Hey there everyone. I'm wondering if anyone else is working with a naturopath for their PCOS? Mine has given me a list of acceptable foods (and I'm currently working on a low carb diet) and the following supplements:

Insinase
Inositol
FNGL Formula (to help control the candida buildup)

He also suggests only High Intensity Interval Training for exercise as long periods of medium intensity exercise will work against the hormonal blah blah blah.

So...anyone else doing natural treatment instead of Metformin and birth control pills?

Hello Mela,

How is your treatment coming along with your naturopath? Are you seeing results?

I started working with a Naturopath several years ago when I was having troubles taking the Metformin and birth control pills. However, I got lazy with the treatments and stopped going. Now I wish I would have kept up with it. I'm not taking anything now for my PCOS and have gained a considerable amount of weight. I want to start up again with a naturopath to work on a good plan for combating the PCOS.

Has anyone else had luck with a naturopath? What about natural supplements? What works best for you? Any advice/recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

To be honest I'm just at the beginning of my path. I always knew there was something big wrong with my reproductive system but it's only since I was married a few months ago that I decided to take it seriously and start looking into it...and really only the last week or so that I've been following a serious plan. I have read lots of great things about the supplements I'm taking. I will say it's definitely not the cheap path. I'm sure I'll spend at least a thousand dollars this year on supplementation, and I've had to cut all grains and sugars and many things out of my diet (and still have to get dairy out of my diet at some point) but it'll be cheaper and more rewarding in the end because I will be healthy and hopefully will get my hormones under control.

Thanks for the reply. I was looking at natural supplements on Amazon and the prices seem reasonable. I think I might try out a few and see if something clicks. For example I found that spearmint tea or supplement helps with hirsutism (this might be harmful for baby, so don't take if you are pregnant or considering). I've spent a small fortune on laser hair treatments with limited results so I am looking forward to trying this tea. I am also going to try DIM Plus (Nature's way) along with magnesium, zinc, vitamin B for hormonal balance.

Would you be willing to report back if you find something that really works? I plan to do the same. Hopefully someone will also jump in here and give their experiences.

Absolutely I will report! I'll keep this thread updated as my journey continues. I believe my naturopath to be one of the best with some of the most sophisticated diagnostic tools I've ever seen so I really trust his recommendations. I think if I follow the food list he sent me and keep taking the supplements I'll see progress. I should try to upload my food list somewhere in case people want to look at it. If anyone is interested in seeing the food list he prepared for me, just PM me with your email address and I'll send you a PDF of it. Of course it is tailored to me, but it was created with insulin resistance and PCOS in mind.

Thanks Mela! I would love to see your recommended food list. I will try to send you a PM. I am not sure I can yet as I am a new member.

Oh that's too bad. I don't know how to post any documents to the forum or if that's even allowed, so instead I added it to my blog today so if you'd like, you can read it here: Happily Mela After - What not to Eat

Awesome! Thanks for sharing. I really appreciate it.

The food list looks great. It is a diet for PCOS.

There's been a lot of conversation about dairy not being good in any form for IR (because of the carb/sugar content) and specifically for PCOS because of the added hormones that a lot of dairy products have today.

I also saw he eliminated a lot of high or medium high GI foods, which is good, because of the IR component. And since I saw your other post about eating a ketogenic diet, I see why he eliminated the majority of fruits -- even an apple can make you hit your 20 g carb allowance.

And it looks like he's also putting you on a low-candida growth diet, by eliminating the vinegars and other fermented foods. I think that's interesting and I would love to hear if it helps. That's something that wasn't recommended on my end, but I would love to hear if you think it helps either in weight loss or general health.

I found out that even thought nuts are supposed to be super healthy and amazing for most people, when I eat nuts, I maintain or gain weight. It's just my body and how it processes it.

Wow Rana you are spot on with your deductions. My Candida was/is insanely out of control before I started the ketogenic diet. Hopefully this isn't too much of an overshare, but the skin under one of my breasts actually split and had a foul smell, which I found out is a common thing with overgrowth. When that happened I got really fed up. Imean if the candida starts attacking the outside of my body, then I know it's bad inside. After 2 weeks on the keto diet, though, that is completely gone and so were the sugar/wheat cravings. It's just another way I know that's the right diet for me. Starving the candida will be paramount in losing the weight and helping the IR.

Yeah, I've done a lot of research on diets and stuff. I had to learn about PCOS and sometimes it goes hand in hand with candida issues.

I wish I could put some of that knowledge into making me lose this weight, though!

I didn't know about the high interval training versus more medium exercise. I will have to look into that for myself!

I was surprised as well! I don't particularly love interval training because it's a bit of a killer workout, but you only have to do short amounts of time. 16 minutes of HIIT can be more effective for PCOS weight loss than spending an hour on the treadmill at a medium intensity...not that power walking is bad but HIIT apparently (I'm not a doctor lol) lowers insulin resistance...and that's pretty much the goal, right?

HIIT is hard.

I have a spinning teacher how loves to do a full hour of HIIT. But she gives us a break in the middle, because I don't think we could make it through, even with the breaks built in.

I should do more HIIT, but I don't. I need to start looking into it. I hurt my back recently, though, so the last thing on my mind is intense workouts...