Insulin resistance, PCOS and the symptoms of Polycystic Ovary Syndrome are all linked together in a chain. I often talk about insulin resistance being the root cause of PCOS and wanted to spend a little more time today delving into this matter.

What is Insulin Resistance?

This is a condition where the body does not respond well to insulin. Insulin is a hormone that takes sugars in the blood and uses them to power the body, in a normal person cells in the body always accept insulin to enter and power their functions. When you have insulin resistance your cells for some reason do not always accept insulin. This results in high blood sugar levels because the sugars are not being dealt with which in turn makes the body release MORE insulin to counter it.

The result is what is known as hyperinsulinemia or too much insulin in the blood. This is what starts the hormonal imbalance in the body that characterises PCOS.

What Causes Insulin Resistance?

There is no known exact cause of this condition. Some say is is genetic and you are born with it and other say that lack of exercise and obesity causes it. However insulin resistance may also be the cause of obesity too. The chick and the egg question really. Insulin Resistance and PCOS are not always together though. If you have PCOS you do have insulin resistance but if you have insulin resistance you may not have PCOS. In fact if you conquer PCOS you may still have insulin resistance but you manage it so well it will not bother you.

What to do about Insulin Resistance

Dealing with insulin resistance, PCOS and the symptoms of PCOS are all the same thing. What must be done is to control your blood sugar and also to keep a balance to your hormones. This is sometimes hard to grasp but when you think of your internals like a machine that reacts to what you put into it and how you use it you can almost visualise the levels of insulin, androgens, estrogen and so forth that all must function properly to be free of PCOS.

A lot of this is diet related but there are many other facets phsyically and then there is the wntire mental game that makes or breaks your efforts.

I highly recommend Natural Ovarian Cysts Relief Secrets which has helped many people including my sister to overcome PCOS and insulin resiatance not just temporarily but for the long term.

I recieved an email the other day from a women with PCOS who was mostly concerned with hirsutism otherwise known as excessive hair growth. She wanted to know about PCOS hair growth treatment options so I thought I would tell everyone a little of what I researched.

Personally I think that treating the symptoms of a problem is a bit of a waste of time when ou could be treating the underlying cause of the condition. However I do have to admit that hirsutism can be incredibly embarressing and damaging to a womens self esteem. As such a twofold approach is needed … but first for those who might be here for the first time a little bit of insight into WHY you suffer from hair growth.

PCOS is the result of a condition called insulin resistance which causes hormone imbalances in your body as a result. This hormone imabalnce gives rise to androgens such as testosterone, a primarily male hormone which women usually do not produce too much of. This increase in testosterone causes many problems with oen being hirsutism. As such you can treat the symptom and remove the hair but it will always grow back while you have PCOS.

So what is the solution?

Work on your insulin resistance fist and foremost. While you are doing this you can see that hair is removed regularly and somewhere down the line you will end up realising you are not removing hair anymore ebcause your hormones are back to normal.

Hair Removal

I have a little bit of hair and I usually opt for a little bit of shaving. It is cheap, gets good results and if you are careful is free from any risk of infections and rashes though they can happen. Other methods include using hair removal creams (not advised as they smell very bad and leave rashes) or plucking which takes forever.

Other more high tech solutions include electolysis and laser treatment. Both these methods do not work for everyone however and are expensive and can still be painful.

If you ask me shaving and plucking will do for most women and will save you money and time you need for the real way for PCOS hair growth treatment.

PCOS Insulin Resistance Treatment

Stopping the hormonal imbalance is your primary goal. Stopping the excessive flow of testosterone is the only way to stop the hair growth for good and doing so is mroe than a simple action like shaving.

You must change your lifestyle, your eating habits, your exercise habits and also your mental habits.

The 3 main points I continue to tell women are:

• Eat a healthy diet free from hormones and sugars. The fresher the food the better and the lower the GI the better to help with the bodies problem with blood sugar.
• Exercise is essential. Many women who have lost just a few pounds have managed to shrug off symptoms of PCOS they thought they were stuck with forever.
• De-Stress. Stress lowers your immune system and also creates more hormones which interfere with a body already out of control with imbalances. Being less stressed will help your health and well being and if you follow the chain will stop hirsutism too.

All these things and more are outlined in the  recommended guide on this site: Natural Ovarian Cysts Relief Secrets

In conjunction with my post about help with infertility due to PCOS I also wanted to talk about miscarriage and PCOS which is another reason I dislike taking drugs to get pregnant with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome as the condition still remains and continues to be a hazard to mother and child.

Many studies have shown that women who suffer from PCOS no only have issues trying to fall pregnant but also have many problems when pregnant that include miscarriage as a very bad end. The percentage of women who miscarry with polycystic ovary syndrome is quite high with studies going as high as 45-50% which is a massive amount of heartbreak from expecting mothers.

For more information on stopping PCOS in its tracks for a healthy pregnancy visit Ovarian Cysts Cures.

How does PCOS Cause Miscarriage

There may be a combination of different elements that go into this and it can be hard to tell which one may have caused a miscarriage but here are the main reasons.

• Insulin resistance which is the main problem with PCOS can also have an issue with development of your unborn child. This is because elevated insulin levels can cause problems with clearing blood clots which can lead to the body not being able to supply nutrients and remove toxins causing a breakdown and miscarriage.
• Luteinizing Hormone hypersecretion is another problem that can happen with PCOS sufferers. This means a certain hormone is overly injected during ovulation causing an early release of the egg which can cause defects which make the pregnancy fail later on and cause miscarriage.
• Yet another study has also found that a lack of two key proteins in the uterine lining are very low in PCOS sufferers. A study showed that out of 134 women in the study, 12 had miscarriages in the first trimester, and 10 of those 12 had PCOS. It is thought these proteins play a big part in maintaining the embryo.

There are also many other non PCOS factors at play but as you can see the increased risk from having this condition is quite substantial and needs to be understood before you prepare for a child. This is where I get my hatred of taking drugs as a solution also because with so many factors causing miscarriage with PCOS there is no drug that solves all the problems and taking a mixture of pills can mess your hormones up in unforeseen ways and cause other health problems or birth defects.

So what is the solution?

Many women have reported that losing weight before pregnancy has helps with conceiving and carrying a child to birth but the real winner theer was a change in lifestyle that reverse or at least partially stopped PCOS and hormonal imbalance naturally. This is not only good for your future child but good for your own health avoiding things such as diabetes during childbirth (another PCOS hazard) and simply making you feel better …

My sister is currently pregnant with a healthy (and feisty!) baby after she followed an all natural cure for PCOS and so i swear by this method as it also reduced a painful ovarian cyst I had very quickly.

Find out how we overcame ovarian cysts and PCOS naturally here

Many women need help with infertility due to PCOS because this condition is the leading cause of poor fertility in women from all conditions and diseases. With an estimated one in ten women suffering from PCOS to various degrees this is a lot of women having trouble getting pregnant with PCOS!

What can you do to increase your fertility if you have PCOS though? Obviously completely curing the conditions is the ultimate goal but what specifically causes the infertility that is associated with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome? The basic problem with your body and why it is infertile is because your periods are erratic or non existent and most likely an egg is often not released. This is because of hormone imbalances caused by insulin resistance which stop the right levels of female hormones from supporting a good and healthy menstrual cycle.

There are two methods that you can take to address this. The natural way, or with drugs

… if you have heard my rants against pharmaceutical companies then you may know what one i personally recommend! Click here to find out more on the natural way …

There are many drugs that have helped women with PCOS and infertility. Drugs such as Metformin otherwise known as Glucophage help reduce insulin resistance and hormone normalization and others such as human chorionic gonadotrophin or hCG help to directly force the ovaries to release eggs. However all of these options are short term and require you to pump more drugs into your body with an ongoing reliance on them. Some doctors even recommend hormone therapy by pumping you full of estrogen but this is dangerous and does not stop your insulin resistance either so will not help!

I personally believe that short term stop gap measures like these may help some women become pregnant but at the cost of their health and their child’s health!

The other options is a more natural cure. This is a detailed and complex thing that will take some effort but the end results is not a simply opening of a window of opportunity to conceive but instead will eliminate PCOS completely and restore a good menstrual cycle giving you help with infertility due to PCOS and also ridding you of all other PCOS symptoms.

For more information on a natural cure of PCOS visit ‘Ovarian Cysts Cures‘. This guide has helped many women including my own sister reverse PCOS … As of writing this post she is 5 Months pregnant and healthy too.

Just a quick follow up to my previous post on PCOS weight loss tips. There are also a number of foods to avoid with ovarian cysts and PCOS not just because some can make you gain weight but they also have further impacts on your condition.

A quick list of foods to avoid are:

• Processed meat
• Anything overly processed!
• Too much dairy
• Artificial sweeteners – Aspartane and others are quit toxic over time
• Anything too sugary – Yes this means if you have a sweet tooth you need to adapt somewhat!
• Hormone ‘enhanced’ chicken and meat – Your hormones are already going through a rough time. Stick to organic alternatives
• White breads – If you must have bread make sure you use wholemeal not the white stuff that just turns straight to sugar which your body is bad at handling at this point
  

There are many more but these are some nasty foods to avoid with ovarian cysts and PCOS!

For more on how to shrink your cysts and cure PCOS if you have it visit ‘Ovarian Cysts Cures‘ to discover the information that has helped thousands of women be pain free.

Polycystic Ovary Syndrome is a multifaceted condition that is rooted in lifestyle factors but also your unique genetic makeup. Some women are simply more prone to suffering these problems than others. PCOS weight loss tips however are essential to all women who suffer from this problem because there is convincing links between weight gain and the hormonal imbalances that characterizes PCOS.

This is however a bit of a chicken and egg problem: which came first? The answer is probably both and over time it becomes a nasty cycle. For instance if you gain weight due to lifestyle factors you may trigger the insulin resistance that causes PCOS. However if you trigger PCOS from another reason you will find it easier to put on weight because of the insulin resistance. This means that however it happened carrying a bit of extra weight is a cause and continuing feeder of ovarian cysts and all the other symptoms of PCOS.

For more information on PCOS and weight loss visit ‘Ovarian Cysts Cures‘

Here are some PCOS weight loss tips that helped myself and my sister lose some weight and form a PCOS weight loss plan.

• No more soda – These are a real health hazard and will just send sugar into a body that is coping badly with blood sugar. Ditch these as a start to PCOS weight loss.
• Water down or stop drinking juice – Fruit juices are just loaded with sugars and eliminating these makes a big impact on your blood sugar levels and what gets turned to fat.
• Stop buying process meat – We pretty much turned into part time vegetarians which helped a lot. Processed meat however was a big thing we ditched. Ham, bacon, salami and the like are packed with sodium and other things we just don’t need a lot of.
• Drink more water – Hydration is good for detoxification and will help you body stay fit and improve your immune system. I also recommend green tea which has a lot of anti-oxidants.
• Eat less grains – We have all seen the lie that is the food pyramid with grains as a major part of your diet. This is totally bogus and just a wide reaching scam by grain farmers. Cut down on breads and grains and instead …
• Eat more vegetables – Hardly a secret but when you drop something off the menu make sure you fill that up with something healthy or you might just fall into an unhealthy trap as a replacement.
• Walk just 30 minutes a day – No need for strenuous exercise regimes, healthy eating and moderate but consistent exercise can lower your fat and increase your metabolism. The key is consistency and making it a habit.

For a complete guide on how to overcome PCOS including PCOS weight loss shrinking ovarian cysts visit Ovarian Cyst Cures to discover exactly what to eat and many other insights into how to completely cure yourself.

Stress is something we all have to deal with in our lives but many studies have shown that excessive stress and worry is very bad for our health. With this in mind, can stress cause ovarian cysts or PCOS and if so how?

If you are a highly stressed individual for whatever reasons the outlook is not good because HAS been linked to PCOS and ovarian cysts to varying degrees and it places further pressures upon your body that you do not need.

For more detailed information on stress and ovarian cysts visit ‘Natural Ovarian Cysts Relief Secrets‘

The reason for this that chronic high levels of stress cause hormone imbalances that are the root cause of Polycystic Ovary Syndrome and can lead to the enlargement of swollen cysts to extremely large proportions. This is because a female hormone called pregnenolone is needed to cope with prolonged stress and is diverted from the usual body pathways and this leads to a female hormones fluctuating and over or under producing what is needed to maintain a healthy and normal menstrual cycles which in turn leads to the root causes of ovarian cysts and PCOS.

Other related stress problems

Stress does not only cause hormonal imbalance but also lowers your immune system which is another problem that leads to more illness and infections in your body. This usually makes you even more stressed and so a viscous cycle of poor health, fluctuating hormones and continued stress places a massive toll on your body which can lead to weight gain which is another problem directly related to ovarian cysts and PCOS in particular. If you are genetically inclined carrying a bit more weight can lead to insulin resistance and even diabetes all which play a major role in unbalancing your hormones any further.

Does Reducing Stress Stop PCOS and Ovarian Cysts?

Stress is a big factor but it is not the entire puzzle of ovarian cysts and polycystic ovary syndrome. There are many other factors genetic and lifestyle that contribute to the overall conditions. This being said, reducing stress WILL make an improvement and aid towards a reversal of PCOS and shrinking of the cysts.

How to de-stress is an endless topic and often very personal in nature so my advice is to make sure you know what stresses are impacting on you and work to reduce them in whatever way you can. Also make sure to simply take time out no matter how busy you are to take part of stress reliving activities as every small step you take away from the whirling chaos and stress of life helps your body to normalize and get your hormones under control.

For a complete guide on how to stop stress and all other factors that cause PCOS and cysts visit Ovarian Cyst Cures to find out what has worked for thousands of women who are now pain free and have normalized hormone levels.

Knowing what causes ovarian cysts & PCOS is something every women who has suffered from the associated symptoms should know. The understanding gained by uncovering the root reasons behind the cysts is helpful for piece of mind but also to begin to implement treatment as well.

First however we must distinguish between ovarian cysts and the condition known as Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS).

• Ovarian Cysts are a naturally occurring phenomenon inside a woman’s body. Most pre-menopausal women develop cysts at some stage but most are small and quickly shrink again. Others however can continue to grow and become very painful to which some doctors recommend surgical removal. This can cause its own complications however …
• PCOS is a conditions characterized by many ovarian cysts but most are not of enormous size. This leads to many problems that those without PCOS but with a large cyst may not get.  So all women with PCOS have cysts but not all women with cysts have PCOS.

Click here for more detailed explanations in ‘Natural Ovarian Cysts Relief Secrets‘

What causes Ovarian Cysts?

Ovarian cysts as has been said are naturally occurring and happen when the follicles inside the ovary that produce the egg each month do not function correctly.

Usually the follicles go through a stage where they grow in size and release the hormone estrogen which prepares the uterus for the egg. One follicle will eventually release an egg and the egg sack then becomes a “corpus luteum” which then produces progesterone which is another hormone. This tells the other follicles in the ovary to shrink or dissolve and to wait for the next time around, this cycle continues every month as a part of your regular menstrual cycle.

This does not always happen though. A Ovarian Cyst is formed when the follicles grow but none release an egg. Because no corpus luteum is formed no progesterone is produced to tell the other eggs to shrink and so the follicles grow larger and larger each cycle as more estrogen is produced. This can continue until cysts become so large they cause extreme pain from pressing into your organs or twisting in your body or even bursting inside of you. Sometimes this will right itself before these problems happen if the body adjusts the hormone levels correctly and the cysts shrink. This usually happens but is not always the case.

What Causes PCOS?

Polycystic Ovary Syndrome has a similar root cause to over-sized cysts in that it is a condition caused by hormonal imbalance. The immediate reason for the symptoms of PCOS is that your body is producing more male hormone androgens than is healthy for a female. Androgens are male hormones that naturally occur in women and are essential for many things but when elevated these hormones like testosterone and others lower estrogen production which in turn means that eggs are often not released, stopping the progesterone production from a burst egg sack which causes the cysts to continue to grow.

This severe hormonal imbalance is the cause of the symptoms but not the root cause of PCOS. To know more about this we need to dig a little deeper and look at something called insulin resistance.

What is Insulin Resistance?

Insulin is another hormone in your body that is mainly responsible for converting glucose (sugars) in your blood stream into energy to be used for everything our body does! Insulin resistance is when the body does not recognize much of your insulin and so it become ineffective at changing glucose into energy. Your body reacts by secreting more and more insulin so that the glucose eventually will be converted due to the large amount of insulin but at the cost of escalating your insulin levels to a huge number!

This has consequences.

For many women this leads to PCOS as this insulin imbalance causes the ovaries to produce more androgen which leads to all of the problems you suffer with this condition.

For a complete guide on how to overcome ovarian cysts and PCOS from the root causes all the way up to the awful symptoms visit Ovarian Cyst Cures for more information.