Tag Archives: saliva hormone testing

Natural Help For Different Types Of PMS

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Did you know that there are 4 distinct types of PMS that 80% of women suffer from? PMS is defined as a recurrent, cyclical set of physical and behavioral symptoms that can come on 7 – 14 days before the actual menstrual cycle. PMS usually occurs in women aged 25 – 35, but is quite often seen in women younger or older depending on the hormonal status and diet of the individual.

Types Of PMS

1. PMS A –  ANXIETY – This is the type of PMS where one experiences quite a bit of nervous tension. The major symptoms of this type of PMS include irritability, anxiety and mood swings. This type of PMS is usually caused by an imbalance in estrogen and progesterone. Up to 70 % of the females are affected by this type of PMS.

2. PMS C – CARBOHYDRATE CRAVING – This type of PMS, as the name says it, is related to carbohydrate cravings where the individual may crave warm breads, pastas, chocolate and “sweet stuff”.  Part of this type of PMS may include additional symptoms such as increased appetite, headaches, fatigue, dizziness, fainting and palpations. This type of PMS may be related to a deficiency in nutrients and certain vitamins, especially calcium or magnesium, in the body.

3. PMS D – DEPRESSION -This type of PMS is related to feeling down or depressed before the menstrual cycle begins, and women can experience up to 2 weeks of this in some cases. Of course, daily stressors can exacerbate how one feels at this particularly vulnerable time of the month. Hormone imbalances – having too much or too little of estrogen along with Vitamin deficiencies are to blame for PMS – D – DEPRESSION.

4. PMS – H – HYDRATION – In this type of PMS significant water weight gain is experienced by the female, and could exceed up to 6 pounds in a week. Bloating is quite often experienced as well, along with significant swelling in the hands and feet and breast tenderness and fullness. Diet is big factor in this type of PMS – especially high salt diets, lots of caffeine and stress is also a big factor.

Quite often women experience more than one type of PMS subgroup. Naturopathic medicine is great at identifying what imbalance in the body is causing the symptoms using saliva hormone testing and blood tests to identify nutrient and vitamin deficiencies, and then treating them holistically using natural remedies, diet and quite often acupuncture which quite often helps eliminate all the PMS, and successfully makes them a thing in the past.

By: Sushma Shah, Naturopathic Doctor, at the Nature’s Intentions Naturopathic Clinic.

Treating Insomnia / Restless Sleep Related To Stress

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Quite often we have people at our naturopathic clinic who come in to be treated for insomnia or restless sleep.

What causes sudden insomnia and restless sleep?

Stress is a huge factor for most people. Especially for those individuals who tend to take work stress home, have a hard time managing stress, and tend to internalize it. In doing so, when they try to get to sleep, all the thoughts that weren’t dealt with during the day, come up at night and disturb the individual sleep – where they might have a very active and restless mind and cant stop thinking when they should have been sleeping.

A simple solution to this would be to try and journal all your thoughts before bedtime in your library or study area or any area away from the bedroom.

You could also try some form of deep breathing or mediation before bedtime to help you calm your mind and body down. Physical exercise during the day is also great for stress relief. Acupuncture and relaxation is what we found to be the most effective, along with certain supplements for sleeping ailments that are stress related.

A deficiency in certain key nutrients may also cause restlessness during sleeping hours, talk to your naturopath about perhaps checking your nutrient status, especially if you are using stimulants such as coffee to get you through the day.  You might also want to get your cortisol levels checked (a key hormone that allows the body to adapt to stress), especially if you are getting a second wind at night or are rather alert when you wake up in the middle of the night. Usually saliva hormone testing is the best way to check the cortisol levels. Talk to our Toronto naturopath to see if this would be applicable in your case.

By: Sushma Shah, Toronto Naturopathic Doctor, at Nature’s Intentions Naturopathic Clinic.