The Effectiveness of Astaxanthin Supplementation on the Clinical Symptoms and Cardio-metabolic Profile in Women with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome

To measure blood pressure, patients were asked to rest for 10 minutes, then the measurement was done using a mercury sphygmomanometer (Riester, Germany). The blood pressure of each person will be measured twice with a time interval of 10 minutes, in a sitting position, from the right arm and at the level of the heart. The average of these two measurements was considered as the patient's blood pressure. Before taking blood pressure, patients will be asked about smoking or drinking coffee in the previous 2 hours

To assess the severity of hirsutism, the amount of total body hair in nine sits (upper lip, chin, chest, upper and lower abdomen, thigh, upper and lower back, and upper arm) will be evaluated according to the modified Ferriman-Gallwey (mFG) scoring system. In this system, each body sit will be visually scored on a scale of 0 to 4, and the maximum score of each participant could be 16. The final score of 0 to 3 will be measured as non-hirsutism, 4 to 7 will be considered mild hirsutism, and 8 Up to 11 and 12 to 16 will reflect moderate hirsutism and severe hirsutism, respectively. Subjects will be asked to not use any removing hair methods during the study.

On days zero (before the start of the intervention) and day 80 (the end of the intervention), 10 cc of blood is taken from the patient in the morning and collected in a plastic tube. It is left with 3,600 revolutions for 3-4 minutes and poured into microtubes containing 0.5 ml. The samples are stored in a freezer at -70°C. To reduce the measurement error, all samplings are done at 8-10 in the morning and in the fasting state. Blood samples taken from patients at the beginning and end of the study are centrifuged for 10 minutes at 300 rpm to separate their serum. Serum values of lipid profile (triglyceride (TG) level, total cholesterol, Low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-c), and High-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-c) serum) are measured by enzymatic colorimetric method. To measure serum cholesterol, cholesteryl ester enzymes are then added to the solution, and cholesterol oxi…

The physical activity evaluation of the participants will be recorded by the short form of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) 4 times (at the baseline, 4-week, 8-week, and the end of the study)(22). To obtain the overall physical activity score based on MET-minutes/week, the score obtained from 3 activity categories including walking, moderate physical activity, and vigorous physical activity will be recorded.

The individual's dietary intake will be evaluated using a 24-hour dietary recall in the four scenarios (at the baseline, 4-week, 8-week, and the end of the study) by a trained nutritionist. the reported amounts of each food and drink consumed will be converted to grams per day using the household guidebook(20). Diet information analysis will be done using Nutritionist IV software (First Databank, Hearst Corp, San Bruno, CA, USA)