Natural Approaches to Healing PMS – Part 1

Contrary to popular belief, many symptoms of premenstrual syndrome (PMS) and the female menstrual cycle aren’t normal. They’ve just become normalized. BUT that doesn’t make them normal. Not by a long shot. And I know there’ll be many who disagree with me, but honestly, just because you choose not to believe the truth doesn’t make it not true. We were not designed nor created to live in a chronic state of dis-ease or a chronic state of stress or a chronic state of pain. Now, I’m not saying we’ll never experience any form of dis-ease, or pain, or stress, I’m saying living in a chronic state of it is contrary to our design. And I firmly believe this applies to our entire lives, our lovely monthly cycles included.

I use to hate my menstrual cycle (OK, some days I still do), however I’ve learned to re-frame and recognize the reality of what our cycle is and the beauty of it. When my cycle returned after like 4 years (babies and nursing pretty much back to back will do that…) I really tried to be grateful for the return of my cycle. Our cycle is here for a reason; it truly does serve a purpose, and really more than one purpose. Our monthly cycles help us to check in with our bodies and lives; if we have irregular cycles, PMS, really painful cycles, aggressive cycles or a variety of symptoms then our cycles are telling us something is amiss.

We all know our delightful monthly cycle is usually anything but lovely or delightful these days. And for many of us, it starts before our menstrual cycle actually begins: our premenstrual cycle, PMS. Everything from moodiness, back pain, cravings, weepyness, anger, fatigue, cramps and more. There are many “normal” symptoms, and then there are also many quirky ones too, which can vary for each of us. Personally, I don’t handle loud noises all that well and my skin dries out very easily. (I’ve got plenty of other symptoms as well, which you can read about here in post number 4 in this series.) And for many, we either just deal with our symptoms, assuming its all part of life and being a woman, or we medicate and mask what’s really going on.

The truth is though, we don’t have to suffer the way we do, nor do we have to medicate ourselves to try to “get rid of” (really just masking) our symptoms; there are real natural remedies that not only help, but can also eventually take away our negative symptoms all together. The reality though, is it can take time, effort, and really, lifestyle changes, and I know the unfortunate part of that is many aren’t willing to do it, because many believe the lies that this is the way it’s suppose to be, it’s too hard to change, that they don’t deserve to have a pain-free period or many other lies society feeds us that we buy into and believe.

So I’m here to shed some truth on the matter, and I hope to inspire others to start believing something new and to choose to believe you too can make some changes in your life and begin to live a less stressful, pain-free period, all the while becoming more of who you’re truly meant to be. So let’s get to it shall we?

Now, depending on your symptoms can depend on what natural treatments for PMS you need to incorporate into your life, however there are some basics across the board. I’ll be separating these into a couple of different posts, because if I don’t, the length would be waay too long, and I totally understand how reading long articles online can be quite exhausting. So for the remainder of this post, I’ll be focusing on the five basics I think we all need to address, no matter the symptoms. Below are five basics we all need to address and implement into our lifestyle in order to create the best scenario for our bodies; I very well could write one post on each of these areas, however for now, I’ll keep it {fairly} brief!  So, in no particular order here are five areas we all need to address for healing:

1. Diet “Leave your drugs in the chemist’s pot if you can heal the patient with food.” – Hippocrates

I believe our diet is part of our lifestyle, not separate from it. How we eat affects our body, our mind and I believe, our soul as well. Before we get too far ahead of ourselves, I know many get freaked out when they see or hear the word “diet” but I want to be very clear here, whenever you see me use the term diet, I am referring to what we consume, I am not referring to a specific way of eating (like the Atkins diet, the Zone diet, Paleo, Vegan, or anything else before, after or in between). Our diet is what we consume. I personally follow the “Rebecca diet”, meaning, I eat what I know works for my body and what doesn’t. I am all about personalized nutrition, which is what I teach my clients. Personalized nutrition means finding what actually works for your body and what doesn’t, and then eating what helps you rather than what hinders you.

That being said, I feel there are some basics we could all highly benefit from when addressing our diets: having the bulk of our diet be from fresh, organic whole foods; limited processed foods; being intentional about where we get our food from, {meaning purchasing local, organic, food as much as possible}, as well, if we choose to consume meat and dairy, making sure it is of the highest quality. I know if you were to go and Google organic vs. non-organic, you’d find a bunch of articles telling you it doesn’t make a difference. Well, they’re wrong. Quality truly matters when it comes to life, the food we consume is no exception.

Aside from the basics, when it comes to natural treatments for PMS and our cycle, there are also some more key food factors all females need to consider. You see, as I’ve stated before, and I’ll state again (and again…and again..) the food we eat affects so much of us. What we consume doesn’t just affect our guts, it affects our brain, our hormones, our sleep, our moods. And there is also this thing called the gut-brain connection, which means what affects the gut affects the brain and what affects the brain affects the gut. Researchers are currently exploring the connection between some mental health conditions and gut flora imbalances and digestive problems; they’re finding having healthy gut flora is a pretty essential part of living a healthy life. I could go into a lot of detail here, however I think I’ll save it for another post. Simply, if we are consuming foods that are disrupting our gut flora, then we are causing hormonal imbalances in our bodies. Hormonal imbalances can cause foggy thinking, headaches/migraines, bloating and gas, cravings, stress, depression, fatigue, and more. There are specific foods that do indeed cause gut dysbiosis, which can ultimately affect our PMS and cycle. We really need to be aware of sugar, caffeine {yes ladies, your beloved coffee falls into that category…I know I know…it’s keeping you awake though…bad news is, it’s not, it’s actually harming you, and I know this from both personal experience and from research. Here is a good article on how coffee impacts our hormones: https://www.hormonesbalance.com/articles/11-ways-coffee-impacts-your-hormones-and-how-to-substitute-it/ and another one: https://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-24582/why-i-think-all-women-should-avoid-coffee.html and another one just for good measure: http://drhyman.com/blog/2012/06/13/ten-reasons-to-quit-your-coffee/}, fast/highly processed and artificial foods (including sugars and colouring), alcohol consumption, inferior-quality oils, and food intolerances. So when it comes to our diet (remember, what we consume), it is best if we avoid the highly processed and artificial sugars, foods and colouring, limit our alcohol consumption, limit our sugar intake, replace low quality oils with high quality ones, and take the time to figure out what our food intolerances are, and then avoid them once we know! All of these tend to cause more upset and imbalances in our bodies: our hormones, our gut, our brain. Therefore if we want to have happier and healthier cycles, we need to address these areas of our diet. There is much, much more to be said when it comes to diet, and I know it can be quite confusing when trying to research information, but I believe these are great places to easily start with!

2. Awareness “The first step toward change is awareness. The second step is acceptance.” Nathaniel Branden

If we want to change something we need to be aware of it and what is actually going on. This can take some time and practice, however it is imperative we begin to quiet down our minds, tune in, and ask, what might my symptoms be trying to speak to me about? We need to choose to be aware of our symptoms as well, and acknowledge them rather than just take some more aspirin and eat another pint of ice cream, bag of chips or 5 more chocolate bars. Awareness allows us to move forward. When we live in unawareness, meaning we only know that we just don’t feel awesome, it keeps us closed off and unwilling: closed off to new ideas, closed off to truth, unwilling to move forward, unwilling to make changes. There are some really great quotes a colleague/friend shared with me, which I think are so very fitting when it comes to idea/subject of awareness: “Our lives improve only when we take chances – and the first and most difficult risk we can take is to be honest with ourselves.” – Walter Anderson and “Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.” – Aldous Huxley. Those can be some pretty hard truths to swallow; when I read them, I cannot even really describe to you the feeling I felt, it was just a deep, “yes.” Walter Anderson and Aldous Huxley couldn’t be more true. And I honestly feel we need to apply these to our lives. Think about it for a moment, if you choose to believe the sky isn’t blue, it doesn’t make it any less true that the sky is indeed blue; there’s a science behind why it is blue. The same is true for us: our low back pain, our anger, our cramps, our cravings, they aren’t “just here” because of our PMS or “just because” it’s our cycle. There are reasons behind our symptoms, whether you choose to believe it or not. And yes, it can be oh so difficult to be honest with ourselves, but that’s exactly what we need to be. I wasn’t able to make any progress moving forward until I became honest with myself that I indeed was struggling with depression, with anxiety, with the fact that something(s) in my life were attributing to my severe PMS. I was honest about it and accepted the truth, it was then that I was able to make some serious moves forward in healing and becoming who I truly am meant to be. If you want a healthy life, all month-long, you’ve got to choose to become aware.

3. Movement “If we could give every individual the right amount of nourishment and exercise, not too little and not too much, we would have found the safest way to health.” Hippocrates 

We are designed to move. Our bodies were never meant to sit stagnate in front of a computer screen for hours on end, or in front of the television screen…or on our phones…or tablets…or…I think you get the picture. Even if we’re not watching a screen of some sort but rather knitting, or painting or doing a puzzle, or whatever, we are not designed to be sitting all day long without any movement. Not all of us need to be doing heavy cardio every day, however every one of us does need to be moving our body every day. Now, there is a lot of debate surrounding the area of exercise; my beliefs surrounding this are fairly simple: we need to move our bodies, we each respond differently to different types of exercise, what’s great exercise for some may not be great for others, we need to love the exercise we do. Yes, again, I understand many will disagree with me. Here’s the thing though, and it applies to our entire life and being: we cannot hate ourselves into who we want to be/are meant to be. If we are hating the exercise we are doing, it’s actually going to negatively affect our stress; yes there is some positive stress from working out, however the emotion of hate has a negative effect on ourselves. So, if you’ve given running a fair chance, and still despise it, stop running, choose something else. If you absolutely love dancing but don’t do it because of some excuse you keep giving yourself, stop it, and start dancing. Take up lessons, join a dance class, use one of those at home workouts that incorporate dance. If you aren’t sure what you love, begin to explore new ways of movement. Personally, I also believe we need to move throughout our day, not just once in the morning to just “get it done with.” I understand we all lead full lives, and therefore I believe it might be easier, if not better, to begin to incorporate movement into our everyday activities. This can easily be done by taking breaks every couple of hours to stretch, perform desk exercises, do a daily energy routine, a short Pilates sequence, and even do things while we’re standing at the counter prepping meals. I do believe it’s also important to incorporate muscle-building/strength training, and cardio, however beginning to incorporate movement throughout our day is a fantastic place to start, and perhaps instead of trying to “fit in” one long workout first thing in the morning, breaking it up into chunks throughout the day might help us to feel better and help us stay energized all throughout the day.

4. Stress-Management “Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under the trees on a summer’s day, listening to the murmur of water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time.” John Lubbock

There’s a lot of information floating around out there about stress right now. Which is both good, and overloading….the super simple facts are such: stress stays in our bodies, and it manifests in numerous ways…if it’s not dealt with accordingly. While we were designed to have a stress response, (think about the classic picture of a tiger chasing you), we weren’t designed to live in chronic stress. Our bodies release extra stress hormones when we encounter stress of any kind until the “danger” is resolved. This extra release of stress hormones disrupts our regular hormone cycle; therefore if we are living in a constant state of stress, our hormone cycle is in constant disruption. Are we ever going to not have stress in our lives? Probably not on this side of our Messiah’s return. However, there are numerous things we can do to reduce our stress (especially our self-induced stress), so we are able to allow our bodies to be in a more balanced state of being. We can all carry our stress in different ways, a key thing is to become aware of how you hold stress, as well the stress in your life (self-induced or otherwise). Stress management has to do with self-care, which I wrote about not long ago, and you can find here. At the end of the day, living in a chronic state of stress isn’t good for you, or anyone around you either. When we practice self-care, meaning, when we take care of ourselves, I believe we are better able to take care of others, we are able to think more clearly, we are able to be more logical and rational rather than jumpy and assuming. When we take care of ourselves we are able to actually pause in a moment and take a deep breath rather than snap and overreact. Again, I’m not saying we won’t ever stress in our lives, however when we learn to manage our stress, reduce what we truly don’t need, and practice genuine self-care then we’re better able to handle and deal with the stresses when they do arise. And we’re healthier for it, and we have happier periods.

5. Sleep “You will perform better, make better decisions, and have a better body when you get the sleep you require.” “A good laugh and a long sleep are the two best cures for anything.” Shawn Stevenson

This is another hot-topic right now: the importance of sleep. There’s a real reason why they would sleep deprive people as torture (and probably still do). Don’t believe me? Check it out for yourself: here, here, here, and here, (be warned, this last one is quite graphic as the article talks about numerous ways the CIA has tortured detainees). New moms need to truly understand this, and so do those who support/surround them. Sleep deprivation is no joke; if we want to address health issues, we need to take a serious look at our sleep lives. Lots of things affect our sleep: what we eat, our stress, how late we watch movies, scrolling social media before bed time, the times we eat, our hormones, if we’re going to bed at late hours and dragging our dead-weight bodies out of bed early in the morning, if we’re waking up in the night due to a variety of reasons…So since there are numerous things that affect our sleep and sleep is super important to our energy levels, our cognitive function and really our overall well-being, then we need to do everything we can to ensure we are getting ample sleep during the night. This area of life is like many others: many things affect our sleep, and our sleep affects many things in our life. Think about it, when we’re running on low, we’re hungrier and crave foods more frequently, we’re more short tempered, we can’t think as clearly. Sleep is of utmost importance. When we sleep better we feel better. And when we feel better we make wiser decisions. When we make wiser decisions we’re healthier and happier. When we’re healthier and happier we sleep better. For some truth about the subject, checkout Sleep Smarter, by Shawn Stevenson: http://sleepsmarterbook.com/. And here is one of his recent podcasts talking about sleep: http://theshawnstevensonmodel.com/the-truth-about-naps/, and he even talks about sleep for parents with small kids! Bonus! There are some fairly simple things we can begin to do to improve our sleep: turning off our electronics at least one hour before we head to bed, keeping our phones turned off and outside of our bedroom, not eating right before we head to bed, and creating bedtime rituals. Shawn Stevenson has some really great things to share about sleep, so I highly encourage you to check him out.

So those are five areas, I believe each and everyone one of us needs to address, no matter what the concern is. By addressing these areas of our life we will then be able to better live our lives, thus having healthier cycles all the while becoming more of who we’re truly meant to be.

In my next post I’ll be talking about more specifics concerning natural treatments for PMS and cycle concerns and supplements, so be sure to stayed tuned!

PS. I have recently begun a self-experiment on healing myself and cycle concerns with natural treatments for PMS, and I have been filming it along the way! I’d love for you to check it out and follow along; perhaps you’ll be inspired and decide to take charge of your own health. And if you do…I’m always here to help you along the way! You can watch my videos here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmTslcwyM0Q&list=PLHnZXF8HVzVqB1yFW0bPl8aBcLj2f_Gln