Low-carb diets may help people with PCOS lose weight.
Low-carb diets may help people with PCOS lose weight
PCOS is a syndrome that has a significant impact on a woman's fertility, affecting around 5% to 10% of women of childbearing age. When a woman's body doesn't create enough eggs as a result of PCOS, she may have infertility and have difficulty getting pregnant.
The majority of PCOS instances are not inherited, yet they are all linked to hormonal imbalances. An overabundance of androgen, or ‘male' hormones, is the cause of insufficient egg production. Androgen hormones are found in both men and women, although men have far more of them. Because of the hormonal imbalance, cysts that are a natural part of the egg production process do not grow. As a result, a woman with PCOS has a lot of tiny cysts on her ovaries that never mature enough to release eggs. Normally, the cysts would disappear after this treatment
Increased levels of androgen hormones also raise the risk of obesity, heart disease, and diabetes, as well as the possibility of developing more facial hair.
Low-carb diets, such as the zone diet, have been shown to help overweight women with PCOS. A new study was conducted on 11 non-diabetic, overweight women with PCOS, with an average age of 33. A ‘standard' diet with 56 percent carbohydrates and 16 percent protein was compared to a lower carb diet with 43 percent carbohydrates and 15 percent protein in the study. The fat content of the lower carb diet was 14 percent higher than that of the regular diet. This is higher than it would be in the Zone diet. The fat content of the low carb diet was almost evenly split between polyunsaturated fatty acids and monounsaturated fatty acids. The fat content of the standard diet was almost evenly split between the two types of fatty acids, but was slightly higher (by 3%) in the monounsaturated variety.
A third diet, one high in both carbohydrates and monounsaturated fatty acids, was also compared. The study participants only followed each diet for 16 days. They had a 3 week break between each diet, and tried all 3.
Because production of the androgen hormones are influenced by the presence of insulin, the researchers were interested in finding out whether a low carb diet could reduce the amount of insulin circulating in the body. They believed this would have an indirectly positive effect on PCOS.
The results of this study found that whilst hormones that were circulating weren’t significantly affected by the lower carb diet, the women’s cholesterol, fasting insulin levels, free fatty acids, and their response to insulin were positively affected. The fact that their response to insulin improved is an indicator of the possible benefit of a low carb diet to PCOS sufferers. And because the women only followed the diet for 16 days, this may be why their levels of circulating insulin were not more prominently affected.
The authors of the study state that: Because elevated insulin is thought to contribute to the endocrine abnormalities in PCOS, a reduction in insulin would be expected to ultimately result in an improved endocrine profile.”
They go on to say that these improvements indicate that using a low carb type diet, with a lower calorie intake, would probably benefit overweight women who suffer from PCOS.
Not all low carb diets are created equal however. The Atkins diet has been associated with an increased risk of heart problems for some, as well as being implicated in the hospitalization of others.
A 40 year old woman was hospitalized with very high levels of acids in her blood as a result of following the Atkins diet strictly for about a month. The release of acids in the blood, called ketosis, is an indicator of the ‘success’ of the Atkins diet, and is actually a result of the process of starving the body of certain nutrients beyond a threshold level. The nutrient being, of course, carbohydrates.
Carbohydrates are a source of energy for the body, the only source used by the brain. But when the body is deprived of carbohydrates after the threshold level, it will use alternate methods of metabolizing energy. It uses stored fats and protein, but this is not a very biologically efficient way of producing energy for the body. So, there are a lot of acidic metabolic by products, called ketones. These are released into the bloodstream, to be excreted by the body.
In the case of this woman, these metabolic by products weren’t excreted fast enough and built up in her bloodstream. She was vomiting 4 to 6 times a day. This build up of blood acids represented a dangerous situation and she was admitted to intensive care.
The Atkins Foundation responded that this woman must have had abnormal metabolic or clinical issues. But given that this woman, who was obese, is in a category at which the Atkins diet is marketed, there is a real cause for concern here. With obesity, there is a greater likelihood for both general medical problems, and metabolic problems. If an obese person did not have metabolic problems of one form or another, they would not be obese. Perhaps there were circumstances that were particular to this woman here, but until those potential dangers are understood more fully, this is a significant issue. It’s ironic that a diet should be implied as not being suitable for anyone with metabolic issues, particularly if this diet is marketed as a ‘way of life’ – that is, recommended for long term use.
