Conventional doctors call it premenstrual syndrome, but some alternative practitioners call it a gift. When a woman is having her period, it is a time of elevated sensitivity, intuition, as well as creativity. It is a time when a woman feels intensely — bodily, emotionally, and physically — what it means to be a woman.
However, there’s a variety of factors such as nutritional, hormonal, and psychological that accentuate an imbalance during this time, which makes a woman feel the extremes of the premenstrual period.
Millions of women all over the world experience over 150 symptoms that are associated with PMS such as anxiety, mood swings, irritability, backache, breast tenderness, acne, sugar cravings, weight gain, and constipation, just to name a few.
The very first thing that you should do to begin healing those symptoms is to stop thinking that something is wrong with you or that you are a bad person for being a female.
The second thing that you should do is come to the realization that the symptoms you’re experiencing are nothing more than just wise messengers from your mind and body that’s guiding you towards the path to greater health as well as self-respect.
The third thing that you’ll have to do is start to remedy the symptoms using all-natural remedies and you should begin the journey with dietary changes.
Natural remedies for PMS
Try breaking the sugar habit: Your body is going to demand more sugar to be used as fuel during the premenstrual period. Therefore, as all women know, the sugar cravings are going to be intense.
As a result of these cravings, you go out and try to satisfy them by any means necessary with foods such as chocolate, fruit juice, cake, candy, or cookies, which causes your blood sugar to elevate and then drop suddenly. That is the cause of the mental fog, physical fatigue and the emotional imbalance that’s synonymous with PMS.
The secret to curing most cases of PMS is getting off of the sugar. Here are some things that you can do to get off of that sweet roller coaster ride. You can use them during the premenstrual period and whenever the sugar cravings become unbearable.
Halt a sugar binge with miso soup: Eating mildly salty foods can halt a sugar binge in its tracks. Try eating a good bowl of miso soup, which is made by mixing a paste-like soy product into a bowl of hot water that has been previously boiled with carrots, onions, celery, and at times ginger.
Get rid of the sugar cravings with sea salt: Get a cup of warm water and put ¼ teaspoon of sea salt in it and drink it down. This little concoction should stop all sugar cravings instantly. If you’re salt sensitive or you’re on a restrictive diet, do not consume any extra salt than what’s recommended.
Counter the cravings for chocolate with pickled foods: You can stop sugar or chocolate cravings with certain pickled as well as bitter foods. The best way to stop a chocolate onslaught is to eat something called umeboshi plums. These are plums that come from Japan and have been pickled with sea salt and dried. However, if you prefer to go the bitter route, try a cup of burdock or dandelion root tea.
Get a pick-me-up without the aid of sugar by using ginger: Instead of reaching for the chocolate bar for an emotional lift, reach for a cup of stimulating ginger tea. It will also help you with the fatigue that’s associated with PMS. It is also a healthier alternative to caffeinated beverages such as colas, coffee, or teas, which can all make the irritability, insomnia, and anxiety, that’s associated with PMS worse.
Stabilize your blood sugar with food
You can reduce sugar cravings by eating smaller, more frequent meals, which helps to keep your blood sugar stable.
You should try to eat three small meals and three snacks while making sure that each meal contains a carbohydrate food such as fruits, beans, or vegetables; and a protein food such as tofu, nuts, meat, fish, or grains. The perfect complex carbohydrate-protein snack is whole-grain bread spread with sesame butter.
Whatever you do, do not consume the artificial sweetener aspartame. This artificial sweetener is found in NutraSweet, Equal as well as other products and it contains phenylalanine, which should not be considered the cure all to your problems with sugar.
People that consume aspartame containing products tend to experience symptoms such as irritability, depression, headaches, sugar cravings, or poor sleep patterns, which are all common PMS symptoms. It is recommended that all women with classic PMS stay away from these products.
Give your hormones a natural boost with sunlight
According to research, PMS may be a sleep disorder that’s in conjunction with a decrease in the hormones melatonin and serotonin that occurs naturally during ovulation.
We don’t sleep well whenever melatonin is low; in addition, when serotonin is low you feel depressed, crabby, and tense. These feelings can also be looked upon as a craving for bread and pasta, alcohol, and sugar.
Getting enough sunlight would help to increase your body’s levels of both hormones. You can minimize the symptoms of classic PMS through increased exposure to full-spectrum light by going outside, letting the shades up, or you could purchase full-spectrum light boxes as well as bulbs.
Treat PMS with vitamins and minerals
If you’re a woman suffering with PMS, it is recommended that you take a daily multivitamin/ mineral supplement. Both vitamins and minerals work simultaneously to help reduce the symptoms of PMS.
For the best results, choose high-potency multiple supplements with a minimum of six hundred milligrams of calcium, six hundred milligrams of magnesium, and 50 milligrams of most of the B vitamins. In addition, you should also consider taking additional amounts of the ensuing nutrients during your premenstrual phase.
Control excess estrogen with vitamin B6: This is a vitamin that aids the liver with the expelling of excess estrogen, which is a main cause of PMS symptoms. In addition, it works as a natural diuretic, which can help to reduce the bloating associated with PMS. For best results, take a daily dose of 50 and 300 milligrams of vitamin B6, which can help regulate many of the symptoms associated with PMS such as fatigue, sugar cravings, bloating, mood swings, breast tenderness, fluid retention, and irritability.
Revive your mood with calcium: According to one study, which compared women that were given 1200 milligrams of calcium to women that were not, twice as many women that took the calcium reported that they felt less moody and depressed than the women that did not take the calcium. It works by reducing the fluctuation of hormones that are known to reduce calcium that’s being stimulated by estrogen and progesterone during the last days of the menstrual cycle.
Reduce the food cravings with vitamin E: This vitamin works well by reducing PMS symptoms such as food cravings, depression, irritability, breast tenderness, and anxiety.
Get natural relief for the symptoms of PMS
According to alternative health practitioners, there are a number of food supplements, herbs and natural hormone progesterone that may help with the symptoms of PMS.
For bloating, take pycnogenol, which is a food supplement that’s derived from pine bark or grape seeds, and it can reduce bloating, fluid retention, and breast tenderness. For the best results, take 50 milligrams one to two times daily.
For the headaches, take bioflavonoids. Genistein and daidzein are two bioflavonoids that are found in soy products, and they can help control excess estrogen, which leads to the decreasing in Symptoms associated with PMS such as mood swings, fluid retention, and headaches. It’s recommended that you take 1000 to 2000 milligrams of a bioflavonoid supplement daily.
For breast tenderness, take evening primrose oil. It is an essential oil that is a rich source of omega-3 fatty acids. It has the ability to reduce fluid retention, breast tenderness, and mood swings. For best results, take 2000 to 3000 milligrams daily for as long as you need it.
Relieve symptoms of PMS with these four herbs: sage for headaches, cleavers for breast tenderness, dandelion leaf for bloating, and St. John’s wort for depression and irritability. For the best results, follow the recommended doses on the labels.
Use progesterone in the case of desperate times
Women that are overwhelmed by their PMS symptoms and are desperate for relief should think about taking the hormone progesterone. One of the best products to use is the progesterone cream Pro-Gest, which contains standardized amounts of the hormone in a natural rather than a synthetic form.
For best results, use ¼ to ½ teaspoon of this particular cream 1 to 2 times daily from midcycle to menses. You can rub the cream anywhere you like on your stomach, arms, legs or breast. As soon as the cream touches your skin, the progesterone will be absorbed.
By adding additional progesterone, it will bring down your estrogen-progesterone levels and balance them out. However, you may experience a little breast tenderness and some spotting for the first few cycles, but do not get alarmed, these symptoms will go away. Progesterone is a natural hormone and is completely safe. It has very few, if any side effects. Actually, the main side effect that you may experience with this hormone is the feeling of being relaxed to the point that you may feel a little tired.
