Infertility, Pregnancy, and Vitamin C, Vitamin D, Niacin, and Thiamine

My recent research on thiamine has convinced me that thiamine is likely to be helpful for preventing and treating infertility. In the process of researching this column, I was stunned to read statistics claiming that 10% of the population has infertility problems. This would mean that almost 20% of couples experience infertility problems. Even if the real number is only 5%, it is an astonishingly large number.

It is a long road from an egg and a sperm to a healthy adult and many difficulties can be encountered along the way. It is normal to reach adulthood with imperfections. The most important function of vitamins is to catalyze the conversion of egg and sperm into an adult. Extra vitamins can help children grow. All parents should be afraid that their children will grow up to be infertile. Extra vitamin C, niacin, and a multivitamin can prevent at least some infertility. The root causes of infertility are often traceable to events during growth and development. In previous columns I’ve discussed asthma, learning disabilities, hyperactivity, autism, anorexia, and obesity. Infertility is one more concern to add to the list. The paradigm that most children grow up healthy is wrong. A substantial fraction encounter chronic health problems by the time they reach adulthood.

Four vitamins are special – vitamin C, vitamin D, niacin, and thiamine. Read more here. These are the four vitamins associated with the four pandemic vitamin deficiency diseases scurvy, rickets, pellagra, and beriberi respectively. Read more here.

Vitamin C, vitamin D, and niacin are available in almost any pharmacy or grocery store. I recommend 4000 mg/day of vitamin C, and 250 mg time release niacin at least twice per week. For vitamin D, I recommend taking 2000 IU per day for one month, and then scaling back to the 400 IU per day found in a multivitamin. Blood levels of vitamin D should be checked every year as part of a routine physical, and should be maintained as close to the high end of normal as possible. Thiamine is also available in almost any pharmacy or grocery store. Unfortunately, the kind of thiamine in these stores is not useful. It is not well absorbed. Read more here. Fat-soluble forms of thiamine that are readily absorbed are available. The best of these is called TTFD. TTFD (fat soluble thiamine) is available as a skin cream and as powder inside gel caps. I’ve been taking the gel caps, breaking them open, and rubbing them into my skin with lotion. Read more here.

If you are struggling with infertility, or if you are a parent concerned that your children might grow up infertile, you’ve got much to gain and almost nothing to lose by trying vitamin C, niacin, vitamin D, and fat-soluble thiamine.