Type Two Diabetes and PCOS

The PCOS Repair Podcast

Type two diabetes has become such a common disease. Earlier this year in January 2022 statistics indicated that 37.3 million Americans—about 1 in 10—have diabetes.
While this disease is common in what often appear to be otherwise healthy individuals I want to take a closer look at what diabetes is in this episode. PCOS puts women at high risk of type two diabetes in fact many women that I meet have already been diagnosed with pre-diabetic or diabetes even in their 20s and 30s.
So what is diabetes and how does it impact the body? Well my friend that is exactly what this episode is about
Welcome back to the PCOS repair podcast where today we’re going to dive a little deeper into the insulin effect root cause of PCOS and type two diabetes as well as how you can decrease your risk of developing it.
PCOS, Insulin, and Diabetes
Insulin can be confusing, so let’s start with insulin and the spectrum of healthy to the diseased state of type two diabetes.
The spectrum has four stages:

1. Healthy insulin receptors that are responsive to insulin and easily allow blood sugar to enter your body’s cells. AND insulin levels are routinely at an appropriately low number.
2. The body has higher than normal levels of insulin circulating the body on a continual basis due to diet and lifestyle or the beginnings of insulin resistance.
3. Insulin resistance and Prediabetes: This is the point where your lab values are beginning to be or clearly elevated but haven’t quite reached the diabetic level.
4. Then comes the official diagnosis of Type Two Diabetes: over time this creates blood vessel complications leading to a risk of heart disease, stroke, heart attack, vision decline, and even blindness, kidney failure or nerve damage, and more.

You can see that though common this disease of type two diabetes isn’t something you want to have.
Reduce The Risk of Type Two Diabetes
While type two diabetes is something that every human is at risk of developing if they don’t follow lifestyle measures to prevent it, women with PCOS are at a higher risk of developing type two diabetes and at an earlier age.
That is why this episode is important to me! I know most of you are already aware of this increased risk of type two diabetes and some of you have already been diagnosed with it. This episode is not about creating fear instead, it's about bringing something scary into the light and discussing what we can do to improve our health and PCOS symptoms no matter where we are currently on that spectrum of insulin and diabetes.
So if you are ready to reduce your risk of type two diabetes go ahead and listen to this episode now.
A full list of Resources & References Mentioned can be found on the Episode webpage.