Many women deal with moderate to severe PMS symptoms. These can include headaches, mood swings, cramping, and numerous other symptoms. My wife was one of these women who experienced some of these symptoms. And while they weren’t too severe, they definitely weren’t pleasant to deal with (for both me and her!).
Most women who experience these symptoms just learn to live with them. And the reason they don’t try to do anything to help with such symptoms is because they consider these symptoms to be normal. While they are very common, having moderate to severe PMS symptoms IS NOT normal. And in most cases there are things you can do to dramatically reduce these symptoms.
Why Do Most Women Experience PMS Symptoms?
In order to better understand why it’s not normal for women to experience moderate to severe PMS symptoms, it’s probably a good idea to discuss why many women experience such symptoms. I’m not going to discuss the physiology in great detail, but in the first half of a woman’s cycle, the estrogen levels should be higher than in the second half of the cycle, and in this first half you should eventually see a spike in the estrogen levels. In the second half of the cycle the opposite takes place, as progesterone increases. Then towards the end of the cycle both of these hormones decrease, causing menstruation to occur, and the cycle begins over again.
This obviously is a simplified explanation of what happens, but let’s focus on the end of the second half of the cycle. This once again is right before menstruation begins, which is typically when most women begin experiencing these PMS symptoms. When there is an imbalance of these hormones, and the levels of estrogen and progesterone don’t decline at similar times, then it’s this hormone imbalance which causes the PMS symptoms. So based on what I just told you, the goal is to correct this hormone imbalance, which ultimately will help reduce the PMS symptoms.
But wait, why can’t you take “The Pill” to manage the symptoms of PMS? Although many women do this, I’ve discussed the risk of taking oral contraceptives in the past. Even though many medical doctors give “The Pill”, not necessarily for birth control reasons, but instead to “regulate” the cycle, oral contraceptives will suppress the endocrine system. So while it might help with the symptoms, it actually will make the hormone imbalance worse, and can lead to numerous health risks in the future. As a result, I do not recommend for women to take oral contraceptives for symptom management.
How To Reduce PMS Symptoms
My wife experienced moderate PMS symptoms for years, and now she still has some symptoms, but they are very mild. Let me explain how this happened, and how many women with similar symptoms can accomplish the same thing. Ever since I’ve attended chiropractic school I’ve done regular detoxifications. I try to do at least one each year, and usually will try to do two. Getting my wife to follow such a protocol is quite the challenge. But I still try convincing her each time I do one, and every now and then I’m successful.
The first few times she went through this program she experienced severe headaches and stopped after a few days. Even though this is a common symptom of detoxifying and the symptoms usually subside after a few days, she didn’t want to follow through with the program. But one year she decided to follow through, as I didn’t put her on as strict of a program as I usually follow, and so this made it easier for her. Don’t get me wrong, as it still was challenging. In any case, she stuck with it for most of the three weeks, although she did admittedly cheat a few times, and ended the program a few days early.
Despite not following a strict detoxification program and ending it early, there were some dramatic improvements in her symptoms right before she got her period. Usually she experienced noticeable symptoms right before menstruation, but with her first period right after completing the detox, she hardly noticed any symptoms. This wasn’t just a fluke, as it continued to happen with future periods as well. Another thing she did which helped greatly was switching to a high quality, whole food multi-vitamin. At the time she thought she was already taking a good quality supplement, as she purchased hers at the local health food store. But it wasn’t until she made the switch to a better quality whole food supplement that she noticed an even greater improvement in her PMS symptoms.
This is both good news and bad news for anyone who is suffering from moderate to severe PMS symptoms. The good news is that it is possible to dramatically reduce such symptoms. The bad news is that it’s challenging to do so, and then once you accomplish this, it does take some discipline to maintain this. I’m not suggesting that a purification program and/or taking a whole food multivitamin supplement will help every woman with their PMS symptoms, as when someone has a severe hormone imbalance then this may not work, and a different natural treatment protocol may be required. But if you are experiencing moderate to severe PMS symptoms, I highly recommend consulting with a holistic doctor so they can find out the underlying cause of the problem, and put you on the necessary protocol to correct the hormone imbalance, and make these symptoms much more tolerable.