Statins, diet changes offer hope for patients at risk for heart attacks, diabetes
Christina Espinoza works out five-to-seven times a week and has gone from a size 13 to a size 8 in the past year. But the weight loss and higher energy level aren't highest on her list of what she's grateful for. For the 30-year old Sacramento marketing coordinator, it is more important that her periods are normal, her chances of having a heart attack or developing diabetes are now lower and, maybe the biggest immediate relief, her facial hair doesn't grow as fast as it used to."I used to pluck for 30 minutes every single day," said the mother of two. "Now it's only 15 to 20 minutes," Espinoza said.
Espinoza is one of nearly 7 million women in the United States who suffer from polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), a poorly understood disease characterized by an increased production of male hormones - also known as androgens - resulting in infertility, irregular periods, increased hair growth (called hirsutism) and, in about half the cases, obesity. The syndrome raises a woman's risk of developing diabetes three to six times and of having a heart attack four to seven times.
Despite these health risks, scientists do not know what causes PCOS, and physicians have few scientifically proven treatments to offer women like Espinoza. UC Davis researchers Sidika Kasim-Karakas and Antoni Duleba are working to change that.
"We are looking to characterize the hormonal and metabolic profiles of women with PCOS," said Duleba, a professor of reproductive endocrinology and infertility, who recently joined UC Davis from Yale University. "This will guide our research and, hopefully, lead us to better treatments."
Duleba and Kasim-Karakas want to go beyond treating the individual symptoms of PCOS. Current treatments include birth control pills for regulating periods, infertility treatments to achieve pregnancy and medication to reduce hair growth. Instead, the UC Davis physicians are working to discover the cause of PCOS and identify medical and dietary treatments for the syndrome.
Espinoza, for one, swears by walnuts. She was part of a UC Davis clinical trial conducted by Kasim-Karakas in which she was asked to include a specific amount of walnuts in her diet.