An estimated 50% women experience menstrual cramps during their periods. The pain or menstrual cramps are due to the hormonal changes that prepare women for a possible pregnancy.  Usually, menstrual cramps are experienced in the pelvic and abdominal areas during the menstrual period. Most women get confuse between menstrual cramps with premenstrual syndrome (PMS), however both disorders are different. These both can be experienced as a continuing process. Some women experience mild pain while few experience severe menstrual cramps. Most women experience slight pain lasting for short duration, sometimes just feeling some heaviness in the stomach. However, a few i.e. 15% out of the 50% experiencing menstrual cramps, feel severe pain that sometimes cripple their regular activities for a few days. The severity of menstrual cramps depends on the prostaglandin levels in women. Those women who experience severe cramps have a high level of prostaglandin in their uterine lining as compared to those who experience slight cramps.

Tips to treat menstrual cramps:

Some handy tips to treat menstrual cramps are listed below:

• Do regular exercise particularly walking during the menstrual period
• Yoga and abdominal massage may help
• Apply a heating pad to the abdomen to get relief from the pain
• Take help of over-the-counter drugs to control the pain. Acetaminophen or aspirin can be taken to ease mild cramps

Tips to prevent menstrual cramps:

Through a mix of ways you can prevent as well as treat the problem of menstrual cramps. You can prevent and treat menstrual cramps through naturopathy by the way of nutritional modifications, behavior changes, nutritional supplements, exercise and massaging pressure points. Listed below are some of the ways to prevent and ease menstrual cramps:

• Stop or reduce alcohol consumption
• Have adequate relaxation and sleep
• Reduce intake of coffee, black tea and decaffeinated coffee especially before the arrival of your menstrual period
• Increase your intake of water
• Fill your diet with lots of fresh organic vegetables and fruits, fiber and whole grain products
• If you are a fish lover, eat fresh fish including herring, salmon, tuna, halibut and sardines.
• You are advised to reduce your consumption of meat and dairy foods as they tend to elevate the levels of prostaglandins in your body

• Switch to eating organically-raised poultry than non-organically-raised poultry
• You are advised to reduce the intake of salt prior to the arrival of your menstrual period
• Try to avoid smoking
• Exercise regularly especially include aerobics in your exercise regime
• It is better if you use sanitary napkins instead of tampons while menstruating
• In case you feel bloating and menstrual cramps together, you can have vitamin B6 (300mg daily) from the mid-cycle till the feeling cease every month
• To relieve menstrual cramps, you can do stretching exercises as it brings relief
• Most importantly, keep your body warm. The likelihood of muscle contractions are more when you are cold. In contrast, heat can reduce the severity of cramps to a great extent.

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