As someone who's body has responded poorly to the effects of aging, I empathize with how you are physically feeling!
Sleep is overall extremely important, to help the body regain homeostasis. When you stand for prolonged periods of time, your body needs to work extremely hard to keep pumping the blood back up from your lower extremities (feet/ankles). Sometimes the valves which assist in this start to slip a bit, allowing some of the fluid in our blood to "leak" into the surrounding tissue, causing some swelling.
Additionally, the foods we eat cause a change in the electrolyte (ion) levels (that's what salt is, ions of Sodium & Chlorine)
A few things can help with this. The first is to avoid processed foods (hidden salt!!) or adding salt to your food, and drinking more water. If you stay well hydrated, your body will not need to retain water to manage the electrolyte balance. Additionally, try not to be on your feet constantly. If you are, try walking more, to keep your blood pumping actively, & help reduce the amount of "leak" swelling. Finally, when you are home @ night, try to put your feet up to reduce any swelling.
The bags under your eyes are caused by similar issues, but this is made worse by the fact that the tissues under our eyes are very thin and sensitive. So any pooling liquid tends to bulge, because those tissues are weak under pressure, and hence, you see the bags. There are many homeopathic remedies to help with this - tea bags & cucumber slices come to mind.
Of course, being menstrual during all of this makes it worse, as your hormones in the body are changing. Ugh! Add a cold on top of that, & your body is naturally holding onto fluids to help flush through your system & provide the transport of antibodies to areas to fight off the virus.
So, if this is the first time you're noticing it, I wouldn't think too much of it. Try to make some of the positive lifestyle changes you can. But if it happens on a monthly basis, or the bags & swollen feet/ankles seem to persist, it is worth talking to your doctor about.
Personal anecdote - I used to get horrible migraines, 2-3x a week. Into my 30's I had swelling in my ankles/feet, & elevated blood pressure. My doctor put me on a diuretic to help with that issue, & the migraines practically went away! (now I get maybe 1-2 a month) Turns out, I had too much fluid, & some was leaking into my ankles, & the rest was just too much for my system to handle, so it increased my blood pressure & caused the migraines. I am now working through exercise & diet changes to try to maintain a balance, & hopefully wean off the diuretic. But sometimes a small change in one area, can cause the body to respond in other ways, which can have a compounding effect.
Hope things are better by next week! T.
