Period Pain Relief
Ways to alleviate pain in the moment:
Apply internal heat (with helpful food and teas, explained below)
Calm mental heat (pause, relax)
Apply external heat to tummy (warming pads, hot water bottles, infrared light)
When any kind of pain sets it, start with making yourself some hot tea.
Put some water to boil. If that is all you have, great. If you have fresh ginger, chop up some big chunks and plop it in. Done. Enjoy the simple benefits of the warm heat flowing through your body.
Drink your tea with intention. Calm your thoughts, and let yourself focus on the present moment. Stop dwelling on the past or worrying about the future. Instead, let things just be. Take a few deep breaths and close your eyes. Take a sip and let the medicinal water set in. Imagine how happy your cells are to get the nutrients, and the break.
If you have some time or energy, see below for other tea additions and other tips that have helped humans for generations (and some new ideas!).
Teas Varietals
Learn to add some beneficial things to your hot water, like lemon or your favorite herbs or spices: cinnamon, ginger, vanilla…. more options below for more targeted stories of relief passed on for generations!
There is no one single tea blend for every person with a common symptom. Instead, learn the kind of anxieties that underlie the problem to learn the best known helpers to complement you the best.
Ginger
Arguably the best herb for managing pain anywhere in the body.
Relieves stomach upset. Acts on compounds that could trigger pain, as well as binding to receptors known for causing for nausea.
Tip: add chopped ginger to the water before boiling to extract more of the compounds from the dense root.
Black pepper can help enhance the ginger (it does the same for turmeric root as well)
Chamomile
Helps with bloating and constipation around your period. Soothes the irritability caused by extreme abdominal gassiness.
Chamomile and peppermint are a great combo
Cinnamon
Not only delicious, but has tons of antioxidants and fights fungal bacteria. Traditional Chinese Medicine and Ayurvedic medicine traditions use it to fight diarrhea and other intimate issues.
Reduces inflammation, relieves the stress around uterus walls and calms menstrual ache.
In studies, women taking cinnamon had less severe pain, experienced it for a shorter duration, and had fewer cases of severe bleeding. They experienced less nausea and vomiting compared to taking nothing, while pain meds like Ibuprofen (ironically) increased nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, indigestion and stomach cramps.
Cumin seeds
Another anti-spasmodic (reduces cramps) and brings down inflammation
Dandelion Tea
For sore breasts and bloating. Flushes out the salts from your body and accelerating metabolism, reducing swelling.
Fenugreek Seeds
Help with weight loss, because an ally for the liver, kidneys, and metabolism. Soak the seeds in water for 12 hours and drink it up to help with pain too!
Lemon Balm
Member of the mint family with a lemony scent (different than a lemon). It has a soothing effect, calming the nervous and digestive systems. Has a history of being used to lift anxiety and depression.
Also great to use before bed (with a little lavender is really nice).
Peppermint Tea
Also great for sinus pain and headaches. Known as an anti-spasmodic, it lessens spasms, or cramps, softening the pain around muscle tension in the uterine walls.
Yarrow
Gives strength. In the story of Hercules, as a child, the Greek warrior’s mother dipped his body in a pond of yarrow leaves to bring out his immortal tendencies from his father (who happened to be a God).
Foods:
Reducing inflammatory foods in your daily diet has been shown to help reduce all kinds pains (and discomforts AND diseases) for people, outside of just cramping and bloating. Those pains are all messages of some kind of disfunction inside your body. Maintaining good gut health is the root of all health, helping your body CREATE a more balanced level of hormones, as well as keep out certain kinds of bacteria that give you discomfort when out of control.
Foods that make things worse:
Every person may have different foods that trigger them, but some “foods” are toxic to all living creatures. Avoid these foods:
manufactured sugar
processed foods
mainstream meat injected with hormones and antibiotics
heated/ultra processed GMO oils like canola
antibiotics (anti-life, killers of life. Sure they kill the bad stuff, but also the good, and they make the pests mutate and grow stronger)
anything covered in pesticides (most foods, unless explicitly say organic, or you know the grower)
dairy, which can somehow aggravate mucous, and we are told to avoid when sick (even on mainstream sites like Mayo clinic)
Foods that help out:
Ideally, we learn what foods trigger issues us the most, avoid them, and only give our bodies the best things. Many women say doing this has completely cleared up their PMS symptoms. But until we all get there, we can look to the goodies that have helped people for centuries.
Banana
Overall soothing. That slimy texture calms internal tissues, and contains tons of nutrients.
Brazil nuts
A nutrient powerhouse, and one of our best (and almost ONLY) source of selenium in our modern foods. Selenium is a mineral that helps to build the uterine wall and strengthen our ovaries, helps promote blood flow, and stops blood from clotting. Having that extra blood to build the uterus means less pain to shed it each month. Stick to 1-3 nuts a day max, because too much can give some women irritability or nausea.
Pineapple
Contains bromelanin, which reduces inflammation, and alleviates pain and swelling. It also helps women when trying to have a baby bc it can reduce inflammation in the uterus, and helps balance vaginal pH.
Other great foods: turmeric, ginger, matcha tea, wild organic blueberries, organic dark leafy greens, fermented vegetables, CBD, and wild salmon (avoid farmed fish, which grows in a gross closed pond vs the wild)
The philosophy:
Once cramps set in, the last thing you want to do is get up and go to the store to pick up some teas, or order something that will show up only when your symptoms are over (but at least you’ll be stocked for next time)! Be ready for it. Have your mental period kit ready to go. Eat well all month so your body won’t be fighting other causes of inflammation at the same time. (inflammation = pain)
Ideally, we would all learn what foods trigger us the most, find ways to avoid them, and give our bodies the best things to build the strongest internal environment (that diverse garden). The goal is to help express our most vital, energetic, contended, undistracted selves. Many women say doing this has completely cleared up their PMS symptoms, and also freed them to do their best work in the world. Her skin glows, her eyes are vibrant, and her mind is clear. But until we all get there, below are some known goodies we can access everyday to give us our best cellular expression and help reduce pains before they happen, and relieve pain when deep in the thick of it.
It’s impossible to talk about your period without intertwining the incredible ability for a woman to create life inside of her. The next time you get your cramps, remember that it is just a shedding of that temporary home that was not needed that month. Your job is to give your body what it needs so the gut creates a perfect balance of hormones that can shift as seamlessly as possible, with all the right nutrients converted, and for that uterine wall built and shed as easily as possible. Whether or not you ever want to have a baby, maintaining a healthy balance effects every aspect of your life: how you feel, how you sleep, how you metabolize energy… basically keeping everything running smoothly. And in case you ever do want to use your superpowers, you won’t have to clean up your body to do so! Most women in today’s world really need a 6-9 month clean up of their gut and buildup of vitamins before sharing their body, and have no idea what kind of toll their lifestyle is taking on their internal environment.
One of the most interesting theories about the cause of period pains (and basically the root of all modern chronic discomforts and dis-eases) stem from an underlying overgrowth of a bacteria/virus deep seeded in our cells (especially tucked away in our livers). While some guess that menstrual cramping pain is a result of uterine muscles contracting, not all women get the pain, and there are lifestyle changes that many women swear alleviate symptoms fully, making it look like more of a kind of inflammation (or something else) that can be tamed (or cleared completely) by following a set of steps that promote gut balance. The bacteria theory says we pick all kinds of variations of strep type bacteria/virus from people and life around us, strengthened by a lifetime of toxins and antibiotics (from our own illnesses, or those injected into our conventional meat and dairy products) that are basically impossible to avoid in today’s world. When a woman goes through her predictable monthly hormonal patterns, the flux of hormones creates a stir, and her immune system naturally lowers slightly (probably because of energy diverted to the other processes), allowing for the sneaky bacteria to rise to the surface and express symptoms. I like this theory, because it takes the blame off the hormones, which are just chemical responses to things that your body does naturally (to metabolize, grow, gets you to wake up every day, sleep, react to stressors, help your body create life, digest food for nutrients, spark creativity and happiness and reactivity in your brain, etc). Basically every life function is affected by hormones, so we should take the time to care for them, not just blame them for PMS. While there may be a correlation to hormonal shifts and our period symptoms, I believe what causes imbalances is something deeper than just the hormone shifts themselves. And anything that lessens inflammation only does good things for the gut, which creates hormones, and calms down everything else. Long story short, lessen the inflammation, heal the gut, harmonize hormonal shifts, and lessen the pain!
So what can we do in our daily lives to prepare?
Eat a diet that combats inflammation (inflamed tissues = pain/discomfort)
Learn about your cycle
Maintain a calendar in your phone so you have an idea when your period could be coming
Learn to take your temperature and how to interpret it
Stock up on your favorite supplies
Teas (so many herbal stories to pick from, see below for a bunch passed on for generations!)
Menstural cups (still haven’t tried these, but many swear by them!)
Heating pads
Light therapy devices (or research local gyms with a sauna)
Organic pads and tampons. Your body is a sponge. Any chemicals that you don’t want to eat, you also want to keep away from your most sensitive areas! Sadly, in a wall of feminine products, sometimes there may only 1 brand that sells organic. At least go for fragrance free, as “fragrance” is code word for chemicals in such small amounts that they don’t legally have to be listed. But it only takes microscopic amounts to affect your tiny cells!
Avoid toxins in everyday life
Find natural products without additives (start with deodorants, shampoos, makeup, lotions). The amazing oils in your skin absorb everything, including toxic air pollution, or chemicals on new clothes. Don’t believe it? Most vitamins like V-C and V-D get better absorbed through skin (through light OR serums) than internally through diet/supplementation.
Avoid food with added pesticides and chemicals and “flavorings”
Avoid toxic thoughts, and learn to be grateful for the present moment (placebo is real, so use it to your advantage!)
Avoid repetitive toxic behaviors/reactions. Notice when you feel icky or overly-stressed about something, and consider changing something or reacting differently next time. Avoid a flood of negative emotions, aka specific hormones, which also require release, all in their own time. Have you ever noticed after a big fight with someone you love, it can take a week or more to mentally recover? Those emotions, those stress hormones, were released, and have to make their way through their own cycles. Sometimes it can be comforting to dwell in something (whether it is hatred/victimhood/fighting with your sister), especially if you’ve done it many times, but that is specifically the hardest habit you want to break. You are only flooding yourself with toxic stress hormones.
Over time, learn to help out the liver daily
Self-massage your abdomen with sesame oil (anti-inflammatory and antioxidant), an ancient Ayurvedic tradition. You can even add some essential oils like cinnamon, clove, lavender, and rose.
Slow down. If possible, see if you can take a sick day (or two) off work every month during your period (or leading up to it if especially cranky). Allow your brain to rest. Take out a puzzle or something artsy.
Some say movement helps when PMS symptoms start, while others just want to relax under a blanket. Either way, allow yourself breaks to do what feels best for you.
Applying Heat
Simple warmth on your tummy can help relieve cramps. The warmth causes an increase in circulation, which can have noticeable effects on pain. At the very least, your body is giving you an excuse to pause and slow down for a moment.
While you get ready to relax somewhere comfortable, make yourself a warm tea
Grab your favorite thick blanket, and something warm to put on your tummy. It doesn’t need to be anything fancy. You can use a heated bottle of water, a heating pad, or something a little heavy, like a puppy or someones feet resting on your tummy to give some relief.
To think about this another way, low body temperature contributes to other health problems, like headaches and migraines.
If available to you, consider some new technology that has been shown to help out. Infrared light has been shown to help women out, and I’ve notice 30 min of it can relieve the worst cramp outbursts. These are some things I found out when doing my research:
There are a bunch of new home devices, and many gyms now building these into their saunas. I finally splurged and got myself a handheld home device, one that has three kinds of beneficial light (infrared for pain, blue for acne, and red for healing skin).
Some believe menstrual pain is caused by cramps (uterine muscle contractions) and sometimes by inflammation. Both are said to be relieved by infrared light therapy, shown to be as effective as pain medications, but without any side effects (see issues with pain meds in the latest news stories!).
Studies of menopausal women using infrared therapy on their backs for 20 minutes a day, twice a week, showed blood pressure improvements, as well as beneficial changes to their musculoskeletal, urologic and psychologic systems. Woah. (meaning something is having an effect!)
The increase of blood flow brings fresh oxygen and nutrients to all areas of the body needing pain relief, including the skull for headaches, acting directly on irritated nerve endings for quick relief. Increased circulation also loosens tight muscles, which often shows up as head and neck pain. We tend to get tight shoulders when we have tension anywhere in the body.
Infrared light can also induce the body to sweat to release toxins.
