PMS is quite possibly the  worst thing about being a woman on a month to month basis. My breasts swell, get sore and drop halfway to my belly, which also grows to ginormous proportions. Because I am tall, I typically gain no less than 5 fricking pounds of water bloat, feel like a blimp and as everyone who crosses my path during Aunt Flo’s little visit can attest to, I have a much tougher time with my moods.

In John J. Ratey’s “Spark: The Real New Revolutionary Science of Exercise and the Brain”, which is a book detailing the benefits of exercise to the mind, he devotes an entire chapter to the not-so-beautiful topic of PMS.  The chapter offers both specific examples of a woman living with severe PMS and the effects it has on both her and her husband as well as advice. Not surprisingly, the author recommends exercise as a way to ward off some of the physical and mental stresses caused by the menstrual cycle.

For those who are not already physically fit, which is an increasing amount of the US population, the author suggests walking an hour a day while at a heart rate of 55-65% of your maximum heart rate. For a detailed way to measure your heart rate, you can check out this link.  The idea is to first begin walking at a point in which it is almost too difficult to carry on a conversation and then build your way up to low-intensity aerobic exercise, which releases both dopamine and adrenaline. Low-intensity aerobic exercise can include either jogging or low-impact aerobics such as Jane Fonda’s work-out Collection.

The most intriguing information I learned from “Spark” was that both exercise and healthy foods such as broccoli cause stress on the body, which paradoxically enables the body to get stronger. The most discouraging thing about his recommendations as a person who has little patience for exercise was his recommendation to exercise a minimum of six hours a week, including both aerobic and anaerobic exercise.

In addition to exercise, dietary changes can really help your PMS. This site recommends Vitamin B, more vegetables, more potassium, and more magnesium as possibilities to warding off the evil effects PMS as well as calcium and Vitamin D.