Can't lose weight? Do you have coarse, excess hair on your face, chest or back? Do you suffer from hair loss or acne? Are you depressed? Unable to conceive?

If so, you're experiencing common symptoms of PCOS (polycystic ovary syndrome). As bad as these symptoms are, the scary thing is if you don't get some control over this disorder, you have a much higher risk of developing cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

The standard treatment is to take birth control pills or other medications. Besides undesirable side effects, there is no pill or drug that will stop or cure PCOS.

Unfortunately, polycystic ovary syndrome is not a temporary problem. Because of its genetic roots, you may be prone to PCOS for the rest of your life. Therefore, you could end up taking drugs for the rest of your life. If you don't want to do that, what else can you do?

To truly come to grips with PCOS, you need to do three basic things: improve your diet, get more exercise, and reduce stress.

Our research indicates that if you are a strict vegetarian, you may have greater difficulty in gaining the upper hand over PCOS (polycystic ovary syndrome). However, we recognize that there may be spiritual issues involved.

I (Dr. Nancy Dunne) have been privileged to know quite a few long-term vegetarians, people of deep social conscience and committed to values like sustainability and global health.

But after a couple decades of malnourishment they find their energy levels generally insufficient. They become very occupied with their personal health challenges and find it difficult to contribute broadly.

This is of course my own experience and I would not claim it is unfailingly universal among long term vegetarians- however, in my practice, in America, this is a common outcome after years of devotion to non-meat eating.

Grains have become a problem because we eat too much of them, and we eat them too far altered from their natural state.

The inevitable health consequences of a diet high in refined and chemically tainted grains are all around us. The consequences of 50 plus years of eating this way in America are skyrocketing numbers of people who are overweight and suffering diabetes and heart disease.

A case can be made for increased rates of certain cancers being related to overweight and to over-exposure to the kind of environmental pollution we swallow when we eat the commercial food industry's products.

PCOS (polycystic ovary syndrome) affects the fertility, the cardiovascular and endocrine health and the mental and emotional well being of at least 10% of all women, and it is firmly related to a high carbohydrate diet

Another big problem with vegetarian diets is that they rely heavily on grains. Grains are not essential human food.

Think about it. Humans were human for at least 10 or 12 thousand years before we invented farming. Original humans had no need for daily doses of grain. We did eat those few ripe seed heads we walked by in the late summer, when the grass was tall and bending with these plump, inviting nuggets. We plucked those and chewed a few and shared the rest around.

This is a very different biochemical experience than toast for breakfast, bagel for lunch and spaghetti for dinner, decade after decade! We can eat grains, but we don’t have to, and the way we have come to eat them turns out to be not good for us. Not good at all.