First of all, you are born with all the eggs you’ll ever have, so that is a treasure that must be protected. However, you were born with over a million! Even so, only about 300 of them will mature and be released during your reproductive years. These eggs are safely stored in your ovaries, and your monthly menstrual cycle brings about the potential for fertilization of one of those eggs. In the first half of your cycle (about 13 days), an egg is being prepared for sending to the uterus (womb). At the same time, the lining of the uterus is thickening and being preparing to receive the egg. The trip of the egg to the uterus is called ovulation and lasts about 3 days, the optimum time to get pregnant. Once the ovulation part of your cycle is over, the lining of the uterus prepares to slough off and at about 28 days into the cycle, you have your period. The length of the cycle varies from woman to woman, so determining how long your cycle is and trying to pin down the days when you are most fertile will help in your efforts to get pregnant. If you are not having your periods, you are not ovulating. If you are not ovulating, you will not get pregnant.

A new set of symptoms that has been named Syndrome X is something you can bring into line by eating a raw-foods diet rich in all the nutrition required for good health. Syndrome X is a cluster of abnormalities in glucose and lipid (blood fats) metabolism, obesity, and high blood pressure. If either of you has this cluster of syndromes, you are predisposed to diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease. The hormone responsible for getting energy in the form of glucose (blood sugar) into your cells is insulin. Syndrome X often results in insulin-resistance in which case cells respond sluggishly to the action of insulin. More insulin is secreted from the pancreas than normal in an attempt to compensate. This is taken as an indicator of Syndrome X. Of course, if either of you smokes or has a sedentary lifestyle that is conducive to Syndrome X, the likelihood that it is playing a role in your infertility increases. So a good place to start is with diet and lifestyle. Raw foods have many more of the elements that are conducive to a vigorous life than do cooked or processed foods. Cooking destroys many of the enzymes and even healthy nutrients that contribute to good health. However, you want to make certain that all necessary vitamins and minerals are included in your raw-foods diet, such as protein, fiber, omega-3 fatty acids, calcium, iron, vitamin C, and folic acid. It's a good idea to keep a diary so you can be sure that you are getting everything you need for optimum good health.

It has been folk knowledge for a long time that bee pollen is a magical potion to solve health problems and to improve fertility. However, in recent years, research has revealed that, as in many other cases, the folk knowledge is right on target. It is now known that this is one of the richest and purest of all natural foods. The grains of pollen have in them the male germ cells produced by all plants, flowers, or blossoms. As we all know, plant life must have this or fertilization and plant embryo formation doesn't happen.

Sources for Bee Pollen

You can go out in the garden and harvest it from flowering plants, but that pollen is not very useful. The pollen you want is what the bees collect. In the first place, they’re particular about quality: they collect only the pollen that has all the nutrients essential to life. What they collect is the pollen that is the best source for nitrogen, for instance. This pollen is the richest known source of vitamins, minerals, proteins, amino acids, hormones, enzymes, and fats. It even has significant amounts of natural antibiotics. Another miracle: they exist in perfect proportion. Bee pollen contains more vitamin B1, B2, and E than fruits, berries, and green vegetables. It also contains large amounts of vitamin C in addition to a range of other vitamins important to nutrition. It contains from ten to thirteen percent of amino acids, equal to from five to seven times the amino acids found in the same amount of beef, milk, eggs, or cheese. Pollen also contains essential enzymes; however, heating it will destroy them as well as the vitamin C. Honey and royal jelly are inferior to pollen for nutritional qualities.

What Pollen Can Do for You

• Assure that your diet includes all major nutritional components
• Improve physical and intellectual output
• Strengthen resistance to diseases
• Heal disorders such as those in the gastrointestinal system, glands, and vital organs
• Restore equilibrium to all bodily functions
• Improve your chances of becoming pregnant by activating systemic biological functions
• Cleanse by eliminating sludge and waste materials

It's very discouraging for a woman who longs to hold a baby in her arms to go for months and even years without getting pregnant. It's important for you to have a positive outlook because that will actually help you get pregnant, and it's worthwhile to know there are things you can do to help you achieve your goal without giving up your raw-foods lifestyle.

By TTS Health Consultant Gabrielle Gingras