Vitamin B12 Crying Babies & Pregnancy

Crybabies may lack vitamin B12 mothers advised

The meat manufacturing, production, processing and industry is now clutching at straws following the UK Government's announcement that we should eat no more than the equivalent of a small lamb chop and restrict our meat consumption to the bare minimum to avoid increased risks of cancer.

Once again ignoring the facts that there are safer plant based sources of all of the handful of nutrients that are found in meat, and that meat is not only missing most anti-oxidants, fibre and many other essential nutrients, vitamins and minerals but is also implicated in thwarting our ability to attain a healthy synergistic balance of these nutrients.

Once again it's the essential vitamin B12 that meat industry lobbyists have got their blood stained mitts on.

Acording to FIGO The International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics almost 3,000 pregnant women took part in the study, in which researchers in the Netherlands measured the levels of vitamin B12 in the bloodstream of the mothers-to-be.

The Dutch researchers found the women with the least amount of the vitamin B12 nutrient in their blood had babies who were eight times more prone to crying.

Leading UK Nutritionist, London Yvonne Bishop-Weston explains the implications of the new findings.

The new study (reference) has shown a link between the level of vitamin B12 in the mother and excessive infant crying (more than 3 hours a day for more than 3 days a week for more than 3 weeks). The reasons for this are not fully understood but it could be due to the fact that a lack of vitamin B12 and folic acid hinder the foetal development of the nervous system before birth and also that in the first 6 months after birth lack of these vitamins can affect the development of the protective myelin which surrounds the nerve cells and helps them communicate.

Excessive infant crying is also called infant colic and may also be due to B12 deficiency. Excessive infant crying was found to be stronger when the mother experienced high levels of psychological problems so could affect the circadian rhythm. The circadian rhythm of the body controls the sleep/wake cycle, the development of which starts in the womb.It also takes about 3 months after birth to settle into a rhythm. As lack of B12 has been seen in people with sleep disorders it is suggested that lack of B12 may the infant circadian rhythm interfere with serotonin melatonin and trigger gut cramps and crying.

The developing baby relies on the mother to provide B12 and if it is deficient in her diet and her stores are too low the baby is likely to be deficient too. B12 is made by bacteria in the gut and meat, fish and eggs the usual source recommended by NHS dietitians.

Plantarians and Vegans maintain there are healthier, safer, more sustainable sources of vitamin B12  that come without the extra calories and detrimental effects of saturated animal fat and natural hormones but with essential fats and a range of useful vitamins, minerals,  anti oxidants and fibre.

Yvonne seems to agree;

I would be cautious in recommending women eat more animal foods as meat and dairy comes along with saturated fats which can hinder the body's use of essential fats which are needed for the baby's brain and nervous system development. Due to the potential levels of toxicity in fish no more than 2 portions a week should be eaten in pregnancy and egg consumption tends to be lower in pregnancy as they can only be eaten fully cooked. If anything this study is a strong argument for basic nutrient testing at the start of women's pregnancies and addressing any deficiencies as well as of course more promotion of either better, more nutritious diets or the need for effective, easily absorbable prenatal supplements.

Vitamin B12 is made by mimicing the human digestive system's ability to produce B12 from yeasts and bacteria in the gut and is then added to a number of foods from breafast cereals and plant milks to fruit juice.

Unfortunately, most natural plant sources of vitamin B12 have been proven to contain biologically inactive vitamin B12 analogues (non absorbable pseudo-vitamin B12) , inadequate for human supplementation.

Algae seems to be the most reliable plant based source of true Vitamin B12 so far. Following a research study in France in 1978 (Greiko et al) scientists in Finland (Rauma et al ) and  Japan (Watanabe et al)  have found true vitamin B12 in Nori and Chlorella (but only non-absorbable pseudo-vitamin B12 in Spirulina) whilst Italian researchers say a strain of Klamath blue green algae appears to be, in a preliminary study, an adequate and reliable source of vitamin B12 in humans (L Baroni et al , published in The International Journal of Vitamin and Nutrition Research 2009)

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5 toxics in the Home

5 toxics that are everywhere: Protect yourself - CNN.com

Finally the mainstream press has picked up on this story that has been bubbling for many years. Our homes are toxic - a new TV program 'Toxic America' reveals all - here on CNN who report

'A growing body of research is linking five chemicals -- among the most common in the world -- to a host of ailments, including cancer, sexual problems and behavioral issues.

We encounter them every day -- in plastic bottles, storage containers, food wrap, cans, cookware, appliances, carpets, shower curtains, clothes, personal care products, furniture, television sets, electronics, bedding, cushions and mattresses. In short, every room in almost every house in the United States is likely to contain at least one of these chemicals, many of which did not exist a century ago.

They are bisphenol A, or BPA; phthalates; PFOA; formaldehyde; and polybrominated diphenyl ethers, or PDBEs. Tests reveal most of us now carry them in our bodies'

London Nutritionist Yvonne Bishop-Weston reveals, "This is very common knowlege amongst nutrition therapists especially those like myself who do a lot of clinical nutrition work for infertility. One example is we've been campaigning about avoiding using babies bottles and drinking water bottles with bisphenol A, or BPA for some time now. We recommend mud puppy BPA & toxin free drinking bottles made from stainless steel. We even have BPA and Toxin free stainless steel baby bottles." says the nutritionist.

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Baby boy or girl - are what you eat?

What are little boys made of? Scientists pinpoint bananas | Science | The Guardian

New research from Scientists at Oxford and Exeter universities suggests what you eat can assist in determining the sex of your baby,increases the chances of having a baby boy or baby girl.

Researchers asked 740 women, who had become pregnant for the first time, about their eating patterns in the year before they conceived. They then divided the women into high, medium and low calorie groups.

They found that 56% of women in the high calorie group gave birth to boys, compared with 45% in the lower calorie group.

Yvonne Bishop-Weston fertility expert from Foods for Life, Nutritionist London says "There are a number of things you can do to increase the odds in your favour of a baby boy or a baby girl including carefully choosing nutrients. However it's dangerous to start enccouraging women to consume more calories or restrict calories before conception. Low fat diets can lead to insufficient essental fats for the baby's brain and eye development or in extreme cases of calorie restriction lead to misscarriage. Many high calorie foods can hinder your ability to concieve. This research was carefully supervised but once the information is diluted into another urban myth it could equally lead to more infertility rather than more aspirational sons and daughters."
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Links: -

Fertility help

Study Paper "You are what your mother eats" (Royal Society of Biological Sciences)

Research at University of Exeter

and University of Oxford

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Nutrition fertility Therapy Beats other Infertility Treatments

Costly fertility treatment may reduce births - sex - 04 July 2007 - New Scientist

Science seems to be going backwards on fertility treatments.

Harley Street Fertility and Nutrition Expert onGMTV's, baby race Yvonne Bishop-Weston says that a new fertility treatment that costs thousands of pounds extra to the many thousands of pounds it already costs for IVF may actually reduce women's chances of having a healthy baby.

Pre-implantation genetic screening (PGS) involves removing one or two cells from the embryo three days after fertilisation.

Sebastiaan Mastenbroek, at the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands, and colleagues compared 408 women aged 35 to 41 who were undergoing IVF. Of these, 206 were given PGS.

Twelve weeks after the treatment, 25% of the women in the PGS group were pregnant, compared with 37% of the women whose embryos were selected by the standard method – a visual inspection. The difference in outcomes was the similar when live births were considered.

"The goal of PGS is to increase pregnancy rates, but we found that it actually decreases it," says Mastenbroek, who presented the results at a meeting of the European Society for Human Reproduction and Embryology in Lyon, France.

Bishop-Weston says that Doctors are often "over complicating matters". She believes that a woman's body often needs to be sure it has sufficient stores of nutrients to sustain nine months of pregnancy and have a good chance of a healthy baby at the end of it to make the whole thing worth the gamble and effort. Frequently it's the bad diet of the men that are thwarting a couples' chances of conception. Men's sperm have to go through a decathlon of olympic proportions to increase the odds that only the fittest, strongest and best looking sperm have a chance at making a baby. Modern diets and lifestyles often result in men's sperm being mutated, unfit, and in short supply.

Modern medical methods risk side-stepping the safeguards that nature puts in place to produce an optimally healthy baby - the quality of health of the baby is often overlooked in the obcession to merely create life at any cost as private fertility clinics play God.

Bishop-Weston says "It's frequently hard to get the men to take responsibility for the health of their contribution to making babies - especially when they are told that things such as their coffee and alcohol consumption could be having a profound effect on their potential fatherhood and the health of any children"

Research shows that Nutrition therapy can be many times more effective than expensive IVF fertility treatments and assisted conception methods.Foresight The Preconceptual Charity claim 78.4% of 'Infertile' couples have healthy babies compared with 22.6% with IVF.

A challenge on ITV breakfast TV seems to have confirmed these statistics.

Yvonne Bishop-Weston, and the couple she provided nutritional advice for, recently won the GMTV Baby Race on LK Today (despite being told by their doctor they were infertile). The man involved lost 2 stone and saw a vast improvement in the quality of his sperm. His wife saw her hormone levels stabilise and found a new lease of life, as well as getting pregnant and despite the very poor NHS odds of success. They beat the other 2 couples, one who were using acupuncture and the other using IVF.

For difficult cases Foods for Life have a team of 2 herbalists, an acupuncturist and even a hypnotist to complement the nutritionists' skills in optimising bodies, making them fertile enough to make a healthy baby.

Two studies one measuring the 'Effectiveness of Chinese Herbal Medicine in Improving Infertility (Wing & Sedlmeier)', showed that Chinese herbal medicine, when prescribed correctly, actually increases fertility - 56% of the sample group were pregnant within six months of starting their final treatment. Another, The German Study on Acupuncture and ART (Paulus, Zhang, Strehler, El-Danasouri and Sterzik), demonstrated that acupuncture improved pregnancy rates during IVF - with 42% of the acupuncture group pregnant within six weeks, compared to 21% of the control group.

Nutrition - Natural, Effective Infertility Treatment

http://www.optimumnutritionists.com/pages/health-issues/natural-fertility-program.php

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