Tami Quinn - The Infertility Cleanse: Detox, Diet and Dharma for Fertility

Tamara Quinn, Elisabeth Heller 2011

The rights of Tamara Quinn and Elisabeth Heller to be identified as the authors of this work have been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1998.

First published by Findhorn Press 2011

ISBN: 978-1-84409-508-7

All rights reserved. The contents of this book may not be reproduced in any form, except for short extracts for quotation or review, without the written permission of the publisher.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Cover and Interior designed by Damian Keenan
Printed and bound in China

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W e wrote this book during one of the most challenging years we can ever remember. In addition to a crashing economy and trying to find balance between work and family, our offices at Pulling Down the Moon were completely flooded by the Chicago River and destroyed in July of 2010. Since then, weve rebuilt our space, written this book and somehow ended up stronger than ever. During these times of what we call flood and famine, we were supported by many people who helped us survive and thrive. The field of Integrative Care for Fertility is rapidly evolving, primarily from the insight of those thick in the work. The commitment of our practitioners and the stories and the experiences of our patients guide us in all we do at Pulling Down the Moon. Our heartfelt thanks go out to the following:

Matt Heller, Brian Quinn, Kriyananda, the practitioners at Pulling Down the Moon, Thierry Bogliolo, Nicky Leach, Ali Domar, Marie Davidson, Caitlin Roche, the physicians at Fertility Centers of Illinois and Shady Grove Fertility, Mimi Productions.

We are also extremely grateful for our ever evolving yoga practice and its persistent, subtle presence in our lives and work.

Most importantly, we dedicate The Infertility Cleanse to our children: Kevin, Courtney, Jackson and Calvin. May they see through this book that despite hardships in life, the strength to blossom and grow is always there when we follow our heart and its good intentions.

I met Tami Quinn and Beth Heller about ten years ago, when they asked me to speak at the opening of Pulling Down the Moon, their first integrative care center for infertility. Since then, our paths have crossed with increasing frequency, to the point now where we are actually talking about partnering in the creation of a new model of integrative care centers.

Our relationship has been challenged from time to time, however, by my obsession with maintaining strict scientific standards. Tami and Beth are visionaries, yoga teachers, and caregivers. I am the nerd. They speak of caring for the souls of their patients. I talk about statistical significance and randomized controlled studies. They use the word can. I use the word may.

So you can imagine my horror when they told me the title of their new book. The Infertility Cleanse as a title gave me visions of coffee enemas, ultra-elimination diets, and toxic herbs. I could not believe that at least some of my scientific rigor had not rubbed off on them. So I told them of my extreme concern and they reassured me that the book was indeed based on science, that I needed to trust them, offered to let me read the galleys, and invited me to write the foreword if in fact I was comfortable with the content.

Since you are currently reading a foreword by me, you can guess that I did read the book, and am comfortable with the content. But the scientist in me (ok, nerd) had to come to terms with the word cleanse. So of course I looked it up in the thesaurus.

Cleanse means to absolve, clarify, clean, clear, depurgate, disinfect, expurgate, launder, lustrate, purge, purify, refine, restore, sanitize, scour, scrub, or sterilize. I have actually never seen or used the words depurgate or expurgate, but in terms of infertility treatment from a holistic point of view, I like the concepts of restoration, clarification, and refinement. But a book called Infertility Refinement just doesnt do it. So I had to come to terms with the word cleanse.

There are a lot of unknowns in the field of infertility treatment. Although the vast majority of individuals and couples who see an infertility specialist get a definitive diagnosis, not everyone who is treated conceives and delivers a baby. And in fact, most of the normal appearing embryos transferred as part of an IVF cycle dont implant. So, there is room in this equation for other factors to play a role: factors such as diet, stress, and the environment. I have spent most of my research career focusing on the relationship between stress and fertility and I believe that we now have data to support the fact that stress is a detriment to conception, and that teaching women specific stress reduction strategies is associated with significant increases in pregnancy rates. Although we dont have the gold standard, randomized controlled trials, to prove that the other interventions covered in this book increase pregnancy rates, we do know that these strategies have helped other patient populations, there arent any downsides to improving your diet and adopting healthier lifestyle habits, and anything one can do to increase ones sense of control leads to peace of mind. And trust me, if you have peace of mind, you have everything.

Alice D. Domar, Ph.D.

Photo courtesy of Barbara Peacock Photography

N ow bend your knee and sink into Warrior 2. The yoga teachers instructions were clear, yet I somehow couldnt hear exactly what she was saying through the static clouding my brain. My body was in the yoga room, but my mind was simultaneously in a million places. It was a day I was supposed to be working from home, but I chose to break the stress of my day with a yoga class just around the corner.

I was new to this practice of yoga; it wasnt considered particularly hip, and God only knew if it could help me shed the 10 pounds I was never able to lose after the twins were born. Nonetheless, I knew I had to try something to pull me out of the three-year slump I was inthe slump that made me cry all the time, feel moody, completely burned-out, tender, stressed, and alone. I was so blessed in so many ways, yet nothing seemed to make sense anymore. I had struggled so hard to have my twins, and now that I had them, why was I leaving them with a nanny four days a week so I could go to a job that stressed me out beyond belief? I wasnt feeling very healthy lately, either. Constant headaches, numbness and tingling in my arms and legs, chronic sinus infections. The neurologist did an MrI hoping to eliminate the possibility of MS. The results came back negative, and he asked me if I felt stressed a lot. Hell yeah, I said, You got a test for that?