Dear Infertility _Season 5_Ep3_Christina Burns: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

Dear Infertility _Season 5_Ep3_Christina Burns: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.

Kristyn Hodgdon:
Hi, I'm Kristyn Hodgdon, an IVF mom, proud women's health advocate, and co-founder of Rescripted. Welcome to Dear (In)fertility. This season join me along with a variety of women's health experts as we explore holistic approaches to our reproductive, hormonal, sexual, mental, and overall health and wellness. From the practice of cycle syncing to the importance of pelvic floor therapy, we'll address some of the many questions women have about their bodies and share practical tips for improving your day-to-day life. Now, let's dive in and work towards ending the shame and stigma surrounding women's bodies once and for all, from first period to last period.

Kristyn Hodgdon:
Hi, everyone, and welcome back to Dear Infertility. I'm your host, Kristyn, and I'm here today with Dr. Christina Burns. Hi, Christina!

Dr. Christina Burns:
Hi! Thanks for having me.

Kristyn Hodgdon:
Of course, so excited to chat with you again. Dr. Christina Burns is the founder of Naturna, a naturopath, a doctor of Chinese medicine, host of the Fertility in Focus podcast, and author of The Ultimate Fertility Guidebook. Naturna is an integrative health center based in New York City, dedicated to comprehensive fusion of Eastern medicine and Western science. Christina has over 18 years of clinical practice empowering women and men to achieve their optimal life and health goals through natural medicine practices, informed integrative nutrition, lifestyle management, and personalized mind-body programs. That's an amazing bio, I'm so happy to have you here to talk about all things acupuncture, Chinese medicine, herbs, supplements, you name it.

Dr. Christina Burns:
That's my jam. My favorite topic.

Kristyn Hodgdon:
Amazing. So we were speaking a little bit before we started recording, but I've been saying on each episode, I'm on my own holistic fertility journey after a year and a half of failed embryo transfers, and I've always been a big fan of acupuncture, I credit it with giving me my twins, alongside IVF, was really dedicated to that. My first time around, I will say, I wasn't as regular with it this past time around, just because I have two little ones, but I always went on the day of transfer, I will say that. I really believe in that. But now I've been going pretty consistently for about two months and loving it and pretty much consistently falling asleep on the table and thinking of it as my mindfulness time, if nothing else, but I know there are so many benefits. So can you just tell us, how did you get into this field, and why are you so passionate about women's health and fertility?

Dr. Christina Burns:
Sure! So when I was a teenager, I got hit with pretty hard-core hormonal issues. I had terrible cystic acne, mood problems, and I had trouble controlling my weight, and the doctors always just brushed me off. They were like, oh, you have to take birth control, or whatever, deal with it. And I didn't find that I was, like, really finding the solutions in Western medicine. Not that our doctors don't do all they can for us, I believe that they do, I just believe that there aren't answers in their paradigm for some of the stuff that we go through. I think that like in, particularly in women's health, women's hormonal health, I don't think they have great solutions, to be honest. It's basically like birth control, like IVF meds, there's not much for actually addressing the underlying issues that we're going through hormonally. And I found my way to a naturopath, she helped me with like supplements and nutrition. I found my way to acupuncture and was helped greatly with that. Like my acne would go away, I, my mood would get better, I could sleep better. And I just got more and more interested, and then I went off to Asia, I studied Eastern medicine. I came back, I was studying under a naturopath, so I did a fusion of Eastern natural medicine and like Western naturopathic, more scientific-based natural medicine. And here I am 20 years later and doing the same thing and loving it, helping other people, and having addressed my hormonal and fertility issues, also.

Kristyn Hodgdon:
I feel you on the cystic acne. I've struggled with my skin for as long as I can remember, and honestly, it was, I don't talk about this a lot, but it was actually one of the biggest pain points for me when I was going through IVF the first time around because I had just come off hormonal birth control after 11 years, and my face exploded with acne, and I felt like I was so, like I felt like I was wearing my infertility on my face. But yeah, the only solution when I was in high school was the birth control pill, and then, even when I was trying to get pregnant, it was like, okay, do I ... with Clomid? And it was, there was never like, let's get to the underlying cause of why this is happening and figure that out first before you put your body through all of this.

Dr. Christina Burns:
But that's a problem with our education, right? Nothing is taught to us in school about our cycle. I talk about this a lot in my book. And when we go to the gynecologist or our primary practitioner, it's not like they're teaching us about our cycle. I didn't even know where my fertile window was, not until I was like literally more focusing on women's health in my studies. So I just don't think there's education on it, and because our primary doctor is our first point of contact and their training is in Western medicine, which isn't really, there's no lifestyle counseling there, or there's no nutritional counseling, they can't tell you how to live to balance your hormones or be well, that's what, like our insurance is covered by that's who we go see, so obviously, we're not going to get any info there. So I think it's like the whole kind of structure of our society, how it's set up is not helping us get in touch with our own rhythms and how we find balance.

Kristyn Hodgdon:
Absolutely, I completely agree. So can you explain a little bit about how acupuncture and Chinese medicine can support women's health and fertility?

Dr. Christina Burns:
Sure, it's, in so many ways. So I'll start with acupuncture. Acupuncture has been shown to change hormone levels in our body. I interviewed on my podcast, and REI a couple of weeks ago who did, his wife's an acupuncturist, and they together developed a protocol called the C-MAP Protocol, and it was during IVF, and they used acupuncture with IVF meds. And they found that in the research that acupuncture was actually modifying serum cortisol and prolactin levels and helping to achieve pregnancy. So it was like an average of nine sessions leading up to a transfer that was helping to achieve pregnancy ... the day of transfer treatments, but it's been found now that they had better success rates with more of a lead-up, so I recommend that. So it helps with circulation, it modifies hormone levels, it reduces the stress in our bodies, which they haven't been able to fully prove how much stress influences things, but I see time and time again when the stress hormones are modified, be it by acupuncture or herbs or lifestyle modifications, mindfulness people often get pregnant. There's that, there's reducing inflammation or enhancing uterine receptivity. There's balancing out the microbiome, so gut imbalances that might be influencing the growth of microbes that could affect implantation. So acupuncture does so many things, and it can be applicable, obviously, both in natural cycles or in IVF cycles. And as you mentioned, like you fall asleep often, you have a rake, you unplug. If you can get past the thought of needles, it's an amazing experience.

Kristyn Hodgdon:
Absolutely, and it's painless in my experience.

Dr. Christina Burns:
Yeah, that depends on who you choose, because some practitioners, it's about the style. That's something to ask is, when you're interviewing an acupuncturist; it's like, what are you, a painful or aggressive needle or are you very gentle kind of thing?

Kristyn Hodgdon:
Yes.

Dr. Christina Burns:
There's a website called ABORM.org which lists the practitioners that are, really have advanced training in reproductive medicine.

Kristyn Hodgdon:
I always preach that one should find, if you're going through fertility treatments or even trying to conceive, you should definitely find someone that specializes in reproductive health because there are certain points, you can speak to this better than I can, but you should avoid, or you should target during certain periods of your cycle.

Dr. Christina Burns:
But yeah, and the ones that are like me, that are more advanced in their training, like we are incorporating research a lot of the time. There's like research coming out about different acupuncture protocols that are helping improve the success of IVF or just helping you get pregnant naturally faster, and so we're following that research, and we're integrating that, and we're obviously using like the ancient kind of theory of medicine, too. There's nothing wrong with adding a little modern twist if we have some evidence to back it. And then to go over to herbs, so herbs are actually more revered than acupuncture in China in terms of the treatment of infertility in many diseases, and they're just incredibly powerful. They're less well regarded by Western medical physicians because the Western medical physicians are worried that the herbs will interact with their medication. So whereas Western medicine doctors are like, fine, go do acupuncture, whatever, like worst case scenario, it's placebo. With the herbs, they're like, okay, what's that going to do in combination with my meds? Is that going to affect ...? Now, the research I've reviewed and how I've used them is, I've used them to enhance the function of their medicine. For example, there's a formula called ... that you can use in conjunction with Clomid, and it usually leads to better ovulation and more live birth rates, so that one. There's another one that can be used for enhancing uterine lining when you're not building one very well. There are other ones to help restore ovulation. So herbs are like a deep nutrition, like they're like stronger than supplements. Supplements are amazing, they're like pharmaceuticals, in my opinion, supplements, because they like they go in and serve one function in the body; whereas herbs are like this bioavailable substance that goes and starts working in different systems and giving your body what it needs to perform certain functions. So herbs and acupuncture together are an amazing approach for fertility. I would say in my tough cases, I'm always using herbs, and I generally have very good success, so I highly encourage anybody having a tougher journey to maybe explore that route.

Kristyn Hodgdon:
Awesome. And do you ever recommend nutrition on, to help complement these treatments?

Dr. Christina Burns:
Always.

Kristyn Hodgdon:
Okay.

Dr. Christina Burns:
I remember starting to integrate it into my practice early on in my practice because I found that my results were much better if people played a role in their own healing journey and sort of the lifestyle modification. And there's a saying in like a Chinese proverb that says to neglect the diet is to waste the time of the physician. So when I'm talking with my Western physician colleague, I'm like, oh, it's a case of PCOS or endometriosis, the diet's got to change. We're not going to see the results unless some of this junk food and sugar and stuff is taken out because we've just seen, in research and in practice, that it makes a huge difference what you're consuming in what quantity, when, if you're stress eating, blah blah, blah. So I definitely make a lot of nutritional recommendations, and they could be different from person to person. There are some broad strokes, don't eat a ton of inflammatory and processed foods, right? But then some people need more of certain minerals, like some people are going to need more selenium in their diet, some people are going to need more iron-rich foods in their diet, some people, more folate, and so I'll cater it according to that. And in my book, The Ultimate Fertility Guidebook, I outline in a chapter called Woman Food, how to eat alongside of your cycle.

Kristyn Hodgdon:
Oh, love it. Yeah, like you mentioned inflammation a couple of times, and I, this has been driving me insane because I feel like, so I have PCOS and Hashimoto's, and so like, I know inflammation is involved somehow, but it's very frustrating when you don't, and I know that can be a factor in failed implantation and that can be a factor in just general infertility. But I'm like, how do I know if I have inflammation? I work out five days a week. I eat what I like to think is a very healthy diet. I'm like, I feel like I'm doing everything right. But then, I know that I have this inflammation, and how do I treat that?

Dr. Christina Burns:
So inflammation can wear many hats, it's very sneaky. I wrote about this too, in my book. So it could be pain, like that's the most common presentation of inflammation; joint pain, period, pain, swelling, right? That's what we think of when we think of inflammation, but it can also wear different hats, like it could be like just your puffy. It could be that you have gut issues, it could be that you get sick frequently. It could be, what else? You're tired all the time. You know, it can, and it could also be like neuroinflammation. You could have a terrible mood or have issues balancing your mood because you're having this kind of neuroinflammation bouts where your brain chemistry gets thrown out.

Kristyn Hodgdon:
But how do you know if it's related to that?

Dr. Christina Burns:
It's hard. Generally, you can test for things. There's a bunch of different inflammatory markers that you can test for in blood tests, but it involves dealing with somebody who deals more with immunology, so there's that. And then if doctors don't even recommend you do that because then it's okay, what's the next step? And you're into immunotherapies, which is so.

Kristyn Hodgdon:
I had a lot of people, because I think I feel like a lot of people with failed implantation end up going that route, the reproductive immunology route, but I've heard a lot of mixed things about it from reproductive endocrinologists. But then, people who have gotten pregnant after it are obviously huge advocates for it. I really don't have an opinion either way, but it's not covered by insurance, it's inaccessible for a lot of people that, I think, alone is, it's tough to even wrap your head around.

Dr. Christina Burns:
It's not my favorite thing because it can involve a lot of IV infusions. It can be super expensive, and it can just make you feel crazy. Now, I will say we're living in a very strange era because I think COVID is leaving histamine responses in our body. Some people are having reaction, people are getting sick more frequently. We're just living in a very kind of strange immune era. And so, I ended up doing a podcast session on the mini-immune protocol. I don't know if you've heard of it. It's antihistamines and prednisone. So I always tell people I'm like, okay, if you've had some failed implantation, then you're considering going to see one of these fancy reproductive immunologists, it's going to charge $1 million, and you're going to be put on all this crap, just try the, maybe, the mini immune protocol first, which is.

Kristyn Hodgdon:
I always do prednisone or Medrol for my transfers, yeah.

Dr. Christina Burns:
Yeah, so prednisone and then Pepcid, and there's one more, that's put on that, and sometimes a little blood thinner is added for part of things too. So if you don't respond, that, if you still don't get pregnant off of a mini immune protocol, I'm wondering how much that is really playing a role, because that would be like, that's like reverse engineering it. Okay, do you have inflammation? Let's do a mini immune anti-inflammatory protocol around your transfer. If it works, Yeah, okay, it was inflammation. If it doesn't work, then it probably wasn't inflammation, yeah.

Kristyn Hodgdon:
I even did Lupron. Not the whole, not Lupron Depot, like the three-month situation, but I did two weeks of Lupron prior to a transfer just to quell any inflammation.

Dr. Christina Burns:
Oh my god, you went through that? That's a ... you're taking. Oh, you are an amazing woman.

Kristyn Hodgdon:
I cried my entire 33rd birthday.

Dr. Christina Burns:
Yeah, no, it makes you, like, literally crazy. Like I tell people when they're about to go through that protocol, and that's not even indicated for you, that's more for endometriosis.

Kristyn Hodgdon:
I know. I think we were just trying to ... do what you just said. If it is an immune thing, let's just try to nip it in the, I don't know.

Dr. Christina Burns:
So with Hashimoto's and with PCOS, you can think about inflammation. That's one thing you can think about. The other thing you want to think about with those two conditions is a deficiency of your hormones, of your reproductive hormones.

Kristyn Hodgdon:
That's my next journey.

Dr. Christina Burns:
Yeah, so that's, it's, your uterus is just not that receptive. In that case, we call it more of a deficiency condition in my field of medicine. So we're not trying to suppress the immune system, we're actually trying to nourish you. So like extremely like potent herbs that go straight to the uterus and send a lot of circulation in there, like.

Kristyn Hodgdon:
Is this what we would call building blood?

Dr. Christina Burns:
Yeah.

Kristyn Hodgdon:
Because that's what my acupuncturist always says. We have to build your blood. We have to build your blood.

Dr. Christina Burns:
Build your blood and warm your uterus. So building blood with acupuncture and warming your uterus with acupuncture is actually not an easy thing to do, that's generally done with moxibustion and herbs. Yes, you can move circulation very well with acupuncture, but building is another thing. So nutrition, like I would, in your case, take like liver pills and take herbs that are like really nourishing of iron and warming. Like, I would suggest eating lamb, for example. These are some of the things that, and like very slow-cooked foods and not a lot of salad or smoothies. So in that kind of case where like the immune protocol hasn't worked, it switches to, okay, deep nourishment and warming, and a lot of cinnamon, a lot.

Kristyn Hodgdon:
Oh, I always do cinnamon in my oatmeal. It's just, I'm always just flabbergasted. When you think about it, the field of reproductive medicine is only, what, 41 years old, and there's just so much we still don't know. And I'm a big proponent of mixing Eastern and Western because it's, you never know what's going to do the trick.

Dr. Christina Burns:
And going to research, it literally, so this REI that I interviewed who is married to the acupuncturist, like it literally was like without a doubt, with the numerous studies they did, like they kept seeing that results were faster and better with the combination. And so those who are opposed to it, I'm, what, get out of your own way, kind of thing. I mean, I'm talking about the reproductive endocrinologists that aren't open-minded about it or about the patients. I'm like, There's nothing to lose here.

Kristyn Hodgdon:
... 45 eggs, doing acupuncture. I have PCOS, so big disclaimer there, but I believe that it helped me get mature eggs and all that good stuff.

Dr. Christina Burns:
But it is infuriating that you're getting these good eggs and that they're not implanting, that's really hard. But actually, it's from a natural medicine perspective, it shouldn't be, it's actually harder and longer to get you to get good eggs than it is to get implantation.

Kristyn Hodgdon:
Got it, yeah. It's tough being in that statistic because they say, I think, there's basically a 95% live birth rate with three euploid embryo transfers. So being in that 5% is like, why?

Dr. Christina Burns:
But honestly, in this era, I've seen it more, like I've seen a lot more of it, and I've seen it a lot more of it with secondary infertility. Like you've had your first and, for some reason, like it's not working with your second, and that's where I go to like nourishment. Like I'm asking like, how was your pregnancy? How was your delivery? What did you do postpartum? Were you doing the things that you're shaking your head? You were not doing the things that.

Kristyn Hodgdon:
I interviewed Alisa Vitti for our first episode of this season, and we were talking about this too. She is, you didn't do any of the things that I would have told you.

Dr. Christina Burns:
Recommended, yes, because she knows the cycle, like how you have to honor that kind of thing. And so when I'm talking to somebody about secondary infertility, I'm going back in time, and I'm like, okay, so you didn't do that stuff then, so now we're going to do it, we're going to do it now. Like you're going to do your first 40 days now, and we're going to get you into a place where your body is receptive and warm again inside and ready to take this baby.

Kristyn Hodgdon:
Love it. And that's so interesting that you really recommend the herbs in addition to the acupuncture, because I think some people think of acupuncture as like a cure-all and it's amazing, but I think complementing it with those herbs can make the difference, it seems.

Dr. Christina Burns:
Yeah, you go to China, and you see an acupuncturist, because that's where I studied, they can do a wonderful thing. You're treating a lot of musculoskeletal things, you're treating stress, you're treating insomnia, whatever, but then the herbalists are treating tumors and deep physiological things. The herbalists are treating the really hard stuff. The acupuncturists are treating also stuff that can be very resistant to improving, but herbal medicine, in my opinion, when the body has, is deficient of something, it will be much more effective.

Kristyn Hodgdon:
Well, can you give us an example that of a patient that you've had maybe, I don't know, we talked about PCOS, but maybe like endometriosis where you were able to with a combination of acupuncture and herbs able to help them ease their symptoms?

Dr. Christina Burns:
Sure! So endometriosis, I remember, I had a patient who, she had been through multiple surgeries for her endo and she was in pain all the time, the whole month. It wasn't like just the period being excruciating, like the entire month she was suffering, hence going through multiple surgeries, nothing was helping. Literally one month on the herbs and a few acupuncture sessions, she had no more pain.

Kristyn Hodgdon:
Wow.

Dr. Christina Burns:
And I know that sounds, okay, that's too good to be true. It may not be as quick with everyone as it was with her, but it was a clear marked difference. I literally only worked with her for three weeks, and then she was fine and ready to go on out into the world. And that was a formula, it was called ..., which is used actually a lot in cardiovascular conditions, like when there's clogged arteries and things, and there's like a clogging with endometriosis, and you're like pushing circulation through and opening the blockages and reducing the autoimmune response of endo, and so that herbal formula functioned really well for that.

Kristyn Hodgdon:
How often is it tinctures versus like an herbal supplement kind of pill?

Dr. Christina Burns:
I have a whole apothecary of tinctures because I can mix them in my clinic for people. Someone will come in and I'm like, okay, you need a bit of this formula, you need a bit of this formula, you need this herb in here, so I can mix them and send them off with something right away. Now I also do the very traditional form of Chinese medicine where you write a formula, and I send it to the herbal pharmacy, and they cook it into a tea, and that's what I call Junk Juice. I have a website for it. It's called JunkJuiceMagic.com because I think it's magical. And so they cook that traditional tea and it's specifically for you, and it's, that's the strongest form. So above tincture, above pill, the traditional herbal tea that I call Junk Juice, because it looked like this like murky, disgusting liquid, is absolutely phenomenal to get quicker results. Now, pills and tincture are also super, super effective, and you don't have to, with the pills especially, you don't have to taste them, and you can tote them everywhere with you.

Kristyn Hodgdon:
The only thing that, with the pills, that I struggled with, because I'm on a lot of supplements, naturally, it was like, you had to take six pills, but you couldn't take them near food, but then you couldn't take them near your supplements either. So it was like, I was taking my morning medication, morning supplements, and then like eating, and then I had to remember to take my, it was just so much to remember, but I also have ADHD.

Dr. Christina Burns:
It was overwhelming. And it's also like this tendency, I'm not sure if I'm supposed to swear on your podcast, but like at some points you're just like, Fuck this already. There's so much shit I don't want to take anymore.

Kristyn Hodgdon:
And I'll be honest, it's very. I'm in a point right now where it's been, I'm on like day 51 of my cycle, and I've been doing so many things to help nourish my body, and it's still not coming. And you hit that point where you're like, what's this all for? But I know, I'm playing the long game, I'm playing the long game.

Dr. Christina Burns:
... to play, because that can take some of the stress away, but, and just make you feel more peaceful and like you're on the path, but just I had a 45-year-old who thinks she's perimenopausal hasn't had her period forever, like she's so swollen. I gave her herbs; she got her period. It was just like a little bit of a jolt of the reproductive system that needed to happen, sent a little heat through there to move the circulation and, because we eat the wrong diet for our period, by the way, like we're eating a lot of salad, a lot of smoothies, a lot of icy drinks, like that actually makes your period not come, according to eastern medicine. Warmer things and deeper nutritious things help the period come. But, so the herbs, like they just fast track things. The pills are a lot, you have to take a lot of pills. The liquid comes in these like vacuum-sealed packs unless you decide to cook it on your own. But they're basically like these yucky liquid packets that you can just tear and drink, so that's convenient. I will say the ideal situation is for you to have it away from food. I just tell people it's better to get it in, than to get it perfect. So if you've already eaten, or if you're near your other supplements, like just take it anyway if it's going to be a risk of you not taking it because it is the regularity that gets you the results. Like, you have to be consistent.

Kristyn Hodgdon:
And how long typically, is it like a three-month? Does it have to build up in your system or?

Dr. Christina Burns:
Everybody's a little bit different. So like you have irregular cycles, you don't have no cycle.

Kristyn Hodgdon:
Yeah.

Dr. Christina Burns:
Depending on where, what era you're in, basically, you have absolutely no cycle. Like you haven't had a cycle for years, it's going to take me 3 to 6 months to get you your period. You probably get a first period around the 2 or 3-month mark, and then you might have a longer cycle, and then it'll start becoming regular at around six months. If you have just an irregular cycle, like I can get more results usually within 3 to 4 months kind of thing. The important thing is that you're ovulating to get pregnant naturally, if that's what you want. The, while like to see like a good 28 to 32-day cycle, I'm just looking for some level of regularity where I know there's ovulation happening. But yeah, with the herbs, I would say 3 to 6 months, and then six months onward to get it completely regular.

Kristyn Hodgdon:
Awesome. Okay, so that's not too long. It's not like it's a year.

Dr. Christina Burns:
Oh no, it's not. It can depend. If somebody's like super stressed and always traveling and really overweight or something like that, it can take longer, like it can take a year. But if somebody is doing what you're doing, and they're working out, and they're going to acupuncture, and they're eating healthy, like eating breakfast, just like you say, then it'll be faster.

Kristyn Hodgdon:
Awesome. And how often do you recommend acupuncture?

Dr. Christina Burns:
So most of the research is on once or twice a week, I would say, by and large, most of it is around twice a week, but in my discussions with other practitioners we can get results at once a week. And it can be expensive and time-consuming, so what we usually say is, try to do it at least once a week. If you're gearing up for something like a transfer or a retrieval cycle, maybe you're looking at coming more like twice a week leading up to that and during that part of the cycle. I also like acupuncture a little bit frequently in the implantation phase. So in a case like yours where there's been failed implantation, like I would want to see like within three days of a transfer or within five days, if you're trying naturally in that implantation phase and then another three days later, or three days later.

Kristyn Hodgdon:
Got it, that's really good advice. What else? I guess I always like to ask at the end of each episode, what would, for women who might be hesitant or skeptical about acupuncture or Chinese medicine for their health or especially for fertility, what would you rescript about the way they think about it?

Dr. Christina Burns:
I would look at the fact that Western medicine has only been around for a couple hundred years in the way that it has, and why we have suddenly taken it as the only way ... the way before. And there have been midwives and herbalists and people around, and just grandmothers cooking things and using herbs from the garden to help with day-to-day ailments. You can't cure a cold by going to the doctor. They don't have anything for you. Antibiotics don't work for viruses. What will work for a cold? Generally, you could take a bunch of garlic, sometimes it's ginger, some apple cider vinegar and lemon is amazing. These are home remedies, right, and these are like more traditional wisdom. In terms of rescripting it, I would say, go back to basics. Go back to, are you getting enough sleep? Are you eating regular meals and balancing your blood sugar and insulin? You know, that's going to be, in a way, that's going to be helpful for your other hormones to function. Peut over caffeinating and sending all the circulation to your brain. Are you over-exercising and really taking circulation away from your ovaries and draining your progesterone out, or are you under-exercising and you've got a little bit too much weight sitting on you that's blocking your ovulation or blocking your fertility in that way?

Kristyn Hodgdon:
The over-exercising thing speaks to me.

Dr. Christina Burns:
... PCOS and Hashimoto's tends to be like linked with a type-A personality that tends to go for ... Overexercising is a problem. It's just as bad as under-exercising. And it, really, in my book, I go into research about how fertility and hormones are affected by, say, Korean army, female army training kind of thing. Too much intense exercise puts our ovaries to sleep. Little can also make them sleepy. In general, I tell people to do girly exercises: yoga, pilates. I think interval training is great. I think weights are great. I don't like long bouts of cardio, and I don't like super intense stuff for our reproductive self. Like you're not trying to be your fittest hottest self when you're trying to make your hormones work, it's just not the combination.

Kristyn Hodgdon:
Yeah, no, that makes total sense. Yeah, ..., but no, this is all really great advice, and yeah, I'm a big fan, and now I want to read your book, too.

Dr. Christina Burns:
Oh, the book is overwhelming, but it'll have you, you can keep referring back to it, to be like, oh, okay, so this is how I integrate acupuncture into my cycle. Here's, here are some herbs to explore with my practitioner or look into. These are exactly what these supplements are for and in what cases they're used for. Here's how to eat for my cycle. I did, I called it The Ultimate Fertility Guidebook because I really tried to include everything that you would need to know, whether you're trying naturally or whether you're going through more of an ART journey.

Kristyn Hodgdon:
Love it. And where can people find it, and you?

Dr. Christina Burns:
Yeah, you can find it on any of the places you find books: Amazon, Target, Walmart, Barnes and Noble, through my clinic, the Naturna Institute. It's all over the place.

Kristyn Hodgdon:
Awesome. Thank you so much, Christina. This was amazing and it was a pleasure to chat with you and learn from you, so enjoy your weekend. Thank you for being here.

Kristyn Hodgdon:
If this podcast means something to you, be sure to hit follow or subscribe. This helps you because you'll never miss an episode and it helps us because you'll never miss an episode. For everything you need to know about women's health and fertility, head to Rescripted.com or follow us on social at Fertility.Rescripted.

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