Читать книгу PCOS Diet Book: How you can use the nutritional approach to deal with polycystic ovary syndrome - Theresa Cheung - Страница 22

You may find that a change in diet is all you need to manage your symptoms, or you may decide to take some course of medicine, therapy or treatment once you are diagnosed with PCO/S. A good diet and nutritional programme is the essential foundation, in partnership with exercise for the management of PCOS. This type of programme works in conjunction with all kinds of medication for PCOS, from the Pill to fertility drugs, the diabetes drug Metformin and alternative therapies.

Dr Marilyn Glenville, one of the UK’s leading nutritional therapists who treats women with PCOS in her London and Tunbridge Wells clinics, believes that a healthy diet will maximize your chances of health and fertility if you decide to take the Pill or use fertility drugs.

Belinda Barnes, director of Foresight (an organization which aims to improve a couple’s fertility by giving advice about diet, nutritional supplementation, exercise and stress-management), says ‘those that have IVF after having completed a Foresight nutritional program have a 65 per cent live birth success rate compared to the 14 per cent national average.’

Dr Ann Walker, a medical herbalist and research scientist based at the University of Reading’s Hugh Sinclair Unit of Human Nutrition, explains that many herbalists and other complementary therapists will suggest beneficial changes to diet and lifestyle as the basis of good health. Walker believes that these are essential changes to make before herbalism, or any other medication, can come in and put the ‘icing on the cake’. ‘There is no point,’ she says, ‘in any medication coming in to suppress symptoms that are caused by a bad diet and unhealthy lifestyle. It is important to get the diet and lifestyle healthy first and then treat the remaining symptoms with medication. This often means that you need less medication, and what you do need works far more efficiently when the body is getting optimum nutrition in the first place.’

According to Gerard Conway, consultant gynaecologist at Middlesex Hospital, London, who has been working with women with PCOS to manage weight and improve symptoms using the diabetes drug Metformin, ‘Metformin is not a magic bullet and can only work if diet and exercise plans are already in place.’

There have been several studies reporting good results with Metformin for weight loss. However, the goal is to use Metformin in conjunction with diet and exercise to lose weight, otherwise the effect of Metformin appears to wear off and doses need to increase. ‘Weight gain often starts again unless there is a foundation of diet and exercise to start with which works in partnership with Metformin to produce better, more long-term results,’ says Dr Conway.