By Joan S. Kent
Diet isn”™t the only reason your students may suffer from PMS symptoms. But it could be a big one. If the women in your classes approach you for help with PMS (or even complain about it), you”™re in a great position to offer good advice.
Premenstrual syndrome includes a long list of symptoms and signs: anxiety, depression, irritability, mood swings, nervousness, angry outbursts, fatigue, fluid retention, bloating, weight gain, backache, cramps, headaches, joint pain, breast pain, insomnia, acne, and cravings. Whew.
Factors that contribute to PMS include hormone or neurochemical shifts, diet deficiencies, stress, and lack of exercise. (That last one certainly won”™t apply to indoor cycling students.)
Two important brain chemicals associated with PMS are serotonin and beta-endorphin. Both chemicals drop pre-menstrually — with interesting effects.
The first, serotonin, promotes relaxation, calm and satiety, the feeling that we”™ve had enough food. It can reduce depression, stress, anxiety, and pain. During PMS, the drop in serotonin can lead to irritability, pain, depression, mood swings, impulsivity, increased appetite, and cravings, especially for carbs.
Second, beta-endorphin reduces pain and emotional distress, while it promotes wellbeing, euphoria, and brain “reward”. When beta-endorphin drops during PMS, we feel more pain and have “low” moods and cravings, especially for sugars and fats.
Serotonin and beta-endorphin are strongly influenced by diet and exercise. How does repeated sugar consumption affect this?
Women with PMS tend to have higher intakes of sugar, alcohol, white flour, salt, saturated fat, caffeine, and dairy products. From the other side, PMS is linked with low levels of B vitamins, protein, essential fatty acids, and fiber. These dietary habits tend to be either/or. One cancels out the other.
Let”™s focus on high sugar intake. Sugar increases the intensity of PMS symptoms. It increases breast tenderness, congestion and pain; abdominal bloating; and swelling of the face and extremities. Sugar increases magnesium excretion, which in turn results in irritability, anxiety, depression, low brain reward, and insomnia.
Sugar triggers high insulin secretion. Insulin affects hormones known as prostaglandins (as explained in a previous post), and increases the ones that cause pain and inflammation. Sugar increases appetite for junk food, cravings, and hypoglycemia in people who are susceptible. Alcohol does these things, too, and can decrease serotonin besides. Not a good mix of effects from either of these substances.
The best plan is for your students to get off sugar (and alcohol, which is essentially the same thing health-wise). Recommend that they eat protein throughout the day, preferably with each meal and/or snack. They can replace sugar and white flour with complex carbs — sweet potato, quinoa, turnips, lentils, pumpkin and other squash, and vegetables — and eat unsaturated fats (avocado, olive oil, nuts, seeds) with each meal.
Supplements can help your students feel better. Flaxseed oil and fish oil capsules are good to take every day. Magnesium improves mood. B-complex can help restore healthful hormone and neurochemical levels. Vitamin D3 is needed for uptake of magnesium, as well as for calcium.
Make sure they keep coming to your classes. Working out at least 3-4 times a week relieves many symptoms, and is as important as all of the other suggestions combined.
Many other nutrition and supplement suggestions exist for dealing with PMS — not to mention making it through menopause without discomfort. I”™ll be back to cover these topics in future posts. Meanwhile, if your students could use help in ending sugar addiction, they can contact me at www.foodaddictionsolutions.com.
Contact her at drjoan@foodaddictionsolutions.com
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Thanks Joan! When Abby was about 4, the UPS guy came to the door and she yelled, “Mom, the PMS guy’s here!”.
You can tell, we’ve had some PMS issues in our house.
Sugar is a culprit in so many health issues and seems to be an ingredient in just about every processed food item. I’m going to pass your article along to the same daughter, as she struggles with PMS now at 22.
Looking forward to your future posts, as always!
Amy
Hi, Amy.
Thanks for reading my post and commenting. So does your UPS guy know he’s giving the women of your household PMS? (Maybe that should be in the past tense, since your daughter’s grown now.) 🙂
I agree with you completely about sugar and processed food, of course. Talk soon.
Best,
Joan
Whilst I agree that you can’t argue with giving recommendations to eat a healthy nutritious diet, suggesting (or even discussing) specific supplements for specific conditions is a bit questionable ……even when there’s robust evidence.
Had a workshop on this very thing at Boston Mania this year and the presenter drew a very firm line between what was within “Scope of Practice” and what was not. Supplement recommendations were definitely not.
Vivienne
Vivienne,
Thanks for reading and commenting on my post. When you mention scope of practice, what were the backgrounds of the attendees at Boston Mania? If they were fitness instructors, your point is apt.
Why not write some articles on nutrition, since it appears to be a specialty of yours and you never did what it takes to get a dental degree in the U.S.? I’m sure John would appreciate your contributions to ICI-Pro.
Thank you,
Joan
Yes, Boston Mania is aimed at fitness instructors…..but their backgrounds cab be as varied as on forums like this.
I did, in fact get my US dental license back in the late 1980s and had my own practice on Long Island for close to 15 years before “retirement” and our move to Boston.