For nearly a decade Aida Azizii struggled with a hormonal disorder that affects millions of women across Britain, facing a constant battle with her weight.
The personal assistant from London says that she tried everything from prescription drugs to diet changes to manage her polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS).
One in ten women are estimated to have the condition which can cause facial hair growth, irregular periods and weight gain.
Doctors first prescribed Aida metformin following her diagnosis aged 16, but while it did help Aida lose some weight, she suffered debilitating side effects including nausea, and was forced to come off the drug.
She says: ‘After that my weight spiralled. I was eating more and gaining more weight. I always felt starving.’
Weighing in at 21 stone, and a size 22 dress size, aged 25, she knew that a solution was needed.
‘I used to always wear black to hide my figure,’ she says. ‘I never took photos of myself because I was ashamed.
‘I was told I was fat when I used to post photos on Instagram, so I started hiding my figure but you could tell from my face how large I was.’
BEFORE: Personal assistant Aida Azizii, 25, reveals dramatic before and after pictures of her transformation and explains it was thanks to inositol, a type of carbohydrate found in rice
AFTER: She lost an astonishing seven stone over six months
Then she stumbled across a 30p little-known supplement online that women were raving about – inositol.
Aida says she read about inositol six months ago: ‘I’d tried everything else, and saw this was a natural supplement and it had helped loads of other women. So I asked my GP and she said to go for it.’
Initially she took a single capsule containing 1g of inositol. Within weeks she noticed a change.
‘I stopped getting urges to eat sugary foods,’ she says.
As the weight dropped off, she found the confidence to begin going to the gym, and gradually upped her dose to four capsules a day – the amount shown in studies to help with weight loss.
After a year she had lost nine stone and dropped down to 12 stone and a size ten dress size.
‘Inositol changed my life. I’d tried everything, from prescription drugs to every diet you can imagine, and nothing worked like this,’ says Aida.
Now research suggests that the supplement really can help treat women with PCOS.
This week a review of studies published in the journal of Clinical Endocrinology which included over 400 patients, supported the theory behind the women’s anecdotal reports.
Also known as Vitamin B8, inositol, which we naturally consume in small amounts in a normal diet, is thought to regulate hormone levels.
They found that the supplement can rebalance hormones, in women with PCOS.
In theory they say that this could mean that it has the potential to relieve a range of symptoms from hair growth to fertility challenges, but they conclude that more research is needed to prove this.
Also known as Vitamin B8, inositol, which we naturally consume in small amounts in a normal diet, is thought to regulate hormone levels.
Capsules containing concentrated doses have long been touted by natural health fans for helping to suppress appetite and curb cravings. Others say it can boost fertility and relieve pain problems.
Medical researchers began studying inositol about a decade ago, believing it might have an effect similar to the prescription medication metformin, which lowers the amount of sugar in the blood and is given to type 2 diabetes sufferers.
‘Inositol and metformin both have an influence on levels of insulin, the hormone that controls the level of sugar in your blood,’ says Dr Channa Jayasena, a reproductive endocrinologist at Imperial College London.
‘There’s growing acceptance in the medical community that inositol has some genuine weight-loss effects, so it’s not surprising that it’s catching on.’
One trial published in 2017 found that sufferers of the syndrome who were given inositol saw similar levels of weight loss to those given metformin.
And an analysis of nine trials also published in 2017 concluded that women with the condition who took inositol for more than 24 weeks were more likely to see metabolic improvements – such as loss of weight and reduced blood sugar – than those who did not.
Many NHS hospitals now recommend inositol for polycystic ovary syndrome patients. ‘I advised two to start taking myo-inositol [a common form of the supplement] this week,’ says Dr Jayasena.
And not all doctors are convinced by inositol. ‘Research only really sprang up about a decade ago and I still think there’s not enough out there to say anything definitive,’ says Professor Naveed Sattar, a metabolic expert at the University of Glasgow.
He adds: ‘It’s possible that people who take inositol and believe they lose weight are in fact just dieting and exercising more, but put the changes down to the pill.’
