Vitamin D Deficiency Effects On Menstrual Pain:

Does Vitamin D Help Menstruation Problems, If Yes, How Much Vitamin D Should I Take For PMS?

When facing all the pain and complications of pre-menstrual syndrome, thousands if not hundreds of thousands, of women worldwide are looking for serious treatments and cures.

What is pms (pre-menstrual syndrome) and what can help you deal with it?

Pre-menstrual Syndrome is a collection of aches, pains, swellings, and discomfort brought on in the weeks prior to a woman beginning the bleeding phase of her menstrual cycle.

There are several stages to a woman’s 28-31 day menstrual cycle and the symptoms of pms tend to show up in most of them. In the premenstrual stage you have the beginnings of fluid retention and hormonal changes. In the follicular stage the woman’s body begins to overproduce estrogen and the hormonal imbalance that causes back pain, fluid retention, migraine headaches, abdominal cramps, irregular flows and more. In the luteal stage the body reverses this and produces more progesterone than estrogen, causing a hormonal balance in the other direction.

The next stage is the bleeding stage followed by the post menstrual stage. In both these stages most of the symptoms should be reduced. There are however many women who experience all the symptoms of the first three stages again in the fifth. Back pain – mild and severe –upper and lower – can appear in any of these stages except it is not likely to appear in the bleeding stage.

Vitamins Can Help PMS Symptoms

Vitamins are a vital part of any healthy diet and many of them are especially important for women during their menstrual cycle.

Vitamin D is an intriguing vitamin in and of itself. Unlike all other vitamins, your body can make its own Vitamin D if you get enough exposure to the sun.

Your body can make Vitamin D from the cholesterol in your body with enough sunlight. At the same time Vitamin D is a fat soluble vitamin that can be stored in the body fat. However when you consume Vitamin D, your body uses as much of it as it needs immediately and if any is left over it can be stored in the body fat.

Vitamin D can be found in salmon, sardines, cod liver oil and other fish. It is found in all foods that have fatty acids, so it is easy to acquire through diet.

However what is acquired through diet may not be enough to prevent menstrual difficulties caused by a Vitamin D deficiency. That is why it is available as a supplement as well as an ingredient in other supplemental products.

How Does Vitamin D Deficiency Affect PMS?

Yet so many women suffer from Vitamin D deficiency and that deficiency greatly affects them during their menstrual cycle. Calcium cannot be effective in the body without the assistance of Vitamin D. So a deficiency has a greater impact than if we were talking about Vitamin D by itself. Vitamin D helps the body to absorb the calcium and calcium is essential to fighting off the symptoms of pms. Calcium fights mood swings, pain, fatigue and cramps.

Without Vitamin D, calcium could not be effective at this.

On his television show Dr. Oz recently discussed the symptoms of pms and encouraged women to get enough vitamins and minerals. He addressed the need that both calcium and magnesium have for Vitamin D to help with the body’s absorption process.

“Calcium is a necessary supplement for strong, healthy muscles, bones and teeth. You need to take it in combination with magnesium (to prevent the negative side effects of calcium) and vitamin D (to help the body absorb calcium) in order to get the maximum benefit.” www.doctoroz.com/videos/dr-ozs-ultimate-supplement-checklist

So with its vital role in helping calcium and magnesium to be absorbed by the body, it is vital to the treatment of pms induced cramps, stress and tension. Vitamin D will greatly reduce the chances of getting any of the pms symptoms including bloating, fatigue, irritability, and sore and swollen breasts.

There are some serious negatives surrounding calcium absorption of the body including calcium blockage in the lungs and heart. This can become a serious, life threatening issue if not resolved by taking Vitamin D. As effective as Vitamin D is in conjunction with magnesium and calcium it is effective on its own for pms induced migraine headaches, mood swings and depression.

Research Studies and Vitamin D for PMS

Recently studies have been conducted and shown the effectiveness and efficacy of Vitamin D in respect to the symptoms of pms.

“One study conducted by the American Medical Association and printed in the Archives of Internal Medicine showed that 85% to 90% of women experience PMS symptoms in their lifetimes. In this particular study, women were given vitamin D fortified skim milk.
The results were that the more vitamin D the women received, the fewer PMS symptoms they experienced. This milk was fortified with 400 IU of vitamin D and showed that this level of vitamin D is sufficient to reduce the effects of PMS symptoms in women.”www.periodvitamin.com/vitamin-d-pms.html

There are two different types of vitamin D and they are defined by whether or not it is obtained in food or made by the body through sunlight. Vitamin D2 is made by the body with enough sunlight and it is a synthetic version of the vitamin. At the same time Vitamin D3 is natural and found in food.  The potency of Vitamin D3 is far greater than that of Vitamin D2. It is also the form of Vitamin D that you will find in supplements instead of Vitamin D2 because it is the natural form of the vitamin.

As previously mentioned, a woman who gets enough Vitamin D can either reduce or completely avoid pms symptoms such as depressions, headaches and mood swings. If a woman does not have enough Vitamin D then there is both a calcium issue in terms of deficiency and the pms symptoms that Vitamin D can prevent.

“Dr. Susan Thys-Jacobs, M.D., practicing endocrinologist and leader in the study of PMS, says PMS is the result of a nutritional imbalance and that changes in your diet and lifestyle can reduce, if not eliminate, those pesky PMS symptoms, including Vitamin D.

Thys-Jacobs says, “PMS is not a disease or psychiatric condition, but a manifestation of a nutritional deficiency. PMS is a very healthy signal alerting young women of a mineral imbalance. If women don’t ingest enough dietary calcium and vitamin D, the hormones that regulate calcium react negatively with estrogen and progesterone and trigger PMS symptoms.”

She adds, “My research, as well as recent findings from the largest NIH (National Institute of Health) study ever performed on women with severe PMS, proves that the symptoms of PMS are a sign of a calcium and vitamin D deficiency. PMS symptoms such as depression, fatigue, irritability or mood swings, signal an imbalance of essential minerals in the body.”
www.sheknows.com/health-and-wellness/articles/803948/a-natural-remedy-for-pms

Can Vitamin D alone or in conjunction with other vitamins and minerals help with heavy menstrual bleeding and period pain or mood swings? Multiple studies show that the best way to get the Vitamin D that you need to combat pms symptoms is not through food as that is too hit and miss. Rather these studies recommend a dietary supplement that is designed to combat pms and contains Vitamin D3 as one of its primary components.

Use Vitamin D with Other Minerals, Herbs and Vitamins

We strongly recommend Period Vitamin because of the extensive ingredients list beyond calcium and Vitamin D. Period Vitamin contains a wide variety of herbs, minerals and vitamins, all of which have strong effectiveness against the many symptoms of pms.

In addition to Vitamin D, calcium and magnesium, Period Vitamin contains Evening Primrose Oil (EPO), White Willow Bark, Red Raspberry and Black Cohosh.

These four ingredients are critical to the efficacy of Period Vitamin in preventing or treating the pms symptoms of inflammation, pelvic spasms and menstrual cramping.

Adding them to Vitamin D, calcium and magnesium makes the entire supplement that much more effective against the multiple symptoms of pms.

Period Vitamin contains a wide variety of other minerals, vitamins and herbs including all of the B complex vitamins.  Period Vitamin includes B5 and Vitamin B1 to assist with irregular menstrual blood flows. Niacin will regulate nausea and vomiting with B6 helps with the cramping.

Using a supplement like Period Vitamin also allows for control of the dosage of Vitamin D taken daily in a way that taking just the Vitamin D supplement cannot do.

It is much easier to take Period Vitamin than try to figure out what is the proper daily dose of Vitamin D for your pms symptoms. Period Vitamin contains many other herbs, minerals and vitamins that will assist with other pms symptoms as well.

Given this it is a great idea for women who suffer from multiple pms symptoms need to be sure they get enough Vitamin D on a daily basis. The best way to do that is to take a daily dose of Period Vitamin.