How are you doing with managing PCOS? Are you making steady improvements, or do you feel frustrated with an inability to improve your situation?
If you're one of those who feels frustrated, it might help to expand your perspective on what polycystic ovary syndrome is.
Polycystic ovarian syndrome isn't caused only by having too much testosterone and insulin. It's way more complicated than that.
For example, research is now suggesting that chronic inflammation is a taproot for most PCOS problems. So if you can reduce chronic inflammation, you should be able to reduce the weight, infertility, hair, skin and mood issues.
And it isn't just PCOS. Chronic inflammation has also been strongly implicated in cardiovascular disease, cancer, Alzheimer's, diabetes, neurodegenerative diseases of all kinds, mood disorders such as depression, various intestinal diseases, arthritis, and more. It also has an effect on your fertility.
But where does the inflammation come from?
Well, it comes from all sorts of places, such as your fat cells. But it's now believed that much of it comes from your gut.
Most of the stuff in your gut consists of food or microorganisms. They can either be pro-inflammatory, or anti-inflammatory. It's a complex relationship between your food and the microorganisms. There's also a very complex relationship among the trillions of bugs in your gut -- some are beneficial, some are pathological. And some of them compete against one another while others just "get along".
A problem develops when the pathological organisms outnumber or overwhelm the beneficial organisms. Some of these "bad bugs" shed a substance called LPS (lipopolysaccharide). LPS can leak through from the intestines into the bloodstream, where the immune system flags it as something "bad" and to be attacked. The attack causes a lot of damage, which we call inflammation. The presence of LPS is also referred to as "metabolic endotoxemia".
Research has shown that metabolic endotoxemia causes obesity and insulin resistance, the very problems that are giving you so much trouble and frustration.
In fact, you may recall that I reported about an article that suggested a major cause of PCOS was an inflammatory imbalance of microorganisms in the gut.
So what do we do now?
Well, here's one thing you can do right now: start taking omega-3 fish oil concentrate.
An elegant study of mice was just published recently from Harvard Medical School. They showed that mice given omega-3 fatty acids had reduced metabolic endotoxemia and chronic inflammation. Intriguingly, the omega-3 fats reduced LPS production in the intestines, and reduced the leakage of LPS into the bloodstream. The omega-3 fats appear to improve the ratio of beneficial vs. pathological organisms.
I hope you understand the significance of this good news. Just think. If you could snuff out a major source of chronic inflammation in your body, you just might see some of your PCOS issues start to melt away.
Wouldn't that be nice!
But wait a sec. Maybe you're thinking you can get everything you need from your diet. I wish that were true. But it isn't.
Over the past half a century or so, there's been a massive shift in our diet. For example, the composition of fats in our diet has been completely transformed. Historically, ancient man consumed a diet of equal amounts of omega-6 and omega-3 fats. Omega-6 fats are predominantly pro-inflammatory while omega-3s are predominantly anti-inflammatory.
In contrast, our "modern" diet has up to 50 times more omega-6 fats than omega-3 fats. In other words, it's a strongly pro-inflammatory diet. This is exactly why our PCOS diet excludes most sources of omega-6 fats, especially those in processed foods.
Most people today don't get near enough omega-3 fats, most especially those found in fish oil. Our dietary fats are way, way, way out of healthy balance.
I've been taking fish oil concentrate for a long time. I intend to take some every day for the rest of my life. I hope you will too!
Oh…by the way, have you heard about "neuroinflammation" -- inflammation in the brain? Have you heard about recent research showing a connection between inflammation and depression? Well, guess what? Fish oil can help with that! And fish oil in relation to breast cancer, too. You can get the highest quality, ultra-pure fish oil here.
Cani PD et al. Metabolic Endotoxemia Initiates Obesity and Insulin Resistance. Diabetes July 2007 vol. 56 no. 7 1761-1772
Kaliannan K et al. A host-microbiome interaction mediates the opposing effects of omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids on metabolic endotoxemia. Sci Rep. 2015 Jun 11;5:11276.
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