To help your body become more resilient to the variation in hormone levels rather that cutting off any fluctuation is to move with it. Flat lining is the typical response to help treat PMS, but it isn’t as helpful as you might think. Read this article from a Ballarat homeopath to learn how your progesterone and GABA impacts you in premenstrual syndrome.
The reason adaptation and resilience to hormonal fluctuation is important is because your hormone levels are meant to change. Flat lining them doesn’t do you any good. As you go through ovulation, your hormones will fluctuate; they are supposed to follow your ovulatory cycle. When you can respond to and adapt to, your hormone leaves you produce what you need, eliminate what you don’t, and have an appropriate sensitivity and response.
Impact of Inflammation
Inflammation impairs your ability to manufacture and respond to progesterone. This means you need even more progesterone before you feel its calming effect. The lack of responsiveness to progesterone and the downregulation of GABA – a neurotransmitter – can worsen PMS.
It also impairs your ability to detoxify estrogen, meaning you have a harder time getting rid of it, while also increasing your sensitivity to estrogen. Together, these two effects mean you have too much estrogen and you respond to it easier.
Enhancing Progesterone and GABA
Progesterone is key in managing PMS, it will protect you from the ups and downs estrogen triggers. Additionally, it helps reduce inflammation and supports GABA, which calms your mood. Looking after both GABA and progesterone helps reduce PMS.
Diet & Lifestyle
Boosting progesterone and GABA can take some time, but here are some things you can look at to get started:
- Reducing inflammatory foods such as wheat, cow’s dairy, and sugar.
- Reduce histamine stimulating foods like dairy and alcohol.
- Reduce histamine containing foods like red wine, cheese, bone broth and fermented foods.
- Vitamin B6 supplementation – chat with your naturopath for information about dosage.
- Reduce stress and increase activities that support this such as meditation, exercise, or yoga.
- Magnesium supplementation – deficiency has been considered a contributing factor to, if not the cause of, PMS.
- Selenium supplementation.
- Chaste tree may help with PMS.
Do you want to read more articles about women’s health? Check our list of articles about pregnancy and women’s health prepared by our Ballarat homeopaths.
