Understand the Cause of PCOS to Cure it Naturally

I am a diabetes consultant and not a PCOS specialist. However, I started looking into PCOS because the root cause is the same as type 2 diabetes, namely insulin resistance. As I delved deeper into the pathophysiology of this widespread disease, I realized that, as with type 2 diabetes, conventional medicine only suppresses the symptoms with medication and hardly addresses the root cause. As a result, women are left confused and helpless. Please learn the cause of PCOS so you can make a healthier diet and lifestyle choices to heal the disease. Let´s get into it.

What is Insulin?

Insulin is a hormone (made by our pancreas) that takes the blood sugar into cells to be used as energy. Insulin has an anabolic nature. Meaning, it builds up. It turns the surplus sugar into fat and saves it in fat tissue (adipocytes). Every time we eat, our pancreas releases inulin. Carbohydrates have the highest insulin secretion, proteins moderate, and fats the lowest. Excessive and frequent insulin production leads to insulin resistance.

In addition to regulating blood sugar levels, insulin has 300 other tasks to fulfill. There is almost no organ in our body that does not interact with insulin in some way. So if you are insulin resistant, you will not only develop type 2 diabetes but also many other health problems such as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, fatty pancreas, high blood pressure, chronic inflammation, cardiovascular risk, and even neurodegenerative diseases.

I know an ophthalmologist who diagnoses eye patients with type 2 diabetes after finding that the patient’s eyes are insulin-resistant. As you may have heard, Alzheimer’s disease is now referred to as type 3 diabetes. Why? Because the root cause of Alzheimer’s disease is insulin resistance. This simple fact makes it imperative to stay insulin-sensitive!

In this article, I will cite some scientific evidence to demonstrate that the driving force behind PCOS is insulin resistance and obesity.

Prevalence of diagnosed (black) and undiagnosed PCOS according to NIH criteria (gray) in adolescents aged 15 to 19 years of age. Christensen. PCOS prevalence in adolescents. Fertil Steril 2013.

As you can see in the diagrams above, there is a clear link between obesity and PCOS. This means that if you are overweight or obese, you are less likely to ovulate. Infertility is a typical feature of PCOS. [1]

The obvious conclusion is that you can treat PCOS sustainably by adopting a healthy diet and lifestyle rather than spending thousands of dollars suppressing the symptoms.

There are three criteria for PCOS.

1. hyperandrogenemia (excess production of “male” hormones) It means producing too much testosterone which causes things like

• acne

• facial hair

• male pattern baldness

• lowered tone of voice

• in severe cases clitoral enlargement

• menstrual irregularities

• Ovulatory irregularities

Besides being an ovarian problem [2] one major factor contributing to hyperandrogenemia is the low sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG) which is made in the liver and regulates the circulating concentrations of free (unbound) hormones. Studies have associated a low SHBG concentration with an increased incidence of insulin resistance, diabetes type 2, and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. [3]

Normally testosterone doesn’t circulate in the blood very much as a free molecule because it’s bound up with SHBG. However, when there’s not enough SHBG then you have more of the free testosterone. As a result, various male characteristics are developed.

The question is why do you produce too much testosterone? The answer is insulin. [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13]. The higher the insulin level, the more testosterone you have. As you can see in this diagram.

1988 Dec;31(6): 995–9.

If you have more insulin you’re gonna have lower levels of sex hormone binding globulin. From a causal standpoint, you’ve got too much insulin which leads to this hyperandrogenism.

The second criterion of PCOS is polycystic ovaries.

The normal ovary (left) compared to the polycystic ovary (right)

In the picture above you can see a normal ovary on the left. And on the right, is a polycystic ovary, in which all these cysts are located, i.e. polycystic.

In the picture below you see a normal sort of menstrual cycle on the healthy ovary in the upper section. Over the normal menstrual cycle, you have a development of the egg which at the end is released to meet the sperm.

Now look at the ovary in the lower section. The cysts are follicular cysts meaning they are caught up in a sac and not ovulated. That’s why all these cysts develop because they are stuck and not ovulating. Therefore, you’re not gonna get pregnant because that egg doesn’t come out of the ovary. It doesn’t travel to the uterus where the sperm meets it. So, everything is stuck at that pre-ovulation level. That’s why you get all those cysts in the ovary and the reason for that is something called follicular arrest.

Why are these cysts developing?

FOLLICULAR ARREST. Endocrin Metab Clinic Of North Am 1999 28(2) 1999;361–378, Sacks F et al.

If you look at the A diagram, you see this surge of hormone which is LH. The follicles respond to LH at a level of 9.5 to 15 where preovulatory follicles start to develop. That is the normal healthy situation.

Now look at the B section. Under the influence of too much insulin, these follicles become too sensitive to the LH system so they respond at a level of 4. As a result, they’re stopped at a level of about 8 millimeters before they get to that stage where they’re big enough to ovulate. This explains why so many follicles are stalled in the pre-ovulatory stage, with excess insulin as the final culprit. That’s the main issue: an excess of insulin is causing the follicular arrest.

The third criterion is the Anovulatory cycle. Meaning a menstrual cycle in which ovulation, or the release of an egg from the ovaries, does not occur, as we already have seen in the illustration above.

You can see, hyperinsulinemia (excess insulin) and insulin resistance overlap with everything. Hyperinsulinemia is responsible for the development of obesity type 2 diabetes, and PCOS. It’s not like this information is unknown. This is a New England Journal of Medicine review article. It illustrates the exact nature of PCOS in an elegant and classy way.

N Engl J Med 2016;375:54–64.

How can you reduce insulin to cure PCOS naturally and sustainably? By keeping insulin low to become insulin sensitive. I’ve written many articles on how to reverse insulin resistance to heal type 2 diabetes, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, obesity, and other chronic diseases. Here I briefly summarize it and make it easy for you to incorporate it into your lifestyle starting today.

For preventing/curing insulin resistance, there are three very effective but simple steps to undertake.

Avoid strictly sugar, refined carbohydrates, and high fructose corn syrup (high fructose corn syrup is found in almost all processed foods and junk from supermarkets).

Eat a maximum of twice a day within a six- to eight-hour eating window. I can’t emphasize enough how important intermittent fasting is when it comes to overcoming insulin resistance. This is because every time you eat, you spike insulin. Until your fasting insulin levels (when you are not eating) are far too high. Chronically excess insulin makes us fat and insulin resistant. You can learn more about intermittent fasting HERE.

Finish your dinner at 5 pm, skip breakfast, or have it late between 9–10 am. Do not count the calories! Eat until you are satisfied. Do not snack.

Shift your primary food source from carbs to animal-based protein-rich food, which is very nutrient-dense and satiating. It also speeds up your metabolism so that you burn fat even during the time you are not moving. Eat 1.6g protein per 1kg of your ideal weight. Eat in alignment with human evolution, namely whole foods, organic grass-fed fresh fatty meat, wild-caught seafood, eggs, butter, and coconut oil. Do not be afraid of animal protein and fat.

In this article, I have a simple to implement 12-step program to reverse type 2 diabetes, which you also can apply for curing PCOS, since the root cause of both diseases is insulin resistance.

Case Study

A Clinical Program Treating PCOS through Low-Carb Diet By Dr. Peter Walsh in Melbourne Australia. He has incorporated a high-fat, high-protein, and very low-carbohydrate (less than 20g) diet combined with intermittent fasting and resistance training into his program.

Result

• Been trying to conceive for 18 months but can’t work out when ovulating

• Old cycle 1–144 days

• Old cycle 2–108 days

• The keto fertility program starts

• Cycle 1–62 days

• Cycle 2–48 days

• Cycle 3–40 days

• Confidently detecting ovulation

• Cycle 4–35 days

• Cycle 5–32 days Cycle 6–31 days

• Cycle 7 29 days

• Cycle 8–29 days

• Pregnancy