Reduce PMS and balance your hormones

t’s a fact that premenstrual syndrome symptoms (PMS), like mood swings, irritability, depression, nervousness, fluid retention, bloating, headaches, breast tenderness, sugar cravings, and sleep disturbances, influence 75 percent of women. And in 20 percent of these women, the symptoms are so severe that they want medical treatment. Traditional treatments for PMS range from anti-inflammatory drugs to birth control pills.

We know that caffeine, sugar, alcohol, anxiety, and lack of exercise contribute to worsening PMS. Additionally, it is a fact that dairy intake can worsen hormonal imbalances due to all of the hormones in milk. Functional medicine defines the severe hormonal imbalance, addresses the causes such as unhealthy diet and lifestyle, and helps the body repair and recover balance. Once this is completed, the body’s natural intellect handles the rest.

PMS (premenstrual syndrome) involves many unique symptoms lasting from a few days to 2 weeks before menstruation. Together with their intensity, the symptoms can differ from month to month but usually end after the first or second day of bleeding as soon as the menstrual cycle’s follicular phase starts.

What’s the real underlying cause of PMS? The actual reason behind PMS is simply that your hormones become unbalanced, your estrogen levels increase, and progesterone levels fall, either relatively or absolutely.

Fortunately, new research proves that there many ways to have hormones back in the balance without medication. Here are some natural therapies for preventing PMS.

Some factors that could be raising the severity of your PMS symptoms include the following.

– Sugar & processed foods: Excess sugar, salt, unhealthy fats, alcohol, or caffeine, together with insufficient protein, healthy fats, fiber, and complex carbohydrates, can lead to PMS.  Progesterone, obviously highest in the menstrual cycle’s luteal phase, works superbly to stop many PMS symptoms like anxiety, headaches, sleep disturbance, water retention, and breast tenderness. Vitamin B6 and magnesium are particularly valuable for breast pain, water retention, cravings, anxiety headaches, depression, and stress.

– Toxicity: Yeast overgrowth, lack of fiber, or beneficial bacteria in the digestive tract compromises estrogen breakdown and removal. Inadequate liver function or restricted bile flow will also bring about estrogen dominance since bile is high in estrogen metabolites.

– Hypothyroidism: Underactive thyroid disorder should be considered as a potential cause of PMS symptoms.

– Progesterone, is a hormone that can cause PMS if deficient. It is also necessary for healthy thyroid gland function.

Tips for PMS relief

– Healthy diet. This means not including and eating processed flour, sugar, and processed foods, eliminating caffeine, and stop drinking alcohol.

– Balance your blood sugar by eating protein, including a protein shake, eggs, and nut butter, for breakfast.

– Routine: Eat equally throughout the day, and do not skip meals.

– Before sleep: Do not eat within three hours of bedtime.

– Boost omega-3 fats by eating more wild fish such as sardines, herring, and wild salmon, in addition to omega-3 walnuts and eggs.

– Eat organic food, particularly animal products, to prevent environmental estrogens from pesticides.

2. Supplements.

A range of supplements has been proven to help alleviate PMS symptoms by enhancing metabolic function and hormone metabolism. Here are some choices.

Magnesium citrate or glycinate

Calcium citrate

Vitamin B6

A daily multivitamin

– Herbs and phytonutrients may also be very valuable. Wild yam (Dioscorea villosa) and cramp bark (Viburnum opulus) can help regulate cycles and relieve menstrual cramps.

– Chinese herbal formulations may also help. Among the most successful is Xiao Yao San, or Rambling Powder.

3. Exercise: Research indicates that aerobic exercise helps improve symptoms of PMS, such as melancholy and fatigue. Anything that boosts your heart rate is deemed aerobic exercise. Brisk walking, jogging, biking, and swimming are all great choices. It helps enhance your mood by fostering important mind compounds called endorphins. Increased endorphins may also cut the amount of pain you feel from PMS. One study found that women who did 60-minute aerobic sessions three times per week for 2 weeks felt considerably improved physically, mentally, and emotionally.

4. Lower stress. Handling stress is also crucial. You may just do pranayamas and incredibly light stretching rather than extreme yoga. This notion applies similarly to all facets of life, from physical exercise to your own job. Ideally, you would have some reduce stress days on the job during menstruation to be able to facilitate detox. In summary, psychological stress and physical strain should be avoided when menstruating, when at all possible.

5. Ayurveda: Ayurveda looks at menstruation as a natural detox procedure for the female body. It states that a woman should ease the process of letting go of all the menstrual blood to a degree where no physical strain is exerted. That is why if you look in Ashtanga yoga, during the women’s menstruation days, there is no yoga practiced. The reason: they do not want women to exert any physical energy once the body is undergoing a detox procedure.

6. Homeopathy: One clinical trial demonstrated that individualized treatment is effective in treating PMS. Five homeopathic medications were used: Lachesis, Natrum muriaticum, Nux vomica, Pulsatilla, and Sepia. A plan like this can have impressive results on premenstrual symptoms.

8. Detox your body: Eliminate alcohol, sugar, caffeine, processed flours, and inflammatory fats like those found in full-fat dairy products, red meats, peanuts, margarine, shortening, and hydrogenated oils from your diet. This will stabilize blood glucose and prevent undue stress and hormonal imbalance due to skipped meals.

Probiotic supplements will establish a healthy bacterial balance in your digestive system and encourage estrogen breakdown and removal.  For constipation and to assist PMS symptoms, have 1-3 tablespoons of ground flaxseeds daily for fiber, ligands, and phytoestrogens. Sprinkle these on your salads or to your oatmeal, and you’ll get four of the recommended daily intake of 35 grams of fiber. Add a hypoallergenic fiber nutritional supplement to your smoothies, too, and you will gain another eight.

9. Vitamins: Include these in your everyday supplement intake.

Include a high potency multivitamin with dinner and breakfast. This supplement will offer the nutrients required for hormonal balance while also keeping your metabolism and energy levels. Calcium/magnesium citrate at a 1:1 ratio with vitamin D3. Magnesium aids fluid retention, breast tenderness, anxiety, bloating, and fatigue, while calcium aids with cramping and other PMS symptoms since it is especially involved in estrogen detoxification. Taking a vitamin E supplement containing all kinds of vitamin E reduces prostaglandins production that leads to cramps and breast tenderness.

In Ayurveda, the menstrual cycle has its own Vata, Pitta, and Kapha stage. If you can recognize which stage affects you most, we’ve got some useful tips to help you.

Vata stage: (day 1 – 4)

Vata dosha provides the force that regulates all downward motions in the body, pushing the menstruum down from the body. If your Vata is not in balance, it will manifest as headaches, constipation, fatigue, indigestion, nervousness, and insomnia, signaling the need for some Vata balancing practices. Time to make space for calm and peace to recharge during this period. Calming herbs like ashwagandha or licorice can help strengthen and support your adrenal glands are useful right now.

Kapha stage– (day 5 – 14)

Kapha types naturally encourage and strengthen others. If you have Kapha dosha out of balance, you may experience symptoms like fluid retention, breast tenderness, weight gain, fatigue, backache, and overall heaviness. Decongesting herbs like turmeric, aloe vera, and Shatavari can help eliminate any stagnation and support hormone balancing during your menstrual cycle. Herbal teas with ginger, cinnamon, and turmeric may provide relief.

Yoga and meditation classes would get the blood flowing and remove stagnation.

Pitta stage (day 14 – 18)

Pitta dosha is key in the ovulation and luteal phases. Since the blood stations and menstruation are linked, this causes additional heat in the system, resulting in diarrhea, feelings of aggravation, skin irritations, headaches,  and emotional stress. Feelings of bloating, diarrhea, cravings, and breast tenderness are also common PMS symptoms. Heat-clearing and liver-regulating spices like aloe vera, turmeric, and spirulina can be useful in this phase of your menstrual cycle.

Keep yourself in balance by favoring cooling herbal teas like mint and nettle.

See: Menstruation research studies for holistic treatments