Tend to feel down, teary or even downright depressed during Week 4, the premenstrual week of your cycle? If so, you’re not alone. Millions of women feel blue during PMS due to plunging estrogen, which depletes your brain of serotonin, a chemical that regulates mood and sleep. 

To the rescue: Vitamin B6, which is found in fortified cereal, potatoes, bananas, beans, eggs, poultry and sunflower seeds. Two recent analyses of 19 studies—one in the British Medical Journal and one if the journal Family Practice—reveal that women who popped up to 100 mg. daily of a B6 supplement were significantly less likely to be depressed and more likely to enjoy an upbeat mood during PMS than those who took a placebo. The link? Vitamin B6 prompts the brain to produce serotonin, boosting your sagging levels right back up.

For best results, try taking a daily B-complex supplement, since other B vitamins have also been shown to raise levels of mood-lifting brain chemicals, including GABA and dopamine.

[photo: D Sharon Pruitt]

In a recent study, PMS sufferers who popped 40 mg. of this herb daily during the second half of their cycle had 20% less breast tenderness, bloating, irritability and other premenstrual woes, reports The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine. Credit goes to flavonoids in Ginkgo biloba that reduce inflammation, improve blood flow and reduce the stress hormone cortisol.

[photo: jam343]