ATTENTION: If you read NOTHING else this year on PCOS, Diabetes, and genetic links..
Read these below articles from the New York Times!
I was in Starbucks, and the line was VERY long, so I picked up the NYT, and the cover story was on diabetes.
As I read, I kept coming across passages that prompted the thougt, "Hmm, sounds like the same thing women with pcos go through."
Like:
- Doctors are failing MISERABLYat diagnosing people with diabetes, and adequately treating them.
- Too few doctors stress losing weight as a 'primary treatment'...
- Researchers can't figure out why most people with diabetes are obese, but only 10% of obese people have diabetes (sound familiar: thin cysters, heavy cysters)
- Doctors focus too much on controlling blood sugar, when they need to counsel and treat high blood pressure and HIGH CHOLESTEROL in patients with diabetes. (I don't know about you, but I was diagnosed with high cholesterol in KINDERGARTEN...by then, mine was over 200!)
By the time I had that thought for the FIFTH time, I was at the register, and simply HAD to buy the paper.
Sure nuff...there's a graphic with a woman and all of her diabetes meds...AND a med for PCOS (I'd never heard of it.) (here's the link to the graphic. The pcos med is more than half way down: http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/20...ES_GRAPHIC.htm )
The articles are very long, so print them out, and make a pot of coffee...it will take you awhile to plow through them, but you ABSOLUTELY MUST.
I'm no doctor, and have no medical education, but I'm convinced that PCOS and diabetes are far more closely linked than is currently put out in most articles. Fortunately, there is ongoing research looking at a possible genetic links.
Yes, there's more, and it's a MUST READ. This doctor acknowedges that exercise and weight loss works for some people with diabetes and resolving symptoms, and not others (sound familiar?). He also makes this comment:
Quote:
The risk factors for diabetes include being overweight, non-Caucasian ethnicity, habitual physical inactivity, relatives with diabetes, a history of delivering a baby weighing more than nine pounds and/or of gestational diabetes, high blood pressure, low HDL (good) cholesterol, high triglycerides, polycystic ovarian syndrome, prior abnormal glucose measurement or a history of vascular disease.
From what you have written, you do not seem to be high risk of having diabetes. Your diet may put you at risk of gaining weight later in life, and possibly at higher risk of heart disease and cancers. The best diet seems to be one that is low in saturated fats and processed carbohydrates, and high in vegetables, fruits, whole grains and legumes. There is some data to suggest that lower carb diets may have specific advantages, but they have not been studied over long periods of time.
There is also this accompanying article, but you have to be logged in to read it, so I pasted it here:
August 20, 2007 Contributing Factors Obesity May Be Only One Piece of Diabetes Puzzle
By GINA KOLATA
The havoc diabetes wreaks is clear. But researchers are puzzled by many aspects of the disease. Why, for example, are most people with Type 2 diabetes overweight or obese, yet most overweight or obese people do not have diabetes?
One clue may lie in the fat cells themselves. The cells release fat and breakdown products of fat — triglycerides and free fatty acids — into the blood. These substances may make cells less able to respond to insulin, increasing the body’s demand for the hormone. Another clue is a paradoxical finding about a hormone, adiponectin, made by fat cells. Adiponectin makes cells more responsive to insulin.
“Oddly enough,” said Dr. C. Ronald Kahn, a diabetes researcher and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, “the fatter people become, the less adiponectin their fat cells produce.”
So one way obesity might increase the risk that a person will develop diabetes is by leading to a release of more fatty acids and a decline in adiponectin. This would lead to more insulin resistance and a demand for more insulin. If that demand cannot be met, the result, eventually, would be diabetes.
But figuring out why obesity predisposes some people to diabetes is only part of the puzzle. Researchers also are struggling with a fundamental question. Why does high blood sugar lead to any of the disease’s complications — heart disease, stroke, nerve damage, kidney damage and sight-threatening eye damage?
“On the surface, it seems a little odd,” said Dr. Michael Brownlee, director of the JDRF International Center for Diabetic Complications Research at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. “If your blood has high levels of glucose and it’s bathing every cell in your body, why are only a relatively restricted number of them damaged and the rest just fine?”
It turns out that the unscathed cells are those that can keep out excess glucose. They do this by reducing the number of molecular glucose pumps that every cell uses to transport glucose from the blood to the cell’s interior.
The cells that get damaged lack this ability to tamp down their glucose pumps. They include cells lining arterial blood vessels, small blood vessel cells in the eye and kidney, nerve cells in the legs and feet, and pancreas cells that make insulin — exactly those that are involved in diabetic complications.
But focusing on blood sugar in isolation can give a misleading picture of Type 2 diabetes, said Dr. David Nathan, director of the diabetes center at Massachusetts General Hospital. Going hand in hand with diabetes, for most with the Type 2 form of the disease, are high blood pressure and lipid abnormalities that are linked to heart disease and strokes.
And even though blood sugar levels are the diagnostic hallmark of diabetes, the central fact of diabetes is that patients are not making enough insulin. Insulin, Dr. Kahn said, controls more than just blood sugar. The hormone, he added, also control the body’s use of fats and proteins.
“It is likely that high glucose levels aren’t causing all the complications of diabetes,” Dr. Kahn said. And that is one reason, researchers say, why diabetes care has to include more than just glucose control.
__________________
Hey, SoulCysters! Need to eat more veggies, but can't find recipes??
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Thank you for this article Kat! I am very frustrated with docs who don't want to head off diabetes or think pre-diabetes or even diabetes is serious. Why are GPs and Pedis still not screening all children and adults with a family history of diabetes and/or obesity EVERY YEAR for diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol? My docs always wanted me to loose weight, but until I finally got a dx after 2004, I was never told about IR, the genetics of diabetes or what type of diet was best for avoiding diabetes. Docs should know these things!
Sure nuff...there's a graphic with a woman and all of her diabetes meds...AND a med for PCOS (I'd never heard of it.) (here's the link to the graphic. The pcos med is more than half way down: http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/20...ES_GRAPHIC.htm )
I found a bit on Neocon/norethindrone (that drug):
Quote:
Application #: 017919 Labeling Supplement #: 071
To Original New Drug Application
Approval Date: 06-JUN-00
Trade Name: NEOCON 28
Dosage Form: TABLET
Applicant: RW JOHNSON PHARMACEUTICAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE DIV ORTHO PHA RMACEUTICAL CORP
Active Ingredient(s): NORETHINDRONE; ETHINYL ESTRADIOL
OTC/RX Status: RX
I think it's all interesting. I just wonder, though, if it is genetic, where does mine come from--there's absolutely no history of overweight/obesity or diabetes or PCOS in my family. And I'm not obese or overweight and as far as I know I don't have IR or diabetes...I believe that there are links, I just wonder, again, what about the thin cysters...seems so much easier to find 'causes' and treatment for the larger girls...
__________________ Metformin 1500mg since November 2006
Clomid Round 1 (100mg) March 2007 (BFN)(didn't O)
Clomid Round 2 (100mg) May 2 (BFN) O'd on CD30
Clomid Round 3 (150mg) June 15...CD50 BFN--a bust
Metformin XR 2000mg starting July 31
Clomid Round 4 (150mg) August 12
SURPRISE--BFP on 10/2!! It's a GIRL!!! (oops!)
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Kat Im convinced that I have PCOS because my dads a type II diabetic, my mums mother is a type II diabetic, my fathers father is a type II diabetic, my uncles are type II diabetics. When I told my gyno consultant my dad is type II she said "well there it is, thats probably why you have PCOS"
The whole of my dads side are obese, all of my female cousins born to my uncles with the type II have PCOS (worse than me)
My mums side has slim girls (unlike me) but they exibit traits of excess androgens & hypoglycemia. Its mad
Im fatty like dads side
__________________ Concveived withLowCarb Diet&Exercise.2000mg cinnamon.4xHyponidd.1200mg inositol.Bvitamin complex&C.Milk thistle.Omega 3 3000mg.Zinc 15mg.Garliccapsulesx4.Iron.Kelpsupplements.Organic food Jasmin Born 25/06/08 @ 41 weeks + 6 days!Now on all above PLUS vitamin D Peony & Licorice worked my way up to 5000mg per day of each for stubborn hirsutismDiet and exercise are key!
Thank you for the article. I skimmed it (since I am at work and they for some reason frown on me sitting and reading here)
Anyway, I did save it to go all the way through tonight. I am sure I will find some great things to follow up on with my endo. at my appointment next month!
Thanks!!
__________________
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Had a rough year and disappeared for awhile, but I'm back!
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Kat- Starbucks has invaded our area, lol. We got the first one probably 2 or 3 years ago and now it seems we have one on every corner! I could not give up ketchup. I don't even eat the low sugar stuff, just the regular full sugar, really bad for you stuff. Good thing is since I gave up french fries there is little to put ketchup on anymore, lol, so a bottle lasts me forever.
I think it's all interesting. I just wonder, though, if it is genetic, where does mine come from--there's absolutely no history of overweight/obesity or diabetes or PCOS in my family. And I'm not obese or overweight and as far as I know I don't have IR or diabetes...I believe that there are links, I just wonder, again, what about the thin cysters...seems so much easier to find 'causes' and treatment for the larger girls...
There are no identified causes, or special tretments for 'larger women' (that I know of.)
Read the article. It touches on the obese vs thin issue. Too many doctors focus on obesity, however, it's not really an accurate 'marker' for diabetes (similar to PCOS - obesity isn't anything doctors should consider in making a PCOS diagnosis)
The most important part of the article is that weight management and lifestyle changes are focused on to the (sometimes deadly) exclusion of high cholesterol and high blood pressure issue, and the lifestyle (and/or medication) interventions needed to tread the cholesterol and hypertension.
The article pointed out that while many diabetics focus on blood sugar, they don't even KNOW what their cholesterol numbers are (and this is what they're more likely to die from). Stats show that women, in general, don't know their cholesterol numbers either - despite the risk of heart attack.
Here at Soulcysters, we rarely discuss high cholesterol, and tend to focus on IR and obesity... (Just like the people mentioned in the article...which is why I think the article is VERY important for everyone to read)
As I mentioned, I was diagnosed with high cholesterol in kindergarten. Was this the first sign that I was heading towards pcos? If I had gotten it under control early, could I have avoided other complications? *shrugs*
When I first began PCOS treatments in my late 20's my first lab to change was my cholesterol. The bad got worse, and the good got better. Over a period of time, it normalized...
I think it's interesting that Zocor (a cholesterol med) dramatically reduces testosterone levels in PCOS'ers (and drops cholesterol #'s). Is there a connection? *shrugs*
Anyway...everyone read the article, and print a copy for your doctor (and know what your cholesterol #'s are.)
__________________
Hey, SoulCysters! Need to eat more veggies, but can't find recipes??
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I think it's interesting that Zocor (a cholesterol med) dramatically reduces testosterone levels in PCOS'ers (and drops cholesterol #'s). Is there a connection? *shrugs*
I haven't had a chance to read the article yet, but this question caught my attention.
Yes, of course there is a connection. The body needs cholesterol to make all hormones. It starts with cholesterol as a base, and then adds the necessary things to turn the cholesterol molecule into a hormone molecule.
So obviously, if you decrease the amount of cholesterol in the body, or block the production of cholesterol, your body won't be able to make as many hormones. Like an automobile factory, if that factory is running short on engines, fewer whole cars will be able to be produced.
At least that would be my personal conculsion.
Ok, now to go read that article.
__________________ Cara
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ATTENTION: If you read NOTHING else this year on PCOS, Diabetes, and genetic links.. 
