Methods/Food For Regular Periods

Remedies for Irregular Menstrual Periods

Irregular periods may be common in most women and are mostly due to the hormonal changes in the body. Most of the women experience a 28 day menstrual cycle on an average. However many have a cycle from anywhere between 21 days to 35 days. The cycle depends on the hormones and can become irregular causing continuous bleeding, a missed period or occurrence of two periods within one cycle. 

Reasons - The reason for irregular menstrual periods is due to the hormones and the hormonal signals that get imbalanced. Usually the hormones estrogen and progesterone are required to produce a period and these are stored in the pituitary gland and the ovaries. To trigger menstrual periods, these parts send signals to each other but sometimes these signals get missed or crossed causing irregular menstrual periods. The reasons for creating the signals to mess up are as follows:

1. Pregnancy: This is usually the first thing to check for if you have missed a period. In pregnancy the body produces different levels of hormones which cause the period to end.

2. Diet: A poor diet of lack of nutrition can also be a reason for irregular menstrual periods. If the condition of bulimia or anorexia is present in a woman, she may have irregular periods or sometimes no periods at all. 

3. Menarche: It can take a couple of years for a girl’s period to regularize after she has had her first period. This is a normal condition.

4. Stress: If a woman is stressed about some issue, it can reflect in her menstrual cycle causing it to be irregular. Anxiety, fatigue, worries and stress are causes of this condition.

5. Intense Exercises: Intense workouts and exercises can also disrupt the hormonal balance in a woman’s body resulting in irregular menstrual periods.

6. Birth Control Pills: Irregularity of periods is common in women who take birth control pills. The body has to adjust to the new levels of hormone being taken in the form of the pills.

7. Menopause: Irregular periods are often a sign of menopause which alters the levels of hormones in the body.

For many women, this irregularity is nothing serious and nothing to be worried about. Some home remedies can be followed to deal with these irregularities and help the periods to become regular.

Home Remedies: Some of the home remedies for irregular menstrual cycle are as under:

1. Carrot juice taken regularly will help treating a condition of irregular menses.

2. Include pumpkin seeds, drumsticks, papaya, bitter gourd and snake gourd in your diet.

3. Fennel seeds are also beneficial in this condition.

4. Grape juice can help in bringing the regularity back.

5. Dill is effective in stimulating the menstruation.

6. Asafetida is widely used for regularizing periods. It is an effective home remedy.

7. Take the ginger with honey every day.

8. Try to avoid drinking caffeinated beverages and alcohol.

9. You must avoid eating spicy and fried food. Also avoid chocolates and pineapples to overcome this problem.

10. Gynecure capsule is a useful herbal remedy for treating irregular menstruation.

Follow these above home remedies to prevent the condition of irregular periods. Take adequate rest and maintain a stress free life to improve your menstrual cycles. Maintaining healthy choices in diet is also very important to cure irregular menstrual periods.

Food That Make Your Menstrual Cycle Regular

Your first step in regulating your periods is figuring out what’s causing an irregular menstrual cycle. Once you determine the cause, you’ll be better able to find an effective treatment.

Omega-3 fatty acids – salmon, sardines, etc

The blood vessels in your ovaries are tiny, which makes them vulnerable to damage and poor circulation. Smoking, obesity, and high cholesterol can negatively affect your ovarian blood vessels, which blocks hormones and blood flow. Fish oils enhance blood circulation, reduce damage from free radicals, fight the effects of aging, and increase dopamine (which improves your mood!).

Dr Booth recommends adding a fish oil supplement to your diet, instead of eating a high fish diet (because of the mercury in some tuna, swordfish, mackerel, etc).

Non-white foods

Most natural foods are not white, so you can assume that if a food is white, it is probably processed to the point of being unhealthy! To make your menstrual cycle regular, avoid white flour, sugar, white potatoes, white bread, white pasta, and white rice. They disrupt your menstrual cycle by creating insulin surges that result in fat storage. This excess fat storage negatively affects ovulation and your periods – and can cause irregular periods.

Protein – cottage cheese, lean meats, nuts

“Finding sources of balanced protein can be a challenge for busy women, but it is a must for hormonal balance, writes Dr Booth in The Venus Week. The more you balance your hormones, the more regular your menstrual cycle will be. Plant proteins are especially good for enhancing fertility and hormonal balance: almonds, walnuts, peanuts, cheese, hard boiled eggs, soy chips, hummus, canned sardines, and edamame.

Vitamin D – perhaps take a supplement

This vitamin improves communication between your cells, which stabilizes your hormones. Vitamin D is also vital in cancer protection – especially breast, colon, ovarian, and prostate cancers. “Vitamin D is a little hard to come by in food,” writes Dr Booth. Eat vitamin D-fortified milk products, tuna, egg yolks, salmon, sardines, and (yuck) cod liver oil.

To increase your vitamin D and make your menstrual cycle regular, make sure you getting enough sunlight. Where you live and the color of your skin determines how much time you should spend in the sun, but my research tells me that the average North American should spend about 10 minutes in the sun about 2-3 times per week.

Dark chocolate!

“Chocolate contains flavenoids, which have estrogen-like activity and help improve circulation by reducing platelet clumping, writes Dr Booth in The Venus Week. Flavenoids also enhance microcirculation in the ovaries and endocrine glands, and increase dopamine (a “feel good” hormone).

Not just any old chocolate will do: eat dark chocolate that contains at least 70% cocoa solids.