about too much sugar and too much starchy foods. It doesn't mean that you have to cut it all out. It just means are we eating too much and how do we reduce that and bring in some more healthier options? Are we eating high fiber, really good quality fruits and vegetables organic if possible, whenever possible, because the herbicides and pesticides sprayed on those are also endocrine disrupting chemicals Glyphosate is a huge one. Looking at trying to eat really healthy meats as well, if you're able to. You want to get grass-fed and pasture-raised meats and poultry and in wild-caught fish, so wild-caught salmon, those kinds of things. If you're able to access those and you have the means to buy them, definitely recommend them. If you don't look for the healthiest option possible within your budget, look for the healthiest option possible within your budget, for example, with organic foods. If you can't afford the organic fresh fruits and vegetables, frozen organic options is a great alternative because they're flash frozen at the peak of their ripeness, which is the most nutrient dense part or moment that the fruit or vegetable is at, and then you want the organic ones there. So that's a great option if you can't do the the um, the fresh ones, because sometimes it's really expensive. Also, buying fruits and vegetables that are organic, that are in season, meaning that, like um, you know, apricots are really big in like may june, kind of april, may june, because that's when they are ripe on the tree right, and so you'll see a plethora of them in the store. We'll stock up on apricots and then you can can them or freeze them or just eat a whole bunch. At that time, right, you'll see a lot of berries um are. Uh. There's a lot more berries available at the end of the fall or like tomatoes, because that's when the produce is usually bulk and available, and so shopping seasonal really helps too to cut down on costs. And then buying bulk too. If you have option to go to Costco or even buy in bulk at your grocery store and stock up, that can help reduce those prices too. Egg in bulk at your grocery store and stock up, that can help reduce those prices too. So those are the big things.

Nika Lawrie:

But really preparing the whole point of this is to prepare your body to create another human right, so like we want our bodies in peak shape, both male and female, to produce the best healthiest sperm and the best healthiest egg, to create the best healthiest embryo possible.

Nika Lawrie:

And then, especially for the woman, you know it's already kind of no knowledge that you want to eat well and take your multivitamins or your prenatal vitamins when you're pregnant. The whole reason for doing that is because the baby is absorbing vitamins and minerals directly from the woman's body. It's not just the food that you eat that it's absorbing. It's literally pulling it out of your muscles and your bones and pulling all that nutrients directly from the woman's body and so anything that you can do to keep replenishing that, to keep your body strong, but also to create a healthy, to feed and create that healthy embryo or fetus is really, really key. So ideally, like the perfect picture, is like you and your partner want to start working on that two years before you even get pregnant. So your bodies are at that peak thing. But wherever you're at in that journey, start today so that you're as healthy as possible as you're going through it.

Ashley Martinez-Brown:

So I hope that answers it yes, it definitely does so. With that would you say, like, in terms of like meats that people eat, right, Is it better to go like a pork loin rather than you know the red meat? And could you talk a little bit more on like your own lifestyle, on how you're cooking in the kitchen, to implement those healthy habits not only for yourself but your whole family, right? And just like, tell people how it tastes to eat that clean, right? Because sometimes it's fear of not knowing what you don't know and it can be intimidating sometimes to just go in and say you know what, I'm going to invest in myself. I'm going to invest in eating better and training my mind to be on this fresh path.

Nika Lawrie:

Yeah. So it should be a journey Like I'm never going to tell somebody, cut everything out today and be perfect tomorrow and then just start your life like that Because I couldn't do it. It's a very special person that's able to do that, and good for them, because most people cannot do that. So don't have that really strict, high expectation on yourself. For me it's been an ongoing journey and it's been a little bit of an up and down journey. There's times where I've completely cut all of the toxic crap out and then I make it like two or three weeks and then something inevitably starts to come back in and then I, you know, fall off the wagon a little bit. But every time I do more and more, I'm better and better right. And so I never have gone back to the full picture of, like, all the garbage before I knew what I knew right. Because once you know, you're just like oh, I don't, I don't really want that anymore, cause you know it's poisoning your body, right. And so the first part is just understand it's a journey, take baby steps, day by day, and start doing it. The other thing that's really important to understand is as you start to remove the unhealthy foods or these toxic chemicals from your daily routine, like washing your hair, those kinds of things. Your body's going to start detoxing some of these things, especially if you go on what's called a detox diet where you cut out things like cut out gluten, dairy sugars, different things like that. It can be really rough for probably like a 10 to 15 day period. Usually, when somebody does something like that, they have three to four days where they literally feel like they have the flu. You literally feel like you're just exhausted and tired and want to lay in bed and do nothing because you feel like crap. That is your body detoxing all of this garbage out of your body. And so when you feel that, you're like, oh, that's why I don't want that stuff in my bodies, because you know how bad it actually is if you feel this crappy, trying to get it out of your body. Yeah, so those are two things, but what I will say is, once you've gotten through to the other side, or even as you're going through the process of slowly removing things, you're going to start to feel better. You'll have more energy. You'll have more clarity, like the brain fog or the forgetfulness. A lot of that will go away. Your cravings will change over time and your tastes will change over time.

Nika Lawrie:

I remember I'm going to tell a funny story that, ashley, you can add to this. So I was obsessed with Starbucks for like 20 years. I was obsessed with chai lattes and I had one every single day and then I realized that it was like 64 grams of sugar in each one and I was mortified. And I remember one day I was in my office Ashley and I used to work together and I was in my office and Ashley came and took a sip of my chai and she was like I don't know better, like flabbergasted by how sweet the chai was, and she's like I don't know how you drink that stuff. Right, ashley, if you want to add anything.

Ashley Martinez-Brown:

And she's like I don't know how you drink that stuff. Right, ashley, if you want to add anything, absolutely I mean it's, it's funny. We're talking about detoxing, and you know. But also to your point. I mean, it makes sense that we as humans also need to detox from drinks and food. Right To your point, it was the sweetest thing I had had. I don't normally drink Coke. To begin with, I mean I'll do a Sprite and then I'll do water or Gatorade juices, but that was, it was a sweet drink.

Nika Lawrie:

But to me it was just like my normal. It was my Starbucks drink. I just ordered it, right. I haven't had Starbucks in two years, over two years now. I can't fathom like drinking it because I know how sweet it would be. Like, sweet drinks for me are so sensitive now because I've stopped drinking all that that sugar all the time. But when your body is just accustomed to it, it doesn't realize how sweet it actually is. And so when I say your taste buds change, it really does. Like things that used to taste good won't taste good anymore and things that you used to think were gross will start. You'll start craving them, like like a really good salad is so good sometimes, once you start eating them on a regular basis, right, and so just understanding that, giving yourself that time to remove and change those foods will allow your taste buds to change with that process too. So when, like you asked me about pork, I personally don't eat a lot of pork. I'm just not. We love bacon.

Nika Lawrie:

We do eat bacon, but we get yeah, we get really clean, healthy bacon, like no nitrates, and we try to be really careful about the bacon we buy. I don't know, everyone's all eat a pork chop, but it's just not really my thing. My husband likes it more than I do, but I love a good steak. A really good steak is my go-to, so I'm not opposed to eating. I think eating meat is actually healthier for you than being vegan or vegetarian, because most women are not getting enough protein, especially those that are eating a vegan or vegetarian diet. You just can't get enough from the vegetables, so protein is really really key to a healthy body. But the biggest thing I'll say is, if you're going to eat meat is to get it from a really good, clean um quality source. So what I mean here is you can have um grass fed beef.

Nika Lawrie:

So these are cows that go out into the pasture, they eat grass, they get to wander, they're in the sun and they get to live like the quote unquote normal cow life. Or you can the um. You know the typical farmed animal that goes through the you know whole process and lives in a box for most of its life and it's fed crap um. There, I think the practice is stopped, though I'm not.

Nika Lawrie:

A lot of the cows were fed candy for years, like leftover candy, like yeah, wrapper and all it would just be, yeah, it would just be the plastic wrapper, the candy, everything would just be ground up and then added to feed like cow feed and they would just eat all of it because it would fatten them up. And so when you eat that, whatever the cow eats, you are eating too Like you have to understand that. So whatever your food eats, you then eat and you become that because you become what your food is. And so if you want to be plastic and candy, you know, eat the processed, unwell fed cows, right. And so it's just understanding where your food's coming from and then how that's going to impact your body. So does that make sense?

Ashley Martinez-Brown:

It definitely makes sense and it's definitely a different way to look at your food. Yeah, you know from now on and wonder what kind of cow this is coming from and whatnot. So what would you say? Are there any specific nutrients or supplements that are particularly helpful for couples trying to?

Nika Lawrie:

conceive, making sure that you're eating enough protein, because you need protein to build your muscles, to make sure that your metabolism is working well, especially women. Postpartum, too, women do not eat enough protein, and then they'll fluctuate weight-wise after giving birth, and so protein, protein, protein for women is one of the biggest things and is again that quality protein. The other thing is one of the biggest things and is again that quality protein. The other thing is really making sure that you're getting enough healthy fats, and so omega-3 is going to be your biggest one, and one of the issues with food in the United States is there's a bunch of different omegas right, there's omega-3, there's omega-6, there's omega-9s, but the two prominent ones you'll see are omega-3s and omega-6s. Omega-3 is what you really need for brain health, and when you're developing a baby, you really want that baby to have everything possible to be smart and educated and do whatever they want to do in life, right? Well, they need omega-3. And so the woman really needs to have high quality omega-3 in her diet regularly. She needs it for her own brain too. But the issue is that in our food system, omega-6s are the prevalent oils or the omega fats that are in most of the food. The problem is is omega-6s are inflammatory for our body and so it'll be like a one to three ratio or even like a one to six ratio. So you'll have like one little piece of omega-3 and then like six pieces of omega-6 in the food that we eat, and so we're not getting enough omega-3 and we're getting too much omega-6. And so that's inflaming our body and then not allowing our brain to work and function or kids' brains to develop properly. So omega-3s are probably the biggest thing and really getting the healthy fat as well. So you can get that from things like avocado, avocado oil, high quality actual virgin virgin olive oil, extra virgin olive oil.

Nika Lawrie:

So the problem is you have to really check your oil containers when you purchase them to make sure that it's not cut with something else, cause you'll see, oil could be cut with other things.

Nika Lawrie:

Oh, it happens all the time.

Nika Lawrie:

Like you'll go to costco I don't mean to call out costco because you can buy them anywhere, it's just you'll go to the grocery store and you'll see a container that's like the green container, right, and it'll say extra extra virgin olive oil and then underneath it'll say with canola oil, but you won't really see the canola oil.

Nika Lawrie:

You'll just see the extra virgin olive oil and so you'll just buy it, thinking it's that when it's actually half canola oil and canola oil is not healthy for you. So you have to actually turn the bottle over and read it and really make sure that it's extra virgin olive oil. The other thing when you're buying the olive oil is you really want to make sure that it's extra virgin olive oil. The other thing when you're buying the olive oil is you really want to make sure that it's cold pressed, because you don't want it to be heated up and processed the way most oils are processed, because it damages the nutrients that are inside the oil. So cold pressed extra virgin olive oil is the key there, and it's got to be in a dark container, ideally glass if possible.

Ashley Martinez-Brown:

I think you've got to take a picture and put that in the notes, the show notes, for everybody to see. I never knew that that was crazy. And I mean that goes even deeper to actually reading the fine print, right. A lot of the things that we choose to eat, they don't. They don't put what we shouldn't know in the forefront, right?

Nika Lawrie:

Oh yeah, and I mean the marketing that's done in this country for food is criminal. Like, basically, anything that says health food on it is like the worst thing that you can eat, because foods that are actually healthy for you don't have labels. Like a carrot does not have a label, right, like it's just a bushel of carrots, right, but then they'll sell you this like granola bar. That's like the health food version. You know this is the best option protein and enriched with vitamins and all it. When you actually flip it over, it's like 90% sugar, so it's like you really have to flip boxes over. I pretty much say that if it comes in a box, you probably shouldn't eat it. I mean, there's, there's, you know, variations to that, but for the most part it's been really highly processed and that's going to lead to not only infertility issues but overall general health issues as well.

Ashley Martinez-Brown:

Well, and how can women support ovulation and hormone regulation through their diet?

Nika Lawrie:

So that's a big thing. So you know, we talked about sugar and simple carbohydrates earlier. Protein is another factor in that. So what can happen is women aren't getting enough protein, and you really need protein to build your muscles the building block for muscles right.

Nika Lawrie:

When you don't have enough muscle on your frame, so like on your skeletal frame, when there's not enough muscle there, your metabolism will get out of whack.

Nika Lawrie:

It won't function the way it's supposed to.

Nika Lawrie:

And what happens when your metabolism is out of whack is then it messes with your hormones and you'll either gain weight or lose weight, and then you'll have a whole bunch of other issues.

Nika Lawrie:

And then, when you have too little fats on your body, when you've lost too much fat or you have too much fat on your body, this can then cause your body to not be in the healthy range to create an embryo.

Nika Lawrie:

And so there's really this pocket and, like I said earlier, like it's really specific for each woman's body, like every woman's body is built differently, and so I'm never saying, you know, all women should weigh 130 pounds, because that's not the case at all, but there is a healthy range for each woman, specific to her body, and usually it's around like the 20 to 25% body fat range. Anything under 18, usually a woman's not able to get pregnant and then usually anything like 30 and over is considered kind of that obese range. I don't really like the term obese anymore, but just to give you an idea, because the body can start to struggle and not have what it needs to then produce that healthy embryo, and so you really have to be careful about what you're eating and how that's impacting your body so that you can stay in that healthy range in order to create that healthy embryo nice.

Ashley Martinez-Brown:

That's super interesting. Is there a specific like I and I hate the word diet as well but if they're a way of eating right, a natural way of life, that you would prefer. I know there's a lot of fads out there and a lot of people going and doing different things, but I mean in terms of really just wanting to keep your body healthy, like what it would it just be the organic, and staying looking at what you're eating and and not necessarily dieting, but just changing a lifestyle right, a healthier, healthier path.

Nika Lawrie:

Yeah. So I'm never going to say, uh, pick a diet, like I think picking fad diets is probably the worst thing people can do, because it's so extreme usually and it will always tell. Like you know, keto will tell you to cut out all of these simple carbs, right, like all the starches, all the sugars, all those things, and you can lose out on different aspects of that and it can get really strict and really overwhelming for people. Or when you think about I don't know, I can't think like the carnivore diet, right, where, like, people are, literally all they're eating is meat, and like the issue with that is that our bodies, we're omnivores, we're designed to eat a little bit of a bunch of different things, right. And so the idea there is to really figure out what works specifically for your body, or what triggers your body, and either bring in more or avoid those things, right. So, for me, I have a casein allergy and casein is a protein in dairy and so I can't drink milk because it'll make me sick. But there are a few cheeses that are very low in casein that I can eat. That don't bother me, and so that's unique to my body.

Nika Lawrie:

My body does not like nightshade foods, like I don't like eggplant, I don't like tomato. I just naturally do not like those nightshade foods. My daughter, on the other hand, is obsessed with tomatoes, and so she loves cherry tomatoes. She loves. You know, I buy tomatoes all the time for her. I don't touch them, she loves them. But that's like your body sending those signals. There's likely I don't know what it is, but there's likely something in me that tells me that my body is slightly inflamed by those nightshade foods and to not eat them. And so it's really figuring out what works for you.

Nika Lawrie:

I always, if people have the means, I recommend people to get a food allergy test done, ideally a pretty comprehensive one, allergy tests done, ideally a pretty comprehensive one, just so that they have an idea of what their body's reacting to. The note that I'll say with that is that there are some allergies that you're just innately going to have, like you're just born with, like some people are just born allergic to peanuts, right, like that's just a thing. But there are other allergies that you may have that come later in life, based off of how your body's being exposed to things and how well your gut is working, and when you heal your gut, that allergy may then lessen or go away altogether, and so there's some allergies that'll happen on and off, and it can be based on how healthy your gut is and how healthy your body is functioning. And so just really don't take everything that you get back from that test as like set in stone forever. It may be something that you want to test again later on down the road, when you healed your gut or worked on changing your diet, and see where you're at then too, but at least it gives you an idea of things that are going to be inflammatory to your body or triggering to your body, and then you can avoid those.

Nika Lawrie:

And then, when it comes to just kind of the general diet, what I'll always say is whole real food as much as possible. So the carrots, the cucumbers, the beef, the chicken, the, the, the beef, the chicken, the? Um, whole grains, um, so whole grain wild rice or um, nuts, like those kind of thing whole real food, things that don't come in reprocessed boxes wrapped in plastic or whatever, right, those are really what you want to eat, as much as possible. And then, if you have to add in something fun here and there, if you love pasta, have pasta once a week, just try to make it a healthier option. Or have ice cream Sunday evening if you want, just make sure you're not allergic to lactose, those kind of things, but whole, real foods as much as possible and organic and as often as possible.

Ashley Martinez-Brown:

So you don't have to be an imposter to eat your pasta, exactly, and you don't have to get rid of it. You just have to make sure you're keeping an eye on what you're putting in your body and I feel for a lot of folks, you don't know what you don't know, right. So knowing, when we hear the word toxic or like toxic things in the environment, it's kind of like an up there kind of term, right, and we don't really know what, what's incorporated? Uh, because, um, as we were talking about with marketing, nobody wants us to see that side of things, right, because they want the opposite effect. Right, they want to give us those lucky charms and they want to, they want to put all right, they want to give us those lucky charms and they want to put all the sugary sweets to keep that money going. But, switching it up a little bit, how does alcohol and caffeine consumption affect fertility and what are some healthier alternatives during the preconception phase?

Nika Lawrie:

Yeah, so short and simple. Alcohol is a poison and it should be avoided as much as humanly possible. I have maybe three drinks a year. I'll go out with girlfriends and maybe have a drink there once a year. I might go, you know, to anniversary date with my husband and have a cocktail, but it's very, very rare that I drink alcohol. Alcohol is going to damage your gut, it's going to damage your brain cells, it's just, it's a poison, so just avoid it at all costs.

Nika Lawrie:

Caffeine can be useful. Low doses of caffeine in the morning as you're waking up can be useful if you need it. But you really don't need as much caffeine as most people are exposing themselves to, like the things that are in the energy drinks like that is so much more caffeine than anybody actually needs, and so it can be helpful in the mornings to kind of get your body going and to help kind of fire up your cortisol and fire up your metabolism. But it's not needed. It's not something that is actually needed. Like there's no actual use in your body for caffeine, so you don't need it.

Ashley Martinez-Brown:

I think us as society kind of put it in our heads that we need it, right Like let me get my pot of coffee every morning and let me get my Red.

Nika Lawrie:

Bulls in. The irony is that if you cut out the processed foods and all the sugar and you actually let your body detox, it's going to suck for like a week. But then you get to the other side and you have so much energy that you're like I don't ever need caffeine because my body naturally makes that energy for me. Like you don't have the energy right now and your need for caffeine is because your body is so inflamed and has and I'm talking general, not at you, but general your body is inflamed and your body is in that fight or flight mode, right, and so the energy is going. Your body's like in survival mode.

Nika Lawrie:

Like oh my God, why does she keep putting all these chemicals? Like we can't detox this stuff fast enough. Like I'm just living off of too much sugar and so we're not burning. Like we're not burning ketones that are like the healthier fats to burn. We're just burning the glucose, the sugar that we get from sugar and simple starches all the time, and so our bodies are just like on overdrive all the time because of the crap that we're putting into our bodies and so we need that caffeine for that extra boost, right.

Ashley Martinez-Brown:

Well, and you're also continuously going back to the same things, right? Because if you're hungry and you crash and you're like I need a candy, that candy bar, you think it's going to hold you right, but it's just going to give you a quick rush of dopamine and then you're going to crash, yeah, and then the crash on the other side of that is actually even worse.

Nika Lawrie:

Like you dip even lower than you would have, and so you want to really try to stabilize your blood sugar as much as possible, and the way you actually stabilize that is with healthy fats and protein, opposed to a sugary drink or a candy bar.

Ashley Martinez-Brown:

Now let's talk about one of the probably most interesting parts about and scary parts is really detoxifying, right? What does it mean to really detox your body and what are like three simple takeaways that people who are watching this will be able to say cool. This is where I'm going to start with these three right, because I feel like if we gave a long list of items, it's overwhelming, and I feel like wanting to get pregnant is overwhelming as is. But if you start with three simple steps to start your detoxification, for, like of that first week, what would your advice be and where would they start?

Nika Lawrie:

Yeah. So the first tip I would give is to so there's two or three apps that you can download. One's called Yuka. It's Y-U-K-A. The Environmental Working Group has two apps that you can download. One is for personal care products and then one is for food. There's also Think Dirty is another app that you can download. These apps Yuka is my personal favorite of all of them, by the way but these apps you can download and put them on your phone and then you scan the barcode of your personal care or your beauty products or your laundry detergent, basically anything that has a barcode. Last time we used Yuka, I don't think it had food in it. I know the environmental working one has a lot of the food.

Nika Lawrie:

But start with personal care and beauty products. Scan all of the stuff that you have in your house with barcode and it's got a rating. So it's like red, yellow, green or like one through 10. They're each apps a little bit different, but the ratings are easy to understand and if it's a red or a 10, get rid of that product, just throw it away. You don't need it in your house, just get rid of it.

Nika Lawrie:

If it's a yellow, decide if it's like how strict do you want to go and then if it's a green, it's an okay product to keep in your house, right, and if it's a red, these are products that are absolutely disrupting your hormones and should be thrown in the trash. Do not bring them in. Replace them with something else. You can go to Target or wherever you shop and scan the products in the store to find the products that are non-toxic that you can then replace your products with. That would be the first recommendation, especially for those trying to get pregnant, both male and female. Scan all your products If you can afford it. Replace them as fast as possible If you can't use them, and then buy a healthier option next time.

Ashley Martinez-Brown:

Right, what are some of the reds that came up when you, when you, when you started this journey, like, what are the reds that came up that you were like, oh man, I get rid of?

Nika Lawrie:

that Basically every laundry detergent that you can any name brand laundry detergent that you can think of is a red. Almost all name brand. Like think about, like you go into the store and there's like 10 big names that you see in shampoos and conditioners Almost all of those are reds. Most of the makeup that you'll see in drugstores are reds. I'm trying to think of what else they're like all all air fresheners, like the plugins, the car scents all of the all of those are reds. Trying to think of what else, so it's, it's going to be a lot of stuff. Trying to think of what else, so it's, it's going to be a lot of stuff.

Nika Lawrie:

My, my favorite for shampoo and conditioner to go to the store, my favorite is Shea Moisture because they they specifically do not use phthalates or parabens. They also don't use sulfates, so it's not as damaging for your hair. But that's a big one. Look on the bottle like, scan the barcode and then also look. A lot of companies will start to tell you we don't use phthalates or we don't use parabens. You really want to look for brands that say we don't use both, because a lot of companies I know there's one company that was my favorite for a long time and I don't use them anymore. But they say we don't use phthalates in there. It's either phthalates or parabens. But they say we don't use phthalates in our products, but they say nothing about parabens anymore, and so that's an issue is like oh, we look clean, we look like we're doing it, but we haven't actually moved all of the toxic chemicals. So that would be a big one. So personal care and beauty is where I would start first, and perfumes are a big one. There's a couple of companies out there that are starting to make clean perfumes too. Yeah, so that's, that's the first place I would start. The next place I would start is with cooking, and it's actually not food. You'd be surprised.

Nika Lawrie:

What I would say is actually um, removing any plastic Tupperware storage containers that you have and never pre or reheat anything in plastic. So if you have something in a plastic Tupperware, do not put that in the microwave. Um, because those chemicals from the plastic are leaching into your food and then you're going to eat that and that's going to be an issue. Um, and then remove any like like you really want to drink from like stainless steel or glass cups and bottles whenever possible, and then, if you're able to.

Nika Lawrie:

You want to get like a reverse osmosis or some type of water filtration system in your house. It can be, you know, if you can only do a Brita filter, that's great, but don't store the water in the plastic brita container. Get a big plastic or, I'm sorry, a big glass, um like jug thing for your house. They make them. You can order them on amazon where they have the little or tap thing, and so filter the water and then store it in the glass container, opposed to the plastic. If not, you can buy reverse osmosis that you can install yourself, that go into your kitchen sink and they're like two, maybe $300. I think I paid $230 for ours, so it wasn't. You know it's a little bit of an investment, but it wasn't massive. There's full house systems.

Nika Lawrie:

Yeah, I mean there's huge systems that you can get for like six grand. I have not done that, but maybe someday it's a more affordable route for yeah, exactly, but like two, three hundred bucks for your health. I think it's worth it. So that would be. And then the third step I would say is really start looking at the food that you're eating and trying to remove as much ultra processed food as humanly possible and bringing in as much whole, real, organic food whenever possible.

Ashley Martinez-Brown:

So, like first two days, take me through that first two days of like what a detox would start feeling like right, because a lot of times when, even when people jump to diets, it's like, oh, I can't, their mind tricks them and thinks like they can't live without it. Right, it's an addiction. I mean, we're addicted to sugar, we're addicted to salt, we're addicted to everything that makes us feel good quickly. So how does it, how long does it typically take to get those chemicals out? And what do you tell folks out there who have a hard time, like those first three, four days trying right and things like that Do?

Nika Lawrie:

it Okay, so, um, so it's. It's a process, right, and everybody's going to have a different experience, but the general experience is this so I so, whenever I'm trying to completely detox or cut something out that I'm like addicted to, what I actually do is I stock up my house with really healthy foods and then I hand all of my money and credit cards over to my husband for the first week, and it's a pain in the butt because you don't have money with you. So you have to like, think about planning your week ahead of time, right, Like it's hard, but I pack my lunches or I plan accordingly. I make sure that I don't have business meetings or appointments or whatever, so that I can structure my work week or whatever around only eating the foods that I'm bringing with me or not having to pay for something like going out to dinner with a friend or whatever. So I plan it that way. So that's because once I can get past usually seven to 10 days I'm in a routine where my routine is different and I don't need that thing anymore. So that's one trick that I use to get past those cravings is like I literally cut out my ability to get access to whatever that thing is and it works really, really well. I've done it a bunch of times and so that's one thing I'd recommend. But it is you do have to plan. So the first two days you're going to really mentally struggle because all you're going to want to do is think about whatever. Like say, you're trying to cut out sugary drinks, we'll just say that, right, and you're trying to cut that out. All you're going to think about is wanting to go get that sugary drink. So that's where cutting out the credit card thing really helps. So once you're past a couple days, you'll start to kind of feel let's get a better example, because sugary drinks won't necessarily make you feel like you're detoxing If you cut out, if you go on a full detox diet.

Nika Lawrie:

So no gluten, no dairy, no sugar, no highly processed foods are usually the standard four. A lot of times people will also cut out eggs from that as well and soy those are big ones as well, but it just depends. But if you're doing the sugar, gluten, dairy and processed foods the first few days, you're going to struggle right. It's going to be hard. But get past the first three days. Day four, five, six it can vary for everybody You're going to feel like you have the flu, you're going to feel really tired, you're going to have very low energy and it's going to suck. Some people get diarrhea, some people don't. It just really depends. Some people will sweat a lot and smell really stinky. That's your body detoxing.

Nika Lawrie:

So I usually tell people to plan it where those days are usually over a weekend, when you're home and you can just kick back or whatever. So usually start a detox on like a Wednesday and so then by you know, saturday, sunday, you can start to have your body really detox those things. By once you get through those two or three days of crappiness on the other side you're like, oh my God, I'm really starting to feel good by day 10, you're going to have more energy, you're going to feel healthier, your body's going to feel just like lighter and cleaner and more detox, like it's just your body feels different. So that's a big part of it. And then it usually takes between there's not an exact number, but it can take between 15 and like 60 days to change a habit.

Nika Lawrie:

For me, I know, usually around day 20, I stop having the same cravings because my routine's changed enough. But again, everybody's going to be different, so it can just really depend. But once you've built up that new routine and you're just used to it, that's your routine then and then those are your go-to things. The one thing that I'll say to be very careful about is, when you start to add things back in one, do it slowly, because your body might react to something. And two likely, if you're going to add in, like if you're going to bring in sugary drinks again after you detox them, you're going to get hooked like right away and so just before warns like you're probably going to have to go through the whole detox again. So just decide if it's worth bringing it back in or not.

Ashley Martinez-Brown:

So that kind of answers that, yeah, that's a fine line to walk when you're talking about, you know, if you drink a Pepsi, right? Or your chai tea, like we don't want you to go backwards your two years, you know, free of the chai, exactly I will never.

Nika Lawrie:

I will never drink a Starbucks chai latte again, because I think about it as like I'm an alcoholic. I cannot open that door again because I'll fall right back into it. So I just don't do it. And so you just decide it's not worth it. It was making me sick anyways, so why do it?

Ashley Martinez-Brown:

So that's it there anything specific like during these detox, detox like era, spread these these two weeks or three weeks, however long the detox goes on that people should be adding to their detox and not forget about? Right, because your body is doing different things at this time. So are there a few things to keep their like, keep them stable and like their their mental health okay during this process, if they really don't have an accountability partner to go through this with.

Nika Lawrie:

Yeah, so I'll make this the final question and try to get all those answers, just for the sake of time. So one of the things that I'll definitely always preface when people are going through a detox or trying to change these major pieces of their diet and lifestyle especially those that are on medications or might struggle with depression so any type of medication at all, not just a medication relating to depression, any type of medication or they're struggling with depression or anxiety or a mental health issue they should have that conversation with either their physician, their primary care or their mental health therapist or whatever, and have them be their support through the process, so that they're not doing it on their own, because sometimes detoxing can impact medications. It can definitely impact their mental health and so it's really, really important to make sure that they have that care and support through it. With that, a lot of times people come out the other side. I've seen a lot of patients or clients that no longer need their depression medications once they've gone through the full detox and gotten to the other side.

Nika Lawrie:

That doesn't mean it'll happen for everybody, but I have seen that happen. I've seen people come off of diabetes medications. I've seen people come off like stop struggling with autoimmune issues they were having. So there's a lot of benefits that might heal some of the health issues that you're potentially having after going through that detox. The other side of that is just keep in mind like you're probably going to really struggle with like the cravings and the exhaustion and like quitting for a couple days. So like for the 10 days it might suck, but I promise it really can be worthwhile. Getting to the other side, um, cause it's like rainbows and butterflies on the other side, so does that answer your question.

Ashley Martinez-Brown:

If you're able to come to fruition and go full circle and be able to better yourself for a future baby. I mean this. This all just goes together so well, and thank you for giving me an opportunity to ask you all these questions. I'm excited to put a lot of what you taught me today into my own life, and I hope others will find the same support that they need, because a lot of these questions aren't asked normally, so it's great to put it out there. And thank you for letting me be the host with the most, and I appreciate your time on your show.

Nika Lawrie:

Oh, thank you so, so much for coming on and doing this with me, ashley. I'm so grateful for your friendship, as always, and I'm grateful for you taking the time to ask me all these questions and just try to share this knowledge with all the women out there. I think it's so, so important, and I don't think enough of this information is getting to the women who need it, and so I'm just grateful that you took the time to help me get this out out there.

Ashley Martinez-Brown:

We want everybody to know, because we don't know what we don't know, and so nika's uncovering that and showing us the ways. So, yeah, glad to be here and hope to do another episode with you soon. Anytime I'll have you, thank you you're welcome.

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Nika Lawrie

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