Lately, I have been receiving an unusual number of inquiries regarding sperm health through my Ask Jessica Q&A service.  I’m not sure what it is about the new year that makes men so urgently concerned about sperm health, but I’m happy to help answer their questions!  I have received so many questions that I thought I should start a series of blogs about sperm health to help those of you out there with the same questions who might be too shy to ask.

One of the most alarming things I have been finding in my sperm research (I’ve been up to my elbows in sperm research lately, thanks to you readers) is the way that sperm interacts with soy.  It keeps on coming up so I thought I would focus on soy for the first installment of this blog series.  Here are a few facts, supported by research, that will have you hiding from the scary soy monster!

• Soy exposure beginning in infancy and continuing through adolescence causes males to have “significantly higher” levels of estrogen and “significantly lower” levels of testicular testosterone than in control groups.  While the study supporting this was done on rats to determine whether soy exposure changed the physical makeup of their reproductive systems (it didn’t), it is still alarming to me to think of how many little boys start out on soy infant formula, then transition to soy as filler in their school lunch meat – all in the name of good health.
• Foods that help to improve sperm health include egg yolks and raw (or at least non-homogenized) milk, while soy was found to induce “sublethal” damage to sperm, meaning it doesn’t directly kill sperm, but it gets pretty darn close!  An interesting study was done on ram sperm (really, what could be more manly than sperm from a ram?) which found that freezing sperm with egg yolk or milk protein made it more functional when thawed, while freezing it with soy lecithin created “sublethal damages that seriously affect sperm functionality”.  One more reason to choose creme brulee over soy ice cream for a romantic baby making dessert!  As if you needed a reason…
• Just a few months ago, a study was done in Japan which found that increased intake of soy and coffee (oh no!) was a “significant contributor to poorer semen quality”.  Other non-dietary factors identified as sperm killers (kind of like Ghostface Killah but different) in the study included exposure to plastics, ingestion of pesticides, and increased levels of cadmium from cigarette smoke.

It’s important to keep in mind the fact that the body can usually deal with soy if it is only eaten occasionally and in small amounts.  The effects of soy are not the same in everyone – some men suffer extreme hormonal changes when eating even small amounts of soy, while some vegan men who use soy as their primary source of protein have no problems with fertility and have several healthy children to prove it.  If you do decide to eat soy, please be sure it is not genetically modified (label would say something like “GMO-free”) and try to stick to fermented forms of soy such as tempeh, miso, or natto over highly processed forms such as tofu.

As the new year approaches, many people start focusing on what is to come and putting together their lists of resolutions and other things they want to do differently in the coming year.  I personally like to take a moment at the end of the year and make a list of things that made me feel thankful over the past year.  I find it to be a calming and encouraging ritual during the craziness of the end-of-year holiday season.  While there are many things I’m thankful for personally, this is not my personal musing blog – it’s my nutrition blog!  So I thought I’d make a list of a few things in the world of health and nutrition that made me feel thankful this year.  Hopefully they make you feel the same!

I am thankful:

• That the human body is much smarter than we realize and it is always looking out for our best interest.  One example of this over the past year was learning that candida (the type of yeast that grows in the body) eats heavy metals.  So, for people who have stubborn candida problems that won’t respond to anything else, sometimes the body is allowing the candida to grow in excess because that is helping to relieve their body’s burden of heavy metals such as mercury (and in some cases, copper).  People in this situation may benefit from having a mineral profile test done by their doctor to see if they have an excess of toxic metals and/or a deficiency of healthy minerals and how to deal with it.  This knowledge helped me give hope to a few clients who were struggling with candida and angry at their bodies for letting it overgrow!
• That a fetus feeds off of the yolk sac for the first few weeks of life, which means it gets the nutrition it needs (as long as mom was building up her own nutrition prior to pregnancy) and is not as directly affected by what its mother eats the way it is later in pregnancy.  This is such an amazing adaptation that I am so very thankful for because in those first few weeks of life a woman may not know she is pregnant and may decide to go on an exciting party date with her husband while on vacation in California because their toddler is with grandma for the evening, and maybe the restaurant they ate at had a $5 martini special and maybe she had too many lemon drop martinis and then found out a few weeks later that she was not alone in her body!  Not that this ever happened to me personally in the last 6 months…
• That plastics are being recognized as a significant source of health problems for men, women, and children – especially those containing Bis-phenol A and phthalates.  Maybe this seems like something to be sad about, but I am actually thankful that the knowledge is getting out there and more and more people are making changes to avoid plastic exposure.
• That the FDA recently conceded that raw milk can be transported across state lines for personal consumption.  This doesn’t mean raw milk is becoming legal for sale, but it is quite encouraging to finally have the FDA not persecuting people for ridiculous things such as drinking milk from their own healthy cow.  Yes, there are many other things I am not happy with the FDA for approving (Splenda, aspartame, pesticides, the list goes on) but this is one small victory.
• That the CDC is working with hospitals and taking steps to encourage women to breastfeed their babies at least through the first 6 months of life.  This is still much less than the World Health Organization’s recommendation of 2  years or more, but it’s an encouraging step!

There are many other things I could list, but these are the first that come to mind.  When you have a minute, I encourage you to make your own list of things over the past year that you are thankful for and tuck it away somewhere – it’s always fun to come across lists like that later on and read them again.  It’s also a great exercise that acts kind of like a mental “feng shui” treatment – clearing out the clutter of stress and worry and helping your mind focus on the things that make you happy.  I have found that being thankful for what I have helps to bring more things into my life to be thankful for.  Happy new year!

For those of you who have last-minute holiday gifts to take care of, here are a few of my favorites.  They can all be purchased online so you don’t have to fight the crowds.  And if you happen to live on an island in the middle of the Pacific or some other remote place that won’t receive your shipped items before the desired date, you can always cut out a photo of the item and tape it into a card with a note saying it will arrive soon.  Happy holidays!

Nothing says “Happy holidays, I’m sorry for being a headache” like the gift of sinus cleansing with a nifty green or blue neti pot.

For the creative, health-conscious chef in your life, a copy of Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon. This is my favorite cookbook and even when I’m not cooking I like to read through the informational tidbits in the sidebars of the book.

College students, bachelors, and busy people who tend to eat on the go can all benefit from a basic set of glass storage containers like the ones pictured above by Pyrex.  What seems like a boring gift can be spiced up with the knowledge that you are saving the recipient from countless amounts of exposure to hormone-altering plastic compounds found in most other food storage containers.  So it’s actually an exciting and scandalous gift for their reproductive health – a must-have for every bachelorette party registry!

A very creative and healthy gift idea is to buy someone a membership into a CSA (community supported agriculture) program in their area.  Just visit the Local Harvest CSA page and type in the desired zip code to find a nearby CSA.  Most CSA programs function on a weekly or monthly basis and make boxes containing a variety of seasonal produce available to their members.  Depending on the CSA programs available in your area, you can buy a one-week trial membership for $15-20 or a longer membership if desired.  This type of gift is better for someone with some kitchen experience (especially with obscure vegetables).  Weekly boxes of leafy greens, kohlrabi, radishes, and spaghetti squash might be a little overwhelming for the novice cook!

For the sparkling water lover in your life, try this soda maker with glass carafe.  It’s a little pricey up front, but in the long run it will save money and space in your recycling bin (I suggest buying this for someone in your house so you can reap the benefits also!).  If you need more reasons to make your own sparkling water at home rather than buying it from a company, just watch the documentary Flow and see the impact bottled water has on the environment, indigenous cultures, and our health.  After I watched that movie I had no choice but to give up my beloved boxes of San Pellegrino water from Costco!

As a person who can never turn down free kitchen gadgets from friends who are moving or trying to get rid of clutter, I have assembled a collection of those 16 ounce “Little Dipper” crockpots for ants that come free with the normal size crockpots.  Each time I accept another free tiny crockpot, it is wrapped in the original packaging, which means that my friend never used it in all the years they had it in their possession.  Despite this, I get visions in my head of an amazing Mexican-themed dinner party with several flavors of homemade cheese dip being kept warm in the little baby crockpots, all snuggled in a row.  Well, after 2 years of storing a family of tiny crockpots still in their original packaging in my cabinet, I have finally come up with a daily use for them – making oatmeal!

My husband leaves for work pretty early and I always want to send him off with a warm breakfast (especially during the winter when it gets down below 70 degrees here in Honolulu at night – freezing!) but there’s no way that this pregnant lady with a toddler is going to get up early enough to make something fresh for my hard working honey.  He really loves oatmeal and it’s actually quite a healthy and filling breakfast if it’s prepared properly by soaking before cooking to reduce levels of phytic acid (a nutrient blocker that makes grain difficult to digest).  Here’s what I do:

• Place 1/4 to 1/2 cup of oats in the crockpot and add twice as much water.  I like to use steel cut Irish oatmeal but just get whatever you can find at the store that seems the least processed.  If you are a gluten-free person make sure the oats are labeled as “gluten free” because many times, oats and gluten-containing grains are processed on the same equipment so there is cross-contamination.    Gauge how much you soak based on how much cooked oatmeal you want – using 1/4 cup of oats will expand to about a cup cooked, and 1/2 cup will expand to about 2 cups.  If you have time, let this soak for a few hours.  I like to put this on before I make dinner since I’m in the kitchen anyway.  Once in a while I don’t have time for this step so I skip right to the next one and my husband seems to survive okay!
• After the initial soak, dump out this water and then add about 3 parts of water to 1 part of soaked oats.  You can also add a dash of buttermilk or whey if you have it to help make the oats even more digestible.  I add a pinch of Celtic salt at this stage to increase the mineral content, and a dash of cinnamon so the kitchen smells warm and comforting when my husband wakes up to eat.
• Plug in your tiny crockpot and let cook overnight!
• In the morning, mix with any toppings that make you happy to be awake: butter from grassfed cows, coconut milk, minimally processed cow’s milk or cream, chopped raw nuts, raisins, dried cranberries, raw honey, shredded unsweetened coconut, chopped dates, apple sauce, protein powder – whatever your heart desires.  If you’re more of a savory person, you can also mix an egg and some bacon or sausage in for a salty pudding reminiscent of a big hairy Irish man.
• Fill crockpot with water to soak so it’s easy to clean up and use for the next day, unless you’re like me and have several tiny crockpots that can be switched out so there’s no hurry to clean up the used one and it can just sit on the counter taking up space and waiting to be washed.  Not that I ever do that.

If any of you readers out there have uses for tiny crockpots (other than cheese dip, I figured that one out already) please share them in the comments section!  I love finding new and exciting uses for all my kitchen gadgets.

Nothing says “I’m better than you” like cooking with capers.  Most people either love or hate the flavor of those salty little green pellets, but no matter what, if you serve them at a dinner party and someone complains about it you can very aristocratically say “That’s okay, not everyone has refined enough tastes to enjoy the delicate nuances of capers” while gracefully adjusting your tiara.  This is especially helpful when the dinner party consists only of you, your  husband (who does not appreciate capers, by the way), and your toddler.  Here are just a few of the health benefits to justify cooking like a princess:

• Stachydrine, a phytochemical found in capers, has been found to be a “potent anti-metastatic agent” in regards to prostate cancer and seems to work at the genetic level to keep prostate cancer cells from reproducing.  So you are actually cooking with capers to keep all the prostates at the dinner table healthy!
• Bioflavonoids from capers have been found to inhibit NF-kappa B activation.  Who cares?  Even if you don’t, the drug companies do.  NF-kappa B is a major target for drug research because this factor has been found to be chronically activated in disease states such as cancer, arthritis, asthma, atherosclerosis, inflammatory bowel disease, and even acne.
• Extracts from caper plants have been found to lower blood pressure by relaxing blood vessels.  Of course, if your hypertension is due to salt sensitivity then eating salty capers by the bucketful is probably not the best option.
• The anti-arthritic components in capers seem to be most concentrated when extracted into alcohol.  This justifies cooking any sort of protein (fish, chicken, lobster) in a white wine, butter, and caper sauce!
• Capers are a rich source of rutin, a bioflavonoid that is sometimes taken in supplement form to prevent and treat varicose veins.
• Capers have been found to have “important antimicrobial, anti-oxidative, anti-inflammatory, immunomodulatory and antiviral properties“.  This study firmly proves that if I left anything out in my list above, you can use the 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon game (health version of course) to relate whatever ailment your dinner guest may have to something that capers can help with.

As I write this, I’m catching up on work at a coffee shop by the beach while my toddler is home with his favorite babysitter…and a fever.  Before you write me off as an uncaring mother, take a minute to understand my logic!  Allowing a fever  to progress naturally (within reason) at any age can actually be a very positive and protective aspect that leads to long-term health. Here are a few facts about fever that may help you decide what to do the next time you’re face-to-face with a fever:

• To begin with, it’s important to understand that the reason the body creates a fever is that bacteria and viruses can only operate at very specific temperatures so the body increases its own temperature to slow them down.
• Fever is also a signal to the immune system to go into a more aggressive level of cleanup and destruction of harmful substances such as toxins, metabolic waste, infectious agents, and even rogue cancer cells.
• Animal studies have proven over and over that animals off all kinds are more likely to survive longer and live healthier if they are able to raise their temperature occasionally in response to toxins or infection.
• Human studies have found that people who allow their fever to take its natural course rather than suppressing it with medications shed fewer infectious particles (meaning they’re less likely to get others sick) because the virus or bacteria is not allowed to reproduce freely at higher temperatures AND they tend to be sicker for shorter periods of time than people who suppress their fever with medication.
• Some scientists conjecture that allowing fevers to naturally subside actually decreases a person’s risk of cancer over the long-term because during a fever, the immune system scavenges rogue cancer cells (single cancer cells that have not yet grown into tumors or full-blown cancer).  Rogue cancer cells are present in all of us all of the time.  The reason we don’t all walk around with cancer is that a healthy immune system can keep them from taking root and reproducing out of control.  Fever is a time of supercharging the immune system so that it can destroy these cells at a greater pace than normal.
• For you scientific minds out there that want to know more, I encourage you to go to the PubMed website and look up any research done by Dr. Matthew Kluger, who is at the forefront of research on the benefits of fever.

With that said, it’s important to realize that even though fever may be beneficial, it’s still really important to work with a fever properly!  Here are a few suggestions if you or someone you love is down with a fever:

• Stay home!  Fever can be a sign of many things – toxicity, side effects to medications, eruption of new teeth in children – but in most cases it is a sign that the body is fighting an infection.  The last thing you want to do is spread that around.
• Stay warm.  There’s a reason that you may feel chilly when your temperature is high – your body is trying to enlist your help in raising your temperature by having you bundle up, take a warm bath (preferably with Epsom salt), eat warm food, drink warm fluids, or whatever else sounds comfortable to you.
• Eat if you are hungry.  For every degree Centigrade that your body increases in temperature during a fever, metabolism is increased by about 10%.  I know there’s a saying about feeding a cold and starving a fever or something like that – whatever it is, put what your own body is telling you above that.  Warm soup made with bone broth is one of the best things you can eat during a fever.
• Drink plenty of fluids.  It is absolutely vital to stay hydrated during a fever because the increase in metabolism means the body is shedding more waste products and the kidneys are working harder than normal.  Water with a pinch of Celtic salt and lemon or lime or a splash of fruit juice makes a great electrolyte replacement and is (in my opinion) the best thing to drink during a fever.  I don’t recommend Pedialyte for children (shocking, I know!) because most flavors contain the artificial sweetener Splenda.  It is beyond me why someone would approve artificial sweeteners in a product designed for children, but to get around this just carefully read the label for Splenda (trade name) or Sucralose (chemical name).  The last time I checked, unflavored Pedialyte was the only flavor that did not contain artificial sweeteners.  For adults, I suggest keeping a bottle of natural electrolyte mix around as a quick Gatorade replacement.   Hot tea (preferably caffeine free) and warm broth are also great beverages during a fever.
• Keep the bowels moving.  Fever is a time of serious cleanup so do what it takes to keep the bowels moving: eat fiber-rich foods, stay hydrated, and use magnesium or vitamin C as natural laxatives if needed.
• Use homeopathic remedies as needed.  I keep a tube of Belladonnaand a tube of a general immune support remedy in the house just in case a fever shows up (as it has been recently, as Mr. Muscles seems to be sprouting new teeth every other week).
• Use herbs and other natural immune support remedies as needed.  Cod Liver Oil, Echinacea, Elderberry, Vitamin C, Vitamin D3 – you know the drill.
• Be patient and allow rest.  This applies whether you are the one who has a fever or someone you are caring for is feverish.  For a child, simply wrapping them in a blanket and snuggling them on the couch while reading a book or watching cartoons can work wonders.  For an adult, just allow yourself to rest and know that your body is very smart and it knows what to do if you let it.

There are a few cases of fever where you should seek medical advice immediately:

• In children under the age of 3 months.
• In the elderly.
• In people with compromised immune systems or chronic disease.
• For fever over 104 degrees F.
• For fever over 102 degrees F for more than 2-3 days.
• If the person with fever is acting strange, is extremely weak, or if there is anything else that makes you suspicious that something more serious is happening.  This is where parental intuition comes in when dealing with a feverish child.  Personal note: Mr. Muscles was basically being his normal wonderful self (though a little warmer and sleepier than normal) this morning which is why I felt comfortable leaving him with a sitter rather than staying home myself.

NOTE: This blog is not meant to replace the advice of a qualified healthcare practitioner.