PCOS itself is a chronic condition that typically doesn’t go away permanently with weight loss alone. However, weight loss can dramatically reduce the symptoms and consequences linked with PCOS.
PCOS is basically a hormonal illness that can produce a variety of symptoms such as irregular periods, excessive hair growth, acne, and weight gain. Excess weight can exacerbate insulin resistance, a typical characteristic of PCOS.
Insulin resistance can result in elevated insulin levels in the blood, which can contribute to hormonal imbalances and other PCOS symptoms. Hence weight loss can increase insulin sensitivity, normalize hormone levels, and lessen the severity of PCOS symptoms.
How does weight loss help to reduce symptoms of PCOS?
Although PCOS doesn’t go away with weight loss alone; weight loss can help to reduce many PCOS symptoms. Here are a few points explaining how weight loss can help in reducing PCOS symptoms:
- Hormonal balance: Excess weight can cause an increase in androgens (male hormones), which can exacerbate PCOS symptoms. Weight loss aids in the restoration of hormonal balance and the reduction of androgen levels.
- Insulin sensitivity: Weight loss can increase insulin sensitivity, which is frequently reduced in PCOS. This minimizes the risk of type 2 diabetes by lowering insulin levels.
- Menstrual Regularity: Losing weight can result in more predictable menstrual cycles, lowering the irregular or nonexistent periods that are typical in PCOS.
- Inflammation Reduction: Losing weight helps reduce chronic inflammation in the body, which is linked to PCOS symptoms and problems.
- Ovulation Restoration: For women with PCOS, losing weight can encourage normal ovulation, improving fertility and boosting the odds of spontaneous conception.
- Fertility improvement: Weight loss helps women with PCOS have more successful pregnancies because it enhances their reproductive health.
- Hair growth control: Weight loss can lower testosterone levels, which in turn reduces excessive hair growth (hirsutism) and boosts self-esteem.
- Cardiovascular Health: Heart disease risk factors are influenced by excess weight. Losing weight can lower cardiovascular risks, which are frequently increased in PCOS patients.
- Enhancement of Mood: Making a change to a better lifestyle for weight loss can have a good effect on mental health by reducing PCOS-related symptoms of anxiety and despair.
- Metabolic Health: Losing weight reduces the chance of developing metabolic syndrome by improving metabolic parameters like cholesterol levels, blood pressure, and glucose tolerance.
- Regulation of appetite hormones: Regulating appetite hormones may help prevent overeating and support weight maintenance by regulating the hormones that affect appetite.
- Lifestyle Changes: Losing weight entails establishing healthy routines including consistent exercise and a balanced diet, which can have a totally positive impact on PCOS management.
- Reduced Risk of Gestational Diabetes: Pregnant women with PCOS are more likely to develop gestational diabetes. Pregnancy-related weight loss can reduce this risk.
- Liver health: Losing weight can enhance liver performance and lessen fatty liver, which is a common symptom of PCOS because of insulin resistance.
- Quality of life: In general, weight loss can enhance a woman with PCOS’s quality of life by easing symptoms and boosting general health.
Thus, it is clear that losing weight can help to lessen PCOS symptoms. However, the only method for reversing PCOS should not be weight loss. PCOS should be reversed naturally which is possible if we understand the underlying root causes of PCOS.
Root causes of PCOS:
Hormonal imbalances, which are created by ten fundamental aspects of contemporary lifestyle, are the primary cause of PCOS. Now let’s see the root causes of PCOS in order to reverse it.
Food-related root Causes:
- Food toxicity: Foods high in additives, preservatives, and chemicals can contribute to hormone imbalances by altering the endocrine system.
- Inflammation: Diets high in processed foods, sweets, and bad fats can cause the body to become more acidic and inflammatory, disrupting the body’s hormonal balance.
- A lack of micronutrients in our diet: Because these nutrients are essential for a variety of hormonal actions, a lack of critical vitamins and minerals may interfere with hormone balance.
- Insulin resistance: Meals with a high glycemic index can promote insulin resistance: Eating meals with a high glycemic index can create insulin resistance, which affects hormone levels, particularly insulin and androgens.
- Excess male hormones: Eating foods high in chemicals, steroids, or hormone-disrupting components may result in an increase in male hormones (androgens), which may contribute to hormonal disorders.
Exercise-Related Causes:
- Sedentary lifestyle: It involves spending most of one’s time sitting down: Excessive sitting and a lack of exercise can lead to weight gain, insulin resistance, and hormonal imbalance.
- Excess body fat over the ovaries: Insulin resistance and inflammation brought on by excess body fat, especially in the area of the belly, may be linked to hormonal irregularities.
- Lack of muscle mass: Lack of physical exercise and muscle mass can affect insulin sensitivity and hormonal balance in general.
Sleep-related root causes:
- Poor sleep quality (Lack of Deep Sleep): Poor or insufficient sleep can throw off the body’s hormonal balance, especially the hormones that control hunger and stress (leptin and ghrelin).
Stress-related root causes:
- Chronic Stress: Prolonged exposure to high levels of stress can cause the deregulation of various hormones, including cortisol, upsetting the body’s overall hormonal balance.
Now that we understand the root causes we can treat PCOS naturally by adapting a few strategies that can not only treat PCOS but also help us in maintaining a healthy lifestyle.
The 5-pillar strategy to reverse PCOS naturally:
- Eat Right: Embrace living, water-rich, whole, plant-based foods that nurture our genetic potential. By opting for local and seasonal choices, we honour nature’s wisdom. Eliminating packaged and processed foods liberates us from epigenetic imprints, elevating our hormonal health.
- Move More: Embark on a journey of holistic lifestyle changes, where staying active transcends mere exercise. Embracing constant movement throughout the day optimizes epigenetic expression, igniting hormonal balance. Engage in pleasurable physical activities, dance, or even mindful walks to unlock the power of epigenetic triggers.
- Breathe Aware: As we deepen our understanding of Pranayama, the science of breath, we access a profound gateway to support gland function and harmonize hormones. Harnessing the breath’s epigenetic influence, we transcend the ordinary and elevate our hormonal well-being.
- Sleep Better: Unlock the secrets of deep sleep, a transformative practice for healing and regeneration. With the art of Yog Nidra, we embrace epigenetic potential, unearthing hormonal harmony in the realm of dreams. Rejuvenate your entire being through this exquisite dance with the epigenetic clock.
- Mind Free: Journey into the realm of emotions, thoughts, and stress resilience, where journaling, gratitude, and emotional practices become our guiding compass. Embracing epigenetic intelligence, we shift our narrative from stress to serenity, empowering our hormonal landscape.
By adopting the above 5 strategies in day-to-day life one can reverse PCOS naturally as well as maintain a healthy lifestyle.
To sum up, while choosing weight loss may help you minimize some PCOS symptoms, it may not be enough to help you reverse PCOS. Therefore, try to maintain a healthy lifestyle by implementing the aforementioned 5 tactics, which will assist you in permanently reversing PCOS by placing you in a healthy lifestyle.