January 21st, 2009
By Dr. Nancy Dunne and Bill Slater
PCOS Review
Jan. 16, 2009
A recent study of women with PCOS at the UCLA School of Medicine has shown that the hormone insulin is directly related to the severity of hirsutism. Hirsutism is the presence of excessive facial and body hair.
The higher your insulin level, the more severe the hair problem. Unfortunately, women with PCOS are very likely to have insulin levels that are abnormally high. So it’s no surprise that hirsutism is a problem.
If you have an issue with abnormal facial or body hair, you’ll want to lower your insulin levels.
So how do you do that?
The first step is always to improve the quality of your diet so that your body does not have to produce so much insulin. This is extremely important because PCOS women tend to over-produce insulin in response to the standard American meal. Your meals need to be different, as we describe in our PCOS diet book.
www.ovarian-cysts-pcos.com/book
Second, you’ll need to make exercise part of your daily routine. Exercise helps you to control insulin.
Third, you can take supplements like chromium, which helps insulin do its job, and thus you need less insulin. This is why chromium is included in our d-pinitol formula.
www.ovarian-cysts-pcos.com/store/pinitol
Fourth, you can take pharmaceuticals such as metformin, which also help you to get by with less insulin. But a problem with metformin is its side effects.
Read the full article here.
www.ovarian-cysts-pcos.com/news73.html#sec2
January 16th, 2009
By Madison Park
CNN Health
Jan. 16, 2009
- Don’t beat yourself up after having a setback; learn from dieting missteps
- Don’t rely on visual cues (clean plate, empty snack bag) to stop eating
- Realize when you’re full and use portion control bags for willpower
After maintaining an austere, healthy diet for a few weeks, the desire to eat a juicy cheeseburger proves too irresistible for some dieters.
“It’s natural that most people when they are following a New Year’s resolution or any program to change something in their life, that they will fall off the wagon or they’ll have a setback or a failure,” said Jillian Michaels, a personal trainer for NBC’s show “The Biggest Loser.”
Rather than beating yourself up after having a setback, learn from the missteps, experts say.
It’s a matter of attitude, Michaels said. Learn from the setbacks and view “a failure as a point of learning, an opportunity to see what works and what doesn’t.”
For those grappling with diets,striving for moderation is a constant battle.
“We eat with our eyes, not out of our stomach,” said Dr. Melina Jampolis, the diet and fitness expert for CNNhealth.com. “It’s much more difficult to control serving sizes.”
People have a tendency to keep eating until their plate is clean or the container of cookies is empty.
“A lot of people eat too much and their clothes feel tight. You shouldn’t have to unbutton your pants, blouse or unzip anything after your meal,” said Cheryl Forberg, the nutritionist for “The Biggest Loser.” “You lose sight of your body’s natural hunger cues.”
To become more attuned to your body, avoid eating while standing up, sitting at the desk or inside a car, she said. Dedicate time for meals and snacks.
Rather than viewing meals as an obligatory part of the day, “learn to enjoy the process. At the same time, you begin to stop eating when you’re comfortable, instead of when you have to unzip your jeans,” Forberg said.
Avoid stocking problem foods like cookies or ice cream in the house if you know you can’t resist them.
When you know you have a weakness with chocolate or cookies, you probably shouldn’t keep it in the house if you know you can’t stop at one,” she said.
One way to retrain the body is to divide snacks by portion sizes.
“Those 100-calories packs retrain people to the eye and decrease the snacking,” Jampolis said. “It’s more expensive and not environmentally friendly, but you’re much better off getting a 100-calorie pack rather than eating out of container.”
“If you’re on a budget and you want to be more environmentally friendly, make your own. Every Sunday, measure 100 calories into seven Ziploc bags,” she said. You can even recycle the bags.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/01/16/healthy.eating.motivation/index.html
January 5th, 2009
PCOS Health Review
By Dr. Nancy Dunne and Bill Slater
Laser therapy is commonly used to control unwanted hair growth. The laser energy damages the hair follicle and thus reduces hair growth.
One problem with laser treatment is that it does not always work. However, new research suggests that taking metformin (Glucophage) may improve laser treatment results.
It appears that the metformin reduced insulin resistance, which in turn reduced the rate of hair growth.
If you don’t want to take metformin because of its side effects, there are other healthy ways to
reduce insulin resistance and thus get better results if you intend to do laser therapy for facial or body
hair.
Here are three ways to reduce insulin resistance (and hirsutism) in a healthy fashion:
* Consume a diet that reduces insulin resistance, as described in our book.
* Get a lot more exercise.
* Take selected supplements that reduce insulin resistance such as d-pinitol.
Read the full article here: www.ovarian-cysts-pcos.com/news72.html
To subscribe to PCOS Health Review ; www.ovarian-cysts-pcos.com/pcos-subscribe.html
January 3rd, 2009
Dear Recent Blogger,
You wrote in to our PCOS Support Blog last week requesting a private response from one of our Doctors.
Dr. Heather and I have tried to reach you several times at the email address you provided with no luck. Your concerns are important to us and we really want to help you.
I am posting Dr. Heather’s response to you in the hope that you are continuing to visit our Support Blog and will read this post.
Please know that you are not alone! We are here to help, advise and support you. Please stay in touch with us through this blog or by emailing us at myhealth@insulitelabs.com.
With sincere wishes for your improving health,
Catherine, Editor
PCOS Support Blog
Dr. Heather’s response:
Thank you for contacting Insulite Labs. I am sorry to hear how you are
feeling. We have had several inquiries lately about PCOS with anxiety and/or
depression.
It is often difficult to get other people to understand how depression can
affect our lives if they have not experienced the feelings. Although I do
feel that there are ways that people can work toward understanding how this
can affect women with PCOS.
You already know how PCOS is affecting your life but I want to include some
information that you can share with your husband.
You are not alone in noticing that PCOS may have something to do with your
depression. Women with PCOS are more likely to experience anxiety and
depression, although the reasons for this are not entirely known.
These mood disorders can also be caused by hormone problems. Many women with
PCOS may find themselves more anxious or depressed by their appearance or
their inability to become pregnant.
The hormonal imbalance of PCOS (elevated testosterone and DHEA-S) could be
implicated, as well as the insulin resistance which underlies PCOS. Also,
simply the stress of living with a condition like PCOS which affects
appearance (hair growth, weight, acne, etc.) is of course associated with
emotional health.
Here are two references to scientific papers that address anxiety in women:
1. Weiner et al. Androgens and mood dysfunction in women: comparison of
women with polycystic ovarian syndrome to healthy controls. Psychosom Med.
2004 May-Jun;66(3):356-62. PMID: 15184695 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
2. Elsenbruch et al. Quality of life, psychosocial well-being, and sexual
satisfaction in women with polycystic ovary syndrome. J Clin Endocrinol
Metab. 2003 Dec;88(12):5801-7. PMID: 14671172 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
There is a startling lack of information on this topic, i.e. on the
physiological reasons behind this phenomenon. However, I would guess that
improving the insulin resistance and hormonal imbalance of PCOS would help
improve symptoms of anxiety and depression.
I have also seen a few postings on depression worsening with the use of
Metformin. Although it was not common, it seems to have worsened the
depression in a few women with PCOS. I would talk to your doctor about this
and see if there is another option, such as Glucophage (very similar to
metformin).
One other thing that you may want to pay attention to is your glucose
levels. If your blood sugar drops too low, depression can worsen. It is very
important to eat regularly, including protein with each meal and snack.
Snacks may be 4 ounces of low fat plain yogurt, a hard boiled egg, 2
tablespoons of nuts, cut up veggies and some hummus or bean dip, etc.
Also, I am not sure it you are interested in a non-pharmacological
approach to PCOS, but is so I would recommend the Insulite PCOS System.
We have not designed the Insulite PCOS System to help specifically with
depression. However, the System is designed to target the underlying cause
of PCOS, which theoretically would improve all of the symptoms of PCOS.
In addition, we have had many customers comment that their moods improved
when they started using the System: increased energy, increased sense of
well being, etc. I don’t know how this would translate for you, but I must
say that I am hopeful it would have a positive effect. At the very least, I
don’t anticipate the Insulite PCOS System would worsen your depression
symptoms and may help you in reducing the other medication.
Are you getting support from a counselor or a group. I bet there are
support groups to help you get through this really hard time. Maybe it would
help to talk to other women with depression? Here are some websites where
you can link up with other women talking about depression:
http://www.dbsalliance.org/info/OnlineSupport.html
http://support4hope.com/discus/index.html
I know that when asked the question if you want to or are thinking about
ending your life can be frustrating. However, it is important to ask to be
sure that those asking know a bit about where you are emotionally and how to
best follow up.
So, right now you are getting tested (hormones), will this test include
vitamin D testing as well since it was recommended that you start to use it?
Vitamin D can be very effective in treating depression but ultimately
finding out why and addressing that will be the best option.
Here is a link to our blog where we posted study results regarding
depression and PCOS:
http://pcos.insulitelabs.com/blog/index.php/insulin-resistance/can-polycysti
c-ovarian-syndrome-pcos-cause-depression and
http://pcos.insulitelabs.com/PCOS-and-Mood-Swings.php (there is information
about half way down the page on this topic)
Here is a link that summarizes some research and the connection between PCOS
and depression: http://www.ovarian-cysts-pcos.com/news19.html and another:
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0CYD/is_22_40/ai_n15954186
Lastly, here is a link from a support website for women with PCOS. What is
nice is that they have a section for husbands and boyfriends. Here is that
link: http://www.soulcysters.net/husbands-boyfriends/. He can browse around
and see if he might want to ask what others have experienced and how they
came to understand PCOS and how it affects the loved on in their life.
I hope that this helps some and that you start to feel like yourself
again. Please let me know if I can help further.
Best Wishes,
Dr. Heather DeLuca, ND
Insulite Laboratories Consulting & Advisory teams
DISCLAIMER: The information contained in this email
and the Insulite Labs website is for the sole purpose
of being informative. This information is not and
should not be used or relied upon as medical advice.
Always seek the advice of your physician, nurse or
other qualified health care provider before you
undergo any treatment, take any medication,
supplements or other nutritional support, or for
answers to any questions you may have regarding a
medical condition.
