Office Hours: Your Pregnancy & Postpartum Questions Answered

Pregnancy doesn’t just change your life—it transforms your entire biology. Hormones shift, metabolism adapts, nutrient needs increase, and your nervous system recalibrates in ways most women are never fully prepared for. And after birth, the postpartum phase can be one of the most overlooked and underserved stages of a woman’s health. In this episode, I answer your most common questions, including: • How to choose the right prenatal vitamins—including why methylated folate matters and the difference between folate and folic acid • Natural ways to manage common pregnancy symptoms like nausea, heartburn, sciatica, and fatigue • Key nutrition strategies during pregnancy to support both mother and baby • What happens during postpartum—from hormone and thyroid shifts to hair loss, immune changes, pelvic floor recovery, and C-section healing Pregnancy and postpartum aren’t separate events—they’re part of a continuous biological transition that affects hormones, metabolism, and overall health. The goal isn’t perfection. It’s understanding what your body is going through and supporting it with the right nutrients, habits, and care so you can recover, rebuild, and thrive. Visit ⁠functionhealth.com for 160+ lab tests at just $365 a year. Grab the FREE Guide: Supplements for a Healthy Pregnancy: What to Take (and Why It Matters) Have a question you’d love answered on Office Hours? Submit it here (0:12) Introduction to office hours with Dr. Mark Hyman (0:33) Comprehensive guide to pregnancy and postpartum health (2:35) Essential prenatal vitamins and managing morning sickness (5:18) Remedies for common pregnancy discomforts and supporting mental health (10:02) Strategies to prevent preeclampsia and ensure optimal nutrition (12:24) How to choose baby formula and understand postpartum hormonal shifts (15:26) Postpartum recovery: pelvic floor, immune health, and depression prevention (18:12) Combatting postpartum hair loss and nutrient support for regrowth (22:13) Post-cesarean recovery: scar tissue repair and rebuilding core strength (25:03) The emotional journey of pregnancy and postpartum recovery (25:47) Free resource and encouragement for a healthy pregnancy journey (26:52) Engaging with listeners and closing thoughts (27:26) Disclaimer and expressions of gratitude

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:12Dr. Mark Hyman?

  Welcome to Office Hours. This is our dedicated 101 space to go deeper, get clearer, and explore what truly moves the needle for your health. I'm Dr. Mark Hyman, and each week, we're going to pull back the curtain and share the insights, the research, the lessons that don't always make it into our conversations with guests. Because at the end of the day, you are the CEO of your own health. And for many of you, your family's health, too. And you might not feel it all the time, but you have far more power and agency than you realize. I'm glad you're here. Once you conceive, the questions don't stop, they just multiply. Pregnancy is a time of profound transformation. Your hormones shift, your metabolism changes, your nutritional needs increase, your nervous system adapts in ways that most women are not really prepared for.

• 0:57Dr. Mark Hyman?

  And postpartum, well, that may be one of the most misunderstood and underserved stages of a woman's life. So in this Office Hours, we're slowing things down and answering your most common real-world questions about how to support your body during pregnancy and afterwards. We're going to talk about things like choosing the right prenatal vitamins and understanding the difference between folate and folic acid. We're going to talk about managing nausea in pregnancy, acne, heartburn, which is common, and many other common pregnancy discomforts. We're going to talk about supporting mental health during pregnancy and why it matters for your well-being postpartum. We're going to talk about reducing the risk of complications in pregnancy, like preeakampsia, which is high blood pressure in pregnancy.

• 1:41Dr. Mark Hyman?

  And we'll talk about nourishing your body in the third trimester to prepare for labor and recovery. And then we're going to move into postpartum. What happens with your hormonal shifts, thyroid shifts? What happens in your pelvic floor? How do you heal that? How do you support your immune system? How do you deal with some of the mood changes that happen with all these shifts in hormones? What about hair loss? And how do you recover after a C-section? This isn't about doing everything perfectly. It's about understanding what your body is going through and learning how to support it with clarity, with some compassion and a few evidence-based tools. So whether you're pregnant now or you're planning ahead in the postpartum phase or supporting someone you love, my goal is to walk you through a process to walk away feeling informed,

• 2:26Dr. Mark Hyman?

  to feel empowered, to not feel so alone. So let's talk about what happens once you conceive and how to support your body through pregnancy and postpartum. All right, let's start with pregnancy and prenatal vitamins and the whole difference between folate or even methylfolate versus folic acid. And the question is, can prenatal vitamins be harmful if I can't process folate? Well, yes, and it's important to take the right forms of these nutrients, especially when you're pregnant. Something called methylated folate is a very important form of this vitamin, also known as vitamin B9. It's different than folic acid, which is what's in most prenatal vitamins,

• 3:09Dr. Mark Hyman?

  which is often somewhat effective, but not always very effective. And there's a lot of genetics that play a role here. The form of the nutrient matters. You want to have the right product. So quality is so important and I would avoid anything with aesthetic fillers, colors, dyes, excipients, and there's some great brands out there. I like We-Natal. It's actually a prenatal for men and women. And we've done some shows on the podcast on male infertility. But guess what, folks? Men are half the equation in conception, so they matter. And then their health matters and they actually need prenatal too. Before, it doesn't matter once you get pregnant, obviously, what the guy takes, but before for sure. So I like We-Natal. There's many other brands like Pure Encapsulations has prenatal vitamins. Thorn has them.

• 3:53Dr. Mark Hyman?

  There are many other companies that do, but you want to use the best quality you possibly can. All right, what about question on nausea? This is a big thing. A lot of women get it, some women don't, but morning sickness, nausea, acne, these are big things. About them. Now, if you're nauseous, there's some real simple practical things you can do. One is making sure your blood sugar is is balanced. So you want to eat, you know, often smaller, more frequent meals, don't eat a lot of carbs and sugar. There's certain herbs that can be helpful, like ginger tea. You can just slice up some ginger, boil it. Vitamins matter. B6, very important. Magnesium really matters. And and there's actually, you know, some some studies that show if you take, you know,

• 4:34Dr. Mark Hyman?

  the B6 and magnesium, it can really help. And there's even some sometimes medication like bendectin, which is a weird drug that's used for insomnia, often known as Unisom. And I don't like prescribing drugs that often, but sometimes for women who really have intractable nausea, it can be very helpful in the early period with with the B6 at higher levels. And you need probably like 50 milligrams and you probably need paradoxal five phosphate. Again, a very special form of B6. The next thing you can do is support your liver and your gut health because that plays a role also by helping your microbiome, by supporting with probiotics. And there there's also ways to support your liver with healthy food and nutrients. So all that's really important. What about sciatica, men's sciatic pain, heartburn? These are other things that women get. We got several questions about that. For example,

• 5:19Dr. Mark Hyman?

  why do you get sciatica? Well, it's usually caused by the uterus expanding and you've got this giant nerve that comes off of your spinal cord and goes down through your butt. And as your uterus expands and there's shifts in your posture and there's ligaments that get kind of loose because of hormones called relaxant that your body makes when you're pregnant, you end up, you know, often getting back pain. So there's some just simple things you can do. Pelvic tilts, cat cow stretch, really great. Prenatal yoga, hip opener is really great. Just moving helps. A heat and ice rotating can be very helpful. Physical therapy, massage is great. Myofascial release, learning how to properly sleep so you don't get in bad positions and just walking, moving. The more you move, the better you're going to be. I know I have back

• 6:03Dr. Mark Hyman?

  issues. The more I move, the better I feel. So. Sitting here doing this podcast is probably the worst thing for me. Actually, heartburn is often very common, too. Why does that happen? Well, there's, there's hormones that change and you get the esophagus relaxing a little bit. So the sphincter, which is a little kind of valve at the top of your esophagus, kind of loosens. And then you've got this big uterus pushing up and abdominal pressure grows and then that kind of pushes food up. So how do you address that? Well, eat smaller meals, more frequent meals. If you have a big meal, it's going to make it worse. Try four to six small ones instead of two to three big ones. Watch the trigger foods for reflux, tomato based foods, citrus based foods, chocolate, fried foods. I mean, listen, if I eat fried foods, I get heartburn and I don't get heartburn.

• 6:47Dr. Mark Hyman?

  Caffeine, coffee, which you shouldn't probably drink anyway while you're pregnant. Carbonated drinks may be an issue. Peppermint, which sounds good if you like peppermint tea, but that can make the sphincter even worse. So watch out for that. Make sure you just kind of keep a log of food you're eating and see like, well, what did I eat and do I got reflux? So that can help. Also, don't lie down after eating. That's just a general recommendation for reflux and heartburn, but give yourself two or three hours at least, ideally three hours so you can digest rather than, you know, laying down after a meal. You can also elevate the head of your bed at night. There's ways to do that with blocks or you can, there's different even beds that do that. That can be helpful. Certain digestive aids can help, like aloe vera juice can help. It's pregnancy safe. A little ginger tea can be helpful.

• 7:31Dr. Mark Hyman?

  Make sure you chew your food so you don't like have a lot of undigested food in there. Don't wear tight clothing. You know, obviously you're pregnant, your belly's grown, but get pregnancy clothes. So you're kind of have loose clothing. If you have a waistband around your belly, that can increase the pressure. Also make sure you're hydrating, but, but not during a meal, in between meals is really bad. And so also don't chug a lot of water, just, just keep a steady flow going. Certain things are great. Magnesium can be really helpful. It relaxes your system. Calcium carbonate or Tums can be helpful, but you want to talk to your OB about that. I like magnesium glycinate, often very helpful. A lot of times people are magnesium deficient and that can make reflux worse.

• 8:14Dr. Mark Hyman?

  And then, you know, if you're stressed, that makes a problem with your digestion. It slows everything down and it makes heartburn worse. So simple stress techniques like breathing slow through your nose, five breath in, five breaths out, really slow, really simple, takes a couple of minutes or less, and it can make a big difference in your nervous system. My favorite massage, you can get a prenatal massage that helps with stress. Gentle stretching, movement, being in nature, just simple things, doing things you love all help. What about the mental health stuff in pregnancy? That's something people talk about a lot. And you know, you got to manage all that anxiety, depression. It's a thing and everybody's different. Some of them do great. Someone have all kinds of mood issues. But there's some really foundational things around lifestyle that make a big difference in mental health.

• 8:59Dr. Mark Hyman?

  Obviously, eating a whole food, real diet, moving regularly makes a big impact on mental health. Managing stress that we just talked about with meditation, yoga, breath work, sleep, making sure you prioritize sleep, emotional support, you know, friends, therapists, whatever. And then of course, keeping your blood sugar even, your nutrient levels optimized, all that matters. Omega threes, you know, your baby needs a lot of omega threes to make its brain. Cause about 60% of the brain is made up of omega threes. So it's going to take all yours. So you're going to get potentially low. So you want to make sure you get omega threes as well during pregnancy. If you're depressed during pregnancy, there may be an increased risk of getting postpartum depression, which is a real thing. And that's kind of a drag, but there's a lot of ways to prevent that.

• 9:43Dr. Mark Hyman?

  Just doing all the things I said. Okay. Well, there's, there's another big problem women asking about, which is this thing called preeclampsia, which is quite a serious problem in pregnancy and you get fluid retention, you get high blood pressure. It can even lead to seizures. And there's a lot of good literature that shows that generally getting your metabolic health straight will help. That means balancing your blood sugar. And again, you've heard me talk about this forever, but you know, eating whole foods, not eating a lot of sugar and starch, you know, having lots of fiber, protein, good fats, all common sense stuff. And that works for high blood pressure. The biggest driver of blood pressure issues is insulin resistance. So if you're eating a lot of sugar, you're eating a lot of starch, it's going to drive up your blood pressure. And you want to be really, you know, careful about that.

• 10:25Dr. Mark Hyman?

  And you know, I don't like the idea of like, just whatever you want, have much ice cream or cake or cookies. I'm pregnant, I could eat, doesn't, don't do that. It's not good for you. It's not good for the baby. You want to still stay on a really optimally healthy diet. Have, make sure you have adequate protein, lots of minerals, all that's really important. And I omega threes, like, you know, you want to be careful with fish during pregnancy, but you can have the small fish, sardines, herring, mackerel, anchovies, small wild salmon can be helpful. All that really helps. Now, sometimes aspirin can help. So there's plus and minuses on that. If you have a high risk of preeclampsia, if you've had it before, if you have. Really, if you're overweight, if you have a lot of insulin resistance, metabolic

• 11:07Dr. Mark Hyman?

  issues, you know, you might want to take a baby aspirin, but you want to check with your obstetrician about that before taking any drugs during pregnancy. All right, what about food? What should you be eating? Well, it's the same thing you want to be eating anyway, because to create a healthy you is the same thing you need to create a healthy baby. But there's a few things that are particularly important. One is making sure you have adequate protein because you're growing a whole new being. Two is lots of good healthy fats, particularly omega three. As I mentioned, a lot of your neurologic tissue, your brain and nervous systems, all made up of omega threes. Choline, which is really important, also important for brain development.

• 11:48Dr. Mark Hyman?

  And again, it's very low in many Americans diets and it's important in neurotransmitter function and you can get it from eggs, particularly egg yolks. So no egg white omelets, please. Making sure you stay hydrated and get adequate electrolytes. All that's important. So I think just common sense, but again, don't overeat. Don't just eat whatever you want. You know, not like, you know, it's okay to gain 100 pounds in pregnancy. It's not, you're affecting the epigenetic programming of the baby. You're affecting your own health and you want to just stay, you know, following the principles of a healthy diet, which I've written about a lot in the Pegan diet or food. What the heck should I eat? Okay, so how do I pick a formula? That's another question we got. Well, first of all, ideally you want to breastfeed for at least six months or longer a year.

• 12:32Dr. Mark Hyman?

  Sometimes it's not possible. I understand that. And so then the question is, how do you figure out what's going on with formula? And in America, formula is just crap. It's the average formula has the equivalent of a Coke or two a day that the baby's consuming. Now, you wouldn't give your baby a can of Coke, but you basically are giving it a can of Coke if you're giving it the traditional formula. You don't want the corn syrup solids. You don't want all these additives. You want really clean ingredients. And there are good brands out there. Bobby is one. There's a new thing that happened. You should know about the FDA released a ban. Can you believe this? There was a ban on importing formula from Europe, which is way better formula. It actually has

• 13:17Dr. Mark Hyman?

  omega threes in it. They do a lot of really good things with it. Much better designed. We banned it. Why? To protect the American companies that were making formula. But who was paying the price? The babies and the mothers. Who was, you know, going to the bank all day? The company's making the formula. So that's a good thing. The new FDA rule that lifted the ban on importing foreign formula is a good thing. And there's some great brands out there from Germany and other places. So I just kind of check around on that. All right. What happens after you give birth? Postpartum period is really misunderstood by many people. It's an underserved part of medicine. I didn't learn anything about it in medical school. And it's a really important stage of a mother's life. So you've

• 14:01Dr. Mark Hyman?

  got to know what happens. The question is, you get all this hormonal imbalance, right? You're on all this flood of hormones when you're pregnant and you give birth, the placenta's gone, all these hormones are gone. What happens? So the question is, how long until your hormones get back into balance? Well, it can take a minute. It can take a minute. And, and some women are more affected by it than others. But usually, things come into back into balance after about, you know, four to six weeks. There is a, there is a thing that happens often after, and I don't think we exactly know why, but a shift in thyroid function. And women get postpartum autoimmune disease of their thyroid called Hashimoto's. And about 10% of women do this. And that can cause depression. It's, it can cause lots of things, but depression is one of the key features of low thyroid function.

• 14:46Dr. Mark Hyman?

  So now depression, but fatigue, you can get weight gain. That is very psychological. It's hormonal and you want to make sure you do the right tests. You know, Function Health, we do full panel of tests. Really important to get the right tests because most doctors don't check the right thyroid test. They just don't. They check TSH and they leave it at that. But you want to check the free T3, free T4, thyroid antibodies. At Function Health, we see over almost 15% of our members, I mean, 500, almost that, almost 500,000 people now have an autoimmune thyroid problem and most of them have never been diagnosed before. And it's affecting the quality of their life. So you want to make sure you check the right tests. Next question is about what happens to your pelvic floor. You get birth, it's a big thing. This big head goes through your pelvic floor.

• 15:29Dr. Mark Hyman?

  You can get a lot of tissue stretching and lots of vaginal issues. What, what do you do after pregnancy to help with that? Well, there's lots of things. Physical therapy can help and there's pelvic floor therapy that can help. Breath work, kegels, exercises, strengthening your core, your abdomen, your abdominal muscles, all really important. And that can help a lot. It's really important, both, both after vaginal birth and even after a C-section. Also, women report getting sick a lot after pregnancy. And the question is, why am I sick so much after having a baby? Well, I hate to say this, folks, but the baby's a parasite. It's, it steals all your nutrients. It takes everything out of you and you gotta put it back in.

• 16:09Dr. Mark Hyman?

  So hopefully you're doing that during pregnancy. Hopefully you're taking the right multivitamin, fish oil, vitamin D and so forth. But you want to make sure your nutrient levels are optimized. And again, at Function Health, we test all your nutrients. You can do the basic function panel, which has a lot, or you can even add the extended nutrient panel. And you can go to functionhealth.com to learn more. The other thing that can make you sick a lot is you're not sleeping because the baby's up all night or you're breastfeeding at night. And so sleep deprivation does affect immune function. Microbiome changes also happen during pregnancy and that can affect you. So there's a lot of reasons, but as long as you make sure your vitamin D's levels are good. You're, you're getting the right vitamins and minerals. You've got omega-3 fats.

• 16:50Dr. Mark Hyman?

  You're learning some, you know, how to do some gentle stress reduction because stress suppresses your immune system too. Get some help with the baby, do some general exercise. All that really can be helpful in supporting your immune system. All right. Next question was about postpartum depression. What can we do to prevent it? Well, the key is to do the things that. Work for depression for anything, which is getting your metabolic health straight. So balancing your blood sugar because insulin resistance, prediabetes, blood sugar issues, all those cause depression. Making sure your thyroid's right. And those tests I just mentioned are really important. Checking for inflammation, you know, lots of inflammation in your body can cause depression and you can use that test that we do at Function Health CRP, which is a measure of inflammation.

• 17:34Dr. Mark Hyman?

  There's other tests you can do as well. You can check your omega three status. Again, you can do that with Function Health. Low omega threes will lead to more inflammation in the body. So all of that's really important. And there's some simple things around making sure you're getting enough exercise, getting your sleep sorted, that's tricky, but getting support, maybe your husband and take the baby. Maybe you get a support from a family member or even help from a nanny. All that can be helpful, getting time with friends, therapy if you need it. If you've had trauma in your life, sometimes trauma-informed therapy can be really helpful. What about postpartum hair loss is another question about that. Is there a way to prevent so much hair loss after pregnancy? Well, why did this happen? It's something called teligen effluvium, which is a big medical word. It's really common.

• 18:18Dr. Mark Hyman?

  It peaks around three to five months after birth and it's mostly caused by hormonal swings, especially estrogen after you give birth. And also can be from nutrient depletion because you're, like I said, the baby's a parasite. It's taking all your nutrients. So making sure you're on a healthy diet, adequate protein, hair is made of protein. Things like biotin can be really important. And also just making sure you have omega threes, which are important per hair, hair health and your thyroid's okay. All that can affect your hair loss and it can really be from nutrient depletion, not just in pregnancy and the birth, but breastfeeding also. So you're, you're still feeding another human and you need to make sure you're getting yourself enough quality nutrition. Stress, you know, people say, I'm so stressed, my hair is falling out. Well, it's a thing.

• 19:02Dr. Mark Hyman?

  So I know it's hard if you're a new mother or new family, it's sometimes tricky, but do the best you can to find ways to kind of reset your nervous system, whether it's a yoga nidra, you can listen on Spotify or breath work or meditation or yoga or hot bath, just simple things make a big difference. And sleep disruption also, again, something sometimes hard to avoid, it also can be a big factor in, in stress and causing more hair follicles to go into the shedding phase. Like I said, thyroid, you want to check that, very common, a big cause of hair loss. And you know, there's a lot of ways to support regrowth of your hair, even if you totally can't prevent all the hormone shifts, right? So you need a lot of nutrients for hair growth and, and pregnancy can deplete a lot of these,

• 19:46Dr. Mark Hyman?

  like iron, for example, if your ferritin is low, because women lose a lot of blood. Again, you had to have a ferritin, even if you're not anemic, if you're ferritin, which is the iron stores, like the money in the bank as opposed to in your pocket, if your iron stores are low with low ferritin, that can cause hair loss. And if it's under 45, it's a problem. And most lab reference ranges are like 16 is normal. That's not normal. That's optimal, that's not optimal. It's quote, "normal" because people are low. So you want to make sure you check that. And again, on function health, you can check iron and you can check ferritin levels. You can check for zinc, also really important for follicle repair, biotin, really important for keratin production, omega threes, we check that at function health, vitamin D, we also check that. That vitamin D can, if it's not adequate, can lead to thinning of your hair.

• 20:31Dr. Mark Hyman?

  Omega three fats also really critical for hair. I mean, they give racehorses omega three fats to make their coat shiny. And protein, you know, hair is made up of protein and made up of amino acids. So you need at least 800 to 100 grams a day, especially if you're breastfeeding. So how do you do all this? Well, stay on your prenatal vitamin, not just when you're pregnant, but at least six to 12 months after. Eat a lot of iron-rich foods. I was talking to this nanny service with my, my daughter's going to have a baby soon. And, and they're like, well, do they, she eat liver or does she eat kidneys? And I'm like, so all that stuff, liver is probably one of the richest sources of iron in the diet. I love liver, but you can also get it from grass-fed beef, from lentils, from spinach. You want a lot of zinc-rich foods, pumpkin seeds, oysters, beans, and you want protein in every meal.

• 21:15Dr. Mark Hyman?

  So chicken, fish, meat, nuts, seeds, beans, all that's really important. Make sure you check your labs, folks. You gotta check your labs. If you don't know what's going on in your body, you can't manage it. No, I think some tech guy said, what doesn't get measured can't be managed. So you need to know what's going on. It's like your dashboard in your car. I mean, if you imagine you didn't know how fast you're going, how much gas in the tank, like you need to know that stuff. The thyroid's really key, as I mentioned, around postpartum. A depression, hair loss, and many other things. And this thyroid thing is a big thing. You know, a lot of, it's really common, as I said, and it can cause anxiety, depression, exhaustion, fatigue, hair loss, fluid retention, prevent you from losing the pregnancy weight. And you want to get the right test. Like I said, you don't just want the TSH, you want the free T3, the free T4, the thyroid

• 22:00Dr. Mark Hyman?

  antibodies. There's even something called reverse T3, which can be very helpful sometimes if there's stress that can go up and it's like a blocking thyroid hormone. So until you fix those, your hair loss isn't going to get better. So you've got to make sure you check that. What about C-sections and recovery from C-sections? Well, what are tips for recovering? And I delivered 500 babies. I used to do lots of C-sections. It's a big surgery, right? It's not a little surgery. You know, recovery isn't just about healing the scar. It's about restoring your strength of your core and your abdominal muscles, getting your gut health back in shape, making sure your nutrient levels are good, making sure your immune system's working and inflammation's down. And so there's some really good foods to help with repair of tissue and repair of your body.

• 22:44Dr. Mark Hyman?

  Protein-rich foods, which are important, probably about a gram of protein per pound of ideal body weight. And then you can just do the math on that. So if you're like, you know, 120 pounds, that's like 120 grams a day, but you can shoot for, you know, 80 to 120. That helps collagen formation, tissue repair. Vitamin C also really important for recovery of collagen formation. Peppers are high sources, citrus are high sources. All that's really important. Also zinc for wound healing, great. Pumpkin seeds, oysters, lentils, taking supplements, also helpful. Omega threes, important for skin repair and healing. Salmon, sardines, walnuts, all that helps. And collagen, you can use, take collagen bone broth. That helps amino acids that can help rebuild tissue as well.

• 23:28Dr. Mark Hyman?

  And then, of course, you want to make sure you optimize your microbiome. That helps, especially after antibiotics, which they give you often in pregnancy or C-section to prevent infection. And then getting your blood sugar sorted, because that'll help reduce the overall inflammation in your body. If you know, diabetics don't heal well, it's no surprise if your blood sugar's out of whack, you're not going to heal well. And you can support your scar tissue repair, right? So it can be difficult if you don't take care of it. So you want to make sure you. You can use vitamin E oil, there's silicone gel you can put on your scar. There's many things, but you want to make sure you get your scars healed. And you also want to start to rebuild your core and your pelvic floor.

• 24:08Dr. Mark Hyman?

  So you can work with, you know, a simple exerciser of your own, or you can work with a pelvic floor therapist. And they can really help create a good plan for repairing all those things. And you want to support your energy and your hormones, right? You know, if you're postpartum tired and you have the surgery on top of that, I mean, that's a lot, right? So having babies is big, but then you have surgery on top of it, it's a lot. So you get more nutrient demand and you get a lot more hormonal balances that are going on. But they improve if you optimize your nutritional state. If you get the right nutrients, if your gut is healthy and you know, deal with the stress that's going on as much as you can. So emotional recovery is important. Healing the nervous system is just important, is healing the incision. And that's, that's really important.

• 24:52Dr. Mark Hyman?

  Like I do breath work every morning. I do Qi Gong practice every morning. I live a very high paced life and I need to break my nervous system like everybody else. So I encourage you to just find some things that work for you. In closing, pregnancy and postpartum aren't really separate moments. They're part of this continuous process of hormonal shifts, of metabolic change and lots of transformation in your life. So no matter where you are on the journey, I want you to remember a few things. You're not powerless. Small, consistent choices can meaningfully support your hormones. They can support your energy. They can support your mental health and they can support your recovery and even your long-term health and wellbeing. Now, if this episode brought you clarity, please share it with somebody who might need support during pregnancy or postpartum.

• 25:37Dr. Mark Hyman?

  I'm going to send it to my daughter. So many women go through these stages feeling confused or alone. And having the right information can make a real difference. If you want to go deeper, we've created a free resource to support you. Supplements for a healthy pregnancy, including guidance on nutrition, supplements and recovery during pregnancy and beyond. You'll find direct links in the show notes, wherever you are in the journey of pregnancy or postpartum. Whether you're in the early weeks or months in or still healing, remember this, your body's wise, it's resilient. And it's capable of incredible change.

• 26:15Dr. Mark Hyman?

  Thanks for joining me for Office Hours. I love diving into these topics with you. Remember, you are the CEO of your own health, and every choice you make can move you closer to healing and vitality. I want to keep these episodes as relevant and useful as possible. So tell me, what do you want to explore next? What questions are you wrestling with? What breakthroughs are you chasing? Share your ideas in the comments on social media or through the link in the show notes. I'm listening. Until next time, keep taking charge, keep asking questions, and keep showing up for your health.

• 26:53Dr. Mark Hyman?

  When it comes to supplements, you only want the best for your body, the kind with the highest quality, cleanest, and most potent ingredients you can get. That's exactly what you'll find at my supplement store, where I've hand-selected each and every product to meet the most rigorous standards for safety, purity, and effectiveness. These are the only supplements I recommend to my patients, and they're also what I use myself. Whether you want to optimize longevity or reduce your disease risk, or you're looking to improve your sleep, blood sugar, metabolism, gut health, you name it, drhyman.com has the world's best selection of top-quality, premium supplements, all backed by science and expertly vetted by me, Dr. Mark Hyman. So check out drhyman.com, because when it comes to your health, nothing less than the very best will do. That's drhyman.com, D-R-H-Y-M-A-N.com.

• 27:36Dr. Mark Hyman?

  If you love this podcast, please share it with someone else you think would also enjoy it. You can find me on all social media channels at Dr. Mark Hyman. Please reach out. I'd love to hear your comments and questions. Don't forget to rate, review, and subscribe to the Dr. Hyman Show wherever you get your podcasts. And don't forget to check out my YouTube channel at Dr. Mark Hyman for video versions of this podcast and more. Thank you so much again for tuning in. We'll see you next time on the Dr. Hyman Show. This podcast is separate from my clinical practice at the Ultra Wellness Center, my work at Cleveland Clinic, and Function Health, where I am Chief Medical Officer. This podcast represents my opinions and my guests' opinions. Neither myself nor the podcast endorses the views or statements of my guests. This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional care by a doctor or other qualified medical professional.

• 28:21Dr. Mark Hyman?

  This podcast is provided with the understanding that it does not constitute medical or other professional advice or services. If you're looking for help in your journey, please seek out a qualified medical practitioner. And if you're looking for a functional medicine practitioner, visit my clinic, the Ultra Wellness Center at ultrawellnesscenter.com, and request to become a patient. It's important to have someone in your corner who is a trained, licensed healthcare practitioner and can help you make changes, especially when it comes to your health. This podcast is free as part of my mission to bring practical ways of improving health to the public. So I'd like to express gratitude to sponsors that made today's podcast possible. Thanks so much again for listening.