Spring is a natural time to focus again on our health. According to research about 60 % of Canadian women suffer from painful periods (source). I am hear to tell you that you do not have to suffer needlessly or continue to pop painkillers. Chinese Medicine offers a drug free option to periods without the pain.
Before launching into what you can do yourself to help it is important to understand a little bit more about menstrual cramps. Most menstrual cramps are just like a cramp in any other part of the body, the pain is caused by muscle tension. Knowing this simple fact helps tremendously. Nutrition offers a few different choices to help loosen up those muscles causing the cramps.
In general, eating saturated fat promotes muscle tension, while eating unsaturated fat promotes relaxed muscles. So, especially in the two weeks before your cramps start, cut down on the amount of saturated fat you eat and increase the amount of unsaturated fat you eat. Saturated fat is generally animal fat. Good examples of unsaturated fat are olive oil and flax seed oil. Other foods to avoid in the two weeks before your cramps start are refined sugar, caffeine, alcohol and junk food. All these foods are stressors for your body and therefore definitely do not promote muscle relaxation.
Another large part of menstrual cramps has do to with the stress and change that you have experienced over the previous month. You might have noticed that the months with the most stress are followed by especially painful periods. Stress causes muscle tension. Looking at ways to better manage your stress will go along way to improving your periods. Stress management boils down to two things.
The first is find out what is causing the stress and remove or change it. If it is not possible to remove the stressor then your only choice is to change the way you look at it so it does not bother you as much anymore.
My favourite way of reducing stress is also great at relieving menstrual cramps. Orgasm is a wonderful way to promote muscle relaxation. Orgasm also specifically relaxes the muscles in the area of the body where the cramps are.
Lastly, acupuncture is a fabulous tool to relieve menstrual cramps. Acupuncture definitely promotes muscle relaxation as well as helps alleviate any kind of pain. Try and time your treatment for the couple days in your cycle before you experience the pain.
Kaleb Montgomery, R.TCMP, R.Ac