Must Know Period Tip

Period Tip To Relieve Cramps, Bloating & PMS

So many of us struggle from our very first period as a teen with horrible period symptoms from excruciating cramps and headaches to crazy heavy flow and even crazier PMS mood swings and horrid bloating.

So what do we all do?

Well most of us reach for the pain killers, don’t we, just to get us through those days of our period when we can barely function.

But all those pain killers do absolutely nothing to solve the real problems causing our period cramps, mood swings and bloating.

AND actually make period cramps, mood swings, bloating worse and our crazy heavy flow even crazier!!

Who knew?!! I certainly didn’t, as for years and years – OK decades – I stuffed myself full of pain killers to survive my period every month.

But I have discovered there is one single, simple period tip that truly can make a massive difference to our period symptoms and help break our dependency on pain killers.

I wish to God I had known both about the problem with painkillers and this period tip as a teen and am so glad I came across it in time to pass onto my own daughter as she hits puberty.

In the rest of this post, I am going to explain the:

Biggest cause of period cramp pain, bloating, PMS mood swings and heavy periods
How painkillers make them worse
The simplest way to relieve period symptoms and break the painkiller cycle.

I really hope this period tip can help you as much as it has me.

For more simple health tips do follow me on Pinterest & check out my other healthy living posts.

Period Tip For Cramps, Bloating, PMS & Heavy Flow

1. The Big Cause Of Period Pain

The vast majority of problems we have with our periods are caused by mineral deficiencies in our diet. Lots of us are running low on everything from iron, magnesisum, calcium, vitamin D, vitamin B6 & B12 and a whole load more. But stacking up on multi-vitamins doesn’t – as I discovered – help.

And that’s because it’s not just our diet that is rubbish, but our digestion.

Bad digestion causes a huge problem for our periods because:

It stops us absorbing minerals
But as importantly it raises our oestrogen levels and excess oestrogen is at the bottom of all sorts of period problems.

Part of our oestrogen problem comes from poor gut health – we’re missing lots of good bacteria that help manage it – and improving our gut health can be a great long term fix for period problems.

But there’s a simpler problem we can solve quicker: constipation.

Because you see, we need to expel waste oestrogen through our bowels. If we’re all blocked up we can’t and oestrogen sitting in our digestive system actually seems to be get reabsorbed into our bodies getting the balance of our hormones into an even bigger mess.

Loads of us struggle with constipation and are massively susceptible to it, just before and during our period. And painkillers make it worse.

2. How Painkillers Make Period Pain Worse

Constipation is a very common problem with painkillers.

My pain killer of choice for period cramp pain in my teens and twenties was a combined dose of ibuprofen and codeine. I felt like it was the only thing that could touch the pain of my cramps in the first three days of my period that always came hand in hand with horrible constipation.

What I didn’t realise was that the constipation was the problem. And that the ibuprofen and codeine were numbing pain but making the constipation worse. And as over the years the constipation got crazier, I reached for more painkillers which made it month by month worse still.

How bonkers is that?!!!

I only managed to break this cycle of horrible PMS and painful periods when I dealt with the constipation.

3. The Simplest Period Pain Relief Tip

Getting on top of hormonal cycles of constipation made a massive difference to both my PMS and period problems and relieved my:

Bloating
Irritability & mood swings
Cramps
And heavy flow.

The super simple ways I found to relieve constipation were:

Drinking lots more water
A daily bowl of soup loaded with 3 or 4 helpings of veggies – check out this big list of hearty fall soups for comforting recipes or try this super speedy 5 minute soup hack
Wholegrain & spelt rather than white carbs
Walking much, much more.

It was as easy as that.

Those four changes on their own “kept everything moving” pre period and that meant I could get through my period with no or very few painkillers.

So if you’re struggling with PMS mood swings and bloating plus painful cramps and heavy flow do stay on top of constipation all month long and in the week before your period focus religiously everyday on:

Drinking plenty of water
Eating a big bowl of veggie soup
Cutting right down on processed carbs
Walking the mile

These really can ease constipation which in turn helps our gut to manage our oestrogen levels and absorb all those minerals we’re all so short on so we have easier periods and break the cycle of painkillers that make things worse.

I really hope this helps with your period problems, do let me know how you get on. And for more simple healthy living tips follow me on Pinterest and have a read of these: