Nixiepie:
Nice

Thanks, Nixie.

Ennyhollar:
Thank you for this

You're welcome.

Strange but true, 7 out of every 10 patients i attended to last year didn't have a perfect understanding of how ovulation can be tracked. Ovulation is the release of an egg(ovum) from one of your ovaries down to your fallopian tube for the purpose of fertilization and it's experienced once in a menstrual cycle. Contrary to what some people think, ovulation lasts for just a day but you could still get pregnant even from the unprotected sex you had a few days before your ovulation as a sperm cell can last between 2 to 4 days(based on different factors) before they eventually die off. That you see your menstrual period doesn't necessarily mean you ovulate, even without a menstrual period you can still ovulate, we've seen that in some women too. Ovulation is one of the things needed for fertilization to take place.

Your fertile window is approximately 5 days before and to the end of your ovulation. On this day your cervical mucus, that some of our women refer to as discharge, is meant to change, from thick to a raw egg-white consistency and it becomes stretchy too, that way it allows sperm cells to easily swim through.
Normally, a woman ovulates 14 days before her next menstrual period. Meaning if your menstrual cycle is regular and it's 28 days, you will ovulate on day 14. If your menstrual cycle is 30 days, you will ovulate on day 16. For women with a short cycle of 24 days, they will ovulate on day 10. If 23, you ovulate on day 9. Please, do take note that stress and medications can affect the regularity of your cycle. For our young girls out there who just reached puberty, it's normal for your menstrual cycle to be irregular in a way that you even miss a whole month, don't panic, it's your body learning - just like a crawling baby just learning to walk.

Best Regards,
Integrative Medicine Physician/fellow at University of Arizona Integrative Med.
'The medicine that can cure those diseases of yours'.
For Free Consultation:
09036899255.(WhatsApp only, pls!)

Laird:
Thank You very Much for all this information

Thanks for reading through.

Good day, Nairalanders. I'm an Integrative Medicine Physician/fellow at University of Arizona Integrative Med. I'm here to share with you some health tips and educate my readers on how some diseases and medical conditions can be easily treated. The two reasons behind taking some time out of my very busy schedule for this, is simple; (1). This festive period is the best time to think about sick persons because this is when they need the best encouragement and support. A good way to recover quickly is having optimism and good spirit and it's only possible if the sick have the help and support of friends and family. You too can send 'get well soon' messages to ailing individuals around you. (2nd reason) The most valuable gift i got this yuletide came from one of my patients, a teenager, her mum even said she bought it far earlier than now. An inexpensive gift but yet, the most valuable to me. After receiving it, i paused and said to myself, if this is coming from someone in her late teens, then i must reciprocate this kind gesture by sharing my expertise with people on this forum - my own way of putting information in circulation.

Each topic about to be discussed below can't cover all details of it's subject matter but i will be more than willing to elucidate further on your request and all kinds of opinions is also welcome. Please readers, don't be upset if my writing tilts more towards Infertility, the reason is simple; my extensive and independent research over the last 6yrs gave a special attention to resolving infertility in women of reproductive age.

INFERTILITY AND PRENATAL CARE(listed below are the questions have been asked the most).

OVULATION:

Strange but true, 7 out of every 10 patients i attended to this year didn't have a perfect understanding of how ovulation can be tracked. Ovulation is the release of an egg(ovum) from one of your ovaries down to your fallopian tube for the purpose of fertilization and it's experienced once in a menstrual cycle. Contrary to what some people think, ovulation lasts for just a day but you could still get pregnant even from the unprotected sex you had a few days before your ovulation as a sperm cell can last between 2 to 4 days(based on different factors) before they eventually die off. That you see your menstrual period doesn't necessarily mean you ovulate, even without a menstrual period you can still ovulate, we've seen that in some women too. Ovulation is one of the things needed for fertilization to take place.Your fertile window is approximately 5 days before and to the end of your ovulation. On this day your cervical mucus, that some of our women refer to as discharge, is meant to change, from thick to a raw egg-white consistency and it becomes stretchy too, that way it allows sperm cells to easily swim through.
Normally, a woman ovulates 14 days before her next menstrual period. Meaning if your menstrual cycle is regular and it's 28 days, you will ovulate on day 14. If your menstrual cycle is 30 days, you will ovulate on day 16. For women with a short cycle of 24 days, they will ovulate on day 10. If 23, you ovulate on day 9. Please, do take note that stress and medications can affect the regularity of your cycle. For our young girls out there who just reached puberty, it's normal for your menstrual cycle to be irregular in a way that you even miss a whole month, don't panic, it's your body learning - just like a crawling baby just learning to walk.


AMENORRHOEA:

It's the absence of menstrual period in a woman of reproductive age. First we have to be sure the woman in question isn't pregnant or has attained menopause before making this diagnoses. There are 2 types; Primary and Secondary amenorrhoea. We say someone has Primary amenorrhoea if she has never menstruated before and Secondary amenorrhoea is in a woman who has been menstruating before but later stopped. The causes could be that either or both the Pituitary gland or Hypothalamus is not secreting properly, ovaries may be malfunctioning. I have seen cases of patients not having ovaries atall or having just one that even malfunctions. Surprisingly, all the cases of Primary Amenorrhoea that i have seen and attended to are majorly from a particular ethnic group here in Nigeria, whereas my "Patient's Base" cuts across. I see this discovery as a pointer to the fact that, in their own case, it might have something to do with their diet or lifestyle which is most times influenced by culture or in few cases religion - a research project for the future. Some cases of Primary amenorrhoea are often bad and hopeless that i advice surrogacy as an option(with excellent result, anyway). But my advice for any woman considering surrogacy as an option is to be sure that who's to carry her pregnancy is properly evaluated, she must be tested for sexually transmitted infections and deemed fit psychologically.


FLUID IN THE 'POUCH OF DOUGLAS':

If you have been diagnosed of having fluid in your pouch of douglas, there's need to investigate further because it's often caused by PID(pelvic inflammatory disease). If as a woman you feel pain during sex , pain while urinating, foul smelling discharge, low backache, please visit your doctor for evaluation as an untreated case that lasts over a long period of time could lead to infertility because pelvic inflammatory disease affects the vital organs you need for baby making; your ovaries, uterus and fallopian tubes.



HOW LONG TO WAIT AFTER CHILDBIRTH BEFORE SEX:

There is no general answer to this, it depends on individual experiences during and after childbirth. Did you have an episiotomy(a cut between the vagina and the anus made during childbirth to widen the vaginal opening for an easier passage)? Did you deliver through a caesarean section or you delivered vaginally without cuts? Take proper care of yourself after your sutures have been removed if through CS, then wait for your cuts to properly heal up so you would have been both physically and emotionally ready. As at that time it also becomes a personal decision rather than medical. Averagely, 6 weeks is fine if you had vaginal delivery.



TTC AND PREGNANT WOMEN:

If you're trying to conceive or immediately you discover you're pregnant, please i beg of you, do ensure you take folic acid(Vitamin B9) in other to prevent Neural Tube Defect(NTD). Neural tube is the part of your embryo from which your baby's spine and brain develop. Therefore, in my own simple definition, neural tube defects are defects of the brain and spinal cord. This defect happens within the fist 4 weeks of pregnancy which is before most women even know they are pregnant, which is the reason why it's advisable to start ingesting this vital vitamin the moment you start planning to conceive in other to maintain a required amount in your blood. Folic acid is a must have when it comes to the production of new DNA and new DNA is needed for all new cells. As your baby develops in your womb, constant cell division takes place and this requires the continual production of new cells and this particularly calls for a good amount of folic acid. You can also buy folate supplement if you prefer folate to it's synthetic counterpart; folic acid, which is what i prescribe to a group of my patients that loves to go natural. Some companies sell naturally occurring folate supplements. If that's what you want, make sure folic acid is not listed anywhere on the label, instead of folic acid, you will see any of these: "folate", "5-Methyltetrahydrofolate/(5-MTHF)", "L-methylfolate", or "metfolin".


HORMONES:
If trying to conceive or just got pregnant, make sure your hormones are within normal range. Meet with a doctor that has a holistic approach to hormonal imbalance and not just leave everything to hormone replacement. Your doctor should be able to investigate the root cause and not just put you on drugs only, the full pathway has to be assessed. Some pregnant women lose their baby in the first trimester due to hormone imbalance. Your uterine lining needs the right hormone for it to have the appropriate texture and components required to continue supporting your baby, i have seen lots of women lose their baby due to negligence by their physician, please always remember that hormones in their appropriate levels are vital for a successful pregnancy.


HYPERPROLACTINEMIA AND POLYCYSTIC OVARY SYNDROME:
If your breasts secrete milk when not lactating or pregnant as a result of high prolactin or if you have PCOS and you've not been pregnant or want to, please seek medical attention fast.




BEST SLEEPING POSITION FOR THE PREGNANT WOMEN:

You don't have to worry much about this in your first trimester but as the fetus(baby) becomes bigger, you would have to be more cautious. Don't lie on your back in the later part of your pregnancy because your baby will put pressure on your back, thereby impeding proper blood flow by compressing the vein that returns blood to your heart. The best position for you is to lie on your left side, that way your liver on the right side will have adequate room to perform it's numerous and important functions. You women trying to conceive should also have this at the back of your mind so you find the bridge easier to cross when you get there.



BABIES AT 12 MONTHS OR YOUNGER:

To prevent what we call Sudden Infant Death Syndrome(SIDS) to a certain degree, never allow your baby of 12 months or below sleep on his side or stomach , make them sleep on their back. If you breastfeed your baby on your bed, make sure you take him back to his own baby bed after breastfeeding. Also make sure you do exclusive breastfeeding for atleast 6 month(unless if you're being advised otherwise by a qualified physician); no water, only breast milk because that in it's own contains lots of water. Baby formula is bad for your baby. All what is needed for the baby to grow in a healthy manner has been made available in the milk by nature. Lauric arid is naturally present in breast milk and it's major function is fighting viruses.



METABOLIC SYNDROME:

If you have hypertension, diabetes, and abnormal cholesterol and you are still in your 30s or younger and your heart, pancreas and kidneys are not badly damaged, please pharmaceutical drugs can never be a good option. Never see the lazy way as a solution because by the time you're in your 50s and become completely dependent on the drugs, by then it would have been with higher doses than you started with , then those medications would have wrecked havoc on your system, it's complications are real as i see it everyday. A good physician must first investigate the cause and treat it accordingly and not just treat the symptoms in isolation. Those drugs do nothing than mask the symptoms and delay it's complications. Orthodox medicine is wonderful in Emergency handling but ranks poorly in treating CAUSES and chronic diseases. INTEGRATIVE MEDICINE saw this limitation in Orthodox medicine and arranged for a necessary marriage between orthodox and unconventional/holistic medicine, which gave birth to Integrative Medicine. Anyone in his/her thirties is in his active, vibrant and youthful stage of life, your body and mind can still be very much worked on, what you need is a well programmed and monitored lifestyle changes with natural supplements. With the right information and a comprehensive lifestyle modification under the watch of a Professional this medical conditions will be reversed. Let no one coax you into taking pharmaceutical drugs for this, it can't save you for long. Not that majority of the orthodox medicine practitioners don't know this but it's easier, faster and less stressful to be loaded up on drugs than take the other route, especially when you consider the pressure on public health doctors in this part of the world with the current Doctor-Patient ratio of 1:3500 as against WHO stipulated 1:600.

Notwithstanding, the orthodox doctors should try and do better as medicine isn't a business but a humanitarian profession. And because we, the INTEGRATIVE MEDICINE Physicians have taken the 'field of medicine' to be a humanitarian one, we are able to expend more time knowing our patients and treat them as a whole(body, mind and spirit). Unlike us, Orthodox medicine only treat the body, and until they get to know and accept that a diseased mind will directly cast afflictions on it's Housing(the body), and until they also know that without treating the underlying cause of the disease which in some cases resides in the mind, the disease will never be completely cleared. Until they come to this level of understanding and awareness, they will continue to have many more list of incurable diseases. The medicine i practise is a medicine that understands the human body doesn't and can't operate in isolation. Up till this moment, i don't know of an incurable disease, i only know that only the lack of cooperation and enthusiasm by a patient can make a disease incurable.


VIRAL INFECTIONS:

HBV and HCV. Hepatitis B is in two stages, acute and chronic, which is very common in our society than many people know. If you've tested positive, don't panic, i have seen even so many public figures test positive too, you are not alone in this. Chronic hepatitis B virus and hepatitis C virus can be cleared off the system completely unlike what conventional medicine would tell you but it takes several months of consistent treatment and your adherence to medical instructions. In some, 3 months, in others more. During the course of treatment you are to completely stay away from alcoholic drinks, herbal mixtures of any type, processed oils, some certain pharmaceutical drugs, excess protein intake, no meat,because there's need to relieve the liver of heavy work as it's already under attack(inflammation). No sugar, you eat moderately at a time. Liver inflammation which is caused by hepatitis affects your livers ability to digest some certain foods and substances and as a consequence your absorption and assimilation rate is reduced.

If you have ulcer or any gastro intestinal tract disease/condition together with hepatitis B or C, then you need a better and regular care by a listening physician. Please, never eat any food that has grown mold, don't even try to clean it off or cook and eat. Molds like plants have roots, molds roots are microscopic and they will remain in the food after you might have robbed it of your food surface. Orthodox medicine still don't have a cure for hepatitis B and C and they are not ready yet to acknowledge any cure that comes outside theirs as majority of this cures can't be patented. Liver biopsy is a bit invasive, HBV DNA/viral load is costly, Lamivudine, pegylated interferon and ribavirin is what i see through my patients that most doctors prescribe which can't clear the chronic forms. Hepatitis B and C is curable but if you can't afford the treatment, take to the advice above, take adequate water, proper sleep and make these few supplements/medications close to your heart, i promise they will help: Livolin forte[contains some liver friendly B-vitamins], vitamin E and you can always alternate between Livolin forte and Silymarin(the active substance of Milk Thistle). The most important thing is not just buying the supplements but also buying a high quality brand, if possible stay away from drugs or supplements with heavy chemicals, organic is better because all ingested chemicals go to the liver for detoxification which we are trying to minimize in the case of hepatitis B and C as the liver in this case is a bit compromised. But be careful and if you can afford the services of a professional, please do because we don't advocate self medication.


NOTE: If you have a medical condition or disease that has defied orthodox solutions, don't hesitate to speak up as no one deserves to live in ignorance-induced pain.

Best Regards,
Your Physician.