Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) is a health problem affecting women and is the number one cause of infertility. It is far too common - affecting as many as 1 in 15 women these days. For a long time, physicians have know that the ovaries secrete excess testosterone in PCOS and that the ovaries develop many small cysts. Common symptoms include:
- Acne
- Weight gain and trouble losing weight
- Extra, thicker, darker hair on the face, chest, belly, and back
- Thinning hair on the scalp
- Irregular, absent, or heavy periods
- Infertility
- Depression
But what exactly causes the ovaries to secrete excess androgens? Insulin. Plain and simple. Yet again, our favorite hormonal scapegoat gets the blame. Doctors now know that
hyperinsulinemia (too much insulin) is the underlying cause of the cascade of hormonal imbalances that occur with PCOS. The vast majority of (but not all) women with PCOS have insulin resistance, obesity, and are at an elevated risk of diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart disease. Rather than treating just the symptoms (acne, hair, abnormal periods, weight gain) one by one, some doctors now treat PCOS with insulin sensitizing diabetes medications like Metformin.
A meal high in carbohydrates causes a rush of glucose into the blood stream. Too much sugar in the blood at one time would be fatal (like alcohol) so insulin is secreted by the pancreas to deal with the influx. Insulin is largely a "storage" hormone. It picks up the sugar and transports it around the body - to the brain, to the muscles, to the organs, to the liver, and finally to the fat cells if no other part of the body needs it. Eventually the cells get desensitized to insulin and aren't able to receive the sugar anymore. It's kind of like when you're around a person wearing too much perfume - at first it's overwhelming, but eventually your smell receptors downgrade their sensitivity and you can't smell it at all anymore. When the cells are insulin resistant, blood sugar levels stay high, so the pancreas secretes even more insulin to try to clear the sugar away. It's the vicious cycle of a high carb diet: more sugar = more insulin = more insulin resistance = more insulin and on and on. Insulin is now known to be the culprit in stimulating the ovaries to produce excess male sex hormones.
The best doctors (or smartest patients) treat PCOS with simple diet and exercise, which are more effective options for increasing insulin sensitivity over prescription drugs. A low carb diet eliminates the blood sugar spikes, and therefore eliminates the need for such high levels of insulin. When insulin levels are low, the cells regain their sensitivity to it. It's like moving away from the perfume-doused person for a while. The lack of insulin allows "energy release" hormones to do their job and let the fatty acids float freely out of the fat tissue, so weight loss happens easily. An abundance of energy is available as the fat stores shrink.
Exercise, especially high intensity exercise, burns off stored carbs in the muscle tissue (called glycogen). When those stores have been depleted, the muscle cells are primed to receive blood sugar and so it is used for energy rather than locked away in the fat. This, at least partially, explains why short, fast sprints are known to be more effective for fat loss than long bouts of low intensity cardio. It also explains why high intensity programs like CrossFit work so well to keep athletes lean.
So basically, PCOS is another part of the Metabolic Syndrome, a collection of dis
eases only present in industrialized/westernized nations. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that when you take a species out of its natural habitat and feed it an unnatural diet it gets sick. Humans are no different than animals in the zoo. The best thing you can do to regain your vitality and avoid chronic disease is to move around like your caveman ancestors and eat like them too. Meats and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch, and no sugar. Eat things that are fresh, local, and unprocessed. Eat things that had a face and a soul, cram yourself full of green things, and enjoy the health benefits of plenty of fat.
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Labels: Caveman, CrossFit, Fat vs Carbs, Health, Insulin, physiology