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Hello everybody, it’s Dr. B and Elizabeth here, and we are excited to share with you some prenatal tips. How’s that? Or prenatal nutritional tips. Now you might’ve noticed that I didn’t say prenatal vitamin tips. Because we’re gonna hash those two little terms out. But anyway, Elizabeth is ready. Why is she dressed in her, not her Halloween wrong month, her Valentine’s Day clothes, is because I thought, well, Valentine’s Day is coming up and it’s the month of love.
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So we will start talking about some preconception, prenatal tidbits that might be appropriate for the month of love. So anyway, she’s going to go hang out, lay down, take a nap while we where we go over some fun things and she will be back after her nap time. Okay. So let’s talk prenatal vitamins slash nutrition.
And the reason I’m kind of being picky about those two terms or I want to hash those two terms out is okay. Month of December, I think it was, I got inundated with people upset worried, concerned about a paper that came out regarding prenatal vitamins and possible contaminants. So first of all, I want to go over that.
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They, they measured what they did was it was, Oh, I forgot the university. That did it, but they looked at arsenic, lead, and cadmium in 15 prescription prenatals and 26 over the counter prenatal supplements. And the, the, their results were a bit alarming. But hold on to that for just a minute, because just yesterday, I think it was I’ve got a subsequent piece of information regarding this paper that came out.
So, they showed alarming high rates of cadmium, lead, and arsenic in these different prenatal brands. They also measured two very important ingredients for prenatal nutrients, I should say, for the prenatal period. One was choline, and we’re going to dive into choline a little bit in a minute here, and one was iodine.
And what they showed is I think with regard to choline, Out of the all, all of them that measured 12 of them had labeled claims of having choline in their product. Not every prenatal will have choline in their product, but it’s a, it’s an extremely important nutrient. And we’ll get to that in a little bit.
Why? So of, excuse me, of all the products they looked at, I think 12 of them had a label claim of having choline in them. And some of them, I believe it was like seven of them had 20 percent or less. Coaling in the product than they had claimed on their label and five of them had overage. Now, let’s talk about under and overage.
And I can’t remember the exact details on the iodine, but the same thing. Some of them that claimed they had iodine in their product, some were over and some were under. So let’s talk about overage. When you do a supplement of any kind, normally they’re going to have the manufacturer is going to have an overage in the product.
And that is because of stability issues, shelf life, et cetera. So normally they will run a product. They don’t list it. And this is pretty much across the board on most supplements, whether it’s a probiotic or whatever, they will put more in the product than what is on the label. And it’s It’s not going to be a nutrient that is detrimental, that can cause issues if there’s an overage.
So please, everybody breathe on that. But they do that for a reason. So finding overage is not a big deal. It’s not unusual. Okay. Under not having enough claims, or enough what they claim, You know, that can be an issue, right? One, you’re, you’re paying for something you’re not getting. And two, we’re going to talk about just a few nutrients that I want to, I want to put out there as, as for why you want to specifically have the correct enough amounts of them.
Okay. So that study came out, I was getting inundated with messages and everything like, Oh my gosh, you know, what does this mean? And what prenatals are good? What, you know, dah, So, yesterday I get a paper and that paper has been pulled. It has been, it was rebuttaled. It was shown that the way that they tested the, the equipment they use, the model that they used, the way they tested these supplements was not to the standards of the way you would FDA standards and other standards.
The equipment you use is very important, the way you test nutrients. So they did not test it with the right equipment, the right lab values, etc. So that paper has been retracted. Okay. And the rebuttal was that The, the overall findings with regard to the the heavy metal concerns, it was in fact not over the limit that is deemed safe in a supplement, in a prenatal supplement.
Okay, so it has been retracted. Those levels are supposedly safe. in the range of considered safe for human consumption in the prenatal period for anybody in a human. Okay. Now the overage and underage, that’s another issue and that still needs to be hashed out. So now the difference between a prenatal supplement and nutrients, you know, that I’m using that’s kind of tiptoeing the line there.
It is extremely important that anybody pregnant or non pregnant women. people have a certain amount of key nutrients in their daily intake, whether that comes from a supplementation paradigm or nutrition paradigm. I often will maybe use, if I can, I use whole foods. I use superfoods. I use those things.
If I have a person that A, has good gut integrity, they have good stomach acid, they can break these things down, they can absorb them and they’re getting enough of them. If they’re eating the SAD diet, I’m sorry to tell you, they’re not going to get enough. It’s just not going to happen. Okay? So you’ve got to take the person into context.
How well is their microbiome? How well is there from mouth to anus and everything in between? Okay, how well is their functional integrity of their GI system? Are they getting enough? Are they eating good, clean, enough foods? So let’s take folate. Okay, folate has been well talked about. One, for neural tube defects, okay?
And oftentimes you see folic acid infused in different food. I wouldn’t call it food, but You know, canned, preserved foods in this country. We don’t want folic acid. That’s a whole other lecture for another time. But folate is important for neural tube defects. It’s important for methylation, biochemistry altogether.
It’s important for neurological development of the fetus. Folate’s got a lot of activities. We would want a pregnant mom. Now, remember during pregnancy, these, these nutrient values need to go up. We need to think higher. One thing to think about is most people are starting at a deficit basis to begin with.
Most people in the United States have a nutritional deficit, so the recommend daily allowance isn’t even enough to get them sometimes up to baseline, let alone a pregnant mom that needs even more. So keep these things in mind. Folate, anywhere between a thousand to twelve hundred micrograms ish is recommended during pregnancy.
A pregnant mama would need to eat 17 cups. of raw spinach a day to get those values. So you need to take into consideration if you want to use just high superfood food clean sources. That’s a lot of spinach a day. Okay, so think folate, foliage, dark green leafy vegetables, right? That’s a lot of raw dark green leafies a day that we would need that intake.
So think along those lines if you have a clean mama that’s getting a lot of that. Is she getting enough? Do you need a supplement? Do you not need a supplement? But obviously you want to supplement with a clean prenatal vitamin. To make up that gap, to reach that a thousand to 1200 micrograms a day. All right, following me.
And yes, you want L methylfolate or it might say six L methylfolate, but you want the methylfolate, not the flic acid form. Alright? So what you need to consider is when you have a person coming in take a good history, how much are they getting through a good nutritional diet? and maybe some other superfood supplementations versus how much maybe do you need to look at a potential of having a prenatal vitamin.
But most people in this country are nutrient deficient due to glyphosates in our foods, in our soil. A lot of key nutrients are being stripped. A lot of food now, not canned box processed food, but whole foods are deficient in nutrients. So just keep that in mind. So vitamin A, vitamin A is another one. And again, I’m just spot shotting a few.
I’m going to leave some of them out. So don’t everybody breathe. You know, I’m not going to cover iron. Iron is very much essential for neurodevelopment. So is iodine. We just don’t have time to go through all of them. I’m just spot shotting a few. Vitamin A, I’m spot shotting a few of the odd balls that maybe we don’t think about.
So we want a mixture of Pure vitamin A and mixed carotenoids, okay, for the most. So you want a total of 2, 200 ish milligrams a day for a pregnant mama. So one egg, one large egg is about 75 micrograms. So you’ve got a lot of food intake to meet those demands, right? Now you get. One tablespoon of cod liver oil, cod liver oil, and then you can meet those demands.
That’s about 4, 000 micrograms. So, you know, you can, you can look at different food sources there. What oral fascial there’s a big thing now in bio, bioidentical dentistry. Where they’re looking at that A, D, E, and K, vitamins A, D, E, and K during pregnancy, changing the craniofascial development.
So those of you that are in looking in the airway issues with kiddos, tots, things like that, this can, you know, be a key area that you want to look at. So you want to make sure you’ve got enough A, D, E, and K and just take a look at A, how much do they have to intake in a food source in order to make sure they’re getting It’s a lot.
So, delayed growth, heart, vision, those are things that are associated with vitamin A. Let’s look at vitamin D. At least 2, 000 IU’s of vitamin D, depending where you live. There have been some studies in the world of autism, that there’s higher rates of autism in kiddos that are born in the winter months.
One of their theories is it’s because low vitamin D sources. So, minimum of 2, 000 IU’s of vitamin D. Vitamin D is associated with miscarriages, C sections, preeclampsia in mama, thyroid issues. Thyroid, maternal thyroid health is huge in neurodevelopment of the offspring. A lot of connections with poor maternal thyroid health and poor neurodevelopment and autism in the offspring.
So, asthma. Asthma is another one in the offspring. Asthma and allergies, low vitamin D in mama, higher rates of language delay, asthma, allergies in the offspring. Vitamin B1, one you might not think about a lot. You want at least six milligrams a day. Vitamin B one thiamine in the pregnant mama. The cardiovascular system, the nervous system, gestational diabetes, preterm birth, low birth weight, preterm birth, and low birth.
Birth weight are the two most studied factors in the, in the literature now in neurodevelopment, neuropsychology, neuropsychiatry, neuroscience, preterm birth, and low birth weight are, the two most studied factors for the neurobiology of disease, for the rest of the life. Physical, mental, emotional health for the rest of the life of the offspring.
So you can see how these nutrients are so key in, in, in the prenatal period, B two riboflavin big and preeclampsia immune system, thyroid issues. You want two to two and a half milligrams a day of B two. An example of B two again is eggs. One egg is only 0. 25 micrograms, right? Almonds, a handful of almonds is three excuse me.
Eggs are 0. 25 milligrams. A handful of almonds is 0. 3 milligrams of riboflavin. So again, are they getting enough food sources in their diet to get to those levels that you really need for optimum health of the mom and the offspring? B6, 10 to 25 milligrams. The B6 is very much associated with helping with nausea.
During pregnancy, but you need the higher end. The higher end has shown about 2025 milligrams of B six is shown to help with nausea, so you gotta make sure they’re getting that level. Again, preeclampsia, low birth weight, preterm birth, these are all key factors associated with key nutrients. All right.
Cleft palate, midline defects. Again, B6. So again, we’re looking at midline defects. Those of you in the TOTS world, you know, you can put some of that into play there. It’s not just about folate. Again, we talked about folate. And folate is one of the gateway nutrients into the entire methylation cycle.
And we know that remember different genes are getting methylated during neurodevelopment. So maybe it’s a key gene, what we call the Shank3 gene, that’s associated with autism. If it’s, if it’s not methylated properly, it can lead to potential autism risks. Now I want to get to choline. I am, so the study that we refer to, which they, they looked at choline.
Choline is one of my big my big loves. Okay. Choline is needed to make cell wall membranes for mom, baby, and placenta during pregnancy. Okay. Low choline is associated with a lot, again, cell wall membrane synthesis or leakage. And that’s when we see a lot of chemical sensitivities and overall allergies and just overall health issues.
Choline is extremely important in the neural development of the fetus, especially sensory processing, sensory the sensory speed, processing speed, very much looked at. very much. with regard to sensory motor development in the offspring. Choline is a precursor to acetylcholine, which is A, a key neurotransmitter that regulates vagal tone, vagal tones associated with acetylcholine.
So this is a big, big kahuna choline, especially in the second and third trimester, has up to 980 milligrams has been shown to be optimal, but no less than 600 milligrams. That’s, that is very, this is a very significant key nutrient. So A, you want to look, if you’re using a prenatal source, that it does have choline in it, and it’s got a substantial amount.
B, if they’re not using a prenatal vitamin or they’re using a prenatal vitamin that doesn’t have choline in it, how can you get that choline level up? I cannot understate how important this nutrient is. Again, it’s, it is a major methyl donor. Thank you Choline is a major methyl donor. I won’t get into all that.
You would need one egg. One egg is 125 milligrams. Okay. Three ounces of cooked chicken liver, liver is 247 milligrams. And we need to get those counts up to the optimum to be 980 ish in that second and third trimester. So bottom line,
treat the individual person. If you have six months to a year of preconception care, you have that cushion. That’s amazing because it takes time for people to change their, their ways, their habits from eating sad food, standard American diet, processed preserved foods to eating a whole diet. That’s very hard to do when they come in and they just found out and they’re six weeks pregnant or 12 weeks pregnant, okay?
So try to change that tide as early as you can if you have that leisure to do that. B, if you’re using just food sources, make sure that they’re getting high enough levels and that they are, they have a good gut integrity. to absorb, break down and utilize those. You also have to, even if you’re using a supplement, a prenatal supplement, you also need to make sure that they have good gut integrity and that they are utilizing and breaking down the substrates and absorbing them.
So a good digestive enzymes and probiotics is another key consideration and making sure they have good gut integrity. So hopefully that helps just shine some light, but gets you thinking. about treating people on an individual basis and how can you best support each individual pregnant person in order for them to get those nutrients up to the values that they need for optimal health for mom and neurodevelopment for baby.
So again, hopefully that helps. And Elizabeth wants to wish you a happy, happy January in the best of 2025. And we’re looking forward to seeing you next month in the month of love. And until then ChiroSecure, thank you for giving us this opportunity to spread some information and help turn the tide for healthy generations to come.
We’ll see you in February. Today’s pediatrics show, Look to the Children, was brought to you by ChiroSecure.
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