CALCIUM AND PMS

It’s a problem that affects ten to twenty percent of women, and many of the people close to them: PMS.


Now, a natural way—calcium--which can reduce symptom severity has been shown to also prevent the development of PMS in the first place. But how you get the calcium is key.

It’s a problem that affects ten to twenty percent of women, and many of the people close to them: PMS.

Now, a natural way—calcium--which can reduce PMS symptom severity has been shown to also prevent the development of PMS in the first place. But how you get the calcium is key.

While it’s been talked about now for a couple of decades, many women still don’t know that calcium can indeed control PMS symptoms. And if it’s part of an aggressive regimen involving vitamins, medicines, exercise, and relaxation, a woman can help make that time of the month not so terrible after all.

Still, it’s not hard to find women who sound like they are either homicidal or .really, just suffering from PMS. “I get moody and irritable. I want to kills somebody. My family stays away from me,” says Megan. “I get like crazy. I want to kills somebody. I get a nasty mood,” concurs Stacey Selby. “I don’t feel like myself. I get bloating tenderness,” Stacey says.

But in most, the symptoms can be controlled. Dr. Laura Corio, an OB-GYN at Mt. Sinai Medical Center, New York, says, “Symptoms such as irritability, fatigue, depression mood swings, breast soreness, fluid retention, a lot of it gets better with just taking vitamins, exercising, stress reduction and dietary changes.”

And now new research in the Archives of Internal Medicine says if you get in enough daily calcium, you can ward off the symptoms of PMS. Women with the highest amount of calcium intake had 80 percent of the risk of PMS compared to women with the lowest amount of calcium intake. But according to the study the calcium can’t come from supplements. It has to come from your diet. This is the first study to show that getting enough of this can prevent the initial development of PMS.

And high intake of Vitamin D, which helps the absorption of calcium, almost cut the risk of PMS in half. But Dr. Corio says, while no question calcium is a winner, getting it all in the diet is tough. “There are some people who can’t take dairy. Broccoli’s great but you’re going to have to eat a lot of broccoli to get 1200 milligrams of calcium. I would say if you can get 600 in your diet and take one 600 a day it’s not going to be anything bad.”

Still, calcium, dietary or not, should be a part of a regimen that includes exercise, and perhaps magnesium, along with medicines, like antidepressants and the birth control pill yasmin. “It has a built in diuretic they don’t get PMS they don’t get bloated, they can have a birth control pill so it’s really a good thing,” instructs Dr. Corio.

Stacey says proper treatment got rid of her PMS symptoms. “I didn’t feel the bloating I didn’t feel the headaches, nothing. “I know I’m a nicer person, definitely!,” she laughs.

The study says that it takes the equivalent of four servings of skim or low fat milk, fortified orange juice, or low fat dairy foods like yogurt to get the 1200 mg. of calcium and the 400 international units of Vitamin D in each day.

And of course, you’ll be protecting your bones too.

For more information on this study, go to:

http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/165/11/1246