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Since the introduction of oral contraceptives in the early 1960s, the use of The Pill, as it is generally known, has soared to approximately 7 in 10 women of childbearing age. Among young women ages 18-24, oral contraceptives use is especially high, reaching two-thirds in 2008. It seems most women have no knowledge of natural birth control options whatsoever!
The widespread use of The Pill is a troubling issue because oral contraceptives devastate beneficial bacterial flora in the gut leaving it vulnerable to colonization and dominance from pathogenic strains such as Candida albicans, Streptococci, and Staphylococci among others.
By the time a woman who has used birth control pills is ready to have children, a severe case of intractable gut dysbiosis has more than likely taken hold.
Most people think that only the use of drugs such as antibiotics causes gut imbalances, but this is simply not true.
According, to Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride MD, many other drugs such as the Pill also cause severe gut dysbiosis. What’s worse, a drug-induced gut imbalance is especially resistant to treatment either with probiotics or diet change.
What does this mean for your future child’s health? A lot, as it turns out!
The Pill and Nutritional Deficiencies
First of all, gut imbalance brought on through the use of The Pill negatively impacts the ability to digest food and absorb nutrients. As a result, even if a woman eats spectacularly well during pregnancy, she can experience nutritional deficiencies. If she has been taking oral contraceptives for a long period of time, it is highly likely that she and her baby are not reaping the full benefits of the healthy food she is eating. The lack of beneficial flora in her gut prevents this from occurring.
In addition, beneficial bacteria actively synthesize nutrients. These include vitamin K1, pantothenic acid, folate (NOT synthetic folic acid), thiamin (B1), cyanocobalamin (B12), amino acids and others. In an imbalanced gut, a woman is missing out on the “natural supplementation” that these good strains provide to her and her growing baby.
Not well known is the fact that using the Pill depletes zinc in the body. Zinc is called “the intelligence mineral” as it is intimately involved in mental development.
As a result, it is very important for women who have been using the Pill for any length of time to wait at least 6 months before becoming pregnant to ensure that zinc levels return to normal. Low zinc is associated with lowered IQ and birth defects. If you are concerned that your levels might be low, try this easy at-home zinc deficiency test to give you peace of mind.
It really is quite disturbing to fully realize the very real potential that the use of The Pill has to trigger nutritional deficiencies!
Pathogenic Gut Flora from Birth Control Pills Produce a Myriad of Toxins
Pathogenic, opportunistic flora that takes hold in the gut when The Pill is used constantly produce toxic substances. They are the by-products of their metabolism. These toxins leak into the woman’s bloodstream and guess what, they have the potential to cross the placenta! Therefore, gut dysbiosis exposes the fetus to toxins even if the woman never eats anything but organic foods and lives in an environment with no pollutants whatsoever.
Indeed, an imbalanced gut has the potential to expose a woman and her baby to just as many or even more toxins than her environment through self-poisoning!
Gut Dysbiosis Triggered by The Pill and Anemia Go Hand in Hand
Most people with abnormal gut flora also suffer from various stages of anemia. This is because some of the most common pathogenic strains of bacteria that take hold in an imbalanced gut are those that consume iron: Actinomyces spp., Mycobacterium spp., pathogenic strains of E.Coli, Corynebacterium spp. and others.
Anemia during pregnancy is especially dangerous. Not only can it deprive the fetus of oxygen (iron helps build red blood cells and red blood cells carry oxygen), but it is linked to low birth weight and pre-term birth and the many long term health and associated developmental problems.
Can iron supplements during pregnancy combat this problem?
In a word, no! How many women do you know who consistently battle low iron during pregnancy despite consuming iron supplements and eating iron-rich foods? I personally know many such cases.
The reason is that the more iron a patient with gut dysbiosis consumes in either food or supplement form, the stronger these pathogenic, iron loving strains become! The extra iron “feeds” them, so to speak, much the same as sugar feeds Candida albicans. The cure for gut dysbiotic anemia is to heal and seal the gut, not take iron supplements!
A Baby “Inherits” Gut Dysbiosis from Mom
A human baby is born with a sterile gut. This means that there is no bacterial activity in a fetus’ digestive system prior to birth. The vast majority of gut flora that a child eventually develops is inherited from Mom. This occurs via the baby swallowing microbes both good and bad during vaginal birth. If Mom has a gut imbalance, it will be the same situation in her vagina. Hence, her children’s intestines will be seeded with the same microbes during delivery. Babies born via Cesarean section are at risk for even more unbalanced gut flora.
Children with imbalanced gut flora are particularly predisposed to autoimmune disorders in the form of allergies, asthma, and eczema. In more severe cases of gut dysbiosis, learning disabilities manifest such as ADHD, ADD, autism, dyslexia, dyspraxia, and others. Of course, there is sometimes an environmental “trigger” which instigates these disorders. But, it is crucial to keep in mind that gut dysbiosis is the primary underlying cause.
Think Twice Before Taking Birth Control Pills
When considering whether or not to take oral contraceptives, women rarely if ever consider the long term implications to themselves let alone their children. This is no surprise given that doctors rarely if ever mention this sort of thing when prescribing antibiotics let alone The Pill to their patients!
Therefore, it is vital that women be fully informed of the potentially devastating consequences to their health and that of their children from birth control pills. Even their grandchildren may be affected according to preliminary research. This full disclosure is critical and the most ethical course of action for prescribing physicians.
Sources
March of Dimes, pregnancy complications
Mineral Primer
Gut and Psychology Syndrome, Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride MD
More Information
170 Scientific Studies Confirm the Dangers of Soy
Why Even Organic Soy Formula is so Dangerous for Babies
The Dangers of Estrogenic Foods, Herbs, and Drugs
I’m sorry, but this post is completely one-sided. Oral contraceptives have been around since 1960. Study after study has continuously shown the long term use of the pills is not harmful and they provide therapeutic effects. It’s organic food eating, anti-pharmaceuticals, pro-vegan, pro-raw, pro-life, stay-at-home-throw-away-your-college-education-moms who come up with this propaganda all to reinforce your non-substantiated post.
Hi Christy, I happen to have a Master’s Degree from an Ivy League college. It seems the only studies you are reading and the only information you are letting into your little box of ideas are the skewed, fudged, pharmaceutical company paid for propaganda masquerading as legitimate studies. Get out of your box girl! You’re going to suffocate in there!
Oh, and I eat meat too. Don’t you just love folks who live in a world of generalities?
Christy ~ I’m a humanist, pro-choice, meat eating domestic engineer and I think the pill is the worst thing women can do to their bodies. I was on the pill in my early twenties and it caused all kinds of issues.
The WAPF has an article about subclinical B6 deficiency. Birth control pills are strongly linked to this deficiency. Keep in mind, there is almost never just one B vitamin deficiency. Yikes. What if a host of our health problems started because we started popping pills like candy in high school? Drug companies feel the push and send out the quack patrol to quiet anything standing in the way of big money. Don’t think for a second that anything chemical or synthetic has “helped” anyone when all things chemical and synthetic helped that person down a road to bad health in the first place.
I was repeatedly put on antibiotics from infancy and took birth control pills for 10 years, starting from the age of 12 because of severe cramping. In college, I became very ill and was diagnosed with IBS, chronic fatigue, endometriosis, and fibromyalgia. I was told to drop out of school and get on disability. There was nothing the doctors could do. I started looking into nutrition and alternative medicine. Eventually, I was led to raw milk, grass fed beef, and basically a grain free Weston A Price diet. It has helped a lot, but I still struggle with thyroid, auto-immune issues, and hormone issues. I also have 3 children who all have asthma and allergies and low immunity, along with various other health issues. My son is dyslexic and my daughter has emotional problems. They have always been fed a very healthy diet and were all breastfed until they were almost 3.
For years I have been searching for answers and trying to piece things together about why my children struggle so much. I am often accused of causing my children’s illness because I don’t feed them “normal” food. Anyway, it is hard enough to realize that doctors and pharmaceuticals ruined my health, but watching my children suffer and knowing they might deal with health issues most of their life… It is just heartbreaking. How I just wish I knew more back then.
P, I will definitely check that out. I think we may be on the same page and I’m always open to learning:)
Oopps forgot to mention that I’ve been using the “Lady Comp” for the past 5 years and I LOVE it. A little bit of an investment but a very simple and effective way to practice natural birth control.
Thank you for writing about this very important topic. I am so excited to see how far and wide it’s been spread online. I’m really passionate about preconception health because there is SO much that we can do to optimize our future child’s health before we even become pregnant. I’ve gone through this journey myself and after years of dedication to my health I’m now ready to become a mom and feel that my body will support a healthy pregnancy and baby. I’m really excited!
Thank you for getting this information out there! I was on the pill for 5 years and never knew how wonderful I could feel without it. I am SO glad I switched to fertility awareness for a natural contraceptive.
I recently stopped taking birth control because hubby and I are TTC, and don’t really want to go back on it. Once I got off the pill, I realized that it really affected my libido. Let’s just say my husband had no idea what hit him, but he hasn’t complained ;). I think it will be NFP from now on.
However, I do not like seeing the pill being demonized so much. It probably saved my mother’s fertility. She had severe endometriosis that required surgery to treat. After that surgery, she was able to get pregnant with my brother and she took BCP between pregnancies to keep the endometriosis from coming back. I probably wouldn’t be here if she hadn’t taken it. And I haven’t seen any possible side effects from her taking birth control that wouldn’t be because of genetics.
But I do not deny that there is a link. I just believe that like everything else, you should educate yourself and weigh the risks and benefits.
This is a pretty interesting article, and I myself have discovered that I can no longer take any kind of oral contraceptive without horrible side effects, however I really wish you all wouldn’t demonize ‘the pill’ and make it seem as if everyone in the world is as knowledgeable and educated as your readers may be. Oral contraceptives have helped women become autonomous in the last 40+ years; we no longer HAVE to make a choice between enjoying our sexuality and becoming burdened with an unintended pregnancy. The pill also made it possible for women to make great strides in education and the work place. Nothing is without side effects of course, but I still (even though I no longer take it) think ‘the pill’ has done more good than harm.
Hi Lisa,
While I hear your point about the pill and it’s relationship to women’s empowerment (and I preface this by saying I have worked for and still support the mission of Planned Parenthood and other women’s clinics etc), I also found the work of the late Jeannine Parvati Baker in her book “Conscious Conception: Elemental Journey through the Labyrinth of Sexuality” EXTREMELY fascinating in arguing that the pill may not have actually been as liberating in some ways as people may have thought. I don’t agree with ALL of her arguments/POV, but it was very definitely an eye opener on a perspective that I hadn’t considered.
And yes, though I too have not been able to take hormonal birth control due to health reasons, I still support a woman’s right to obtain them if pregnancy is the larger concern, and still bless the years I didn’t get preggo because I was on it. That being said, I do think Western medicine is VERY lacking in telling people in general about the nutritional hits that a LOT of meds cause and not educating them on how even if they can’t mitigate these effects entirely, how they can at least minimize them with appropriate diet/supplementation etc etc