Restoring Balance to Our Lives to Alleviate Symptoms of PMS

It seems today the slang word  PMS’ing has become so common for how people behave or are feeling,  it’s even used when referring to a man acting moody or depressed.   Is everybody so stressed that they just can’t deal with certain times of the month?  This used to be just a female issue.  In Traditional Chinese Medicine, PMS has been addressed with herbs and Acupuncture for centuries.  Chinese medicine, based on Taoism philosophy, believes health is achieved when the body is in balance. If we’re PMS’ing, we’re not in balance.

Chinese Medicine characterizes PMS as a lack of the free flow of Qi (energy or our vital force) because we are out of balance.  This balance I’m referring to is not a static object that one finds and has forever.  Balance is an ongoing quest throughout life.  Rarely do we all have it all the time. But, hopefully, we have some balance, some or most of the time.  Within all aspects of life we need a balance.  Our diets, not too much nor too little, neither overweight nor underweight.   Sleep habits, as too much sleep can actually cause depression and we all probably know how we feel with too little sleep.  Our relationships need a balance in all areas, friends, family, and spouses.  Work, in today’s society, seems like the toughest part of our lives to balance.  Often there’s either too much work or not enough.  I rarely talk to someone who says I have the perfect job.  I make exactly what I need and don’t have to work more than I want to.   But wouldn’t it be nice if we could all say that everyday.  This would be balance.

At any particular moment when we are out of balance and we can’t quite figure out why, our Qi gets stuck.  Menstrual pain can be caused by this stuck Qi which causes blood stagnation.  The stuck or stagnate “Qi” energy in TCM also causes moodiness and other typical menstrual symptoms such as headaches, crankiness, bloating and pain.  There can be various other symptoms as well.  TCM addresses the root cause and the body responds happily because our bodies want to be in balance.  The body functions optimally when in balance.

I prefer the Eastern method of treatment because, as an Acupuncturist, I treat the whole person and the whole body.  This method contrasts sharply with the Western approach which, for example, treats only the menstrual irregularities (not the root of them) with either NSAIDs  or birth control pills.  I now know 14 year olds using birth control, not because they are sexually active but to control the symptoms of their menstrual cycle.  I would rather ask, what is going on with these kids that PMS symptoms are unbearable without a daily pill?

Resolve the internal issues, resolve the balancing act and you will find that your health issues, including the PMS’ing, resolve themselves as well.  The internal moodiness is just a symptom of the body’s lack of balance in some area of your life.  Treating the whole person rather than just the symptoms is the right way to bring balance back into your life and stop the PMS’ing.