Combination of essential oils halts PMS

Wednesday, January 26, 2011 by: S. L. Baker, features writer
Tags: essential oils, PMS, health news

(NaturalNews) When a young woman is moody or bursts into tears easily, it's not unusual for someone to joke "oh, it must be near her 'time of the month'." But if you actually suffer from Pre-Menstrual Syndrome (PMS), the truth is there's not much funny about it at all.

In addition to mood swings, PMS can cause abdominal bloating, breast tenderness, clumsiness, constipation or diarrhea, confusion, fatigue, anxiety and more. And, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) these symptoms typically get worse in a woman's late 30s and 40s.

Mainstream medical doctors often prescribe side effect-laden pain pills, birth control pills and/or antidepressants for severe symptoms. But a new study just published in BioMed Central's open access journal Reproductive Health found a natural way to halt PMS -- taking essential dietary "good" fats including gamma linolenic acid, oleic acid, linoleic acid, and other polyunsaturated acids along with vitamin E (combined in a pill) for several months.

Edilberto Rocha Filho and colleagues at the Federal University of Pernambuco, Brazil, carried out a randomized, placebo-controlled trial involving 120 women with PMS. The research participants were divided into three groups and treated with 1 or 2 grams of the essential oil-containing pill or a placebo.
Symptoms were recorded over a 6 month period, and cholesterol and prolactin (a hormone secreted by the pituitary gland that is involved in reproductive health) levels were measured, too.

The results showed that the women who took 1 gram of the supplement pill experienced a significant reduction in PMS after 3 and 6 months of evaluation. However, the women receiving the higher, 2 gram dose of the essential oils had an even more dramatic improvement in their symptoms at the 3rd and 6th month evaluations.

Taking the essential oils over time produced no statistically significant differences in prolactin or total cholesterol levels from baseline. Few side effects were reported and these were mild and insignificant. In fact,the researchers noted there was no evidence that any negative symptoms were directly related to the fatty acid containing pills.

"The administration of 1 or 2 grams of essential fatty acids to patients with PMS resulted in a significant decrease in symptom scores. Furthermore, the administration of the dietary supplement did not result in any changes in the total cholesterol in the patients evaluated," Dr. Filho said in a press statement.

"The negative effect of PMS on a woman's routine activities and quality of life may be significant, in addition to the repercussions on economic costs resulting predominantly from a reduction in productivity. Essential oil capsules can now be said to show much promise as a treatment," he added.

For more information:
http://www.reproductive-health-journal.com/c...
https://www.naturalnews.com/premenstrual_synd...
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/arti...