PREMENSTRUAL SYNDROME (PMS)
This collection of mental, physical and emotional syndromes occurs in about a third of all women of child-bearing age. More than a hundred signs and symptoms have been reported in the medical literature but this very woolliness has made many men suspicious of the whole subject.
To those women who suffer from PMS things are all too real. The most common complaints are anxiety, nervous tension, and mood swings, irritability, weight gain, breast tenderness, and headaches. Some women are depressed and a few actually suicidal. A loss of sex drive is not at all uncommon either.
It is not known what causes PMS but hormone changes are thought to be responsible. Whether these changes are made worse by nutritional deficiences as a result of a poor diet is open to debate but clinical experience shows that this is likely to be true, if only because so many women greatly improve or are completely cured by taking the right nutritional supplements.
Most women with PMS say that it gets worse as they age, as they have more babies, if they are under stress, if they are worried, and if they do little physical activity.
If you are a sufferer, try keeping a PMS diary, noting down your signs and symptoms month by month. This can help your partner and your family to understand what is happening.
Find a PMS club or group where you can share experiences.
Keep a note on the family calendar so that they can see at a glance that it is a time for them to be more understanding.
Try the following self-help methods for the ten days before a period, stop smoking; drink no alcohol; stop adding salt to your food; cut right down on tea and coffee, eat six small meals a day rather than three ordinary ones; take evening primrose oil as directed on the pack; eat brewer’s yeast tablets as directed on the pack; take some daily exercise, preferably out of doors; and try to cut down the stress in your life.
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