Science Of Eating Food During Mensuration

I am deeply passionate about teaching women how to have healthier menstrual cycles. As menstruating women, we spend an average of one out of every four weeks of our lives on our period. That ends up being a quarter of our lives, between menarche and menopause, spent actively bleeding! To me, menstruation is SO significant, I can?t understand why we don?t all talk about it all of the time!

I am writing with the hopes of helping those women out there who suffer from painful menstrual cramps. In one study aimed to determine how MANY women suffer from dysmenorrhea(clinical term for menstrual pain) it was determined that 84% of the participating women experienced some pain, with over 40% of them having that pain every month. I know from speaking to women, that the pain that some endure with every period can be severe enough to completely disrupt their daily lives, leaving them with no choice but to skip school or work and stay curled up in bed with a heating pad. Some women also deal with nausea, vomiting and migraines on top of the immense pain. The pain can also radiate into their lower back and down their legs.

According to a study published in the International Journal of Eating Disorders, ovarian hormones appear to play a major role. The study showed that high progesterone levels during the premenstrual phase may lead to compulsive eating and body dissatisfaction. In a simplified sense, you?re likely to feel more dissatisfied about everything right before your period. This dissatisfaction may be a trigger for you to eat compulsively.

Progesterone peaks right before your period and increasing the appetite combined with a few other reasons, can make someone feel ravenous, especially right before their period starts. Estrogen and progesterone levels aren't the only things that change as your period looms closer. The body starts to produce more cortisol, the stress hormone, in the attempt to help ?deal with your period?s effect on your body, "The increase in cortisol brings with it a decrease in serotonin, the "feel good" hormone .Lower levels of serotonin cause increased anxiety, fatigue, sensitivity, and depression, along with the need to eat carbohydrates. According to research "Many of the carbs you eat result in an increased level of serotonin?the more you eat, the better you feel.Your body?s magnesium levels can also have a big impact on food cravings. The hormonal changes you experience during your period, along with "the physical stress of the period.? It all causes magnesium depletion, which can also affect serotonin because it ?depends on magnesium for its production and function."