You may have been told by your doctor that you have both insulin resistance and polycystic ovarian syndrome.
These two conditions often go hand in hand like a rom com and chocolate. Each alone causes a little
bit of trouble, but together, they cause a lot of trouble! You may usually be disciplined to a
square or two, until you put the tellie on, then all of a sudden you find that you've eaten the
whole block in one sitting. However, it also works the opposite way. If you can get your
insulin resistance under control, it will have a huge impact on your PCOS. So, to help you do that,
I have a special treat for you! My special guest, PCOS guru, Ebony Crameri has changed the lives of
many women with insulin resistance and PCOS, so you're not going to want to miss this interview!
Hello! If this is our first time connecting, welcome! My name is Melanie McGrice and I'm a
dietitian who specialises in fertility, pregnancy and infants in a period known as the first
thousand days of life. This first thousand days from conception until the age of three
is where genetic programming takes place to give your little one the building blocks for
a healthy future. Make sure that you connect with me on my socials.... you'll find all the details
in the description box below this video. So, today we're going to be discussing
double trouble... PCOS and insulin resistance with dietitian Ebony Crameri. Hey Ebony!
Hi, thanks for having me
So Ebony, let's dive in. Can you tell me what is insulin resistance?
So insulin is a hormone that's produced by an organ in our body called the pancreas. And it's job is to
basically help glucose to get into the cells in our muscle and our brain so that we can use them for energy.
When you have insulin resistance your body doesn't use that insulin effectively. And the glucose
has a lot of trouble getting into your cells so that they can be used for energy. So you get this build up
of glucose and this build up of insulin in your body. So insulin resistance causes a number if issues in your body
such as fatigue, excess hunger and also weight gain as well.
As a dietitian I have to explain that a lot. And it's alway interesting hearing another dietitian and the
way that you explain. You explain it really concisely and really well. I love it.
Thank-you.
So what about polycystic ovarian syndrome for our listeners for those who don't know. What is that?
So polycystic ovary syndrome is a reproductive and metabolic condition. It is really common.
It affects around one in ten women. And it's one of the leading causes of infertility mainly due to issues with
ovulating or not having a regular period. And to be diagnosed with PCOS you have to meet a number of different criteria.
So you need to meet two of the three criteria. Either having irregular periods, high androgens, which are our
testosterone, or sometimes called male hormones and also having polycystic ovaries.
So what is the relationship between insulin resistance and polycystic ovarian syndrome?
So insulin resistance is super common in PCOS. Studies show anywhere between 75% of women with lean PCOS
will have insulin resistance. And up to 95% of women who are overweight will also have insulin resistance.
So for most people, if you've been diagnosed with PCOS, it's very likely that you'll have some degree of insulin resistance.
What people are going to want to know then is what can we do to treat insulin resistance if it has that big of an impact
on PCOS and then that bigger impact on fertility. So could you maybe share a couple of your favourite strategies?
Yeah you're exactly right. Insulin resistance has a huge impact on both PCOS and fertility. The main way that
insulin resistance can impact on your PCOS is that it can stop you from ovulating. And if your not ovulating
you can't get pregnant. So diet and lifestyle is one of the most effective strategies to help manage insulin resistance.
That's why diet and lifestyle is recommended as the very first line treatment for women with PCOS.
And that's in the international clinical guidelines for PCOS treatment. So one of the very first places you can start
with your diet is to choose low GI carbohydrates and adopt a low glycemic index diet.
We have really good research to show that helps with insulin resistance and it can also improve menstrual cycle regularity
even with PCOS as well.
My next tip would be then to make sure that you're getting the right amount of carbohydrates for your individual needs.
This really changes from person to person and it will depend on your level of insulin resistance,
the amount of exercise that you're doing, your age, your gender and that's something a dietitian
can really help you to work out. Exactly the right amount of carbohydrates for you.
And then finally making sure that you're spreading those carbohydrates nice and evenly out throughout the day
rather than having a really big amount in one meal. Getting that spread out really nicely across your day will help
to manage your insulin resistance, help with your hunger and your appetite as well.
Makes such a big difference. Can you maybe give us a case study of a client that you've had recently
where making these types of changes has made a difference to their ovulation and their insulin resistance and PCOS.
Carbohydrates are just one piece of the puzzle when it comes to managing insulin resistance.
We can do lots of other things with your diet to really help to support regular ovulation and to support improving your
insulin resistance with PCOS. But a really good example is I had a lovely client comes to see me who was actually tried to cut
out all the carbohydrates from her diet. Because she'd been diagnosed with PCOS, she'd been told by her doctor
that she needed to be really careful about carbohydrates but didn't really have any idea of exactly how much she
should be having. So she understandably cut them out of her diet, thinking that would be helpful. But in fact it had
it had the opposite effect. It really ramped up her hunger, she was always feeling hungry and then she'd go for long
periods without eating and then end up just eating huge amounts of carbohydrates in one sitting because
she couldn't take it any longer. So for this particular client we really focused first of all on getting the right amount
of carbohydrates for her level of insulin resistance. Once we were able to work this out, then we looked at building
really well balanced meals. So what she was eating with those carbohydrates helped to stabilise her blood sugar levels.
So making sure she was getting enough healthy fats, fibre, vegetables and proteins at her meals as well. Those
simple little changes made her feel less hungry, we were able to lose some weight. And after about 3 or 4 months working
together we were able to get her menstrual cycle much more regular. Down from around 100 plus days,
down to about 40 day cycles. And it's still improving as we continue to work together.
That's fantastic Ebony. It just really showcases the amazing work you do and I think why seeing a dietitian for
this combination of insulin resistance and polycystic ovarian syndrome is so important.
Absolutely. And as I said, different things work for different people and we have lots of different tools that we can
utilise depending on your individual circumstance. And it doesn't have to be a huge change in your diet where we are
completely changing everything you eat. We will look at what you are doing at the moment and make
the small tweaks from there. Is there anything else that you'd like to share with my audience in terms of those people who
have that combination of insulin resistance and polycystic ovarian syndrome.
It can be such a frustrating thing to have insulin resistance when your body is telling you all the time that your constantly
hungry, that you're never feeling full. And no matter what you do, that weight doesn't seem to shift.
But if that's you, if you're really struggling with those issues, I just want you to know that with the right diet and lifestyle
changes, we can see differences in your weight, your menstrual cycle and really good improvements with
your PCOS symptoms. It's just about finding what works for you and we have loads of different options to help you
achieve that. Well Ebony we'll put your details in the description box below so that people can find you there.
But thank-you so much for coming and joining us today. No worries, thanks for having me.
Thank-you so much for joining me. We'll also pop Ebony's details into
the description box so you can reach out to her for a personalised consultation.
And make sure you check out some of my other videos such as the best supplements for polycystic ovarian syndrome
and gut health for PCOS. I'll look forward to seeing you in my next video!