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How To Cure PMDD & PMS Naturally
by Dr. Daniel J. Heller
We don’t use the word "cure" lightly when it comes to PMDD and PMS, or indeed any condition, especially any women’s health concern. That’s because sometimes the word cure is used in an overly simplistic fashion. What we mean by cure is this: you can do a tremendous amount to avoid and relieve premenstrual symptoms, up to the point where you may indeed feel you’ve cured your PMDD or PMS.
This cure is entirely do-it-yourself. It doesn’t require medication, though we will point out the potentially important role of herbs, vitamins, and minerals that can make all the difference. You can overcome PMDD and PMS, even after a lifetime of hormonal imbalance and menstrual symptoms. It won’t necessarily happen overnight, but you can do it. In the process, you’ll be making yourself healthier, using natural measures that will also lower your risk of heart disease, cancer, and Alzheimer’s.
We start, of course, with diet. In this article you’ll see links to several diet articles. Believe it or not, they’re all required reading for a real PMS cure. In fact, we’d recommend you read them twice, then bookmark or print them out to refer to later. That’s how important they are, and how essential the right food is to your health, and to natural PMS & PMDD relief.
You Are What You Eat: We’ve all heard this little truism before. And there’s a reason it gets repeated over and over: healthy diet is the key to preventing and relieving PMDD & PMS symptoms, as well as to ensuring your overall health throughout your whole life.
It can be really hard nowadays to figure out what is a healthy diet. Commercials on TV are for junk food and fast food. Many of us were raised eating sugary cereals and convenience snacks and energy bars as if that constituted real, good food. Here at PMS Comfort, we are so convinced that health begins with what you eat, and that the end of PMS & PMDD misery starts with choosing the right foods and avoiding the wrong foods, that we have devoted several sections to explaining exactly, step-by-step, how you can transform your health and your mood, and ensure a long, healthy, happy productive life for yourself (and your family).
Our diet section also includes a seven-day healthy eating menu and an explanation of hormone-healthy foods. A natural cure for PMDD and PMS should begin with food and diet.
Less Stress—"Don’t Sweat The Small Stuff": This is really very simple. The more stress you experience, the worse your premenstrual symptoms will be. This is true whether you have physical PMS symptoms like cramps, bloating, and tender breasts, or more emotional PMDD symptoms like mood swings, extreme anger, and depression.
Sometimes stress comes from outside: it’s been proven, for instance, that minority women who experience discrimination have more PMDD. This makes sense when you consider how stressful it is to always feel that you aren’t being given a fair chance—something many women experience anyway, regardless of their heritage or the color of their skin. External stress, however, is often made worse by your internal reaction to it.
Stress is a major problem for so many in our society, especially women. Self-criticism, negative self-talk, worry and anxiety—while this often seems to comes from inside, the roots of these stress-generating thoughts and feelings often lie in patterns that were created during our childhood. This is especially true for women with anxiety. The way girls and women are raised in our culture; the portrayal of women in the media; and unrealistic expectations of perfection as wives, homemakers, professionals and even as students add to women’s stress levels. And that makes PMDD and PMS much worse.
PMS Comfort’s natural cure for PMDD and PMS considers good stress management as very important. Finding a way to deal with external and internal stressors so that they don’t take such a toll on your physical and mental health, and contribute to causing or aggravating premenstrual symptoms, is a key to feeling great again.
There are myriad ways you can try to lower your stress level. Briefly, here are a few of the most commonly used stress techniques, and most effective ones:
Get up and move around: Human beings were designed to move around, exercise, and not sit still. Too much sitting around, whether it’s at work, in front of a computer, in a classroom, or in a car is not good for anyone. For one thing, moving around and getting exercise discharges stress—in fact, it’s one of the best ways to prevent stress from building up and affecting our moods. Also, exercise is beneficial in nearly every way it has ever been studied, as long as you don’t overdo it. Maintain your healthy heart? Check. Prevent cancer? Check? Keep your mind sharp and clear well into old age? Check? Keep your bones and muscles fit and healthy? Check. Maintain a healthy metabolism to help your figure? Check.
Prevent and relieve PMDD, PMS, and premenstrual symptoms? Check, yet again. Whether you start with regular 15-20 minute walks in your neighborhood, at the park, or at work, the best thing you can do is to get started. Do it with a friend, and you can motivate each other, since it’s easy to put it off until tomorrow. If you’re interested in a higher level of fitness, you can join a gym (all-women’s gyms are often the best fit) or take up jogging—just don’t overdo it. And, no matter what you choose, try not to sit for more than 30 minutes at a time. Take a break, stretch, do a brisk 30 second walk – anything to keep from being sedentary and just sitting still.
Exercise, and moving your body, is a "no brainer." Nearly everyone can find some way to do it, and by using your body the way it was meant, you will contribute to your own personal PMDD and PMS cure.
Go To Sleep: Don’t skimp on shuteye. So many women lead such busy schedules nowadays that they forget to make time for one of the most important healthcare investments of all: 7-9 hours per night of high quality restful sleep. Just as we were designed to be physically active by moving around and getting exercise, we were also meant to sleep in completely dark environments without electric lights (for instance, from clock radios, DVD players, streetlights, and other light sources) and to rest in addition to being active. Too many of us instead don’t get enough exercise or enough rest, and sleep in rooms that are literally glowing with electric light sources.
Lack of sleep is a recipe for being overwhelmed by stress, and for a brain that isn’t fully "on." That, of course, leads to more PMS and PMDD symptoms. Of course, for many women better sleep isn’t simply a matter of wishing or hoping—there certainly are intractable cases of insomnia, so we don’t mean to suggest that getting more sleep is a simple matter of choice if you have this condition. But to the degree you can prioritize sleep and rest, it is definitely in your best interest.
PMS & PMDD Herbs & Nutrients: No herb, vitamin, mineral, or natural pill cures PMS. But the Do It Yourself approach to a natural cure for PMDD and PMS don’t always work perfectly. That’s why we think combining the DIY aspects of PMS and PMDD relief with the right combination of time-tested, scientific natural products offers the best chance of success. Many women, using the herb and nutrient approach below, have found relief from the PMS & PMDD symptoms that were troubling them.
PMS & PMDD Herbal Remedies: We created PMS Comfort Herbal based on the proven benefit of the herb Vitex chastetree, plus a combination of other important women’s herbs and vitamin B6. Holistic doctors and herbalists have used these herbs successfully with thousands of women. One other herbal remedy, not available from PMS Comfort, which has a good record of success in PMDD and PMS is St. John’s Wort, the well-known herb that has been used successfully for depression and anxiety.
PMS & PMDD Vitamins & Minerals: Many different nutrients have been suggested and researched for PMS and PMDD. There is good evidence to support the use of calcium, magnesium, and vitamin B6 supplements for the relief of PMS and PMDD symptoms. Of course, getting enough of these important nutrients in your food and diet is important, too, but for most women supplements are a better choice, as they’ve actually been proven to work, and it is hard to get adequate amounts from diet alone. The correct amount of calcium is 1000 milligrams per day; of magnesium, 400-600 milligrams per day; and of vitamin B6, 50-85 milligrams per day.
PMS and PMDD misery aren't always taken seriously enough by doctors, family, and friends. At PMS Comfort, our whole purpose is to empower and educate you about premenstrual symptoms, and to provide real, natural relief so that you can feel great all month long. Our all-natural doctor-designed programs are based on decades of experience helping thousands of women recover from what you've been going through. Our Herbal Relief formula, when combined with our diet and lifestyle guidance, addresses more than just your symptoms—it can help bring your body and mind back into balance, and help you get and stay healthy. Plus, we're here to support you, every step of the way.
To learn more about your PMS and PMDD symptoms, take the PMS Comfort quiz. Or, start feeling better today, for as little as 89 cents per day.
We want to help. Give us a call at 1-800-731-6327, drop us an e-mail, or send us your question.