PCOS and Diabetes - Why the Findings Make Sense

I recently read an article on the Verity PCOS blog VerityPCOS which reported on some Australian research which linked PCOS to a higher incidence of diabetes. This is really interesting and bears out my theory of Endocrine Distress being the root cause of the problem rather than PCOS itself.

The research led by Professor Helena Teede and Dr Anju Joham, from the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine at Monash University analysed a large-scale epidemiological study, called the Australian Longitudinal Study of Women’s Health. 

Here's the link to the page on the Monash website if you want to look it up yourself:

http://monash.edu/news/show/young-women-with-pcos-are-five-times-more-likely-to-develop-type-2-diabetes

The following extract summarises the article:

Over 6000 women aged between 25-28 years were monitored for nine years, including 500 with diagnosed PCOS. The incidence and prevalence of type 2 diabetes was three to five times higher in women with PCOS. Crucially, obesity, a key trigger for type 2 diabetes, was not an important trigger in women with PCOS.

How interesting. Also baffling, why would this be the case? 

If you take PCOS as your starting point, it makes no sense whatsover, just as many other symptoms of the disease make no sense, are inconsistent from one sufferer to another and cause contradictions in studies. 

If, however, you take a step back and look at Endocrine Distress as the problem, of course it makes sense. 

IF you can accept my theory that PCOS is actually a symptom of a much broader condition which I call Endocrine Distress, then it fits into place. 

To summarise briefly, Endocrine Distress is caused by a conflagration of physical and psychological stresses, which cause body to "overload" on hormones - restricting some, overloading others - chief amongst them being insulin, which is one of the master hormones. 

This in turn leads to massive effects on the rest of the hormone system, and thus affects every part of the body (and the mind). 

Being overweight has nothing to do with it at this point (although in my case the insulin resistance then lead to significant weight gain).
More information is in my post here: Endocrine Distress

Accepting that a body with Endocrine Distress, and therefore PCOS, leads to an obvious link: a body overloaded with Insulin and reacting abnormally to insulin (insulin resistance etc) is bound to be predisposed to development of diabetes. 

I believe we've been looking in the wrong place: PCOS is a symptom not a disease of itself. This doesn't diminish the suffering, the very significant effects on quality of life, or the devastating effects on fertility. It just says: let's find the real root cause and hopefully find lasting solutions more quickly.  

Let me know your feedback, I'd love to hear from you!