Actually, our geneticist said PCOS is inherited, and is passed from the
Father to his daughters. In our family's case, it is tied to the red hair
gene. It's a defect  of the  pituitary gland. The pituitary cannot recognize
hormonal signals sent by the hypothalamus, therefore it cannot pass them on
the to the other glands of the body.  It has nothing to do with diet, but is
a genetic disorder.  Not all the women in my family who have PCOS are
overweight, however.  One factor they have found is that those with PCOS are
more likely to be insulin resistant, which causes huge problems with weight,
and later leads to Type II Diabetes.  I definitely think the food choices
made by our ancestors have everything to do with our genetics today.  It's
all about the heavy reliance on grains other easily absorbed carbs that I
think are to blame.

Trish



On Fri, Feb 22, 2008 at 2:34 AM, Ashley Moran <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:

> On Feb 22, 2008, at 3:58 am, Trish wrote:
>
> > I definitely think so. In my family on my father's side, obesity is
> > high,
> > however, they do not eat poorly, or overmuch.  My aunt, for example,
> > weighs
> > nearly 300 pounds, and has been on an atkins-like diet for almost
> > more years
> > than I can remember, and I am 40. Extremely low carb, no sugars, but
> > can't
> > loose the weight. She is very active, swims, walks 5-6 miles a day.
> > It's
> > mostly the females that are like this.  Also, for what it's worth,
> > most of
> > the women on my father's side also have Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome.
> > They
> > are doing genetic research on my family because of the high rate of
> > PCOS and
> > obesity. At least one female in every generation seems to have PCOS,
> > and the
> > obesity, going back to my great-great-great grandmother. Currently,
> > I have
> > PCOS, my cousin has PCOS, my Aunt has PCOS, and my daughter seems to
> > have
> > PCOS, along with the tendency for obesity which is a life-long
> > issue.  It's
> > really very interesting. But I also think that if one eats bad food,
> > they
> > will become obese, too.
>
> The real question is - would they have developed PCOS eating a paleo
> diet from birth?  There are plenty of things that can go wrong with
> you that won't disappear the moment you take away the cause, they are
> a sort of permanent damage.
>
> My family is pretty much the exact opposite, I'm 99% certain food
> intolerance has taken a shotgun to our adrenals and most of us have no
> chance of getting fat, we look borderline anorexic.  (Well, I've fixed
> the diet and I work out now to try and restore some sort ofexternal
> fitness, but internally I'm still all mashed up.)
>
> Ashley
>
>