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PaperclipPerfector  5mo ago (text post)   1719 thread views

Wellness Wednesday for June 5, 2024

The Wednesday Wellness threads are meant to encourage users to ask for and provide advice and motivation to improve their lives. It isn't intended as a 'containment thread' and any content which could go here could instead be posted in its own thread. You could post:

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I'm sure this has come up before, but I am once again asking for resources on pregnancy. What's the best stuff out there these days? I am of course familiar with SA's biodeterminist guide, but what about books? Any updates on the boosting IQ front? Anything people can recommend would be appreciated

I have heard good things about Emily Oster's books. She's an economist who goes through pregnancy opinions and evaluates the studies, should be rat-compatible.

Unfortunately, IQ is still not supported by any company AFAIK. You can get general health embryo selection to avoid the worst disabilities and reduce the chance of some common diseases, and this will almost surely indirectly benefit general competence as well. But tbh IVF sucks pretty hard, and the tech is still in its infancy. Genomic Prediction/Lifeview afaik has not fundamentally improved its testing since 2022 or so, in fact probably couldn't even if it wanted to at this point unless they do a major reorientation. Orchid I have less info about, but from what I can gather it's at least still improving. Very hard to tell which is better in practice at this point, though I lean towards GP since their publications were generally more technical/in depth. But sometime in the next few years Orchid will probably overtake them.

My usual recommendation is to definitely do embryo selection if you do IVF anyway, definitely do it if you know you're in some kind of high risk group, but if you're neither it depends a lot on how well your wife handles IVF. You can also sequence yourself and your wife beforehand to see what your risk profile is to begin with.

Well the pregnancy has already occurred so it's too late for any of that - at least I hope so. We'll be rolling the dice on our genetics, but we are both healthy, capable people

How have you/your partner been handling the pregnancy so far? I’m nearly through the first trimester with my first and it’s honestly been a lot more challenging than I was expecting. Due to a myriad of symptoms I’m struggling with some of the basics like hydration, good nutrition, keeping my prenatal down, and exercise, let alone optimizing for higher IQ.

My husband and I skimmed through Emily Oster’s Expecting Better but didn’t find it particularly enlightening (though better than the average What to Expect When You’re Expecting type book). If I find anything better I’ll let you know.

It's still early days for us, not even at the first scan. Mostly just been reassuring my wife that not everything has the potential to cause a miscarriage.

We also got Oster's book, and yeah, it's not too much that you won't know already, and the unorthodox advice on things like drinking alcohol and caffeine aren't any use for my wife as she barely touches either in normal times

You might have already come across this but we found this website to be reassuring regarding the risk of miscarriage: https://datayze.com/miscarriage-chart

Congratulations and I hope everything goes as smoothly as possible for your wife in her pregnancy!

I like the Mayo Clinic's book for the baseline stuff that isn't about biohacking.

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