The PMS team seems to be one team that is never full and always has room to draft more players, unfortunately.  Premenstrual Syndrome is exceedingly common, occurring in 75% of women of reproductive age during their lifetime.  For some teens, this is double the trouble with already racing hormones.  It is important that we not only make these changes and implement healthier ways of life in our adult bodies, but also for our teen girls.  There are so many things that have been shown to reduce symptoms and sometimes eliminate some symptoms entirely, but most of the time it is not just one change someone has to make, but will need to use these things in combination to see the best results. 

PMS is a condition characterized by changes in mood and behavior that occurs during the second phase of the normal menstrual cycle, usually 1-10 days before your menstrual cycle.  Knowing when this occurs is part of the battle, because what you do and eat before this time can affect the severity of the symptoms you may have each month.  Symptoms may be both physical and emotional and can include fluid retention, constipation, painful joints, backache, abdominal cramping, heart palpitations and weight gain, in addition to the well known symptoms of breast tenderness, moodiness, food cravings, anger and irritability to name a few.

PMS is not a deficiency of antidepressant medication.  It can be a sign that you are missing nutrients in your diet, and you are not balancing blood sugar and metabolizing your hormones well.  Researchers say they're not sure exactly why, but it probably has something to do with how those nutrients fluctuate with changing levels of hormones.  While there's no guarantee that you're not going to need a hot water bottle, some Ibuprofen, or a bar of chocolate, drinking milk could help keep those monthly pains away.  Women who ate the highest amount of calcium in their foods, around 1200 milligrams per day, were 30% less likely to develop PMS than those who ate only 530 milligrams per day, the lowest average value.  Calcium causes muscles to contract, while magnesium helps them to relax.  Dietary calcium gives temporary relief of menstrual cramps.

I've got some more stuff in a couple of days about things you can do to help with the PMS relief.  Anything we can do to do it naturally is better than cramming the meds.

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