Book review: Natural solutions to PCOS

I get questions from people frequently who have polycystic ovarian syndrome or who think they may based on what’s going on with their charts and symptoms. That’s not surprising, considering polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) is a condition thought to affect about 10% of US women.

BUT, even though PCOS is prevalent, it’s actually often very responsive to natural remedies. Yes, you can have a genetic disposition for PCOS, but that does NOT mean you have to live with it forever, that just means you may have to take special precautions to make sure your body does not default to PCOS.

Which brings me to the whoooole reason I brought up PCOS: This friggin book.

I had read another book by Marilyn Glenville a few years ago which I really enjoyed about using diet and lifestyle tweaks to reverse infertility in 80% of people who followed them (that’s a pretty darn good track record right there).

So imagine my surprise when I found that there is a book by Marilyn Glenville dedicated to nothing but PCOS! And extra bonus, I found it at my library (I’m a library lover through and through).

I’ve found myself recommending the book a lot lately, so I think it’s time for me to review it here. 

One of the cool things about this book is what it includes. There are parts on what PCOS is and how the hormones of it work, diagnosing PCOS (what counts as a diagnosis, which is important for a condition that tend to be easily defaulted to as a diagnosis), and what is done in the conventional medical system. Then there is in-depth info about how to actually use natural remedies and diet to combat the condition, which of course is the meat of this book.

As with any book or guru on diet (or pretty much anything for that matter), it’s important to not take it for exact gospel, but to make sure you are also listening to your own body when you make dietary changes. But what I like about Marilyn Glenville’s work is it doesn’t seem to be overly dogmatic, and gives good general guidelines to follow. For example, her main dietary advice includes:

• Switch to unrefined carbohydrates and eat them with protein.
• Get your omega 3s
• Cut out all dairy (ok, a bit dogmatic on that one, but I’ll let it slide)
• Eat more vegetables and pulses
• Cut majorly back on or cut out alcohol
• Cut down on caffiene
• Cut down on saturated fat and eliminate trans fat (again, a bit of dogma)

For the most part these are sound dietary recommendations that will help a lot of people. The first is one of the bigges when it comes to PCOS, since PCOS is often associated with insulin resistance. There is a lot more detail in the book, so definitely check it out!

Then there was another section that I found pretty cool that isn’t often included in “natural solutions” kind of books, which was living with the condition NOW, and what you can do to control some of the more obnoxious symptoms while you are waiting for your body to reset. I liked that a lot of commonly prescribed drugs were included and discussed, so that you can decide which ones are worth their salt.

I really appreciated reading Natural Solutions to PCOS, and I highly recommend it to you if you have known or suspected PCOS and would like to try treating it naturally.