If you’re suffering from period cramps and PMS, you’re not alone. But do you know the truth? Period cramps aren’t normal! Oh yes, ABSOLUTELY! Healthy periods aren’t painful.
Know what else healthy periods don’t have? Heavy or irregular bleeding, sleep issues, acne, bloating, PMS and major mood swings which are so debilitating that it can threaten your relationships.
I am a Gynaecologist Obstetrician ( MD, DNB OBGYN )with an emphasis on INTEGRATIVE MEDICINE.
Many women accept that this is the ‘norm’ and that this monthly nuisance is inevitable but, it doesn’t have to be.
Sure, common symptoms of PMS like breast tenderness, sugar cravings, irritability, mood swings, anxiety, depression, bloating, headaches, and sleep disturbance affect 75% of women. And about 20% of those women will be medicated for their symptoms because they are so severe.
But this doesn’t have to be true for you. You can eliminate cramps and PMS symptoms naturally. I know, because I help women do it every day.
There are indeed prescription drugs and supplements that can help alleviate PMS and cramps, but they are not without their side effects. Ibuprofen, Paracetamol and Maftal can make PMS symptoms worse over time by suppressing ovulation and subsequently resulting in lower progesterone. Birth control is commonly prescribed for just about anything related to hormones in a woman. It’s offered up a magic little pill that will make all your troubles go away, but what most doctors don’t say is that the pill can do some serious damage and shouldn’t be taken lightly.
But what is most problematic about using the pill is that it masks symptoms and suppresses your hormones. Maybe that doesn’t sound so bad. But left to brew, these hormonal imbalances that are suppressed can result in an inability to get pregnant, hair loss, weight gain, difficult menopausal symptoms, and mood disorders.
And the list of drug options only gets worse from here. Danazol, which suppresses ovulation and will help you grow a healthy beard. Gonadotropin-releasing hormone changes your brain to shift estrogen and progesterone levels and can contribute to osteoporosis. And let’s not forget the sleep, anxiety, fluid retention, and depression medications meant to treat the symptoms. Yes, there is a lot of pharmaceutical answers to suppress your body’s signals, but if you’ve found your way onto my blog, I suspect you’re looking for more than just a “pill for every ill.”
You must know — you do NOT have to be at the mercy of your PMS. You can treat it naturally and you can free yourself from the monthly mood swings, cramps, and other symptoms that have been stealing your joy from life. I want to share with you the tips and tools I use to eliminate PMS and cramps in my patients.
If your period comes with any of these symptoms, here’s the good news: you can change that by addressing the root cause of the problem. But the first step is to understand why you have period pain (and other PMS problems like acne, bloating, mood swings, and migraines) in the first place. So what can you do? answers are easy, straightforward, and doable right away today. And if you start right now, you can have a better period by next month—and a pain-free period within three months.
The answer is in your periods. Researching has shown that your period is the 5th vital sign of your health. Getting your period healthy will help you get healthy now and prevent disease in the future.
PMS is caused by an imbalance in hormones — namely, your estrogen is dominant, either absolute or relative to progesterone, the latter being more common. *Diets rich in sugar, refined carbohydrate, non-organic meat, conventional dairy products and caffeine promote hormone imbalances. Whereas, diets that are low in these foods, plus include vegetables, plenty of fibre, and healthy fats help balance hormones. *Stress, environmental pollutants and hormone-disrupting chemicals in our environment also induce these hormone changes, as does excess stress.
*Constipation keeps your body from releasing estrogen from the body and alcohol can inhibit your liver from processing estrogen — both of which can lead to estrogen dominance. *And lack of exercise can also cause hormones to fall out of balance. Daily movement is necessary to keep your hormones in balance. When healing PMS and cramps in my clinic, we focus on these 6 tools as a starting place to begin eliminating symptoms while we dig deeper for the individual’s root cause. After 2 cycles you should notice an improvement in your symptoms.
Eliminating PMS & Cramps without masking with Drugs:
Clients come to me with severe PMS which are disrupting their life. We make some diet changes based on their metabolic type and Lifestyle, I have them take some Natural SUPPLEMENTS targeted at the root cause of their issue and we support the liver in detoxing the excess estrogen. The changes are really simple, but the effects are profound — within one to two-cycle, the PMS and cramps reduce considerably and vanish in a few months. The best part is that they also end up shedding excess weight which is a side effect of balanced hormones. The energy and mood improve too.
Magnesium not only reduces cramps, improves sleep but also supports adrenal glands. It’s one of my favourite supplements.
Increasing dietary fibre helps keep the bowels regular, which reduces bloating and helps your body move out excess estrogen.
You don’t have to be making extra estrogen to become estrogen dominant. It can be as simple as just not being able to move your estrogen out of the body
Estrogen is moved out of the body through the bowels. You have to poop every day to get your estrogen out. If your bowels aren’t moving, your estrogen sticks around longer than it should. When this happens estrogen goes back into circulation and can lead to symptoms of bloating, cramping, heavy periods, and irritability.
Eating at least 25 grams of fibre every day is crucial for keeping your bowels regular, moving your estrogen out and kissing PMS goodbye!
I have my patients add fibre-rich foods to their diet to support digestion and hormones. You can grab a free meal plan here to help you get started.
Another mechanism that can cause estrogen to go up and subsequent estrogen dominance is inflammation. Inflammation increases the activity of an enzyme called aromatase. Aromatase converts testosterone to estrogen, which results in elevated estrogen and harmful estrogen metabolites which drive your PMS symptoms crazy
When your estrogen is up and your testosterone is down then you’ll likely be feeling cranky, weepy, unmotivated.
But lowering inflammation can slow aromatase and keep your estrogen and testosterone in check.
One crucial tool for lowering inflammation is adopting an anti-inflammatory diet. Cutting gluten, dairy, sugar, processed food and any foods you are sensitive too will cool the inflammation and give your hormones a chance to even back out.
Plus, as inflammation decreases, so does the frequency of menstrual cramps, low backache, irritability, and fatigue.
Using a turmeric supplement can also be beneficial in helping you maintain healthy levels of inflammation.
Cortisol, a stress hormone secreted by your adrenals, are designed to be released at only certain times of the day and in times of stress. When you experience prolonged and chronic stress your adrenal glands work overtime and excreted excess cortisol.
In a perfect world, you make both cortisol and progesterone in just the right amounts the body needs. But in the crazy, stressful world your body pushes hormone production into cortisol overdrive at the expense of progesterone.
Progesterone is down, cortisol is up and with it are several symptoms. You’re likely experiencing excess weight in the mid-section, weepiness, breast tenderness, disrupted sleep, anxiety and painful periods.
But not to fear! You can handle your stress with some easy bliss-inducing practices like yoga, deep breathing, meditation, visualization, walking etc…simplest are often the best!
When you feel stress starting to bubble up, take some deep breaths and re-assess if your response matches the stressor. Often, when our hormones are out of balance we will overreact and worry more than we would otherwise. If this is true of you, you’ll likely need more hormone support with herbs, specific nutrients and mega-stress reduction to eliminate this problem.
Insulin is indeed the hormone of concern with diabetes. However, insulin also has a large role in your hormone system
Remember that enzyme aromatase? Well, when insulin goes up then aromatase gets to work making lots of estrogen from your testosterone. And remember, mood swings, heavy periods, low libido and bloating can all come from this type of hormone imbalance.
Meals loaded with simple carbs or sugar will cause your insulin levels to soar! Eating fat and protein while limiting simple carb intake can help lessen the load on your hormones.
Besides, adding dietary fibre will help keep insulin and blood sugar stable. Plus, leaves you feeling full longer.
Regular exercise that includes strength training will help sensitize your cells to insulin so that your body doesn’t have to produce high amounts of the hormone.
Start aligning with your menstrual cycle. All of the tips I just mentioned will only get you so far if you don’t start to live following your cycle. Eating and exercising for each week-long phase of your 28-day cycle is the foundation of feeling better and having a symptom-free period. For too long, we’ve been living the same way day in and day out. This works for men, but not for women. Aligning with your cycle will not only fix your period problems, but it will also help you find more happiness, energy, and success in life. I will address how to do the same in another blog.
When PMS symptoms have been with you for a while or are quite severe, it is often necessary to leverage proper supplements like Vitex, turmeric, calcium magnesium, omega-3 fatty acids, and apoptogenic herbs.
So what is next on the healing journey? Grab my Hormone harmony guide and expand your toolkit to feel better, learn the root cause of your issue.
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Originally published September 23, 2019 by Dr Disha Sridhar
NP 404, Shriram Spandhana Challaghatta, Murugeshpalya Bangalore, Karnataka - 560037