Period zits
Dear Mookychick,
Why do you get spots, or zits, when your period is due? I don`t want to rush into anything so I was hoping you could give me some ideas as to what to avoid.
Help!
Love, Anonymous Me xxx
The Mookychick answer to your problem
Magda says…
Why do we feel pooky and bloated and un-gorgeous around the time of our periods? Why do we get so spotty? Our hormones (estrogen and progesterone) normally rise in our bodies, getting us ready for becoming pregnant at the drop of a hat, but about 4 days before our period if we haven’t made a baby-egg they’re not needed so they fall dramatically. This massive reduction of our nice lady hormones just before our periods is what makes us feel flaky and plays havoc with our skin. Hormones rollercoaster = spots and zits. You can’t avoid your hormones going mental during your period, you can only ease the rollercoaster ride a little.
Well the boring but tried-and-tested answer for easing the hormone rollercoaster ride is to drink lots of water to hydrate and clear out any toxins in your body faster. And do not fear the fruit and veg. Of course your urge will be to have fatty and sweet foods around your period as comfort food, but try and stick loads of water in there as well. By the way, salty foods increase water retention so you feel more bloaty, caffeine boosts your estrogen levels making the rollercoaster ride more bumpy, and sugar gives you crazy-ass mood swings. But we say: So what? Comfort food during periods is lovely! We just have to do the healthy things too!
One thing that is genuinely absolutely brilliant for periods is evening primrose oil. You can get capsules of evening primrose oil in any chemist. Take one a day forever, or else take one a day through your period, starting a couple of weeks before. There’s absolutely no point waking up with a period mattress (oops!) and two spots on your face and thinking ‘Oh my, now is the time to go and make friends with that evening primrose oil I’ve been ignoring in the back of the cupboard for the last month’. It needs a little time to work.
The oil contained in the primrose seed has been found to be an essential fatty acid that is needed for the growth and development of the body. You need to eat it for it to work, so don’t bother with lotions and potions that contain it. There is little scientific evidence to support the claim that evening primrose oil helps with PMS, but then again, doctors used to maintain that the symptoms of PMS didn’t exist, and that women were fragile, over-imaginative little things that should just go around petting kittens and being charmingly silly. Evening primrose oil is very good at balancing out the skin a bit, easing lower abdominal pains (PMS cramp) and helping period ladies not feel so mad and scatty. The essential fatty acids in evening primrose oil help smooth the rollercoaster ride of your hormones when you’re about to have your period. And that will help level out those pesky spots!
What food to eat on your period to feel better and help fight spots and zits :
Vitamins A and D help you steer clear of pitfalls like acne and oily skin. Good sources include raw carrots, cooked sweet potatoes and spinach.
Vitamin B6 helps relieve PMS comfort food cravings, tiredness, mood swings, fluid retention and bloating. You can find it in fish, eggs, nuts (almonds are absolutely brilliant because they also have folic acid), bananas, potatoes, and the white meat of turkey and chicken.
You can ease up your PMS period stress by increasing your intake of broccoli, bell peppers, brussels sprouts, citrus fruits, cranberry juice and cantaloupe, which are all rich in vitamin C.
So, without doing too much:
1) Start taking evening primrose oil every day – at least two weeks before your period
2) More water.
3) Bag of nuts to munch on about a week before your period and all through it. We recommend almonds and brazil nuts if you’re not allergic. About 6 nuts a day will make a big difference.
4) Some nice cranberry juice or orange juice every day, at least a week before your period.
Oh, and you’ve already got a zit on your face? A dab of hydrogen peroxide can help it go down. And toothpaste can really dry out the skin, so maybe dab some toothpaste on it at bedtime and wash it off next morning.
