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Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) is a common hormonal disease affecting a woman’s monthly period, fertility, and sometimes appearance. Often, it is treated with a mix of medicines, changes in lifestyle, and food nutrients. This blog post will discuss the vitamins and minerals that can help women with PCOS.

PCOS can cause several annoying signs and symptoms, such as:

• Periods that happen less than once every 35 days or don’t happen at all
• Signs of high testosterone, like pimples or a lot of new hair growth
• A pelvic scan showed that the ovaries had a lot of cysts/follicles.
• Insulin levels are high, which is a sign of insulin resistance.
• Gaining weight or having trouble getting rid of it
• Having a hard time getting pregnant.

What Vitamins Are Missing When You Have PCOS? 

Even if you eat a healthy, well-balanced diet, PCOS can still remove some necessary nutrients.  Several nutrient deficits have been linked to the disease. Studies show that the most common are potassium, magnesium, B vitamins, and vitamin D.

Hormones are at the heart of our health, and if there is a mismatch, like in PCOS, the body needs vitamins to help it get back in sync.    

Supplements and vitamins are often used to help women with PCOS because they can make up for nutritional or mineral gaps.; the ones we will discuss in this blog have the most evidence to back them up.

Most of them help with insulin tolerance, metabolism, and hormone balance, but they can also be good for your health in other ways.   

Can PCOS Be Cured For Good? 

Good Question; I’m sure this is not the answer you want to hear, but PCOS cannot be cured. 

While you can’t get rid of PCOS for good, you can control and handle its effects.

You might even eliminate almost all of your PCOS symptoms by changing your lifestyle, taking medicine, or doing both.

Remember that vitamins won’t work on their own. You need to make real changes to get the most out of supplements. The most important things to change about your lifestyle are your food, how much sleep you get, how stressed you are, how much exercise you get, and how healthy your gut is.  

Supplements For Weightloss With PCOS?  

Because of metabolic irregularities and insulin resistance, losing weight can be hard. Most of the time, the best nutrients for PCOS weight loss work by making insulin more sensitive.  

Myo-Inositol is a type of inositol that helps make insulin work better. It is often taken as a vitamin by people with PCOS.

Other products that are helpful for women with PCOS to lose weight are berberine and carnitine. Even though the study is hopeful and is often used for this reason, more research is still needed to fully understand how taking carnitine can help people with PCOS lose weight.     

The Best Vitamins For PCOS

1. D-Chiro and Myo Inositols

Up to 70% of women with PCOS are insulin resistant in some way. Insulin is a hormone that helps control how much sugar is in your blood, and your body’s metabolism depends on these receptors working well.

Most people know that insulin helps keep blood sugar in check, but they may not know that it also tells the ovaries to make certain hormones.  

The food we eat, mostly carbs, is turned into glucose by our bodies. Before glucose can be used as an energy source, it must enter our cells. When the amount of sugar in the blood increases, the cell’s nucleus gets a signal to start letting its contents out.

When the signaling system isn’t working right, the body makes even more insulin. This leads to several side effects that can stop follicles from growing and ovulation from happening.

Inositol is one of the best vitamins for women with PCOS because it helps make eggs better, improves insulin resistance, and improves the way the ovaries work.  

The most common types, MYO and D-chiro inositol (DCI), have effects on the body that are opposite to each other.

Inositols also help with controlling your period and improving egg quality.

Recently, much research has been done on inositols, which have been shown to help with insulin, cholesterol, acne, and stress, among other things.

To make this unique ratio happen in the body, taking MYO and DCI in a 40:1 ratio is a great idea. This mixture works better to treat PCOS symptoms than either MYO or DCI alone.

2. Vitamin D3

Even though Vitamin D it’s important for the body, studies show that 67–85% of women with PCOS don’t get enough vitamin D.

Vitamin D works as both a vitamin and a hormone, and its receptors have been found in almost every type of human tissue and cell. Women trying to conceive should take more vitamin D because it has been linked to the growth and development of follicular eggs.

Studies found that giving vitamin D to women with polycystic ovary syndrome greatly lowered their overall testosterone levels.

Another study showed that people with PCOS have low amounts of androgens. After taking 50,000 IU of vitamin D monthly for three months, total testosterone and androgens decreased by 12 and 17 percent, respectively.

Vitamin D was chosen as one of the best PCOS medicines for these and other reasons.

Also, getting enough vitamin D may help reduce inflammation, improve insulin resistance, and control your monthly cycle. You can do this by getting enough sun or by taking vitamin D supplements.  

3. Fish oil/ Omega-3

People with PCOS should eat more omega-3 fats because they are good for their health in many ways. Omega-3 fats have been linked to several health benefits, such as lower inflammation and blood pressure, better cholesterol and insulin levels, healthier hair and skin, and even a better mood.

Research has also shown that taking fish oil supplements can help improve ovulation, ovarian reserve, and fertility.  

Omega-3 fatty acids can be found in plant foods like bananas, walnuts, almonds, chia seeds, flax seeds, and olive oil. It is also found in Egg yolks and “oily” cold water fish like salmon, tuna, trout, and halibut.

Fish oil is good for women’s health in many ways besides helping to treat PCOS. It helps the brain and eyes grow, prevents heart disease, and prevents mental illness from worsening.     

4. N-Acetylcysteine

NAC, or N-Acetyl-Cysteine, is an antioxidant that works like other antioxidants to lower inflammation and oxidative stress in the body. Since people with PCOS tend to have higher amounts of both, this vitamin is a great way to treat the condition.

NAC has also been shown to drop testosterone levels, improve insulin tolerance, and increase ovulation. It makes more glutathione, an important antioxidant that helps lower inflammation and protects cells from damage.  

NAC helps control your monthly cycle by balancing your hormones and cleaning out your liver. Even if you aren’t trying to get pregnant, your monthly cycle can tell you a lot about your health. If your cycle isn’t normal, you should see a doctor.      

Taking N-acetylcysteine (NAC) may help improve fertility and several metabolic factors linked to PCOS, such as fatty liver, high cholesterol, and insulin resistance. NAC also works well for the defense system.

A study released about the effects of NAC and metformin on women with PCOS was examined. In this study, 100 women took part. Half of them took metformin (500 mg three times a day), and the other half took 600 mg of NAC three times daily) for 24 weeks. Both treatments had the same effect on lowering the body mass index, hirsutism, lowering free testosterone, and treating inconsistent periods.

5. Probiotics 

Researchers have found a link between PCOS and gut bacteria, but they still don’t know why. By adding live bacteria and yeasts that support a healthy culture of bacteria and other germs in the gut, probiotics are one way to improve the bacterial balance in the gut. This can help people with PCOS, and studies show that the bacteria in your gut plays a small part in your metabolism.  

Probiotics also improve the balance of hormones and lower inflammation, which is a major cause of insulin intolerance. Researchers have found that taking bacteria vitamins can help PCOS Cysters and can help with other symptoms by balancing hormone levels.  

6. Berberine

This plant product is often used to treat inflammation, diabetes, high cholesterol, and infertility.

It can help women with PCOS in particular. In addition to helping your health in ways like lowering your cholesterol and making you less resistant to insulin, it can also help you ovulate more and get better results from fertility treatments. 

It is often used to treat metabolic diseases, and some studies have even shown that it works just as well as metformin, which is often given to women with PCOS for the same reasons.

Berberine may help your body’s endocrine system work better. Most people can take it well, but you should always talk to your doctor. It can affect how other medicines work, and it’s not meant to be used for a long time.       

Scientists have compared the insulin-sensitizing effects of berberine to those of metformin and N-acetylcysteine. With the help of Berberine, you can improve high cholesterol and a fatty liver.

Berberine lowers cholesterol by stopping the body from making free fatty acids and speeding up the breakdown of fat in the mitochondria.

7. CoQ10,

CoQ10, which is another name for coenzyme Q10, helps cells use energy. It may be very helpful for people with PCOS, according to new data.

Coenzyme Q10 has been linked to more fertility and babies in women with PCOS. This is likely because it improves the quality of the eggs. Recent studies show that Q10 may also be good for lowering cholesterol and insulin levels.

8. Magnesium

Magnesium is used in more than 300 chemical processes in the body and helps bones grow and stay healthy. It also changes the health of the heart and the way muscles work, among many other things.

Getting enough of this supplement is important for your health in general, but it is especially important for women with PCOS, who are more likely to be magnesium-lacking than the rest of the population.

It can help with insulin resistance, common in people with PCOS. It can also help reduce inflammation and lessen PMS symptoms.    

Low magnesium amounts are common in people with polycystic ovary syndrome. Women with polycystic ovary syndrome are 19 times likelier to have too little magnesium. This is concerning because magnesium has been linked to better blood sugar, insulin, and blood pressure control.

Magnesium is known to help avoid migraines and make PMS less painful. Many persons with PCOS tend to have Anxiety as a common symptom, and magnesium supplements help with a wide range of anxiety signs, such as nervousness, restlessness, a fast heart rate, and tremors.

Most women with PCOS have trouble sleeping, but taking more magnesium can definitly help.

9. Resveratrol

You’ve probably heard much of the buzz about this product from news stories about how red wine is good for your heart.

Resveratrol, found in red wine and berries, has been shown to help people with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) with their metabolism and ability to have children.

Supplementing with Resveratrol has been shown to help control hormones and improve fertility in women with PCOS. It also helps improve insulin tolerance. It could also combine with other supplements or medicines.      

Resveratrol has been known for a long time to have anti-oxidant, anti-cancer, and heart-protecting benefits. Studies have shown that resveratrol can drop cholesterol and insulin levels and help reduce inflammation.

Resveratrol also helped women whose insulin levels were too high. During the three-month study, the fasting insulin levels dropped by 32%.

10. Folate

Folate, another name for Vitamin B9, helps reduce inflammation and break down the amino acid.

Vitamin B9 is important for the health and size of eggs, fertilization, fetal growth, and the development of organs. It is especially helpful if you are trying to get pregnant.

It also helps with mood and tiredness and lowers homocysteine levels. Using B vitamins to treat underlying inflammation can lower your chance of heart disease and even help with sexual problems.  

11. Zinc 

Zinc is an element that all people need, and it helps with many things in the body, like cell growth, hormone release, and reproduction.

Researchers have found that women with polycystic ovary syndrome tend to have low zinc levels. The good news is that increasing zinc levels may help ease many of the annoying symptoms that people with PCOS have daily, like acne, hair loss, hormonal imbalance, infertility, and too much hair growth.

12. Carnitine 

Carnitine, also called Acetyl L-Carnitine (ALC), is another antioxidant that helps the body turn fat into energy. Low amounts may be related to several PCOS symptoms, such as insulin resistance and higher levels of androgens.

Carnitine has been shown to help with inflammation and how glucose is used in the body. Even though more study needs to be done in this area, experts are pleased with how carnitine affects PCOS signs, and it is a common weight loss product.        

13. Vitamin B12 

Vitamin B12 breaks down the amino acid homocysteine, which helps reduce inflammation in the body.

Not only are PCOS people more likely to have high homocysteine levels, but these high amounts are also linked to lower fertility, low birth weight, bad egg quality, miscarriage, and high blood pressure.

By boosting these amounts with vitamin B12, you can fix biological issues and become more fertile.

Some drugs for PCOS, like metformin, can even drain your body of B vitamins. This makes B vitamins an important substance for anyone with PCOS because they help with so many things.      

The Bottomline

PCOS is a difficult hormonal disorder that can affect your general health and sometimes your ability to have children.

A healthy lifestyle is needed for PCOS signs to improve and for ovulation to increase. Supplements can help a lot with controlling the condition, but there is no one-size-fits-all treatment plan. Taking them often will give you the best results.

Because problems with ovulation and unpredictable periods mark PCOS, keeping track of your cycle and ovulation, especially if you want to get pregnant, is important.