The Leader

Issue date: 3/8/06 Section: Beat

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It's true. Something as simple as drinking milk could help those of you women out there suffering month after month because of symptoms of Pre-Menstrual Syndrome (PMS).

According to an article from the Archives of Internal Medicine, it is estimated that 85 to 90 percent of pre-menopausal women experience PMS symptoms. In most women it is mild, but for some it can be very severe. These symptoms include abdominal cramping, breast tenderness, crying spells, depression, irritability, food cravings, fatigue and headaches.

Colleen Bernstein, a registered nurse and part of the Health Promotion Services department at Norris Health Center, said that PMS symptoms would generally begin at least "seven days before the first day of bleeding."

Bernstein also said PMS in college-aged women makes very much sense since there are so many other changes going on in their lives. College women have much more stress now than there may have been when they were living at home, she said, and levels of serotonin are changing.

Bernstein recommends that women drink three eight oz. glasses of milk a day. That will give women enough calcium to fill the 1,200 milligrams that are recommended for young adults each day.

According to Bernstein, it is speculated that PMS may be due to the lack of calcium, which is why drinking milk helps. She said the extra calcium that a person gets will boost the levels back up to normal level, which will then reduce the PMS symptoms.

So, the question is whether or not women actually believe that this will help their PMS symptoms.

"I think that any way in which substances we would naturally eat or drink could reduce PMS symptoms is far more superior than taking over the counter medications," said Amanda, a student at UWM.

Katie Umentum, a nursing student at UWM, said that since milk helps with other things like osteoporosis, it wouldn't be a bad idea to try it in helping PMS.

"Some research shows that calcium helps PMS symptoms, but it's not proven," Umentum said. "It probably wouldn't hurt to try since it's going to kill two birds with one stone. I would definitely recommend it to a patient."

This whole milk and PMS phenomenon was made public last spring by one of the GOT MILK commercials which was aimed at college-aged women. The commercial showed a man bringing his girlfriend flowers and milk. The girlfriend was first shown as a frog, but after drinking the milk turned into beautiful young woman.

The ad was aimed at college-aged women because of something called "synchronous menstruation." That occurs when women who live together, work together, or spend a lot of time together begin to have concurring menstruation cycles.

Since it is known that many college students live together in groups of three or more, this synchronous menstruation could get ugly. Imagine a group of four women living together in a house and all suffering from PMS. That is probably not a house most of us would want to enter. Synchronous menstruation may not be proven, but it is something that many women believe in.

"I remember freshman year in the dorms we always all had our periods at the same time," said Kara Dudzik, a UWM student. Dudzik added that she would be hesitant to believe that milk would actually help alleviate PMS symptoms.

"My mom, my sister and I always had it at the same time," Umentum said. "So did my friends in high school. I don't know why, but it's so weird."

Another aspect that goes along with synchronous menstruation is how much PMS can affect relationships. Studies have revealed that PMS affects more than 70 percent of relationships.

"If a woman suffers really bad cramps/migraines then I'm sure that would affect other aspects of her life," Dudzik said.

Bernstein also said that PMS can have an impact on relationships, especially if women do nothing to aid in keeping themselves healthy. She said that the person "has a responsibility to themselves to try and identify the problems first."

There are many other things women can do besides drinking milk to help ward off PMS symptoms: exercise 30 minutes per day and get enough sleep. During the time of PMS, women should avoid salt, caffeine and alcohol.

Milk is the best way to get a good dose of calcium, but other foods like yogurt, bananas and cottage cheese are good carriers of calcium as well.

Bernstein also mentioned that if women can't tolerate milk, then a calcium supplement would work fine, too.

"It's [calcium] important for bones. Take it any way you can," she said.

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