PCOS Diet, Supplements, Herbs & Lifestyle Recommendations + Do You NEED to Lose Weight?

PCOS Diet, Supplements, Herbs & Lifestyle Recommendations + Do You NEED to Lose Weight?



Hey everyone, today I’ll be chatting about a topic that has been highly requested which is PCOS in my new series: Fertility Files. In today’s video, we’ll look at the most current research on PCOS management and we’ll be joined by weight inclusive intuitive eating dietitian, Julie Duffy Dillon, who will be discussing why dieting and weight loss can be harmful for PCOS management.

A reminder that everything in this video about PCOS treatment and weight loss is for entertainment purposes only and you should always seek the advice of a health care provider for your unique case.

Julie Duffy Dillion, RD: https://www.juliedillonrd.com/pcos/
Instagram: @foodpeacedietitian

Research Links:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/44613233_Effect_of_a_low_glycemic_index_compared_with_a_conventional_healthy_diet_on_polycystic_ovary_syndrome
https://bmcendocrdisord.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12902-019-0420-1
https://academic.oup.com/humupd/article/19/5/432/611716
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25608460
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5097808/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5655679/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5097808/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5870911/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6279035/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4488802/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30665436
https://academic.oup.com/jcem/article/89/5/2160/2844315
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6202781/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4077900/
https://www.cochrane.org/CD007689/MENSTR_acupuncture-polycystic-ovarian-syndrome
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4086778/
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09513590.2017.1405931?journalCode=igye20
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0383/8/10/1682/htm
https://academic.oup.com/jcem/article-abstract/54/1/131/2676651
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1204764/

Here are some other videos about me and my personal life that you might like:
Insomnia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99ONmH64QuM
HAES vs weight loss and my stance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svgKUMf0BCo&t=22s
My orthorexia story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDmkSlyLFpM&t=13s

Some important links:
My book, The Mindful Glow Cookbook affiliate link: https://amzn.to/2nev0lf
The best baby feeding & eating gear (amazon #affiliate) https://amzn.to/36h1r4a
My favourite supplements (amazon #affiliate) https://amzn.to/39pGV3j
My favourite kitchen appliances and tools (amazon #affiliate) https://amzn.to/2ubQnXV
My favourite healthy snacks (amazon #affiliate) https://amzn.to/2ucC6dD
My favourite healthy breakfast foods (amazon #affiliate) https://amzn.to/2SK8b6s
My favourite intuitive eating books (amazon #affiliate) https://www.amazon.ca/shop/abbeysharp?listId=3GYHLHLW2BB62
My favourite healthy meal ideas and snacks (amazon #affiliate) https://amzn.to/39oA3mC

Check out my blog for healthy recipes, parenting tips and tricks and busting nutrition myths and diets: www.abbeyskitchen.com

If this video on PCOS management and weight loss safety was helpful, please leave me a comment below with your thoughts!

Xoxo Abbey

hey guys i'm abby sharp and welcome to abby's kitchen and the beginning of our new series called the fertility files today i'm finally doing a video on a highly requested topic pcos i have been totally blown away with the number of questions i get about pcos here on the channel which i think just goes to prove how misunderstood and complicated this condition really is i myself was actually diagnosed with pcos a few years ago and i was trying to conceive my son and that's the reason why we had to use ivf but alas more on that later today we're going to share the most current research on pcos management and we'll also be joined by weight inclusive intuitive eating dietitian julie duffy dillon who specializes in pcos we're going to be talking about whether or not weight loss is necessary when it comes to pcos as well as some evidence-based recommendations for what to eat and what to do when managing pcos as a general disclosure remember that the information you're about to see is for education and entertainment purposes only and you should always seek advice from your healthcare team for your unique case okay let's get into it first let's define pcos so pcos aka polycystic ovary syndrome involves an imbalance in women's sex hormones like estrogen progesterone and testosterone leading to the growth of ovarian cysts aka benign masses if left untreated pcos can lead to irregular or absent periods infertility unwanted hair growth on our face and body acne alopecia pregnancy complications and even cancer pcos can be diagnosed when at least two out of the three of the following occurs number one the ovaries are polycystic because either there are 12 or more follicles on one ovary or the size of one or both ovaries is very high number two hyper androgenism where there's a high level of androgens which are the male hormones like testosterone or there are symptoms of excess androgens like acne or excessive hair growth and three there are issues with your period like a lack of period irregular periods or lack of ovulation for me personally i was diagnosed because i wasn't ovulating at all and my ovaries were slightly polycystic but of course everyone is different so of course pcos can look and operate completely differently depending on the individual and requires a professional to diagnose now let's talk about some of the traditional management strategies for pcos starting with your diet so one of the dietary recommendations that evidence suggests may hold samaritan managing symptoms is a low glycemic index diet so a low glycemic index diet or a low gi diet consists of carbohydrate-based foods that are slow digesting and cause a gradual rise in blood sugar and insulin plus of course a lot of healthy proteins and healthy fats so some examples of low gi carbs include things like whole grain breads still cut oats bulgur sweet potatoes milk chickpeas and lentils so one study found that when women with pcos followed a low gi diet their menstrual regularity improved when compared with individuals who were following a standard healthy diet this likely had something to do with the fact that fewer blood sugar spikes and falls improves insulin sensitivity which in turn may help improve menstrual irregularity a more recent 2019 study found that a low gi diet improved menstrual irregularity in 80 of women with pcos however in that particular study the low gi diet was also energy restricted so it isn't clear whether or not the change reported was because of the energy restriction the low gi diet any associated weight loss or some combination the researchers however did suggest that a low gi diet may delay the absorption of carbohydrates improving metabolic pathways and reducing insulin resistance now does the evidence suggest that low gi needs to be low carb not necessarily as these things are not the same thing however i did find a systematic review examining a variety of diets in the treatment of pcos and it was found that a low-carb diet was associated with a greater reduction in insulin resistance compared to a conventional diet having said that as with a lot of research on dieting we don't know the long-term likelihood of dietary adherence and long-term improvements in health choosing higher fiber lower glycemic index carbohydrates rather than cutting out carbs altogether is typically a much more sustainable approach for most women also it doesn't mean you can't have higher gi carbs you really just want to focus on pairing those carbs with lean protein and healthy fats to help stabilize the blood sugars further now finally even though it's tempting given the diet culture that we live in you actually want to make sure that you're eating enough and eating regularly i'm going to chat more about this with julie when i patch her in but in short when we let ourselves get too hungry our blood sugars plummet we get ravenous and then we see massive spikes when we do finally eat restricting also sends us into that binge restrict cycle which ultimately can perpetuate metabolic dysfunction next let's talk about supplements and herbs there are a ton of supplements and herbs that claim to eradicate pcos symptoms but we really only have solid evidence to support a few first is inositol so inositol is really number one here it's a small molecule that is structurally similar to glucose and is naturally found in foods like whole grains and citrus fruits one 2016 systematic review found that supplementation with inositol improved hormonal and reproductive disturbances in women with pcos another 2017 meta-analysis found that inositol improved the metabolic profile of women with pcos and reduced some of the high levels of androgen hormones that cause a lot of the symptoms and problems finally the evidence also suggests that it may improve pregnancy outcomes for women with pcos undergoing ivf next is omega-3s let's be real i think most of us could probably benefit from an omega-3 supplement especially if we don't eat a lot of fatty fish but one 2018 systematic review and meta-analysis found that omega-3 supplementation in pcos patients helped improve insulin resistance and reduce total cholesterol triglycerides and ldl levels that's pretty great next is vitamin d so vitamin d deficiency is actually very common in women with pcos possibly because of the metabolic and endocrine disorders that are associated with the disease so it's often recommended to patients with pcos to supplement with vitamin d although admittedly the research on this one is still a little bit unclear one 2015 systematic review and meta-analysis found a positive association between pcos and vitamin d deficiency however the studies did not find that vitamin d supplementation had a beneficial effect that being said the researchers of the study did recommend larger prospective studies to further assess the association between vitamin d levels and pcos treatment and in my professional opinion most people at least here where i live in canada can usually benefit from a vitamin d supplement and that brings me to probiotics while we're still not 100 sure about the vitamin d alone research has found that the combination of vitamin d and a probiotic supplement may be effective at treating symptoms one 2019 randomized control trial found that vitamin d and probiotic co-supplementation improved depression anxiety and stress scale scores in women with pcos it was also associated with a reduction in total testosterone hair growth crp which is an inflammation marker and the oxidative stress marker mda when compared with the placebo and then finally i want to quickly touch on some herbs that are commonly used including maca root ashwanganda holy basil licorice chasteberry and tribulus terestris it's a big word i don't know so i feel like i've just said a harry potter spell i'm going to be totally honest but there are lots of herbs that are often recommended for treating pcos symptoms however the research on their effectiveness is pretty limited many of these herbs carry some antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties which is probably why they're commonly recommended for treating pcos so research has shown that c-reactive protein which is a marker for inflammation is typically higher in pcos patients and that when crp is reduced so are the metabolic symptoms of pcos so while it's totally possible that one or a combination of herbs may serve as a good adjunct to traditional supplements and medication they really should not be relied on on their own to treat your pcos so we'll discuss dye in a little bit more detail later on in this video when i patch in julie but i also want to explore some other evidence-based lifestyle changes for pcos management next is getting enough sleep and reducing stress so you guys know i need to take my own advice here and chill out but sleep and stress management is so key research has revealed that aligned with my own experience sleep disorders and insomnia are significantly more common in women with pcos and getting a sleep when you're struggling with already messed up hormones can totally worsen your pcos symptoms okay number two is quitting smoking i'm good on this front because i've never smoked a day in my life but smoking has been found to worsen pcos symptoms and even put someone at higher risk for metabolic syndrome so it's definitely recommended to avoid or quit smoking if you're already a smoker number three is acupuncture now there is some evidence that acupuncture may influence ovulation by affecting levels of various hormones however its mechanism is still not very well understood so according to the cochrane database there is currently insufficient evidence to support the use of acupuncture for the treatment of ovulation disorders in women with pcos but you know if nothing else a lot of women myself included find it really stress relieving and therefore it may be a nice complement to your traditional healthcare regime personally i am a huge fan of acupuncture and i think it's made a really big difference in my fertility journey even if it is just the placebo effect and number four avoiding endocrine disruptors so over the years it has been suggested that endocrine disruptor chemicals like bpa may contribute to the rise in pcos some animal studies have found that bpa exposure tended to disrupt ovarian and reproductive functions than females while a 2017 systematic review and meta-analysis found that pcos patients had significantly higher bpa levels compared with a control group researchers from the study believe that bpa might be involved in the insulin resistance and hyper androgenism of pcos however more quality studies are definitely needed to explore this association now the last lifestyle change that has always been recommended for the treatment of pcos is weight loss i've waited to mention this one because while it's probably the first thing a doctor will just tell you to do it's definitely controversial so first of all why is weight loss so universally recommended i don't know i mean maybe doctors think that weight loss is easy i i i guess it's easy to send somebody off with that suggestion i hope that they come back and change body but i will say the general recommendation is based on research suggesting that obesity and abdominal fat can exacerbate pcos symptoms by increasing insulin resistance now while the mechanism is still not perfectly understood some research suggests that visceral belly fat which is the fat around organs to protect them may release free fatty acids and inflammatory hormones that may drive insulin resistance it is important to note however that not all women with pcos struggle with insulin resistance and some of us are actually quite thin i'm i'm a good example of that right here furthermore a lot of pcos experts like julie duffy dillon says that doling out universal weight loss advice to women with pcos could actually have some serious dangerous effects for one disordered eating is significantly more prevalent in one with pcos with 86 of patients with pcos presenting with a subclinical eating disorder while it's unclear why this is it may be related to the shame that women carry and the pressure that's been placed on this population to lose weight at literally any expense also a 2017 study found that repeated attempts at weight loss which resulted in weight cycling predicted binge eating in a sample of one with pcos even if those women were considered lean and i think that this whole binge eating thing is something that a lot of women who have the condition can probably relate to i also know that research has found that low calorie dieting increases cortisol which is linked to insulin resistance and weight gain over time which may be another reason why weight loss may not always be the lowest risk option for every woman with pcos i also want to mention the fact that long-term caloric restriction has been linked with inflammation and people with pcos already live in a chronic pro-inflammatory state now to discuss ditching the diet and managing pcos i've invited registered dietitian julie duffy dillon who is an intuitive eating and pcos specialist welcome julie hey abby thanks for having me on thank you so much so first of all i would love if you could tell me a little bit why you believe that the blanket statement to just gonna go lose weight may be bad advice for a lot of women who are living with pcos i think it's very bad advice for a number of reasons first of all pcos is passed down through families so we know it has a genetic connection and weight didn't cause pcos so why would it fix it that's a really big important thing to keep in mind and we also know that diets don't work for most people it's going to work for some people but very few so if it doesn't work for most people why would it work for people with pcos and then the other part of it goes even deeper and research that has been recently published has been exploring the relationship with binge eating and pcos and what they have found is that many people with pcos experience binge eating because yoyo dieting or what we also call weight cycling predicts binge eating and there's a lot of complications with pcos that people who have it will understand this there's so many different hormonal issues going on one in particular is high circulating insulin plus those higher androgens like testosterone and lower um fancy hormone called cck or cholecysteine kinan those are really common in pcos and those lead to really intense cravings but then when you also eliminate foods especially carbs and sugar that will intensify those cravings and you know i don't have pcos so i don't know what these cravings are like but i know when i have a craving it's kind of like i want something sweet okay so pcos cravings are different they're primal every cell in the body is screaming eat and it's like someone who's been drowning is finally to the surface and breathing gasping for air pcos cravings are the same and so when we tell people just lose weight it's basically telling people like don't be so obsessed with air you know right right that's dope right because yeah we need air to breathe and we need food to live and so people with pcos it's really important to know that you don't have to diet and really i would say you shouldn't diet in order to manage pcos so in your experience like what are some of the ways that intentional weight loss diets can actually like potentially worsen symptoms so again for some people diets may work for them but for most people with pcos what ends up happening is because diets don't work for most people people go on diets over and over again to try to manage their weight because everyone's telling to do that and what weight cycling or that yo-yo dieting is connected to is higher insulin levels higher testosterone higher cortisol higher cholesterol and higher blood sugar all things that is also connected to pcos and so it's like a double whammy basically and then also people with pcos what researchers have found rather is that people with pcos have a chronic pro-inflammatory state it's a really kind of common experience that leads to lots of fatigue and brain fog and we've also connected that same pro-inflammatory state um to weight cycling and so again it's like it's worsening the symptoms with it i also think it's important to shift it even to like what's the experience it's like we're like everyone just needs to lose weight to treat pcos what my clients have taught me is that keeps them from going to the doctor so if you don't go to the doctor as often to get attention for your health care needs well it's obvious it's going to affect your health too in a really negative way even deeper than that having this blanket statement basically teaches us that fat bodies are larger bodies or bodies that people will call obese are overweight those bodies are bad and what we know that that does is it's a form of discrimination it's weight stigma and weight stigma is also connected to higher insulin levels higher testos or not testosterone but higher cortisol and cholesterol and blood sugar so you know the very things that weight is supposed to be treating with pcos it's just going to make it worse thank you julie that was so amazing what a great way to explain it now a lot of women with pcos often describe feeling overwhelming cravings particularly for carbs as we know and this phenomenon occurs because cells that have become insulin resistant no longer are responding to insulin so the pancreas keeps producing more insulin to compensate and since the muscles aren't properly getting the glucose that it wants it's basically just kind of floating around the bloodstream and the muscles are effectively starving and sending out more and more signals for the preferred source of fuel which of course is sugar so it's that combination of high circulating insulin and antigen hormones that tend to cause these primal cravings that a lot of women describe having so how do you suggest that women can respond to their cravings in an intuitive way without kind of worsening their pcos symptoms by gaining more weight or spiking their insulin or all of those kinds of things so i am so glad you asked me that question abby this is a really important thing to keep in mind with pcos because people with pcos are taught to ignore their cravings or trick them or they should never listen to them but carb cravings are insight i think carb cravings are the guideposts to help people understand what they need to treat their pcos when people have carb cravings they should be listened to respected and not shunned they're the way that the person knows that their their condition needs more attention what i teach my clients that i talk to with pcos is that when they have a carb craving if they can it's really really important to experiment with stepping back and noticing what was just going on have you been eating enough have you been sleeping enough are you eating enough protein are you restricting too much are you exercising too much what is going on maybe you need to change your medications have you forgotten your supplements it's a really wonderful way to know that insulin is really high and what can we do to help manage it it may be a temporary thing or you know pcos is this chronic condition that we cannot cure no matter what people say you cannot cure pcos and since it's chronic it's going to change and get worse and so there are times where carb cravings will come out of nowhere with people that i work with and i teach them to just lean into them lean into them if they can and by doing this it'll help them to navigate what they're doing i think that's amazing advice and probably advice that most of my viewers with pcos have never heard before so it's definitely against the grain and i think very much needed so thank you for that that's a big question i get i'm beginning a lot so julie if we really should not be recommending that women just diet to lose weight what kind of things do you recommend in terms of dietary recommendations and interventions when it comes to planning and meals and snacks and those kinds of things yeah so i know many people with pcos are told they have to diet to help manage their pcos so when they think about not dieting they're like what do i do then i don't even know how to eat without dieting and there are so many things you can do that helps promote health with pcos and food and first and foremost i know this is going to be surprising but make sure you're eating enough i think people think they need so little food especially carbs and sugar and i think it's really important to make sure you're eating enough because again that chronic pro-inflammatory state those muscles that you talked about that were starving these are really important things that our body needs to survive and to help those cravings not be so primal and so after people are making sure they're eating enough i also tell people that they probably need more protein when they experience pcos so i encourage them to strategically experiment with protein especially first thing in the morning and before bed and to see how that helps their energy levels and cravings and then another part with nutrition is supplements there's a number of supplements that people experiment with with pcos there is one in particular that has a lot of research behind it it's called inositol i encourage everybody with pcos to talk to their healthcare provider about using it it's one that can really help with that insulin resistance that we talked about before it gets to the cellular level and what may be a defect or a deficiency that's going on with pcos and actually it's one of the things that may replace metformin eventually so keep your eye on like the research with it it's really exciting but besides that the other part of it that i think is really good is to make sure that you're moving your your body in a way that feels good i think people with pcos think they have to torture their body with exercise and do it even when they don't feel like it but a really good way to know if you're kind of onto something like onto the tools that are helping you is when you start to crave movement when you're like i kind of want to move my body today that's when you really can start thinking about how can exercise fit into the picture and it may take time to get to that you know making sure you're eating enough for a couple months before you really can feel that craving to move again and it will happen and then lastly you know i know people with pcos tell me julie it's a really hard sell to love my body um not i'm not getting respect because of my body i'm not getting really access to reproductive medicine or i'm not getting things that i need to take care of myself because of the way my body looks people with pcos are taught that their body is wrong that they need to be smaller and people in larger bodies are mistreated and denied access to things like reproductive medicine and so it can be really hard to love your body but if you can with pcos find a way to respect your body which may mean turning away from diets treating it with care and compassion those are things that we know in research that helps lower cortisol helps to lower inflammation helps to lower triglycerides things that we associate with pcos and it's not an individual thing you know you can't fix it on your own but doing those things leaning towards body respect is something that also is something you could something you can do without dieting that can really help your health i love that advice and you know also just thinking about from my own experience struggling with infertility like so often you feel like your body is failing you and you're so mad at it and you're angry and you just so disappointed so i think that there is so much to be said for having that compassion for yourself and for for your body and what it is doing well um and what it can um you know provide you with uh and i think that's really great universal advice so that's fantastic thanks for that julie so of course i want to give a big thank you to you julie for for joining us today i'm sure everyone has learned so much from this conversation and i would love for you to get some more information about julie i've got some contact information for for her below so you can get her website and her social media and follow her and all of that stuff so thank you again julie for all of your help today thank you abby it was so great chatting bye bye that was awesome so thank you guys all for watching this if you liked this video please be sure to give it a thumbs up leave me a comment with any pcos questions that you might have julie has graciously offered to pop by and help answer a few if it's out of the scope for me but of course always subscribe to the channel and i'll see you next time on abby's kitchen [Music] [Music] bye

#PCOS #Diet #Supplements #Herbs #Lifestyle #Recommendations #Lose #Weight

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