Realfoodology - Fertility-Friendly Beauty Routine: Safe Products & Tips for Pregnancy | Afshan Hussain

Episode Date: January 28, 2025

230: In this episode, Afshan Hussain, founder of PregnancySafeCosmetics, dives into how environmental toxins are affecting fertility and what you can do to optimize your chances of conception. Afshan���s company partners with over 20 fertility clinics across the U.S. to offer a fertility program focused on toxin reduction in five key areas: food and water, beauty and personal care, clothing, household supplies, and the home & office environment. We discuss the rising fertility crisis, how toxins are stored in fat cells, and the importance of clean beauty. If you're trying to conceive or just want to live a healthier, toxin-free life, this episode is packed with practical tips for reducing your toxic burden and improving your fertility. Key Points: How environmental toxins impact fertility and overall health Practical steps to detox your environment and reduce toxic exposure The importance of clean beauty and safe skincare products for fertility The role of toxins in both female and male fertility, including declining sperm count Use code REALFOOD10 Shop Fertility and Pregnancy Safe skin care at: https://www.pregnancysafecosmetics.com/shop Sponsored By: LMNT Get your free Sample Pack with any LMNT drink mix purchase at drinklmnt.com/realfoodology Birch Go to Birchliving.com/realfoodology for 20% Off Sitewide + 2 Free Eco-Rest Pillows with Mattress Purchase.  BIOptimizers  Order now at bioptimizers.com/realfoodology and use code realfoodology for 10% off any order.  Paleovalley Save at 15% at paleovalley.com/realfoodology and use code REALFOODOLOGY Timestamps:  00:00:00 - Introduction 00:06:16 - The fertility crisis 00:08:28 - Fertility after 40 vs. before 00:12:27 - Pregnancy detox & “clean beauty” 00:16:45 - How environmental toxins impact fertility 00:19:48 - The alarming decline in sperm count 00:21:56 - Most common toxins to be aware of 00:23:38 - Understanding toxic burden 00:25:30 - Why awareness of toxins isn’t negative 00:30:26 - Skincare regulation: U.S. vs. EU 00:35:08 - Ecocert verification and the importance of natural ingredients 00:40:10 - Toxins are stored in our fat cells 00:45:39 - Tips for living toxin-free 00:51:11 - Lifestyle changes and product recommendations 00:58:04 - Choosing safe bath and beauty products 01:03:01 - Real-life testimonials and success stories 01:08:50 - Fertility testing 01:12:15 - Afshan’s personal health non-negotiables Check Out  Website Instagram  X (Twitter) Check Out Country:  LEAVE US A VOICE MESSAGE Check Out My new FREE Grocery Guide! @realfoodology @realfoodologypodcast www.realfoodology.com My Immune Supplement by 2x4 Air Dr Air Purifier AquaTru Water Filter EWG Tap Water Database  Produced By: Drake Peterson

on today's episode of The Real Foodology Podcast. Some states have up to 25% decline in fertility. And that's what, in 20 years? I mean, 15 years? It's just, it's terrifying. Hello, friends. Welcome back to another episode of The Real Foodology Podcast. Today's guest is Afshan Hussein of Pregnancy Safe Cosmetics.

Now, this is something that I've talked about before on other podcast episodes, but you're gonna wanna listen to this one because there's a lot of stuff in here that I had never heard. We talk a lot about clean beauty, right? And clean skincare. And OpShon has just informed me that even,

and we know about greenwashing, right? But this goes even further than greenwashing that there are certain clean products that if you are trying to get pregnant even if they're clean for the general public could still keep you from getting pregnant so there's certain things that if you maybe are struggling with getting pregnant or you're wanting to get pregnant hopefully within the next couple years which is is my position, that there are certain things that we need to make sure that we are not exposing ourselves to in our skincare, in our beauty, in any of our cosmetics, body wash, shampoo, conditioner, you name it.

So she has an amazing guide on her website. If you listen to the episode, then you can go to her website and she'll send it to you. You can also work with her one-on-one. So I personally am going to start working with her after this episode. I was like, okay, I need your help because I hope to be pregnant by next year and I don't want to struggle. The current fertility crisis is not looking good and fertility rates are dropping, including sperm counts. Sperm counts are declining. It's a big concern. However, as always with every episode, I leave y'all with a lot of hope. And just because this is happening does not mean that it's going to happen to you. And thank God we know a lot of the reason why this

is happening. And know this is not due to socioeconomic reasons, like people not wanting to have kids or waiting too long to have kids or not having enough money to kids. No, the data actually shows that people are just becoming more and more infertile and it's because of all the stuff that we're being exposed to and we have two options. We can either put our heads in the sand and go la la la la la la and or like throw our hands up in the air and be like oh it's too much or we can do the best we can and we can listen to episodes like this and learn a lot and learn that there are a lot of things we can be doing and that's exactly what this episode does.

So I hope that you all enjoy the episode. I was feeling very inspired and also I'll be honest with you all, I was feeling a little bit overwhelmed too but this stuff is really important. I hope to have a very healthy pregnancy by the end of next year. And so I'm going to be paying more attention to the things that are in my makeup and in my skincare. So I hope you all love the episode. If you could take a moment to rate and view the podcast. I know I always ask for this, but seriously, please, y'all, it helps so much.

It helps get the podcast into more ears and it just means a lot to have the support. So thank you guys so much and I hope you have a great day. We spend about a third to have the support. off-gassing can happen from the materials used in the mattress and during the manufacturing process. So I got a birch mattress and I'm loving it. They are stylish, they're comfortable, and most importantly, they're crafted with responsibly sourced materials. Unlike synthetic mattresses, the wool in the birch mattress makes it hypoallergenic. And I love knowing that the mattress I'm sleeping on is made with organic raw materials sourced straight from nature, which are both comfortable and durable. They source only the finest quality materials like organic fair trade cotton,

organic wool, and natural latex to create luxurious mattresses designed to give you the best night's sleep. Every Birch Mattress is constructed with non-toxic materials and a focus on breathability to keep you cool at night. They also offer a 100 night risk-free trial to see how your body adjusts to it. It's shipped directly from their facility

to your door for free. The mattress comes rolled up in a box and it's super easy to set up. I want all my listeners to enjoy a deep, restful night's sleep with a new mattress from Birch. Go to birchliving.com slash realfoodology for 20% off site wide plus two free eco rest pillows with mattress purchase. That's birchliving, B-I-R-C-H, living.com slash realfoodology for 20% off site wide

plus two free eco rest pillows with mattress purchase. Are you looking for a coffee that's more than just a morning pick me up? Let me introduce you to Paleo Valley Organic Coffee, a blend that's good for your body, brain and taste buds. First off, there's no pesticides, herbicides or synthetic chemicals. Unlike conventional coffees, Paleo Valley Coffee is grown on organic sustainable farms

in Honduras and Peru, meaning no harmful chemicals. We love it. You get pure natural coffee that preserves all the flavor without the residue. It's also brain supportive. This coffee is infused with organic coffee fruit extract, which has been shown to boost brain derived neurotropic factor, otherwise known as BDNF,

by 143%, which is really awesome because I actually struggle with lower BDNF just based off of my genetics. So this is something that can help boost it. That means better memory, sharper focus, and an energized mind, all with a rich, bold flavor that brightens your morning. Paleo Valley takes it a step further with neural, immune, and energy support from eight organic mushrooms, like lion's mane for clarity and cordyceps for stamina plus its low acidity makes it gentle on your gut so you can enjoy it without worrying about digestive issues. Each cup is packed with polyphenols, antioxidants

that help combat stress and protect brain health. This coffee is also tested for mycotoxins and mold so it's as pure as it gets. If you're ready to make the switch go to paleo valley dot com slash real food ology for 15% off your first order and experience a coffee that nourishes your body and mind every single day. First of all, thank you so much for coming on today. Let's first dive into so there is a fertility crisis that's happening. And you and I have spoken a little bit about this, that a lot of people think that it's due to socioeconomic reasons, right? Like people not wanting to have kids

or they're having kids later in life or they don't have enough money to have kids. And I see this all the time. I see this coming from the mainstream media. I see TikToks about it. I see people talking about it online. What does the CDC data actually show about what's happening with this fertility crisis?

And what do the numbers say? So it's interesting because on the one hand the CDC data does show that 41% of first-time new moms are over the age of 35, but that still leads about 60% under the age of 35. The CDC data also shows shows that- sperm counts have been declining. Since- it nineteen seventy one. And since two thousand eighteen they've been declining at three times the rate. And so they are now estimating that and we have had

many researchers try. To go in and say let's change this let's change that let's see if we can get the decline to be less. And they can't. So now their estimates are saying that in 2045, the average sperm count in America will be zero. We've got 20 years to turn this around.

Pew researched, Mark, it's called the National, I wrote it down here, National Survey of Family Growth. And the last big one came out in 2015, and that national survey is came out in 2015 and in and that one that national survey is put out by the CDC and they gave you the data per five years age group so it's 30 to 34 35 to 39 40 to 44 and if you look at that 40% of the age group 35 to 39 who are married and trying to conceive, 40% of them can't have children in 12 months. So that's crazy to me because then if you look at the next age group, 40 to 44 who's

older, they actually have only a 37%. So they're actually have an easier time conceiving. That's crazy. That's crazy. I want to find out, I want to know why because I'm in that 40 to 44 age group and I'm hoping to start having kids within the next like six to eight months after I get married. And so I'm wondering like, okay, my first thought was, is that because my generation maybe wasn't hit as hard with all these environmental toxins and burden like it's just compiled and gotten like more intense as like the age group as they

get younger is that what's happening there? Okay so I'm glad you're hitting on this this is great so first let me just back up that's part of it but to give you a more precise answer just back up, that's part of it. But to give you a more precise answer, the way to, so environmental toxins, we have not hundreds, but thousands of medical studies showing that environmental toxins really negatively affect fertility. They decrease sperm count and quality. They decrease egg count and quality.

They fiddle with the chromosomal integrity of an embryo by causing an abnormal aneuploid embryo. They fiddle with embryo implantation. They lower ovarian reserve. They do all of this. Okay. Now, and there are five major areas that you can really like reduce toxin exposure. It's your food and water, your beauty and bath, your household cleaning supplies, your contact items and food and office environment, and your clothing. And of course there's air, but you can't really do that much about air except get an air filter and put some plants in your house. So I like to focus on the five. The air filter thing is actually a really big deal. If you get a really good air filter, I would say that this like reduces your exposure by kind of a lot.

There's the six. And so there are those five or six major areas. But the thing is that people, when they think about toxin reduction, think that all you have to do is get rid of the toxins and your fertility will come back. And that's what a lot of people, even like holistic or functional health doctors will say. But actually, that's not true. That's the wrong way to think about, you know, reducing toxins, especially for fertility. What happens is that all of these toxins, they do things to your body and what do they do? The number

one thing is they age your cells and they harm your cellular function and integrity, right? So when you're younger, you kind of bounce back. If you're under the age of 30, you can actually reduce toxin exposure and get pregnant. And I have a clinical practice, so I do see women who are under the age of 30 and they're not getting pregnant. And then sometimes they're using so-called clean beauty.

They think it's clean, it's not fertility safe. And you reduce the toxins and six weeks later, two months later, they're pregnant think it's clean. It's not fertility safe. And you reduce the toxins, and six weeks later, two months later, they're pregnant, and it's great. But the older you get, past the age of 30, it doesn't work like that. You have to use a functional approach to toxin reduction. So what does that mean? A functional approach to nutrition, for example,

well, everyone understands that. You would remove the toxins and the processed food. But then, alongside of it, you would also, the functional health medicine doctor would say, look, you need to have these nutrients. You need to eat more of this or eat less of this per your health goal and your health history and your biomarkers.

Well, guess what? With beauty and bath, it's the same. Because certain, like for example, there's an alternative to retinol that's natural and everybody loves it and they talk about the polyphenols and all the, you know, the nice little antioxidants. Okay, the thing about this is that when you look at what that particular natural ingredient does in the body, it's great for menopausal women, but it's not so great for women who are trying to conceive. Is it bakuchi oil?

Yeah, that bakuchi, bakuchi, yeah. That's concerning because I use that. Well, when you're ready to get pregnant, come see me, pregnancysafecompetitics.com. Click on fertility program and you know, drop your information. I'll have your information, but just say hey, it's Courtney and you know. I'm starting to try and I mean, I'm not literally starting to try now, but like, everybody tells me that you need to really plan on like at least a month, or sorry, a year ahead to like detox all this stuff out. So I should probably be getting all of that out right now.

So traditional functional medicine will look at what kind of toxins. They'll look at mold toxicity, they'll look at heavy metals, they'll look at parasites, they'll look at candida, and they'll also tell you, oh, okay, you know, you want to get pregnant, so eat, you know, more eggs because it has choline or, you know, it'll tell you that, right? But how many functional medicine practitioners look at what cosmetic ingredients do, natural and chemical? You know, I always say clean beauty is not fertility safe. The first thing I want people to understand is clean beauty is absolutely not fertility safe, pregnancy safe, and lactation safe. And it's not because everything is toxic. It's because you need

to look at what these chemicals do in your body, like the example I just gave you. And there are so many more. I'll give you another one, rosemary extract. Rosemary extract harms no one except the wanting to implant embryo. It impedes embryo implantation. Oh my God. I'm also using that on my hair right now. So great. Yeah, because it stimulates, yeah, if your hair is stimulated, it's great. All new products. Yeah. How about, hair is a clean beauty ingredient that everybody raves and loves and you'll find it in virtually every clean beauty. It's an alternative to parabens, 1,2-hexanedial. If you look at the studies, it says that at 1 and 1.5% concentration, the conclusion in the study was

most probably toxic to human weakings because it incites cellular death. Oh my gosh. And we're allowed up to 2%. And I'm like, okay, wait a second. What if this travels down to the embryo and incites embryonic cell death? Because a lot of ingredients do.

And the thing is, when you talk to a toxicologist or you talk to a dermatologist, they'll be like, we don't have that ingredients are innocent until proven guilty. We don't have any real knowledge of that. And that's why I have both, I have a beauty brand, and then I have this clinical fertility practice, coaching practice. You know, I'm in 20 fertility clinics.

I work with CNY Fertility and they have 13. They're growing their locations, I think, to like, Dr. Kilt says 25 in the next couple of years. So I work with them and their patients and I also have four other practices, coaching and fertility practices under my belt. And I also have four other practices, coaching and fertility practices under my belt. And I'm open to working with anyone. Yeah, but basically, you need to put your money where your mouth is. I was speaking with Dr. Toro on another podcast and he was saying, you know, we coaches and we functional health people, we talk a lot, but we're very

bad at showing the outcomes. And I'm working right now on a couple of projects, but I really believe in making functional medicine affordable, because that's another problem. It's not affordable. And I mean, you talk to those who do it and it's like 3,500, you know, just to say hi and do the first batch of tests, most of which, if you have the insurance, and you know where to go. And our insurance doesn't cover it. Yeah, insurance doesn't cover it, but then you have Mark Hyman's 500 functional health,

$500, you get all these labs. There are ways to get around it. And so I work with my clients to try to find a way where they don't have to just pay like a big chunk. And actually, like, I don't believe in charging a lot at all. I want to automate with artificial intelligence, the toxin, analysis of toxins. So in a way where, you know, practitioners can stop thinking of clean beauty, not clean beauty, but rather tailoring clean beauty. So clean beauty for pregnant women, clean beauty for women who are trying to conceive,

clean beauty for cancer patients, because it's going to look different. These are chemicals. Yes. And so I want to get into all this, but I really want to understand why are the fertility rates dropping so much? And why are women, like my age bracket, not being hit so hard with the fertility rates dropping so much and why are women like my age bracket not being hit so hard with the fertility whereas like people right below me.

I mean, I was just having a conversation with a woman last night at an event that I went to and she told me that all of her friends, so this is anecdotal, but you're just telling me right now that the research shows this, the data we have backs this up. That she said all of her friends between 36 and 40 are struggling to get pregnant right now and then you're telling me 40 through 44 are actually having a little bit easier time.

So I want to understand that and I want my audience to understand like what is really happening right now with the fertility rates. I think there's a bunch of different stuff happening but you have some really interesting data around this. So I really believe it's environmental toxins. It's also things like EMF, right? It's really a lot of, Dr. Pompa talks about one day when his son had a knee, his knee was hurt and he was playing all these video games and the knee just wouldn't heal. And finally he figured it out and he made him stop

having his injured knee in front of you know, whatever he was using to play the video games and it healed. And I do believe that, you know, it corrupts the cellular function, all this EMF. We have data. So it's that, it's environmental toxins. And what it is, is it's that the younger folks have more of them over a longer period of time. So then think about it like a low grade, there are two things, think about it like a low grade flame that you're just kind of you know constantly putting on there. Eventually you'll take the flame out which is taking the environmental toxins away and you still got to heal that burn. The older you get, you know- The harder it becomes. The harder it gets.

So 28 year old women that come into my practice and have, are not getting pregnant, even with clean beauty ingredients, as I said earlier, I will, you know, even with low ovarian reserve, even I had a woman who didn't know why she kept miscarrying went and got the, you know, IVF and all of her embryos were aneuploid and she was under 30 years old. Turns out actually she had so much adhesive.

She was working with tape and then putting all this tape stuff on her face. Tape has phthalates. Adhesive has phthalates in it which cause chromosomal abnormalities. They cause aneuplity. Okay, you're dropping so much stuff that people are going to be like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, I need to know about this. The taping. All of my girlfriends are starting, are you talking about like the frownies?

Or everybody's... Any tape, anything with adhesive, anything that sticks will have phthalates in it. With the same bad synthetic chemical that we hate fragrance for. Oh, okay. Well, I got to tell all the girlies because all my girlfriends now are on this frownies like taping rage. I tried it a couple of times and I was like, I don't know that I can do this all the time, but everybody's trying to do it to not do Botox.

Okay, that is crazy to know. So don't do tape. Yeah, so don't do tape. Yeah, so don't do tape. And what I find really interesting about this is we're kind of at this weird crossroads right now where we're hearing in the mainstream media and we're hearing all over the place like the world is overpopulated, there's too many people. But then we're starting to hear like, wait, wait, wait, fertility rates are dropping, sperm counts are dropping. And if we don't turn the ship around by what year are they saying that men will not have any sperm count period?

2045. We'll have an average sperm count of zero. And currently, we need 2.1 children per woman or couple to, you know, repopulate the earth. we're at one point seven in in the United States South Korea is at point five The average okay only 18% of men in China where there's very little Regulation and less of a clean like let's do you know get rid of environmental toxins kind of culture only 18% Of men in China qualify to be sperm donors. 82% of them have bad sperm. So France, where the regulation is very high,

is like I think number four or five in terms of like top, it's in the top fertility rate-wise. And if you look at the maps that put out by the CDC in 2005, the entire country, except two states, were at 92.8% fertility, meaning almost a 93% fertility. Fast forward to 2021, the same map put out by the CDC, because the CDC tracks fertility rates by

state. Only two now are in that dark deep purple at almost 93%. The rest of them, 44 to 66%. And there's another map that shows from 2005 to 2022, the percent decline. Some states have up to 25% decline in fertility. And that's what, in 20 years? I mean, 15 years? It's just, it's terrifying. What are the two areas of toxin exposure that are responsible the most for this chemical body burden

that we're dealing with? Food and water and then beauty and bath tops. When you, and actually some studies have shown that if you change out your daily use products in your beauty and bath up to a 60%, let's say I think a 60 or 66% reduction of just your beauty and bath. If you then add food and water, it becomes like 88%. And let me just say, for anyone who wants the studies, just contact me on Instagram, Prang C Safe Cosmetics, and message me and just say, I've got a 97-page slide presentation.

I'll send it to you. It's a little canva link and you can see it for yourself. I've got so many, you know, anyone who is a doubter, just come by my, I'll convert you. Yeah, she's got you. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I'm trying and working on developing an app right now that will provide all this education for free. I would like to see every fertility clinic as well as every company, like really offer

this and have it like a master class type of app, but all on, you know, toxin exposure now how to get rid of it. Because I think the earlier we start, the better. And people just don't look at look at Instagram and look at all those get ready with me or the before after where the, you know, for 18 year old girls. Yeah, they look so cute and little and then they go like this and then they're like, wow. And you're like, wow. Well, all I think that every time I see those, all I think is, oh my God, all of the chemicals

that they're painting on their bodies that are then ending up in their bloodstream. Which brings me to my next question is how serious is this toxic burden and what are your thoughts on when people say the dose makes the poison? No, see, this is why I have a clinical practice and I'm currently working on an app that will allow us to track, not just your standard functional health tests and your outcomes, but also track what you're eating, track the toxins and the nutrients, and then track the beauty and bath products that you're using, and allow you to send it

to your practitioner. So your practitioner can say, per your health history and for your health goals Let's not do this one. Let's not do this one. Let's not do this one Then AI will remember it and and then we'll track it. Okay Well, we'll see who got pregnant who didn't get pregnant what they're using so that we can Finally put then end to the very negative narratives that are out there because there are three narratives. The minute I say you gotta reduce toxins

in five or six areas, you get these three narratives. You get, oh my God, it's way too hard. So why try? Because you'll inevitably be still getting toxins in from somewhere and then you won't get pregnant. So why try? And then you get, oh, it's really easy. So let's just like, I'll do this

one by myself. And then they don't understand that. And then they come back to me and say, oh, it didn't work. You know, it didn't work. And, and it didn't work because they're not using a functional approach. They're just reducing toxins. They're not using supplements or nutrition or treatments to support what, you know, the healing process and getting them to their goal. And that's a problem. And then I get this, I hear this a lot, like, let's not worry, you know, it's really worrying about toxins is really toxic. I'm like, okay, I cannot, I cannot with that narrative. I'm like, so, so you're telling me that if your house is on fire and you're in

the house, you don't want people to tell you that your house is on fire. They just want to let you just leave you in the house with it burning. That's the mentality that they're telling us essentially is like, no, no, no, no, it's fine. It's stressing about this is like, it's going to cause more issues for you. I'm like, wait, what? Don't you want to know if your health is okay? I just watched a podcast by a major fertility doctor who writes about environmental toxins, say exactly that. And I was just like, oh my God, please don't do this, you know, because at the end of the day, and she was interviewing someone who said, you know, I like to try to get the women who are trying to conceive, I like to give them as little a no list,

like a do not use list as possible because the trying to conceive phase can last so long and you wouldn't want to deny them their favorite creams. And I thought, seriously, do you know how many women come in, nine women out of 10 come into my office, my virtual office and tell me that they're already using Clean Beauty and they're not getting pregnant. And let me tell you, like, seven out of ten go out pregnant. So,

you know, I just, then the ones that don't get pregnant are usually older than 42, and they just take longer. And so I just think that we have to stop these negative narratives. That's absolutely, I would say if it was not so hard, if you just stop a minute and think, no, it's not so hard. It's just about going to someone who can help you through it. And you have a choice not to use these toxins, then why would you use them? You know, it doesn't take that many, that much education. We have thousands of studies, but it doesn't take that much education.

On my website, I have a fertility program page, putting safecosmetics.com, and I have a six-minute video. It's two minutes on how it affects women's fertility, two minutes on how it affects male fertility, and two minutes on how they average like they tested all these babies born and they found like the average baby has 300 or almost 300 like chemicals in the cord blood. So, you know, because it passes the placental barrier. So once you know that, like what, what, what possible reason do you have to keep like putting this into your body? Why would you have to keep like putting this into your body?

Why would you want to? I think it's safe to say that everyone loves hot chocolate, right? I think we're all in agreeance that hot chocolate is delicious and we love it. But have you ever had salty hot chocolate? Hear me out. If you have never tried the element chocolate salt, you are seriously missing out. And during the holiday season, they come out with a chocolate medley, you are seriously missing out. And during the holiday season, they come out with a chocolate medley,

which is a tasty trio of flavors featuring chocolate mint, chocolate chai, and chocolate raspberry. They are designed to be enjoyed hot, and it's also a great way to get your electrolytes in, and they taste so good. You can have them on your own. You could also just add a little bit of water

and then steam coconut milk, which is what I love to do. They are not gonna be around much longer. I believe that they stopped selling them in February. So get it while it's hot because the chocolate medley is only here for a limited time. If you wanna try chocolate medley today, go to drinkelement.com slash realfoodology and you can receive a free element sample pack with any order

That's DRI in K LM NT calm Slash real food ology. Are you frustrated with losing muscle and gaining fat as you get older? It's not your fault your body's enzyme production naturally declines with age making it harder to break down protein and build muscle But there's hope because mass enzymes by bioptimizers is the most potent digestive enzyme formula ever. I take these with every single meal. Mass enzymes supercharges your protein digestion,

increasing amino acid absorption by an incredible 1200%. That means you'll get more muscle-building nutrition from every meal and experience faster recovery, less soreness, and better workout results. The cool thing is that mass times isn't just for athletes. It can help anyone struggling with age related, muscle loss and weight gain. By optimizing your digestion and protein absorption,

mass times supports lean muscle maintenance and fat loss. So don't let age slow you down, fight back against muscle loss and unwanted fat gain with mass times. And the best part is you can try it risk-free with their 365 day money back guarantee. Order now at bioptimizers.com slash real food ology and use code real food ology for 10% off any order. That's bioptimizers.com slash real food ology. Reclaim your youthful body with mass time. Well, okay.

Well, and also I think a lot of women are starting to wake up to this, but for the women that have not yet, how different is our skincare and beauty products regulated in the United States versus the EU? Like, let's talk about how many additives are allowed in American skincare products and beauty products versus the EU. Right. Okay, so it's not additives. It's just there are 2,500 cosmetic ingredients.

And when I say cosmetic, I don't mean makeup. Cosmetic in the beauty industry means anything that touches your skin. So baby wipes, tampons are considered cosmetics. Anything that's cream, shampoo, toothpaste, body wash, everything as well as makeup. 2,500 ingredients, cosmetic ingredients are banned in the European Union. 11, 11 are banned in the US. Let that sink in for a second, y'all. In the EU, the manufacturer is the responsible party vis-a-vis the government.

So that's huge because in the US, it's the brand. So the brand can call the manufacturer and ask them to delete an ingredient, to change the name of an ingredient, to add the word organic even though there's one ingredient, there are two drops of one ingredient that's certified organic by USDA, then they can stick USDA organic on it. They can do all these things and then claim, oh, you didn't know, I thought the manufacturer was doing that, or I didn't know,

and the manufacturer's like, we didn't do it, and they can shuffle the blame. They can ship their products from abroad, unverified, have no clue what they are, claim that they didn't know, and they were just assembling it per what it says, without, they don't have to verify it. The, in 2022, the FDA gave themselves the right, they implemented something called MACRA, the Modernization of Cosmetics Regulation Act. But all it did, it didn't ban any new ingredients. All it did is they made beauty brands have to, if they make over a million, I think it's a million in three

years or something like that, or maybe it's three million in a year, I don't know, over a certain number of, a sizable amount of revenue, you have to register the beauty brand with the FDA and FDA just makes you keep a log of what's really mandatory is you keeping a log of any adverse reaction. Beyond that, you know, they gave themselves the right to shut you down, but will they shut you down? Will they regulate you? Do they regulate you? Not really. In Europe, they look at everything.

They look at your, they'll tell you what you can put on your label. You know, my company name and my brand name is Pregnancy Safe Cosmetics. I wanted it on my bottles. And the manufacturer in Europe said, no, you can't do it. And by the way, let me just back up. I have a small eight product line made in Europe because I just couldn't get my patients products that I felt confident in.

I would call all of these various companies that looked great, 100% pure, even after skincare, they brought in their ingredients from abroad. And my first question was like, they're all organic, they're all natural, why don't you have a certification? Oh, we can't certify because they're actually, the ingredients are shipped from abroad and they can't verify them. And that made me uncomfortable because if I'm telling my patients use this and they're not getting pregnant How do I know if if it's like something in that thing? So I said, okay, I'm gonna make it and then I'm gonna have them made in Europe shipped directly from Europe to your doorstep

So there's no chance of them landing on American soil me fiddling with something and then sipping it off, which happens. You know, there's just so much corruption also, so much greenwashing. I posted on the Instagram pregnancy safe cosmetics this post about how 11 EWG verified, I think mostly bought like washes for babies with the word organic on it, had been third party tested and found to have up to 26% of total ingredients from petrochemicals.

How can they be organic and have 26% from petrochemicals? Yeah, petrochemicals there, it's not organic and it's like the biggest source of endocrine disruptors on the planet. So you don't want anything from petrochemicals. No, my stuff is 98, 99 or 100% natural. That's what it should be. You guys should look for the Eco-cert. Anything with the label, the Eco-cert, they verify the ingredients, they certify the ingredients,

and then turn the bottle around and Eco-cert will tell you the percent that is natural. Because you can have an Eco-cert something and it's only 23% natural. No, you want 98, 99, 100% natural. But natural is a greenwashing term. So how do we know that that means that it's actually like a safe? So there are two things. First, natural is greenwashing because there's no one telling you the percent of total that is natural. There's no verification. There the percent of tulip is natural.

There's no verification. Yeah, there's no verification for the word natural. So if you have a certification like EcoCert with the word natural, on my label it'll say no synthetic fragrances, no phthalates, no parabens. I can't even write that in Europe without someone verifying that. So first of all, you have to have, not just the word natural, you have to have a certification

tells you that this is the percent, it's 100% natural, and it's been verified and certified as such, and here's the certification. That's the way to go. And that doesn't mean it's good, that means that most of the very bad synthetic ingredients are probably are not in there. Now, especially if it's 100% natural. Now there are smaller amount

of natural ingredients that are toxic to certain health outcomes. Like I said, rosemary extract is toxic if you want to have an embryo that's implanting. That said, if you don't want to get pregnant and your menopausal and your hair is falling out, rosemary extract is fine. There's nothing wrong with it. So this is why I try to say, you know, titanium dioxide. I'll give you another example. There are three forms. The food additive, it's carcinogenic, banned in the EU. Then there's another form, which is a nanoparticle form. It's also carcinogenic, especially if it's inhaled. And they still are saying that they don't have enough data to know for sure if it's carcinogenic if you put it in your skin. But it's a nanoparticle.

It crosses the placental barrier. It's been found in the meconian poop of newborns, I say it's a carcinogen, don't use it. Then there's the pigment grade, which is a very large grade. Okay, that is okay if you're having a body wash and it's a wash off product, but if you're going to put it on your lips, on the lipstick or your eyeshadow where the skin is very thin. Or there's organic tampons that have it. Oh yeah, titanium dioxide, you don't want it in your body. It's a known carcinogen, so you don't want it in your body. And the number one place in makeup that it's used is lipstick and eyeshadow. The skin here is very thin and where it's probably tested is, you know, thicker, much thicker skin, whether it's on an animal or human, much thicker skin. So they say it doesn't penetrate down to the blood vessels. Oh, what

if I'm eating it with my lipstick? What about my eyes? You know, this is where you have to have, in my opinion, a practitioner get involved, look at what an ingredient does in the body, look at really its toxicity and also its function and then ask how does that play in to your health outcome and your health goal. I'll give you another example in the world of fertility. Let's say you're a man or you're a woman and you've got your man's sperm check. The standard sperm check does not check for DNA fragmentation. It checks from how the swimmers are swimming, how many of them are and what they look like. Are they two-headed? Are they normal?

Okay. DNA fragmentation is caused by endocrine disrupting chemicals. So that you wouldn't know unless you went in for IVF and they actually like a check for the DNA fragmentation. They were doing ICSI or something. But if you were just getting a standard sperm check for motility, et cetera, you wouldn't know that. The other thing, okay, and you could say, well, let's just eliminate those endocrine disrupting chemicals. Okay, yes. But now the other thing that endocrine disrupting chemicals often do is they, a whole class

of them are called obesogens and they fiddle with how your body processes fat and sugar. And so they make you fat, they give you a higher BMI, and they also mess with the way you process those things. So certain biomarkers that are really important for fertility are off. Okay, so if that's the case, you might have to, in addition to just dropping those chemicals from your morning routine, you're also gonna have to, in addition to just getting, dropping those chemicals from your morning

routine, you're also going to have to support what's happening in your body with some nutritional differences like what you're eating, change what you're eating, and then maybe even take some supplements to help you. It depends. It depends on what I see, what someone sees. People don't think about it that way. They're like, oh, I stopped using that bad shampoo. And I'm like, okay, what about the rest of the picture?

I'm actually not following this right now. So are you saying people aren't thinking about the toxins that are in our fat cells that are hard to get out? Like, are you talking about specifically like with obesogens? Like, for example, so let's back it up a little bit because if people don't know what obesogens are,

those are chemicals that essentially make make you obese make you fat one of them being phthalates Another one being like BPA a lot of them are the chemicals that we're finding in plastic So what are you are you saying that people aren't thinking about those being stored in our fat cells and they're a lot harder to get rid Of yeah, they don't they don't think it they don't and they also don't realize it's not just harder to get rid of. Once it's just that they've changed the way your body functions. So once you get rid of them, it's not necessarily that your body will change back to where it was because now your body is, you know, once your body starts changing the way it stores fat, there are a lot of other things that are happening in your body.

Your hormones are changing, your whole bunch of bodily processes and responses that are changing. And they don't just, it's like a domino effect. If you have four dominoes that fall, you put the first domino back up by reducing the toxins, what about the other dominoes? They're not gonna come up on their own necessarily.

The older you go, the longer you have exposed to these toxins, the more toxin reduction is just the first step. Then you have to address all this. Well, and I think one of the bigger issues that we're dealing with as well on top of the toxic burden. Now, this is also toxic burden, but it also goes into what you're explaining right now is, you know, when I was younger, women were being put on birth control. Well, they still are. But like when I was younger, women were being put on birth control. Well, they still are. But like when I was little, women were getting put on birth control when they were like 13. Now I have friends who are in their 30s that are coming off birth control.

Their body has not been making these natural hormones for the last 15 years. So not only were you putting these harmful synthetic hormones in your body for the last 15 years that are already linked to cancer and considered carcinogenic. Now you also have the other issue of what you're explaining now is our body is now scrambling to go, wait, wait, wait, I haven't been making these in the last 15 years. Now I have to figure out how to go back to this normal natural process of producing those hormones that my body has been shut off from for the last 15 years. Yeah.

And Courtney, I'm so glad you're mentioning this because a lot of cosmetic ingredients affect hormones, not just phthalates, not just parabens, not just BPA. You know, there's a, I think it's eugenol, it's like, comes from clove oil, it's an essential oil. It actually acts on the pancreas. And there's one study that said in the conclusion, oh, we might wanna look at this for patients who have gestational diabetes.

Well, what if you don't have gestational diabetes? Why would you want to put that on there? I had trouble conceiving and I finally conceived in my 40s. And by that time, I just put in a little personal anecdote. I didn't own a toaster. I didn't own a microwave. Everything I ate was organic and fresh.

I spent a ton of money, didn't eat out of cans. And I switched to virtually no makeup, but the little bit of bath and beauty stuff I used was organic. The one thing I thought was okay was this Clarins bottle of Weal Tonic, which is all a bunch of essential oils. And I put from head to toe that oil,

because when you're pregnant, you want to avoid stretch marks. I wanted to avoid stretch marks. And I put it on myself every time I got out of the shower, like every other day. And my pregnancy was relatively healthy until the end. And then at 28 weeks, at 27, 28 weeks, they found that my baby wasn't growing.

And I was hospitalized and my daughter was born 30 weeks, two pounds, eight ounces. And the doctor, before her birth was hospitalized and my daughter was born 30 weeks, two pounds, eight ounces. And the doctor, before her birth, was hospitalized. I had the little, you know, oil bottle sitting there. And the doctor was from Spade, walked in and he looked at the bottle and he said, is that essential oils? And I said, yes.

And he's like, you shouldn't be using that. Don't use that. My family, I have like, if you count the extended family, we have like 19 physicians or medical folks in the family. I recognize that look. I was like, okay, he's not going to tell me because he doesn't want to stress me out, but this is bad. Note to myself, I have to look at this.

2021, 2022 major studies came out about how essential oils is a whole huge class of them that are fetal toxic and embryo toxic and they cause you know a fetal growth retardation small for gestational you know problems in in late term and actually one of the CDC numbers like only 55 percent of pregnancies and in a normal term. We have 45% ending in either preterm or early term births. It's a CDC number. That's crazy. It's another thing where these environmental toxins are at play. So, you know, just because it's natural doesn't mean it's good. Again, you got to know what's your health goal, what's your health history, what are you putting on your body?

How does that play in? How old are you? What are your biomarkers? Can it sustain all this? Okay, so you saying all of this, I'm feeling overwhelmed right now. So I can only imagine how my listeners are feeling because how do I word this?

How do I figure out what is best for me when it comes to these cosmetics? Because I mean, I'm on camera all the time. My entire job requires me to be on camera a lot and have public appearances. So I'm like, I can't stop, you know, putting my makeup on. So how do I figure out what is best for me? And how does the listener right now navigate like, OK, well now, cause you know, all I'm hearing is, okay, well things that I thought were natural and clean and healthy and okay for fertility are actually not like Rosemary oil.

And there's something else you said, but I'm forgetting right now. So how do we navigate all this as the listener? Okay. So I'm going to give you a few, uh, quick and easy and not so quick and easy. I always hesitate to give the like the top 10 hacks because you know it's like I just explained to you. You have to have a functional medicine approach to reducing environmental toxins and just because you reduce them doesn't at all mean you're going to go and get pregnant. But if you go to pregnancy safe cosmetics

dot com and just drop in anything in anything at the bottom of the page, there's like a contact us form, you can go blah, blah, or you can subscribe to the newsletter, whatever you want. It will automatically kick you out a 26 page list of ingredients to avoid that's just list, okay? That's a beginning point. Of course, you can also go to the fertility program page, fill out the short form, you know, and make sure you leave your phone number and

I'll book you a free consultation because all my initial consultations are free. And you know, I'm working on a project right now where, as I said, I want an AI-driven app to be made where when you scan, like think of a Yuca app, you're scanning what you're using and you're saying, Afshan, I'm using these 10 products, it gets sent to me. I can then perp each product, just touch, touch, touch, say no, no, no, and the AI will remember it. The next person that comes up, then it'll just give me. So as it goes in, the AI will build this nice list and it'll record the outcomes and we'll

know what works, what doesn't work per health outcome. Of course, it's like a big project. I wish I had Bobby Kennedy on my side to help me out with this one. You might. He's going to be doing a lot of stuff. Yeah. No. And I hope he gets like some of these functional medicine tests to, you know, insurance to cover them or at least to have, you know, an option where you can pay 20 bucks a month and get them once every two years or something. You know, it should be we should have something like that.

But basically, there's very little understood. Those are the only two options like contact me. I don't know anyone else who's doing who has my approach. I really don't. And I am searching for, I mean, people because I, you know, I'm I, I can only medical, anything medical is very highly regulated and I get women from Australia telling me that they'd like to, you know, technically

I can only really serve clients in America, you know? So, because it's highly regulated, I don't have practices in other countries. So I'm always searching for other people. I'm not just tooting my own horn, but honestly, we need coaching programs to kind of educate people about how to actually build this part up, how to have a functional approach, functional medicine approach, toxin reduction, because it's not just about reducing toxins. And it's not enough.

And you know, there's no one standard safe. It's safe for cancer patients, safe for you know Tylenol is safe for everyone except you know kidney patients. So why wouldn't you have the same attitude? You need to look at what that chemical does in your body and what you're dealing with and there's no other way around it. And I say that and people are like oh that's so complicated, so hard, you know, best not, you know, the house is burning, let's just stay in it.

Well, it's also like how badly do you want to get pregnant? You know, like just point blank. And there's a lot of women that are struggling with that right now and maybe this is the missing piece. But yeah, I mean, look, I get it. I'm sitting here going, Oh my gosh, it's another thing that I have to do to like look into into all of this. So I share the pain and the sentiment that I'm sure a lot of my listeners do as well. You know, this

is why like, not to turn this political, but you had mentioned RFK Jr. It's why I am just blown away by how many people are hating on him right now and are concerned about him being ahead of the HHS because I'm sitting here this whole conversation listening to you talk about all of these ingredients that we have in, and this is just in the skincare and or you call it cosmetic industry where it's like all the beauty products that we use. Think about the food and everything else. Like a lot of this stuff is not getting regulated at all.

And then we're dealing with the burden of it now, right? Like we're having to sit here and do all the research and be like, okay, if I want to get pregnant, I have to make sure I cut all these ingredients out. So now I need to go on a search to find body lotion and makeup and all this other stuff that doesn't have it in here just because I want to do a basic function as a woman, which is get pregnant. and it's unfortunate because we are not regulating any of this

So my hope is that RFK jr One of the things that he's gonna be dealing with it at the HHS is getting all these freaking chemicals out of our food and our beauty products, it's crazy Unfortunately, well, I have high hopes for What Bobby Kennedy wants to do? But I think that you know, I have high hopes for what Bobby Kennedy wants to do, but I think that regulating, I see issues there because there are only, in order to regulate something, you have to have some body of literature saying that a toxin is bad. And so when you look at the medical studies, there are medical studies

and there are safety assessments. And, you know, there are a small finite number of so-called really bad chemicals that maybe Bobby Kennedy will, you know, get rid of the phthalates and the parabens and that, but what about all the rest of them? You know, what about the rosemary extract is not going to go away. It's not going to be regulated. It's not going to be a warning because it doesn't harm anyone except the poor little embry is not going to go away. It's not going to be regulated. It's not going to be a warning because it doesn't harm anyone except the poor little embryo that wants to implant. What about, you know, and so at the end of the day, I think that, you know, it's not as difficult as it,

you know, as it seems if you have someone like me, you know, who knows those ingredients and helps you. The thing is what we need is to have, like me, you know, who knows those ingredients and helps you. The thing is what we need is to have like a coaching program that educate a lot of other people about what I know, you know, and replicate it. Cause you can't just come only to me. We need to use the technology. Like I said, the AI, we need to really build this out so that every fertility practice and every gynecologist and every health practice has a coach and that it's not four

thousand bucks to see the coach. It should be, you know, I charge less than three hundred for my services because I tell my clients, I say, I know that you're not gonna get pregnant unless you switch out that Teflon and the aluminum and, you know, all the stuff in your kitchen. I don't receive a dime when you go buy a bunch of ceramic pots. You're going to spend more on your pots than you spend on me. But if you're not willing to pay that, and I had a client just come through and she's like, oh, I wasn't expecting this, you know, have to spend on

beauty and bath care. And here's the thing about beauty and bath care. I'll tell you another thing. Let's say you are a brand and you want to sell on Walmart or Target or Sephora or Walgreens or Ulta. All these companies require not only just your standard two years profit and loss, but they require proof of warehouse, they require you the brand to fulfill like 200,000 you know unit order and pay for it, they won't pay for it and then they'll sell it on

consignment. So then the brands are investing that much money like you know from the manufacturer maybe the manufacturers can say it was three bucks a polyp and so now they want 200,000, you're investing 600,000. Guess what? Okay, you can sell it at three bucks a pop, but if they don't sell it, they have to ship it to warehouse. So what do you think they're going to do? They're going to put that toxic preservative in there, something that makes it last longer.

The really, truly, so all these, you know, I see all these influencers come out. Oh, just go to your target, your clean beauty aisle. And it always burns me up because I'm like, do you know how many dogs are in that so called clean beauty that's not clean at all? You know, the really clean stuff that I see, it's always like super expensive and super expensive because they're doing these small batch orders 250 and for the beauty brand it may cost 20 or 30 bucks per pop, you know In Europe we have this thing called fresh cosmetics where and in Japan it's it's very They have it where they have make the whatever they're making whether it's a lotion or a cream or makeup, fresh.

And they ship it to you and it's meant to be used within six months and that's it. And some companies ship like once a month, sometimes three times a year, four times a year. But it's small batch order and it's fresh have, we don't even allow anything like that in any of the stores. So as a result, the 20 organic companies, when I started Pregnancy Safe Cosmetics, I said, let me go out there and look at these organic makeup brands.

I mean, most of, either they were made in someone's basement, or if they were big, they weren't so clean. They weren't so organic. I think there are only two brands in the whole world that I suggest and recommend for organic makeup. Which are what? What are they? MG Naturals. Okay. And I don't have any kind of code for them. But the other one is Piper Blue Organics. And I do Pregnancy Safe is my code. You guys can use Pregnancy Safe.

And never heard of either of those. Piper Blue Organics, they make this cream palette. But here's another thing I will tell you. I endorse the cream palette for Piper Blue but not the spray or the face wash or anything else because again, you know, you got to go product by product and they have a cream palette that has your foundation, your contour in one palette, you have foundation contour, what do you call it? You know,

Eye shadow or? what do you call it? You know, the corrector, bronzer, and then lip and cheek color, all of those creams, they kind of like, they look like the scents, but they're clean. And that I endorse. I have looked over every single ingredient. She's getting certified, she's got, you know, it's all good guys. And then so, but you know, again, it's not the same price range as your Target, right? It's more because it's a small batch. It's a small batch. So, you know, you have to understand how it works, how this world is constructed, and where we need help the most. In my opinion, it's beauty in bath, because at the end of the day, if you want to detox your food, you go whole foods. fed the worms you know and you are organic and you you cook everything fresh right and you kind of you know

without the appeal appeal on it and you kind of okay with you know if you just stay away with the processed food but the bath and beauty how do you get rid of that how do you how do you get rid of that? How do you navigate that? We need so much. Well, I will say one thing, and maybe not everybody's gonna agree with me, but I don't think women need all these freaking products that they use. I'm a minimalist when it comes to products. I mean, you mentioned this earlier, these videos of these TikTokers that go on and they just do so much with their makeup. And I'm like, I could, I can literally travel with the smallest little bag of makeup because I barely put anything on. And people are painting their faces, buying all these products that they don't need because they're going to Sephora and being like, oh, what's this? I need this like,

topping setting spray and you know, all this stuff. And I think a lot of that we are as women, spray and all this stuff. with body products. I have like three things I use. I barely even use body lotion. I've been using more now that I live in Colorado because when I was in LA I didn't really have to use it as much. And then like shampoo and conditioner and I don't really use anything else outside of that besides well I use stuff on my face but I feel like we use too much as women and we don't need that many products. I totally agree with you and that's why I mean I use the Piper Blue palette and I use my own stuff I have a hand and body wash a face wash you know and like a serum and a

Daytime moisturizer and a nighttime moisturizer and that's it and I had that's why I have a very small limited You know line it's only like eight products and really four of them or five of them are really what everyone uses When they're trying to conceive so I don't think you need that much but I do think that I think that the word needs to be put out there. People need to realize that going down to your clean beauty aisle is not going to cut it, you know, and that you do need to look at all the five areas. You do need help from someone like me to really make sure that you've gotten rid of them, rid of whatever's ailing you. Look at what it's doing to your body because past the age of 30, you know, it makes a huge

difference. I can tell you case study upon case study where, you know, the women coming in at past the age of 30, I just had someone who has just didn't have fallopian tubes didn't have anything else, no PCOS or endometriosis, no pre you know, recurrent pre pre recurrent pregnancy loss, perfect embryos, but not implanting. And so, and of course, she's in that age group, I think she was 34. So, it's environmental toxins, but it's not, and she was like, oh, but now I don't use anything. I only use this one baby wash that I use on my body

and my hair. And right away I was like, all right, I understand that. But you're over the age of 30. And that means that now you have your body, when it's not, when you've got a problem like this and you're, it's not, you've got perfectly graded embryos, tested embryos, double A, and they're not implanting, means something's going on, either inflammation

or something's going on in your body that is the result of this years of use of the bad stuff. And now you have to help that body heal and go back to what it was before the exposure. And it's not gonna go back on its own. So, you know, I feel like if people could understand that and just be a little bit patient with themselves and be like, okay, you know, that's what I have to do. Like you hit the gym because you want to lose weight, just, you know, take it and try it. And once your

body is back, your body is back, once you're detoxed, your kitchen is detoxed, you know? So it's worth it to put the effort in, you know? I know it sounds like, oh my God, one more thing, but it's worth it, isn't it? And a lot of things fall into line when you start, when you get all that stuff out of, you know, I mean, I'm, I'm so grateful that I started learning about this when I was like 21 and I'm 40 now. And so I've never really, I never really used any of this stuff. I did a little bit when I was a teenager and then quickly realized like, oh my gosh, there's So I've never really used any of this stuff. that there's so many chemicals in there that we don't really know about even if the company is claiming that they're safe.

And so my thought is, if I'm going to be slathering this all over my body, like I don't really want to be exposing myself to that kind of stuff. So yeah, I think this is a great lesson in less is more and being really conscious of the things that you are putting on and around your body. And I do want to leave the episode with a little bit of hope for women that maybe you can tell some stories or just like talk in generalities about how you've been able to help so many women get off all these toxins, heal their bodies and actually get pregnant. Because there's a lot of hope and there's a lot of women doing this. Oh, yes, absolutely. I mean, there's so many stories. I had a woman who was 36 years old.

She actually had a failed IVF transfer and was going in for another one. She thought she was using it. She checked in with me and she said, I think I'm just using clean beauty, but can I review it? Actually, it wasn't at all clean. A lot of greenwashing stuff.

We completely revamped that. And I also wanted to help her, because she was 36, start a nutrient and supplement protocol that would kind of diminish the inflammation. Because again, anything your body doesn't like is going to respond to with inflammation. So we started doing that and she waited about a month and a half before then going into a cycle with another transfer.

She didn't want to wait too long. I was really kind of worried because I thought, is she going to really have a successful transfer after just, you know, waiting six weeks and then going in next and actually she got pregnant. So that was a great, great story. I had another woman who had lower diminished ovarian reserve and she was 35. Most of my patients are in that 34 to 39 or 30, yeah, 33 to 38 age group. She only had one embryo, one normal embryo and it wasn't graded AA. Was not so great after her IVF. So she was really, really sad. And she went in, often when you

have diminished ovarian reserve, what the clinic will do is tell you to go ahead and take testosterone or take the DHEA supplement, which increases your testosterone, which is supposed to increase your number of follicles and give you more of a chance. Unfortunately, the next time she went in around, she had more, I think she had like two more follicles, but when the end of the process went around, she had like worse results in terms of embryos. And I said, we really have to take three or four months off and work on raising the quality.

And so there was a lot that went into that. But the very next go around that she did, actually, she had three quality embryos and the one that got transferred stuck. So she was pregnant. So there are so many wonderful, so diminishing ovarian reserves you can, you know, people think that's impossible to treat, that's not impossible to treat. You know, PCOS, not impossible to treat. Recurrent miscarriage, I told you about the one, the woman who was, you know, having, using, that's exposing yourself to the phthalates from the adhesives. That's a, you know, that is, was an easy fix actually, get rid of the adhesives. And then she finally ended up not having it, those early losses. I had a 48 year old, this summer, man, who

actually was using just everything from all the toxic stuff, all the standard, you know, Dove and the really bad Tide wash and everything. You name it. So first big effort was, of course, to get rid of all of this. But the other thing, he was a VA and a veteran and his wife told me, God, he pops every four to six hours, either an ibuprofen or Tylenol because he has so much pain. That to me said, okay, there's something else going on. It's not just maybe that these toxins are affecting his sperm quality or we've got to

deal with this. So again, nutrition, I looked at all of his bio, like his biomarkers, his labs, tailored to nutrition and supplement protocol. And not only did he lose like 50 pounds in six weeks, which was unintended, I did not mean for him to lose weight, but just change the way he's eating and also the supplement protocol. But also in the end of the six weeks, he told me, I'm no longer using any ibuprofen or Tylenol. So it's not just like you start putting your body right he and I asked him, I said, did you try to diet?

Did you and he's like, I eat as much as I want. I just follow your rules. I'm like, good job. So, you know, it does work. I just think you have to be patient. The older women take longer. The time to conception is longer. It's you know, if you're over,

I would say over the age of 38, in my opinion, my clinical practice, it's not a matter of, you know, six weeks to three months, it takes a little longer. Could take six months, it could take seven months because the body has to heal, the body has to, there are more pieces of, you know, more wheels and that have to be put back. Are there some tests that I could do because I'm getting married in June and I'm already

40 and I turned 41 in September. I do not want to be pregnant before my wedding. And so I'm like really trying to time this out where after June it's a go and I'm hoping to be pregnant before I'm 41. So is there anything like I've done this clockwise fertility test and it was testing for like different... Yes, I know that's going very well. Oh yeah, that's right. That's how we got connected actually. I forgot. And for the most part, all of my levels were like really low. In fact, she said that it was one of the better tests that she's seen as far as toxic exposures,

which made me really happy. But there was one phthalate exposure that I haven't been able to figure out where it was coming from and who freaking knows, right? Which I need to do another one of those tests. But is there anything else I could be like testing right now? Because I want to make sure that when June comes around that I'm like ready to go, you know Okay, so when it comes to toxin testing that is about like, you know, there are different toxins like it there are myotoxins there's heavy metals toxins, but when it comes to toxin testing for ingredients and beauty and bath care, they're really only her test and then there's Million Marker's test. And the difference is that Million Marker will tell you the level as compared to like

everybody else. So your level is here and everybody else's level is here. So they'll tell you if it's high or low. But they only test for, you know, both these tests for like BPA, phthalates, parabens, and I think like that's it. They don't really test you for all the other things. There are a lot of tests that you could do. You know, your three day labs for, you know, see, and your day three labs for your, where

your hormones are at, your progesterone and estrogen and your luteal phase on day 21. You know, there's, there's a lot, are you ovulating every month? There's a lot within the world of fertility, within the world of ingredients. You don't really test, you look. You look. So I wish I could tell you, you know, like, you know, just do this, but the best just do this, I can tell you, you know, like, you know, just do this.

But the best just do this, I can tell you, is just go to my page, PregnancySafeCosmetics.com, click on the fertility program, fill out that short form, and I'll look at everything that you use, and I'll tell you. Or get my list of ingredients to avoid, and you can look per, you know, you can scan with the Yuka app, all your stuff,

and then look at anything the Yuka says is good. Look it up on my list and see if it's really good or not, or come talk to me. Beyond that, you know, how are your biomarkers for your, like, hemoglobin A1c? How is your homocysteine? How is your biomarkers for your hemoglobin A1c? How is your homocysteine? How is your fasting glucose? These are important on top of your AMH

and all of your day three labs and your progesterone and estrogen. And then that's just the beginning. And you go on, you can, how about your thyroid? You know, how about your testosterone? You know, these are, these are things that we can look at. And all those numbers look good, thankfully.

So, okay, well, I feel like this is a good time. This is a good place to end. I want to ask you a personal question. And then, and then at the end, you can drop where people can find you and all that, even though you've kind of already dropped that already. But what are your health non-negotiables? So these are things that no matter how crazy your week is that you prioritize for your

own health. Oh gosh. So I think eating enough protein is top. I think that it's really important for cellular health. So whether you're trying to get pregnant or no matter what. And I like to have, I know a lot of people would be like, you know, one gram per ideal weight, a pound or whatever. I like to make it more simple than that, at least 20 grams of protein breakfast, lunch, dinner. Also, you know, I believe in low carbohydrate diets, it doesn't have to be a keto, it doesn't have to be a carnivore. But the lower, you know, low processed, when it comes to your eating, you know, I do whole foods. I don't do processed foods.

Even my pasta I get fresh, you know, just and I think that's really really important for beauty and bath, of course, I use, you know, all my products are 98, 99 or 100 percent sort of like organic or natural ingredients, plant-based ingredients, certified, verified as such. Getting enough amount of sleep, walking every day is really important. These are the basics.

But yeah, I must walk between half an hour to an hour every day because I don't have a car. I live in France and I walk everywhere. So yeah, that makes a big difference. I don't know. So I know those are, those are, everyone says it. And I always kind of like, I don't know, I catch myself saying it.

I'm like, I hope I bet everyone's rolling their eyes at me because they're like, yeah, okay, you might as well have told me to drink more water. But the thing is like, their basic fundamentals. Yeah, outside of that, you've got to look at your, you know, it's health has to be tailored, right? There isn't one, you know, health regime outside of those basics that's going to fit everyone. You can't say this diet or this exercise regime or this, you know,

everyone's going to be different. So, so that's what I say. This has been so amazing. I think this is going to be really helpful for women. Please let them know. I know you've dropped this be really helpful for women. Please let them know. I know you've dropped this a couple times, but please let them know where they can find you because I'm sure a ton of women after listening to this are going to want to reach out and be like, what products do I use?

Is this safe? And yeah. So I will tell everyone to do two things. First go to Instagram and follow at Pregnancy Safe Cosmetics. And once you follow it, make sure you hit the following button after you've followed it and star me and add me to your favorites.

Because the minute I put anything instructional in a reel, Instagram just changed their algorithm or whatever. Instead of 3,000, I get like 20 views. It has to be purely informational, nothing like join this program or anything like that. And you don't see the really, you know, if I have a deal, if I have a Black Friday deal, there's nothing you just don't hear it. It's sad. So make sure you do that. The other thing is go to PrangcisafeCosmetics.com. If you're trying to conceive, click on the fertility program page, fill out the short form, make sure you tell me your address

and when you fill out the address, tell me like your estate please, because I don't wanna be, I called one woman in California and I thought it was later and it was really early, give me an indication of your time zone by giving me your state and city and then also make sure you leave your phone number and that first consultation, I look at your health.

I look at your picture. It's free. There's absolutely no reason not to do it. I'll tell you what you can do if you want to join the program. The bulk of your expenses will be actually just your safe swaps. And there's no reason not to. You know, I hope to roll out an app that anyone can use,

whether you're at a fertility clinic or not, that will help you through this, make this functional approach to toxin reduction inexpensive, and I just need a little time to get there. So those are the two things. And feel free to shoot me a message with questions on Instagram or through my contact us page

on pregnancysavecosmetics.com. When you're Googling it, don't Google the words pregnancy safe cosmetics, push them all together because otherwise you'll never find me as SEO nightmare. Because there's million articles on what's pregnancy safe cosmetics push them all together because otherwise you'll never find me as SEO nightmare Because there's million articles on what's pregnancy safe. We'll put the link in the show notes. Thank you so much. Thank you Thank you so much for listening to the real food ology podcast This is a wellness loud production produced by Drake Peterson and mixed by Mike fry theme song is by Georgie

You can watch the full video version of this podcast inside the Spotify app or on YouTube. As always, you can leave us a voicemail by clicking the link in our bio. And if you like this episode, please rate and review on your podcast app. For more shows by my team, go to wellnessloud.com. See you next time. The content of this show is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not a substitute for individual medical and mental health advice and doesn't constitute a provider patient relationship. I am a nutritionist, but I am not your nutritionist. As always, substitute for individual medical and mental health advice and doesn't constitute a provider-patient relationship. I am a nutritionist, but I am not your nutritionist.

As always, talk to your doctor or your health team first.