EP #2 Unlock the Secrets of Your DNA in Understanding Pregnancy Loss and Infertility | Florence Iwegbue

In this episode of the WOMBen Collective™ podcast, Daisy May Reyes interviews Florence Iwegbue, co-founder of Livewello, to discuss the intersection of genetics and women's health, particularly focusing on how understanding genetic mutations like MTHFR can provide insights into pregnancy loss, infertility, and chronic health issues. Florence shares her personal journey of using genetic information to improve her family's health and emphasizes the importance of compassionate self-care, lifestyle changes, and meditation. The discussion also highlights the innovative features of the Livewello software for interpreting genetic data and creating personalized health plans.

Listen to the end to receive discount code to use their services and products.

00:00 Florence
04:54 MTHFR Gene Test
08:19 What is the MTHFR Gene
09:48 Folate and DNA Repair
12:10 Who Tests For the MTHFR Genes
14:46 How Some Women with MTHFR gene respond to Folic Acid
15:38 Folate and Our Unique Genetic Code
16:58 Dietary
18:16 Infertility, Trying to Conceive, and PCOS
18:57 Stress Reduction with Meditation
21:15 MTHFR Gene in Relation to Chronic Illness
22:48 Self-Blame
23:37 Talking To Your Body
25:10 Dietary Intervention and Practical Self-Care
28:01 GeneChat (Software)
31:56 Lifestyle Difference Between City and Rural Living
34:10 Self-Care for Pregnancy Loss
35:52 Rewriting our DNA
36:48 How Livewello Translates your DNA and Reproductive Health information to everyday language
37:48 Predisposition via Genetics for a Disease
39:41 Pregnancy Loss and Genetic Mutation Explained
41:49 Infertility and Anxiety
44:54 Our Grandmother's Traumas
47:27 Modern Medicine is only 300 years old
50:02 Closing
53:26 A Message for Women Experience Pregnancy Loss and also women who are Trying to Conceive and wants to carry a full-term pregnancy
54:33 A Message For Women Facing Infertility

Connect with Florence at Livewello.com

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Transcript

0:00

Imagine living with anxiety and struggling with infertility. That person is not happy. That person is struggling and that person deserves our compassion and that person deserves not to blame themselves either. Very important. And that's part of the message also because I live with self blame and apparently it's a problem that a lot of us women have, and self guilt. And I believe that one of the things that alleviated guilt for me was knowing that a lot of health problems that I suffered and I saw in my family were associated with something that we could not control. our grandmother's traumas are recorded in our DNA. Did you know that? Yes. Yeah. So a lot of women walking around have the recorded trauma of their grandmother. Correct. And that, yeah, and that trauma could be infertility on their end too. And even the chronic illness that we may have now that we're experiencing, that's inherited from the DNA from the previous generations. And it's all included, recorded in our DNA. So why did I start this podcast? After experiencing miscarriages and going through a challenging period of numbness and anger, I found healing by understanding my emotions, reconnecting with my body, and connecting with my soul and also my spirit babies. My mission with this podcast is to enter a space of vulnerability and sacredness. of deeply personal stories of women who were impacted by pregnancy loss, miscarriages, stillbirth, and infertility. My goal is to bridge the gap between our losses and the deep spiritual insights that can come with them so that they can guide us toward healing and understanding beyond the physical realm. I'm Daisy May Reyes, and I bring together the wisdom of our wombs as a collective. Welcome to the WOMBen Collective™podcast presented by the Oversoul Vibration. Today we are joined by Florence Iwegbue, a co founder of Livewello. She's here to discuss about how genetics impacts pregnancy loss. And how understanding your DNA can aid in healing. She's also here because she has also experienced pregnancy loss in her family history. So let's go ahead and dive in. Florence, welcome to our podcast. Thank you for being here. Thank you for having me here, Daisy. It's so nice to meet you. I'm so honored to meet you and your audience. Yes, yes. To start off, I'd love to learn more about you and your work about the intersection of genetics. And the ancient wisdom about DNA. Can you dive in about that? But before we do, can you tell us more about yourself and how you led and co found Livewello? Okay. My journey to Live Wello started with the diagnosis of my son with autism. When I entered the space, I started meeting other moms. Okay. One of the key things that we're discussing was genetics and epigenetics and how this plays a role in chronic illness. We talk about chronic illness and autism, not because we want to change our children, our neurodiverse children, but there are co morbids, there are health issues that our neurodivergent children have that we try to make their life, my life easier. In doing. That we delved into the world off genetics. A lot of the moms that I was meeting and we're doing all kinds of dietary interventions and lifestyle changes with doing it as a result off genetic information that they had gained about their Children. So I went ahead and did a genetic test on my son. However, when the results came out, and this was about 13, 14 years ago, when the tests Results came out, it came out in a large raw data file, and it was very complex. And the only reason I was able to understand it was because my husband was in the field of medicine, and he's a physician ER emergency medicine and primary care. But also he happened to teach himself how to write software when our son got diagnosed. So, basically, we got the results. It was almost 10, 000 pages worth of information. And there were specific genes I wanted to look at because our son was also diagnosed with epilepsy. So it was MTHFR gene and all the genes in the methylation panel. These are the genes that are going to be important. To your listeners the methylation cycle is gonna be the biggest focus for people who experience pregnancy loss or the loss of a child at birth or pregnancy, a child at birth. And so there are a bunch of genes, or they call them enzymes that are in that methylation cycle. And when I pulled my son's. Gene test results. I started to see the issues that he had in his methylation cycle. We went ahead and build a software to allow other people to be able to easily see this information. As well. And that was when live live. Well, it became software for everybody to use in 2013. And what people would do at that time was they would get their AncestryDNA 23andMe test results, and they would upload it into our software. And then our software would generate a report for them. This was still complex. Information. So what we did recently and won a health unity award for at Stanford University was that we added a feature called gene chat that now allows everyday people like myself and you who were not medically or scientifically trained to interact with our DNA and ask questions like MTHFR. What is the MTHFR gene and how does that affect pregnancy loss or infertility issues or issues related to PCOS that surrounds infertility? And it gives you an answer, and you can actually tell our software that you want the answer at 5th grade level and or 3rd grade, whatever level is amenable to you. And it will give you that information. At a watered down level so that you can understand and you can take it to your doctor, your functional medicine doctor, or any of the kind of practitioner that you work with and say, this is an issue that I seem to have. How can you help me walk through this process? We actually have doctors on our software who who also work with people on this issue, but that's just the basics of how I got into it. I got into it. Because of my child. Yes. Yeah. Thank you so much, Florence. And thank you for that share. And it all started with the love for your child. It seems like it, and it grew to the company that you have now co founded with you. And is it your, your husband? Yes, yes, yes. He's also a doctor. Yeah. And he's over here supervising everything I say to make sure I don't say the wrong thing. You're here to explain it at fifth level so we can understand. Yes. Translating it to fifth level. Can you explain what is the MTHFR gene for us? Okay, so I'll explain it firstly the scientific way, and then I'll explain it at a fifth grade level. The M-T-H-F-R gene, which is known as the methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase. So now you know why we call it MThFR is the gene associated with several fascinating aspects of genetics and health. The MTHFR gene is an enzyme that plays a critical role in something called folate metabolism. And folate is vital for DNA synthesis and repair. So DNA synthesis is a process of creating the baby. If there is a problem with your methylation cycle or the MTHFR gene, You are going to have issues with with the conception and retaining of the pregnancy. So deficiencies and disruptions in this pathway can lead to various health problems, including neurotube defects in developing embryos. It's also a crucial gene in the processing of. amino acids, which are the building blocks of proteins and proteins are the building blocks of life. So specifically it helps convert homocysteine to methionine, which is an essential process in methylation and it affects the DNA synthesis as well as DNA repair. So the MTHFR gene makes an enzyme that helps our bodies use the vitamin called folate and Folate is a really important element for making and fixing our DNA. It's like the instruction for our bodies. And so basically it is important because of this DNA requirement. Pair issue. If we don't have enough folate, it can cause problems like birth defects in babies. So those birth defects in babies is what usually leads to the pregnancy ending early, you know, or upon delivery. And that's what, that's what we're here for. This MTHFR enzyme helps change a chemical called homocysteine into another one called methionine. And this process is important again for making proteins and keeping our DNA healthy. I wanted to say it that way. To put it in a more simple way so that people listening can understand the importance of it. So the two major genes that I'm gonna be talking to you about today associated with the M-T-H-F-R gene, it's two major polymorphisms or gene mutations associated with it. They called C677T. So it's the C677T variation and the A1298C variation. So when people get their test results, because they can test with our company, or they can bring their test results from another company. But when they upload, The test results into the system. Those are the two genes that they want to know the results for and those results of what they're going to take to the doctor and create a health plan as well as a lifestyle plan in order to abate the issues that come with those gene mutations. But what I will tell you for sure. is that a lot of women that experience infertility issues do carry this gene. It's a matter of finding out and it gets worse if their partner also carries this gene mutation. It makes things rather complicated in the pregnancy process. Florence, when would be the best time to do testing? And like, who should be testing for the MTHFR genes? Okay now the people who should be testing are women who have already experienced pregnancy loss or women who are thinking of getting pregnant or women who have had trouble just conceiving. Those are the people in my opinion that should be testing. I think personally that people who have already experienced pregnancy loss multiple times should go ahead and test not just themselves, but their partner. I think that that that would be, in my opinion you know, the judicious decision to make test both partners, know what you're dealing with and start to change the lifestyle of anybody who shows up as having this gene mutation. Yeah. Yeah. And I love how you said about You know, you take the test results to your doctor or your family physician or your dietitian, nutritionist, then they will translate it to where, okay, let's create the plan, kind of like creating a nutritional plan, a meal plan or, or lifestyle plan that they can use, right? So is that the impact that the MTHFR testing can do for women who experience loss? Yeah. Having that gene for all the moms that I have interacted with having that information about their gene and changing their lifestyle has completely had a positive effect on them. You have to have a provider, healthcare provider who understands this gene, or even knows what you're talking about. You can look on our website at livewello.com, or you can look and find somebody yourself. Usually, I advise a functional medicine or medicine doctor. But yes, the lifestyle changes. The 1st lifestyle change, in my opinion, is a dietary lifestyle change. The dietary lifestyle people are not going to like this, but it involves having a farm to table diet, which means that you cannot have processed foods anymore or processed foods that are fortified with folic acid. Now, folic acid is often seen as the supplement for pregnant women, but a woman who has this gene mutation, she will need to take a folic acid in a different way. And the different way is that with this gene mutation, because your body cannot break down folic acid, you will need to take 5-methyltetrahydrofolate, which is the broken down form of it's literally$12 if you look online, it's this, this supplement is$12, but it's 5-methyltetrahydrofolate(5MTHF). It is a more broken down version of folic acid, and it is more easily utilized by your body. So a lot of times when people take the folic acid, it does nothing for them. In fact, sometimes it causes even more harm than good. So which is why I, I believe that women need to know this before they even get on that pregnancy supplement. They need to know that in that list of ingredients, the folate they're taking is the folate that works best best for their body. And this is where we go into the field of personalized medicine. You know, the type of folic acid or folate that you, you take, or I take is different from what the next person takes. And that is because of our genetic code. And so so the first thing is the supplemental change. The second thing is the diet will change. They it requires that you eat deep green leafy vegetables. I think that sometimes you might have to not take dairy and gluten only because those have been genetically modified. And a lot of times, people who have this gene cannot. process these ingredients. So what we're trying to do when you find out that you have this genetic mutation is to take a load off your body. Your body is a very conservative machine and it tries to handle the most important things first. And if there's anything you can do outside the body to help the inside of the body, Go ahead and do it. And part of that involves the less chemicals and processed foods you consume, you have to eat basically directly from the earth. So everything you get comes into the house and it's cooked and prepared for your family. You have control, 100 percent control of what you're consuming. And that's the goal. And avoid eating anything your grandma I would not recognize, you know, avoid engaging in activities that would that will not be beneficial to your health. A lot of people who end up finding out that they have MTHFR tend to stop drinking alcohol because they want to take a lot of pressure off their livers. And so these are just some of the things that they require. And then we come to the big issue of stress. You know, and stress affects everybody. It affects a little three year old with autism. It affects the mother of that three year old who's trying to have the baby, another baby. It affects everybody. And so, for instance this is not you know, for my son, I introduced yoga and meditation at a very young age. He can't do it. Couldn't even sit still, but I introduced it to him as a form of stress management and, and reduction of cortisol and stress hormones in the body. A lot of women with infertility issues have been diagnosed with PCOS, a lot of PCOS, which is a polycystic ovarian syndrome. Sorry, I just. Use the acronym but a lot of these chronic health issues have a stress component and a woman who is trying to conceive stress is a very vital component. So aside from the diet, aside from taking the right supplementation for your, for your you need to consider a mind body activity like Meditation to reduce the stress in your body and meditation for me personally, was a huge component. I needed to lose 27 kg and a lot of what I did to lose that weight and get better was started with meditation. Meditation put me in. The state of mind where I was able to see clearly what I needed to do to help myself. It made me more willing to make the commitment to change my diet, my son's diet, and the diet of the rest of my family. I saw the value of it more clearly. Now your audience is much more motivated and much more driven. To success, so I don't have to say all these things that I'm saying, but a lot of times when, you know, you're dealing with people and we who just have problems losing a few pounds you kind of have to drive the message that the 3rd most important component is mind body and reducing stress through meditation, through yoga, you know, stuff like that. Yeah. Florence, thank you for your share about how the diet and also managing their stress through relaxation, such as meditation, which is a wonderful tool. It helps relaxes the body. And when the bodies relax, I find that, because I'm an avid meditator myself as well, and I find that when, yeah, is that we tend to, I noticed the body more easily, like I become so self aware, like I could recognize my cells, I could recognize the flow of my body, the blood, how it's flowing in the vessels. And when I have that understanding, it helps me understand that it helped me recognize that my body is working its best to support me. So I have to have that mindset that if that's what they're doing, then I also have to support my body. And the way that I can support their work is through that meditation, because now with meditation, I'm giving my body, I'm giving the little cells, even the mitochondrias, you know, the, the blood vessels, the, the, the blood cells, I'm giving them a chance to do their work. And that's all that there is. So, yeah, I would really love to dive deep into the DNA context of your work. So in relation to the chronic issues, how does the genetic component of MTHFR, understanding them, can help reduce the chronic issues and and ultimately, you know, maybe heal their own body with that chronic issues. Yeah, unfortunately we, we are here talking about infertility and pregnancy loss, but the vast majority of people who carry the MTHFR genetic mutation, they do carry a lot of chronic health issues, starting from cleft palate, neural tube defects, depression, addiction issues, ADHD, Deep Vein Thrombosis which is a blood clotting issue. Anxiety is a huge one in our community in the MTHFR community, anxiety. So a lot of women listening to us today who carry this gene have an anxiety problem. And they're usually quiet about it, or even they have a problem in all the issues that I've talked about, and they usually quiet about it. And there's a lot of self blame that goes on. People don't realize. That when we're born into this world, we, we come with a catalog of genes. We come with good genes, we come with bad genes, and somehow along the way, something in our lifestyle can switch on the bad genes. And once those bad genes are switched on, we start to see chronic illness. Everything that I listed. Down to stuff that appears in just a regular population of people who don't even carry the gene. And so I'm talking on a more global level here that genetic mutations are affected by our lifestyle. And the good news about that is that if we change our lifestyle, we can turn our genes into positives. So, you know, for instance you know, you talk about meditation You can talk to your genetics when you meditate. You can talk to yourself when you meditate. You can tell yourself what you, your body, what you want it to do. And research is now showing that when you tell your body what you want, want it to do, your body responds. So I know this sounds a little bit kooky, but we have people out there like this. Bruce Lipton and other authors who have documented a lot of what I'm saying. And so the issue with chronic illness, it is not normal. It is not okay for us to be walking around with all these chronic health issues. The problem is our environment has changed in the past 20 years, 20 to 30 years. A lot of the foods we're eating, the quality is really bad. And even worse, there are additives in it that are detrimental to our health. So now, a lot of people who listen to you, Daisy, are proactive people. Everyone who listens to you is proactive. They're listening to you because they want answers. And they are going to do what they can in their lives. So That is the new way of life. The new way of life is to kind of have the intuition or the drive to do something about improving your health so you can get a to achieve a goal. If the, if the goal is to eliminate or eradicate or reverse PCOS, you know, you can do that. Now with a dietary intervention you can reverse and stop pregnancy loss with a lifestyle change. And this is what we're talking about here. This is what we want to try to do for people listening today. I hope that answered your question. Oh, my goodness. Yes, Florence, it did. And I just want to emphasize also what you mentioned about talking to ourselves or talking to our body. You can actively talk to them and through meditation, like you mentioned. That's my way of loving myself by talking to my body through meditation. And they love when you talk to your body, they love when they listen to your voice, your body listens, and they just want to hear your voice. They want to hear your voice, say that you love your body, and they will work with you. And, you know, it just gives me that nice, Slushy feeling that, you know, when I just say, I love you, my body, I love, I love myself, and I love the cells that are pushing all the blood through my, my veins. And I just love even my ovaries. Thank you for keeping me alive. Thank you for allowing me to move, you know, that's a lot of what I do is thank my body because I'm 50 years old and I'm grateful for the ability to move, you know, I lost my mom and she was only 58. So right now I'm at that stage in life where I'm grateful for every day. I'm thankful for every day. And. You know, the fact that I can talk to you I used to have fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue you know, really bad brain fog, you know, overweight, really unhappy. And I'm just thankful. I'm thankful that I can get up and go to the gym and work out. And actually see all these people who are really like real fitness people and be around them. You know, I, I'm just grateful for that. Cause I didn't know what a gym was until like three years ago, you know, I didn't care about stuff like that. And it was through talking to my body that my body was able to convince me that this is what I needed to do, you know, and I'm always constantly referencing my body, you know, because in my Livewello profile and people, when they go, they can create their own profile. I put in stuff like my allergies. I put in stuff like the foods I don't like. I know we talked about it earlier. I'm not a big fan of like raw fish, so I don't like things like sushi. And there's a couple of other things. I don't eat dairy and I don't eat gluten. So when I go into my DNA profile account and I need help I'm traveling, I'm on a podcast tour. So I'm going to be in a lot of hotel rooms. And so I asked my profile through GeneChat, which is the software that People can use on the tool that people can use on Livewello. I asked it to create a diet plan and an exercise plan. Foods can I eat to maintain my heritage diet. So I eat a diet that is similar to people who are from Sub-Saharan Africa, because that's where most of my genetics. Is, is basically from, so I eat a very deep rooted carbohydrates and I eat, my greens are very deep colored greens. I don't benefit from light colored green vegetables, I benefit from deep colored green vegetables. And I eat a lot of fish, a lot of oily fish which is fish that people in my region of, of Africa. in Sub Saharan Africa eat. And I try to maintain a healthy life because somehow, unfortunately the Sub Saharan body requires a higher level of physical activity in order to stay healthy. I have an exercise plan that involves me doing stretching and movement activities every single day. So yeah, so I'm always kind of in a yoga mode almost every day. So it creates a plan for me as I travel. And so the software doesn't just give you information about. Eugene, you can ask it all the questions about yourself. Recently, I started taking because of the allergy season coming on and I noticed that I started sleeping very badly and I went in to ask my. Gene results in my live well. Oh why I was sleeping very badly because I introduced Kirsten and it told me that if I was taking the Kirsten in the evening, that it would interrupt with my sleep. So. This software, even though it gives you genetic information, it can help you manage your life as well. So I stopped. I moved to take in my cursor ting to the mornings and my sleep came back. So go figure. It's a really smart tool that we added to it. So people shouldn't feel like the only information they can get from it is the genetic information. They can get lifestyle information as well. Yeah. Yeah. I love that. It's like really well-thought of software. So basically the genetics information is there, and then the person, the user can input what they are actually doing right now in the present life. And then the software will analyze what is the missing link between what you're doing now to what you could have done better. And yes, because it has. Yes. Yes. Right. So, so it fills in the gap of between. Yes. All you're doing wrong, the diet, you're not working out, maybe you lack meditation, lack of sleep, lack of water. I mean, the genetics your every day, what you do every day what you take every day. You have to put that into your profile. So we give you a chance to put that information into your profile as part of your profile. It's a very detailed profile, and not everybody fills it out. And some people fill it out a little bit at a time, but you have that option. Because when you do that, the answers that it gives to your questions become much more focused and much more personalized. And when it's much more personalized, the answer is much more targeted to you. So here's a mundane question that I asked myself when January. Unfortunately, I had to travel to bury my father in my village area. And when I got there, one of the most fascinating things I noticed were women in their late 60s who, first of all, were not experiencing menopausal symptoms. I thought that was crazy. They didn't know what hot flashes were. And I actually had to call my daughters aside and tell them, you know, you keep asking these women for their Instagram and you're talking to them, but. These are not young women. These are women in their late sixties. And my daughters were shocked because the women did not look their age. And so what I noticed was basically that these poorer women, this financially poorer women in the villages in Nigeria, and which is in West Africa, we're looking and feeling much better than people like me who are from the same region, but we live in the West and we live in cities. And so even the ones living in cities in Nigeria are not looking and feeling as good as the ones living in the villages. So what are they doing? They have very simple lives. They get up, they eat very simple, Earth food cooked from scratch, they work, they, they don't work out because no gym is over, but all they have for transportation, a lot of them is bicycles, so they walk a lot, so I put my watch on one of them, and she clocked in 22, 000 steps in one day, and this is 67 year old woman. So I was like, wow. And so they're moving a lot, not really hardcore exercise. Like we tend to do when we go to the gym, but there's just a lot of, and a lot of eating fresh foods, a lot of them sitting around together every now and then talking. There's a lot of laughter. There's a lot of singing. There's a lot of joy. So there was all these components that I was observing that I didn't really see in my life out in the West. I don't get together with my friends or with other women every single day of the week. And so what can I do to make up for that? It's the meditation. So because I see. That by doing that, these women are reducing their stress. I know we're here talking about pregnancy loss, but a huge component again, of pregnancy loss is stress reduction. And I try to mitigate the things that my counterparts in the villages are enjoying by making sure I'm doing the right thing. Feel good. And we call it self care, self care activities out here in the West, you know so we, we need to stop looking at self care as a luxury and start looking at it as an important component of our lives. Yes. Yeah. I totally agree. You know, self care is very important and, and also stress reduction during pregnancy, even especially when you are trying, you're in that stage. And for those that are facing infertility, don't disregard meditation as well because it helps with reducing the anxiety and reducing a lot of the emotions, the roller coaster of emotions, after learning that we can no longer have the baby that we want. You know, I'm also one of those women that faced infertility and being left without living children of my own either. So I can totally relate with all of you, but meditation is what saved my life. And just like Florence mentioned, it's a way to talk to our body. It's an entry way. And I know we're talking about genetics and DNA, but meditation do play a role in speaking to those. Rewrites it. Correct. We can rewrite it. Correct. Meditation rewrites. The DNA code and, and that's where I want to ask about Florence next is that how does the DNA hold so much information in that little strand right there. And, and then how does Livewello, you know, really work on reading that. Right. So what is it? You know what? I have no way of that is still something that shocks me. The amount of information that the DNA carries. And then the fact that there is still part of our DNA. that they call it junk DNA. But what we know is that it carries important information. There's still part, there's information in your DNA that we don't even know about, like we don't know what it means, but it's, it exists. So essentially the raw data file with all your information comes with all these funny letters. A, C, D, you know, and what our software does is that it processes that information and gives it to you in everyday language. So you can go and ask. We also have health reports actually that we send out periodically. I think. In the last week, correct me if I'm wrong in the last week, we sent out one on PCOS post cystic ovarian syndrome. So there is genome wide associated studies. This is where we pull our information from. And these studies have been done on different populations. And with studies, they have identified genes that are associated with certain diseases. And this is important because we're dealing with women here, and the one thing we are good at is blaming ourselves and guilting ourselves. But I believe that knowing that you have a predisposition via genetics for a disease or for a problem should make you not blame yourself so much, should make you not feel so guilty should make you decide that, okay, so this is what I'm working with. How about I turn this into a good and you do that by changing your lifestyle. You do that by changing your diet. You change the activities, even the people in your lives. I tell people sometimes you are surrounded by people who are stressing you out. It could be a job, but whatever it is, at least you know that In addition to your genetic information you can also do, not just dietary and supplementary interventions, you can do mind body interventions to improve your health. So what happens is the file is on your computer. You just upload it at livewello. com and then you go to livewello.com/genechat and start asking it questions. So gene chat is just gene, G E N. E. C. H. A. T. You go in there and you just ask it questions about your genetics, any question, but then there's you will see on the on the on the landing page or on your profile page, you will see health report. You can click on those and you start to look at all the reports and at the bottom of the page. You'll see your results. So when you pull up the health reports, it already has your results at the bottom and you can see how it how the different diseases apply to you. But I think for your, your listeners, I think focusing on the genes associated with MTHFR and pregnancy loss will be the best place to start and then finding an appropriate healthcare professional to hold their hand through the process. I feel that that's important to understand the full benefits of that software and also for our listeners that are specific to pregnancy loss and infertility and even infant loss. Yes, understanding the MTHFR gene. If you ever go to their software, look into the MTHFR genes. Yes. Yes. And I would like to ask you some questions, looking ahead, you know, for the future of genetic research. In relation to women's health and pregnancy, how do you hope your work will continue to impact their lives, especially in the context of pregnancy and infant loss? Okay, so we in terms of pregnancy and infant loss, I think a woman knowing what her genetic mutation is, is a pathway to becoming pregnant and having a baby. But I also feel that there are women who are listening today who actually already have children who are living with other chronic health issues associated with things like adhd, cleft palate and a host of other issues, PCOS depression, ADHD, and anxiety. These women knowing that they have the MTHFR gene, having done the test and starting to change their lifestyle, a lot of women in this category who have these issues will start to see an improvement in their health. That is the good news. That is the exciting news. That's what I want to be part of. This is why I'm here on earth. This is what I want to do. I want people to be able to be armed with information about who they are and then use that information to improve their quality of life. That is it. If you're anybody that has anxiety, it is debilitating. People do not understand how debilitating anxiety is. This is just an example. And imagine living with anxiety and struggling with infertility. That person is not happy. That person is struggling and that person deserves our compassion and that person deserves not to blame themselves either. Very important. And that's part of the message also because I live with self blame and apparently it's a problem that a lot of us women have and self guilt. And I believe that one of the things that alleviated guilt for me was knowing that a lot of health problems that I suffered and I saw in my family were associated with something that we could not control. And, and that's the message I want to send that, you know, it is not, it is not within your control. It's not your fault. You came into this world with this. So it's nothing that you've done. But guess what? Now we know. So now we can move on and do something about it. And that's it. That's all I want to be able to be part of, you know. Yeah. Definitely. Our genes, our genetics carry all records of, of the stress, the chronic illness, even our past traumas, pregnancy loss and infertility loss, infant loss. They cause a certain trauma that is very specific to women like, like me who have experienced that. So I totally understand that, that, that going through trauma, but, and I did blame myself, you know, like, oh, I ate that sushi and I drank that coffee that I'm not supposed to, like, oh my God, I didn't sleep. I didn't reduce my stress. I was blaming and, and I blame my work environment to like, oh, the work was crossing stress. Yeah. And so, so I, so there's a lot of blaming and the only first person that I could blame is myself, because that's the first one I see, right? That's the first one I say, I couldn't find anyone else to blame, but you know, I blame this body, I blame myself. And but it's not really our fault, you know, just like Florence said, like you said it's in the genes and, it's not that we're blaming our genes as well, but it's just the fact that it exists with us. It was carried down generations to generations from mothers, from our parents. Down to ourselves, and don't just stop from your parents, it goes from their parents, their great grandparents, our ancestors, all the way down that lineage. And so, to, to feel that you are carrying this guilt because that gene that you had, because you are unable to carry the child for your family. It's not your fault. And it's also not your parent's fault. It's not your ancestors' fault. It's just just how the body was designed at that in this the card dealt with. Yeah, I mean, we, yeah, our grandmother's traumas, you know, Daisy, our grandmother's traumas are recorded in our DNA. Did you know that? Yes. Yeah. So a lot of women walking around have the recorded trauma of their grandmother. Correct. And that, yeah, and that trauma could be infertility on their end too. And then we care that, and even the chronic illness that we may have now that we're experiencing, that's inherited from the DNA from the previous generations. And it's all included recorded in our DNA. That's why we emphasize meditation, because it helps rewrite those records in your body. And when you enter meditation, you are able to create a belief in yourself that this is not mine. This is not my chronic illness. This is not my fault. This is, I see it as the way it is. And it's not about really accepting it. It's about just acknowledging that it is here. But now I know what to do, like how to go through it. And with Florence's, you know, software and their their work that they've done, they can help you with understanding your DNA record. And then find a solution. And we've added our own testing. Yeah, added our own testing panel. Our testing panel. than a lot of the other companies I mentioned. So we cover a lot more genes. And if people have never done a gene test before go ahead and order that test. The people who have done a gene test, like 23andMe they tend to start off with, or Ancestry or Heritage, there's so many different companies out there. They can go ahead and use our software. They won't always get a maximum amount of information because, those companies don't always carry as much information as we do. But it's a place to start and when you're dealing with infertility urgently I want people to be able to start somewhere and that's why I say, if you've done any of those ancestry or 23andMe, go ahead and use that test result and, you know, subscribe to a service and get started and, you know, find a practitioner, you know, and just get started. Modern medicine is only 300 years old. The thing, the benefits of using a functional medicine doctor or integrative medicine doctor, or a lot of integrative nutritionist is that they pull disciplines from, they pull the information from multiple disciplines, not just modern medicine. I don't know if this happens with a lot of your listeners, but a lot of women who's struggled with infertility, they use acupuncture and acupuncture helps. And so, you know, unlike here in the West, if you go to a hospital in, in China, or I think in Japan, or I actually think in Germany, if I've heard, you can be transferred or referred, sorry, to a acupuncturist to get some help. People when they go into actual fertility, formal fertility treatment where they have the embryo implanted, they usually get acupuncture before the implantation. So to prepare the body. So this is why I talk a lot about these health practitioners. They practice in a way that incorporates not just primary care medicine or modern medicine they incorporate other disciplines. Yeah. Yeah. And it's important to really prepare the body and and find the right specialist for preparing the body because we have different individualized blueprint in our body. So acupuncture is great. It helps open the meridians. And so that's a different topic altogether. But acupuncture is great to help repair the body. Gentle massage as well. You know, it helps break the lumps or it also release trauma where it's stored in that muscle fiber. So it's a great way to, to start with. I use it. I'm in menopause, but I, I was diagnosed with fibroids. So I use acupuncture and I successfully reduced the size of my fibroids. So when it comes to women's health issues acupuncture is, an unspoken hero in that field. And like you said, massage, you know, we call it self care, it's not, it's an intricate part of your care of your body. Like you say, releasing pathways and blockages and any tight knots you have in your body. Those are very huge components. Yes. Yes, definitely. So Florence, thank you so much for this And totally I love the knowledge that you're giving us and, and helping us understand at the fifth grade level about DNA and everything that's surrounding that. So what's next for you and Livewello? And are there any upcoming projects or developments that you're excited about? Yes. So first of all, I want to to tell your listeners that they should contact us at support@livewello.Com. Mention"Florence Talked to Daisy." That's the code. Mention"Florence Talked to Daisy," and that they want to get a little bit of a discount on the service we provide, and I want to get a discount because"Florence Talked to Daisy." So Florence sent me. So that's basically what it is. Florence sent me. And and if they say that in their email they get a discount. So what's up in the future? I would like to spread the word about this conversation that we've had, Daisy. So I would like to go on more podcasts. Because between my mom's generation and my generation, this is not a conversation we were having. We weren't talking about pregnancy loss. It was very hush hush. I want to talk about that. I want to talk about even menopause. That's not your demographic right now, but I want to be talking about the impact of genetics on our health. And so if anybody out there knows a podcast host or journalist, please write to us at support and make an introduction so I can talk about what we do. I'm on the press store. That's what's fresh and exciting. I'm on the press store. It's starting already. And I'm going doing interviews across the world and I'm meeting people. And so this is, is this quite exciting? We're celebrating the award. We won it the health unity award we won at Stanford university. And we are also staying on top of the technology associated with what we do to make it smarter. So we're always adding elements. And features to the software so that the software knows you better and is able to answer more directly and more personal in a more personalized way. And yeah, so that's it. That's what I'm doing. And I want to offer that discount code to your listeners, Daisy as well. And as a way of you know, encouraging and supporting them through this process. Yes. Thank you so much, Florence. And to our listeners. Yeah, I think it's great to have that discount so you can start your gene reading and understand where you are in in your pregnancy loss process and even infertility process and and find a way to understand your body and the components in your body. Florence, again, Thank you for your insights and thank you also to, to your beloved husband, doctor and physician, and thank you so much for the work that the two of you have done. Florence, thank you again and also Dr. Iwegbue, thank you so much for your presence and so grateful with the knowledge that you've given us and also for breaking it down to fifth level so we can understand it. Florence, any last word before we leave? I just want to talk positively into the ears of your listeners. I want to encourage them not to give up. I want to encourage them to work on reducing stress levels. If they're listening to us now, they're already being proactive. They want to change their life for the better. And anyone listening now who has that intention. is going to affirmatively change their life for the better. They're going to get the baby they want. They're going to get the child they want. They're going to have the experience of pregnancy. And it's just as simple as that. I'm just a vessel, a person with a tool. They are the most important. Part of this equation and how their mind works and how their spirit works if they can start meditating If they can, you know get the results for this test if they can start eating, right if they can start moving gently in their bodies Everything will fall into place. So that's that's what I want to speak to as my last words that everything will be okay Yes. And in terms of infertility, would there be a way for them to really understand why infertility is? with reading their genetic codes. Yes, yes. So yeah, so what they do, they go, they order the test. Either through our website, they upload the results. In fact, if you order it through our websites, the results get uploaded automatically and we notify you. And so that's the 1st step you get that information and then you go into our website. You look for a practitioner. That you can work with, you can interview them, you can search them, you can chat with them, and you can find out somebody that works best for you. Or maybe already in your life. You have a practitioner that understands this or you can send your practitioner to us. And we can help them understand what this all means. Thank you, Florence. And thank you also to Dr. Iwegbue Yes. Yes. Can he come in and say thank bye because he's hiding behind the camera. Thank you so much. Very shy. I appreciate both of you. Camera away. Yes. He's blurred at the moment. He's just shy. No, he's not. This is nerve wracking. Yeah. Well, I know he, I hear him in the background coaching you at the same time. Yes, he did. Yeah. He corrects me. Tells me this is the name. This is, I was like, okay. Okay. But yes. Yeah. Yeah. Easy. Easy. Yes, it is. See, you did a good job. Oh, okay. Thank you. You both are so sweet. Yes. So, Florence and Dr. Iwegbue, thank you so much for your time and I'm so honored and grateful to have you. Daisy. I want to thank you for what you do. Daisy, what you do is a lot of advocacy and information. This is a big deal. So, you know, on behalf of your audience, I would like to say thank you for what you do and appreciate you for what you do. You know, there's somebody listening today, whose life is going to be changed because of what you do. So I need for you to know that, and to thank you for that. Yes. Yeah. Thank you so much. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you everyone for listening to the WOMBen Podcast. I truly hope that you found this conversation meaningful and valuable. If you like what you heard today, and if you would like to hear more, please go ahead and click the subscribe button below.