PMS symptoms are worse this month

Day 26 of my cycle

Today is day 26 of my cycle, which means I should get my periods in about two days or slightly later than that. Hopefully it will not be too much longer, because I can really feel the PMS more strongly this month than in a long time.

I felt very hungry today, which is normal for me during the last week before I get my periods. I need to eat it seems every few hours and if I don't eat properly, my blood sugar levels go down too much and I feel dizzy and light headed, as well as anxious and jittery. Once I eat, all of that goes away and I feel calm again.

I also have an extremely sweet tooth during PMS, when I crave and eat, quite a bit of sweet food. About the only sweet thing I eat is chocolate. I buy organic or European, so it means it has a low glycemic index (GI) and helps with the blood sugar level problems.

I had some organic chicken soup with organic chicken wings earlier and afterward I felt really satisfied with the meal. I added a little balsamic vinegar to it, as I was craving something sour. It was absolutely delicious. But you know, it's been a few hours and I am hungry again. It's almost like I haven't eaten anything even though I have! That is part of how PMS affects me in terms of my blood sugar levels and hunger levels.

The level of PMS symptoms I have right is just like what I used to have a few years ago - really severe, really bad and more like PMDD - and it's all because of the major stress in my life, which has not yet been removed. It has been mediated a little, but not removed and that is the priority for me.

I think my last post may have been too much for some people, because I described some of my symptoms quite descriptively. I do so, because I know it helps other girls/women know that they are not alone in their suffering. It was about fluid retention in my breasts and nipples - damn annoying that it even happened this month (the bloating and pain, that is)!

Moderate PMS symptoms this month

This month my periods started 4 weeks and 4 days since my last cycle.

I think they started a little later because I had a really bad flu infection and I don't think my body could cope with being so sick from the flu and having my periods at the same time too (I had a bad fever/chills/cough/lethargy etc, to a severe degree and was very sick - I am still recovering).  So this flu was almost like a silver lining in way - it prevented my body from getting the worst of the PMS symptoms.

My periods were due to start somewhere between Friday and Sunday, but I got sick with the flu on Saturday morning and was in bed for the whole of Saturday to Thursday. My periods started on Wednesday morning.What a nice, considerate body I have! This was one time I didn't mind a longer cycle, because I didn't get the usual PMS symptoms during the time I had the flu, as I had no energy to do much but sleep!

Prior to the flu starting, I noticed that I had a little of the anger and irritation and my breasts were more full and heavier than normal, but they were not hurting much. I think they did hurt a little bit for part of one day and maybe a little of another day, but that was it!  I did get the fluid retention in my stomach, legs and thighs, but I think that was about it for my PMS symptoms this month.

Today is day five of my menstruation and because of the flu (luckily), I didn't get any period pain (except for a minor twinge one day).

But, I am feeling the sugar imbalances due to not eating much of anything the past week. Because of this flu, I have been basically drinking a lot of herbal tea (peppermint and rosehip), soup and pasta, as well as having a lot of honey - in other words, not eating much at all for about a week. This evening, I felt the sugar imbalance symptoms - I get this weird taste in my mouth, like I haven't eaten enough food, my mouth gets this dry feeling and I just need to get high sugar stuff into me to feel better. I also get agitated - the low sugar does that - and I don't feel right until I eat and eat. Ironically, I am not hungry at all, but my body seems to be craving high sugar foods to feel better.

I really have to work on this sugar imbalance issue I have, as I do not want to put pressure on my pancreas any more - it needs a rest to be able to function properly, as do my cells and the insulin too.

Helping to Reduce Symptoms - New Diet and Lifestyle Changes

I have started to change my diet and incorporate more exercise in my routine, instead of just sitting at a computer all day.

I have modified my diet, to include more vegetables, more protein and less sugar, so that I can try to balance my sugar levels, which can cause me havoc in the week prior to menstruation. I am especially having more low fat protein every day - from having stir fried vegetables with some type of meat, to pasta with feta cheese and eggs, to vegetables and beans in a tomato based sauce with rice.

I make sure I have some type of low fat protein in my breakfast - from eggs, to yoghurt, to cheese - just to make sure that I am starting the day well. Of course I have some carbohydrates, either in the form of bread and juice or stir friend vegetables.

Plus I bought some supplements to take:

• St John's Wort - for the anxiety, mood swings, nervous tension and irritability I feel in the week before my periods. I bought a liquid supplement, so I can adjust the amount I need, depending on the level of negative feelings I have. I usually can take a small amount, just a few drops, much less than the recommended dose, to gain the benefits
  
• Evening Primrose Oil - for the bloating effect that seems to take hold from about two weeks prior to PMS

I have also added more exercise into my day - from working out on my fitball to going for power walks. I haven't done as much as I should, but I am doing some. My stomach area is a little sore today from doing some intense stomach crunches on my fitball (or gymball) yesterday. But it's that good pain, which makes you realise you know you have worked it out.

I am also continuing with the vitamin B supplement - it contains all the B vitamins (B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, B12), plus the co-factors (biotin, choline, folic acid and inositol) as well as vitamin C.

Biotin, choline, folic acid and inositol are vitamin B co-factors - they help the B vitamins to work more effectively and should always be included in a vitamins B supplement (and also in a multi-vitamin). The supplement I take has good levels of all the vitamins and I only need to take one a day and I like it as it is natural without any preservatives or other additives.

By doing all this, I have found that the symptoms of PMS I am experiencing has decreased, especially the blood sugar fluctuations, anxiety and bloating. I am not so likely to feel as emotional and have more mental clarity. I also have more energy and don't feel so overwhelmed by the PMS symptoms I usually get. Now, the symptoms just get a little bad the day or two prior to menstruation.

Understanding PMS - Blood Sugar level Problems Subsided

I have just realised why my blood sugar problems have became worse recently.

I took a B-complex vitamin and a high vitamin C with bioflavonoids on Thursday and one of each again on Friday. It was on Thursday that I had the worst of the blood sugar problems and even though I ate a lot on Friday, I still didn't feel that well. Whereas on Saturday, I decided not to take any vitamins to see if that made a difference to my symptoms - and man did it make a huge difference. I didn't have the blood sugar problems at all. Very strange.

In the past, when I have taken evening primrose oil or tyrosine or even the herbs angnes vitex and dong quai in the few days before (anywhere up to a week before) my periods, I noticed that instead of making me feel better, they actually made me feel worse - in particular, my feelings of anxiety, nervous tension, mental confusion, insomnia, irritability and irrational thoughts, many of which were not present before I took the vitamins / supplement / herbs, suddenly presented themselves with intensity. And not only did those symptoms present themselves, but actually got worse a few hours after I took the supplements!

This was really odd. Even still, I couldn't quite believe the negative effects the supplements were having on me, as they helped me in the past and are well known to be beneficial supplement that help relieve PMS. So I tried them again and again, at different times of the month as I thought that maybe so close to menstruation, my hormones were not at the right levels to accept any supplementation. I didn't know why this was so, but that is how it appeared to be.

When I tried to supplements at the start of the month, just after I completed menstruation, they appeared to help me and not produce the devastating symptoms before, but I was still experiencing side effects.

I think now, with the advantage of hindsight, that because I may have been experiencing another medical condition, that could have been the impetus for my inability to get normal relief from the usual PMS supplements. I had a slight thyroid problem, but which presented very acutely initially - I think as sub-acute thyroiditis, but the doctors couldn't diagnose me properly, even though I could feel my thyroid was swollen, as I felt the swelling at the back of my throat, like I had swallowed something that was stuck there - it caused a whole host of problems. Apparently I have two little lumps on my thyroid, which may or may not be causing me problems - which were viewed on an ultrasound when this whole thyroid problem started. I insisted on the ultrasound as I was having pains in the left side of the middle of my throat (which is exactly where the lumps are) and I felt like I couldn't swallow properly at the time and had a pain on the left side when I swallowed. I need to have these lumps monitored to ensure they stay the same size, don't grow and don't cause any problems. I am hoping they will shrink one day and go away! They're only small (only a few centimetres - less than an inch each), so it shouldn't be an issue for them to go away! The thyroid problem happened in 2003.

As I have bee under a lot of stress lately, it feels like my thyroid issues have resurfaced a little, as it feels like the left side of my throat is somewhat swollen, which always happens when I am really stressed.

The function of the thyroid is to regulate metabolism. The thyroid uses iodine and tyrosine to make the thyroid hormones. When I took tyrosine in 2003 (when my thyroid wasn't functioning particularly normally), it gave me symptoms of high anxiety and nervous tension - symptoms of hyperthyroidism, which was really odd, because when I took tyrosine years before (for PMS), it actually relaxed me (which is what it is supposed to do).

The thyroid is closely tied to the hypothalamus (which is the master gland and controls all the hormone glands in the body). If one gland is not working properly, all the rest may have issues. Interestingly, a thyroid that is not working properly can have symptoms similar to PMS, so some cases of PMS can be really be caused by thyroid problems and vice versa. Doctors are aware of this and will usually test all the hormones to work out what is causing the problems. The tests may not reveal everything that is going on, especially if these hormone studies are done when you have a problem, they could show to be within the normal range (even though they may be at the higher or lower end of the scale), the doctors will tell you everything is fine. But, if no hormone studies have been done when you were well, there is nothing to compare them with. That's why my doctor maybe realised with me, even though my test results showed as normal, maybe for me it wasn't totally normal and that's why he made the comment that my test results should not be given the most credence, that it should be my symptoms that should be given higher priority.

I still believe that I had a thyroid problem, albeit a relatively mild one (even though it did not feel very mild to me at the time) and although it has healed up for the most part, my thyroid is still something I should always be aware about and try to ensure it stays healed!

So maybe what happened in the past and what happened recently are related to my thyroid playing up. It seems to follow a very clear pattern.

The last time I had this problem, it was actually very severe and problematic and took me a long time to recover from it. I am definitely not having the same thyroid symptoms as before, so that is positive for me, but I as I am experiencing a lot of stress right now, it makes me more aware of my thyroid and makes it feel a little swollen, but not painful.

I think some yoga and exercise may be what I need right now, to calm my mind and bring some distressing to my body, which in turn will make me feel better and experience less PMS.

PMS Hell - PMS Sugar Imbalances

Ahh PMS, that word is known to bring dread to many a man - and us women who suffer it, don't think much of it either.

My PMS hell is terrible sometimes, to the point where I cannot handle the sugar imbalances I experience. They are so bad, that I have to eat something sweet or with carbohydrates every few hours, otherwise I start feeling light-headed, dizzy, anxious, have this weird taste in mouth, like I haven't eaten, I feel totally hungry all the time and no matter how much I eat, I feel like I haven't eaten enough, especially if I eat something that has protein in it. If I exercise, it makes the sugar problem even worse. Although if I eat some chocolate (or other high sugar food), I feel much better, but even still, I need to eat lots and often. 

I think it has something to do with my hormones being out of balance, but as I have not had any tests done when I am in the middle of this hell, always when I am feeling normal again, the tests are always normal, so the doctors think I am a hypochondriac! Great.

• I have been tested for diabetes - nope, don't have it.
• I have been tested for hypoglycaemia - nope, don't have it either.
• I have been tested for abnormal hormones - all normal
• I take vitamins, I take minerals, I take supplements.

The only thing I can relate it to, is constantly eating irregular meals with foods that may be too high in sugar and not enough protein, which in normal circumstances may not be healthy, but in PMS, causes such havoc.

These symptoms I experience are getting rarer and rarer, because I now know what is wrong with me and can correct it with the right (and regular) foods.

The thing is, because these symptoms present as both physical (dizzy, light-headed, unable to concentrate or think clearly) and psychological (anxiety, panic), initially I didn't realise they were connected to the same thing - PMS causing (or exacerbating) imbalances in my sugar levels. And because I experience high levels of anxiety and stress when I do have PMS anyway, these symptoms were completely exaggerated, to the point where I thought I was going crazy, but of course I wasn't, it was just the effects of the PMS I was suffering.

I insisted on going to several specialists, to get checked over properly, as I read so much and thought it had to be something sinister that was causing this serious problem. All of them, again told me it was "all inside your head", that it was just "stress" and that they "couldn't help me". What kind of attitude was that? It left me more emotional and more confused until I just thought, "Oh well, this is it. Must be some terrible disease no-one has realised yet".

Still, I researched more. I wasn't ready to give up yet. Finally I came upon some material about PMS causing blood sugar imbalances, just in the two weeks during PMS. It reminded me of many times when I had the PMS sugar imbalances, the last thing I ever did was to eat, so of course it got worse, but I remembered that when I did, I felt better. So this information struck a chord with me. I researched some more.

I discovered that there are so many layers to PMS and to health in general. I discovered the "Zone" diet and amazingly enough, it helped me. I didn't follow it religiously as I still needed more simple carbohydrates than it recommended, but because I ate more healthily, I ate more protein and I ate more regularly, it helped.
 
At the start, it was hell. 

All the nutritional stuff I was doing was making me feel even worse, even exercise seemed to lower my blood sugar levels further and make me feel awful. I discovered that I couldn't eat a low carbohydrate diet because it made me feel like I had PMS sugar imbalances (and all the other problems of PMS) all month. 

I modified the diet to suit me and I started to feel better. Much, much, much better. And all month long. The weight started to drop off me - I had been putting on all this weight in my middle zone (which is unusual for a pear shaped woman like me) - and with my new diet, I felt so much better and in control of my life again.

When I told my doctor, he was curious to know what I was doing and he seemed really perplexed by it. He said, "Maybe for you, we shouldn't just look at the blood test results, we should look at how your symptoms and recovery present themselves". That was a great vindication for me, as he really didn't think it was anything other than stress, but at least now I know what it was - simply (ha!) sugar imbalances during PMS!

All that time I researched the Internet, magazines and libraries, I found a whole gamut of information about health and nutrition. As I couldn't see this information anywhere in one place on the Internet, I decided to build the web site and put all this information in there.