Last month, you experienced some nasty side-effects from your period. This month, it’s time to change that, but how? PMS can negatively affect blood sugar levels and, while you may not be diabetic, there is a risk when you get pregnant. Here’s how to combat the effects and minimize your risk.

How PMS Affects Your Blood Sugar

PMS affects your blood sugar in ways that science cannot yet fully explain. Unfortunately, there aren’t many studies addressing this issue. But there is one study by Villanova University College of Nursing that showed decreased insulin sensitivity during menstruation.

This would explain why some women don’t do well on high-carb diets or diets with excessive amounts of sugar in them. The decreased insulin sensitivity means that insulin produced by your body (the pancreas) isn’t sufficient to lower blood sugar resulting from sugars in the diet.

This caused hyperglycemia in test subjects. In other words, you’re more likely to have high blood sugar during menstruation than during other times of the month.

Symptoms can include feeling highly charged and capricious during your period, going through rages, irritability, or spits of anger, you may also become bloated and cranky or develop headaches.

How To Test For Low Blood Sugar

Fortunately, this isn’t something you should have to battle with your entire life. You will probably have to make some modifications to your current diet or lifestyle, but it’s manageable. All you need are simple OneTouch Products like a glucometer. The glucometer is a device that measures your blood sugar.

You prick your finger and collect a blood sample. Then, you insert the sample into the device and it measures your blood sugar.

The results can tell you whether you’re susceptible to hyperglycemia during your period. If you are, there’s a very simple remedy for this.

Eating a Low-Carb Diet

Ultimately, the solution to all your menstruation problems is adopting a low-carb diet during your period. Macronutrient cycling isn’t exactly new, but it’s something most people (who aren’t in the bodybuilding world) aren’t familiar with.

Basically, you’ll be reducing your carbohydrate intake while adjusting the other two macronutrients in your diet (fats and proteins) upwards. So, if you reduce your carbohydrate intake to 50 grams per day, you would need to increase either fat, protein, or both.

It takes some getting used to, but you’ll notice your mood improve, your blood sugar will normalize, and you won’t have those feelings of being tired, anxious, cramps, bloating, or other nasty side effects.

You’ll also notice a dramatic improvement in your overall mood – which others will thank you for.

Finally, by lowering your carbohydrate intake, you may notice a reduction in temporary weight gain normally experienced during this time period. That’s because high fat and protein diets are “water-shedding” diets, which will keep you from becoming overly bloated. You may also start losing unwanted body fat.

Watching you sugar intake is definitely a challenge if you’re not used to it. A lot of foods contain sugar – ones you wouldn’t normally suspect. But, if feeling and looking better is important to you, then it’s going to be all of the trouble and then some.

Linda McNabb has worked in the healthcare field for some time now. A passionate writer, she likes to research and share health information in order to help others live better. Look for her illuminating posts on many of today’s top websites.