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Chinese Herbs Relieve
Menstrual Pain Better
than Drugs or Acupuncture
Wednesday, April 09, 2008 by: Mike Adams
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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. |
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