Maternal Nutrition is the Secret of Healthy Pregnancy and a Healthy, Well Developed Baby

Every mother wants to have an easy, uncomplicated pregnancy and a healthy child. Unfortunately, more and more women experience pregnancy complications, such as anemia, high blood pressure, thyroid problems, diabetes, premature delivery, and low birth weight.More children are born with birth defects and many of those who appear normal at birth go on to develop health problems later in life.One in 10 kids will have ADHD, one in 150 will become autistic. Children are affected by anxiety, depression, and bipolar disorder. Kids develop type 2 diabetes, which was unheard of just 20 years ago.Experts agree that most of these problems can be reduced and even prevented by proper nutrition during pregnancy.Mother’s nutrition has an affect not only on the pregnancy and on the infant’s birth weight, but even on the risk of birth defects, pregnancy complications, maternal illness, and future diseases when the child becomes an adult.Nutrients reduce pregnancy complications and birth defectsStudies show that proper diet and nutritional supplements, such as fish oil, vitamins C and E can prevent mother’s illness during pregnancy and premature birth. Vitamin A and beta-carotene along with magnesium, fish oil, and zinc can reduce maternal mortality. Iron and folic acid reduce anemia. Calcium reduces the incidence of pre-eclampsia and high blood pressure.According to the Journal of Nutrition:”Numerous studies support the concept that a major cause of pregnancy complications can be suboptimal nutrition.”"Frequency and severity of pregnancy complications may be reduced through an improvement in the nutrient status of the mother.”"Maternal nutritional deficiencies …may be significant contributors to the occurrence of birth defects. “Maternal nutrition will affect the rest of the child’s lifeMedical research shows that good nutrition during pregnancy and childhood can reduce baby’s risk of future cancer.Proper maternal nutritional supplementation can reduce the risk of diabetes later in child’s life.Certain specific deficiencies (for example magnesium) can also increase the risk of future diabetes.Even the risk of future osteoporosis (in a baby when he or she becomes an adult) is determined by “maternal nutritional status during pregnancy” and especially by vitamin D deficiency, which is very common.Most pregnant women are deficientUnfortunately, most pregnant women are deficient in vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and omega 3 fatty acids.Omega 3 fatty acids, especially DHA, are part of the brain, central nervous system, and the retina. A baby needs them for normal development of the brain and the eyes.Premature infants are more likely to have ADHD, depression, and schizophrenia, because their brains did not have a chance to fully develop and incorporate all the DHA it needed. On the other hand, children of mothers who eat large amount of fatty fish have better intellectual development and higher IQs.The problem is that almost 90% of women do not get even the minimal amount of DHA. Many women are deficient in folic acid, despite food fortification. Deficiencies of magnesium, calcium, iron, vitaminsC, D, E, and many other nutrients are very common, which can jeopardize the health of both the mother and the baby.Don’t count on prenatal multivitamin – it does not workThe sad truth is that a typical prescription prenatal vitamin does not correct most deficiencies, which are extremely common in pregnant women.Prenatal multivitamin is a poor source of nutrients. All the ingredients are synthetic, so your body cannot use them the way it uses natural nutrients from food.Plus it is loaded with chemicals, such as crospovidone, FD&C Red No. 40 aluminum lake, hydroxypropyl methylcellulose, lactose, magnesium stearate, mineral oil light, polysorbate 80, sodium lauryl sulfate, stearic acid, syloid, titanium dioxide and triethyl citrate. Neither you nor your baby need these chemicals. They do not help, but can only cause harm.How can you be sure to have the most optimal nutritionEat a good diet. This means eat natural foods. Oatmeal is natural, but cereal made from oats that looks like little doughnuts is not. Steak is natural, but luncheon meat is not. Eggs are natural, eggbeaters are synthetic unnatural junk.In other words, eat food the way it is naturally produced and avoid processed, man-made foods. This usually means avoiding anything that comes in boxes, cans, and plastic packages and anything that has expiration date months from today. Real food spoils, junk food is loaded with preservatives, so it can last for a long time.Eat fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds, berries, meat, chicken, lamb, eggs, cheese, butter, and any other natural food that you like. Seafood and fish are usually OK, but eat large fish (salmon, tuna, etc.) in moderation because of potentially high mercury content.Try to minimize soda, ice cream, cookies, white bread and white rice, most breakfast cereals, and any other processed foods.But even eating a good diet may be leave you deficient in important nutrients. That is why I recommend nutritional supplements.As I mentioned, prenatal vitamins that you doctor prescribed is nothing but junk. It is a combination of synthetic chemicals, some of which may even be harmful for the developing baby.You should take only supplements that are made from real food. There is a company called Standard Process that has been producing food-based supplements since 1920s. They grow fruits and vegetables on their own certified organic farm. They dehydrate them using a patented low-heat high-vacuum process that retains all the nutrients. Think of it as turning a grape into a raisin. Raisins have all the same nutrients as grapes, except for water.They also use organ meats (liver, kidney, etc) from organic cows because they have very high nutrient content. They combine different ingredients to create various nutritional supplements. There is nothing artificial, no preservatives, no chemicals, only real food with real nutrients.It is never too early or too late to start. Whether you are just planning your pregnancy or are in the 3rd trimester, you need proper nutrition at every stage.This is the program I recommend to my patients:· Catalyn – a natural multivitamin/multimineral made from 12 different foods· Folic Acid B12 – for extra folic acid and B12· Ferrofood – natural organic iron· Calcium lactate – natural calcium and magnesium from beats· TunaOmega oil – naturally pure source of DHA and EPA, guaranteed free of mercury, PCBs, and other chemicalsAll these are from Standard Process. They are only available through health practitioners, so go on their web site and find a doctor near you. Or you can call my office at 718-769-0997 if you cannot find anyone locally.The important point is this. If you want to have a healthy, uncomplicated pregnancy and a healthy, well-developed baby, eat real food and take food-based nutritional supplements.

US Markets in green on Friday; Dow 30 up over 345 points, Nasdaq Composite, S&P 500 up nearly 1%

US Markets were trading in the green on Friday with Dow 30 trading at 30,678.80, up by 1.14%. While S&P 500 was trading at 3,701.66, up by 0.98% and Nasdaq Composite 10,690.60 was also up by 0.71 per cent

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US Markets in green on Friday; Dow 30 up over 345 points, Nasdaq Composite, S&P 500 up nearly 1%
Earlier today, Indian stock markets ended the week on a winning note. It was the sixth straight gains for equity markets. Source: Reuters
US Markets were trading in the green on Friday with Dow 30 trading at 30,678.80, up by 345.25 points or1.14 per cent. While S&P 500 was trading at 3,701.66, up by 35.88 points or 0.98 per cent and Nasdaq Composite 10,690.60 was also up 75.75 points or 0.71 per cent. A Reuters report said that today’s strength was on the back of a report which said the Federal Reserve will likely debate on signaling plans for a smaller interest rate hike in December, reversing declines set off by social media firms after Snap Inc’s ad warning.

Source: Comex

Nasdaq Top Gainers and Losers

Source: Nasdaq

Earlier today, Indian stock markets ended the week on a winning note. It was the sixth straight gains for equity markets. The BSE Sensex ended at 59,307.15, up by 104.25 points or 0.18 per cent from the Thursday closing level. Meanwhile, the Nifty50 index closed at 17,590.00, higher by 26.05 points or 0.15 per cent. In the 30-share Sensex, 13 stocks gained while the remaining 17 ended on the losing side. In the 50-stock Nifty50, 21 stocks advanced while 29 declined.

Financing Cash Flow Peaks And Valleys

For many businesses, financing cash flow for their business can be like riding a continuous roller coaster.Sales are up, then they do down. Margins are good, then they flatten out. Cash flow can swing back and forth like an EKG graph of a heart attack.So how do you go about financing cash flow for these types of businesses?First, you need to accurately know and manage your monthly fixed costs. Regardless of what happens during the year, you need to be on top of what amount of funds will be required to cover off the recurring and scheduled operating costs that will occur whether you make a sale or not. Doing this monthly for a full twelve month cycle provides a basis for cash flow decision making.Second, from where you are at right now, determine the amount of funds available in cash, owners outside capital that could be invested in the business, and other outside sources currently in place.Third, project out your cash flow so that fixed costs, existing accounts payable and accounts receivable are realistically entered into the future weeks and months. If cash is always tight, make sure you do your cash flow on a weekly basis. There is too much variability over the course of a single month to project out only on a monthly basis.Now you have a basis to assess financing your cash flow.Financing cash flow is always going to be somewhat unique to each business due to industry, sector, business model, stage of business, business size, owner resources, and so on.Each business must self assess its sources of financing cash flow, including but not limited to owner investment, trade or payable financing, government remittances, receivable discounts for early payment, deposits on sale, third party financing (line of credit, term loan, factoring, purchase order financing, inventory financing, asset based lending, or whatever else is relevant to you).Ok, so now you have a cash flow bearing and a thorough understanding of your options available for financing cash flow in your specific business model.Now what?Now you are in a position to entertain future sales opportunities that fit into your cash flow.Three points to clarify before we go further.First, financing is not strictly about getting a loan from someone when your cash flow needs more money. Its a process of keeping your cash flow continuously positive at the lowest possible cost.Second, you should only market and sell what you can cash flow. Marketers will measure the ROI of a marketing initiative. But if you can’t cash flow the business to complete the sale and collect the proceeds, there is no ROI to measure. If you have a business with fluctuating sales and margins, you can only enter into transactions that you can finance.Third, marketing needs to focus on customers that you can sell to over and over again in order to maximize your marketing efforts and reduce the unpredictability of the annual sales cycle through regular repeat orders and sales.Marketing works under the premise that if you are providing what the customer wants that the money side of the equation will take care of itself. In many businesses this indeed proves to be true. But in a business with fluctuating sales and margins, financing cash flow has to be another criteria built into sales and marketing activities.Overtime, virtually any business has the potential to smooth out the peaks and valleys through a more robust marketing plan that better lines up with customer needs and the business’s financing limitations or parameters.In addition to linking financing cash flow more closely to marketing and sales, the next most impactful action you can take is expanding your sources of financing.Here are some potential strategies for expanding your sources for financing cash flow.Strategy # 1: Develop strategic relationships with key suppliers that have the ability to extend greater financing in certain situations to take advantage of sales opportunities. This is accomplished with larger suppliers that 1) have the financial means to extend financing, 2) view you as a key customer and value your business, 3) have confidence in the business’s ability to forecast and manage cash flow.Strategy # 2: Make sure where possible that your annual financial statements show a profit capable of servicing debt financing. Accountants may be good at saving you income tax dollars, but if they drive business profitability down to or close to zero through tax planning, they may also effectively destroying your ability to borrow money.Strategy # 3: If possible, only transact with credit worthy customers. Credit worthy customers allow both the business and potential lenders to finance receivables which can increase the amount of external financing available to you.Strategy # 4: Develop a liquidation pathway for your tangible assets. Equipment and inventory are easier to finance if lenders clearly understand how to liquidate the assets in the event of default. In some cases, businesses can get resale option agreements on certain equipment or inventory from prospective buyers assignable to a lender to be used as recourse against a lending facility for financing cash flow.Strategy # 5: Joint venture a sales opportunity with another business to share the risk of a large sales opportunity that may be too risky for you to take on yourself.SummaryThe primary long term objective of a business with fluctuating cash flow and margins is to smooth out the peaks and valleys and create a scalable business with more of a predictable sales cycle.This is best achieved with an approach that including the following steps.Step #1. Micro Manage your fixed costs and cash flow and accurately project out the cash flow requirements of the business on a weekly basis.Step #2. Take a detailed inventory of all the sources you have for financing cash flow.Step #3. Incorporate your financing constraints into your marketing approach.Step #4. If possible, only transact with credit worthy customers to reduce risk and increase financing options.Step #5. Work towards expanding both your financing sources and available source limits for financing cash flow.Business cycle stability and cash flow predictability is an evolutionary step for every business. The industries with longer sales cycles will tend to be the more difficult to tame due to a larger number of variables to manage.A continuous focus on the process for improvement outlined will help create the desired results over time.