Email this article to a friend

Printable Version

Articles Related to This Article: • Ginger Reduces Nausea and Vomiting of Pregnancy and Relieves Menstrual Pain • Psychiatric Drugs: Chemical Warfare on Humans - interview with Robert Whitaker • The great direct-to-consumer prescription drug advertising con: how patients and doctors alike are easily influenced to demand dangerous drugs Support NaturalNews advertisers - Advertise with NaturalNews Nutrition Can Save America! FREE report by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, reveals why nutritional deficiencies are destroying America's health and economy... and how to restore America's future with real food.

(NaturalNews) Chinese herbal medicine appears to be more effective at relieving menstrual cramps and pain than pharmaceutical drugs, acupuncture or heat compression therapy, according to a new study conducted by Australian researchers and published in the journal Cochrane Library.

"All available measures of effectiveness confirmed the overall superiority of Chinese herbal medicine to placebo, no treatment, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, oral contraceptive pills, acupuncture and heat compression," said lead researcher Xiaoshu Zhu, from the Center for Complementary Medicine Research at the University of Western Sydney.

Researchers conducted an analysis of data from 39 different randomized, controlled trials that involved a total of 3,475 women. Women in these trials were given traditional Chinese herbs including cinnamon bark (rougui), Chinese angelica root (danggui), fennel fruit (huixiang), licorice root (gancao), Szechuan lovage root (chuanxiong), Chinese motherwort (yimucao), nut-grass rhizome (xiangfu), red peony root (chishao) and white peony root (baishao). The treatments were carried out in a traditional way to regulate energy (qi) and blood, warm the body and improve liver and kidney functioning.

The researchers found that Chinese herbal treatments led to a significant reduction in the symptoms of menstrual cramps, and that the degree of pain reduction was higher than that from other treatments. In one study, 53 percent of women receiving Chinese herbal treatment reported decreased pain, in comparison with only 26 percent of the women receiving a placebo treatment.

Menstrual pain is estimated to affect up to 50 percent of women of reproductive age, and anywhere from 60 to 85 percent of teenagers. While some scientists believe that it is caused by a hormonal imbalance, there is still no scientific consensus on the cause.

Share

About the author: Mike Adams is a natural health author and technology pioneer with a strong interest in personal health, the environment and the power of nature to help us all heal He has authored and published thousands of articles, interviews, consumers guides, and books on topics like health and the environment, reaching millions of readers with information that is saving lives and improving personal health around the world. Adams is an independent journalist with strong ethics who does not get paid to write articles about any product or company. In 2007, Adams launched EcoLEDs, a manufacturer of mercury-free, energy-efficient LED lighting products that save electricity and help prevent global warming. He's also a successful software entrepreneur, having founded a well known email marketing software company whose technology currently powers the NaturalNews email newsletters. Adams volunteers his time to serve as the executive director of the Consumer Wellness Center, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, and regularly pursues cycling, nature photography, Capoeira and Pilates. Known on the 'net as 'the Health Ranger,' Adams shares his ethics, mission statements and personal health statistics at www.HealthRanger.org


Get articles like this delivered to you FREE in our popular email newsletter

Related CounterThink Cartoons:

Related Articles: • Ginger Reduces Nausea and Vomiting of Pregnancy and Relieves Menstrual Pain • Psychiatric Drugs: Chemical Warfare on Humans - interview with Robert Whitaker • The great direct-to-consumer prescription drug advertising con: how patients and doctors alike are easily influenced to demand dangerous drugs	Take Action: Support NaturalNews.com Email this article to a friend Share this article on: NewsVine | digg | del.icio.us Permalink to this article: http://www.NaturalNews.com/022969_menstrual_pain_drugs_Chinese_herbs.html Reprinting this article: Non-commercial use OK, cite NaturalNews.com with clickable link. Embed article link: (copy HTML code below): <a href = "http://www.NaturalNews.com/022969_menstrual_pain_drugs_Chinese_herbs.html">Chinese Herbs Relieve Menstrual Pain Better than Drugs or Acupuncture</a>