by doccat5

Created on: March 21, 2008

No these symptoms are NOT in your head. Normally once a month a majority of normally nice, calm, and intelligent women turn into the harridan from Hell!

PMS is a very real and sometimes crippling set of symptoms that most women suffer through with the onset of their period. PMS affects 30-40% of menstruating women, peaking among women in their 30s and 40s. Common symptoms include depression, irritability, anxiety, fatigue, water retention, breast tenderness, bloating and food cravings.

There are natural ways to help you help your body balance the hormonal changes taking place that are causing a lot of these symptoms. Being aware of what is happening inside your body is the first step in making yourself more comfortable and eliminating many of the symptoms associated with PMS. Here are some suggestions for you to use to help yourself:
Do add exercise 3 times a week for 30 minutes to your regime, swimming, yoga and even a brisk walk will help tremendously.

And diet is another important factor to consider. It's been shown that by increasing foods rich in estrogen such as soy, apples, alfalfa, cherries, potatoes, rice, wheat and yams, as well as, increasing foods rich in Vitamin C, calcium and magnesium can alleviated symptoms of anxiety and depression and premenstrual stress, as well as preventing the onset of the cramps and pain. Avoid salty foods, extra sugary snacks, increase your intake of magnesium and calcium instead. Calcium is key in preventing osteoporosis post menopause and actually helps balance the biochemical changes taking place within the body during menstruation, Magnesium is need to buffer the calcium and help the body optimize it's effects. Some dietary sources of magnesium and calcium other than vitamin supplements are dairy products, beans, tofu, salmon, green leafy vegetables, beans and peas.

Also consider the benefits of aromatherapy, some oils that have a calming, soothing effect are: Chamomile, Lavender, Marjoram, Peppermint, Rose, Rosemary, and Sandalwood. Most women these days have such busy schedules it's easy to be sleep deprived. Do give yourself permission to rest and relax during this time.

Many women have turned to herbal remedies as an alternative choice for treatment of PMS. There are basically two types of herbal remedies for treating PMS mood swings: phytoestrogen and non-estrogenic herbal remedies. The phytoestrogen herbal remedies (e.g. Black Cohosh, Dong Quai) contain estrogenic components produced by plants. Though, these herbal remedies are good for treating low hormone levels, because they replace some of the missing estrogen hormones, they aren't the best solution for treating hormonal imbalance. As a result of adding hormones from outside, your body will become less responsive to produce estrogen on its own. This causes a further decrease of body-own hormone levels.

Unlike phytoestrogen herbal remedies, non-estrogenic herbal remedies, as its name suggests, don't contain any estrogen. These herbal remedies nourish your hormonal glands into producing more efficiently your own natural hormones. This ultimately ends up in balancing not only estrogen, but also progesterone and testosterone. In other words, non-estrogenic herbal remedies stimulate your own hormone production, by inducing the optimal functioning of the pituitary and endocrine glands.

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