Vibhuti Rao, a PhD candidate from Western Sydney University, is researching Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS), a complex disorder affecting Indian women. She's exploring the potential of Ayurvedic diet and yoga therapy to manage the condition and provide alternative, sustainable, and effective lifestyle options. Her study focuses on assessing the feasibility, acceptability, and safety of a standard Ayurvedic lifestyle program for overweight/obese ethnic Indian women with PCOS. PCOS has no cure and there is a need for alternative, sustainable, and effective lifestyle options. Lifestyle modification is the first-line treatment of PCOS, however has limited research.

Ayurveda and yoga are traditional medicinal systems originated in Indian sub-continent, are now popular worldwide for their effect in managing various chronic and lifestyle-related. A lifestyle program constituting the Ayurvedic diet and yoga therapy (AY) based on Ayurvedic principles may help reduce weight and improve metabolic and reproductive outcomes in women with PCOS.

This exploratory, sequential and mixed-method study will be conducted in Australia and India, aiming to present a standard AY lifestyle program and assess its feasibility, acceptability, and safety in ethnic Indian women with PCOS who are overweight/obese. This study will include a randomised feasibility trial of over 12-weeks. Follow Vibhuti's interesting work on twitter @drvibhutirao