Nutritional Management of PMS
Premenstrual syndrome affects between 20 and 90% of females of reproductive age (depending on the researcher’s criteria for symptoms and severity).
About 40% (12 million women in the U.S.) are affected to a degree that markedly disrupts their lives during the premenstrual phase of their cycle: 80%
experience irritability & anxiety; 60% carbohydrate craving; 40% bloating & edema; 20% depression.
Variable symptoms include- fatigue, headache, insomnia, breast swelling and mastalgia, constipation, acne, violent behavior and cramping.
Risk factors include:
- Age: late 20s-early 30s
- Low exercise
- Poor diet (excesses of meats, sugar, coffee, alcohol, fats, and preservatives)
- High stress (high estrogen years)
- Toxemia of pregnancy
- Irregular menses
- Poor drug tolerance (birth control pills, antibiotics)
- Postpartum depression
- Obesity
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