Associate Professor, Department of Home Science, Rajkiya Kanya Mahaidyalaya (RKMV), Shimla
With increased awareness, attention is being drawn towards providing relief to women suffering from high PMTS.
Drug therapy and Psychological relaxation are usually tried to reduce PMTS. Day to day nutritional intake which forms the basis of an organism affects the behaviour also. There is paucity of work aimed at studying the role of nutritional intake on PMTS. The present work is such an attempt. A sample of 300 women was taken who were administered MMDQ to identify PMTS. Criterion of + ½ SD from mean was used to identify 40high PMTS and 20 low PMTS subject. Their nutritional intake during 9 days of menstrual cycle was noted with the help of a diet chart. The results revealed that women with HPMTS were taking significantly more of fat and vitamin C. On the other hand, the LPMTS women were taking more of thiamine. However, in the intra-subject variation, it was found that the HPMTS women were taking more of protein, fat, fibre, carbohydrates, calories and riboflavin in the pre-phase and vitamin C in the during phase. The LPMTS women were taking more of vitamin C post-phase and more of magnesium in the pre-phase. No significant differences were found in the iron, sodium, potassium and magnesium intakes of the two groups. This study therefore suggests which nutrients women should take during the menstrual cycle to mitigate the ill effects of PMTS.
Nutritional intake, PMTS, Menstrual cycle
