Lea Michelle an American actress, singer, and author, who is popularly known in TV shows such as "Scream Queens" and "Glee", recently opened up about her diagnosis and personal struggle with the polycystic ovarian syndrome in her late 20's. PCOS is a hormonal disorder which is common among women. Some of the symptoms are irregular and prolonged menstruation, excess hair growth, weight gain, and
Lea Michelle and polycystic ovarian syndrome
Lea started experiencing the symptoms of PCOS as soon as she finished filming Glee. She revealed to Health magazine "the side effects can be brutal like weight gain and bad skin".
In the October issue of Health magazine, she revealed her experiences growing up with bad skin. She was using Accutane, a medication that treats severe acne. Aside from Accutane, she also took birth control pills to solve her skin problem. In her late 20's, she decided to detox her body from all the medications that she was taking. The side effects to her doing that were weight gain and bad skin problems.
After years of struggling to find a doctor that could diagnose her problem, Lea eventually found a great doctor, that explained her medical condition to her. She decided to follow a plant-based diet and change her lifestyle which led to a major improvement with her PCOS.
In this issue of Health magazine, she explains how she is in a happy place in her life right now, mentally, physically and spiritually.
Diets for women with PCOS
Women who are suffering from PCOS often have high levels of insulin and have a higher risk of being diabetic. According to the Manila Time Report, Dr. Chang said: “because of the insulin resistance, women with PCOS are more likely to have pre-diabetes or impaired glucose tolerance.” By following a proper diet that consists of simple carbohydrates and performing certain exercises can help lower down the insulin level in the body.
With the latest technological advancement such as the internet, it has become easier for people to search and look for different diet regimes to follow, but for women with this medical condition, they may find it challenging because they would have to follow a much stricter diet.
The low-carb ketogenic diet is proven to be one of the best due to its various benefits such as lowering insulin levels and carb intake.
A plant-based diet is also beneficial. This type of diet comes from plants and doesn’t contain any animal ingredients such as milk and eggs.
A low glycemic index (GI) is another diet that PCOS women can follow as it consists of eating foods that will raise the blood sugar levels slowly, without increasing the insulin level too much.