A Link Between Metabolic Syndrome and PCOS
By Rebel Tucker
There is a link between metabolic syndrome (MS) and Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS). MS is a collection of risk factors including: insulin resistance (IR), high blood pressure, obesity and dyslipidaemia. These factors increase the risk of developing Type 2 Diabetes, cardiovascular disease and PCOS. Often students are not even aware that they have MS or IR, yet they come to their yoga teacher or yoga therapist sharing their distress about symptoms they are experiencing such as fatigue, pelvic pain, inability to lose weight, facial hair growth and that they are having trouble conceiving.
An interesting abstract in the International Journal of Yoga in 2016 (1) concluded that because the pranayama technique Kapalabhati had been shown to effectively target and combat features of MS that it might be useful to conduct larger scale research to assess its usefulness in the treatment of the symptoms of PCOS.
Whilst it would be advisable to be cautious with acute symptoms of pelvic pain, Kapalabhati could be worth considering as a practice when our students with PCOS are free of any acute pelvic pain. Qualified Yoga Therapists would be able to determine if this practice is suitable or not for an individual student.
