Do you experience moderate or severe PMS symptoms? Study shows that serious PMS symptoms can be linked to future risk of hypertension.

A recent study conducted by the researchers from University of Massachusetts Amherst and Harvard School of Public Health concluded that women who experience moderate to severe premenstrual syndrome (PMS) symptoms have 40 percent chances of developing hypertension in the next 20 years compared to women who show only few symptoms of PMS, according to University of Massachusetts Amherst press release.

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Emotional PMS symptoms include mood swings, depression, anxiety, food cravings, insomnia and poor concentration. On the other hand, physical PMS symptoms include joint or muscle pain, head ache, breast tenderness, constipation and stomach bloating.

According to lead researcher and epidemiologist Elizabeth Bertone-Johnson, this may be the first large and long term study to suggest that PMS may be linked to chronic diseases later in life.

"To my knowledge, this is the first large long-term study to suggest that PMS may be related to risk of chronic health conditions in later life," she said as stated in the press release.

Previous researches have evaluated the link between PMS and hypertension, however, only a few of them provided support for the "existence of underlying differences in vascular physiology in women with PMS compared to symptom-free women, which could plausibly predispose PMS cases to hypertension and cardiovascular disease later in life."

Over 1,000 women with clinically significant PMS and more than 2,000 women with few PMS symptoms participated in the study. The researchers found out those women with clinically significant PMS have a hazard ratio for hypertension of 1.4 compared to women without PMS.

The study also suggested that the risk of the disease was not changed with the use of oral contraceptive or antidepressant. However, women who have high intakes of the B vitamins thiamine and riboflavin show lower risks of hypertension, thus, leading to a conclusion that the risks may be reduced if the said vitamins are taken.

In another report, the researchers of the study suggested that women with PMS should have their blood pressure checked for any changes and risk of hypertension.

"Women with PMS should be screened for adverse changes in blood pressure and future risk of hypertension," they said.

TagsHypertension, high blood pressure, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Harvard School of Public Health, Elizabeth Bertone-Johnson, PMS, premenstrual syndrome, hypertension cause