The Hemp Connection + thinking

Magical thinking — don't let it undermine your PCOS success

I've mentioned before that receiving any kind of medical diagnosis that can leave you backed into a corner, with no place to go, is one of life's most extreme stresses. If you're someone who is used to being in control, losing that control can throw you into a complete tailspin. That is when you are most likely to be susceptible to something called"magical thinking". This type of behavior is something you engage in to allow yourself to feel as if you you have more control over a situation than you actually have. Some examples in recent months that I've personally experienced:

-- A gentleman I really wanted to do business with because I liked his product, started to panic because sales of that product were not matching his projections. I started receiving e-mails from him about all kinds of interesting"effects" he was personally noticing that he attributed to the special powers of his product. I mentioned to him once that if his observations were true, science would validate them. He told me he didn't have time to wait for science. Can you hear the desperation and wishful thinking that was interfering with his overall long-term success? I felt sad, because his product was good, but he was gradually burning business bridges before he could get the sales he wanted and should have had.

--A young woman who had failed one IVF and was scheduled for another, afraid she'd lose that success too, wrote me asking to help her with a detox/cleanse, less than a week before her procedure. She wanted to rid her body of any negative influences that might work against her. We decided against the detox, and simply set up a very balanced eating/exercise/relaxation plan focusing on nurturing instead. (She's pregnant, BTW). I don't think she really wanted to detox, she really needed something constructive to do as an anxiety outlet, and to give her hope she wasn't going to fail again.

Supplements are the place where magical thinking really takes control. I watch women with PCOS throw the entire kitchen sink at a problem, without knowing exactly what kind of effect they're looking for, what dose, what brand, what kind of interactions their multiple supplements may have with each other…which ones duplicate the effects of others…all it seems to take is for one person out there to mention one supplement and the"wave" rolls across the PCOS blogs and Facebook pages. Because no one ever really took the time to figure out how to use the supplement in a scientific fashion, it doesn't work, women give up on it before it might have a chance to work, and they're off on a search for the next magical supplement.

We're starting to understand here at inCYST that there is more than one kind of PCOS. So if anyone is recommending any particular supplement, and it's a one-size-fits-all recommendation, they're either telling you what worked for them (which may not work for you), or they are throwing together a little bit of something from every study they could find, which makes their answer extremely expensive because half of what is in it, most women don't even need.

Just because you can buy supplements yourself over the counter, and dose them yourself, does not mean they're safe. If your physician is anti-supplement and you're not telling him/her about the supplements you're taking because you know s/he is against them, you could be negating the effects of both your medications and your supplements. There are ways to use both, but it's only going to work if whoever you are asking for help, is amenable to combining both approaches.

The supplement that currently seems to be the rage right now seems to be n-acetyl-cysteine, or NAC. I'm not sure where this wave got started. I'm not going into the nuts and bolts of the chemistry, you can find that elsewhere. But here are some things to consider.

1. NAC has also been shown to reduce the symptoms of bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. I'm guessing that the subpopulation of women with PCOS who also have one of these diagnoses (and that's a pretty significant percentage of the PCOS population BTW), are the ones most likely to benefit from NAC. But since mood regulating medications are powerful, it's super important, if this is you, to let the prescribing physician of any mood stabilizers know so that you don't experience a dangerous adverse reaction between medication and supplement. And by all means, DO NOT stop taking medication for schizophrenia or bipolar disorder because you read what I just wrote!!!

2. NAC is also being considered as a treatment for obsessive-compulsive disorder, something I know is also very common with PCOS. If you're going to use a supplement, I'm more comfortable with your using myoinositol for this purpose, which has also been shown to help improve fertility rates. Again, please let your caregiver know what you're doing. One of our fans recently shared that she took a blog post regarding inositol to her physician, who now recommends it to his PCOS patients. In talking to your doctors, you have to potential to teach them important things. (That's why I reference posts, so your doctors can read the research themselves and know my thoughts are evidence-based.)

2. There is some evidence that large doses of NAC can increase the risk of pulmonary hypertension, a very dangerous condition. I can't stop you from taking this supplement, but I can encourage you, if you decide you want to use it, to do so in conjunction with a knowledgeable health professional who can help you to properly dose it.

3. In the most recent study I found regarding NAC compared to metformin/clomiphene, metformin/clomiphene was found to be superior. But if you remember, I wrote pretty extensively not too long ago about the peer-reviewed finding that metformin increased ovulation and pregnancy rates but not live births (thus increasing the miscarriage rate). Perhaps you should think a little bit about whether or not this is the path you wish to embark on, using a supplement that has not been proven to be as"effective" as a medication that hasn't even been proven to be effective.

4. One reason NAC is thought to be useful is that it protects against"glucose toxicity". Here's a thought — why not eat less glucose? Even if you choose myoinositol over NAC based on what you're reading, consider that your own inositol stores may have found themselves depleted in the first place from imbalanced eating. No way around it, supplements do not replace healthy choices. If you're going to experience the greatest benefit from a supplement, it needs to complement, not replace, better eating.

You're all grown women and you can make your own choices. I hate seeing you struggle with PCOS. But worse than that, I hate seeing you jump around from supplement to supplement without any kind of plan of action for how you're going to use it, how you're going to know if it's working, and how you're going to know if you need to not use it.

The people who benefit the most from magical thinking…are the ones who play on your anxiety and frustration and take your money, offering"solutions". Be a wise consumer. And remember, something you ALWAYS have control over…is healthier food choices, activity schedules, and stress management.

Berk M, Dean O, Cotton SM, Gama CS, Kapczinski F, Fernandes BS, Kohlmann K, Jeavons S, Hewitt K, Allwang C, Cobb H, Bush AI, Schapkaitz I, Dodd S, Malhi GS. The efficacy of N-acetylcysteine as an adjunctive treatment in bipolar depression: An open label trial. J Affect Disord. 2011 Jun 28. [Epub ahead of print]

Camfield DA, Sarris J, Berk M. Nutraceuticals in the treatment of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD): a review of mechanistic and clinical evidence. Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry. 2011 Jun 1;35(4):887-95. Epub 2011 Feb 23.
Abu Hashim H, Anwar K, El-Fatah RA. N-acetyl cysteine plus clomiphene citrate versus metformin and clomiphene citrate in treatment of clomiphene-resistant polycystic ovary syndrome: a randomized controlled trial. J Womens Health (Larchmt). 2010 Nov;19(11):2043-8. Epub 2010 Oct 12.

Kaneto, H. Kajimoto, Y. Miyagawa, J. Matsuoka, T. Fujitani, Y. Umayahara, Y. Hanafusa, T. Matsuzawa, Y. et al. (1999). Beneficial effects of antioxidants in diabetes: possible protection of pancreatic beta-cells against glucose toxicity. Diabetes 48 (12): 2398–406.

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Magical thinking — don't let it undermine your PCOS success + thinking