Unpacking Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome

 

By Kim Marquardt, RN MSN

This blog post is from the Nurse Kim archives of myth busting. I want to share some "alternative" or maybe just lesser known health and wellness viewpoints for you to chew on.

*These posts are not intended as official medical advice.

They ARE meant to be fun, informative, and thought provoking, hopefully sparking an interest for you to do your own research (you can start with the links I provide!) and discover the marvels of the human body, and how it can function at its optimal performance level if we understand how it works and interacts with our environment and our diet.

I have a passion for health and wellness through lifestyle and nutrition and have done thousands of hours of research in addition to being a registered nurse for 23 years. I have done A LOT of self-experimentation in and around diet, lifestyle, body care, and supplementation and have spent a lot of time looking into the science behind it all (or lack thereof!). Check back weekly for the latest post!

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PCOS or polycystic ovarian syndrome is another one of our very common modern chronic illnesses in the US. Today we are going to unpack it and talk about how you can take back control of your ovaries if you suffer from this debilitating illness.

Insulin Resistance 

If you’ve read my other blogs, you've likely heard me mention a little thing called insulin resistance. Insulin resistance is the precursor to Type II Diabetes, and incidentally, a host of other chronic illnesses, yes, including PCOS.

Quick PSA: If you are being treated for PCOS, and your medical provider has not checked your fasting insulin level, it’s time to find a new medical provider because that tells me they understand ZERO about PCOS. Moving on…

As already mentioned, PCOS is simply another complication of insulin resistance. Some experts will tell you it’s "more complicated” and "we don’t truly know,” or worse, try to blame it on your genetics. But the fact of the matter is, the human metabolism is a well-studied and documented process, and processed food, of which we have been told to consume by the USDA for the last 45 years breaks our bodies at the molecular level for a variety of reasons. So, let’s unpack why the body becomes insulin resistant in the first place (and how that causes Type II Diabetes, PCOS, and a slew of other health problems).

Factor 1 - Insulin Resistance

Insulin, among many other functions, takes sugar out of the bloodstream and transports it into our cells. When you eat a diet full of processed foods with artificial additives, gums, fillers, pesticides, hormones, antibiotics, artificial sweeteners, and lots of polyunsaturated “vegetable” oils, energy production at the cellular level becomes dysfunctional. This is also contributed to by other environmental toxins, malabsorption of nutrients resulting in deficiencies, and other factors. 

This dysfunction results in an increase in stress hormones which induces break down of fatty acids in the body (or fat burning). When the cells are burning fat, they cannot simultaneously burn glucose. Glucose then backs up in the bloodstream, causing the pancreas to release lots of insulin to attempt to drive the glucose into the cell. And THIS, my friends, is insulin resistance.

Your insulin levels continue to rise over the years, the molecular dysfunction gets worse, glucose regulation eventually becomes completely impaired, blood sugar levels go up, and you get diagnosed with Type II Diabetes.

Wouldn’t it be nice to know when your insulin levels started rising? Say, 10 years before your blood sugars do, to know your body was heading towards Type II Diabetes? Nah! That would allow you to make lifestyle and nutrition choices that would prevent you from getting Type II Diabetes in the first place, and who wants that??? 😒 

Well, turns out, chronically high levels of insulin (or hyperinsulinemia) affects every cell of the body. Intro… PCOS.

Insulin resistance and subsequent hyperinsulinemia inhibits an enzyme called aromatase. Aromatase is the enzyme that makes it possible for the body to make estrogen. When the body can’t make estrogen, testosterone becomes dominant (and a bunch of other related things become imbalanced), resulting in PCOS. And the worse the insulin resistance, the worse the PCOS.

Factor 2 - Low Fat Diets

Low fat diets. We were officially told to eat a low fat diet forever by the “powers that be” before they discovered that low fat diets were in fact harmful.

Well, turns out, saturated fat and cholesterol are solely responsible for the production of healthy hormones in the body. You heard that right, WITHOUT SATURATED FAT AND CHOLESTEROL THE BODY CANNOT MAKE ESSENTIAL HORMONES. Your body is then forced to steal cholesterol from the endocrine system to use for brain function and repair as the brain must be preserved. This makes it nearly impossible then for the endocrine system to produce healthy and balanced levels of hormones for ovulation and reproduction.

In summary 

1) Processed food heavy diets, environmental toxins, and nutrient deficiencies resulting in 2) cellular metabolic dysfunction and insulin resistance, compounded by 3) a lack of saturated fat and cholesterol = PCOS. Two primary mechanisms that can be rectified by correcting the diet.

Random tangent: You know when you take your dog to the vet with an issue, and the first thing the vet asks is what you are feeding him? Do you ever wonder why people doctors almost never ask if you are eating a "species appropriate" diet? Maybe because doctors are not trained in nutrition, and unfortunately even most dieticians and nutritionists are trained to tell you to eat a diet high in ultra processed foods like grains and cereals 😕

But that's why you have me 😃 

So, what to do? Well, probably what I have recommended in just about every one of my posts:

• Start with real food, you know, the one ingredient kind that does not require a nutrition label.
• Prioritize protein (meat and eggs)
• Enjoy plenty of healthy fats like those found in whole foods (like beef), coconut oil, olive oil, butter, and raw dairy. 
• Top it off with some fresh fruit juice or dark berries with heavy cream for dessert. Doesn't sound so bad does it?  
• Watch your ovaries come back to life. 

Until next week my friends...