Posts Tagged ‘pmdd’
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In my previous post about PMDD vitamins and herbal remedies I showed that you could use natural alternatives to prescription drugs to alleviate the symptoms of PMDD without any side effects at all. However natural remedies for PMDD disorder is not just about herbal concoctions and vitamin supplements as there will help with the symptoms, but only some really help with controlling the base level problem of hormonal imbalance. Natural remedies go well beyond those supplements (but also include them), to branch out to a complete holistic view of healing your body.
What this means is that you must look to many aspect of your lifestyle to really be rid of PMDD. You must focus on your physical health, your mental and emotional health, your spiritual well being if you will, and your social health as well! This sounds like quite a lot, but in reality you can make a lot of small changes to your life bit by bit, and start seeing dramatic improvement of your PMDD due to this.
I believe that reducing stress and what you eat are in fact the two biggest parts of these sorts of natural PMDD Treatments and should be considered carefully by any women trying to get rid of Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder. However every part of a natural holistic treatment needs to be focused on, planned, and implemented to make any real impact.
I see it like this, that each individual part of a treatment makes some positive impact on your health, but when you add a few different ones they do not just add together, they exponentially increase the effectiveness of the total solution. A friend of mind put is a good way:
“The ends result is greater than the sum of the parts”
This encapsulates it in a nutshell! One very good guide on how to do this is the PMDD Treatment Miracle which details each part of a natural cure for PMDD, how to do it, and also how to plan it out and stay motivated which is a bigger part than anyone cares to admit when we are all so busy!
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In my last post about help for PMDD mood changes I mentioned that PMDD vitamins and herbal remedies are a good way to help. I thought I would elaborate on that a little further with not just the mood changes, but how herbs and vitamins for PMDD can help with many symptoms and also help you to control your hormones that are too much in flux during the last several days of the menstrual cycle.
Below are just a few of these that can really help if you give them a try:
- Magnesium– Taking 250-350 milligrams of magnesium daily can greatly reduce PMDD symptoms, help boost mood, improve sleep quality, reduce cramping and pain, and even help reduce stress. You will get some magnesium from your diet as well so be aware of that before taking supplements.
- Vitamin B-6– You will find that a B-complex supplement or 100 mg B-6 supplement can go a long way towards stopping dysphoria as well as other premenstrual dysphoric disorder problems, such as water retention and cramping.
- Tryptophan– L-tryptophan is the ingredient in turkey that is thought to make people sleepy after a thanksgiving meal. This has been shown to be very effective for people with PMDD. One of the most recommended supplements for the condition, it is proven to help reduce both severe physical and emotional symptoms associated with the condition.
- Valerian Root– This is quite a smelly herb, but it can be quite effective at reducing or eliminating PMDD symptoms. Valerian is shown to have remarkable properties in terms of helping to eliminate stress and anxiety, reducing mood swings and helping many people to get a better night’s rest.
- St. John’s Wort– This is a powerful anti-depressant that has been shown to work just as well as prescription drugs but comes without the side effects!
Help With PMDD Mood Changes
Posted on: February 10, 2011
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The most alarming aspect of PMDD is the severe changes in mood that can turn women from caring mothers, loving partners, and friendly colleagues into raging, irritable, crying, and depressed wrecks. This is shocking for those around them but is nothing compared to the mental and emotional anguish that the women herself must go through every single month like clockwork! It is no wonder so many women need help with PMDD mood changes to keep a measure of stability in their lives.
Firstly lets look at WHY these mood changes occur. The exact science of this is still a little murky but what is known is that the mood regulators in the brain such as serotonin and dopamine that make us feel happier and more in control are not working as optimally as they should during the last week or so of the menstrual cycle. This has very strong links to the hormonal changes of a woman’s body during this time and women with PMDD have a huge problem with hormones where the entire internal system goes crazy! Severely unbalances hormones not only lead to this mood regulation problem but can also show in other ways such as the physical symptoms of headaches, cramps, aches and pains and even other conditions such as PCOS.
So what can we do to help with these mood problems?
Drugs – There are so many drugs on the market that help with depression, anxiety, and general irritability. I cannot deny that they work, and doctors are quick to prescribe them because of this. However they are short term solutions that do not stop the mood changes occurring. They will simply mask the problem for a short time and are also prone to give you further nasty side effects!
Herbal Remedies – There are a number of herbs and vitamins that are very beneficial in helping the body to overcome mood disorders. There are more preferable than drugs as they do not have the same side effects while still producing very good results.
Exercise – A good workout session (one where you push yourself a fair bit!) is not only good for your body, but also for your mind. Your body produces mood enhancing endorphins when you exercise which last for a decent length of time and have many flow on effects to helping control hormone levels as well.
Stress Reduction – While PMDD causes you a lot of stress, stress fills your body with a hormone called cortisol which is one of the main reasons PMDD and other hormonal issues come about. Stress reduction is a huge part of ending PMDD and giving help for PMDD mood changes. There are many ways to do this, medication, exercise, even eating right. But more importantly it takes a shift in thinking that can stop you worrying about everything so much.
Identifying The Symptoms of PMDD
Posted on: February 8, 2011
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PMDD or Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder as is its full name is a condition that affects an estimated 5-10% of women at least in the western world where we have enough data to judge these things. Only recently has this condition been accepted as a real disorder by the American Psychiatric Association in fact which is a relief to many women who suffered with it and were ridiculed for thinking they had more than just a bad case of PMS.
PMDD is in fact related to PMS but the symptoms of PMDD are so extreme that it goes beyond what most women feel around the end of their menstrual cycle to become something much, much worse. The symptoms of PMDD are:
- A greatly depressed mood with feelings of hopelessness and often self deprecating thoughts.
- Severe anxiety often with panic attacks but sometimes just feeling on edge all the time.
- Sudden feelings of sadness, tearful outbursts and a bad reaction to any slight criticism.
- Anger and irritability that leads to increased conflicts with friends, co-workers and loved ones.
- Decreased interest in usual hobbies and activities
- Difficulty in concentrating on even simple tasks.
- Lethargy and lack of energy
- Greatly increased appetite or a sudden craving for a certain food.
- Sleeping too much, or on the other end; insomnia.
- A feeling or sense of being overwhelmed and out of control of things
- Other physical symptoms, such as breast tenderness or swelling, headaches, joint or muscle pain, a sensation of bloating, or weight gain
Not every woman will experience all of these symptoms of PMDD of course, but if you have a number of them especially the ones in the first 5 points then you are a candidate for PMDD. Also, these symptoms must occur in the last week of your menstrual cycle and ease shortly after the onset of bleeding. Having these symptoms in the first 2-3 weeks of the menstrual cycle might indicate a separate issue which you should also look into.
Treating PMDD 