atomic sagebrush
April 11th, 2011, 04:51 PM
:prof:That you should never ever do or I will come to your house and give you a stern talking-to!!! Updated 12-31-17
:mad: IF you or DH have any major health conditions, you need to put your health first and not do anything that can jeopardize that. Examples of health conditions that might be negatively affected by certain aspects of swaying include high blood pressure, diabetes or prediabetes, hyper/hypoglycemia, thyroid problems, Crohn's Disease/IBS/celiac, and many other things. If you are on any medications, make double and triple sure that they do not interact with any aspects of the swaying diets or supplements - and do this FOR YOURSELF, don't rely on me or Tamara or anyone else to do it for you, because we make mistakes!!!!
If you do have health issues and feel like you need extra help to make a plan, please consider a Custom Sway Plan. I will do all the research for you and make sure that your sway is safe for you and your husband to follow. You can get a Custom Plan here: http://genderdreaming.com/forum/payments.php
:mad:DO NOT do at home IUI. Yes, they do sell kits to do it online but do not put ANYTHING into your uterus. You can get an infection that can kill you or leave you infertile. In fact, stay away from your cervix all together - you do not need and should NOT reach a finger into your cervix to try and "pull it open" to test pH. Regardless of who tells you to do this, DON'T.
Douching has been linked to more ectopic pregnancies - this is almost certainly as a result of increased infections (the kind you are trying to avoid by not doing at-home IUI and messing with your cervix) and not douching itself (at least not the limited douching swayers do for a few months) BUT just so you all are aware of the risk.
:mad:DON'T take big handfuls of pills all at once and never swallow pills without water to wash them down with. They can get lodged in your throat and cause an ulcer that can KILL you. If you ever feel like you have a pill stuck in your throat, try eating a piece of bread with water to wash it down and if it doesn't get unstuck very soon, see a doctor. This has actually happened to people while swaying.
:mad:DO NOT go over the amount listed on any supplement bottle. Not even if I, NBP, Tamara, the French Gender Diet people, Dr. Mercola, or anyone short of a medical doctor says it's ok (and even then, be skeptical). There are reasons why those limits are on the bottle and since each company formulates their pills a bit differently, it's best to follow their directions and not something you read online. Also be aware the differences between IU, mg, UG, mcg, g, DV - these are NOT equivalent measures and you need to be well aware how much you are taking.
:mad:NEVER quit taking any vitamins/minerals cold turkey ESPECIALLY when pregnant. Slowly taper off over the course of a few weeks, either by taking smaller doses or by spacing your doses farther and farther apart. Any advice you read to "save money" by not taking vitamins/minerals during the 2WW is bad for your sway and bad for your body too. It is safe to stop taking SOME of the hormonal herbal supplements cold turkey, however, and in fact they work best taken that way.
It's best to only ever start taking vitamins and minerals in amounts that are safe during pregnancy so you never have to even deal with it. Make very sure of each supp you are taking to see whether they are safe during the 2WW. Not safe during the 2WW - cranberry, saw palmetto, Lydia Pinkham, licorice/white peony, baking soda, vitex, peppermint, evening primrose, flaxseed, and MANY other things are not safe during the 2WW. Always double check by asking me about any herbs or nutrients you are planning to take.
Some supps are especially important to wean off of slowly - folic acid/folate (which should be taken throughout the first trimester anyway), B6, cinnamon, coq10/ubiquinol, baby aspirin, and myoinositol should all be weaned off slowly rather than just stopped. Progesterone cream (which you shouldn't even mess around with unless you NEED it and only use the kind prescribed by a doctor, the over-the-counter creams are meant for postmenopausal women and are not enough to sustain a pregnancy) MUST be continued throughout the first trimester of pregnancy EVERY DAY or you risk having a miscarriage.
PLEASE PLEASE take a pregnancy test EVERY MONTH even if you are 100% sure you are not pregnant, before starting up your AF-O supps. You CAN have what seems like a normal AF and still be pregnant the entire time - this has actually happened to real live smart people and not just goofballs on "I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant." It happened to me - I miscarried a twin, thought it was AF and swayed for weeks afterwards on a strict diet and vitex while pregnant and only by the grace of God is my baby healthy.
If you are taking Clomid or Femara you should take a pregnancy test the day you're due to start your first dose even if you think you are not pregnant and even if you have a period. This is MANDATORY as Clomid and Femara are harmful to unborn babies when taken during pregnancy.
Some supplements are NOT SAFE to take when breastfeeding. Saw Palmetto, cranberry, baby aspirin, among others. If you are swaying while breastfeeding, please be sane about what you put into your body and don't go overboard on any swaying supplements. http://genderdreaming.com/forum/gender-swaying-general-discussion/2200-swaying-while-breastfeeding.html
NO MATTER WHAT, TAKE FOLIC ACID OR FOLATE. http://genderdreaming.com/forum/ttc-a-girl-best-practices/62405-fabulous-fasting-fantastic-fiber-fhenominal-folate.html
:mad:Messing around too much with your potassium levels is DANGEROUS, either too much or too little can stop your heart and kill you. It is very easy to get potassium through diet and your body can tolerate it when you're getting it in foods, so please think long and hard before deciding to take potassium supps. You probably don't even need them for a blue sway because so many of the blue-friendly foods. Cream of Tartar IS potassium so take that into account. One of the side effects of taking potassium is that your body starts getting rid of LOTS of potassium (and this is especially true if your magnesium levels are low, as in, blue swayers.) So if you are taking potassium supps and are now panicking and planning to quit taking them, taper yourself off slowly over a period of weeks. You can inadvertently become dangerously low by suddenly stopping potassium. You can find the full guide to potassium for blue and for pink in the Dream Members sections.
:mad:Too much cranberry - this seems different for each person, too much causes bleeding/bruising and headaches, and can trigger bleeding in the stomach and brain that can kill you. UPDATE - we have not found cranberry to work at all when taken by women and it has a lot of risks and side effects. Please read the following thread for more http://genderdreaming.com/forum/ttc-a-girl-best-practices/7086-how-lower-ph-via-supps-cran-baby-aspirin-aspartame-other-techniques.html
Too much calcium (more than 3000 mg diet and supps combined - and even this is a heck of a lot of calcium - aim for 1200-1800 mg and that's ALL) If you take Tums for calcium, you run the risk of giving yourself "rebound acid reflux" where your body begins to overproduce stomach acid to make up for the alkalinity of the Tums.
Too much magnesium - It can KILL you. Magnesium through diet doesn't seem to have this effect, only when taken as supplements. No more than 300 mg magnesium! And if you notice diarrhea at that level, cut back on it even more. (IG has magnesium listed as safe up to 600 mg in several places. This info is outdated and unfortunately did not get updated everywhere. A lady actually got really sick from too much magnesium.)
Too much caffeine. Don't use caffeine pills, you don't need them.
Too much WATER/liquid too quickly - you can die from drinking too much ESPECIALLY when playing around with your electrolytes. Please be sane. People have totally died from this!!! Do not ever, ever do a water fast or fast on Crystal Light or diet soda. This can be FATAL.
Too much copper - more than 3 mg a day will kill you. Sometimes this is found in vitamin/mineral blends so be on the lookout for it.
Too much zinc - again, this is found in multivitamins and some fertility aids, so watch out for a cumulative effect. The amount listed on IG and some fertility sites is dangerously high. No more than 10-12 mg for DW and 20-25 at the very most for DH.
Too much Vitamin C - 1000-5000 mg can cause miscarriage and no one needs to take this much anyway.
Too much Vitamin A - Vitamin A through vegetables is safe, eat up!! But Vit. A through supplements should be kept well under the 100% suggested value because it can cause DEATH or BIRTH DEFECTS. Cod liver oil has Vit. A in it so you may want to watch out for it.
Vitamin D - Too much Vitamin D can make you really sick, although medical professionals are currently revising their recommendations upwards. For now, it's best to stay within the 100% DV of this vitamin unless advised otherwise by your doctor. Cod liver oil also has Vit. D.
Too much baking soda - more than 6 half teaspoons (meaning, a half-teaspoon 6 times for a total of 3 teaspoons or 3969 mg or 4 grams) including Alka-Selter, Ural, and any baking soda you absorb through your skin in a baking soda bath, a day, will KILL you. You do not need to be ingesting this much anyway, start with a very small amount and see if it raises your pH. If small doses work, there is NO NEED for megadoses. You also need to include the sodium content of baking soda into your day's salt and be careful not to get too much. Baking soda also has an antacid effect and can give you "rebound acid-reflux".
Mixing alfalfa and black/blue cohosh can cause liver damage. It's probably best to stay away from those cohoshes anyway because they are linked to all sorts of badness.
:mad:Both too much and too little sodium can cause health problems. Pink swayers, please eat at least 700-1000 mg of sodium and blue swayers please do not exceed 5000-6000 mg. Salt also depletes the body of folic acid, so please take extra folic acid when swaying blue. Anywhere between 2000-4000 mcg a day, split into several small dosages, will be absorbed best. If you are of Sub-Saharan African descent please do NOT do the very high doses of sodium, you are much more sensitive to high sodium than other ethnicities and you can cause yourself serious harm eating lots of sodium. http://genderdreaming.com/forum/gender-swaying-general-discussion/4909-warning-if-you-african-african-descent-do-not-do-fgd-boy.html
:mad:Be VERY careful when taking blood thinners. In the girl diet, cranberry and baby aspirin are blood thinners (as are cinnamon and saw palmetto), and in the boy sway, garlic and fish oil are blood thinners (as are EPO and flaxseed - even though I don't want anyone taking these any more some people still do). Additionally many of the things people are taking to "aid implantation" are also strong blood thinners like bromelain and cayenne and any essential fatty acid like blackcurrant oil, borage oil, and cod liver oil. If you notice unusual bruising/bleeding, or if your periods get heavier, stop taking these things right away and reintroduce them very very slowly. They can cause bleeding in your stomach and brain and KILL you. Additionally when you are pregnant, you MUST wean off these things gradually by spacing doses further and further out till down to one per week and then you can stop taking them.
If you (or more likely, DH) are on prescription blood thinners DO NOT take any of these blood-thinning supps.
:mad: IF you or DH have any major health conditions, you need to put your health first and not do anything that can jeopardize that. Examples of health conditions that might be negatively affected by certain aspects of swaying include high blood pressure, diabetes or prediabetes, hyper/hypoglycemia, thyroid problems, Crohn's Disease/IBS/celiac, and many other things. If you are on any medications, make double and triple sure that they do not interact with any aspects of the swaying diets or supplements - and do this FOR YOURSELF, don't rely on me or Tamara or anyone else to do it for you, because we make mistakes!!!!
If you do have health issues and feel like you need extra help to make a plan, please consider a Custom Sway Plan. I will do all the research for you and make sure that your sway is safe for you and your husband to follow. You can get a Custom Plan here: http://genderdreaming.com/forum/payments.php
:mad:DO NOT do at home IUI. Yes, they do sell kits to do it online but do not put ANYTHING into your uterus. You can get an infection that can kill you or leave you infertile. In fact, stay away from your cervix all together - you do not need and should NOT reach a finger into your cervix to try and "pull it open" to test pH. Regardless of who tells you to do this, DON'T.
Douching has been linked to more ectopic pregnancies - this is almost certainly as a result of increased infections (the kind you are trying to avoid by not doing at-home IUI and messing with your cervix) and not douching itself (at least not the limited douching swayers do for a few months) BUT just so you all are aware of the risk.
:mad:DON'T take big handfuls of pills all at once and never swallow pills without water to wash them down with. They can get lodged in your throat and cause an ulcer that can KILL you. If you ever feel like you have a pill stuck in your throat, try eating a piece of bread with water to wash it down and if it doesn't get unstuck very soon, see a doctor. This has actually happened to people while swaying.
:mad:DO NOT go over the amount listed on any supplement bottle. Not even if I, NBP, Tamara, the French Gender Diet people, Dr. Mercola, or anyone short of a medical doctor says it's ok (and even then, be skeptical). There are reasons why those limits are on the bottle and since each company formulates their pills a bit differently, it's best to follow their directions and not something you read online. Also be aware the differences between IU, mg, UG, mcg, g, DV - these are NOT equivalent measures and you need to be well aware how much you are taking.
:mad:NEVER quit taking any vitamins/minerals cold turkey ESPECIALLY when pregnant. Slowly taper off over the course of a few weeks, either by taking smaller doses or by spacing your doses farther and farther apart. Any advice you read to "save money" by not taking vitamins/minerals during the 2WW is bad for your sway and bad for your body too. It is safe to stop taking SOME of the hormonal herbal supplements cold turkey, however, and in fact they work best taken that way.
It's best to only ever start taking vitamins and minerals in amounts that are safe during pregnancy so you never have to even deal with it. Make very sure of each supp you are taking to see whether they are safe during the 2WW. Not safe during the 2WW - cranberry, saw palmetto, Lydia Pinkham, licorice/white peony, baking soda, vitex, peppermint, evening primrose, flaxseed, and MANY other things are not safe during the 2WW. Always double check by asking me about any herbs or nutrients you are planning to take.
Some supps are especially important to wean off of slowly - folic acid/folate (which should be taken throughout the first trimester anyway), B6, cinnamon, coq10/ubiquinol, baby aspirin, and myoinositol should all be weaned off slowly rather than just stopped. Progesterone cream (which you shouldn't even mess around with unless you NEED it and only use the kind prescribed by a doctor, the over-the-counter creams are meant for postmenopausal women and are not enough to sustain a pregnancy) MUST be continued throughout the first trimester of pregnancy EVERY DAY or you risk having a miscarriage.
PLEASE PLEASE take a pregnancy test EVERY MONTH even if you are 100% sure you are not pregnant, before starting up your AF-O supps. You CAN have what seems like a normal AF and still be pregnant the entire time - this has actually happened to real live smart people and not just goofballs on "I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant." It happened to me - I miscarried a twin, thought it was AF and swayed for weeks afterwards on a strict diet and vitex while pregnant and only by the grace of God is my baby healthy.
If you are taking Clomid or Femara you should take a pregnancy test the day you're due to start your first dose even if you think you are not pregnant and even if you have a period. This is MANDATORY as Clomid and Femara are harmful to unborn babies when taken during pregnancy.
Some supplements are NOT SAFE to take when breastfeeding. Saw Palmetto, cranberry, baby aspirin, among others. If you are swaying while breastfeeding, please be sane about what you put into your body and don't go overboard on any swaying supplements. http://genderdreaming.com/forum/gender-swaying-general-discussion/2200-swaying-while-breastfeeding.html
NO MATTER WHAT, TAKE FOLIC ACID OR FOLATE. http://genderdreaming.com/forum/ttc-a-girl-best-practices/62405-fabulous-fasting-fantastic-fiber-fhenominal-folate.html
:mad:Messing around too much with your potassium levels is DANGEROUS, either too much or too little can stop your heart and kill you. It is very easy to get potassium through diet and your body can tolerate it when you're getting it in foods, so please think long and hard before deciding to take potassium supps. You probably don't even need them for a blue sway because so many of the blue-friendly foods. Cream of Tartar IS potassium so take that into account. One of the side effects of taking potassium is that your body starts getting rid of LOTS of potassium (and this is especially true if your magnesium levels are low, as in, blue swayers.) So if you are taking potassium supps and are now panicking and planning to quit taking them, taper yourself off slowly over a period of weeks. You can inadvertently become dangerously low by suddenly stopping potassium. You can find the full guide to potassium for blue and for pink in the Dream Members sections.
:mad:Too much cranberry - this seems different for each person, too much causes bleeding/bruising and headaches, and can trigger bleeding in the stomach and brain that can kill you. UPDATE - we have not found cranberry to work at all when taken by women and it has a lot of risks and side effects. Please read the following thread for more http://genderdreaming.com/forum/ttc-a-girl-best-practices/7086-how-lower-ph-via-supps-cran-baby-aspirin-aspartame-other-techniques.html
Too much calcium (more than 3000 mg diet and supps combined - and even this is a heck of a lot of calcium - aim for 1200-1800 mg and that's ALL) If you take Tums for calcium, you run the risk of giving yourself "rebound acid reflux" where your body begins to overproduce stomach acid to make up for the alkalinity of the Tums.
Too much magnesium - It can KILL you. Magnesium through diet doesn't seem to have this effect, only when taken as supplements. No more than 300 mg magnesium! And if you notice diarrhea at that level, cut back on it even more. (IG has magnesium listed as safe up to 600 mg in several places. This info is outdated and unfortunately did not get updated everywhere. A lady actually got really sick from too much magnesium.)
Too much caffeine. Don't use caffeine pills, you don't need them.
Too much WATER/liquid too quickly - you can die from drinking too much ESPECIALLY when playing around with your electrolytes. Please be sane. People have totally died from this!!! Do not ever, ever do a water fast or fast on Crystal Light or diet soda. This can be FATAL.
Too much copper - more than 3 mg a day will kill you. Sometimes this is found in vitamin/mineral blends so be on the lookout for it.
Too much zinc - again, this is found in multivitamins and some fertility aids, so watch out for a cumulative effect. The amount listed on IG and some fertility sites is dangerously high. No more than 10-12 mg for DW and 20-25 at the very most for DH.
Too much Vitamin C - 1000-5000 mg can cause miscarriage and no one needs to take this much anyway.
Too much Vitamin A - Vitamin A through vegetables is safe, eat up!! But Vit. A through supplements should be kept well under the 100% suggested value because it can cause DEATH or BIRTH DEFECTS. Cod liver oil has Vit. A in it so you may want to watch out for it.
Vitamin D - Too much Vitamin D can make you really sick, although medical professionals are currently revising their recommendations upwards. For now, it's best to stay within the 100% DV of this vitamin unless advised otherwise by your doctor. Cod liver oil also has Vit. D.
Too much baking soda - more than 6 half teaspoons (meaning, a half-teaspoon 6 times for a total of 3 teaspoons or 3969 mg or 4 grams) including Alka-Selter, Ural, and any baking soda you absorb through your skin in a baking soda bath, a day, will KILL you. You do not need to be ingesting this much anyway, start with a very small amount and see if it raises your pH. If small doses work, there is NO NEED for megadoses. You also need to include the sodium content of baking soda into your day's salt and be careful not to get too much. Baking soda also has an antacid effect and can give you "rebound acid-reflux".
Mixing alfalfa and black/blue cohosh can cause liver damage. It's probably best to stay away from those cohoshes anyway because they are linked to all sorts of badness.
:mad:Both too much and too little sodium can cause health problems. Pink swayers, please eat at least 700-1000 mg of sodium and blue swayers please do not exceed 5000-6000 mg. Salt also depletes the body of folic acid, so please take extra folic acid when swaying blue. Anywhere between 2000-4000 mcg a day, split into several small dosages, will be absorbed best. If you are of Sub-Saharan African descent please do NOT do the very high doses of sodium, you are much more sensitive to high sodium than other ethnicities and you can cause yourself serious harm eating lots of sodium. http://genderdreaming.com/forum/gender-swaying-general-discussion/4909-warning-if-you-african-african-descent-do-not-do-fgd-boy.html
:mad:Be VERY careful when taking blood thinners. In the girl diet, cranberry and baby aspirin are blood thinners (as are cinnamon and saw palmetto), and in the boy sway, garlic and fish oil are blood thinners (as are EPO and flaxseed - even though I don't want anyone taking these any more some people still do). Additionally many of the things people are taking to "aid implantation" are also strong blood thinners like bromelain and cayenne and any essential fatty acid like blackcurrant oil, borage oil, and cod liver oil. If you notice unusual bruising/bleeding, or if your periods get heavier, stop taking these things right away and reintroduce them very very slowly. They can cause bleeding in your stomach and brain and KILL you. Additionally when you are pregnant, you MUST wean off these things gradually by spacing doses further and further out till down to one per week and then you can stop taking them.
If you (or more likely, DH) are on prescription blood thinners DO NOT take any of these blood-thinning supps.