See the full transcript below.

Oh my goodness. Hello. I think I'm finally live. There was some technical difficulties over here. Anyway, here I am. I'm very excited to be here with all of you as always. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much for joining me. I am Aimee Raupp of aimeeraupp.com. I am the author of a handful of books that are all behind me minus this one, my very first baby, Chill Out and Get Healthy. My most recent book that just came out and is topping the bestseller list in women's health and infertility and in the endometriosis is called The Egg Quality Diet. If you guys are interested in anything anti-inflammatory and gut healing for your fertility journey, this is the book for you. On that topic, I actually, today we want to talk about gut health, gut dysbiosis, what that actually means, what it can look like, and how it can impact your fertility.

If any of you have ever had a doctor, like one of your medical doctors, one of your fertility doctors tell you that diet has nothing to do with your fertility or tell you that supplements don't really help or that it's all just age-related and that's it and that's what you're given, they're not up on their research. You are now going to be more educated than some of your physicians when listening to this video, this live that I'm doing right now for all of you. There is some really fascinating research. One article that I want to start off after I define gut dysbiosis and tell you what it can look like in your body. This one article came out in the medical journal genes, and it was published in April of 2021. It is a brand new article. The title of the article is, Unraveling the Balance between Genes, Microbe, which is basically your gut bacteria, Lifestyle and the Environment to Improve Healthy Reproduction.

Again, for any of you out there that have been told by your physicians, by your doctors, by other healthcare practitioners that you work with, by your friends, that age is the only factor impacting your egg quality, your ability to get and stay pregnant. That diet can't improve things, that supplements can't improve things, that lifestyle changes can't improve things, or any of you are in doubt. I am here to tell you right now that the research shows us otherwise. I want to also share with you that before I became a practitioner of Traditional Chinese Medicine, I was a research scientist. Research is a thing for me and I really enjoy it. I love educating and empowering all of you so that you have the tools to take back the power over your health, your fertility, and that you don't feel so frozen by these diagnoses.

First, what is gut dysbiosis? I want to read from my book, Body Belief, because I'd go into great detail about it. I also talk about it in The Egg Quality Diet, but I thought I would read from Body Belief because this is the book I wrote all about autoimmunity and inflammation, emotional inflammation and physical inflammation. This is the book that really turned my brain on in an interesting way as it pertains to fertility and to start looking at fertility. You know, I've always looked at fertility as an extension of health. I've been saying that for 20 years, no difference there. I've been talking about epigenetics and the environment and its impact on our health for over 15 years. It was written about in my very first book, which came out in 2010. None of that is new information for me and for any of you that have been with me along this ride. The information just keeps building and building upon itself.

The discovery I made when writing, Yes, You Can Get Pregnant, which is another one of my bestselling books in the space of fertility was that there's a lot of women with unexplained infertility that have inflammatory and or undiagnosed autoimmune conditions that is contributing to their fertility challenges. Guess what you need to do to manage inflammation and or autoimmune conditions, heal the gut. Let's talk about the gut. Let's talk about, 70% of your immune system is in the tissues surrounding your gastrointestinal tract. Since it regularly interacts with the external environment through the foods you eat, the beverages you drink, and anything else you put in your mouth, a large part of your immune system is in your stomach, small intestine and large intestine.

Autoimmune, and I will add to this, inflammatory disease research shows that the loss of the protective function of the mucosal barriers that interact with the environment, mainly the gastrointestinal lining is necessary for autoimmunity to develop. We know that autoimmunity, so there's the no single research study on an autoimmune disease, so autoimmunity can be things like Hashimoto's, thyroiditis, which is a really common one, celiac disease, Crohn's disease, rheumatoid arthritis. Endometriosis has very similar autoimmune characteristics, so does polycystic ovarian syndrome. We know for a fact from the science, from the research, not a single autoimmune case that has been researched shows a healthy gut lining. It all shows that this protective barrier has been compromised. Let's go on. Loss of the protective function of the mucosal barriers that interact with the environment, mainly through the gastrointestinal lining, is necessary for autoimmunity to develop.

The autoimmune process can be arrested if the interplay between genes and environmental triggers is prevented by re-establishing the intestinal barrier function. What this means is that the lining of the GI tract is compromised in an autoimmune disease and in an inflammatory condition. In order to heal, it must be fixed through dietary changes. This condition is called interstitial permeability, also known as leaky gut. Just as your skin is a barrier to the outside world, the lining of your intestines is a barrier within your body to the outside world. In a perfectly healthy body, what goes into your intestinal tract and is broken down into usable components by dozens of enzymes, acids and friendly bacteria, that's the microbiome, the microbes, they all assist in you breaking down digesting your food. Once most of the food is broken down, it's moved to certain cells from inside your intestinal track to areas throughout your body so that you can receive nutrition.

The food that's not broken down into its simplest components gets excreted as waste in the form of poop and pee. In a body with autoimmunity or severe inflammation and inflammatory condition like endometriosis, the science shows that the intestinal barrier gets leaky, leaky. Picture like fishnet stockings that get really stretched out and the food particles can now go through that intestinal barrier, get into your bloodstream causing an autoimmune/inflammatory response. When the barrier gets leaky, food particles and other substances that were in your food like bacteria, toxic pesticides, non-food foods like high fructose corn syrup, just saying, like yellow dye, number 74, whatever, that normally would be excreted, it gets absorbed into your body. A leaky gut has been present in every single autoimmune condition that has been tested. These are all research I'm quoting. Certain foods in your diet, particularly ones like glutenous grains, beans. Yes, every kind of bean, nightshade vegetables seem to cause the gastrointestinal lining to become leaky.

You guys all know gluten, dairy, soy. Did you know about beans? Did you know about nightshades? There's research. Again, I'm reading from my book, Body Belief. If you want to know more about the research, please go to Body Belief and see the citations. The other thing that comes up a lot is how do I know if I have leaky gut or intestinal permeability or digestive disorder? What I want to go to is the kinks in your body questionnaire that I talk about in The Egg Quality Diet. I also want to stay around because I have something that I want to share with you guys towards the end about how I can really support you in healing your gut. Not just through following and reading this book as it pertains to fertility, but that I have a special program that I can really come in and help you jumpstart the gut healing process. What's considered a nightshade? They're all listed out, but the big ones are eggplant, tomato, peppers, all peppers.

You don't have to have gut issues like gas, bloating, diarrhea, constipation to maybe have leaky gut, intestinal permeability, gut dysbiosis that's impacting your ability to get and stay pregnant. You could have acne. You could have allergies. You could have anemia, anxiety, asthma, body rashes, brain fog, bruise easily, colds that you get them very easily. Cold hands and feet, cold sores, dark circles under your eyes, depression, dermatitis, difficulty concentrating, difficulty sleeping, dizziness, dry hair, dry brittle nails, dry skin, easy weight changes, eczema, excessive nasal mucus, fatigue, groggy even after a full night sleep, floaters in your eye, frequent throat clearing. It's a huge one. Generally just feeling really tired, symptoms of anxiety, heart palpitations, chest tightness, thinning hair, hot flashes, intense PMS can be a sign of gut dysbiosis. You want to know why? Because if the gut is leaky, guess what? Guess what a big job of the gut is? It's called the estrobolome. I will read about it a little bit for you.

A big job in the gut is helping your body synthesize estrogen and progesterone. Guess what? Hormonal imbalances are linked to gut dysbiosis, gut challenges. If you want to fix your hormone issues, you got to fix your gut. You got to fix your gut by changing your diet. Joint pain, itchy, watery eyes, joint swelling, mood swings, multiple miscarriages. Guess what? There is a strong autoimmune link to multiple miscarriages. Muscle stiffness, nasal congestion, persistent cough. Anyway, red bumps on the face, reflux, swollen eyes, swollen lips, thirst, thyroid issues, trouble remembering things, trouble with balance and coordination. There's a whole list in this book. When you do The Egg Quality Diet, I encourage you to print out this kinks in your body questionnaire and you fill it on every single week and you see how your symptoms are changing. That'll tell us that autoimmunity/inflammation is actually getting better.

A body that has a managed autoimmune system and less inflammation, guess what, is going to be a hell of a lot more fertile. I want to read to you. I have two articles that I pulled up that I think are really, really, really helpful and fascinating. I can also link out to these for you, for you research nerds like myself. Estrogen's role in fertility. We know estrogen plays a big role. I want to talk about your gut. Microbiome contains many different microorganisms and their genetic material which occupy your intestines. Within this diverse ecosystem in your gut resides a specific group of microbes, of bacteria, capable of metabolizing estrogen. It is called the estrobolome. The estrobolome gut bacteria are able to regulate estrogen through the secretion of beta-glucuronidase. I don't want to get too into it, but it's a specific enzyme that helps your body metabolize and manage estrogen in the body.

Studies show that when this process is impaired through gut dysbiosis, through an unhealthy gut lining, it can alter estrogen homeostasis leading to either a decrease or an increase in estrogen. Things that can imbalance the gut bacteria and impact estrogen are antibiotics and acids, NSAIDs, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medications, a diet high in sugar, processed foods, gluten, chronic stress, alcohol, environmental toxins and pesticides. Other gut related issues in probing fertility, which is what I talk a lot about is that you guys are spending a shit ton of money on your supplements, on all your antioxidants. Guess what? If you're not digesting your nutrition, you're not absorbing those supplements. You are nutrient deficient. You might be eating a diet every day. You might be eating the things that you think are supportive to your fertility, but if your gut is compromised, you're not absorbing that nutrition so your body thinks it's starved.

Your body tells you symptoms in an inflammatory state. It says, oh, I have eczema. Oh, I have rosacea. Oh, I have peeling. My hair is falling out. I'm cold all the time. I feel exhausted all the time even after sleeping eight hours. I have headaches and joint pain. Your body is speaking to you. Something you are doing is not working. You are not absorbing your nutrition, thereby you are not absorbing your supplements. You got to go in and fix and heal your gut. We know for sure, like I said, leaky gut or intestinal permeability is directly linked to autoimmune conditions. Now I want to go into this article, Unraveling the Balance between Genes, Microbes, Lifestyle and the Environment to Improve Healthy Reproduction. Like I said, I will put this link in the, I was going to say show notes because I'm on so many podcasts these days. Put this link in the show notes. I'm going to put this link under the video on both Facebook and Instagram so you guys can actually see the research yourself.

If you ever have someone say to you that gut health has nothing to do with fertility, you can shove this article in their face. Okay. What I wanted to do, because I think it's so potent is actually redo the abstract from this article. Human health is the result of a complex and balanced interplay between genetic factors, environmental stimuli, lifestyle habits, and the microbiome. The knowledge about their single contributions, as well as the complex network linking each of these together is pivotal to understand the mechanism underlying the onset of many diseases and can provide key information for their prevention, diagnosis and therapy. This applies also to reproduction. Reproduction, involving almost 10% of our genetic code is one of the most critical human functions and is a key element to assess the well-being of a population. Guys, if we can't reproduce, we're saying something. We're not healthy enough to bring on offspring. No judgment. We can fix this.

I want you to think about this on a global scale, that this isn't just about your estrogen or your ovarian reserve. This is a much bigger picture. Your body is asking for help. The last decades revealed a progressive decline of reproductive outcomes worldwide. As a consequence, there is growing interest in the unveiling role of different factors involved in human reproduction and great efforts have been carried out to improve its outcomes. As for many other diseases, it is now clear that the interplay between the underlying genetics and our commensal microbiome, so the microbiome living in our intestines and our whole body, the lifestyle habits and the environment we live in can either exacerbate the outcome or mitigate the adverse effects. Basically what I've been talking about for 20 years, how you live your life directly impacts your health and your fertility.

The foods you eat, how you sleep, the exercise, the relationships you keep, the products you put on your skin, hair, nails, the thoughts you think, all come together and either help your fertility or hurt your fertility. Your microbiome, your gut health is intricate in all of this. I want to go on to, there's a lot of talk in this article about different genes that impact fertility, lifestyle. There's a ton about genetic diseases. I'm not going to read that. It's really not for the faint of heart. It really is for the kind of research scientists in you. What I want to talk about. Autoimmunity, this article then gets into autoimmunity. Autoimmune diseases are characterized by multi-system involvement and a mounting body of evidence points at their impact on both fertility and pregnancy. Autoimmune diseases are easily overlooked as they can be clinically silent or present with non-specific symptoms and continue to remain undiagnosed until a severe complication is encountered.

This is exactly what I discovered in my research for, Yes, You Can Get Pregnant, and then my research for Body Belief, and then my research for The Egg Quality Diet, is many women dealing with unexplained infertility actually have an undiagnosed, mismanaged, autoimmune condition or inflammatory condition. A lot of you guys are requesting to join live. This is not one of my hot seats, so I'm not bringing anybody online with me right now. Just listen. This is for your listening education. Autoimmune diseases affect different stages of the female fertility, such as ovarian reserve, fertilization and implantation. Autoimmune diseases impact such things as ovarian reserve, fertilization, implantation. 10 to 30% of women diagnosed with premature ovarian failure actually have an autoimmune condition. Now this is 10 to 30% of women who actually get the diagnosis of premature ovarian failure. Do you know how many women out there are walking around don't have a diagnosis, have no idea that a chronic autoimmune inflammatory condition is impacting their ovarian reserve?

How many women are told that they have premature ovarian failure or insufficiency and just give up and move on, which God bless. I mean, there's a million ways to make babies and I support all of them. But if you knew that it actually had an autoimmune component and an inflammatory component, and that if you change your diet and healed your gut, you could improve your ovarian reserve. That's what the science is showing us, guys. You can change your ovarian reserve when you heal your gut. When you heal from an autoimmune disease or an inflammatory condition, that's mind blowing guys. I hope you take that in. In these disorders, autoantibodies are produced against steroid-producing cells, blah, blah, blah, resulting in basically an attack on the ovarian cells. Autoimmune thyroid disease we know is strongly linked to… Oh my God. My computer is frozen again. I think it's this one. My mouse keeps getting frozen. This is why it took me so long to get on.

I think it's this one article that's got all these pop-ups. I think it's crushing my computer. Let's see. Autoimmune mechanisms have also been described in endometriosis, a well-known condition associated with infertility. Indeed IgG antibodies are impacting the implantation process. Similarly, antiphospholipid antibodies also affect implantation, placenta development, and early embryonic development, thus impairing fertility. Then type 1 diabetes, which is another autoimmune disease has been associated with polycystic ovarian syndrome. Again, all this research is actually in Yes, You Can Get Pregnant as well. Autoimmune diseases impact pregnancy outcomes and recurrent pregnancy loss. There is so much research connecting all of the dots and we know autoimmune diseases are linked to intestinal permeability. Gut health is the root of all of this. Now get into the microbiome. A growing body of evidence suggests that the critical role of microbes in the acquisition and maintenance of human health.

According to, I want to just get to reproduction. In this scenario, role of the microbiota in human reproduction has emerged. In particular, the semen, so sperm health, microbiotic composition has been related to altered sperm cells motility, hyperviscosity, azoospermia, so lack of sperm, and DNA fragmentation. Indeed, microbes can exert dangerous effect on sperm cells. Using different mechanisms is important to underline that semen microbiota has shown a high interindividual variability among healthy donors. Several factors including geographical location, diet, age, hygiene practices are impacting this microbiota. Similarly, the female reproductive system microbiota has been related to fertility, pregnancy establishment and maintenance. Several studies have assessed that infertile women harbor a different microbiota in the upper and lower reproductive system compared to fertile women.

The female reproductive system microbiota can influence women's health and through the transmission of microbes between partners. So you are transferring microbiota whenever you have sex with your partner, if you're in a heterosexual relationship. Keep that in mind. It impacts health and fertility. It is crucial to have a proper assessment of the couple's fertility status. Based on all the above, it became crucial to understand what are the factors able to modify microbiomes. Then it goes on to talk about lactobacillus, vaginal assessment, which I highly recommend in endometrial biopsy to assess for endometritis or another bacterial infection in the uterus, especially before you go and do an IVF transfer. Restoring a more physiological situation in the microbiome is of increasing interest. The use of probiotics can help. Prebiotics can help. Then they get into environmental factors and how they're impacting gut dysbiosis, autoimmunity, and your genetics. All of which I talk about so much ad nauseam, I feel like.

Especially, I talk about it a lot in The Egg Quality Diet and what you can do. The one thing I say too in The Egg Quality Diet, and I just did my really fun realignment yesterday on Instagram, if you guys haven't watched that is I want to just read it to you. The general paleo or Mediterranean fertility diet doesn't help all women. There are three reasons why this is happening. It can be too general, leaving room for error. Many of the women don't get the right macro nutrients, which we've been talking a lot about. Many of the women have gone gluten-free and eat too many packaged processed gluten-free foods. Many of the women following these diets are still suffering from inflammatory symptoms. Most of these diets do not take into account gut dysbiosis and its impact on nutritional deficiencies. And none of these diets except for this copy are elimination diets. None of these diets except for this copy are elimination diets.

Elimination might sound scary to you, but it's really doable. There's probably I'd say 30 to 40 intense days and then you start to cruise. You start to feel good. The symptoms in your body starts to shift. Your gut starts to heal. Your immune system starts to regulate. You start to absorb your nutrition. Your cells are happier. Guess what happens when your cells are happier, you start making healthier, quality eggs. Guess what else happens? Your uterus becomes a more hospitable environment. Your microbiome heals. Gut dysbiosis begins to heal. You become more fertile. If you have been trying to get pregnant and it is not working, you need to explore this diet. I also have a chapter in here about how inflammation impacts your fertility. I give you on the next page to help clarify inflammation, but let's see. This is how you know, you've been trying to conceive for two or more years without success, inflammation, gut dysbiosis is impacting your fertility.

You've had more than one miscarriage without a live birth in between, autoimmunity and inflammation are definitely impacting your ability to get and stay pregnant. You have a diagnosed autoimmune condition like Hashimoto's, rheumatoid, celiac. You've been diagnosed with endometriosis, PCOS, POI. You have more than one copy, one or more copy, sorry, of the MTHFR gene. You have the COMT gene, the IL-6. These are all overcomplicated. This article that I'm going to share the link to also goes into it. Basically these genes, these genetic snips, they're called disable your body's ability to absorb nutrition and to best utilize it, and to then to detox the body. Your body doesn't detox. Guess what? Your cells become toxic. They age faster than they need to. Your body becomes hyper aware and almost like a hyper immune system. It does not want to allow a pregnancy. It doesn't feel healthy enough.

You've had repeated failed IVFs even with genetically tested embryos. That is a huge sign to me that the uterine environment is not hospitable. There's probably a microbiome issue. There's definitely an inflammatory issue. It needs to be addressed. Do not keep doing transfers with genetically healthy embryos without trying something new. Definitely get an endometrial biopsy for endometritis. You can't seem to get any genetically normal embryos or your embryos don't mature to the blastocyst stage. Another sign that inflammation gut dysbiosis is impacting your fertility. I promised you I would have a way to help you guys at the end of this. The first way is this, go get this book, follow it, do it. You deserve it. It's a hundred days of your life. It will radically change your life. I don't want to make any guarantees, but if you follow this and if you dedicate yourself to it, you will see radical changes in your health, in your body, and my hope is ultimately your fertility and your fertility outcomes.

I am hosting a program that kicks off on July 5th. It's called my Fertility Reboot 2.0. It's a 30-day mindbody program that is going to help guide you through the first 30 days of this program. It's going to be really helpful for you to implement all the changes. If you're feeling scared or overwhelmed, you're going to get a community of women there to support you. You get the guidance and support from me. You get weekly group coaching calls from me. We address not just the physical aspects and the nutritional aspects, but we talk a lot about the mental, emotional blocks, the emotional inflammation that can be impacting your fertility. You get so much with this program. It is highly recommended that you have a copy of the book for the program. I think it's actually imperative. It's like reading for a college course.

If you want to truly succeed, you need a copy of this book. I think even deeper, you can get a copy of all of my books and really, really take it home. It's called the Fertility Reboot 2.0. You can check it out at aimeeraupp.com/fertilityreboot. Signups end on Saturday. Space is limited. You want to get in there. If you are in my Facebook group, my secret, Yes, You Can Get Pregnant e-course group and this is of interest to you, please reach out to us because anybody who's in my group, if you're a clinic patient, you get a special discount. Reach out to us. If you guys are already in my fold and have worked with me in the clinic or in my e-course, you get a special discount. Please reach out to us on that. Otherwise, aimeeraupp.com/fertilityreboot. Check it out.

I hope to see you all there because I get to actually walk you through the first 30 days of a really radical dietary gut healing shift for your body. We know now, the science is very clear that these factors are all impacting fertility, and so it's on you. I highly encourage you to do a deeper dive into how your gut health, your overall health is impacting your fertility and how all of these changes together, diet, lifestyle, mindset, your genetics, supporting your genetics in the right way. Also, when you get The Egg Quality Diet, know that there is a resources page that goes along with it with a ton of information. I curated the best of the best of my stuff, but I also have additional reading if you want to get into reading on genetics or autoimmunity and how it could impact things. All the reading I did, I basically am sharing with you. You guys can go and do your own research, but if you want help, if you want me to support you for 30 days while you figure out this diet and dive into it, join up for the Fertility Reboot 2.0.

I will see you guys, hopefully in the reboot. It kicks off next week. There's a secret, special community that goes with it so you're going to get a lot of support from like-minded women who are going through this with you. Again, I'm going to post the article link under the video so you guys can go and look at the research as well. Wishing you all the best. Remember, it starts in the gut, all starts in the gut. Love you guys. Have a great day. All right. Let me see if I can end this on Facebook because my mouse is not working very well. Okay.

End transcript.

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