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"Cramping. Bloating. Spots the size of small planets. Insatiable cravings&amp;amp;nbsp;for carbs. Most of us can list at least a dozen different&amp;amp;nbsp;ways our&amp;amp;nbsp;periods impact our lives&amp;amp;nbsp;every month. But our fluctuating hormones can&amp;amp;nbsp;also affect us in ways we don&amp;#039;t normally associate with our menstrual&amp;amp;nbsp;cycle. Keep reading for the health-related issues you (probably) never&amp;amp;nbsp;knew were linked to your monthly visitor. 1. Heart palpitations A rapid, skipping, or fluttering heartbeat can occur around the time of&amp;amp;nbsp;your period. Heart palpitations &amp;#039;are common with any hormone&amp;amp;nbsp;fluctuation,&amp;#039; such as those associated with the thyroid or&amp;amp;nbsp;perimenopause, says Nieca Goldberg, M.D., medical director of the&amp;amp;nbsp;Joan&amp;amp;nbsp;H. Tisch Centre for Women&amp;#039;s Health&amp;amp;nbsp;at the NYU Medical Centre. How do you&amp;amp;nbsp;know whether your abnormal heartbeat is a sign that something more&amp;amp;nbsp;serious is amiss? &amp;#039;If it&amp;#039;s associated with shortness of breath, feeling&amp;amp;nbsp;like you&amp;#039;re going to faint, fainting, or chest pains, then visit a&amp;amp;nbsp;doctor,&amp;#039; says Dr. Goldberg. She also suggests you make an appointment to&amp;amp;nbsp;get checked out if the palpitations persist once your PMS has passed.&amp;amp;nbsp; 2. Migraines \u200B &amp;#039;There&amp;#039;s been, for decades, an awareness of a relationship between&amp;amp;nbsp;hormones \u2013 and in particular, estrogen \u2013 and migraine frequency or&amp;amp;nbsp;migraine severity,&amp;#039; says Vernon Williams, M.D., founding director of the&amp;amp;nbsp;Kerlan-Jobe Centre for Sports Neurology and Pain Medicine. Dr. Williams&amp;amp;nbsp;points to&amp;amp;nbsp;new research showing that rapid drops in oestrogen may be&amp;amp;nbsp;part of the reason that some women are more prone to these menstrual&amp;amp;nbsp;migraines. If you believe hormones are to blame for your chronic head&amp;amp;nbsp;pain, Dr. Williams suggests that you get better sleep, drink more water,&amp;amp;nbsp;limit alcohol, and watch your stress levels as these are all migrain&amp;amp;nbsp;triggers. Additionally, in some cases, medication, hormone replacement&amp;amp;nbsp;therapy, or specific contraceptives may help. 3. Anxiety Do you notice an increase in anxiety right before Aunt Flow comes to&amp;amp;nbsp;town? If so, your period may be to blame, says Prudence Hall, M.D.,&amp;amp;nbsp;medical director at&amp;amp;nbsp;The Hall Centre in Santa Monica, CA. Dr. Hall&amp;amp;nbsp;explains that, at ovulation, oestrogen levels are between 300 and 500,&amp;amp;nbsp;but the closer you get to your period, the more levels fall, resulting&amp;amp;nbsp;in increased feelings of anxiety, due largely to the effect of lower&amp;amp;nbsp;estrogen levels on the brain. &amp;#039;Loss of confidence is quite common with&amp;amp;nbsp;PMS,&amp;#039; says Dr. Hall, making the couple of weeks before your period &amp;#039;not a&amp;amp;nbsp;great time to make business decisions or make a new pitch to the boss.&amp;#039;&amp;amp;nbsp;To help reduce these effects, Dr. Hall suggests taking 5-HTP and GABA&amp;amp;nbsp;supplements. 4. Anaemia \u200B The&amp;amp;nbsp;National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute&amp;amp;nbsp;defines anaemia as &amp;#039;a&amp;amp;nbsp;condition in which your blood has a lower than normal number of red&amp;amp;nbsp;blood cells,&amp;#039; and part of what makes this particular health issue so&amp;amp;nbsp;sneaky, according to Arielle Levitan, M.D., co-founder of&amp;amp;nbsp;Vous Vitamin&amp;amp;nbsp;and author of&amp;amp;nbsp;The Vitamin Solution, is that it may not show up on routine lab work. &amp;#039;It&amp;amp;nbsp;must be profound to show up as anaemia,&amp;#039; says Dr. Levitan. The issue is rather common: &amp;#039;Most women end up iron deficient during&amp;amp;nbsp;their fertile years and long after that, often into their 80s, because&amp;amp;nbsp;they lose blood each month,&amp;#039; says Dr. Levitan. To help combat this&amp;amp;nbsp;potential health problem, Dr. Levitan advises that you take &amp;#039;a&amp;amp;nbsp;personalised multivitamin that contains the proper amounts of iron in&amp;amp;nbsp;the proper combination with other nutrients (such as vitamin C to help&amp;amp;nbsp;with absorption) to help replenish these losses.&amp;#039; Don&amp;#039;t overdo it&amp;amp;nbsp;though, she says, as taking too much can result in constipation,&amp;amp;nbsp;abdominal pain, or cardiac effects. 5. Diarrhea or constipation Hormone fluctuations can also create issues with your intestinal tract.&amp;amp;nbsp;&amp;#039;When you are on your period, your body releases hormone-like substances&amp;amp;nbsp;called prostaglandins,&amp;#039; says&amp;amp;nbsp;Draion M. Burch, M.D., national speaker&amp;amp;nbsp;and sexual health advisor for Astroglide. &amp;#039;Prostaglandins make smooth&amp;amp;nbsp;muscle contract, which is why you feel cramps. The uterus is made out of&amp;amp;nbsp;smooth muscle. Guess what else is made out of smooth muscle? The&amp;amp;nbsp;bowel.&amp;#039; Depending on how much prostaglandin is released, you either wind&amp;amp;nbsp;up with diarrhea (too much prostaglandin) or constipation (too little).&amp;amp;nbsp;Other factors that can make bathroom matters worse include eating&amp;amp;nbsp;unhealthy foods and being anxious or stressed. That&amp;#039;s why Dr. Burch&amp;amp;nbsp;suggests you &amp;#039;watch the diet more rigorously when on your period. Eat&amp;amp;nbsp;more fruits and veggies, and drink extra water. Also, take ibuprofen (if&amp;amp;nbsp;you&amp;#039;re allowed to), which prevents prostaglandins from being released.&amp;#039; 6. Dental problems \u200B &amp;#039;During a woman&amp;#039;s menstrual cycle, her progesterone rises and we see a&amp;amp;nbsp;change in the way her body reacts to plaque,&amp;#039; says Kristy L. Gretzula,&amp;amp;nbsp;DDS, with&amp;amp;nbsp;Hawley Lane Dental&amp;amp;nbsp;in Connecticut. As a result, your gums may&amp;amp;nbsp;be more swollen, red, and tender, and bleed very easily. &amp;#039;The&amp;amp;nbsp;inflammation may be the worst in the few days before your period and&amp;amp;nbsp;then decrease once your period begins,&amp;#039; says Dr. Gretzula, which is also&amp;amp;nbsp;when you are more likely to have canker sores and swollen salivary&amp;amp;nbsp;glands as these types of mouth-related issues are also more prevalent as&amp;amp;nbsp;hormones rise and fall. You may be able to bypass these by maintaining&amp;amp;nbsp;proper oral hygiene, says Dr. Gretzula. &amp;#039;I recommend daily flossing and&amp;amp;nbsp;the use of an electric toothbrush to my patients to help them keep their&amp;amp;nbsp;mouth as clean as possible.&amp;#039;  Via "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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