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PCOS stinks! venting


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How do you find one??

 

In my case, I had some referrals from friends. But I have looked in the yellow pages before. If there is a website listed I go there. Or I will call the number and ask if they have a website. The reason I do that is because it is like a free interview to me for seeing what sort of philosophy and treatment they offer. In my case, I do not want someone to hand me a crystal to heal me (and yes, I've had this happen) but I want someone who uses a mix of lab tests/ herbal remedies/ supplements/ lifestyle changes (and yes, I've had that too!)

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It has been around a while and it seems to me that the reviews at Amazon talk about the diet helping this issue.

The diet is basically that you link and balance protein and carbs. For every 15 grams of protien you eat, you must balance with 30 grams of carbs. You can not have more than 30 grams of carbs in a 2 hour window. I am not positive if I have the details totally right.

Best of luck.

Alexandra

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I don't always care for the medical community either. :glare:

Hopefully, some of this will help. Trust me on the Iodoral, it works. Read some reviews on amazon.

 

PCOS is a disorder marked by elevations in “male” hormones – Menstrual irregularities

Increased Waist size

Raised Testosterone Levels

 

Pinnitol restores ovulation and decreases testosterone levels.

 

Acupuncture eases symptoms of PCOS. It soothes overactivity of the sympathetic nervous system, which can spur unhealthy hormone production.

 

IODINE

More than 90% of us are low in iodine and PCOS is often linked to an iodine deficiency.

Today's environment makes it almost impossible to get the amount of iodine you need.

1. There's very little iodine in the soil. So unless you're eating a ton of iodine-rich foods like kelp, seaweed and shellfish, you're not going to get much iodine from your diet.

2. Many salt companies have stopped adding iodine to table salt.

3. Food manufacturers have stopped using iodine in baked goods and are using bromine instead. Bromine (a halogen) competes with iodine to get into your cells. So the more bromine you consume, the less iodine you get. Unfortunately, many foods today (primarily baked goods) are loaded with bromine.

4. Our water supply contains chlorine and fluoride, both of which are halogens. Again, halogens compete with iodine to get into your cells.

And you can't avoid chlorine and fluoride simply by drinking filtered water. That's because you get a hefty dose any time you bathe, shower, soak in a hot tub, or swim in a swimming pool.

5. Most conventional doctors never test for iodine deficiency. They figure there's no need to test iodine levels when they can just test your thyroid function instead. The problem with this is that the most widely used thyroid test, the TSH, is wildly inaccurate. Reason: While the TSH measures thyroid hormone, it can't tell the difference between active thyroid hormone with iodine and de-activated thyroid hormone with bromine or chlorine or fluorine. So the test shows you have plenty of thyroid hormone. But most of the thyroid hormone isn't doing its job!

 

CORRECTING AN IODINE DEFICIENCY:

I think it was Dr. Nan Fuchs who wrote: “I've had women come into my office who look like the poster child for underactive thyroid. They're overweight, they're losing their hair and eyebrows, their skin is dry, and they tell me they feel cold all the time. Yet when their doctor gave them a thyroid test, it came back normal!

When I put these women on iodine supplementation, their conditions improve dramatically. Their skin improves, they stop losing their hair, and they finally lose that excess weight — and keep it off.”

 

The RDA for iodine is 150 mcg. This amount was set based on the amount needed to prevent goiter. This amount will prevent goiter but it will not prevent breast cancer or its precurser fibrocystic breast disease or other serious diseases and symptoms listed above.

Breast tissue and other reproductive organs require much more iodine than the thyroid gland. Many researchers now believe that you may need 100 to 400 times the RDI.

The average consumption of iodine from seaweed by the mainland Japanese is nearly 14 mg. They have some of the lowest incidence of iodine-deficiency diseases like goiter, hypothyroidism, and cancers of the reproductive system (breast, ovaries, and uterus).

 

Increase your intake with mineral-rich sea vegetables (agar, hijiki, kombu, nori, and wakame) at least twice a week. You can eat as much seaweed as you want. Brown seaweeds are highest in iodine. They include all forms of kelp. Fucus, also known as Bladderwrack, is considered to be the best for underactive thyroids. Hijiki and Sargassum are two other forms of brown seaweeds. Red seaweeds include dulse, nori, Irish moss, and Gracillaria.

Since toasting doesn’t affect seaweed’s iodine content, you can eat it dried or dried and toasted. Toast some in the oven or in a dry frying pan to see if you prefer that taste. You can also powdered seaweed to your food or add larger pieces of seaweed to soups, grains, or vegetables. Seaweed should be an enjoyable addition to your diet, not an unpleasant experience. If you simply don’t like its taste, you can get it in capsules.

Use 5-10 grams of mixed brown and red seaweed for thyroid problems. This is about 1 ½ teaspoons per day. If you’ve been told that your thyroid is borderline-low, eating seaweed makes sense. But remember, you need to eat seaweed every day or take iodine in a different form.

Not all seaweeds are safe to eat. Some come from polluted waters.

Be more cautious and talk to a naturopath if you’re on thyroid meds and want to try seaweed.

 

Use iodine-rich Seaweed Gomasio to season your food. Amazon has this.

 

Instead of using seaweed to boost your iodine levels, you might consider taking an iodine supplement. Iodoral is a very good one.

You may need 1 to 4 tablets of Iodoral, a combination of 5 mg of iodine and 7.5 mg of potassium iodide. Additional research finds that vitamin C improves the transport of iodine in the body, so it may be best to take Iodoral with Vitamin C.

Studies show that women who weigh about 110 pounds need at least 5 mg of iodine a day for normal breast function. If you’re heavier, you may need more.

Start off slowly over a 4 week period.

Take 1 pill for 30 days

Then 2 pills for 30 days

Then maybe 3 for 30 days (I'm now taking 3 and feel fabulous)

Then 1 in morning and 1 in evening for 30 days

Can then go back to taking 1 or 2 a day to maintain

Your body will know....listen to it...

One Iodoral tablet provides 12.5 milligrams of iodine/iodide which is about the amount the average Japanese consumed in 1964 in their everyday diet.

Iodoral is the best way to get the recommended amount of iodine.

When we take 50 mg of iodine/iodide a day, it acts as an adaptogen, regulating various body functions.

 

Substances that interfere with iodine

Chlorine – present in most city water supplies – unless you de-chlorinate your water, you are being exposed to thyroid-lowering gases whenever you bathe, shower, or have a drink of water.

 

Fluorine

 

Bromide or Bromine – found in some pesticides – try to eat organic whenever possible

Bromide is even used in some asthma drugs

Mountain Dew, Fresca, and orange Gatorade all contain bromide in the form of brominated vegetable oils. Drinking beverages with bromide causes low thyroid function in some people.

 

These toxins are in our water, hot tubs, non-organic foods, and some soft drinks.

If you don’t have enough iodine, chances are you have too much fluoride and bromide. Sufficient iodine pulls these toxins out of your body.

 

Aspirin, blood thinner meds, and steroids can result in iodine deficiency thyroid problems. If you’re taking these, ask your doctor to check your thyroid function.

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More info I read - have not had time to edit this yet. I think Karuna progesterone cream is said to be a very good one.

 

Facial hair can be the bane of women as they grow older—right around the same time, sadly, when their “crowning glory” starts to become thinner and grayer. One recent study shows that 10% of menopausal women complain of facial “fuzz,” but unwanted hair can start sprouting as early as perimenopause.

Women who are younger with facial hair, in their 20s and 30s, may have another—more serious—concern, polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), especially if they’re overweight, experience menstrual irregularities, and/or acne. While the direct cause of PCOS is unknown, a new study in Environmental Health Perspectives links neonatal exposure to the endocrine/estrogenic disrupter bisphenol A (BPA)—found in plastic bottles, the lining of food cans, and dental sealants—with hormonal disruption in rats that mimics PCOS in humans.

The most common hormonal disorder among women of reproductive age, PCOS can cause infertility and lead to long-term complications like cardiovascular disease, inflammation, and stroke, insulin resistance and Type 2 diabetes, sleep apnea, male-pattern baldness, ovarian cysts, and (according to recent research at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine) even endometrial cancer.

One cause of thinning hair and/or excess facial hair in women of all ages—including those with PCOS—is a condition known as estrogen dominance. This hormonal imbalance is also associated with abnormal blood sugar levels, fat gain, and low adrenal function.

Simply put, estrogen dominance occurs when there is more estrogen than progesterone in the system. Estrogen-like chemicals in the environment, emotional factors, stress, menstrual changes, and even lack of dietary fiber, which binds to excess estrogen to help move it out of the body, can all lead to this kind of hormone havoc.

Need Progesterone?

Sometimes, a severe lack of natural progesterone—which is the flip side of estrogen dominance—is the primary culprit. Starting in the teens and 20s, a skipped period (indicating the failure to ovulate, which is somewhat similar to what happens when women begin going through the “change”) can cause the adrenal cortex to secrete the steroid androstenedione—instead of progesterone. An alternate chemical precursor to the production of other hormones, this steroid hormone is associated with some male characteristics, one of which is male-pattern baldness.

According to the late John R. Lee, MD, the body normally produces 20 mg of natural progesterone during a menstrual cycle. Besides its role as a precursor to other important hormones, natural progesterone helps balance blood sugar, combat fuzzy thinking and irritability, prevent water retention and fat gain, and even boost your libido.

When you raise your progesterone levels with a bio-identical progesterone cream, which is absorbed transdermally in the fatty layer beneath the skin, your adronstenedione levels will gradually decline. Facial hair will start to diminish, while the hair on your head will begin to grow back normally.

For older women who are no longer menstruating, progesterone deficiency can also result in excessive facial hair. But do beware of synthetic progesterone (progestin), which won’t work the way natural or bio-identical progesterone does. Your body has difficulty breaking down this synthetic form, used in birth control pills and hormone replacement therapy, so this altered form creates a potential for toxic effects. In fact, after progestin was added to HRT, women’s cancer risk increased!

Regardless of age, practically every woman who takes a Salivary Hormone Test has been found to be extremely progesterone deficit. To help restore natural hormonal balance, Ann Louise Gittleman typically recommends applying about ¼ teaspoon or 1 pump (20 mgs) of ProgestaKey, an all-natural progesterone cream, to different areas of the body each day. This helps to avoid saturating the receptors beneath the skin in any one part of the body.

Apply to soft skin, rich in capillaries, on the most suitable areas like your neck, upper chest, breasts, inner arms, abdomen, backs of your hands, and even your face. Not only does ProgestaKey help encourage hair growth in the right place, but it will also burn body fat as fuel and act as a natural diuretic to help control weight.

I formulated this bio-identical hormone cream for my personal use when I was going through perimenopause—but it’s effective for younger women as well. Menstruating, perimenopausal, and menopenopausal women will find the specific protocol for application right on the label.

I’m not at all surprised that researchers are linking PCOS with other endocrine disrupters in today’s increasingly “chemical world.” Environmental sources of hormones include parabens in cosmetics, pesticides, plasticizers, and the estrogen-laden feed given to livestock to fatten them up. The trouble is today’s factory-farmed food fattens us humans up as well!

In addition to organic and grass-fed meats, a low-carb diet has been found effective for both PCOS and women going through the “change.” A University of Alabama at Birmingham study shows that low-carb diets significantly improve insulin and cholesterol levels in women clinically diagnosed with PCOS—without affecting circulating levels of their reproductive hormones.

Cutting out sugar and the reactive and processed carbs in grains will help immensely. Exercise helps normalize insulin and balance hormone levels, too!

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I hate the medical community and their inability/unwillingness to help.

 

Yep, I give PCOS a big :thumbdown: too. When I was diagnosed over a year ago, the endo I went to was perfectly unhelpful--getting information from her was like attempting to win a stuffed toy from one of those claw/crane machine games that are designed to do little more than eat quarters. I don't mind doing my own research, but sometimes I feel that in order to get any real answers or help, I'd be better off putting myself through med school than consulting my doctor(s). Frustrating.

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getting information from her was like attempting to win a stuffed toy from one of those claw/crane machine games that are designed to do little more than eat quarters.

This comment made me giggle. I'm going to have to remember this. :lol:

 

I'm so sorry that you are frustrated, however. I hope you and everyone here finds health and healing. :grouphug:

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