Boost Fertility With Ozone And Mitochondrial Therapy

Introduction and Guest Welcome 0:00

Welcome back to the super fertility Summit. We have an incredible guest, Dr. Roxanne Pero, with us today. She's a board certified obstetrician, obstetrician and gynecologist with over 15 years of clinical experience in women's health. Cataracts in you practice integrative and functional medicine, marrying the best of conventional and holistic practices to create a precise and personalized plan for your clients. You have become passionate about healing women suffering from infertility after your own five year fertility struggle.

Your life is full with a multi-state private practice for children actively participating in medical research and nonprofit board duties for the Magdalen House for Alcoholic women, and so much more that you do. Thank you so much, Dr. Roxanne, for the beautiful work that you do, and for being here with us in the middle of your very busy schedule to contribute to the Super Fertility Summit. thank you so much, Dr. Cleopatra. I thank you for that kind introduction. And I'm so humbled and happy to be here.

Thank you. It's exciting to have you here. I love your work, and I'm really excited to talk about some innovative things for the people who are listening to us today.

Fertility, Nutrition, and Personalized Care 1:36

We're going to talk about the mitochondria, why they're so important for fertility. But we're also going to talk about some unique ways that you address mitochondrial health and also fertility more broadly in your practice. And you have a practice in Dallas, Texas, and a multi-state practice. So I'm excited for people to hear about these really exciting things that you're doing. I always like to start the interview thinking ahead to the end. So when we wrap up our interview, what's the one thing that you hope that the mama, dad, that human listening to our voices right now will be able to take away from this interview?

You have more control over your fertility than you know and 98% of the time in my private practice, it starts with nutrition. How are you feeding your body? What fuel are you putting in there for success for yourself? What do you say, Dr. Roxanne, I'm sure you and you have this same in your practice. Where? At the Fertility and Pregnancy Institute in the Prime Minister protocol. We're really the place where the doctors come for fertility help. Because even if you're an expert in fertility or an expert in some other part of medicine or health and wellness, when it's you going through it, you still need a guide, right?

It's like a surgeon can't operate on him or herself or on their family member. You know, that's just one example. And being that we serve the doctors, we serve highly motivated, high achieving, often highly educated women who have done a lot of research and are really obsessing over every detail of their fertility. Most of them feel that they're already doing everything. And so because what they're doing hasn't worked, thus far, that they're starting to lose hope because they can't see what more there could be for them to do.

And I always say, you know, if you have been Primester, there's still hope for you. But what would you say to a woman who is coming to you? And you know that 98% of the time it starts with nutrition, but they feel like they're already eating clean. They're already doing all the things. What what would you say to them? Yeah, I would say then, you know, there's some disconnect with your with your, with what you're eating and how it's getting to where you need to use it as fuel and energy. So that's when so many of us talk about gut health, right.

And assimilation and absorption. And are you having mal digestion and then are you having do you have true mitochondrial genetic diseases or disorders that are not allowing you to actually use those nutrients properly? And so do we have to dove into some of those zebra diagnoses? That's thankfully in the functional and holistic spaces we have access to doing that type of testing. Absolutely. Talk to us about the import importance of mitochondria for fertility health. Yeah. It's it's of paramount importance.

And and just always so you know, I mean all we have is the president and we can't go in back and change the past. But gosh, you know, I often think about how my trajectory would have changed with my fertility had I known about my mitochondrial health and at the time that I was trying to get pregnant, you know, you know, burning the candle at both ends. Residency training hours were crazy. I wasn't sleeping well, I wasn't seeing sunlight. I wasn't feeding my body well. And mitochondria are, you know, like everyone says, and nose is the powerhouses of our cells.

And our egg cells have

Mitochondrial Health and Oxidative Stress 6:00

600,000 mitochondria for cell. So you have to when you're talking about especially things like diminished ovarian reserve and low AMH and poor air quality, if you're not putting mitochondrial health first, then you're totally missing the mark and you're going to not be able to have success. so the mitochondria are what helps us to when we're eating those nutrients, when we're eating our proteins, fats and carbohydrates to take those in and to make energy that then fuels all other cells in our bodies.

And we know that in order for one egg cell to then blossom into a blastocyst and then an embryo and a fetus and then a baby, that we have to take care of that energy supply to that one cell. Absolutely. Tell us about your favorite ways to take care of mitochondria, both in day to day life. That ways that people can do this for themselves, but also some of the really cool and innovative and powerful things that you're doing in your practice. Yeah. You know, I mean, I think that this is probably how you practice as well as that, you know, I mean, you can you can get most people far with a, you know, and an overall general protocol.

But many, especially those hard cases are going to require just that personalized approach where you're actually ruling out expert, you know, do you have high levels of BPA, do you have mold toxicity? Are those things that are really, really hampering your mitochondria health and things like sunlight exposure or grounding or intermittent fasting that we would normally say for mitochondrial health is not really going to cut it. But in general, yes, sunlight exposure, getting outside, reducing inflammation over all.

So I think for a lot of us in the functional space with fertility, that's, that's insulin, you know, that's, you know, glucose levels, that's reducing oxidative stress with avoiding and eliminating toxins and, and so vague about, you know, cosmetic clean makeup and how much of toxins are in these over-the-counter products that are not, you know, not being regulated properly for our mitochondrial health. and so what they causes a lot of oxidative stress and oxidative stress happens when our DNA gets damaged.

And then we need antioxidants to come in and do the job of cleaning up those reactive oxidative species. And if we don't have enough antioxidants in our system, we're going to get that mitochondrial damage. And this is another place where nutrition, both in the form of food and supplements, come into it to boost those antioxidant levels so that we can help to reduce the, oxidative stress, but also these other lifestyle practices, as you are saying, to reduce them and, reduce exposures that increase them.

So, so we talked about sunlight. We talked about grounding. We talked about reducing inflammatory inflammatory load which inflammation we all have some we all need some. There a natural part of the human body. But having too much is profoundly aging. And the reproductive system ages first. So the consequences there are enormous insulin and glucose related to that oxidative stress. What other things would you like to really emphasize for people? Any anything else? Yeah, you know what I mean. So when you're talking about, you know, nutrition supplements, you know, I think so many people just go straight to, well, what supplements can I take?

And the list from my general health supplements is a mile long, right? I mean, you can do epileptic acid, you can do co-captain, you can do resveratrol, you can do acetal carnitine, you can do tumeric, you can do, you know, c glutathione it. But all of those things you can get in in a whole foods plant predominate lean organic meats, nutrition plan that's personalized to you. So I do encourage patients to think about getting, a nutrient evaluation where we can see what deficiencies you have. B vitamins, magnesium, huge for mitochondrial health.

iron is really important for mitochondrial health. But, you know, iron overload is really bad for mitochondrial health. So so much of it is that Goldilocks approach. You know, what do you personally need for your mitochondria to thrive to improve your ovarian reserve, knowing that you can improve it? So many of my patients are like, well, I thought I couldn't change my AMH level. We see it all the time right? Every day and every day we're we're improving and raising AMH levels even from zero and not not that we can promise that that will happen, but it happens so routinely that and and it happens over routinely with a direct correlation to the annual follicle counts and count increasing.

And with people being able to go on to get pregnant. So I because of that, I wish every day that we would stop telling people that you have no ability to shape your AMH level, your your anti-malaria and hormone level, your ovarian reserve, and that, you know, once it's below a certain threshold below one, and especially as it's approaching zero, there's there's no where to go from there because we just we see over and over that, that, that as a general rule and in general statement just isn't the case.

So that absolutely important and so wonderful that you said that

Supplements, AMH, and Individualized Treatment 12:00

because I think that one thing that happens in, in the world of fertility may be even more than, other areas of health is that people feel, what I hear from our mama that FPI every single day is that they, they have felt in their journey until they came to us that they're reduced to a number, they're reduced to a number on a lab, a lab value. And sometimes it's not even their own. I mean, sometimes it is their own, their AMH level is this. But the the lab value that's expected of someone their age or you know, what's what's likely for someone their age, they're they feel reduced to, to a number in terms of the people being seen and, and nobody really seeing them as an individual with bio individuality, with feelings, with, a life, with aspirations, etc..

And so I think it's really important when we can say you're not just a number and don't allow yourself to be reduced to a number. It's just like I tell my super babies, like, don't let anybody box you in. Like, you guys are not just amazingly athletic, you're also insanely smart. Such good humans, you know, don't let people box you in, whether it's a good box or a bad box. We are more than just this one diagnosis, this one lab value, this one number. So I think that's really, really important for us to keep saying over and over again. Absolutely, absolutely.

And I and I often ask people when they go and see a fertility doctor, okay, well, did it feel, you know, like people were going in and out and like it was a rotating door and they were like, I just I felt like a number and, you know, and and unfortunately, I think that, you know, conventional medicine obviously has a lot of work to do to catch up to personalized medicine, but also in a sense, you know, there's so many benefits of conventional medicine that we do need. And I love working with and supporting women, as, you know, who are going through IVF, which I can't say yes, but, you know, it's it's almost like, you know, for what we do, you know, we can't see I see not seven patients a day, you know, there's so much empathy and research and hard work that goes into each patient that conventional medicine just can't do.

So at the point that we carry them and we're able to support them. And if they need to go see a conventional doctor, I'm glad that we, we, we are there to be with them. I absolutely agree with you 100%. And and I think one thing about that, doing the research and, and the care and the empathy and, and that's actually a huge component of success. Support is a huge component of success. And I think it's a highly overlooked component of success. It's it's clearly documented and demonstrated when it comes to fertility outcomes, pregnancy outcomes, parenting outcomes and every other area of life, entrepreneurship, everything that you could think of.

But I think that another thing that you said about the research that goes into each person or, you know, for us, the research that went, I mean, you know, over 100,000 hours that went into the development, testing, refining, the constant refining where you will next week or doing a scientific update of the systemic deep scrub in the Prime Minister protocol, because as new data come out and we're we're always updating things. And the thing is that scientific research and data take many, many years, if not decades to become integrated in the standard of care or day to day medical, traditional, conventional medical practice.

And so I think one thing that's really important to know is that when you're going to see, a certain type of doctor, they, they are practicing in the way more than likely that they were taught in medical school or only a, you know, a slightly the slightly updated variation of that, just by virtue of the limits of their scope of work in clinical practice and the time that they can dedicate to staying on top of emerging scientific data and scientific data move very quickly. And the the discoveries are advancing very quickly, but it takes a lot of time for them to catch up.

Doctor. Doctor. Roxanne, one of the things that you are using in your practice that is really exciting for fertility challenges is ozone.

Ozone Therapy and Hyperbaric Oxygen 17:00

Can you talk about how you're using it? Yes, absolutely. So, ozone is ozone ETD gas. So that's instead of oxygen is O2 or using O3. And studies and research has shown that O3 is extremely amazing as an anti-fungal, anti-microbial and a really powerful antioxidant. So we use ozone. There's many routes that you can do ozone from administering it in blood. but we, we we in the, in the fertility space, I like to use it, in the vaginal route, which can be done in the safety of your own home, or it can be done, privately in our clinic.

but it delivers that ozone needed gas directly to your uterus, where it can be used as an antioxidant to your fallopian tubes, your, your ovaries. And so a lot of great research on, you know, tubal patency when you have blocked fallopian tubes and you've only been told that you have to have surgery and have it removed and only do Ida. So, we're seeing a lot of beautiful and amazing results with that. And then hyperbaric oxygen therapy is also a great, adjunct for mitochondrial health. So, helping to reduce inflammation, helping to, conserve and, and receive energy.

so those are amazing modalities that we use in our practice for fertility. I love that so much. And I would love to know if somebody had to choose just one thing to take care of their fertility and their future. Super baby. What would that one thing be? One thing, as far as you're talking about modality supplements. Yeah. If if whatever it may be, if they could only choose one thing, what would that one thing be? I, I would have to say nutrition for sure. Now I have to say food, you know and and to and to invest in a personalized approach.

So you know working with a functionally minded dietician or a certified functional health coach or a functional provider or getting in with your program and getting personalized testing done, what are your exact nutrient needs? How are you getting those nutrients into your body and absorbing them? because I tell you, that's that's that's where we make the most gains in our practice. Just with improving nutrition for women, for fertility. And again, so something that I wish that I would have known, and and again, relating to that is no one size fits.

All right. You can't just put everybody on paleo or everyone on vegan or everyone on, you know, look, you know, you can't you can't just do one diet. It has to be personalized, you know? And, I also love that in my space, if you do come to me and you're vegan or you do come to me and you have religious restrictions, that we're respectful of that and we're going to work with you. And I know many patients that say, well, my provider won't work with me because I'm vegan. You know, she says, there's no help for me if I'm not getting, you know, fats from meats. And so, I love the challenge, honestly.

And so I think that there's an opportunity to work with everyone in this space. That's incredible. Thank you so much. And we consider food to be the third most important epigenetic input, just by the sheer frequency with which you're

Super Baby and Closing Thoughts 21:00

putting that information into your fertility and pregnancy system. Because we spend a total of almost five years of our lives cumulative cumulatively eating. And you could, you know, also, if you're taking supplements or you're drinking something that's nutritious, you know, adding adding that to that category of nutrients, but it's so critically important. So I love that, that that would be if you could only do one thing that would be the starting place, because that's where you see the biggest gains in your practice.

Last question before we wrap up. What does Super Baby mean to you? What is what is super Baby feel like to you? What does it look like to you? What emotion does it evoke for you? Gosh, Pride is a weird, emotion and and word. I think in, in some senses it can feel boastful, but, I do like pride for super baby, you know? just, the amount of work that we have put in. Yeah, it's. Something to be proud of, you know, and we see, unfortunately, still, you know, some, some setbacks and some of our clients that, you know, don't have the outcomes that we wanted.

And so when it does happen, I think it's something that we really do have to be proud of. I love it, and I know why you hesitated or thought about it for a second, but it's not about feeling prideful about necessarily the outcome, but just so proud of who we get to be to lay that foundation for these amazing humans who are who are meant to come through us or to us in some other way. So that is absolutely beautiful. I love that so much. So thank you, Dr. Roxanne. It's such a pleasure. I this is our first time being together, but I feel like I know you and I knew I would love this conversation with you.

So happy to have you here. Thank you so much. I'm looking forward to more conversations with you. You need to be my pleasure to be continued. And to all of you listening to us right now, thank you so much for being here with us. I think time is the most important and valuable resource on the planet, and I don't take lightly that you're spending your time here with us to learn, and I'm so happy that we get to pour into you as much as possible. Come with me to the next interview and I'll see you back here at the Super Fertility Summit.