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We now know that PCOS is a common condition that must have plagued women for generations. Only a decade ago it was barely recognized by medical practitioners, and most women would have suffered their symptoms in silence. At last, with greater understanding of its underlying causes, PCOS is now being taken seriously. Much of the credit for greater public awareness in the UK goes to Colette Harris and her previous book PCOS: A Woman’s Guide to Dealing with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome and for her tireless support for Verity, the PCOS support group.
As a scientist, nutritionist and medical herbalist I am impressed by how far Colette Harris and Theresa Francis-Cheung have delved into the scientific and medical literature to review what is currently known about PCOS and its treatment. In this book they present the information in an easy-to-read form, together with the voices of PCOS sufferers, with whom many women will identify. Sufferers can now see a rational basis for their diverse symptoms, founded on poor utilization of insulin. For example, this new concept goes a long way to explain why weight loss is so difficult for women with PCOS.
But help is at hand!
This book is full of tips on diet and lifestyle changes that can help the body to use insulin more efficiently. It shows how the vicious cycle of weight gain, with increasing difficulty of weight loss, can be broken, and that the debilitating and embarrassing signs and symptoms of PCOS really can disappear.
There is no doubt that, both from clinical data and from my own experience as a practitioner, switching to a healthy diet and adopting a healthy lifestyle would make a huge difference to the well-being of many people in the Western world. However, even with due attention to diet, many women do not reach their recommended target intakes for vitamins and minerals while on weight-reducing regimes. This is the dilemma faced by many women with PCOS, and is where nutrient supplements can be so very helpful. While they should never be a substitute for healthy eating, vitamin and mineral nutrition supplements can be used in conjunction with a good diet to ensure optimal nutrition of the key organs of the body involved in hormone balance.
Valuable guidance is given in this book on appropriate nutrient supplements, together with herbs that may be used to speed the way to health. However, since sufficient detail on the use of herbs cannot be conveyed in a book such as this, women with PCOS would benefit greatly from consulting a professional. If you want to consult a Medical Herbalist, look for the qualifications MNIMH or FNIMH (Member or Fellow of the National Institute of Medical Herbalists, UK) or MCPP (Member of the College of Practitioners of Phytotherapy, UK). These practitioners have had four years of rigorous medical training and will give sympathetic advice on PCOS. The addresses of these organizations are given at the back of the book.
There is no need to suffer in silence these days – if you have PCOS you can choose to have health and well-being. Although it will involve some effort, by following the advice given in this book you can make a positive difference to your own health and take control of your life again. It is an excellent guide to our current state of knowledge and is written from an integrated medical perspective by an ex-sufferer.
Dr Ann Walker PhD MNIMH MCPP
Senior Lecturer in Human Nutrition
Hugh Sinclair Unit of Human Nutrition School of Food Biosciences
The University of Reading, UK
27 September 2001
I admit it – I’m nosy. When I’m in the supermarket I can’t help peering into other people’s trolleys. And you can tell a lot about a person from what they buy – the single man with his beer and ready-meals, the girlfriends settling in for a good night of chatting with their Chardonnay and chocolates, the woman with a trolley full of food for her family, with fizzy drinks, crisps and pizzas alongside the fruit and veg and milk and cereal, the woman shopping for herself and her partner, stuffing in his favourite cuts of meat, cheese and bread for sandwiches that she’ll end up eating too. What isn’t so easy to spot is what impact that food will have on our health when we eat it day after day.
For the one in ten women who has PCOS – and consider that half of them don’t even know it yet – many of the daily food choices of the average Western diet stacked high in supermarkets will damage their health now and make them more likely to get diabetes in the future. I’m one of those women. And I realized how vital taking control of my diet was when I developed debilitating symptoms of PCOS after coming off the Pill aged 23. Slowly but surely my hair started falling out faster and faster, an overwhelming fatigue took over my body, leaving me needing to sleep for 18 hours a day at weekends, unwanted hairs sprouted on my upper lip and abdomen, and livid, tender, lumpy spots became routine, instead of occasional PMS visitors, all over my face, back and upper chest. My periods got less frequent until they dwindled to nothing – my weight, on the other hand, crept steadily upwards. And let’s not even get started on those mood swings!
After a long drawn-out process of repeated visits to the doctor I managed to get blood tests and an ultrasound scan that gave me the PCOS diagnosis, but when I asked about treatments other than the Pill (I’d never felt well on the several brands I had tried, with regular fainting bouts, dizziness, hot flushes and bloating) I was referred to a gynaecologist with a five-month wait and told they wouldn’t know anything else really, either, but I could go if I really wanted to.
I was faced with the prospect of five more months of declining health, or taking matters into my own hands. I decided to turn PCOS-detective.
At that time there weren’t any really user-friendly websites, no support groups, no books other than medical texts and medical studies which were full of difficult jargon. I was – and still am – in the privileged position to be working for the UK’s leading natural health magazine, Here’s Health, with access to a fantastic library and a network of complementary health experts who seemed to know a fair amount about treating women with PCOS. Using their expertise, trawling through books and every website I could find with any useful information on it, I decided to become my own guinea pig and started eating a very healthy vegetarian diet, with very, very little alcohol, caffeine or high-fat dairy foods, plenty of soy, wholegrains, fruits and vegetables and taking the herb agnus castus as well as other supplements including essential fatty acids. I also had reflexology treatment and did a naturopathic detox.
I was amazed to find that within six weeks my periods were back, my hair was thicker and my spots were vanishing. I was convinced that food was the missing link in treating PCOS. Five years later, this book proves that it really is – the volume of research and scientific interest in PCOS and diet has grown massively over the last few years – there are now support groups and websites, discussion groups and chat rooms, and a whole lot more openness about PCOS and its sometimes embarrassing symptoms. But what hasn’t been shouted from the rooftops enough is the fact that eating a balanced, healthy diet with a few PCOS-tailored twists will not only help you beat your symptoms but it will protect your future health. Because PCOS isn’t just about the day-to-day grind of spots, tiredness, weight gain and wondering when your next period will arrive. The hard facts are that it’s about being at an increased risk of diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure and fertility problems in the long term. And although a lot of medication can help you deal with your symptoms day to day – the simplest, most effective way to cut your risks for all these conditions and boost your fertility into the bargain is to eat well and exercise.
This has to
