Is your sweet tooth making your PCOS worse?
To fully understand and answer this question, it is worth understanding what drives Polycystic ovary syndrome. Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a multifactorial endocrine disorder characterized by anovulation, hyperandrogenism, and polycystic ovarian morphology. While the pathophysiology of PCOS is not clear; disturbance in the hypothalamic-pituitary-ovarian axis and abnormal steroidogenesis is the hallmark of PCOS. Excessive androgen production by ovaries as well as from adrenals contributes to hyperandrogenism. While this might sound confusing this roughly translates to most women with PCOS will have abnormally high androgen levels in their body, it is these high levels that drive the condition.
Why is this important for our sweet tooth? Well, it is this hyperandrogenism that can manifest/lead to some level of insulin resistance in most women with PCOS. It is reported that over two-thirds of women with PCOS have an abnormal degree of insulin resistance and actually the prevalence is similar for those who are obese as well. If you have not heard of insulin resistance before, it is essentially when your body’s cells don’t respond properly to the insulin that your body makes.
For people without insulin resistance, when they consume carbohydrate-containing foods, the digestive system breaks these down into sugar which then enters the blood. As blood sugar levels rise, the pancreas produces insulin, a hormone that prompts cells to absorb blood sugar for energy or storage. As cells absorb blood sugar, levels in the bloodstream begin to fall. The pancreas will then start making glucagon, a hormone that signals the liver to start releasing stored sugar. This is how the body helps maintain stable blood sugar levels and usually means the brain has a steady supply of sugar.
If you have insulin resistance the body makes more insulin to try to overcome your increasing blood glucose levels. This is called hyperinsulinemia. As long as your pancreas can make enough insulin to overcome your cells’ weak response to insulin, your blood sugar levels will stay in a healthy range. If your cells become too resistant to insulin, it leads to elevated blood glucose levels (hyperglycaemia), which, over time, leads to prediabetes and Type 2 diabetes.
Women with PCOS simply put are not as good at managing their blood sugar levels, and this can exacerbate or make their PCOS symptoms worse. It is therefore imperative that they make the right diet and lifestyle changes in order to help manage their blood sugar levels, which can help them remain a healthy weight, improve their insulin levels and in turn can reduce the androgen levels driving their symptoms. This is why correct diet and lifestyle modifications are part of the front-line approach to managing this condition (also why metformin is often prescribed for women with PCOS). Eating foods rich in sugar like sweets for example will only work to increase the severity of your symptoms increasing your insulin resistance, body weight and inflammation.
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