Hello from beautiful Vermont! I'm here at Green Mountain at Fox Run Resort for their first-ever PCOS program. Today we discussed healthy skin. I used Carmina McGee's recent interview on PCOS Challenge for the basis of our discussion. You can listen to the entire interview at PCOS Challenge…but for starters, here are her top tips for improving your skin from the inside out.
1. Get enough sleep. 2. Reduce your stress. 3. Eat regularly--don't skip meals. 4. Limit your intake of processed foods. 5. Moderate your alcohol intake. 6. Don't smoke. 7. Get plenty of physical activity. 8. Be sure to make time for yourself that does not include taking care of others. 9. Be part of some kind of community to decrease your sense of aloneness. 10. Have some sort of spiritual path.
Marsha Hudnall, owner of Green Mountain at Fox Run, added this one to the list:
11. Laugh!
We've been so busy, I haven't posted much about what we're doing. I have been taking photos, though, so check back for more details.
The term"anti-inflammatory" has been floating around Facebook, the blogosphere, and Twitter recently. It has, apparently, become the new buzzword. It's an important term, so before it overexposes itself out of your consciousness, I thought it would be good to tackle with regards to what it means to hormone balance.
What is inflammation? It is a condition that exists when the metabolic cost of what you are doing is not adequately balanced with activities that allow for adequate repair and maintenance.
A friend once bought a brand new car. It served her faithfully for a few years…and then, one day, in the deepest cold of winter, it just stopped. After visiting with the mechanic, she asked me what I knew about oil changes. I told her I had them once every 3,000 miles, just as the owner's manual recommended. Through her sheepish facial expression, she shared that she had never once changed or even checked the oil level. Her car died because it had run completely out of oil.
Just like your car, your body will give out on you if you do not balance normal life activities and stresses with repair and maintenance. You need to take time out of your day and spend money in order to keep your car…and yourself…running efficiently and to remain standing over time…but if you don't, the time, money, ad loss you potentially have to spend will be even more.
What are some pro-inflammatory (inflammation-promoting) activities to be aware of?
Any kind of activity that raises your metabolism is pro-inflammatory.
**If you're stressed and not addressing that stress to reduce its influence, you're pro-inflammatory. **If you're not sleeping, which allows your body's metabolism to slow down for a few hours, you're pro-inflammatory. **If you're dealing with a chronic medical condition, THAT can be pro-inflammatory. And that can be a double-whammy if the reason you're sick to begin with, is that your body has started to give out from your not making good self-care choices. **If you're eating a high-carbohydrate diet, or bingeing on sweets, that is pro-inflammatory. Carbohydrates need more of your body's oxygen to be metabolized than do other calorie sources. **If you're using stimulants, legal or otherwise, to compensate for not sleeping well, that is pro-inflammatory.
Believe it or not, exercise is pro-inflammatory! The trick to using it to your benefit is to use it with respect. **If you exercise every single day without taking a day off, or if you do the same exercise every time instead of changing it up and resting different muscle groups, it becomes pro-inflammatory. **If you do not eat enough to fuel the exercise you are doing, that is pro-inflammatory. **If you exercise so much that you cannot sleep adequately, that is pro-inflammatory. **If you cut your sleep short in order to get to the gym, that is pro-inflammatory.
If your exercise helps you to manage your stress (provided it is not your ONLY outlet for stress), helps you to sleep, is countered with downtime, and is fueled with an adequate, varied diet, it can be anti-inflammatory. It is HOW you use exercise that matters.
If you are binge eating, not eating, swinging back and forth between the two, eating a limited variety of foods, your nutrition program is pro-inflammatory. It's not just about omega-3's, blueberries, and supplements. It's how everything you eat fits into the big picture that counts.
I think the guys in today's photos are saying it best. It's as much about what you DON'T do…as what you DO do.
It's great to be back with the new team of PCOS course graduates! I hope you enjoyed Susan Dopart's recipe and that other contributions will be educational and practically useful.
Today I wanted to share some recent findings about the effects of elevated glucose on a developing baby. If you have PCOS and you are pregnant, you are at risk for gestational diabetes. I realized while reading this study that rarely is the effect of hyperglycemia on the fetus ever discussed. You might hear that it can effect your weight and the baby's weight, but can it do anything else? Some researchers think so.
A group of chick eggs were injected with glucose. Significant changes were found in the babies that developed from those eggs, including: --their own hyperglycemia --elevated oxidative (degenerative) activity in body and brain tissue --lower body weight --lower brain weight There also seems to be lower levels of DHA in babies exposed to hyperglycemia. This may be due to the elevated oxidative activity destroying any DHA that might be there.
You're likely aware that taking folate is pretty much an across the board recommendation to pregnant women. In this study, hyperglycemia seemed to induce a level of oxidation/inflammation that was not significantly helped with a folate supplement.
Bottom line, it's important to eat well not just to avoid weight gain or to keep your blood sugar low to keep your doctor and dietitian happy, but because your baby's brain and body depend on you to do so.
I did not write this post to scare you, I did it to make you aware. However, if you're feeling as if you now don't know what's right to eat, or you're trying and having a hard time, please take a look at the right hand of this blog screen. There is a whole list of professionals ready and waiting to help you figure it out.
Most of my clients express surprise that healthy eating includes as many tasty foods as it does. So before you write off a visit to the dietitian because you're afraid of what you WON'T be able to eat, consider that it may be your ticket to freedom and guilt relief to work with someone who can introduce you to the many foods that will BENEFIT you and baby!
Cole NW, Weaver KR, Walcher BN, Adams ZF, Miller RR Jr. Hyperglycemia-induced membrane lipid peroxidation and elevated homocysteine levels are poorly attenuated by exogenous folate in embryonic chick brains. Comp Biochem Physiol B Biochem Mol Biol. 2008 Jul;150(3):338-43.
I apologize in advance for the irony of using a technologically-based medium to share information about the potential health risk that technology may pose…but then again, if you're using a computer to read this, and you've got PCOS, you may be a member of the exact choir I need to preach to.
Earlier this week, a New York Times article described research about the effect on the brain that constant brain stimulation from tech toys may be having. When rats have a unique experience, they seem to better retain what they learned from that experience if they are allowed to give their brain a break from the stimulation.
Every time a neuron is required to process information, you can consider that an oxidative moment. If you are constantly using your neurons without giving them a break, you are allowing them to be broken down more rapidly, and not providing them with the rest they need to recover. Eventually, they can't keep up with the input and they lose the ability to do their job efficiently.
As we have become able to carry the Internet with us, we've become less tolerant of quiet moments. We immediately jump to Facebook, Twitter, or IM's to fill the void. (The other day, I actually watched my clerk at the convenience store alternate texting someone while he rang up my purchase!) Shortened attention spans only decrease our patience, and that carries over to other aspects of our lives. We can't tolerate a half hour workout. We can't stick with a new way of eating long enough for it to work. We can't follow through with our wellness goals, because the discomfort that new behaviors inevitably brings can be avoided by Googling for the next best diet or exercise plan.
You've heard of mindfulness? I encourage you to work toward what I'm starting to call Technomindfulness. If you ignore it, you can't possibly be aware of how you feel, how hungry you really are, what kinds of stress signals your body might be trying to send to you in order to get some rejuvenation time.
Here are some ways to engage in Technomindfulness.
1. Challenge yourself to step away from your computer and your smart phone for a half hour. If it's hard, try 10 minutes. Gradually increase your time away. See how long you can go without checking for IM's and e-mails.
2. Limit Twitter use to the beginning and end of the day. Utilize a program such as Tweet Deck that can help you to organize your incoming information into categories.
3. Regularly review your Facebook friends list and remove individuals you have no productive need to keep up with. Again, keep a Facebook schedule.
4. Challenge yourself to exercise outdoors, without an iPod.
5. Keep your technology away from your dinner table and your bedroom.
6. Limit yourself to the use of one gadget at a time…no multitasking!
7. Challenge yourself to refrain from Tweeting about an event you may be at until the event is over. Just enjoy the event…you went to experience it, not Tweet about it!
8. Ask yourself when you have the urge to IM, if the person you were IM'ing were right in front of you, would you be having the same conversation? Or are you pushing buttons and sending messages simply because you can't tolerate that lack of stimulation.
9. Turn your IM program off for a day!
10. Save up your time reading our blog for one or two times a week. The information isn't going anywhere. I'd rather you read it and then log off and disappear for awhile…because then I know you're actually using it. Reading it at the expense of your exercise program is not how I intended us to be used!
I'm pretty well aware that I am writing this blog for a bunch of stress monsters…so I'm always on the lookout for new and practical ideas to help talk at least a few of you out of that unhappy tree…
Yesterday, former inCYST intern and soon to be inCYSTer Sarah Jones invited me to stick around the yoga studio where she works after a business meeting we had. She thought I might be interested in meeting the instructor, who is also pursuing a degree in acupuncture.
The instructor based her class around a set of acuballs…the best way to describe them is that they are like little plastic blowfish that you use to massage yourself with. You can hold them in your hand and use them on your legs, etc., or you can place your body on top of them and move back and forth to massage hard-to-reach parts of yourself.
I absolutely fell in love with how it felt to gently roll my spine over my acuballs. It felt like several sets of massage hands meticulously spreading every muscle fiber apart and stretching it to its potential. I especially loved putting it at the base of my skull and letting it do its job of releasing all of the tension that builds up from all of my computer time.
I sometimes have a hard time with yoga because of my fibroids…they make it uncomfortable to assume any position on my stomach. So when the instructor asked us to place the acuball underneath our abdomens and move back and forth, I was hesitant. It did feel uncomfortable at first, but it actually started to feel good. And when we were finished with the exercise, assuming the next stomach position didn't hurt at all. I couldn't help but think they would be a nice tool to use to help improve circulation to reproductive organs.
If you'd like to try them for yourself, you can find more information at http://www.acuball.com/
Even though this blog is primarily devoted to the kind of infertility found in women, it's important to not forget the men. And…to remember that even if you are a male and aren't interested in having children, the same factors that can cause infertility in men who want to have children can be attributed to low testosterone and its associated symptoms: less strength and endurance when working out, fatigue, low sex drive, feeling sad or grumpy, memory issues, trouble concentrating, and trouble enjoying activities you used to find pleasurable. Reversing andropause is, essentially, restoring your fertility.
And, not surprisingly, all of the factors that exacerbate PCOS, are the same ones that exacerbate male infertility and low testosterone. Everything you read in this blog has pertinence to men as well as women.
The top issues I have seen affect testosterone include:
1. Being a night owl. Not sleeping well interferes with insulin function and can cause weight gain. 2. Not enough exercise. 3. Not managing stress. By this I mean ignoring it or leaning too heavily on things like exercise to manage it. With regards to exercise, it's important to find that place of balance, rather than swing between extremes of too much and too little. 4. Eating too much of the pro-inflammatory fats: safflower, sunflower, soybean, corn, cottonseed 5. Drinking too much alcohol, which interferes with sleep patterns.
Because obesity, overexercising and focus on being"buff", stress, and poor sleep habits are common issues in our culture, men are rendered susceptible to more problems with testosterone levels. And to service this population, clinics offering testosterone replacement are becoming more common. While this is certainly an option, I am struck when reading many of the advertisements for these clinics how they tend to play on mens' insecurities in order to motivate them to come in for treatment. This type of treatment is commonly not reimbursed by insurance. You can see where I'm going here.
"Natural" or bioidentical hormone replacement is truly a buyer beware choice. These therapies are not currently FDA approved, which means adverse effects are not even being reported. That means, no one really knows what the long term consequences of such treatments are. Clinics making money off of this issue certainly aren't going to report problems with their product if they're not required to!
It is worth your time to work with a skilled inCYST practitioner to evaluate your diet, sleep, and stress patterns to see if a few tweaks can pull you back into balance, before taking the next, bigger step.
I'm pasting a link to a nice story done by the Today Show yesterday about male menopause to provide some more information.
As you can see in recent posts, we're getting very happy results with our nutrition/supplement protocol. If you've decided to try IVF, some of the concepts we promote might help you as well.
In a study of 18 women undergoing IVF treatment, it was found that the lower their melatonin levels, the higher the levels were of certain damaging oxidative chemicals.
An additional 115 women who had failed IVF were divided into two groups: 56 received melatonin supplementation and 59 did not. Melatonin supplementation improved the success rate of the IVF procedure.
In an additional study done in mice, eggs were incubated with a highly oxidative substance for 12 hours. The result was that egg quality suffered. By adding melatonin, this deterioration in quality was blocked.
The researchers concluded, "oxidative stress causes toxic effects on oocyte maturation and melatonin protects oocytes from oxidative stress. Melatonin is likely to improve oocyte quality and fertilization rates."
There are a couple of important consideration here.
1. When you deprive yourself of sleep, you deprive yourself of naturally produced melatonin. It damages eggs and reduces fertility.
2. You can choose to supplement to offset the damage and increase your chances of fertility, but keep in mind that if your melatonin levels are low, your body is telling you that you are out of balance. You may be able to correct part of the balance with a supplement, but it's a health risk to assume that a pill has taken care of the problem. Best to work on prioritizing sleep. After all, if you're soon going to have a baby in the house, you're going to need it!
Tamura H, Takasaki A, Miwa I, Taniguchi K, Maekawa R, Asada H, Taketani T, Matsuoka A, Yamagata Y, Shimamura K, Morioka H, Ishikawa H, Reiter RJ, Sugino N. Oxidative stress impairs oocyte quality and melatonin protects oocytes from free radical damage and improves fertilization rate. J Pineal Res. 2008 Apr;44(3):280-7.
