By Jessica Drummond
Reversing PCOS with Nutrition and Lifestyle Medicine – How To Help Your Clients
Often avoiding the need for any medication – including hormonal birth control – I am very resistant to the use of hormonal birth control in teens to “treat” PCOS because of the increased suicide risk of teens on hormonal birth control (Skovlund, et al., 2018).
The Systematic Approach to Optimizing Endocrine Health in Women and Teen Girls with PCOS
Eliminate (or at least significantly reduce) sugar, sweeteners, alcohol, and caffeine.
Focus on eating a nourishing whole foods diet. I always place the attention on what TO eat. I love sharing delicious and nourishing recipes with my clients who are sugar addicted. It can take some time to retrain the taste buds to eliminate the sugar cravings. In the short term, sugar cravings can be reduced by using skilled amino acid therapy.
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Each meal should contain high quality protein. Most women with PCOS benefit from eating at least some animal protein, such as wild fish, grass fed beef, organic poultry and/or pastured eggs. I recommend at least 30-35% healthy fats in the diet, daily, especially for women who are active. Healthy fats include olive oil, avocado, wild salmon, and walnuts. And, for women with PCOS, eating a diet where most of the carbohydrates come from vegetables is ideal. Some women can tolerate small-to-moderate amounts of whole grains and low glycemic fruits, which can be very high in important nutrients such as B vitamins and antioxidants.
Add 8-10 servings of vegetables daily.
If you are going to change just one thing about your nutrition, start with adding more vegetables. If your digestion is not ideal (you have heartburn, bloating, diarrhea or constipation), start with cooked vegetables and blended soups.
Be sure that digestive health is optimal in order to absorb the nutrients in the vegetables consumed.
Optimal digestive function is key to hormone balancing and reversing PCOS with nutrition. If you can’t efficiently absorb the nutrients from a healthy diet, you can’t fully heal.
Right size exercise, consistently!
Measure diurnal cortisol levels (ideally get a full hormonal panel, using the DUTCH Complete Test) to determine your best exercise intensity. If your cycle is irregular, then use the cycle mapping test in addition to the DUTCH complete test.
If cortisol levels are not optimal, it may be important for you to exercise less intensely, spend more time in nature, or optimize her breathing function prior to adding more intense exercise – like HIIT training. Eventually, higher intensity exercise and strength training will be required to fully improve her insulin sensitivity.
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Consistent exercise is important for women with the insulin resistance of PCOS. So, start slow, but be consistent with daily exercise – even if you start with restorative yoga, or slow nature walks.
Support estrogen metabolism by the liver.
The functioning of the liver is essential to proper hormone metabolism. Most women can benefit from liver support nutrition. First, add at least 3-4 servings daily of leafy green and cruciferous vegetables, and if it’s hard to get enough greens in, add a greens powder and/or a broccoli extract supplement.
Support healthy hormone elimination with a daily Bristol 4 bowel movement.
Are you pooping regularly? If you’re not having a daily bowel movement that is the consistency and shape of a long banana or snake (aka Bristol 3), then you can’t fully optimize your endocrine health. If you are not eliminating daily and well, estrogen will be recycled worsening estrogen dominance. If beta glucuronidase is elevated on your stool test you are likely recycling too much estrogen.
Use Myo-Inositol and D-Chiro-Inositol (Sensitol) to balance insulin.
I almost always recommend the use of Sensitol, a supplement that is a combination of myo-inositol (MI), D-chiro-inositol (DCI) and alpha lipoic acid, to help with the insulin resistance that is a hallmark of PCOS. Especially in young women with PCOS, studies show that combination therapy of MI and DCI improve free testosterone and fasting insulin levels (Benelli, et al., 2016)
Use cinnamon to balance insulin.
My favorite home remedy for insulin resistance and to cut sugar cravings is to make a cinnamon tea. Take 1-2 cinnamon sticks, and boil slowly for 20 minutes, then enjoy the tea (strain out the cinnamon sticks.) It’s delicious and blood sugar balancing. And, in a randomized, placebo controlled trial, fasting insulin and insulin resistance were reduced after 12 weeks of supplementing with 1.5 g/day (in 3 divided doses) of cinnamon powder for 12 weeks compared with the placebo in women with PCOS (Hajimonfarednejad, et al., 2018).
While PCOS can be a frustrating condition that impacts a woman’s life and her fertility, there are a number of evidence-based nutrition and lifestyle medicine therapies that can support complete healing of PCOS.
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Next Steps
- Take the PCOS Quiz! Get your score and assess your hormone health risks.
- Join our Facebook Sisterhood Group Pose your questions to this group of like-minded women. Get the answers to your questions and the support you need.
- Checkout the Hormone Reset. Guided Practices to eliminate anxiety, lose weight and boost energy.
We are committed to helping women reverse their symptoms of hormone imbalance – a major cause of excess weight gain, adult acne, unwanted facial hair, depression, anxiety, and heartbreaking female infertility.
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