Powerful Stragegies For Healing PCOS

Many women with acne suspect that hormone imbalances are at play, and they often are! 

PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome) is a common hormonal imbalance in which the ovaries produce excess amounts of androgen (male) hormones. This can create a cascade of imbalances in the body: the higher level of androgens can prevent ovulation from occurring, which makes our bodies produce less progesterone (which is needed to balance estrogen), leaving us in an estrogen-dominant state. We can then experience many of these symptoms:

• -weight gain
• -fatigue
• -facial or excess body hair growth
• -missed, irregular, or light periods
• -headaches
• -acne and oily skin
• -infertility

If you experience any of these symptoms, it’s possible you might be struggling with PCOS, however, I want to make it very clear that getting an official diagnosis is often unnecessary. If you are experiencing symptoms of PCOS, it’s not the diagnosis that matters as much as acknowledging that you have a clear set of imbalances that you can actively work to correct. And with PCOS there is good news- it’s most often a lifestyle-related issue that can be reversed. 

PCOS has been heavily linked to insulin resistance. Elevated blood sugar makes your pancreas pump out more insulin, and high insulin levels can affect the ovaries, telling them to make more testosterone. This is why women with PCOS can have symptoms of excess androgens such as facial hair growth and oily skin. It’s also why a doctor’s first response to treating PCOS is often to prescribe Metformin, a drug that helps control blood sugar and makes your body more sensitive to insulin- however, this doesn’t address the root cause. Since at it’s root PCOS is a problem of insulin resistance, that means in order to reverse it we need to focus on the two main lifestyle-mediated causes of insulin resistance- diet and stress.

The best way to control your blood sugar with food to eat a low-glycemic diet. This means eating foods that won’t spike your blood sugar, such as protein, healthy fats, and non-starchy vegetables and fruits. (I’ve created a list of low-glycemic foods you can access here for reference.) These should make up the bulk of your diet. I often find when talking with clients that while they believe they’re eating healthy, once they begin keeping a food journal they realize there is actually a lot of room for improvement. 

Flavored yogurt and some protein bars, for example, have a lot of added sugar in them but people often consider them a healthy food. Bread, pastries, bagels, muffins, sandwiches, and oatmeal can also impact our blood sugar negatively. After looking over their food journal, people are often surprised to learn they’re not even hitting the daily requirement for protein and fiber, and are taking in way more sugar than they thought. So awareness is key, and then actively working to make some substitutions is a great first step. Always remember to check the ingredients of any processed or packaged foods you’re looking to buy, and don’t rely on the health claims on the label. For instance, just because a packaged food says “no added sugar” doesn’t mean it isn’t still high in it’s natural sugar content.

Aside from food, another reason we can become insulin resistance is because of stress. I know we hear a lot about stress in the wellness world, and a lot of people don’t take it seriously because they don’t understand the dynamics of it and how it actually affects our bodies. It’s important to know first and foremost that unmanaged stress can raise your blood sugar independent of food. This means that if you’re chronically stressed, your body can become insulin resistant even if you’re eating a perfect and low-glycemic diet. 

Let’s take a minute and look at how stress plays out in the body. We have two modes of our nervous system- sympathetic and parasympathetic. Parasympathetic mode is when our nervous system is relaxed, when our body takes cues from our environment that it’s safe and can begin healing, resting and digesting properly. In this mode our heart rate is lower, our blood sugar and cortisol are lower, and we feel at ease. Sympathetic mode, on the other hand, is our fight and flight response to a stressor. Think about if you were being chased by a bear. Your cortisol would rise, your adrenaline and blood sugar would surge in order to give you the energy you need to run for your life. The thing about sympathetic mode is that it’s meant to be episodic, to serve us when we need to reach safety. Then once we’re safe, we’re meant to switch out of that mode- our cortisol should lower back down, along with our blood sugar and adrenaline, as we head back into a parasympathetic state.

The problem with stress lies in the fact that for many of us, it’s chronic rather than episodic. We have this simmering stress happening in our lives, keeping us in a mild to moderate (or perhaps at some points severe) state of fight or flight. Our bodies never quite enter into the rest of parasympathetic, therefore our bodies are on constant alert in the name of keeping us safe. Blood sugar often remains elevated, and over time this can cause insulin resistance all on it’s own. So how do we best combat stress? It’s not always possible to change our stressful circumstances, but it is possible to change how we experience them. I’ve created a handout that covers the best practices we can do to help our bodies manage stress. You can download it for free here. The tips in this guide are powerful effective at managing stress, and the best part is they’re very straightforward and don’t take a lot of time. Many of the practices are things you can do as you go about your day, while you’re driving or waiting in line at the grocery store. I encourage you to give them a try!

On top of working on the root causes of insulin resistance, there is also one specific targeted intervention that can be very helpful in getting your blood sugar back under control- supplementing with Inositol. Inositol is a sugar alcohol that can me made in the body from glucose. We can also absorb it from our diet in a few forms, including from citrus fruits. Inositol has been well studied in it’s effectiveness in improving insulin resistance. Here are a few functions inositol has been researched to improve in the body:

• Increases insulin sensitivity.
• Improves blood pressure, triglycerides, and insulin resistance.
• Supplementation has been shown to reduce levels of LDL cholesterol in those with metabolic syndrome.
• Acts synergistically with choline to reduce fatty liver.
• Nearly all of the research into inositol’s effectiveness in countering insulin resistance has been done specifically in the context of countering PCOS (and thus all in pre-menopausal women).
• Regulating hormone function and improving PCOS and fertility
• Restores ovulation
• Induces ovulation and increases chance of pregnancy in those with PCOS.
• Increase ovulation while reducing testosterone, insulin, triglycerides, and blood pressure, in women with PCOS.
• Reduces acne and hirsutism (abnormal hair growth) in women with PCOS

Clearly, this is one powerful supplement to aid in the reversal of insulin resistance and it’s resulting PCOS symptoms. It’s important to remember that, as always, lifestyle change will be be the biggest factor in improving your insulin resistance and overall health- but targeted supplementation can give your body a kickstart in the healing process. For information on how to choose the right inositol supplement, check out this article from Dr. Jolene Brighten. 

I hope this article has given you some insight into the world of PCOS and has empowered you with the knowledge you need to get started healing from it. 

Have questions? Ask away in the comments!

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