I always love the opportunity to try products aimed at menstrual health because even though I don't have a physical period that often (thanks Mirena IUD!) my body very much still goes through the menstrual cycle and brings with it all the accompanying baggage such as pms, hot flashes and cravings.
I'm always guaranteed to have a least 48 hours of hormonal fluctuations where I will have a day where everything makes me angry, followed by another where I'm incredibly emotional and forgetful. If I'm really lucky - insert sarcasm here - I'll also experience ovulation pain, uterine spasms and painful bowel movements depending where in the cycle I am and whether I'm having an okay time with my endometriosis and/or adenomyosis or not.
So, back to Period!
I came across this lovely brand via Instagram and was intrigued by the idea of a cocoa based drink which is supportive of your hormone cycle. I've heard of seed cycling for this purpose but never a drink. With it being cocoa based I knew it would satisfy the aforementioned cravings for sweet flavoured things but it's also so much more than that.
This hot drink also contains turmeric, black pepper and Reishi mushrooms as well as cinnamon and cardamom. Obviously I can't make claims from a medical point of view but it's obvious that Period have thought about their formula and how it can support your body whilst menstruating as well as throughout the entirety of your menstrual cycle. As I've touched upon in previous posts, turmeric has been found to potentially beneficial due to anti-inflammatory properties (Hewlings & Kalman, 2017) and the same can potentially be said of cardamom (Fatemeh et al. 2017) as well as Reishi mushrooms (Jayachandran, Xiao & Xu, 2017) which is great at potentially minimising the negative impact of your period (and calming my very angry uterus).
Furthermore, the addition of pepper and cardamom meant it had a gentle warmth to it and it definitely felt indulgent which is just want I wanted when my hormones were being temperamental. I also liked that the instructions said this could be made with any type of milk (I tend to avoid too much dairy as I find it bloating) and I found it equally as delicious when made with both almond milk and cow's milk.
Period is 100% plant-based, suitable for vegans and is rich on essential minerals such as iron, magnesium and potassium which in their words can help your body with 'blood formation, reducing tiredness and fatigue, and helping muscular function to make you feel your best during your period.' So whilst I don't go through the physical process of having an actual period often, this definitely made me feel less sluggish and tired and my mood swings weren't as severe.
Overall, this drink was comforting when my uterus was trying to cause me misery and I think it'd offer a moment of calm and relaxation regardless of where you are in your cycle.
Period is £7.99 for 120g (10 servings) but with discount code PERIOD10 you can get 10% off! You can check out their website here or follow them on Instagram or Facebook. *This post contains PR samples/gifted items, for my PR disclaimer, click here.
References:
Fatemeh, Y., Siassi, F., Rahimi, A., Koohdani, F., Doostan, F. Qorbani, M. & Sotoudeh, G. (2017) The effect of cardamom supplementation on serum lipids, glycemic indices and blood pressure in overweight and obese pre-diabetic women: a randomized controlled trial. Journal of Diabetes & Metabolic Disorders. [Online] 16 (40). Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5623966/pdf/40200_2017_Article_320.pdf [Accessed 14 March 2021].
Hewlings, S. & Kalman, D. (2017) Curcumin: A Review of Its’ Effects on Human Health. Foods. [Online] 6 (10), 92. Available from: https://doi.org/10.3390/foods6100092 [Accessed 10 April 2021].
Jayachandran, M., Xiao, J. & Xu, B. (2017) A Critical Review on Health Promoting Benefits of Edible Mushrooms through Gut Microbiota. International Journal of Molecular Sciences. [Online] 18 (9) Available from: https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms18091934 [Accessed 15 March 2021].