PMS Guide |

Since the B vitamins are found mostly in liver, yeast, wheat germ, and rice polish, many American women are vitamin B deficient. The normal American diet is not high in organ meats, and the process of refining flour and mass-producing breads and bakery products eliminates the B vitamins. Most of the B vitamins and many other nutrients are lost in the milling or polishing process that produces white rice. Even as far back as the early forties, the vitamin B deficiency in the American diet was noted in medical literature. And with sufficient B vitamins, researchers discovered that the body was not effective in regulating estrogen production. Then a vicious cycle ensued because excess estrogen escalated the vitamin B deficiency, and more estrogen was produced. A resulting hormonal imbalance brought on symptoms of PMS.

Doctors could have been advising PMS patients to take vitamin B-complex for the last forty years, but there was always some skepticism as to how effective vitamins really were. Still, studies have shown that some women who suffer from PMS do find relief with vitamin B-complex, especially if they accompany it with high doses of vitamin B₆.

The depressive symptoms that are associated with PMS, the fatigue and general malaise, have been shown to improve when a woman takes vitamin B_6. This vitamin disappears in cooking and canning and when foods such as whole-grain breads or cereals are stored for a long time or exposed to light. So, considering our modern food habits, it is no wonder that a woman often does not have enough B₆ in her body. And if for one reason or another she also has a hormonal imbalance, that imbalance may be increasing her already existing need for vitamin B₆.

Pregnant women who are expecting high progesterone levels sometimes have B6 deficiencies, which make them more susceptible to morning sickness. Women who are on a birth control pills with high estrogen and progesterone contents have complained of headaches, dizziness, fatigue, irritability, and depression, which are often alleviated by vitamin _B6. The said to affect PMS in the way it influences the release of the brain’s neurotransmitters, dopamine and serotonin.

The neurotransmitters are a person’s mood regulators. When a woman with PMS feels irrationally tense, depressed, irritable or agitated, she may have a vitamin B₆ deficiency that is decreasing the production of dopamine and serotonin. Her moods may become more stabilized after she takes this vitamin. She may even find that her food cravings and water retention subside.

Vitamin B₆ must be taken in high doses in combination with vitamin B-complex and other vitamins. If vitamin B₆ is taken alone, it might disturb the body’s intestinal microorganisms and cause other B vitamins to be excreted from, rather than absorbed into, a woman’s system.