Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome Support Group

What you eat and how much you eat affects a lot more than your weight.(1) What you eat can either stimulate inflammation, or inhibit inflammation. An unhealthy diet consisting of lots of fat, refined carbohydrates and highly processed foods is not a good idea.

Obesity or persistent weight gain is a common feature of polycystic ovarian syndrome. Many women find it almost impossible to lose weight, even when on a strict diet. It seems that every calorie that is eaten is stored as fat.

There are many possible reasons why you are overweight. A few of them are:

Most women have some combination of the above factors that are causing them to gain weight, or have difficulty losing weight.

An ovarian cyst is a fluid-filled sac usually found on the surface of an ovary. There are many types of ovarian cysts, each with a different underlying cause. Many women will have them at some point during their childbearing years. Most are completely without symptoms. However, some types can cause serious health problems.

You have two walnut-sized ovaries. These are located on either side of the uterus, nestled under the fringed ends of the fallopian or uterine tubes. These tubes create a pathway for a released egg to reach the center of the uterus. During the menstrual cycle, one ovary will develop and mature an egg. The egg is encased in a sac called a follicle. About day 14 of the menstrual cycle, ovulation occurs and the egg is released from the ovary.

Miscarriage is the spontaneous ending of pregnancy by loss of the baby before the 24th week of pregnancy. It is more likely to occur in women who have polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) than in women who do not have this disorder.

Although estimates vary, about 30%-80% of women with PCOS have insulin resistance.

Hyperinsulinemia (high blood insulin levels) produces hyperandrogenism (excessive levels of male hormones such as testosterone) by stimulating ovarian androgen production and by reducing serum sex-hormone binding globulin (SHBG). This can heighten PCOS symptoms.

The hormone insulin is primarily known for its role in glucose regulation. Under normal circumstances, insulin assures the efficient transfer of glucose from the bloodstream to the body. Insulin also serves as a signal to the liver to begin or discontinue glucose production.

If the level of glucose in the cells is sufficient, insulin levels drop, signaling the liver to slow down glucose production. In contrast, if the cells of the body are not receiving enough glucose, the level of insulin will rise, signaling the liver to produce greater amounts of glucose.

Insulin resistance (also known as Syndrome X) is the inability of insulin to perform its job effectively in the body. In early stages of Syndrome X, the body simply compensates by causing the beta cells of the pancreas to produce more insulin. Ultimately in some women, however, the beta cells may wear out and the body ceases to produce insulin in the amounts needed. The resultant condition is Type II diabetes mellitus.

Contrary to what you may think, body fat is not simply an inert storehouse of unused calories encasing your body and organs.

Actually, your fat cells are metabolically very active. For example, they produce hormones (such as estrogen) and other signaling molecules that have far-reaching effects throughout your body.

The signals that are sent and received by your fat cells will influence how much fat you retain and how easy or difficult it will be for you to lose weight. Some of these signals are created as the result of inflammation.

 Ovarian cancer is a malignant tumor (abnormal growth) located in the ovaries. It typically spreads to nearby lymph nodes and eventually other tissues.

Although it is relatively uncommon, it is the 5th leading cause of cancer death in women. One of every seventy women will develop this cancer during her lifetime. It is the leading cause of death from gynecologic cancers. About 25,000 women in the US are diagnosed each year. About 14,000 die each year from the disease. Ovarian cancer can occur in adult women of any age, although women over age 60 have the highest risk.

Acne is a common symptom of polycystic ovary syndrome. It is an inflammatory skin disorder that involves interactions between hormones, hair, sebaceous (oil-secreting) glands and bacteria.

Women with PCOS are susceptible, possibly due in part to excess levels of androgens (male sex hormones) in the skin. Teenagers are also susceptible around the onset of puberty due to an increase in the production of androgens. This androgen, a metabolite of testosterone, is called "DHT" (dihydrotestosterone).

It is thought that DHT stimulates the production of "oil", which eventually can lead to clogged glands or pores. Clogged pores can no longer release oil and allow bacteria to grow and multiply in the follicle, leading to inflammation.

Enzymes from this bacteria breakdown triglycerides in the sebum (oil) to form "free fatty acids" that further irritate the follicular wall. Rupture of the follicle, accompanied by the release of free fatty acids, bacterial products and keratin, results in an abscess that heals with scars in severe cases.

About 15% of American women have hair loss, also known as alopecia or baldness. Loss usually develops gradually and may be patchy or diffuse (all over). In women, androgenic alopecia is probably the most common.

Loss of hair is more than a minor cosmetic problem. It has to potential to make you feel vulnerable (naked), and can cause unfavorable changes in how you feel about yourself.

Roughly 100 hairs are lost from your head every day. The average scalp contains about 100,000 hairs. Hair grows from its follicle at an average rate of about 1/2 inch per month. Each hair grows for 2 to 6 years, then rests, and then falls out. A new hair soon begins growing in its place. At any one time, about 85% of the hair is growing and 15% is resting.

Loss of hair or baldness occurs when hair falls out but new hair does not grow in its place.

What is Hirsuitism?

Hirsutism affects 5-10% of all women and a much higher percentage of women with PCOS. Women of European ancestry have higher rates than women of African descent. Asian women have the lowest rate.

Too much hair in the wrong places is emotionally painful for many women. The definition of feminine beauty in the U.S. includes smooth, apparently hairless skin. There are many cultures and individuals that don’t agree with this particular idea of beauty. However, American women are bombarded daily by TV, movie and magazine images that make it seem that women don’t have any hair at all except on top of their heads.

Because physical appearance has so much to do with how people relate to each other, hirsutism can be a painful, even devastating experience. At the very least, women may be chronically stressed by the amount of time and money they spend removing unwanted hair. And the darn stuff is constantly growing back!

Understanding and managing stress is a crucial component of your plan to control PCOS and improve your fertility.(1)

Stress is any stimulation to the body that challenges its sense of balance and triggers a significant set of biological responses. These responses include a release of stress hormones, an increase in blood sugar, tightening of muscles, shallowness of breath, rising blood pressure, and rapid heart rate.

Even though stress is most readily observed in our emotions and behaviors, the stress response is mostly an internal biochemical process. A stress response is like stepping on the gas pedal while your car is in neutral…the engine revs way up. As soon as you take your foot off the pedal, the engine slows down. But if you keep your foot pressed on the gas pedal all the time, the engine stays revved up way too high, resulting in engine damage. So it is with chronic stress and your body: cell and organ damage are the inevitable result.

Modern life frequently presents unrelenting stressful situations over which we may have little control. These chronic stressors may include work pressures, long-term relationship problems, loneliness, abuse, and persistent worry.

Continual or frequent stress reactions eventually cause your body to become exhausted and no longer able to adequately respond to stress. You want to avoid this end point because it represents a very serious threat to your health.

Many of you may be wondering, "What is this 'ND' thing? Is that a typo? Does she mean 'MD'?". It is not a typo! Although the MD is the most familiar designation for a physician, there are actually a number of different physician professions.

Despite starting out a century ago with a distinct practice philosophy that focused on the health of the bony and connective tissue structures of the body, a Doctor of Osteopathy is now essentially identical in education and practice to a medical doctor. The Doctor of Chiropractic is another familiar designation. The Doctor of Naturopathic Medicine has in common with all of these a pre-med bachelor degree, followed by a four year, post-graduate naturopathic medical education.

Physical activity is an essential key to managing PCOS (polycystic ovary syndrome), increasing fertility, and a healthy life.

Our bodies were made to move. For thousands of years, human beings were nomadic, following or seeking out the food supply. Once we learned how to create our food supply, we were able to stay in one place. As time passed, we began to enjoy the benefits of advancing technologies, which provided us with more leisure time. We used our minds more and more, while using our bodies less and less.

Today we find ourselves in a modern life that actually demands very little of us physically. Although our bodies are still hard-wired for movement, most of us no longer honor the very real need of the "natural self" to get up and move about.

Appreciating your body -- for its miraculous ability to carry out millions of intricate functions without conscious direction, for its continual pursuit of equilibrium, for its complex adaptive ability -- is the first step on the road to total fitness. Lay aside your judgments, fears, expectations and disappointments in favor of a positive framework that sets the stage for a lasting and consistent exercise program.

The castor bean has been well known as a cathartic, or strong laxative. However, it is no longer recommended as a laxative, due to its toxic effects if taken internally.

Castor bean oil has been used externally for centuries as a natural therapy. The Edgar Cayce Readings inform us that castor oil packs are to be used to improve assimilation, elimination and circulation, especially of the lymphatic system.

Castor oil appears to have a unique ability to sink transdermally (through the skin) to relax smooth muscle. This simple mechanical action has a beneficial influence on all hollow organs, specifically the blood and lymph vessels, the uterus, fallopian tubes, bowels, gall bladder, and even the liver (which is not hollow but is filled with venous lakes).

Acupuncture is a 3,000 year-old traditional form of Chinese medicine used to promote health and treat disorders. It involves the use of very fine, sterile, disposable stainless steel needles placed at selected acupuncture points.

The practice of acupuncture is based on the understanding that a vital energy called "Qi" flows along pathways or meridians throughout the body. Each pathway is associated with a particular physiological system and internal organ. Acupuncture allows Qi to flow to areas where it is deficient and away from where it is in excess. If Qi is blocked or obstructed in its flow, pain or dysfunction may occur.

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.

Protein is a big concept. Kind of like ‘love’ or ‘stress’, protein is a word that covers a lot of related but not equivalent items.

The way you love your mother is not the way you love your girlfriend -- or, if it is, you are in for some trouble on down the line. The stress of getting packed for a month in Thailand is different from the stress of divorce- and they are both big.

There is chemistry in plants that is called protein, and indeed it is a kind of protein. But you only have to look at a chicken, and look at a soybean and you know the basic stuff they are made of is fundamentally different.

It's true the meat industry puts out a product many people find themselves unable to stomach, and rightly so.

However, not eating animals at all is not the solution. Humans are designed to function optimally with animal protein fluctuating between 20% and 60% of our daily calories. There is no magic, perfect numerical formula for the percentage of this or that that we all should strive steadily for in our diets.

Food is the fuel for what you are doing. You've got your basic functions, breathing etc, and from there your actual metabolic needs are dictated by details of age, gender, musculature, immune- and other system requirements, genetics and how you are using yourself.

Many people are surprised to learn that I am not in favor of a vegetarian diet. There is an assumption that because I am a naturopathic physician, I am going to tell everyone to stop eating beef and learn to love tofu. Actually, I consider a life-long vegetarian diet to be inevitably nutritionally inadequate. I encourage daily consumption of clean, lean animal protein.

You can live on a vegetarian diet. You‘ll remain mostly upright, basically functioning, but eventually you will not be in optimal health. You will lack energy, feel sluggish, have hormonal derangements, foggy thinking, aches and pains, frequent infections that take forever to go away and you will be baffled, wondering why the heck you feel so lousy when you eat such a good, pure and politically correct diet!