Meaning of PMS
There are 13 different types of PMs symptoms. That's a lot, and they fit into five different categories. And if you stay until the end, you are going to understand why PMS happens and the meaning behind PMS and what you can do about it.
If you're new here, my name is Omega Zumpano. And this blog is dedicated to helping you optimize your hormones and make hormone optimization education available freely to personal trainers as well. And I've helped my personal training students and my coaching clients all reduce PMS using customized strategies that I teach them in the coaching programs. And if you want to learn more about the academy for personal trainers click here or if you want to get fit, reduce pms and master their hormones click here. So now let's go over those five different types of PMS and the underlining hormonal imbalances at play and ways to give the body what it needs. So that PMS is a thing of the past. Can I get an Amen? So first let's get the term PMS down.
PMS stands for premenstrual syndrome and like all illnesses in the category of syndromes. This one can be changed with simple lifestyle adjustments. The first and most common PMs symptom is cyclical anxiety. And this includes mood changes too. And this used to be my biggest PMS symptom. Also not fun. Cyclical anxiety can be a symptom of too much estrogen in relationship to progesterone when estrogen should be dropping. So if estrogen remains high, then we can have anxiety. And a few other symptoms I'll mention later lifestyle choices that cause estrogen to be higher than progesterone include drinking too much coffee, too much exposure to environmental estrogens like BPAs, a lack of dietary fiber being constipated, not enough B12 or stress in general. So a good place to start with reducing estrogen is obviously decreasing stress where you can and eating more fibers foods. Literally fiber includes any whole foods.
…any vegetable or grain will do - just choose a few you like. Also reduce the amount of caffeine you take in before your period, even switching to half calf, then decaf can be helpful. Make sure you take daily bowel movements and get enough B12. Now, B12 is typically high in animal products and you can also get B12 in nutritional least, or even buy a supplement. And the last thing is getting environmental estrogens like BPAs and phthalates out. And if you want to know more about those environmental estrogens or if you have anxiety and it's something that you wanna work with, I recommend watching this video after this one, it's a video on high estrogen and how to reduce it.
The next symptom will address is cravings. Cravings can in general be the body clueing us into what we ought to eat. And before I dive into the scientific whys, I want you to know that we actually burn more calories before your period starts. So that being said, there is a difference between being hungry because your body is using more energy versus having legit cravings for very specific food. So if you have a huge need for carbs and become a cookie monster before your period starts, chances are that you have high insulin insufficiency in the second half of your cycle.
When we have cyclical insulin insufficiency, our body isn't doing a very good job at taking the sugar we eat and putting it into our muscles and our liver for storage. So if this is you, I recommend having a combination of fiber fat and protein, every snack, and at every meal and eating at least every two to four hours. That's what I recommend for my fitness flow students. And personally, I love having avocado toast with hard boiled egg slices of lunch meat with crackers veggies, and a hummus dip or peanut butter and apple slices. Those all fit the categories of fiber fat and protein. The recommended follow up video, I will detail the different types of cravings that we have and help you customize your own food plan. So you don't turn into a cookie monster, although everyone loves the cookie I'll link to that video in the description below.
So you can watch it after this one, too, cyclical depression. Now this is very common and unlike anxiety, this can be coupled with confusion and hopelessness. I've been there. Keep in mind that cyclical depression is different from PMDD, which is short for premenstrual dysphoric disorder. It's different because of the diagnosis. We need a doctor to tell us if we have PMDD, which you know, if you have it, you have it, but we don't need a doctor to tell us if we suffer from cyclical depression - that is very easy for us to identify and cyclical. Cyclical depression is also easier to address. So like cyclical anxiety, estrogen is high in relation to progesterone when it comes to cyclical depression. So the recommendations I made for reducing estrogen also apply here with cyclical depression, serotonin could also be low, and if you are restricting carbs or on a new medication or using drugs, a lack of vitamin D could be in play too. So to help naturally increase serotonin, try eating more complex carbs like wild rice, sweet potatoes or squash and add foods like vitamin D, which includes salmon eggs and avocado. And perhaps you even go with a vitamin D supplement and make sure to get outside and get in the sun and do low intensity exercise. So exercise in general helps increase endorphins, but make sure to keep this exercise intensity on the lower side. And I have a whole playlist for exercise and the cycle. So you can do those exercises with me later.
The PMS symptom that is most common is breast pain for me. So that includes hyperhydration, hyperhydration encompasses the category of breast pain, swelling and water retention. Ask anyone who's ever weighed themselves before their period. We all just weigh a little bit more. And before you freak out and think that you're gaining weight, just know that this is actually water weight, and your uterus also doubles in size. So the reason breast swelling, tenderness, bloating, and water retention happens is because of the hormone aldosterone aldosterone and the predominant hormone at this phase of the cycle, progesterone are correlated. So when progesterone rises so too does the level of aldosterone and aldosterone controls sodium levels in our bodies, sodium and potassium.
So if we consume high levels of sodium during this phase of our cycle, we might feel the effect more in these final weeks before our period versus any other phase in our cycle consuming the same amount of sodium. You can combat this with sodium's natural counterpart, which I already mentioned potassium foods high in potassium include asparagus cantaloupe, carrots, prunes dates, broccoli, spinach, and bananas. Also make sure that you're taking it a little easier on sodium in this phase of your cycle. So if you are someone that deals with bloating during this time, then consider adding in some ginger tea. So ginger is a carative meaning that it breaks up gas in the stomach, and it could be a great aid for those with uncomfortable bloating. Here's a follow up video on breast tenderness. And then here's one on bloating.
So finally, number five category let's address one of the other most common symptoms, period pain. This includes the category of cramps and headaches. So those are both due to higher levels of estrogen and leading to high levels of prostaglandins. Prostaglandins are formed in the uterus and they actually help shed the lining of the uterus. They are necessary, but like anything too much can lead to not fun symptoms and the pain we experience and what else not so fun. Prostaglandins can migrate to the gut causing diarrhea and to the brain causing headaches. And that seems pretty freaking unfair. So with these symptoms, make sure you're doing all the estrogen balancing tips. I mentioned when I was talking about anxiety, like reducing our exposure to BPAs environmental estrogens, eating more fibrous foods, resolving constipation, eating enough sources of B12, do all those things also add in, also add in prostaglandin, reducing foods like omega three S so that includes salmon, eggs, avocado, and flaxseeds.
And if you are a personal trainer or someone who wants to learn about hormone optimization for yourself, you would greatly benefit from one of my two programs. The first is for personal trainers in the confident menstrual cycle coach academy. So in the academy, I empower fitness coaches to become confident with science based, cyclical, fitness, and nutrition in order to optimize their client's hormones and serve more female clients. And in my fitness flow method, I take my own clients and I help my clients get fit using their menstrual cycle, reduce PMs and master their hormones. And I will say that they're both application-only programs.
Remember, I have tons of resources just for you. This page was meant for hormone optimization education. So make sure you share it with a friend who wants to optimize their hormones.