- If you have periods, there's a 75% chance
that at some point you also experience symptoms of PMS.
While everybody is different,
the most commonly reported symptoms are cramping,
back pain, bloating, breast tenderness,
fatigue and mood changes.
In this video, I'm reviewing some science-based paths
to a more pleasant period
from having less pain and more energy
to reducing bloat, breast tenderness, and mood changes.
You deserve to have all the information in this video.
Thank you to the kind sponsor of today's video CoPilot.
We'll hear more about them in a minute.
As always, I am a doctor, but I am not your doctor.
I can't give you medical advice
and the information contained in this video
is meant to be used for educational purposes only.
(bright music)
The first path to a more pleasant period
is helping you have more energy and less fatigue.
Hormone shifts that occur
around the time of menstruation can contribute
to physical and mental fatigue.
If this is severe, like it's interfering
with your ability to live your daily life
or if it's persisting past the point of menstruation
it's definitely something you need to bring up
with your doctor or healthcare provider.
Otherwise, there's a few common sense things
that we can incorporate that might make a difference.
You wanna stay hydrated and stay active,
but also I think it's really important
to be listening to your body.
If your body tells you that you need to slow down
or do a little bit less during this time, that's okay.
Give yourself a break.
Be kind to yourself and listen to your body.
You also wanna make sure
that you're getting a little bit more sleep.
And actually wouldn't even say you need more sleep
than when you're not on your menstrual cycle
but that you wanna be getting better sleep
than you're currently getting on your menstrual cycle.
So what can help with this?
One thing you wanna do is really lean
into what we call sleep hygiene practices.
That includes things like going to bed at a consistent time,
making sure your sleep environment is comfortable for you,
from the temperature,
to the bedding to the noises and the light.
Make sure all of that is really reduced
to the lowest level that you find comfortable.
You wanna make sure and avoid
or at least significantly limit alcohol intake
which also causes more fragmented sleep
and less time in deep sleep phases of sleep.
And you wanna make sure and avoid caffeine
for a prolonged period of time before you plan to go to bed.
For most people, this is at least six hours.
Some people even need a little bit more than that.
Wanna make sure and avoid using your phone
or computers for at least an hour before bedtime.
Those bright lights on your screens
contribute to decreasing melatonin production
because your brain thinks it is the sun.
And we already know
based on what I just talked to you about,
that melatonin production is less supported
during the premenstrual and menstrual phase.
So this becomes even more important during those times.
There's actually some really interesting data
as well on melatonin supplementation,
and some people might benefit
from a melatonin supplement about one to two hours
prior to their planned bedtime.
That's obviously not going to be right for everyone
but if you're struggling with this,
it's something to keep in mind and maybe bring up
with your doctor or healthcare provider
if you have questions.
The second path
to a more pleasant period is helping you have less pain.
- Yes
Yes.
- Some discomfort in the premenstrual and menstrual phase
can be really normal but it shouldn't be severe
and it definitely shouldn't interfere
with your ability to live your daily life.
So the things I'm talking about in this section
specifically apply to people who have mild cramping
that is annoying but not interfering with life.
If you have severe pain with your periods or pain
that makes it difficult
for you to just normally function like a human,
that's something that needs to be brought up
with your doctor or advanced practice provider.
Let's talk a little bit about exercise.
Endorphins are hormones that circulate in your body
and they activate the same receptors as an opiate receptor
so they have a bit of an analgesic effect on your body
meaning they can provide some decrease
in the amount of pain that you feel.
In the premenstrual and menstrual phase
you have a decrease in the amount of circulating endorphins.
Regular exercise not only increases the levels
of circulating endorphins,
but it also increases the production
of some anti-inflammatory chemicals
that your body naturally produces.
Maintaining an exercise program consistently
and specifically some kind of cardio exercise
or aerobic exercise leading up to menstruation
has been shown to be effective for reducing PMS symptoms
including cramps during menstruation.
If you're anything like me though and struggle
with maintaining a consistent exercise routine
you might be interested in the free trial
from today's video sponsor CoPilot.
What if I told you there was an app that would help you
be nine times more successful
at sticking to your fitness goals?
Copilots, not your average fitness app.
They actually pair you with a real certified fitness coach.
My coach's name is Kris.
You have a one-on-one meeting with them
to discuss your health status, your goals,
experiences, and preferences,
and then they design a personalized fitness plan
just for you.
I have long struggled to consistently stick
to a fitness routine.
I also really hate like video exercise classes
so I appreciate that the plan she created for me
is separate exercises grouped together into routines
that I do on specific days.
I think that's what makes this app so unique and effective.
You have a real person who you know
that can provide feedback and change your plans
and give you encouragement
and who is available to answer questions
when they come up.
- You're too high with those curls
with all three sets, let's go down.
- And the flexibility
of being able to use the CoPilot app anywhere,
whether I'm at home or in the gym,
or even in my office at the hospital
on a 24-hour call has really been the key factor
in allowing me to stick to a more consistent routine
of moving my body and working on getting stronger.
And with over 75% of CoPilot clients continuing
to work out after 100 days, CoPilot is the best way
for you to stay committed to your fitness journey and goals.
So if you'd like to try out CoPilot and support my channel
in the process, you can get a free trial
with your own certified fitness coach
by clicking on my link in the description box
down below or going to the URL or QR code on screen.
Now, let's get back to the video.
Period cramps are primarily related
to production of prostaglandins.
This is a type of hormone,
actually there's many types of prostaglandins,
but they are hormones
that your body produces which play a role
in contraction of the uterus.
So yes, the uterus is a muscle
and yes contractions like you would have
during labor and birth happen
during the menstrual cycle as well.
When that happens, the uterus contracts down
and it contracts around obviously all of the blood vessels
that are in it
and those blood vessels temporarily for a moment in time
are not able to provide enough blood flow to the uterus
because it's kind of cutting off its own blood supply.
This causes a mild
and transient meaning it goes away pretty quickly.
Ischemia or lack of blood flow
lack of oxygen to the muscle, which is what causes the pain.
So what can we do to reduce pain during the menstrual cycle?
If you're a smoker, you should consider quitting.
And not just for this reason,
but in addition to all the reasons we all know.
Tobacco use and cigarette smoking is associated
with having a higher chance of painful periods.
So if you're doing that
it might be one more thing that you can file away
as a reason that you should quit.
Using heat can be really helpful.
Heat packs applied to the lower pelvis have been shown
in some studies to actually be more effective
than Tylenol or acetaminophen at reducing period cramps.
You can use that in the form
of a hot water bottle or a wheat pack, a clay pack.
All kinds of things exist.
I might be working
on something forever project that is relevant to this.
Someday I will be able to share with you
and you can use those to help reduce your pain.
Obviously, you can't use them all the time
though because you're not going to be at home
laying in bed all the time where you can have heat
on your pelvis.
So we can talk a little bit
about over-the-counter medications
or medications that you would get at a drug store.
Usually the top recommendation
if you're going to take an over-the-counter medication
is going to be ibuprofen
or another similar anti-inflammatory.
So these are things like Advil.
The reason that these tend to work better
is because they are more anti-inflammatory
and they work more against the prostaglandin production
that we were talking about earlier.
So ibuprofen, Advil, Naproxen, these are going to rank
above acetaminophen, Tylenol, things like that.
TENS units can be helpful as well.
TENS unit is a transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation
I think is what it stands for.
And these are little packs
that you can get that have pads on them that you apply
and they kind of send an electrical pulse into your body.
It's not like a horrible pain or anything
and you can set it to be just, it feels odd
it doesn't feel painful, and there's a lot of theories
as to what the process of making this help
with pain could be.
But it definitely has been shown
in studies to potentially be helpful for some people.
So that's something that you can look into as well.
There are some other things that people talk about
like progressive relaxation and physiotherapy,
acupuncture, massage that are a little bit
in the more alternative medicine sphere.
These studies on them are not robust
or really convincing but for some people they do work.
So I will put a link below
that includes some information about some of those,
but for the most part these haven't been shown
to be better than placebo.
The third path to a more pleasant period
is to reduce mood symptoms.
Hormonal shifts during the premenstrual
and menstrual phases contribute
to a bit of mood instability and an increase
in how many mood symptoms that people report.
This can be anything from irritability
to filling a bit down to just a little more anxiety.
It can also be really severe if it's severe
again, like all of these
if it's interfering with your day-to-day life,
that's when you need to make sure you're talking
with your healthcare provider about it.
For people who also have
an underlying mental health condition,
they might experience more exacerbations
during the PMS and menstrual phases as well.
The number one thing I would say here
is we need to be optimizing mental health outside
of the timeframe of PMS and menstruation.
That includes all the things we know
are helpful to mental health,
which oftentimes are going to be
pretty person to person dependent but can include anything
from keeping a regular exercise routine
like we were just talking about
to journaling to being on medications if that's indicated
and consistently taking your meds as they're prescribed
if they have been prescribed to you,
disconnecting from the internet,
making sure you're getting good sleep
which we talked about up in the first section.
All of these things contribute to your overall mental health
and having a bit more stability means that if you start here
and the PMS and menstruation phase brings you down to here
at least you're not going from here to here.
Aside from that, there's a supplement called Vitex agnus
or Chasteberry, which does have a decently robust
amount of science backing it to say that
it might decrease PMS symptoms including mood symptoms.
This is all going to be linked below,
and of course I can't tell you to start a supplement.
I don't even know you
but it is something I think not a lot of people know about
and might be helpful to a lot of people.
So I'll link the information below,
bring it up with your doctor or healthcare provider
if you think that that might be right for you.
The fourth path to a more pleasant period
is decreasing bloating.
Unfortunately, there's not a lot
of science on how to approach this one
so we have to talk about it a little bit more broadly
in terms of what people subjectively feel like helps them.
I think that avoiding really salty
and really processed foods could be beneficial here.
We know those are things that increase
how much fluid you retain in general.
Other things that may be helpful
and I personally find helpful is wearing compression socks
particularly if I'm going to be standing for long periods
of time, that actually helps me with both fatigue
and feeling like I'm bloating or retaining fluid.
Again, I don't have science to support that.
This is just a recommendation,
but I do think they're generally low risk interventions
that you can try and see if they're helpful for you.
Additionally, you guessed it,
regular exercise may be beneficial for this as well
and I think we're seeing a theme in that exercise
can help effectively improve almost every PMS symptom
and we do have data for that
which is all of course, as always linked below.
The fifth path to a more pleasant period is happier breasts.
Breast pain during premenstrual
and menstrual phases is a really common concern.
This is called cyclic mastalgia.
That means breast pain, which is mastalgia,
that comes cyclically meaning
at certain times of your cycle.
This is something that a lot of people experience
and it is also related
to the hormonal fluctuations that happen around that time.
This is another one where there is a role
for some supplements that has some science behind it.
Chamomile extract has been studied
for reducing cyclic mastalgia,
and a randomized control trial
was actually shown to be more effective than placebo.
In the trial, they used the liquid form
and they dosed it with three times per day.
I think it's liquid drops on the tongue.
And you have to use it, or at least in the study
it was shown to be effective
when used throughout the whole cycle,
not just during the times of PMS or menstruation.
They had them do that for eight weeks and then reassessed
and was a more than statistically significant likelihood
that this had helped with the cyclic mastalgia.
So again, while I can't tell you to start a supplement
it is something worth knowing about.
I will link the study below.
And you can bring it up with your doctor
or advanced practice provider if you think
that's right for you.
Some people find avoiding caffeine to be really helpful
for reducing cyclic mastalgia
although the data on this is a bit mixed.
We do know that breast pain can be associated with caffeine.
It's just we don't know
for sure how big the association is when people
are experiencing it cyclically but it's worth trying
cutting out your caffeine and seeing if it helps.
There's some data on things like eating primrose oil
gamma linoleic acid, and vitamin E, but most of the studies
on these fail to show that they are any better than placebo.
But I think if you are looking at this
from a science standpoint, that the chamomile extract
is the one that has the most data behind it
that I can actually say, yeah,
it probably would be beneficial in some people.
All right, y'all.
I hope that this helps you on your path
to a more pleasant and positive period experience.
If you're new here and you'd like to subscribe,
we would love to have you.
I talk about all things, periods
pregnancy and everything in between.
Hit that subscribe button turn on notifications.
And thank you thank you for checking
out the wonderful sponsor of today's video CoPilot
who I am now obsessed with and have
genuinely been using and loving for quite some time.
I'll see you next Monday.