Premenstrual syndrome (PMS)

According to statistics 80 percent of menstruating women experience so called “premenstrual syndrome” or simply PMS, and 65 percent of them experience food cravings as one of its symptoms. PMS food cravings are a desire to consume different, sometimes unusual for a woman, types of food, which can reduce to zero all attempts to lead a healthy way of life and to maintain healthy food habits. The foods women usually crave are directly connected with their hormones instability. Most often women crave sweet food containing fat or, on the contrary, salty food, or some other kinds of junk food.

The maim idea, why every month before the period millions of women feel crazy cravings for some types of food, is women’s hormones. Levels of estrogen and stress hormone cortisol fluctuate but organism ‘wants’ them to stay even, which makes woman to crave fat and carbohydrates. One more thing is that our body really needs serotonin – a hormone of pleasure and contentment and this necessity becomes much stronger during premenstrual period. And certainly food, especially sweet one, is one of the things that can give women feeling of contentment and joy of life, which will raise the quantity of serotonin in the body.

Actually there are many theories about PMS food cravings reasons, but there also many ways to fight them. First of all, you should know that female metabolism increases during women premenstrual period and a woman’s organism can burn 100 additional calories a day – so maybe your cravings aren’t so critical and you shouldn’t worry at all.

If you still see a problem the next tips are for you:

If your body needs serotonin, remember that exercise also increase serotonin. Even if you feel not very well try at least to walk a bit and you’ll see the results. Lack of sunshine and fresh air also reduces serotonin levels – go outside, enjoy what is around you – and you‘ll certainly feel much better.

The more stress you have the worse cravings you experience. So try not to stress out a lot. If you can’t, so try some relaxation techniques such as yoga and meditation. Feeling calm and relaxed will help you to avoid snack attacks.

You organism may need additional magnesium during PMS, so when you have beans, sunflower seeds, peanut butter or almond cravings you just get the magnesium you need. Chocolate is also rich in magnesium, so if you want some chocolate feel free to take a piece, but don’t forget that together with magnesium chocolate also contains lots of fat, so if you really need it, eat dark chocolate which is less fatty than milk one.

During the period of PMS your body may also need protein and complex carbs. Complex carbs are fiber rich foods for example whole grain breads and cereals, fruit and starchy veggies. To get necessary proteins eat eggs, fish, chicken and turkey. Protein will help you not to feel hunger by controlling blood sugar imbalances.

Mostly cravings occur when you are hungry, so not to want to eat you should eat more often but less. Plan your meals during the day to eat a mini meal each 3 hours and this will help you to control hunger and as a result your food cravings.

Menstrual migraine

Women suffer from migraines much more often than men, and 80 percent of them suffer from them every month during their premenstrual period, before it, or, sometimes, immediately after it, experiencing it as one of the symptoms of PMS. The reasons of headaches aren’t still completely clear, but hormones are considered to be the main reason that causes monthly migraines. Estrogen hormone controls elements in our brains that influence a women’s sensitivity to a pain, and when levels of estrogen unexpectedly change during the period, it usually provokes migraines. Those women, who take oral contraceptives, can experience stronger headaches because birth control pills influence estrogen levels.

Sometimes menstrual migraines are accompanied with nausea and sensitivity to bright light and loud sounds. During the PMS itself headaches can often occur together with other PMS symptoms, such as acne, muscle pain, fatigue, depressions, increase in appetite and cravings for various kinds of junk food, lack of attention and coordination.

So as menstrual migraines are rather predictable and expectable, one of the possibilities to cope with them is to try a preventive treatment. You may need it if your headache attacks are really severe. First of all you should consult with your doctor who will be able to give you some professional advice. Medication, which is usually used in such situations, usually includes naproxen sodium or another NSAID, a triptan (such as, for example, fravotriptan, naratriptan, sumatriptan or methylergonovine), DHE and magnesium. It will be much more helpful if you consult with your doctor concerning all these medication and precisely follow all the instructions he will give. NSAID treatment will be much more effective as preventive medication if to use it 24-48 hours before the time you expect migraines. The dose of medication also can be raised before the menstruation itself.

If you suffer from extra severe pains and ordinary methods of treatment are unsuccessful, you can try hormonal therapy. You can try medication that contains estrogen (estradiol is the most popular treatment in the situation of this kind).

When you go to a doctor with your migraines problem, he will certainly ask you to tell him some details; without this information he won’t be able to provide you with any helpful treatment. So to be able to answer the doctor’s questions you can create your headache diary, where you can write down you symptoms and frequency of your pains; and make your cycle calendar. You should always know what medication you are currently taking, because lots of drugs cannot be taken together at the same time.

You can also follow some simple natural tips, which can seriously relieve your migraine pains during the PMS and menstruation. First of all add more food containing magnesium to your diet and try to avoid alcohol and caffeine. Try some relaxation techniques and don’t forget that your body in general needs rest.

So we all are different and if one treatment cannot help, don’t give up, consult with your doctor – and you’ll certainly find something, which will help you to fight you migraines.

Natural Period Pain Remedies Period and Menstrual Pain Relief

Each month millions of women feel discomfort in their body during a certain period of time. It always happens a few days before their menstruation and during the time of menstruation itself. There is nothing unusual in this – according to statistics 80 percent of women all over the world go through this every month. This state is called “premenstrual syndrome” and if it is really it, you shouldn’t worry – your problems must disappear in a few days.

This problem occurs for many different reasons, but mainly because of premenstrual chemical changes in the body which influence levels of hormones in a woman’s organism. Different women have different symptoms of the premenstrual syndrome – some of them feel just slight headache, but others have to suffer from pains in the whole body, cramps, weakness and depression, menstrual migraines and mood floating. During these days women are willing to do everything to alleviate their suffering. They take lots of medications formulated from chemicals which can ease their state for a few hours but can be really harmful for their health on the whole. Certainly sometimes these medications are necessary, but there are some other ways which can help you to feel better for a longer period. Much better way in such situation is to try using natural and herbal treatment together with leading a healthy way of life. But what should you do first? It is much easier said than done.

If you are suffering from regular pains and want to find natural, drag-free remedies, “The natural remedies pain period report” by Rebecca Bennett is exactly what you need.

“The natural remedies pain period report” is a more than 100-page book where you’ll be able to find different ways to cope with your PMS. The book contains thoroughly researched information about premenstrual syndrome itself, the reasons for its appearance and the ways to fight it with the help of natural remedies. “The natural remedies pain period report” is written in a very comprehensible way and contains lots of information which is easy not only to understand but also to carry out in real life. The book doesn’t offer women any complementary medicine – no magic and other ‘pseudo-science’ things. All the information in the book is proved and reliable. It doesn’t have any anti-medical and anti-doctor sense, it just suggests to women to try fully-natural way of treatment and gives them better notion of the problem which is natural itself.

Finding Natural Treatments for Period Pain

From the book you learn why it is so important to eat or avoid certain kinds of products, because some of them can make women’s misery much worse, and others on the contrary can make women almost forget about the problem they experience each month. You’ll discover some widespread ways of medical treatment and the side-effects they can cause. As it was already told, you’ll find a lot of drug-free natural remedies which certainly will not do any harm to you and will help you to relieve pain for a long period of time. Perhaps you’ll be surprised but vitamins and minerals also play a serious role in your premenstrual suffering. So in the book you’ll read what vitamins and minerals are necessary for your body to deal with this problem each month.

The thing is that it is worth trying and if you decide to try and buy “The natural remedies pain period report”, you’ll lose nothing. Rebecca Bennett, the author of the book, offers her readers 100 percent risk-free guarantee. “If my report doesn’t help you, she says, so I don’t want to deserve your money.” So if the book appears unable to help you, you’ll be paid back.

Along with 100 percent risk-free guarantee several benefits are offered. If you purchase “The natural remedies pain period report”, you’ll be able to get some useful bonus reports of the kind for free!

“The natural remedies pain period report” is your best instruction ‘how to stop suffering and to start living during your period’.

Natural relief of PMS symptoms

How do we usually cope with PMS symptoms?

Read more – Natural remedies for PMS

Aromatherapy for pms

According to statistics 85 percent of women deal with PMS symptoms. Mood swings, irritability, insomnia, nervousness, fatigue – women have to fight with all these every month. The intensity of these symptoms for different women can be different, but all of them certainly want to get rid of this.

There are different ways to cope with PMS symptoms: you can take medications, try different herbs which help to relive your state and eat certain kinds of food, but the first and the main way to fight with PMS symptoms is natural way. Women who want to improve the situation should lead healthy lifestyle and keep to some simple rules. Here are some of them:

1. Eat products which contain calcium every day. A daily dose of calcium for an adult person is 1200 mg. According to statistics it can help to diminish PMS symptoms up to 50 percent.

2. Lead active life. Some women give up doing exercise or try to do nothing at all during their period and before it. They think that they feel badly and shouldn’t do anything because of this fact. That’s totally incorrect – exercise is the best way to reduce stress which is women’s main enemy during the period and before it. Exercise is the main source of endorphins which are considered to be the best mood regulators and natural pain killers. So active way of life will help you to deal with anxiety and irritability – the most widespread symptoms of PMS. Moreover regular exercise improves circulation of the blood in the body which helps to alleviate cramps during the period.

3. Pay attention to what you eat. Healthy way of life should include healthy diet. Include more fruit, vegetables, whole grains and food containing calcium, magnesium, certain vitamins and minerals into your diet, exclude food containing sugar and salt – and you’ll see that your period is getting more and more trouble-free. Reduce the amount of beverages containing caffeine or, what is better, give up drinking them at all during your cycle – and you’ll immediately notice leaving of moodiness, irritation and insomnia.

4. Relax. We need rest and relaxation even when we don’t feel any PMS symptoms. And when you feel not very well during the period you should pay special attention to your need of relaxation. There are special stress managing techniques that may help to relieve PMS symptoms. Concern yourself with yoga, try special breathing techniques and meditation. Massage will help you to relax aching muscles which will ease monthly cramps.

5. Forget about cravings. Many women experience desire for unhealthy snacks during their periods. These snacks usually contain a great amount of salt and sugar which won’t make you any good. Consuming more whole grain food will help you to overcome this unhealthy desire.

6. Have enough sleep. It goes without saying that a person who experiences lack of sleep can’t feel well. During the period a woman’s body feels much more tired so it needs much more rest. Sleep no less than 8 hours a night, keep to the rules above and you’ll feel calm and energetic during the whole day.

Each month thousands of women suffer from PMS symptoms. It is possible to try to treat it with the help of some chemical remedies or to use some natural medicine recipes and formulas. Most specialists advise those women, who experience pms symptoms, keep to a diet and organize their eating habits in a more healthy way.

These advices will certainly help to deal with moodiness, migraines and irritation but it can be not enough to fight a pms problem. Actually, why do pms symptoms appear? Scientists say that PMS is mostly caused by lack of necessary vitamins and minerals in the body.

So it is a great idea to reduce eating salty and sugary food and drinking less beverages with caffeine, but it isn’t enough because it won’t give you useful substances your organism need. Here you’ll read about the food which will help you to fight PMS if you include it in your diet.

Eat fish, especially sardines, salmon, tuna, herring. These fishes are highly rich in omega 3-s, the fatty acids that help to reduce menstrual cramping. Your body also needs calcium and sardines can provide you with it much better than even milk. The problem with calcium is not only in ordinary lack of it – you should also remember that the organism cannot absorb calcium without the help of vitamin D –and these fishes contain really a great amount of this vitamin. According to statistics eating food which contains lots of vitamin D can reduce risk of PMS up to 40 percent.

As it was already mentioned, enough amount of vitamin D in the organism will help your body to cope with calcium that is extremely important itself. Fish is not the only food containing calcium – to get it in a sufficient amount you need to eat dairy products. Calcium affects the balance of estrogen in the body and helps to avoid depression and anxiety during your period. Drink a lot of milk or yogurt, eat cheese and you’ll notice a positive effect right away. If you don’t like dairy products, such things as broccoli or kale can replace them.

Together with calcium and vitamin D our body also needs vitamin B6 and magnesium. B6 is very well-known thing to reduce different PMS symptoms. It is needed to regulate the body’s estrogen level which is very important because too much estrogen causes mood swings and inability to focus. You can get vitamin B6 simply by eating bananas, garbanzo beans, spinach, potatoes (with skin on), chicken and turkey.

Women who experience PMS symptoms usually have a low level of magnesium. Magnesium helps to struggle with water retention and bloating and helps to regulate our brain mood regulator – serotonin. Add more beans to your diet, try pumpkin and sunflower seeds and peanuts and you see how magnesium can improve health especially during your period.

Certainly during the PMS period your body feels not very well and you often want lots of salty or very sweet food just to entertain yourself. You don’t want to deal with this useful uninteresting food. But after you try it you’ll understand that your body doesn’t ask for junk food any more and you feel much better in general.

PMS and your diet

Our health and internal state much depends on what we eat and how we eat. And it goes without saying that healthy eating habits are a need for everyone who wants his body to be in good condition. You may say that special nutritional habits are necessary only for those who want to lose weight or to keep fit, but it is not true at all. If you give some thought to this question you’ll see that healthy food and food habits create a healthy body and help not only to avoid lots of problems with weight, but also to improve your state if you feel badly. If healthy nutritional habit becomes your daily eating habit, it can help to relieve pms symptoms a lot

Some of you would probably say that they have no time to control their food, others would say that it is boring and uninteresting – but after you make the first step on this way you’ll find it even enjoyable, and moreover you’ll immediately notice positive influence of your new way of life on your organism.

Here are a few very simple advices which will help you to make you life much more pleasant and easy especially during your pms period.

First and the main thing you should get used to is drinking a lot of water during the day. Scientists say that a person should drink 30 milliliters of water per 1 kilo of his weight a day.  Water is everywhere in our organisms – all our organs, our skin, even our brains contain water – and without it our body begins to dry out and wither. Moreover water helps to free the organism from toxins and other harmful substances. It is also better for our health to prefer water to other beverages you drink during the day – for instance tea or coffee contains lots of caffeine which makes us too active and sometimes too irritable. Skipping caffeine and replacing it with water may help you to avoid pre-period moodiness and insomnia. Water makes you to feel fuller, so you’ll even see that you need less food not to be hungry. Keep water always at your fingertips and drink it every time you are thirsty – and you’ll see that it can make wonders with your organism.

Second advice for you is to eat smaller portions and eat regular meals. When you skip meal you gain nothing except out-of-control hunger and in result – overeating. If you are too hungry you don’t pay special attention to what you are going to eat – and you often buy extremely unhealthy junk food to satisfy your hunger. It is much better to have small snacks between your meals and eat more often – 5 or 6 times a day – but to eat reasonable portions. And don’t skip your breakfast! If you don’t eat breakfast you stay without food more than 10 hours by the time of your lunch, and for the rest of the day your body accumulates energy from food you eat in the form of fat instead of giving you a possibility to burn it.

Certainly we eat not only for nutrition but also for pleasure. And to make our food tastier we add to it different seasonings, salt or sugar… Not to feel flabbiness you should reduce amount of salt in your meals (at least during a few days before your period). Salt causes water retention in the organism and avoiding it will give you feeling of lightness. Sugar also doesn’t give lots of benefits to our organisms – so your body will thank you for replacing sweet food with fruits.

We always have lack of time so we usually eat very fast. If you acquire the habit of eating slowly you won’t overeat and as a result feel heavy and tired. Don’t hurry, enjoy your meal and you’ll see that you are full with much less amount of food. You’ll feel that you’re toned up and relaxed which is very important when you are experiencing pms symptoms.

If you are feeling that you should change something in your life, start with you eating habits – because, as a famous proverb says, we are what we eat. Maybe it looks difficult to make the first step, but after you make it, you’ll never regret.

Our health and internal state much depends on what we eat and how we eat. And it goes without saying that healthy eating habits are a need for every

The problem of «premenstrual syndrome» is not new but it wasn’t really confessed by medicine for many years. But in spite of the opinion of doctors, half of the women in their reproductive years face the physical and emotional changes, which occur to them a few days before menstruation. Actually if the state a woman feels is really a PMS, all the symptoms should disappear in a few days after menstruation or during the menstruation itself. If they don’t disappear the reason of the problem may be hormones or something else, but not PMS.

Why thousands of women suffer from “premenstrual syndrome”? Actually it is because of chemical changes in their bodies, which occur in connection with coming menstruation. Levels of some hormones fall and levels of some other hormones increase.

As it was already mentioned half of the women or even more have first-hand knowledge about PMS. Some of them feel worse others not so bad but all of them would really want to get rid of these symptoms or at least to relieve them. Today a great amount of pills and supplements exist to help women to overcome this problem. They contain useful vitamins and, sometimes, hormones, and certainly they help and can be used. But not all of women want and can afford using chemicals for their health. So what should they do? For these cases so-called natural remedies are known. For centuries people were studying useful properties of nature around them, and thanks to that, today we have priceless knowledge about how to cope with our health problems with the help of herbs. Here you’ll see some right herbs which can help any woman to maintain stable mood and hormonal balance during premenstrual time.

First of all Chaste tree berry (sometimes known as vitex). It is most widely used in treating PMS syndrome and considered to be the most helpful one. It is an approved herb for PMS which shows its profitability again and again. Since ancient times it was used to cure lots of women’s problems. Vitex regulates blood flow which helps to relieve pain. It is a safe and effective treatment for PMS.

Chaste tree berry

Another best helping herb is Black Cohosh (Cimicifuga racemosa). It acts as hormonal balancer. It also helps to relieve menstrual spasms.

Black Cohosh

Reishi mushroom (Ganoderma lucidum) is a great immune strengthener. It also regulates amount of sugar in blood. It helps to overcome weakness and to depression, calms down and relaxes women when they feel irritation or emotional immoderation. The herb also can help you to cope with sleeplessness.

Reishi mushroom

Evening Primrose oil (Oenothera biennis) is derived from the flowers’ seeds and it is useful because of its containing of an essential fatty acid, called gamma linoleic acid (GLA). It helps to reduce PMS symptoms to those women who have shortage of GLA in their organisms. It is advised to use 3-4 grams of it per day, and it will be more useful if to use it over several menstrual cycles.

Evening Primrose

If lack of GLA is your main problem Star flower oil (Borago officinalis) has even higher content of it. It used the same as evening primrose oil but it is not so widespread.

Star flower oil

Dong quai or angelica root (Angelica sinensis) is sometimes called “Women’s Ginseng” and has been always used in Chinese medicine as an overall tonic for women’s health. It helps women to get rid of premenstrual migraine and to cope with tiredness.

Dong quai or angelica root

St John’s Wort (Hypericum perforatum) is considered to be a great antidepressant. It is also an excellent tranquilizer which helps to conquer depression and insomnia. There is a lot of hypericin in St John’s Wort flowers which has a mood elevating effect.

St John’s Wort

Certainly there are much more herbs and other natural sources that can help women to overcome the problems of premenstrual syndrome. If one natural remedy doesn’t help you, it is not a reason to give up at all. We all are different and if the thing helps to one person, it doesn’t mean that it will help to another in the same way. All of us are individuals and you should just try to find something that will be better for you.

Read more about alternative therapy for PMS