PCOS 101: PCOS And Inflammation (Part 1)

Inflammation is your immune system’s response to stress or injury within, or to your body. This can be anything from physical injuries such as breaking a bone, grazing your knee, a burn, etc. It could be dietary such as an intolerance to a certain food, or environmental, such as mold, metal toxicity, or personal care products, etc.

Inflammation is the first step in the healing process and without it, we would all die so, acute bouts of inflammation, when needed, is essential for human life. Inflammation as part of healing is a good thing. It’s when it develops into chronic inflammation that there’s a problem, such as in PCOS.

Chronic inflammation may show with;
❌ Chronic pain
❌ Allergies / food intolerances
❌ Hormonal problems (ex. insulin resistance)
❌ Weight gain, belly fat gain
❌ Autoimmunity, including Hashimoto’s
❌ Digestive problems such as IBS
❌ Blood tests such as CRP (C-Reactive Protein)

More and more studies are finding a link between women with PCOS and elevated levels of inflammation, they do this by testing for a protein called C-reactive protein (CRP), this protein can detect inflammation.

Elevated levels of CRP have also been shown to be associated with insulin resistance, diabetes, and heart disease, all these health conditions are already high risk for women with PCOS.

Right now, researchers still have a lot they don’t understand about the relationship between inflammation and PCOS. PCOS is known as a pro-inflammatory state, this basically means that the hormonal environment in your body that PCOS creates also create chronic inflammation.