Chinese herbs for menstrual cramps

Chinese herbs can provide relief to women suffering from menstrual cramps. Period pain affects as many as 50 percent of women of reproductive age and between 60 to 85 percent of teenaged girls, leading to absence from school and work. Also called primary dysmenorrhoea, period pain can be related to multiple causes. While most of these causes are still under debate, it is believed that menstrual cramps are linked to an imbalance in ovarian hormones. The conventional treatment of menstrual cramps includes pain relieving drugs, acupuncture and heat compression, but these have a failure rate of 20-25% and may be risky to use or is not tolerated by some women. Besides these, Chinese herbal medicines can also provide a reliable alternative in treating menstrual cramps. Some of the popular Chinese herbs for relieving menstrual pain include Chinese angelica root (danggui), Szechuan lovage root (chuanxiong), red peony root (chishao), white peony root (baishao), Chinese motherwort (yimucao), fennel fruit (huixiang), nut-grass rhizome (xiangfu), liquorice root (gancao) and cinnamon bark (rougui). To test the efficacy of Chinese herbs in the treatment of menstrual cramps, researchers at the Center for Complementary Medicine Research at the University of Western Sydney, Australia analysed a survey involving 39 trials - 36 in China, and one each in Taiwan, Japan and the Netherlands. This involved giving Chinese herbal medicines versus placebo, no treatment, conventional therapy, heat compression, acupuncture or massage. The subjects were given herbal concoctions that were prepared from prescribed herbs that regulated the 'qi' (energy) and blood, warmed the bodies of the subjects and boosted their kidney and liver functions. The results showed that Chinese herbs could provide a viable alternative to modern day medicine in reducing period pain. Not only did the herbs reduced pain, but also reduced the recurrence of the condition for over 3 months. In one trial involving 36 women, 53 percent of those who took herbs reported less pain than usual compared with 26 percent in the placebo group. All available measures of effectiveness confirmed the overall superiority of Chinese herbal medicine to placebo, no treatment, NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs like aspirin, paracetamol, etc), OCPs (oral contraceptive pills), acupuncture and heat compression. Thus, women suffering from menstrual problems can look at Chinese herbs for relief and prevention.