How to eat away period cramps

AWIN

Are period cramps getting you down? Do you spend the first few days of your period reaching for pain killers or doubled over in pain? 

Some discomfort with your period is to be expected as your period is the shedding of your uterine lining. Your uterus is a muscle that contracts to help get this job done. And yeah, that can be a bit uncomfortable and depending on your pain tolerance, it may feel painful.

When does your period pain require some further attention?

• Your doubled over with pain and can’t move/ get out of bed

• You vomit/ diarrhoea 

• There’s pain when you go to the toilet

• You cry from the pain (crying because of your emotions is different)

If any of the above apply to you - please seek advice from your Dr as severe pain can sometimes be a sign of endometriosis or adenomyosis. Pain with urination can also be an issue of interstitial cystitis or a UTI, so please don’t ignore that.

If you’d like some advice around how to prepare for your Dr appointment - book in a FREE coaching discovery call.

I’ve helped lots of my clients feel prepared to advocate for themselves and their menstrual health with their Dr to ensure they don’t just get fobbed off with hormonal birth control.

So why do these cramps happen in the first place?

Prostaglandins (the hormone-like chemical) is the force behind the period cramps and you may also notice loose stools around the same time too.

Prostaglandins isn’t all bad - you need some as it helps stimulate ovulation and makes sure your uterus contracts appropriately so you can remove the endometrium efficiently during your period. 

However, severe cramps and very loose stools or diarrhoea during your period is a sign that you have too many prostaglandins. While prostaglandins cause uterine muscle contraction (aka menstrual cramps), they also affect the bowels by stimulating the contracting and relaxing of the muscles of the digestive tract, which is why your period can cause these period poops.

So what can you do to help? Eat the cramps away…

When inflammation is elevated, it can overdrive the activity of an enzyme called aromatase. Aromatase converts testosterone into estrogen in both men and women. In this way, inflammation can lead to high levels of circulating estrogen and even lead to low testosterone, leading to a state of estrogen dominance (LINK TO OTHER BLOG) and androgen deficiency. This inflammation can also prevent ovulation, which is required to have a proper menstrual cycle and conceive!

A sure fire way to improve your omega ratios is to remove highly processed sources of Omega 6s from your diet. These are sneaky and once you start to look out for them you will notice them everywhere! 

These include:

• Industrial seed oils (vegetable, sunflower, some rapeseed etc)

• Fast food (often cooked in the above)

• Commercially raised poultry (opt for free range & organic)

To be clear there are great natural sources of Omega 6s that you want to include in your diet (see table below for a breakdown of these).

We want to increase the amount of omega-3 in your diet because these lower prostaglandins. Prostaglandins are synthesized from fatty acids and more prostaglandins are made from omega-6, (the  inflammatory fatty acids) than omega-3 fatty acids.

While you can make prostaglandins from omega-3 fatty acids, they tend to be much less effective, or in other words, they don't make you cramp as hard.

The other cool piece about omega-3 fatty acids (that I learnt from Dr Jolene Brighten) is they compete with omega-6 for the same binding site on what's called the COX-1 enzyme. This is the enzyme that takes your omega-6s and converts them into prostaglandins. So, omega-3s can be highly beneficial for period cramps and for cramping of muscles.

So what are good sources of omega-3s and 6s, here are the top sources (in order of their levels of beneficial fatty acids):

If you find it difficult to consume several servings of high omega-3 fatty acid fish and shellfish per week you may want to consider supplementing with omega-3.

Cod liver oil is a great option as it also provides vitamin A and vitamin D. I use and recommend Rosita Real Foods extra-virgin cod liver oil, get 10% off with my practitioner discount here. One teaspoon provides 605 mg of DHA and 443 mg of EPA. If you use another type of cod liver oil please make sure it is of high quality using wild caught fish and not mixed with any of the inflammatory oils listed above (many of the ones I’ve checked use sunflower oil - that’s counter productive when trying to increase your omega-3s and lower inflammatory omega-6s)

If you start to implement these changes you should start to see improvements with your period cramps within 90 days. YES PLEASE!!

If you’d like some recipe ideas, meal planner and shopping lists to help you on your download the Hormone Harmony Quickstart eBook NOW!!