Four Home Remedies for Menstrual Bloating

It starts about a week before your period. You find yourself make special trips to the store for chocolate bars, or chocolate chip cookies, or anything with chocolate in it. Eating just one potato chip doesn't seem possible. And you find yourself adding extra salt, more than you usually use, to most of your meals.

It's not unusual to start having specific food cravings before your period starts. But you're probably craving foods that contain lots of sugar and salt, both of which will make certain menstrual symptoms worse.

Eating salty foods can cause or worsen abdominal bloating and water retention.

What can you do about that heavy, full, bloated feeling that often strikes before your period starts?

Get Rid of the Salt

If bloating and water retention are problems for you, get rid of the salt. Take the salt shakers off the table, and put them in a place where you can't easily get to them.

There are plenty of other seasonings you can use to give your food flavor. And, after a while, you won't miss that extra salt you used to sprinkle on your chicken or brocolli.

Also, get into the habit of reading food labels. You might be surprised by how much salt (or sodium) there is in foods where you'd least expect to find it.

Lowering the amount of salt in your diet will not only help decrease abdominal bloating and water retention, but might also help relieve menstrual headaches.

Use Natural Diuretics

Using diuretics can help relieve bloating. But, instead of taking over-the-counter diuretics, do it the natural way. Certain foods, like asparagus, act as natural diuretics. Herbal teas have the same effect.

Get Your Vitamin B6

Vitamin B6 acts as a mild diuretic, and taking 25 to 50 milligrams of vitamin B6 per day could help alleviate abdominal bloating. But be careful. You should never take more than 100 milligrams of vitamin B6 per day.

Watch the Way You Eat

Eating several small meals a day, rather than three large ones, can also help reduce bloating. It will also help you fight fatigue and alleviate food cravings, two more symptoms some women experience before and during their period.

There are often very simple solutions to the more common menstrual problems, like bloating and water weight gain. Finding those solutions, and putting them to use, will help you find relief from some of the menstrual problems that plague you every month.