8 Steps to Reverse Your PCOS [Book Review]
It has been a decade since a book entirely dedicated to PCOS was published. That book, The Patient’s Guide to PCOS, by Dr. Walter Futterweit was my guidebook in the year after my diagnosis. (Listen to my inaugural PCOS Diva podcast with Dr. Futterweit.)
I am thrilled that the dry spell has been broken with the release of Dr. Fiona McCulloch’s 8 Steps to Reverse Your PCOS. I have been waiting 10 years for this book! It is high time that the latest research and understanding of PCOS be presented in book format for the patient community, and Dr. Fiona is the perfect practitioner to accomplish this task.
I followed Dr. Fiona for several years before I interviewed her for the PCOS Diva podcast in 2013 and invited her to guest post as well. Since then, she has written many articles for PCOS Diva on topics ranging from NAFLD to leaky gut, folates and adrenal health. What I loved about Dr. Fiona and still do, is her ability to dive deeply into the science and studies surrounding PCOS. She is on top of the latest research and trends and is able to analyze and articulate the findings so a lay person and patient can understand the significance.
Dr. Fiona is a practitioner who has treated thousands of women with PCOS over the course of her career. When you see so many PCOS patients coming through your doors, a good physician begins to notice trends, similarities and differences among these women. Dr. Fiona’s background provides a unique perspective for an author of a PCOS book. And most importantly, she is a woman with PCOS and understands, first hand, the challenges we face.
She has organized her book around 8 steps to reversing PCOS:
- Address Inflammation
- Treat Insulin Resistance
- Balance Adrenals and Improve Your Mood
- Treat Excess Androgens
- Address Hormonal Imbalances
- Balance Your Thyroid
- Create a Healthy Environment
- Eat a Balanced Diet
I could not agree more that these are 8 areas that women with PCOS must address in order to thrive. It took Dr. Fiona and her unique perspective on PCOS to put it in an easy to understand book. I love that she has dedicated an entire chapter to addressing inflammation (we talk about this a lot on PCOS Diva) and balancing adrenals. The information she presents in her book about adrenal androgen excess is going to provide a “lightbulb moment” for many women. Because Dr. Fiona looks at PCOS from a functional, root cause perspective, she has included information about healing your gut, detoxification, and the importance of a balanced diet. This is one of my favorite quotes from the book,
“The number one most effective treatment for treating insulin resistance in PCOS is regulating diet and exercise. I cannot emphasize enough how your life will be transformed simply by changing the foods that you eat and by exercising. No supplement or medication listed here will ever come close to bringing you the benefits you’ll get from taking those simple lifestyle changes.”
When it comes to managing PCOS symptoms, knowledge is power. For women with PCOS, Dr. Fiona McCulloch’s ground breaking new book is a wealth of immediately applicable information that can make the difference in learning to manage their symptoms. Dr. Fiona has interpreted all of the latest PCOS research and applied her own knowledge and expertise to create an easy to read, comprehensive resource. This brilliant book is the “must have” guidebook for any woman who wants to manage her PCOS with a holistic lifestyle approach. Dr. Fiona can certainly be counted among the great PCOS medical experts, such as Dr. Walter Futterweit, who have blazed a trail of empowerment for the PCOS patient.
