If your monthly premenstrual symptoms have grown more intense and difficult to bear, you may be suffering from premenstrual dysphoric disorder, or PMDD, a severe and sometimes disabling form of premenstrual syndrome. PMDD occurs in up to 8 percent of all women with PMS, according to MayoClinic.com. If you fall victim to PMDD, you should be aware that certain amino acids – and their byproducts – have a strong link to the incidence of the disorder.
Symptoms
PMDD is a collection of symptoms that typically appear five to 11 days before the start of your monthly menstrual cycle, according to MedlinePlus. Although many symptoms of PMS and PMDD tend to overlap, in PMDD they are far more intense and disruptive and always include at least one mood-related symptom. If you are experiencing five or more of the following symptoms, you may be suffering from PMDD and should consult a medical professional. These symptoms include fatigue; disinterest in daily relationships and activities; tension or anxiety; feelings of hopelessness or sadness; panic attacks; pronounced mood swings; feeling out of control; food cravings or binge eating; irritability or anger directed at those around you; trouble concentrating; insomnia; and physical symptoms, such as breast tenderness, joint and muscular pains, bloating and headache.
GABA
Gamma aminobutyric acid, or GABA, is both an amino acid and a neurotransmitter. It acts as a chemical messenger within your central nervous system, the body’s control center. Using magnetic resonance spectroscopy, a team of U.S. and Canadian researchers found significant differences in the levels of cortical GABA between healthy women and those diagnosed with PMDD. While cortical GABA declined across the menstrual cycle in healthy women, those with PMDD experienced an increase in cortical GABA from the cycle’s follicular phase through the mid to late luteal phases. In an article in the September 2002 issue of the “Archives of General Psychiatry,” researchers suggested that disturbances “in cortical GABA neuronal function and modulation by neuroactive steroids” might be significant contributors to the cause of PMDD.
Tryptophan
Many of the mood-related symptoms of PMDD have a known link with low brain levels of serotonin, the neurotransmitter believed to promote an upbeat and positive mood. The amino acid tryptophan is the chemical precursor of serotonin, which may, in part, explain why acute depletion of tryptophan aggravates the symptoms of both PMS and PMDD, according to “Dewhurst’s Textbook of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.” If you are troubled in particular by the mood-related symptoms of PMDD, you might want to increase your dietary intake of the amino acid and thus help your body to produce higher levels of serotonin. Tryptophan-rich foods include cheese, chicken, eggs, fish, milk, nuts, peanut butter, pumpkin and sesame seeds, soy, tofu and turkey, according to the University of Maryland Medical Center. Eating these in combination with high-carbohydrate foods will help get the tryptophan to the brain where it can be synthesized into serotonin.
Melatonin
Also synthesized from the amino acid tryptophan, melatonin, the sleep-inducing hormone, behaves differently in the brains of healthy menstruating women and those with PMDD, according to “Melatonin: From Molecules to Therapy.” Authors S.R. Pandi-Perumal and Daniel P. Cardinali cite multiple studies that found consistently lower levels of melatonin in women with PMDD than in normal healthy women of comparable age.
References
- MayoClinic.com: Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS)
- MedlinePlus: Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder
- Archives of General Psychiatry: Cortical Gamma-Aminobutyric Acid Across the Menstrual Cycle in Healthy Women and Those With Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder; C. Neill Epperson, et al.
- Dewhurst’s Textbook of Obstetrics and Gynaecology; Keith Edmonds
- University of Maryland Medical Center: Tryptophan -- Overview
- Melatonin: From Molecules to Therapy; S.R. Pandi-Perumal and Daniel P. Cardinali
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