Pre-Menstrual Syndrome (PMS)
Around 40%
of all women in the reproductive years suffer from PMS at some time. For
10% of sufferers the condition is serious and debilitating… and in some
cases even life threatening. Women with severe PMS are more likely to
commit suicide or have a life threatening accident. While PMS can effect
any reproductive age woman, it has been my strong observation that it is
more common and severe in women leading already pressured and stressful
lives.
Suspect
PMS if you suffer from physical or emotional symptoms that appear
cyclically, occurring in the 2 – 14 days before the onset of your period,
and disappearing with the onset of
menstruation.
While
there is still much to be learned about the intricacies of female hormone
imbalance, one thing is for sure…. PMS is about hormonal imbalance, and
is NOT just “all in your head”!
SYMPTOMS
Symptoms
of PMS are diverse, and different from woman to woman, or sometimes from
month to month. The most commonly occurring symptoms
include:
*mood
issues – anxiety, depression, tearfulness, anger,
irritability
*poor
concentration and forgetfulness
*clumsiness and lack of
coordination
*fatigue
*headaches or
migraine
*breast
tenderness
*abdominal bloat
*weight gain and fluid
retention
*sugar
cravings and increased appetite
*abdominal
cramping
*acne
Treatment
PMS can be
treated extremely effectively with a combination of naturopathic
lifestyle and dietary change, and Traditional Chinese
Acupuncture.
Dietary
modification may include: a low glycemic index diet; changing the type of
dietary fats you eat; eliminating alcohol and coffee; increasing fruits
and vegetables and high fibre foods; reducing dietary
salt.
TCM
understand PMS as resulting from several possible energy (qi and blood)
imbalances. These include:
Liver Qi
Stagnation (with emotional stress, anger and frustration as a key causal
factor).
Symptoms
usually include: Pre menstrual mood issues including anger, irritability
and depression; breast tenderness and/or lumpiness; abdominal distention;
migraine or headache
Deficiency
of Heart blood (often as a result of excessively heavy periods, or
chronic illness).
PMS
symptoms include: heart palpitations, feeling of faintness, insomnia,
sadness, fatigue, poor memory and concentration, pale
complex.
Spleen qi
deficiency (as a result of overwork, over exertion of the mind, worry,
and poor diet).
PMS
symptoms include: fatigue, feelings of heaviness, fluid retention in
ankles and lower legs, dragging feeling in the abdomen, pale complexion,
shallow breathing and loose stools.
Kidney qi
deficiency (often resulting from extreme exhaustion and adrenal fatigue,
or long term anxiety and fear).
PMS
symptoms include: lower back soreness, dragging and stiffness before
period; fatigue; feelings of cold; diarrhea at onset of period; cramping
after period begins; watery menstrual blood.
Acupuncture is given once or twice weekly for a
variable number of sessions depending on the individual
picture. Some women experience marked improvement after
only one cycle of treatment. For others it may take three menstrual cycles
before a clear improvement is noticed.
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