The findings in this study are probably not news to you if you have PCOS, but it's nice to see your emotional PCOS finally validated with a scientific study.
480 women with PCOS participated in the psychological evaluation portion of this study.
Women who were not menstruating were more likely to have lower self-esteem, and to have a greater fear of being negatively viewed with regard to their appearance. These women also appeared to have an earlier onset of maturity.
High androgen levels and acne were associated with poorer body satisfaction. The greater the degree of hirsutism and BMI (body size), the lower the scores on psychological tests.
The obvious social explanations for these findings have been covered elsewhere. I believe that hormones have a huge part to play in these tendencies…I've worked in eating disorders and I've seen literally thousands of women lose the weight and remove the hair…and STILL be unhappy. Women with PCOS need help in understanding how hormones affect mood (and that hormones ARE mood) and to have access to qualified professionals who can help with that aspect of PCOS.
It's why I'm so happy Gretchen Kubacky and Anna Ahlborn are in the inCYST Network. They are here to help us better understand these conditions and what can be done to minimize any potentially negative influence they may have on your quality of life.: )
de Niet JE, de Koning CM, Pastoor H, Duivenvoorden HJ, Valkenburg O, Ramakers MJ, Passchier J, de Klerk C, Laven JS. Psychological well-being and sexarche in women with polycystic ovary syndrome. Hum Reprod. 2010 Mar 31. [Epub ahead of print]
It's Earth Month 2011, a good time to think about our connection to things much bigger than ourselves. It's easy to become overwhelmed when thinking about a problem as daunting as infertility, and to narrow your focus down to what you need to do to fix your personal problem. Nothing else can seem to matter except your own hormones.
At inCYST, one of our most important missions is to help our readers understand, that the reason many people these days are struggling with infertility, is because our unsustainable lifestyle has changed the balance on our planet. The more respect with which we treat the earth, the better the earth treats us.
I was thinking about this yesterday while running on the canal trail behind my home. I've been waiting several weeks for the baby ducks to come and they finally arrived! My run is so much more enjoyable when I can watch the little fluffballs swimming behind their mother, learning how to swim, how to dive for food, how to preen. I never cease to be amazed at how these ducks just seem to know how to do what they do.
Something that biologists are learning is that other species are having trouble reproducing as well. We've put chemicals in the water they drink, we've put pesticides in the food chain, we've encroached on their breeding grounds…and they're paying a heavy price. The only difference is, they don't have reproductive doctors and nutritionists to guide them to better fertility. Their populations decline and we lose them.
So when I was admiring the fuzzballs I thought a lot about how inCYST is about more than helping all of you. Though that's important!
It's about rallying all of you to adopt lifestyle choices that benefit EVERYONE on the planet, no matter the genus, no matter the species. I hope that this is a value that gradually blends into your pursuit of personal health.
Speaking of sustainable living as a value, we had a wonderful radio chat yesterday with Julia Bucciero of Maxim Hygiene, makers of organic, all cotton, pesticide-free, chlorine and dioxin-free feminine hygiene and personal care products. If you had not thought about the opportunity for hormone imbalance your current personal care purchases poses, it's time you should.
And consider what unnecessary amount of plastic accumulates in landfills and floats down waterways when we make certain choices! You can make a hormone-friendly, 100% biodegradable choice and with that, make a difference.
Maxim Hygiene has created a product that makes personal sense for women with PCOS, and an opportunity for each of us to live more sustainably.
If you can't find these products in your local store, be sure to contact Maxim Hygiene and let them know. They're happy to work with stores to increase their product availability. I found them on amazon.com if you prefer to purchase them online.
It can help to feel less personally picked on when you take a step back and understand how a bigger imbalance may be affecting your personal imbalance. The best way out of that corner, is to collectively start making choices that promote balance outside, as well as within, ourselves.
That is the number one reason I hear from my clients about why they cannot do yoga. They fear that because of their weight, they are not going to be able to move in a way that is"right".
The good news about yoga is, there is no"right" or"wrong" way to do it! There are plenty of people in those classes with injuries, arthritis, unique anatomical makeups, and sheer lack of flexibility. And they do just fine.
A good yoga class will offer more than one option for a pose, to give each person in that class an opportunity to participate. You can start with…and even stay with…the first option, or if you're feeling like you would like to challenge yourself…try a new option. And even if you can't do the first option, or hold it, the first time around, the effects of your moving your body in new and different ways are still there.
So with yoga, you simply get credit for showing up and trying!
Afraid you can't get through a class? The power of a simple pose can be significant. A simple downward dog (see photo) is associated with the following:
•Increased strength in your arms, shoulders, sides, chest and upper back, while stretching the muscles in your ankles, calves, thighs and lower back.
•Improved digestion.
•Improved symptoms of menopause, and relieved menstrual discomfort.
OK. Today's the day. There was finally a quiet morning to read the research about d-chiro inositol. Ever since I posted a link to Sasha Ottey's interview on the topic on her PCOS Challenge radio show, traffic linking to us with that keyword has been very high. I've known we needed a blog post, but I just wanted to be sure it was scientifically accurate and presented information in a way that was beneficial, not hurtful.
What is inositol? It is a chemical that is necessary for several body functions, including: cell structure, insulin function, nerve function, fat breakdown, and maintenance of healthy cholesterol levels.
Inositol comes in nine different forms. Two of those types of inositol, myo-inositol and d-chiro-inositol, have been found to have therapeutic value. Myo-inositol supplementation has been found to alleviate symptoms of bulimia, panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, agoraphobia, depression, and bipolar disorder. d-chiro-inositol supplementation has been found to be useful for symptoms associated with insulin, high androgen levels, and menstrual irregularity. It is also reported that myoinositol can help prevent hair loss.
Both categories of symptoms are common in PCOS, so it appears that inositol levels and metabolism may be problematic with a high percentage of readers of this blog.
One thing you can do to help improve your levels of both myo- and d-chiro-inositol is to know their dietary sources. Myo-inositol is found in brewer's yeast, liver, milk, whole grains, brown rice, oats, nuts, citrus fruits, molasses, legumes, raisins, and bananas. The best sources of d-chiro-inositol are buckwheat and garbanzo beans (hummous, anyone?)
The theory is, that women with PCOS have trouble converting myo-inositol into d-chiro-inositol. So they need to bypass that metabolic bottleneck with a supplement.
I haven't had the opportunity to use d-chiro-inositol with my clients yet. I haven't wanted to recommend anything unless I'd researched it. But I had a client once, with severe OCD, who responded well to myo-inositol in a way medication and behavioral therapy never achieved. The only issue she had with the supplement was the large dose she needed to take (10 grams per day) in order to see benefit.
Fast forward to today, I've been wondering for awhile if maybe the symptoms attributed to myoinositol deficiency weren't actually myoinositol issues at all, but d-chiro-inositol issues, and the large dose needed was because the conversion in this population is so low.
So here's the best way I would think it would work to determine if d-chiro-inositol deficiency is your problem.
1. Be sure to include all the foods I mentioned above in your diet on a regular basis.
2. Try d-chiro-inositol. Give it three months of regular use to see if it helps. --If it helps with your insulin levels, androgen levels, and menstrual cycles, then by all means continue using it! --If it helps with the above, but doesn't help with binge eating, mood, or obsessive thinking, then consider adding some myoinositol to the mix.
3. And please, check back with us. I'm really curious to know what happens. If d-chiro-inositol also helps with mood, etc., that's very important information.
Recommended doses of each: myo-inositol 12-30 grams per day d-chiro-inositol 100 mg, twice per day
I know, I know, if you're obsessive, you're going to want to take the higher dose of myo-inositol, or even double the dose I've listed.: ) I strongly encourage you to resist the temptation and start low and titrate up as you need to.
I spent quite a bit of time in the supplement department at Whole Foods, to get an idea of what readers would find if they went to buy inositol. As you can see at this link, the options on amazon.com, as they are in most health food stores, are primarily myoinositol.
If you'd like to purchase d-chiro-inositol, the most popular source for women with PCOS appears to be www.chiralbalance.com.
An abstract for an article soon to be published hit the Internet late last week. It was a scientific study that correlated reproductive problems with skipping breakfast.
Both dysmenorrhea (painful periods) and missing cycles was worse in a population of college students if they reported skipping breakfast. This group of women also appeared to have more problems with constipation than women who ate breakfast (which makes sense, because breakfast foods tend to be higher in fiber than what we go for later in the day.)
I could write several blog posts about why this is, but rather than get stuck in"analysis paralysis", I'd rather focus on what you can do to be sure breakfast is not skipped.
1. Define breakfast as something you eat before 10 am. If you define it as what you eat before you leave the house, you limit yourself. It can be in your car, in your office, in the break room at work.
2. Breakfast does not have to be made of breakfast food! It can be a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, or your leftover Chinese food from the night before. Throw out that pretty picture on the side of the cereal box! It just needs to be something you know you will eat.
3. Pay attention to your sleep hygiene. A very high percentage of my clients skip breakfast because they're not sleeping well, and they're barely getting up in time to get ready for work. If you structure your evenings so that you go to sleep earlier, breakfast is something you will naturally evolve toward having time for.
4. Once you get in the habit of sleeping more and eating in the morning…THEN you can focus on WHAT you eat. Trying to change too many things first thing in the morning can feel overwhelming and be just too much to maintain over the long haul.
Tomoko Fujiwaraa, and Rieko Nakatab Skipping breakfast is associated with reproductive dysfunction in post-adolescent female college students.
Recently I read"Prodigal Summer" by Barbara Kingsolver. In it one of the characters noted that her menstrual cycle and the moon were related. I did some Internet research and found an interesting article in Wikipedia, from which this is excerpted.
Menstruation and the moon Traditional sources agree that the menstrual cycle is linked to the cycle of the moon.[citation needed] These sources generally indicate that women menstruate at the time of the new moon, and ovulate at the full moon. Although scientific evidence for this has been weak, the problem may be that most women today live in urban environments where the moon is no longer a significant contributor to nocturnal light. The fact that women who work on night shifts, where they are exposed to strong light at night, often experience menstrual irregularities, is just one example of how rhythms of light and darkness do influence hormonal physiology, including the menstrual cycle.[22]
The word"menstruation" is etymologically related to moon. The terms"menstruation" and"menses" come from the Latin mensis (month), which in turn relates to the Greek mene (moon) and to the roots of the English words month and moon — reflecting the fact that the moon also takes close to 28 days to revolve around the Earth (actually 27.32 days). The synodical lunar month, the period between two new moons (or full moons), is 29.53 days long.
A 1975 book by Louise Lacey documented the experience of herself and 27 of her friends, who found that when they removed all artificial night lighting their menstrual cycles began to occur in rhythm with the lunar cycle. She dubbed the technique Lunaception.[23] Later studies in both humans[24] and animals[25] have found that artificial light at night does influence the menstrual cycle in humans and the estrus cycle in mice (cycles are more regular in the absence of artificial light at night), though none have duplicated the synchronization of women's menstrual cycles with the lunar cycle. One author has suggested that sensitivity of women's cycles to nightlighting is caused by nutritional deficiencies of certain vitamins and minerals.[26]
Some have suggested that the fact that other animals' menstrual cycles appear to be greatly different from lunar cycles is evidence that the average length of humans' cycle is most likely a coincidence.[27][28]
Note that the cycle reconnected itself to the lunar cycle with the removal of artifical night light. It's another way of saying what I've been saying all along: melatonin, which does not reach its normal levels in the presence of light, is crucial for normal functioning menstrual cycles.
Take a look around. Are you pulling the shades completely? Have you removed night lights? Taken the clock radio away from your nightstand? Avoided excessive computer and television in the evening hours?
Mother Nature has funny, yet insistent ways of reminding us that when we drift too far from her wisdom…things just don't work the way they should.
