Personal Health : Diet Linked to Severity of PMS Symptoms
Adiet rich in chocolate, beer, soda or fruit juice increases the likelihood of premenstrual syndrome, a new study by researchers at Oregon State University suggests. But the researchers stop short of advising women who suffer from PMS, a condition marked by moodiness and physical complaints before menstruation, to make radical dietary changes.
Like some previous research, the Oregon study found a link between the consumption of sugary foods and symptoms of PMS, which afflicts an estimated 70% of premenstrual women.
But the new study is larger and is based on a general population, not just on patients seeking treatment for PMS, said Annette MacKay Rossignol, chairman of the Department of Public Health at Oregon State, who led the study.
Other PMS researchers called the Oregon study, reported Monday in the Journal of Reproductive Medicine, interesting but not earth-shattering.
Some researchers said they consider dietary changes a “first-line” treatment that will not help women with severe PMS. Instead, they are studying other treatments, such as hormonal suppression and medication.
In the Oregon study, 841 students, most of them ages 18 to 22, rated their premenstrual symptoms and recorded their intakes of such foods as chocolate, alcohol, fruit juices and caffeine-free colas. Women who ate sugary foods were more likely to report premenstrual symptoms. The more they ate, the worse they felt.
Women who drank three to five cups of fruit juice daily, for instance, were more likely to have severe PMS symptoms. Those who drank four to 12 beers a week were three times likelier to experience PMS than those who drank no alcohol. Even artificially sweetened sodas seemed to increase the severity of symptoms, but Rossignol said she was not sure why.
“There is a possibility that consumption of these foods is related to the incidence of PMS, (but) whether or not it is causal is not clear,” she said. Perhaps women who load up on sugary foods do not take in adequate amounts of other foods, Rossignol added.
Rossignol had no dietary advice based on the study, but noted that “a diet high in sugar is not good for a variety of reasons.”
Dr. Donna Shoupe, an associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at USC and a PMS researcher, called the Oregon study “interesting” but noted that the women involved reported their own symptoms, which she said was not as accurate an indicator as studying women with confirmed diagnoses of PMS.
Ideally, some researchers say, women should record symptoms daily for months, not complete questionnaires in which they have to rely extensively on memory.
Dietary changes might be a first-line treatment for PMS, Shoupe said. But in her current study of PMS patients, she is focusing on the possible hormonal basis of the condition. She is suppressing women’s natural ovarian function and giving them replacement estrogen for relief.
Another researcher, Candace S. Brown, has found that an anti-anxiety medication, buspirone (BuSpar), can help.
“It may work by normalizing levels of serotonin, a brain chemical linked with mood changes such as anger, anxiety and depression,” said Brown, a University of Tennessee assistant professor of clinical pharmacy.
Other researchers have said regular exercise or vitamins could ease symptoms.
Last year, Rossignol reported in the American Journal of Public Health that consumption of beverages containing caffeine was strongly related to PMS, with higher intakes linked to more severe symptoms.
“Women suffering from PMS should consider cutting out caffeine for a period of three months to see if their symptoms improve,” Rossignol suggested then. “For those women who can’t give up caffeine, abstaining from caffeine during the premenstrual and menstrual phases of the cycle can help.”
The study of PMS is complicated because PMS is a diverse disease. “There are at least 140 different symptoms,” Shoupe said. In addition to moodiness, women report fatigue, headaches, breast tenderness and food cravings.
