The Dr. Josh Axe Show - How to Heal PCOS & Boost Fertility Naturally (Diet, Herbs, & Exercise Plan)

Starting point is 00:00:00 If you've been doing everything right, eating clean, exercising, but somehow you're still not feeling your best, your energy's dragging, your memory is slipping and it's frustrating because you know there's more to your potential. Well, what if the issue isn't just in your routine, but it's deep down inside your cells? You know, you're investing in the best supplements, working out regularly and sticking to a clean diet. but if your cells are stuck in what's called cell danger response, all the hard work might not be paying off as it should. Think of your cells like a house under renovation. You can bring in the highest quality materials like the best supplements in clean foods, but if the workers inside the house or are on lockdown because of a storm, nothing gets done. The materials just pile up unused. That's what happens when your cells are in CDR. They can't.

Starting point is 00:00:55 fully use the good stuff you're giving them. Getting out of CDR, the cell danger response, is the key to unlocking your body's full potential. When your cells are no longer in protective mode, they can finally use the nutrients, hormones, and energy you're working so hard to provide. That's when everything starts to click. Your energy improves, your workouts become more efficient, and you start to feel like yourself again. Go to beyond bloodwork.com. to learn how to break free from cell danger response and make the effort pay off. Welcome to Dr. Josh Axe show where each and every week we explore the science and principles behind how to heal and grow in body, mind, spirit, and take your health in your life's next level.

Starting point is 00:01:44 This week we're talking about PCOS, that's polycystic ovary syndrome. It's a common hormonal disorder that millions of women are suffering from today. And PCOS isn't just a reproductive issue. It's a whole body metabolic syndrome that affects far more than just your fertility. And today I'll be going through the top vitamins, minerals, herbs to help heal PCOS, how to reverse it naturally and actually get to the root of what is causing it today. Because most doctors today are getting it completely wrong and treating the symptom, not the actual root cause. And this is important for all women, especially that are premenopausal,

Starting point is 00:02:27 understand and for men to learn about so you can support your women nutritionally as well. Before I dive into the content, though, make sure to subscribe to the channel and hit the link in my show notes so you can subscribe to my weekly wellness newsletter. It's free and you're going to get the top tips for natural healing delivered straight into your inbox. You know, one of the reasons I like this is that there are so many, one of the things I've noticed is the people that tend to see the greatest level of healing and health are the people that are the most educated. They're the people that are spending time listening to podcasts like this, the people that are subscribing and reading those newsletters,

Starting point is 00:03:02 even if it's just once a week. And then it also, one other thing that's so powerful, it also allows you to become an expert yourself so you can then support and serve your family, your friends, your community, posting the stuff on social media, being able to be your own doctor in a way, act as a lay doctor to help other people heal.

Starting point is 00:03:21 Now, polycystic ovary syndrome is the most common endocrine disorder among all women, according to the World Health Organization. It affects 5 to 10% of reproductive age women globally, or about 1 in 10 women in the US, and it usually develops around the age of 11 or 12, but many do not know they have PCOS until they get pregnant. An estimated 70% of cases are undiagnosed

Starting point is 00:03:49 until women struggle to conceive. And PCOS happens when the ovaries produce excess male hormones, hormones, androgen specifically, or even testosterone, in relation to female hormones like estrogen, leading to irregular periods, difficulty with ovulation, and other symptoms. It often causes cysts. These are small sacks of fluid to develop on the ovaries. And if those ever burst, they can be incredibly painful and cause hospitalization. I've had many people I've known in the past who came in as patients, who were dealing with PCOS, and dealt with the pain and struggle around.

Starting point is 00:04:25 these cysts. Now, not only does PCOS cause fertility issues, but it also increases the risk for health problems, including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, high LDL cholesterol. In fact, studies have shown that people with PCOS have much higher levels of bad cholesterol and much too low levels of good cholesterol known as HDL. They tend to struggle with sleep apnea. In fact, there's about a 10-fold increased risk of developing sleep apnea if you have PCOS. Also increases the risk of stroke, uterine cancer, depression, anxiety, and gestational diabetes, which is diabetes when you're pregnant as well. So there are so many medical conditions that are linked to PCOS. And PCOS is caused by several factors, everything from genetic predisposition, chronic inflammation, high cortisol, insulin resistance,

Starting point is 00:05:23 hormone imbalances such as high, high androgens, and also often overweight and obesity are causative factors. Now, the first one here is genetic predisposition. PCOS often runs in families. However, I do want to say this. I believe that this is rarely due to genetics. It's actually more due to family habits. You tend to find that if your parents ate a certain way, you eat a certain way. Or if your parents are active, you're active or not active.

Starting point is 00:05:53 and also with the level of stress that a parent carries versus a child. Also genetically, we found that there are multiple gene variations that have been identified that increase the risk of PCOS, such as by increasing androgen production. So again, there is a genetic component, but remember, genes have to be turned on via lifestyle in almost every case. So typically it's typically a lifestyle issue, even though you might be more genetically susceptible than other people. Number two is chronic inflammation.

Starting point is 00:06:23 Elevated inflammatory markers are seen in PCOS consistently, especially C-reactive protein levels, are much higher in people with PCOS. And inflammation impacts insulin sensitivity, which then affects all of your other hormones. And the third thing here is insulin resistance. Insulin resistance affects around 70 to 80 percent of PCOS patients, especially those who are overweight. So again, we're seeing here close to 80 percent of people with PCOS have an insulin issue. And in fact, if I were going to pinpoint the single greatest causative factor of PCOS, it's insulin resistance. And so whenever I've worked with patients with PCOS, my number one goal is to start balancing out their insulin. And I found when we do that, in almost every case, it reverses.

Starting point is 00:07:10 We reverse PCOS. You know, here's a reality. Here's an example of this. About 50% of those people with PCOS develop type 2 diabetes by age 40, according to the CDC. Think about that. 50% of people with PCOS will have type 2 diabetes by the age of 40. And this is why scientists have actually labeled this type 4 diabetes. So you've heard of type 1, you've heard of type 2.

Starting point is 00:07:35 Type 3 diabetes is often Alzheimer's disease or linked to that. This is called type 4 diabetes, which we'll get to more in a minute. Number 4, hormonal imbalances. Chronic stress, high cortisol, and environmental factors can contribute to PCOS. cortisol can become elevated due to sympathetic nervous system overactivation. And this can disrupt something called your HPA access known as your hypothalamic, pituitary adrenal access, which affects many hormones in your body and affects fertility. And also I want to mention endocrine disrupting disrupting chemicals like Xenoestrogens can impact hormone balance by disrupting estrogen production and metabolism. We see this when you're drinking BPA in plastic bottles, when you're using Teflotauri.

Starting point is 00:08:20 POM pans and getting those PFAs, these endocrine disrupting chemicals greatly impact your hormonal health. But I would say the biggest factor here is chronic stress and when high cortisol gets elevated. So you absolutely want to focus on if you have PCOS doing everything in your power to lower stress. And you do that by scheduling things you love to do, by having spiritual growth practices like prayer, being grateful, reading your Bible, doing everything you can to lower the stress and the anxiety on a daily basis. But you got to get the cortisol down. Because here's what happens, by the way. When cortisol goes up, you know what else goes up? Insulin. So then insulin's impacted. So the secondary hormone I focus on what I'm helping reverse PCOS and somebody is I'm focusing on helping

Starting point is 00:09:08 them, number one, balanced insulin, number two, balance cortisol. Okay. Those are the top two hormones that cause PCOS. And so when you see herbal prescriptions, when you see vitamins, and minerals, those are the two hormones we're looking at impacting if you want to reverse it. And again, I want to say, I want to say in well over 90% of cases, when I've had someone with PCOS, we've been able to reverse that completely by following the dietary guidelines, the lifestyle, and the supplementation in treating PCOS naturally. Number five is being obese or overweight. Obesity is common among those with PCOS and contributes to inflammation and, of course,

Starting point is 00:09:46 insulin resistance. And as many as 88% of PCOS patients are overweight and 50% are obese. Okay, so close to 90% of people with PCOS are overweight. And fat is an active endocrine organ as adipose tissue produces hormones. Did you know that your body fat acts as an organ like your liver, like your pancreas, like your kidneys? So your body fat actually produces hormones. And so your body will produce androgens if you're a woman, and that is going to then affect your estrogen levels, causing those in progester to decline. So now you have infertility and now your insulin is off.

Starting point is 00:10:28 High levels of body fat impact testosterone production as well. They lower insulin sensitivity. Also, of course, they increase inflammatory markers in losing just 5 to 10% of body weight can help improve insulin sensitivity, reduce T levels, and restore ovulation. I want to say, you know, a lot of the women I've cared for with PCOS, listen, it might only be being 10 pounds overweight, or maybe it's 20. But overall, losing just losing 10 pounds can be that factor that completely helps you reverse PCOS. Studies show approximately 50% improvement in fertility markers with weight loss. So 50% that's massive, 50% improvement when you just improve weight loss. overall in terms of your fertility markers.

Starting point is 00:11:17 As I mentioned before, PCOS is sometimes called type 4 diabetes due to its relation to insulin resistance and close to 80% of PCOS patients are insulin resistant. Insulin levels can be two to three times higher than normal. And insulin resistance is when the body cells do not respond normally to insulin. And what insulin does is insulin helps bring sugar inside of your cells, helps also pull more nutrients inside of your cells and support cellular energy of your mitochondria and ATP production. As a result, your insulin blood levels, as I mentioned, become higher than normal, which then leads to various problems. So if you have extra insulin and extra sugar in your bloodstream,

Starting point is 00:11:59 well, that's going to cause inflammation because they're not supposed to be there in that high amounts for that long of time. That's going to cause issues. And of course, when insulin's off, that's going to throw every other hormone off in your body. Because remember, again, if cortisol, It's like a domino effect. You hit cortisol, that hits insulin. Then insulin hits estrogen and it hits testosterone. And then this is how you end up with PCOS and infertility due to those estrogen progesterone markers being low.

Starting point is 00:12:26 And even can be linked to hypothyroidism as another condition there. High insulin in androgen production, when insulin levels are consistently elevated, it also stimulates your ovaries and adrenal glands to produce more androgens in increased testosterone production. So again, when you have these instant levels, they're elevated, now your ovaries, now your adrenals, they're pumping out these hormones they shouldn't be, which is causing infertility, it's causing cyst growth, it's causing inflammation, it's causing you to age more quickly and not feel and look yourself. Also, it has an impact on something called sex hormone binding globulent. This is high insulin levels also cause a

Starting point is 00:13:06 reduction in sex hormone binding, a protein that binds to sex hormones like testosterone, and helps regulate their availability in the body. So another problem there. And if you want to know if you have PCOS, there really are diagnostic criteria that requires two of three key markers to be diagnosed with PCOS. Irregular ovulation, high androgen levels,

Starting point is 00:13:32 and polycystic ovaries on ultrasound. That's typically the criteria for diagnosing PCOS. However, if you have high insulin levels or are overweight, or have high C-reactive protein, those are pretty big indicators as well. Now, the Western medical approach today, if you would go into a mainstream medical physician, here's how they would tend to treat PCOS.

Starting point is 00:13:54 They would prescribe a drug like metformin. This is used to increase insulin sensitivity, but of course, it's not getting to the root of the issue, right? The issue, the key issue there is that you're consuming too much sugar or too many carbohydrates or your stress levels are too high. And that's increasing cortisol, which then's increasing insulin resistance. It could be a nutrient deficiency.

Starting point is 00:14:19 But those are the bigger factors. And so when we look at metformin, it's not getting the root. Here's the other thing. The side effects of metformin are this. It decreases your vitamin B12. So it causes a vitamin B12 deficiency, which is then going to call nerve degeneration long term. It's going to damage your nerve system. It's going to harm your energy levels.

Starting point is 00:14:38 It's going to increase your risk of hypothyroid. by causing this deficiency. It's also linked to damaging your digestive system. It's been linked to loose stool, diarrhea, IBS long term. And so it's going to weaken your digestive system and weaken your nervous system if you're on metformin long term. And so obviously not the best thing to do. Another thing that's typically prescribed for PCOS are birth control pills. Now, they use this to regulate the cycles and they like it because it can help lower testosterone and it can raise estrogen. However, it won't help with fertility and doesn't address the root cause of PCOS. And as I've mentioned before, and if you haven't watched this episode and if you want to learn

Starting point is 00:15:21 more about birth control pills or hypothyroidism, go and search a podcast episode I've done on YouTube or Apple or Spotify search Dr. Axe birth control or Dr. X hypothyroid and you'll see where I cover birth control and how it increases your risk of hypothyroidism by over 280%. What it does is it depletes your body of almost every B vitamin, of magnesium, of iron, of good bacteria like probiotics. And so when you take birth control, it actually causes more hormone imbalances in the future. But this is mainstream medicine today. They're treating it with metformin, a diabetes drug.

Starting point is 00:16:01 They're trying to treat PCOS with birth control pills. which doesn't fix fertility at all. And number three, they try and treat it with medications that aid in ovulation like letrosol and clomaphene. And these do not fix it as well. Now, let's get to the ancient health approaches, like you'd see in traditional Chinese medicine, Iervaida, or Western nutrition today. There is a met analysis that shows that combining TCM, even if you do that with medications, is superior to regulating ovulation tests than to just doing medications.

Starting point is 00:16:40 It's been shown to improve pregnancy rates, balance more hormones, and help reverse PCOS and women when you do traditional Chinese medicine. And TCM takes a holistic approach focusing on balancing the environment within your body, really supporting your adrenal glands and your insulin levels of your pancreas. some of the most prescribed herbs in everything from Chinese medicine to Ierva to Western medicine today are the following. Number one, burbering. Now, burbering comes from the bayberry leaf. And this has been used for thousands of years for treating insulin issues and helping reverse chronic illness. And it directly improves insulin sensitivity by mimicking metformin's glucose lowering effects, but often with fewer side effects. It helps regulate blood sugar, reduces inflammation, and supports metabolic health by activating something

Starting point is 00:17:34 called AMP-activated protein kindness. It's known as AMPK, which is also a good longevity marker. If you want to slow the aging process, that's exactly what that's responsible for. And berbering helps you do that. So that's a great supplement to take if you have insulin resistance, PCOS, diabetes. It's one of the number one things I would prescribe and recommend. Number two is cinnamon. A study in the journal of ovarian research found that,

Starting point is 00:17:57 cinnamon can help reduce insulin resistance by improving insulin signaling and glucose uptaken cells while simultaneously lowering blood sugar levels and providing anti-inflammatory benefits. Consume a supplement or add to diet through tea supplements or culinary uses. So what I typically recommend my patients do is I will have them buy Cylon cinnamon that's spelled C-E-Y-L-L-N. It's just a high quality cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice. There's a brand I like. It's called Frontiers and they have an organic pumpkin pie spice. And that's a blend of cinnamon, ginger, clove, and nutmeg.

Starting point is 00:18:37 All of those have insulin balancing benefits. So I really like doing cinnamon. And so I'll have them when they're doing, I have them do a smoothie in the morning. And I'll have patients do a full teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice or cinnamon. And use that as a form of medicine for balancing out those insulin levels. And there's other benefits for strengthening and supporting the blood for people with PCOS. So cinnamon is an amazing herb or pumpkin pie spice. And this is good for everybody.

Starting point is 00:19:03 If you have insulin issues or you want to promote overall health doing pumpkin pie spice a teaspoon a day. And here's a recipe, per example. I don't want my patients with PCOS doing high carb. But I have them still do low to moderate carb. So I don't have them do no carb or even keto. We don't need to go there. But I will have them do a half of sweet potato with. with a teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice,

Starting point is 00:19:26 with some coconut milk, and then 40 grams of protein. I'll do about 20 grams of a protein powder that's more bone broth or collagen-based, and about at least 20 or 30 grams of a protein powder that's typically like a sprouted rice or a pea or some sort of plant protein. And that's what I have them do in the morning.

Starting point is 00:19:45 And if you don't want to do, if somebody doesn't want to do sweet potato, they could do a half an avocado, if they want to just go very low carb, you could do just coconut milk. You could also do a half a cup of berries like blueberries, okay, or even applesauce and do it with a vanilla protein powder or chocolate protein powder. But that sort of recipe with that full teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice or cinnamon, incredible for PCOS.

Starting point is 00:20:12 I had a patient who came in with PCOS, and she was about 30 pounds overweight. She followed the program I laid out for her. And 90 days, she lost about 30 pounds, completely reversed her PCOS. And she said, I mean, she looked like a different person. She said she felt like a different person. And this was one of the things she did every single morning was do this blood sugar, this PCOS smoothie that I just shared with you. Number three is fenugreek.

Starting point is 00:20:37 Fenya Greek has been used for many, many years, especially in Ayurvedic medicine, for balancing blood sugar levels. So fenugreek is something else you could do 500 milligrams a day. You can add fenugreek to recipes as well. Well, it's used in Ayurvedic cooking, an Indian recipes, and so that's another herb you can add to. You know, when my wife, Chelsea, was making lactation cookies, we would add in a lot of fennel, and sometimes we would add some fenugreek as well because this is very good for supporting milk production, but fenugreek has a lot of benefits there as well.

Starting point is 00:21:06 And so these three herbs and compounds, we just covered the berberine, the cinnamon, and the fenugreek, these target insulin. They're my top three herbs for targeting insulin levels. If I had a fourth in there, holy basil can be good, turmeric can be good, but those are my top three. So remember, we want to target insulin. And the secondary hormone we want to target to reverse PCOS are adaptogenic herbs. Okay. And there are a lot of adaptogens.

Starting point is 00:21:33 I want to talk about the ones I think are probably the most effective for PCOS. The first one being Aschwaganda. This helps balance cortisol levels by reducing stress-induced insulin resistance and supports thyroid function. So I'm a big fan of Ashwaganda, especially if you have PCOS and hypothyroidism together. It's probably the single best thing you can take for cortisol. Another one I really love that's used in Chinese medicine is astragalus. This supports immune function and helps modulate your stress response, improving overall metabolic resilience, and reducing inflammation assorted with PCOS. So astragalus, if you have PCOS and you've noticed you've had a weak immune system or weak digestion or your blood, low energy, estraglis is a really good one.

Starting point is 00:22:15 And then for overall hormone balance for cortisol, I love holy basil. And I like drinking this as an herbal tea. So holy basil, it's also called Tulsi. And you can drink about three cups a day of holy basil or Tulsi tea. It's been shown in clinical studies to regulate blood sugar, but also reduce stress. And it acts as an adaptogen for your endocrine system. So astragalus, aschaganda, holy basil are three of my favorites for PCOS. Now, I want to mention a few others I like as well that are adaptogens.

Starting point is 00:22:47 I like rodeo or rosea. I also like Chattavari is another one that I think is a good hormone balancer for women. Don Quai is another one. We'll touch you on more in a minute. But those are some others. But I would say, if you're wondering, hey, what do I take? Really the ashragand and the holy basil are the top two and probably number three is a stragglers there. But take as a supplement.

Starting point is 00:23:11 Typically about a thousand plus milligrams a day. take holy bays, and you can do that twice a day, and then holy basil or Tulsi, take that as a tea, drink that throughout the day. So remember the top components that are causing PCOS, number one is insulin resistance. We've got to balance the hormone insulin. Number two, we've got to bring those cortisol levels down. And if there is a third thing that we find with PCOS, it's that they have stagnation in their body where their blood is not healthy and moving enough. That is the actual third component when you look at ancient forms of medicine. that is the root cause of PCOS. And so one of the things that's done with acupuncture, if you go in and you have PCOS, if you read online how much acupuncture treatments have helped PCOS, it really is tremendous. And acupuncture is used to balance your autonomic nervous system

Starting point is 00:24:01 and regulate neurotransmitters and really address these hormonal imbalances. And they will use specific techniques and studies have proven this to reduce luteizing hormone levels, improve menstrual cycles, and support follicle development. So really, acupuncture is able to go and address many of these, you know, reducing the testosterone

Starting point is 00:24:20 in 12 weeks. There's a 12-week study on this showing acupuncture being an effective treatment. One of the things that they found with Chinese medicine is that one of the third main causative factor of PCOS is something called blood stasis, where your blood isn't moving enough or it's not, it's really not healthy enough. And so what they do is tend to prescribe an herb called don quai for. this is known as female ginseng. If you also know during your menstrual cycle, you've got a lot of bleeding or you just have major cramping, you just feel really bad. Don quai is one that you

Starting point is 00:24:54 definitely want to do. So doing don quine a regular basis and combining don quai with an herb called buplorum. This is a liver supplement that supports the movement of blood and liver cleansing in the body. So you want to combine don quai and buplorum together, uh, with this, and it is incredibly helpful. So Don Quai and buplorum together to help balance these hormones if you also notice that you've got weak blood or you have anemia or you're tired all the time doing the Don Quai and Bluplorm is the next thing you can focus on.

Starting point is 00:25:29 And I do want to mention now diet. You know, when it comes to diet, we really want to focus on balancing those insulin levels. And so your primary food should be this. Number one is meat. That's right. And by the way, not meat. organic wild meat, wild caught fish like salmon, pasture raised chickens and turkeys, grass-fed

Starting point is 00:25:50 organic beef, okay? Getting quality protein in your diet, 30 to 40 grams per meal, women, is what you want to do. Quality protein powders and bone broth. That's really the basis of your diet. After that, it's going to be things like steamed or cooked. You typically want to cook them, steam vegetables or baked vegetables or sauteed, but you want cooked vegetables. After that, it's going to be some healthy fats, omega-3 fatty acids found in walnuts and chia and flax and, of course, as we mentioned, again, wild-caught fish. Some healthy fat from coconut oil is very good for this and a little bit of avocado. And then also healthy carbohydrates, your best source of carbohydrates for PCOS are sweet potatoes and low-glycemic fruit, like apples and berries and pomegranate. those sort of foods.

Starting point is 00:26:44 But you do want to keep your carb count down. What I would recommend specifically is in the morning have some carbs, a little bit of sweet potato, a little bit of berries, something like that or an apple. For lunch, have a small amount of carbs. For dinner, do protein and some healthy fat. Okay. So protein, protein, protein, all three meals. In the morning, protein and moderate to low carb, you can add a little bit of fat there in coconut.

Starting point is 00:27:08 For lunch, protein and just kind of moderate to moderate. carb and for dinner, protein and fat. And if you do that, eating these real foods, mostly meat, vegetables, some fruit, sweet potatoes, and some healthy fats, and that's it. It is going to, you will reverse PCOS very quickly. If you do that in combination with the supplements, and you reduce the stress. In order for you to reduce the stress, I want to encourage you to get out a sheet of paper, get up a word doc on your computer, and write down the things that are causing you stress. Is it that you're too busy? Is that you've overcommitted? Also write down emotionally, is there, do you have emotions that you're consistently experiencing, like feeling like you're

Starting point is 00:27:51 disappointing others or you have a lack of self-worth? You need to look at all those things. Write down those three emotions that are negative that you're experiencing the most in ranking order. Write down your biggest stressors. And I want you to look at those two lists and I want you to say, okay, how can I go and deal with my low self-worth? How can I go and proactive? build my self-confidence. And then on the other end, I want you to do some things that help you reduce stress. And number one is write down the things you love to do. Okay?

Starting point is 00:28:19 Maybe it's lunch with best friends. Maybe it's, you know, and by the way, if you don't have a close friend group, go and pursue a group at church. Go and pursue a group of women that are positive and encouraging. Write that down, be proactive with those things. And then here's another big one, exercise and walk. You want to walk on a regular basis constantly just in the morning and at night. But 10,000 steps a day.

Starting point is 00:28:40 to walk a lot and it's very, very beneficial for all the things we've talked about. So let's take a moment and walk through five of the most powerful strategies that you need to follow in order to reverse PCOS. Number one, again, it's important to focus on, remember what we talked about, weight loss and having a metabolic reset. Weight loss can lead to better hormone regulation in 95% of cases where being overweight or obesity is a contributing factor. And so it really is important to look at your body weight and do your best to naturally lose the weight. Now, here's the thing. I don't think you necessarily need to focus on the weight itself. If you follow the diet I shared with you and took the supplements, your body will naturally lose weight. I mean, I've found this with so

Starting point is 00:29:22 many patients I've taken care of with everything from cancer to PCOS to diabetes. When we focus on just following the right diet, reducing the stress, taking a few of the right supplements, you just lose the weight. It becomes less of an effort. And the diet we talked about was low glycemic, so it's not going to affect your blood sugar, and it's anti-inflammatory. And also, it's nutrient dense. And so that's the sort of diet we're talking about. It's meat, it's vegetables, it's fruit, it's a little bit of sweet potato, it's a lot of herbs and spices, healthy fats sprinkled in, and that's it. That will help you reverse diabetes. And one other approach that can help your metabolism is doing a level of time-restricted eating. Now,

Starting point is 00:30:05 I'm not necessarily promoting complete intermittent fasting here, but still narrowing your eating window. What I would suggest is eating breakfast around maybe it's 8 a.m. And then eating lunch around noon and eating an early dinner at around 5 o'clock. Okay. So where maybe you're eating about 10 hours a day, but it's not, and then you have a 14 hour fast. So it's not an 8 or 6 or 4 hour eating window. It maybe is 10 or even 11 hours. But if you think about this, if you eat your first meal at 8, okay, you have your first bite.

Starting point is 00:30:33 and then you eat at noon and then you eat at five so you're done eating by six between 8 a.m. That's four hours to noon and then noon to six. That's 10 hours. So you're eating in a 10 hour eating window and then 14 hours you're fasting and not eating snacks, not having anything else. That can help. So I would encourage you to follow a 10 hour eating window. It's a little bit of a time restriction there when it comes to reversing PCOS. Number two is movement as medicine. Resistance training in high intensity interval cardio improves insulin sensitivity according to studies and helps you lose weight and reduce inflammation. A study published in the medical journal Frontiers and Physiology found at least 120 minutes of motor exercise per week

Starting point is 00:31:20 reduced PCOS. And so what we find is when you do more interval training, so again, that's when you get on a Peloton bike and you're going hard for a minute than easy, then hard than easy, that is better than just doing steady. state cardio in every single instance. And according to the study, they found a 36% reduction in insulin resistance and a 4.2% reduction in waist circumference in this study. So dramatic improvements around PCOS and those markers, if you do interval training, combined with weight training. That's the ideal. So what this might look like for you is you go to the gym and you do 40 minutes of weights and 20 minutes of cardio as an ideal if you had a full hour. And maybe you do that three

Starting point is 00:32:03 days a week. Or if you're at home, maybe you have some weights at home and you do 30 minutes at home three days a week and you do maybe two days where you jump on the peloton for 20 minutes or a spin bike or a treadmill and then you do a lot of walking with this. But in an ideal world, you have three things scheduled during the week. You do a little weight training. You do some interval cardio and you walk a lot. Okay. That's that's sort of what that's what you want to focus on in reversing PCOS and put it in your schedule. Just schedule it in there and do everything you can to do it. Number three, stress transformation as I talked about. Do your best to lower the cortisol levels via spending time in prayer, reading the Bible, meditation, doing breathing exercises, taking those

Starting point is 00:32:50 adaptogenic herbs, optimizing your sleep. This is big as well. You need to make sure you're getting eight hours of quality sleep in night. Going to bed early enough before you go to bed, wearing blue blocker sunglasses, using a weighted blanking, getting your root in dark and cold, listening to an audio book rather than binge watching Netflix, all help. Number four, again, remember target supplementation. Now, we cover the herbs already. Remember for insulin, it's cinnamon. It's fenugreek.

Starting point is 00:33:14 It's bayberry or berberine. And then the adaptogens we talked about were holy basil and ashwaganda. And then I would probably throw don quai in there, remember of that blood builder. And then also if you know your estrogen and progesterone are pretty far off, Vitex, known as Chaspery is a great herb. And then in terms of Western supplementation, which is going to be more vitamin and mineral-based, vitamin D, omega-3 fatty acids, and zinc. Now, Inositol is another one, or you're taking B vitamins or methylated B complex and probiotics

Starting point is 00:33:47 also can have great benefits, and I might recommend those as well, depending upon the person. But remember, adaptogenic herbs, insulin-based herbs, vitamin D, omega-3s, and possibly doing probiotic X and B vitamins are the most effective according to clinical studies. And the number five strategy is seeking out a practitioner, somebody that might help you navigate some of this. Now, I think a lot of what I shared with you is going to help you get pretty far. But some of you, if you're a more complex case, you want a functional medicine provider, you want a practitioner that can help.

Starting point is 00:34:19 And this is where I would say, one, I actually have a clinic that you're welcome to see. It's called the Health Institute. If you go to the Health Institute, I do webinars and trainings on this, and then you can actually schedule time to see one of my practitioners and coaches that can help guide you through an entire program of how to heal. So if you want to come visit my virtual practice, you can go to thehealth institute.com. Also, there are so many other great functional medicine doctors out there, though. You could find one in your city if you need to see someone in person. Search functional medicine doctor in the city you're in. Find somebody that deals with this specifically. Find an

Starting point is 00:34:55 acupuncturist that might help you. So I would encourage you to find a practice. Whether it's myself and my team at the Health Institute or a local functional medicine provider or a local acupuncturist that can help guide you through exactly what to do, creating an eating plan and a program, the dosages of exactly what you need to do. I want to touch on diet again. There's a great study on this, and this is published in the Journal of Food and Biochemistry. They said a balanced diet that consists of about 40% carbs, 30% fat and 30% protein with optimum physical, I can't. could reduce severe PCO symptoms and improve metabolic activity. Here's what this would look like diet-wise. It's like the diet I shared earlier, by the way, very similar. But here are some of the best foods that are, I mentioned low glycemic earlier.

Starting point is 00:35:42 Here are some of the ideal foods. And just remember this rule. Again, you want to be getting about 30 to maybe even 50 grams of protein per meal. Okay. Now, your healthy fat sources, your best are going to be extra virgin olive oil, nuts, seeds, avocado, and coconut. Those are the best for hormone regulation, of course, and wildcat fish like salmon. Foods for gut health are also very good that have probiotic and prebiotic rich foods,

Starting point is 00:36:08 sauerkraut, kimchi, coconut yogurt are great options. Remember also some of the best foods here are going to be high in protein. We mentioned wildcat fish, lean proteins, protein powders are good. And then also, remember, we want to build and move your blood. Steamed and baked vegetables are perfect for this, especially steamed. steamed like spinach. And if you steam a bunch of spinach and you could dip it in something like a hummus, you make hummus at home with chickpeas and extra virgin olive oil and garlic and tahini, that's a great thing to dip your vegetables in. That's a great option.

Starting point is 00:36:45 And then remember, you do want to do some carbs, but again, small amounts of sweet potatoes and berries and root vegetables like beets. Beats are also fantastic for this. Here's a reality about 70% of women with PCOS struggle to become pregnant. And PCOS accounts for 40% of infertility cases in the United States. And fertility rates among those with PCOS can improve 300% with a combination of interventions, which include improving your diet, starting to move regularly, even it's just 30 minutes, three days a week, consistent sleep schedule, regular hormone testing, cycle tracking, avoid endocrine disrupting personal care products, limiting alcohol, and the targeted supplements

Starting point is 00:37:35 we talked about. So there's a study that went through if you made some of these changes, again, it can improve your PCOS, your fertility rates by 300%. This is massive. They mentioned an ositol doing about three to four grams daily. This is also good for sleep. That's a supplement that often women find benefit from with PCOS. We mentioned berberine. There are studies on that. We mentioned vitamin D in terms of a vitamin, omega-3 fatty acids. And then magnesium and zinc.

Starting point is 00:38:02 These are all nutrients that are beneficial. Now, I do know I want to mention, I've mentioned a lot of different supplements. Think about yourself, though, what you probably feel like you need the most. And maybe that will help. Do you feel like stress is your big issue? Do you feel like diet is your big issue?

Starting point is 00:38:19 Do you feel like, you know, maybe you're not absorbing nutrients well because you have a digestive issue as well, then you want to focus more on nutrients and allow that to sort of pinpoint part of your treatment plan. Or again, as I mentioned, work with a practitioner. Also, you know, I would just say that I truly believe if you would put together a plan or find a practitioner that follows this advice, whether it be seeing me at the Health Institute and my coaches or you seeing somebody local that is very, very, high level, that top 1% of a functional medicine practitioner. They'll be to lay out for you a plan and program to follow. But if not, I want to encourage you, even if you just adopt a few of the things I shared with you, you will see improvement with those PCOS symptoms. But most people and patients I've worked with are able to reverse this in just 90 days.

Starting point is 00:39:07 Okay, three months, reverse it if you put together a plan and program and you just follow the things I shared with you. And listen, there are so many women as I shared, millions of women struggling with PCOS, struggling with infertility. string with hormone balance, and they don't know there's a natural way in another way. And so I want to encourage you, if you have benefited from this episode, I want to encourage you to share it with someone you know, share it on social media, send a text message to a friend. If you know that this is something they've struggled with was fertility or PCOS, this might be

Starting point is 00:39:37 the thing that they've been looking for with one of those solutions that's going to help them finally get pregnant. I mean, I'll tell you, as a practitioner in my clinic, one of the greatest joys I've ever had is helping women with their fertility. I've had so many patients. I'm thinking literally hundreds of women in person, in practice that I helped. And then coming in and being able to share with me,

Starting point is 00:39:59 them and their spouse saying, hey, we're pregnant. And then I would take care of their kids as well in my family practice. And it just gave me so much joy. And I get to do that today as well with some of the women we see in my virtual clinic as well. And it's something that it just, again,

Starting point is 00:40:13 fills me with so much joy being able to help families like that. Because, again, I know, and have had family members. I mean, for instance, like my own mother-in-law had had four miscarriages. I mean, this is something that I know in my family, like we've experienced.

Starting point is 00:40:26 And so I just have a real heart for people that are in this state of struggle, in this place in life. And so I want to encourage you, take action. If you're a person with insulin resistance or PCOS, take action. Or if you know somebody, again, please share this episode with them.

Starting point is 00:40:44 I truly believe it's going to be that thing that they were looking for that's going to help them bring. free in their health. And also thanks to all of you that are subscribed that are on mission with me. I love being on mission with you and being able to change health care together and we've got a lot more coming out here on how to heal your body and your hormones naturally. So thanks for subscribing. Thanks for commenting on social media and on YouTube. Thanks for the likes. Thanks for the shares.

Starting point is 00:41:07 And I can't wait to see you on the next episode.

The Dr. Josh Axe Show - How to Heal PCOS & Boost Fertility Naturally (Diet, Herbs, & Exercise Plan)

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