PMS and How to Tackle It

Did you know that PMS or Premenstrual Syndrome is a condition that is experienced by more than 75% of today’s women?  Surprisingly, when asked, most women deny suffering from this condition. But think about it. How many times have the men in our lives complained about those unmanageable mood swings and unexplained snappy behavior? If you are a woman, you must know that feeling when you are trying to explain just how irritable you feel, how much you are suffering and how you feel like you have the right to be snappy. Strangely, it was only your mother, sister or best friend who understood what you meant.

That is because they have gone through the same troubles themselves. Ignore the ones who say that PMS is a woman’s excuse to act irritable and unreasonable for a few days, every month. They are wrong. It is a medical condition, and in some cases, a very serious one.  About 10 % of the women who suffer from the symptoms of this condition require medical help to tackle it. So, before you can reject it as something ‘normal’ that you just have to find a way to deal with, check if you have the following symptoms.

• Physical symptoms of premenstrual condition include feeling bloated, headaches and weight gain. 
•  In some cases swelling of the breast, ankles, hands etc are also noted. 
•   Insomnia and disrupted sleep, acne, constipation are all signs that you are suffering from PMS.

These are the physical symptoms. The mental ones include irritability, depression, aggressiveness, cravings for food, chocolate etc. So, if you notice most of these symptoms about 5 to 7 days before your menstruation starts, it is more than likely that you are indeed suffering from premenstrual syndrome. So, what can you do to bring the situation under control?

To be honest with you; medical science has no one-step cure for this condition. Your hormones are raging at this time of your menstrual cycle and the best you can do is to calm them down a bit. Here is how you can do that:

1. Have a balanced diet and eat every three or four hours. Reduce the intake of food items that are rich in sugar and fats. Concentrate on lean proteins and complex carbohydrates. Cut down on alcohol, caffeine and salt too if you can.
2. Regular exercise, even only for twenty to thirty minutes, can go a long way in keeping your mind and body refreshed. Along with this, get regular undisturbed sleep for at least seven to eight hours.
3. If your condition is so serious that it hampers your day to day life, consult a doctor and take certain supplements that can help. Multivitamins, Vitamin B complex, Vitamin E etc. are the ones that are commonly recommended. 

Remember that anti-depressants and similar other medication are your last option. They do nothing to cure the condition; they just suppress it for a while. Like most women, if you had been ignoring PMS, its time you stopped. The pain you suffer from every single month, can be reduced.