What You Need to Know About Minerals and Pregnancy

We all know how incredible the female body is, but did you know how truly incredible it becomes around the perinatal time? We want to just put this in perspective for a second: 

A 2019 study by Duke University found that pregnancy has an energy equivalent to running a marathon every day for 40 weeks. However, the energy demand this has on the female body is also (understandably) equally as mind blowing. In fact, according to Dr. Robert Thompson, a woman loses an average of 10% of their body’s mineral reserves during pregnancy.

This means that being intentional by incorporating mineral and nutrient-dense foods into the diet well in advance in preparation for pregnancy is one of the best ways mothers can support their bodies as well as their growing baby (you can reference our post on our favorite mineral-rich foods here). However, remember that these demands don’t stop once the baby is born. It’s also incredibly important to continue to support minerals during breastfeeding and beyond to give our bodies the raw materials it needs to meet the demands and to rebuild the lost mineral stores.

What do we recommend as a supportive strategy during this perinatal time period?

In addition to a mineral-rich diet, we’re also big fans of hair tissue mineral analysis (HTMA) testing to check in on the body’s mineral stores to see where we can fill in and support any nutritional gaps where needed. While we love using blood work, when it comes to minerals and mineral balancing, we much prefer to view mineral status from an HTMA perspective as the HTMA test gives us insight into our tissue reserves and stores over a 2-3 month time period, whereas blood work only allows a snapshot in time. Another benefit of HTMA in comparison to blood work when looking at minerals is that it reflects our mineral stores rather than what is only present in the blood. Due to the blood’s homeostatic nature, it always strives to maintain homeostasis (1, 3, 4). This means that the homeostatic nature of blood comes at the expense of our tissues, stealing from our reserves and potentially depleting the tissues, such as our kidneys, bone and intestines which are three common sources (1). One common example, which we can often see reflected in compromised oral health in the form of cavities or our bone health when we struggle with health conditions such as osteoporosis.

Inside the collective, we support future moms who want to optimize fertility as well as pregnant and postpartum mothers through functional testing, which always includes HTMA testing.

A note about blood work: As mentioned, we LOVE blood work and use it with every single client inside our practice. However, for the purpose of mineral balancing, we like to use an HTMA for mineral markers over blood work when we are supporting clients in this specific area of health. Every pregnancy and postpartum client gets to use blood work and HTMA inside our packages, as both are very important for uncovering the full story of every client. 

If you are interested in being supported in perinatal health while having access to functional labs such as HTMA testing and perinatal-specific blood work, we encourage you to apply to work with us here. 

References

1. Beto JA. The role of calcium in human aging. https://doi.org/10.7762/cnr.2015.4.1.1. Accessed July 10, 2024. https://doi.org/10.7762/cnr.2015.4.1.1. 

2. Author links open overlay panel Martin Kohlmeier, The term minerals is used to refer to those inorganic compounds that form salts and are water-soluble. It should be noted that some of these substances can be used only in certain complex forms. Elemental phosphorus. Minerals and trace elements. Nutrient Metabolism (Second Edition). May 15, 2015. Accessed July 10, 2024. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/B9780123877840000110. 

3. Dietary reference intakes for calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, vitamin D, and fluoride. National Center for Biotechnology Information. Accessed July 10, 2024. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23115811/.

4. Office of dietary supplements – calcium. NIH Office of Dietary Supplements. Accessed July 10, 2024. https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Calcium/HealthProfessional/.