If you suffer from painful periods, you should be aware that simple dietary and lifestyle changes can often provide dramatic relief from period pain. Although many women are told to simply take an over the counter pain reliever to deal with these monthly pains (or perhaps even stronger prescription main medication), natural options are available to treat the cause not simply the symptoms of painful periods. Other prescribed treatments, such as taking hormone containing medications (including the pill) can have harmful side effects as well.

Some of the most common natural treatments of period pain involve eliminating certain foods from your diet, eating more healthy foods, moderate exercise and herbal remedies. Unsurprisingly, many of these treatments promote a healthier lifestyle more generally, and all of these changes are likely to benefit your health tremendously.

One of the first steps to take if you are suffering from continual monthly pain is to eliminate certain foods from your diet. This includes items containing caffeine, refined carbohydrates, excess salt, as well as alcohol and tobacco. In their place, you should substitute healthy foods such as plenty of fruits and vegetables, and oily fish. These simple dietary changes can bring relief to many sufferers of period pain.

In terms of adding exercise to your lifestyle, even light to moderate exercise can help considerably as long as it is done on a regular basis. You may want to look into low impact and stress reducing exercise routines such as yoga or dance. The point is to make sure you are getting daily exercise that you can sustain and hopefully actually enjoy. There will be many side benefits to daily exercise as well, of course, such as loss of weight, improved energy and improved health more generally.

Finally, there are certain medicinal herbs that have been used for generations to treat painful periods and heavy menstrual flow. These include well known plants such as Black Cohosh, Yarrow, Raspberry Leaf and Chamomile. All these medicinal herbs need to be prepared carefully, however, and you need to know when and how to combine these medical herbs for the best effect.

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