By: Laurie Edwards for Fibroids1For women who experience painful menstrual cramps and discomfort, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory medications (NSAIDS) or oral contraceptives are often the default method of treatment. However, these treatments do not always provide the desired relief, and some women prefer to avoid the side effects of such medications. Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) a non-drug alternative, could prove to be the answer these women seek.
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There are simple, drug-free steps you can take to try and minimize pain:
Perform regular cardiovascular exercise as well as pelvic rocking exercises
Make complex carbohydrates like whole grains, fruits and vegetables a part of your regular diet
Try to eat smaller, more frequent meals
Elevate your legs when lying down, or lie on your side with knees bent
Always be sure you report your symptoms to your physician. If the treatment regimen you and your doctor decide on does not help, further testing may be needed to rule out the presence of cysts, fibroids or other conditions. |
Australian-based researchers found the treatment more effective than pharmaceutical treatments as well as other non-drug practices like acupuncture or heat compression. As reported in the Cochrane Library journal, the herbs not only doubled the amount of relief from painful cramps women experienced – a condition known as primary dysmenorhoea – they also reduced their recurrence over three months.
While Western medicine has largely embraced pharmaceutical remedies for menstrual pain and cramping, herbal medicine has been utilized for centuries in China. Today in public hospitals in China, CHM is often used to treat women with severe cramps. Experts believe the pain relief the herbs provide may stem from their influence on hormones and microcirculation hemorrheology, but they have not found conclusive evidence of their exact pain-relieving mechanism.
Researchers led by Xiaoshu Zhu, M.Med., of the Chinese Medicine Program at the University of Western Sydney in Australia, isolated 39 randomized controlled trials of CHM, ultimately looking at 3, 475 women with self-reported symptoms of primary dysmenorhoea.
Most trials involved complex combinations of several herbs in a traditional cooked style. Use of the herbs usually began five to seven days before menstruation and continued for another 10 to 15 days. Typically, the trials either compared one form of CHM with another or compared CHM with more conventional therapy. Trials also included placebo, acupuncture and heat packs.
Zhu and colleagues found that individually tailored combinations worked better than more common over-the-counter herbal remedies, but they refrained from explicitly concluding if one was ultimately more beneficial.
While no women reported significant side effects – an important point given that some patients seeking relief from cramps cannot tolerate Western NSAIDS or are not good candidates for birth control – the researchers also added the caveat that “the safety of Chinese herbal medicine in clinical practice was not addressed adequately in the reviewed trials.” Apparently, only two of the trials had “adequate methodological quality” and the overall reporting of any adverse reactions was not strong.
This newest meta-analysis points towards a safe, non-drug option for women whose lives are disrupted by menstrual cramps, but further testing – and more stringent testing, at that – is needed.
“An attempt towards evidence-based Chinese medicine practice has been made,” the study author concluded. “However, more research trials with high quality design – especially in terms of laboratory tests – are needed.”
