It is the Autumn Equinox, here in the Northern hemisphere.  
The sun lies briefly over the equator creating a moment of perfect balance where night and day are of equal length.
After today, the North Pole will tilt on its axis slightly forward, away from the sun, favouring the south pole for the better, warmer weather. Autumn will begin.

Today the astrological calendar moves from Virgo to Libra, the weighing scales, also representative of perfect balance.

If ever there was a period of time that could be represented with the image of Yin and Yang, it would be now. This time of year, also known as Mabon in the pagan calendar is a time of meloncholly and duality.  There is perfect balance between positive and negative... The fields are bare, but the larders are stocked. Harvest festivities are tinged with the sadness of the coming winter.  Animals are stocking up their food stores, ready for their big sleep, and many, like the female honey bee have reached the end of their life cycle and wither away.

In Greek mythology, this was the point where Persephone had to go down to the underworld for her three month stint with her husband Hades, much to her mother, Demeter`s dispair.  Demeter was the Goddess of the harvest and crop growing and in her anguish, she refused to use her powers over the winter until Persephone was returned to her.
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The image above shows Persephone and her pomegranate, for they were the food of the underworld.  They are also in season right now and are so good for male health, especially prostate care.  Unsweetened pomegranate juice makes a great tonic for keeping the prostate gland healthy.

Autumn comes with a noticeable energetic shift.  Not only do we see the shadows changing around us as the sun`s position alters over the forthcoming weeks, but mentally, Autumn can be a challenge as we adjust to the amount of seratonin that we make in response to the altered light levels.
​For this reason it is important to slow down and take care of ourselves.

It is a time to nourish ourselves not only with hearty soups and foods but mentally prepare and support ourselves with self care rituals that make us feel comforted. 
It is a time to adopt the scandanavian way of life and take great pleasure in all things cosy... candles, blankets, cosy pyjamas, wood burning stoves, favourite jumpers or whatever makes you rub your feet together with contentment.
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Physically, it is so important to start thinking about building and maintaining a healthy immune system.  One of the best and most effective ways of doing this is to supplement with Vitamin D.  
Here in the UK,our national health service recommends that every person supplements with Vitamin D, although this is not widely known.
During the winter, from around the 14th of October, the way that the earth tilts makes it physically impossible for the UVA rays to enter our skin in order to synthesise Vitamin D.  Hence the reason that coughs and colds begin through this time.  This period of lack of vitamin D will last until the spring solstice (roughly) so it is a long stretch.  
Please look into supplementing with vitamin D, especially if you are a person of colour as you are more vulnerable to having lower vitamin D levels.
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Other ways that you can really nourish your immune system are to look into reishi mushsrooms, which are available in capsule and tincture form as well as dried mushrooms.  They are an amazing immunostimulating tonic and are well worth using over the winter months.  Elderberry is also available in many forms and has an affinity for caring for the lungs in particular.  Garlic is a go - to supplement for our family at this time of year and Vitamin C is now more important than ever.
Eating wholesome, home cooked foods and soups will nourish you and your families, as will tasty teas.  I particularly like to use berries, citrus peel, thyme, calendula and ginger in my teas at this time of year.

There`s so much to enjoy during this first part of Autumn, that I call Libra Autumn, before the wet and windy Scorpio Autumn comes and knocks us sideways.  The weather is generally still mild and mother nature really puts on a show in the hedgerows.  Walk as much as you can and notice the small changes around you.  I have a holly tree at the bottom of my garden and I have watched the tiny buds turn to white flowers, to green berries and now they are a lovely orange colour before their deep ruby display over winter.  It is lovely to watch these small changes and really gives you a sense of belonging to the earth in a cyclical way.
Feasting with friends where everyone brings a dish is a great thing to do at this time of year and if you can do it outside before the weather turns, all the better... light a bonfire or a BBQ and enjoy these Libra evenings.
Planting bulbs is best at this time of year.  Maybe you could plant some miniature iris or daffs and have them inside to monitor their progress.  Hopefully they will bless you with a beautiful display over winter.
Eat pomegranates, make hedgerow jam, autumn wreaths and corn dollies.  Drink apple cider, donate food and plant a tree or a bush.
Children can enjoy leaf rubbing, nature crowns and all sorts of autumnal activities.
I`ve just brought our Libra Autumn books down out of the loft for my little girl to enjoy tonight.  Our particular favourites are:
Bramley Hedge - Autumn by Jill Barklem
Foggy Friday by Phyllis root
Harvest by Kris Waldherr
and my absolute favourite .... Wild Child by Lyn Plourde


So, a couple of questions for you to think about or journal over...
Is there anything that you would like to complete by the winter solstice?   
and
How can you practice self care over the darker months?

Stay well and happy,
Eve x
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Are you absorbing your iron?  Without enough iron, you will feel, well... pretty terrible.  Tiredness, fatigue, low mood, low endurance, pale skin, sore mouth, dizzy... the list goes on...

You could be eating platefuls of iron rich food, but not actually absorbing much of it.  Sound familiar? Read on...

Dietary sources of Iron can be categorised as Haem iron and Non- Haem iron.  

Good sources of Haem iron are: Red meat, organ meat, poultry, fish and shellfish
Non - Haem iron foods are plant based - broccoli, pumpkin, beetroot, nuts and seeds, dark green veggies, eggs, whole grains, legumes, dry fruits, tomato, guava, paw paw and citrus.

When haem iron is consumed (the meaty one), its absorption is much better than non-haem iron. Non-haem iron is less easily absorbed and its absorption is often affected by the other food components which are eaten alongside it.

Non- haem iron (plant based) provides the largest amount of dietary iron, but only an estimated 10 - 20% of non-haem iron is actually absorbed, because it is inhibited in its absorption by so much.

Phytates, oxylates and polyphenols all prevent non-haem iron from being absorbed.  Many “healthy” foods such as spinach, kale, beets, wheat bran, rhubarb, strawberries and nuts contain a high amount of oxylates.  

Polyphenols are found in apples, peppermint, herbal teas, spices, walnuts, blackberries, raspberries and blueberries along with cocoa.  Polyphenol rich food can reduce your iron absorption by an estimated 60%.

Phytates are found in walnuts, soy, almonds, sesame, beans, lentils, peas, cereals,  protein and fiber.  Phytates can reduce the absorption of iron by an estimated 50 - 60%.

Along with this, milk is also known to inhibit absorption of iron .
It has also been found that drinking polyphenol rich beverages within an hour of a meal will reduce the iron absorption of that meal by 79 - 94%.  This includes tea, coffee, red wine, cocoa and herbal tea.

This has an obvious impact on the average vegetarian/ vegan diet.  Whilst the raw constituents of a vegetarian or vegan diet looks to contain a huge amount of iron, the effect of the inhibitory components listed above has massive implications on iron absorption.

So what to do? You`re trying to be be healthy, but the healthy foods you are eating are inhibiting your iron absorption!  That`s annoying!

Mmmm... Don`t despair...


There are certain promoters of iron absorption.  Ascorbic acid (vitamin C) helps chelate the iron molecule, transporting it across the intestinal lining.  Squeezing lemon over food, or drinking freshly squeezed orange with a meal can help your iron absorption.  

You definitely want to avoid those dastardly polyphenol drinks and limit beverages with food to water, or freshly squeezed orange.  

Have some iron rich snacks away from other foods each day.  Cooked meats if you are a meat lover, or dried fruits are a good source for veggies.  cook some beetroot up and leave it in the fridge to snack on.  You can literally smell the iron in beetroot, it`s such a good source.

I would advise every vegan or vegetarian to take a mulitvitamin WITH minerals every day.  Look carefully at the nutrient information.  Multi vitamins are often just that ... vitamins.  You want the minerals alongside them.

I don`t advocate iron supplements unless you are under the guidance of a professional GP or nutritionist.  Unless you have had your iron tested, taking iron supplements on their own can be a dangerous thing to do. 

I thought I would share a really simple and traditional recipe for a great immune-boosting tonic to have to hand.  Although it has to sit for 6 weeks before you strain it, it`s worth doing, whether you have it ready for the school kids returning back to school or just to have to hand in 6 weeks time.  

You need a horseradish root - i just got mine with my online shop.... turmeric roots, ginger, chillies, garlic and an onion.  I add in cinnamon and echinacea root also. You need a really good quality apple cider vinegar and some honey when you are ready to strain it, to mix it into a vinegar/honey solution called an oxymel.  

This tonic is anti-viral, anti-bacterial, circulation stimulating and a great digestive tonic.  It`s great to take daily to keep you and your sinuses in good shape!  Horseradish is the ultimate sinus clearer!!  

So take a look and get chopping!! 

It`s March and there`s so much to see!
Out and about in the wild, there`s early edibles to be had and plenty to look at and admire.
Everywhere is full of potential and optimism in nature right now, from the beautiful daffodils to the edible leaf buds of my favourite tree - the Hawthorn.
If you would like to learn about what to look out for in nature and a little about what the UK wildlife is up to this month then have a watch.

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I`m a total nature geek.  Always have been... always will be! 
I think it comes from fond memories of my mum sending us out with empty egg boxes as kids and a list of things to find to put in them.  I also think it is in my genes, deeply encoded in the very fabric of my cells somewhere from hundreds of years ago. 

There`s something deeply satisfying and enriching from being out in nature.  It invigorates and soothes at the same time.  I remember when my little girl was a tiny baby and would get the typical tea time whingey hour... All I had to do was wrap her up and take her a walk around the garden.  I`d see her eyes relax as she watched the shapes of the trees blowing against the sky and within minutes, even seconds, she would calm down.

I don`t think that ever leaves you really.  There`s nothing like taking a warm, comforting drink outside on a sunny day when you are feeling overwhelmed or just need to have a break from it all.  

Back in June, last year, I decided to document what was happening around me in nature.  
I`ve always been fascinated by the small changes around me.  I tend to feel restless if I can`t connect with the cycles of the seasons.  I decided to make videos to record what I saw each month on my walks through our local area.  I gave myself the target of doing it for one calendar year.

I haven`t shared these videos on here yet, but I thought I would.  There is generally a lot of chatter from myself - sorry about that... I do tend to get enthusiastic about just about everything!   And there`s some pearls of wisdom about what you can forage from the land around you and how it can benefit you medicinally.

So here is February`s video... only 3 left for me to do until I have completed the year.  
If you are interested in the others, they are on my YouTube channel.
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There's so many quotes from Hippocrates, the father of medicine, that resonate deeply to those of us in the natural health field.  This one strikes a chord on so many levels with me.  

Professionally, this is what we see everyday in the field of natural medicine.  It`s what every naturopath`s ethos is all about. When we meet somebody struggling with their health and feeling depleted, it's what we are trying to get to the root cause of… what is it that is making this person sick? 

Is it a food intolerance?  Is it a hormonal imbalance? An inability to absorb nutrients efficiently for some reason?   

​Looking again at that quote, it goes deeper than that…

On a global level, the message is loud and clear.  There's too much unexplained illness that just wasn't there in the past in the numbers  that it is today. 

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Every year, in the UK, we have a fundraising programme called “stand up to Cancer”.  It's a worthwhile cause, but every time there is a commercial break we are faced with an infographic telling us in no uncertain terms that 1 in 2 of us will get cancer.  I can remember only two or three years ago, this number was 1 in 4.  What's going on?

I can't help but get so frustrated at this.  It feels like we are all being brainwashed to just accept this figure.  It's inevitable. Live with it… Except it's not!
Cancer is just one example.  The amount of autoimmune disease is massive across the world.  Not to mention diabetes, heart disease, alzheimers, autism… the list is endless.  

What is going on!?

Our bodies ability to detoxify the amount of toxicity we are faced with on an everyday scale just can't keep up with the demand.   Evolutionary, we just can't keep up.  ​

When your microbiome isn't as good as it should be, we get issues.  We can get eczema, infections down below, strep throat and many uncomfortable digestive related symptoms.  We can suffer with brain fog ( you know… that moment where you just can`t remember why you walked in to the kitchen and generally struggle to retain information) ​

In conclusion then,

You`ll be surprised by what a difference you can make to your life by getting your microbiome up to scratch and functioning strongly.  

The symptoms that restrict your life may have a root cause in the demise of your microbiome over time and can be turned around with a little self-nurturing.  

Avoid antibiotics wherever you possibly can and try to avoid your children having them unnecessarily.  
If you or your children need an antibiotic, supplement with a probiotic at the same time. 

Cut back on the sugars and stock up on healthy snacks.

Supplement with a good quality probiotic.

I`ve only just scratched the surface of a very complex subject here.  Look out for news articles in the press over the next decades about the use of probiotics and the microbiome in the treatment of serious diseases.  It's being heavily researched as we speak as scientists discover more amazing things about them every day.  

I wish you luck and send you love,
Eve x

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The earlier you start to prepare your body for future pregnancy, the better.  Even if babies aren`t on your agenda for the next ten years, if you know that you would like to raise children one day then you need to listen up and get your nutrients store tip top.
If you have recently come off of hormonal contraceptives then it`s even more important to pay attention.  Those pesky synthetic hormones have been studied to show that they are responsible for all sorts of minerals and vitamin depletions that are essential for fertility and a healthy pregnancy.
This advice isn`t just for your health or to achieve optimum fertility, but for the health of the baby you are going to bring in to this world.  Simply put, your baby is made of… well… YOU! 
What you have in your nutrient stores will affect the long- term health outcomes of the baby that you grow.  Ensuring that your body is well-nourished will help you to have the healthiest children that you possibly can.  
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It`s easier to stay nourished than fix deficiencies further along the line.  The amount of nutrients stored in your body up to a year in advance of pregnancy will affect the type of pregnancy that you have.

Here I go with my analogies again… think of baking a cake.  You need eggs, milk, flour and butter.  If you don`t get the mix right, your cake can flop, be a slushy mess or just taste pretty bad.
The cake is the baby (you`ve heard the old saying a ‘bun in the oven’ right?!)  and the ingredients are what you are using to grow this baby.  It needs to be right.
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Long-term nutrition will help to ensure that the child is neurologically as developed as possible, whilst also limiting the risks of autism, ADHD, obesity and heart disease amongst other conditions.  Your baby treats your nutrients as a pantry whilst it`s growing inside of you.  What you have stored up in your there will affect how much nutrition the baby will be able to extract from you.
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The other reason to plan ahead and replenish your nutrients is for your own sake.  Mother Nature knows that the most important thing is to focus on the procreation of humanity and will put the baby’s needs before the mother.  You are the lowest priority in her book.  The baby will get as much as it possibly can at the detriment of the mother, if you aren`t stocked up enough to provide for the both of you!
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This can mean that the baby will take vital nutrients and leave you very depleted after pregnancy.  Think about it… how many women have you heard say that they had no health problems until they`d had a baby? Sound familiar?
Pregnancy is very taxing on the mother and nutrient deficiency will show up in all sorts of chronic fatigue symptoms and autoimmune disorders post pregnancy.  

So if you have come off of birth control, or are just wanting to maximise your fertility, then read on…
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Zinc and Magnesium

Most of the population has far less magnesium and zinc in their diet than they should have.  Both of these two minerals are vital for achieving pregnancy, and maintaining it.
Magnesium is mostly found in plant matter and the amount that is consumed is far less than it should be.  That coupled with the fact that our soils are massively depleted in magnesium these days due to modern farming methods, puts most of us at risk of deficiency. Magnesium can be found in dark green leafy vegetables, nuts and seeds and whole meal grains.
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Zinc can be found most plentifully in shell fish, an acquired and expensive taste.  Not many of us will have a regular amount of oysters, muscles or clams each week.  Zinc is available in red meat and poultry and as a plant based option, in pumpkin seeds.  The problem is that plant based zinc is hard to absorb and so vegetarians and vegans are more at risk of a zinc deficiency and would benefit from supplementing.  If you are happy eating liver, then a piece of liver each week will offer you a great serving of zinc to meet your needs.
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​B6

It has been well-researched that contraceptive hormones deplete the body’s natural stores of B6.  B6 is needed for a regular cycle and for the development and functioning of the nervous system.  There has been research that suggests that  B6 might play a role in the prevention of pre-eclampsia in pregnancy.  It may also play its part in preventing pregnancy nausia.  B6 is available in lots of foods, including meat, poultry, starchy vegetables and non citrus fruits.  The problem is that unless you are eating a good amount of raw food then you are probably not getting enough as B6 is very sensitive to being heated in the process of cooking and becomes less viable.


Vitamin A and D
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Vitamin D is critically important in forming your baby’s bones, teeth, kidneys, heart and nervous system.  It helps us absorb the right amount of calcium and phosphate.
The problem with Vitamin D is that it is not readily available in food.  It is only in small amounts in certain foods (oily fish and eggs are one of the best sources).  We get most of our vitamin D from the sun but if you live in the Northern hemisphere like me, during October until March, it is almost impossible to absorb vitamin D, even on the sunniest of days.  This is due to the way that the earth tilts, blocking the amount of UVB rays that can actually reach us.


Vitamin A is essential for conception.  It is a fat soluble vitamin that is found in nutrient dense animal fats, especially liver, cod liver oil and egg yolks.  It is needed for fertility and for foetal development but be careful… once pregnant, excessive amounts of vitamin A can be damaging to the foetus, so always check with a professional regarding this vitamin.  Beta Carotene is the plant based version of vitamin A.  It is less absorbable than animal based vitamin A though, so again, vegans and vegetarians are at risk of deficiency and should consider supplementing.
Vitamin A and D work together as a team.  One without the other in adequate amounts will affect the absorption of its co-partner.  It is important to have both in your diet or supplement at the same time.
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Folate
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Folate is a type of B vitamin that your body needs to make DNA and other genetic material.  It also needs folate for your cells to divide and to make red and white blood cells in your bone marrow. During periods of rapid growth, it`s essential to have adequate amounts of folate.  This is especially true of pregnancy, both for the mother and the baby.
Folate is the food version of folic acid.  It is available in leafy green vegetables, lentils, eggs and certain fruits.  If possible, it is better to eat natural folate as certain individuals struggle to process folic acid and you may not know if this is you!  By all means supplement with folic acid but at the same time, increase your food sources of folate to cover your odds in case you are someone who can`t metabolise folic acid. 
 
If you aren`t getting regular cycles at the minute then one of the reasons may be that your body doesn`t perceive that you are ready for pregnancy.
If you haven`t got all the ingredients for the cake you are baking, you wouldn’t turn the oven on!  It`s the same principle.  Your body doesn`t want you to have an unhealthy pregnancy.  It wants to ensure the survival of the human race and wants to create a healthy offspring.  If its surveillance systems detect a lack of nutrition, then it won`t allow you to be fertile.
If you are in a place where your cycles are irregular or missing then I urge you to have a think about your diet, lifestyle, exercise habits, stresses and sleeping patterns and stock that pantry of yours up with as many nutrients as possible. 
It goes without saying that if you intend on taking any supplementation then you should seek the advice of a qualified professional first.
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​So many people I know, including myself, were given the hormonal contraception pill at a young age as a “catch all” remedy for problematic menstrual cycles.
It must be very frustrating as a G.P to know that possibly something deeper is going on with the hormones of the young girls sitting in front of them, but being unable to contravene the regulations they are given. 
Unfortunately, all over the world, the simple solution is to put the patient on the pill and hope that masking the symptoms will be enough.
This is so true for so many conditions… got reflux? Here – have a proton pump inhibitor pill to lower your stomach acid.  Got high blood pressure? – Here – take this to keep it down. 
Don`t you think that this is a bit like having an engine warning light flash up on the dashboard of your car and instead of getting the problem fixed, you put a bit of masking tape over the light so you can`t see it!

​As a 16 year old, this felt perfectly fine back then.  After all, we have been conditioned in so many ways not to question authority and certainly not a G.P.  My menstrual discomfort eased and my flow was so much lighter… life was peachy once again!
What I didn`t know and what young women and their mothers don`t realise is the darker side of being on the pill and hormonal contraception.
What I mean by hormonal contraception is anything that you take that contains synthetic (chemical) hormones to stop pregnancy occurring.  This isn`t just about the pill, but the now hugely-popular hormonal coil, contraceptive injection, implants, vaginal ring and hormone patch.

I was told and was lead to believe for many years that taking a hormone contraceptive tricked your body into thinking that it was pregnant.  This didn`t feel too bad to me at the time although as time went on over the next ten years of taking it, I did wonder if a ten –year pregnancy seemed ok!
It turns out that this information was completely wrong.
When you`re pregnant, your body continues to make its own beautiful hormones, just in a different way to when you`re not.
When you take hormonal contraception, your reproductive hormones are in a word – shut down. 

Your ovaries are closed for business.
 
Redundant.

​Forced to go to sleep…

​Usually, for a Very.Long.Time.

In fact, your own hormone levels that you produce are more closely akin to the way they would be in menopause.  The difference here would be that in Menopause, the hormones you produce are more beneficial to the rest of your body.
 So what`s the big deal?  Why does it matter so much that your ovaries are sleeping? Surely it`ll be ok if they just rest for a little bit?
Mmm… Here is where the problem lies. 
The Oestrogen and progesterone that you produce naturally are not only vital for your reproductive health but for the health of your organs, your mood, metabolism and your bones.  The chemical hormones that you are taking don`t have the same beneficial effect.  In fact, they have the opposite effect.  

​Your metabolism is slowed down and they actually deplete your body of essential nutrients and vitamins.  The worsened metabolic issues effect insulin resistance and before you know it, the vital communication system between the pituitary and the ovaries gets ‘stuck`.  Insulin resistance is something that a woman with PCOS really needs to avoid, so if you are on the pill because of PCOS, be extra careful with your diet.
 Many women suffer with depression and anxiety on hormonal contraception, due to not having their own oestrogen and progesterone which is so important for our mood.  It`s also so very common to suffer a loss of libido which kind of defeats the benefits of the contraceptive part of the prescription!
Over time, this communication system between the ovaries and pituitary really suffers and when you choose to come off of the pill, you are left to sort out the whole backlog of problems that have built up over time.
Think of it this way, if you left your car on your drive without starting it up or moving it in any way for over ten years, it`d have a few functioning problems when you finally put your key in the ignition and want to go somewhere! 

​After coming off of the pill, some women barely notice the shift and go on to regulate their menstrual cycle pretty quickly and successfully become pregnant.  Others (myself included in all of this) are not so lucky.
It can take a long time for those sleepy little ovaries to get going again.  The pituitary – ovary communication needs to get up and running.  The Ovaries need to start producing their own hormones once again and their function is a little rusty!  The body is depleted of certain B vitamins and nutrients and often there is a mineral imbalance that needs help, along with an imbalance of good and bad bacteria in the gut.
It can be really difficult getting your cycle regular again when you come off of the pill.  It can take around a year to get things normalising once again, and longer if you`ve had the contraception injection or implant.
One hormone may come back quicker than the other and an oestrogen dominant situation can arise.  Progesterone is vital for trying to conceive and maintain a pregnancy but is often not in balance with its co-partner - oestrogen.  

​It is vital to build up your body again after coming off of hormonal contraception, whether your cycles return regularly or not.  You might not realise it but your vital nutrients are probably depleted and need to be regained to grow that little human inside of you into a healthy person themselves. 
We strongly advise planning ahead and coming off of the pill a year in advance (at least) and thoroughly nourish yourself in that year before even trying to conceive.  Think of the car on the drive again… it`s probably going to need new brake pads and discs, a fresh batch of oil and goodness knows what else (mechanical knowledge ends here!)
Your body is the same.  A nutrient rich diet, low in sugar and stimulants, with plenty of saturated fats, minerals and vitamins.  Yes … I did say saturated fats!  That`s a whole different blog post though…
If you keep turning the key on that car that won`t start, you`re going to cause more problems… 
Trying to conceive when your body is nutritionally and hormonally weakened will feel very disappointing if you get negative test results month after month.  All that stress of going through that disappointment will cause further havoc on your adrenal glands and stress hormones will just complicate the whole tangle further, not to mention the stress that this can put on your relationship.
Wouldn`t it be better to get that car in good working order before you try to drive it? Take the pressure off of yourself and don`t even bother trying to conceive until you are in a better place physically.  

​So to wrap this up, what is my main message in this blog post?…

• Hormonal contraception is not harmless.  It can cause multiple problems for your fertility and reproductive hormone health.  Your G.P may tell you that you can take it right up to trying for a baby… It`s just not true. 
• If you want to try to have a baby, come off of the hormonal contraception at least a year in advance and do everything you can to build yourself up in nutrients and vitality once again before trying for a baby.

 
It`s a difficult decision to make and a journey that can be very bumpy.  I know… I`ve been there.
If you need any help navigating all of this then please reach out…I can help you.
Eve x

Many of us encounter some or all of the above regularly and it has exactly the same effect.  Your body will prioritise dealing with the situation that needs addressing and you will be living in a state of heightened adrenaline and cortisol, two hormones that you don`t want whizzing about in your body for too long because of their long term damaging effects on your health.

If you are not on any synthetic hormonal drugs (the birth control pill or the hormonal coil) your period will show you how you have been dealing with the previous month.   It is a really valuable tool for your naturopath to discuss with you to assess how things are going.  You can also be aware of this yourself and make changes to your lifestyle if you get a particularly uncomfortable bleed time.
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