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.
