#32: Healing PCOS with PCOS Diva creator Amy Medling

Clean Eating for Women with Carrie Forrest, MPH in Nutrition

Amy Medling is an amazing health coach and healer. She is the creator and host of the PCOS Diva website and podcast. She has a new book out called Healing PCOS: A 21-Day Plan for Reclaiming Your Health and Life with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome, and she is here today to share her healing philosophies with us. In this episode of the Clean Eating for Women podcast, we talk about:

• What is PCOS
• Amy’s healing journey
• Principles of healing PCOS

Some highlights of this episode on how to make veggies taste delicious:

1. How Carrie manages her PCOS symptoms with diet and lifestyle. A lot of women are frustrated with their doctors PCOS advice. Common symptoms like fatigue, hair loss, depression, and anxiety. Amy experienced many of these symptoms, but wasn't getting a lot of help. [01:22]
2. Doctors were giving Amy a lot of strange pharmaceutical drugs. She finally went to a reproductive endocrinologist and got a PCOS diagnosis. She was 31 when she was diagnosed. It took 15 years to get her diagnosis. [04:45]
3. Amy wants to give women the knowledge to empower themselves, and be diva's at the doctors office. After the birth of her second son, she was exhausted all the time. Mainstream advice wasn't helping. She decided to take control of her health. [05:50]
4. Amy spent countless hours scouring online and reading books about PCOS. She started experimenting with diet and realized as she ordered at a restaurant that she was a diva. This was an aha moment, because she realized that she had to be a diva to take the best care of herself. [07:58]
5. The three main factors of PCOS are insulin resistance, blood sugar issues, and elevated androgens. Start with managing your blood sugar better. Amy actually used a glucometer to understand how food was making her feel. Eating to keep her blood sugar levels in check really helped. [11:42]
6. She started eating an anti-inflammatory diet with a lot of vegetables, clean animal protein, and water. She also took supplements and eight healthy fats. This helped get her hormones in balance, and it made her feel a lot better. [13:03]
7. Women with PCOS are at an increased risk of blood clots by being on the pill. It can also increase insulin resistance and exacerbate mood disorders. It lowers libido and creates nutrition deficiency. [15:47]
8. Amy started reading PubMed articles and finding ways to decrease her blood sugar. She would use things like apple cider vinegar. Her lab work showed that what she was doing was actually working. She also started blogging about it in 2009. She feels it is her calling to help women heal from PCOS. She went back to school to become a health coach. [18:24]
9. Amy's book is a lifestyle plan. It talks about symptoms of PCOS and gives an overview. Then it jumps into the three tenets of being a diva. Thinking like a diva and changing your mindset. Then eating like a diva, moving like a diva, preparing for success to start the 21-day plan. [23:48]

Links mentioned in this episode:

• PCOS Diva
• PCOS Diva on Facebook
• @pcosdiva on Twitter
• PCOS Diva on Instagram
• Healing PCOS: A 21-Day Plan for Reclaiming Your Health and Life with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome
• Pcos: Polycystic Ovary Syndrome : The Hidden Epidemic
• PubMed
• The 8 Steps to Reverse Your PCOS
• Period Repair Manual: Natural Treatment for Better Hormones and Better Periods
• Dr. Tom O’Bryan
• Dr. Amy Myers
• Healing PCOS Bonus

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