A new study reveals that the symptoms of premenstrual syndrome may be a signal of more serious future health problems for those women suffering from the syndrome, such as high blood pressure, NYSE Post reports.
However, for women who experience this type of PMS, the future blood pressure and risk for related problems like heart disease may not be entirely out of their control.
The researchers said that it was too early to make any clinical recommendations based on this study as this study is among the first to explore the link between PMS and high blood pressure.
For the study, Dr. Bertone-Johnson and colleagues studied about 1,250 women who developed clinically significant PMS between 1991 and 2005, and almost 2,500 women with few menstrual symptoms.
"Emerging data suggests that several pathways underlying hypertension might also contribute to PMS," the researchers write in the study, according to Newsweek.
Previously, the researchers had found that women who took a high dietary intake of the B vitamins thiamine and riboflavin had a 25 to 35 percent lower risk of developing PMS.
The researchers followed both the groups until 2011.
The researchers found that the link between moderate-to-severe PMS and high blood pressure was strongest among women younger than 40.
Dr. Deena Adimoolam, assistant professor of medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, said
"I don't think women should be overly concerned about this association for a few reasons".
"However, because hypertension is increasing in prevalence and has substantial long-term health implications", she said, "physicians may consider screening women with PMS more aggressively".
The study is published in the current issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology.
