From Tara:
“Why Does DCI Work for Some Women & Not Others?”
Whilst the science behind how DCI works is compelling and provides us with great insight into the mechanism of insulin resistance and PCOS, it is not a magic bullet. Every human being is unique in their physiology thus no two people will ever suffer from the same disease in exactly the same way. On top of physiological idiosyncrasies we have the influence that our lifestyle choices make on our health.
A study by Dr Nestler, published in 2008 in Metabolism Clinical and Experimental 57 (2008) 1390–1397 postulates that there may be multiple defects in DCI-phosphoglycan metabolism resulting in the same thing – Insulin Resistance. Although this study was cut short due to a sudden unavailability of the study drug – DCI, it found that in this particular cohort of women, when they were supplemented with 3000 mg of DCI per day it did not have the expected (and previously found in other studies) result of increasing the release of DCI-IPG the active form within the body tissues. They hypothesize that if one is deficient in DCI then supplementation will address that and resolve the insulin resistance, however if one is not deficient in DCI, but has a defect in DCI-IPG metabolism then mere supplementation will not address the underlying problem.
With insulin resistance (IR) and polycystic ovarian syndrome as well as other related issues such as Syndrome X, Metabolic Syndrome, Type II Diabetes Mellitus etc, the effects of exercise are particularly important. When we exercise we increase our cellular receptivity to insulin, allowing us to utilise the carbohydrates from our food with much lower insulin levels. This is of vital importance in managing IR. The other very important tool in managing IR is to keep both the glycaemic load (total amount of carbohydrates you consume) and the glycaemic index of foods (how quickly the carbohydrates in the food are absorbed into your blood stream) low. Everybody is different and the amount of carbohydrates that you can safely consume will differ depending upon how much exercise you do, your weight, the degree to which you are insulin resistant and many other factors, however as a basic guideline it would be safe to say that eating in excess of 150 grams of carbohydrate per day will not be beneficial. Some women with PCOS restrict this amount down as low as 20 grams per day, though for many this will be too extreme. Others if they are very very fit and lead a very active lifestyle can consume as much as 250 grams – but these will all be from very low GI sources such as vegetables, fruits and whole grains.
A general rule for everybody whether they have insulin resistance or not is to eat as much fresh, unprocessed food as possible – fresh, live foods that look exactly the same as when they were picked. The less processed food we eat, the healthier we will be, and this goes for every single person on earth. As an added bonus, the less processing and packaging that has gone into our food, the lower the carbon footprint will be and the less impact it will have on the earth.
The research done to date on both DCI and PCOS indicates that if you:
*Limit your carbohydrate intake
*Increase your fibre intake
*Regularly engage in exercise
*Drink plenty of water
*Take an appropriate amount of DCI
*Ensure that your Vitamin D levels are adequate
Then you will have the best chance of improving your health and fertility.
I hope this information has been of use to you. Best of luck!
