PCOS and Nutrition - part 2

Genetics, Insulin & Metabolism

We’re bombarded every day with information about nutrition and what should/shouldn’t be in our diets.   What the mainstream media and most dietary professionals don’t take into account is that nutrition isn’t a “one size fits all” idea.  Our bodies may have the same organs and tissues, but they don’t all work the same.  This is never more evident than when dealing with PCOS.

Recent research has pointed to a “fundamental genetic metabolic flaw” during embryo development as the possible cause of PCOS.  The symptoms we display, when we start displaying them, and the severity of them can be attributed to the “degree” of the flaw.  Simply put, our bodies work differently because of something that goes awry in utero.  At the moment, researchers have identified at least 70 genes that are “possible PCOS genes”.  Recently, Chromosome 19 has shown promise as both the possible gene for identifying not only PCOS, but Diabetes as well.  What does this mean?  It simply reinforces that fact that there is no “magic cure” for PCOS.  Are there ways to lessen the symptoms of PCOS? Yes.  Can you “get rid of” PCOS?  No.  PCOS is something that, no matter when the symptoms start to present themselves in your lifetime, you will need to manage over the rest of your life.  To do this, you need to have at least a basic understanding of how your body works and why you need to do things a little differently than the “regular” population.

Metabolism

Simply put, “metabolism” is defined as the set of chemical reactions that occur in cells of living organisms to sustain life.  There is a set standard for human metabolic processes that physicians, dieticians and nutritionists learn during their education.  But if PCOS occurs because of a genetic metabolic flaw, the majority of those guidelines and standards need to be adjusted for us.  For women with PCOS, it appears that this “flaw” centers around insulin.  Researchers have recently discovered that insulin resistance in different degrees can be found in almost all women with PCOS.

What is Insulin and What How Does it Impact Metabolism?

Insulin is a hormone, produced by the pancreas, which is central to regulating carbohydrate and fat metabolism in the body.  Insulin causes cells in the liver, muscle and fat tissue to take up glucose from the blood and store it as glycogen inside these tissues. When I was a student learning about human anatomy and physiology, the role of insulin was often described as a "lock and key" mechanism, with insulin being the "key".  

Insulin stops your body from using fat as an energy source by inhibiting the release of glucagon (a hormone secreted by the pancreas that raises blood glucose levels).  It is provided in constant proportion within the body to remove excess glucose from the blood, which would otherwise be toxic.  When blood glucose falls below a certain threshold, the body begins to use stored sugar as an energy source and as a control signal to regulate other functions in the body.  In fact, insulin is used in your brain to enhance learning and verbal memory.

When control of insulin levels fails, conditions such as insulin resistance, pre-diabetes, Type 1 Diabetes or Type 2 Diabetes will result.  If you are diagnosed with insulin resistance, you need to be aware that ANY food or drink containing glucose (or the carbohydrates that contain it such as sucrose, starch, etc.) will cause your blood glucose levels to increase.  When you couple excessive carbohydrate intake with your body’s inability to regulate insulin and blood glucose levels, it’s a recipe for disaster.  Even if you are given medications (i.e., Metformin) to regulate your blood glucose levels, those medications can either lose their effectiveness or have no effect at all if you continually introduce carbohydrates and sugars into your body.  ALL carbohydrates consumed are broken down through metabolism into glucose.  The only difference in carbohydrate metabolism is caused by the type of carbohydrate you consume – depending on the type of carbohydrate you eat, your body merely adjusts the rate that it’s metabolized (ex., simple carbs like sugar digest rapidly in the body whereas complex carbohydrates like beans and potatoes take longer to metabolize).  In addition to increasing blood glucose levels, excess carbohydrates (the ones that your body doesn’t need for energy) are regularly converted to fat and stored for long-term energy.

Simply put:

What Can Be Done?

Physicians and nutritionists have long believed that a low-carbohydrate diet, specifically a diet consisting of foods with a low glycemic index, can help to manage insulin resistance and aid with weight loss.  In the past few years, that train of thought has been taken one step further and scientists now believe that a diet modeled after a Paleolithic Lifestyle is optimal for not only treating metabolic and endocrine conditions such as insulin resistance and PCOS, but can potentially alleviate the majority of Western diseases and health conditions.  We’ve posted a lot of information for you to refer to regarding the Paleo Diet on other blog posts and on our Facebook page, and will be delving further into this topic in our PCOS Magazine this September.  Further information on understanding how your body works can also be found in our PCOS Book, which should be ready for publication early next spring!

Despite the plethora of research available confirming the benefits of a “Paleo lifestyle”, there are still people who denounce it because of its lack of grains.  In our next nutrition post, we’re going to look further into grains, tell you why they’re actually bad for you (yes, even whole grains) and why you DON’T need them to be healthy.