Mood swings often take place in women before 1 or 2 week of the beginning of menstruation in the form of premenstrual syndromes. These involve sudden and unexplained changes in the mood of a woman. For instance, you may wake up in a good mood but later on, feel angry and extremely irritable for one or two hour period without any reason. Later on, your mood becomes normal and happy again. In addition, a few women may even experience other emotional symptoms associated with PMS, such as irritability sadness, anger and anxiety.
Do Periods Actually Cause Mood Swings?
Periods in women may cause mood swings as one of the common pre-menstrual syndromes. However, the extent of mood swing may vary among women and one can avoid it by following a few management techniques mentioned here.
Why Mood Swings Take Place Before Period As PMS
Until now, gynecologists and other medical experts are unable to find out the exact cause associated with mood swings, as common PMS. However, a majority of doctors have linked the problem with hormonal changes, which take place during the second half i.e. from 15th day to 28th day of a woman’s menstrual cycle.
We know that ovulation takes place at halfway during the menstrual cycle. During this period, body of a woman releases egg to cause drop in both progesterone and estrogen levels. Shift in both of these hormones often results in both emotional and physical symptoms.
Changes in both progesterone and estrogen levels influence the levels of serotonin i.e. a neurotransmitter helps in the regulation of one’s mood, appetite and sleep cycle. Low serotonin levels have relationships with irritability and sadness feelings, along with difficulty in sleeping and unusual cravings towards fast food or junk food. Hence, based on the mentioned facts, we should say that reduction in serotonin levels causes severe mood swings in women during their premenstrual syndromes.
Managing Mood Swings Problem
Even though you cannot avoid arising mood swings during the PMS phase, you can easily manage your conditions based on a few lifestyle and dietary changes. These include-
Healthy Diet
Healthy diet will help you in many ways i.e. by having 3 meals in one day and healthy snacks between them will help you a lot to maintain your blood sugar levels and thereby, avoid irritation to some extent.
Next, you have to include healthy protein sources in your diet, such as fish, eggs, lean meats, lentils and beans, along with varieties of healthy fats vital for the production of serotonin neurotransmitter and sex hormones.
You have to avoid the intake of junk food items, as these food items are rich in carbohydrate and fat, because of which they trigger negative feelings and make your condition related to mood disorders or anxiety even worse.
Physical Exercise
You should make sure dedicating at least half an hour in a day to perform physical exercises to benefit your mind and body both. Exercise has a prime role to exert positive effects on the mood of a person, as it releases a feel-good type of chemical called endorphins, which help in boosting your mood significantly.
Adequate Amount of Sleep
You have to aim to sleep for 8 hours approximately during nighttime to support your good mood. This is because; lack of enough sleep makes women as feeling de-motivated, anxious and irritable, especially during the time of their periods.
Limit Your Caffeine Intake
Caffeine is responsible to stimulate the sympathetic nervous system of a woman and initiates adrenaline release. To stay safe and manage your mood swings condition, you should put limit on your caffeine intake, so that you do not feel pressure on the adrenal glands and thus, never feel jittery, nervousness or anxiety.
Follow Stress Management
Last, but not the least, you should follow few of the important stress management techniques to get positive effects on your mind and other parts of your body to deal with mood swings effectively.
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