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How to beat PMS

Most women who suffer from PMS can fully understand, for about 4 - 10 days every month, what it is that motivates an axe murderer and how a mother can seriously contemplate giving up her moody teenager for medical experiments.

The behaviour of those around you that would usually pass unnoticed, such as your toddler banging the floor with a spoon or someone using your coffee cup at work, now suddenly convince you that there is a place for capital punishment in our society. And what's more, you would like to do the hanging yourself.

Women who are normally calm turn into terrifying harridans. The scary thing is how quickly this change can take place. On Monday, you could still warn those around you that you think you are becoming premenstrual and by Tuesday you know they deserve everything you say and do to them.

And should anyone have the temerity to suggest that you are premenstrual, they run the risk of an assault with full intent to do grievous bodily harm.

PMS in history
History is peppered with women whose deeds must surely have been committed while suffering from PMS. There was Medea, who killed her two children to avenge herself on her adulterous husband; Lucrezia Borgia, who in sporadic bursts wiped out many of her next-of-kin by poisoning; the Suffragette Emily Davison who threw herself under the king's horse and Charlotte Corday who stabbed Marat in his bath.

Indeed in a growing number of countries in the world, PMS is often proffered as a defence in mitigation of sentence in murder or assault cases.

But even if you are unlikely to commit imprisonable offences, there are drug-free ways in which you can make life during your premenstrual phase much easier for yourself and for those around you.

So why do women get PMS?
Unexpected as it may seem, the average PMS sufferer rarely has a lack of oestrogen and progesterone. While some hormone treatments may suppress symptoms, they do not address the root cause, and therefore do not solve the problem in the long term.

Research has shown that that over 50% of women with PMS have low levels of magnesium and that other nutrients like zinc, essential fatty acids and B vitamins are often in short supply.

Symptoms of PMS can also become worse after pregnancy or weaning as a result of thepossible nutritional depletion these can bring about.

Diet Tips

Here follow some simple dietary recommendations that might relieve your premenstrual symptoms:

  • Make sure you eat at least three portions of fruit and vegetables (preferably green leafy ones) every day.
  • Avoid eating large amounts of refined sugar (sweets, cakes and biscuits)
  • Rather stick to dried or fresh fruit.
  • Keep salt consumption to a minimum as salt makes your body water-retentive.
  • Make sure you eat a diet rich in magnesium, iron, zinc and chromium, essential fatty acids and vitamins B, C and E. Eat fish at least twice during this time.
  • Never skip meals. To maintain your blood sugar levels, it is better to eat small amounts more often.
  • When you are premenstrual, your calorie requirements increase by 500 Calories a day.
  • Eat 2 snacks per day in addition to your usual 3 meals.
  • Eat protein at both lunch and supper.
  • Avoid caffeine, which is found in coffee, tea, cola drinks and chocolate.

If the above seem difficult to stick to, compare the effort of doing this to dealing with a divorce or an assault charge laid against you by someone! Visit GynaeDoc's forum

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