[Mini] Is your period pain "normal"? What you can do | Ep. 69

Curious about the hidden factors that make your period pain more intense than it should be? You'll learn about the role of prostaglandins and histamine in period pain, and you'll hear about what's considered normal versus what might need additional attention from you. 

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:04

Hey team, welcome to today's episode of I'm Hormonal. I'm your host, bridget Walton, and on this mini episode I'm going to be talking about period pain. If you listened to this week's earlier episode the longer form version you would have heard my conversation with Nikki, who is a neuromuscular massage therapist. We talked a lot about pain and nervous system regulation on the larger scale and some about period pain, but today I really want to focus on if you are somebody you're listening because you have period pain and cramping then what contributes to that? What might you want to take into consideration and help give you some context on what is going on potentially inside your body? As always, the information I share with you today is for educational purposes only, should not be used as a replacement for any sort of medical advice, diagnosis or any other tailored support from well, from your practitioner or medical provider. Health is really nuanced and there's no way I can cover everything in this short podcast. That would help to totally clear up the picture for you, so just keep that in mind as you are listening. So let's get into it.

Speaker 1: 1:19

Period pain there is some normal amount of period pain, right? We're all socially introduced to this at a young age that when you're on your period you're going to have cramping, your back is going to hurt, you're going to feel bad. Now, if you are having cramps in your lower abdominal area, right, that's your uterus. If you're having some lower back pain too, that's common. If you're having some lower back pain too, that's common For it to be kind of considered normal I'm doing air quotes over here normal period pain, or maybe you'll hear the term primary dysmenorrhea if we're being really fancy, then that is going to be. The cramping occurs in those regions during the first few days of your cycle and it should be manageable with something like ibuprofen. It should not interfere with your daily activities. Maybe you're considering making some improvements to your diet to kind of clear things up and reduce potential period cramping that you're experiencing. Now, if you're somebody who has cramps that are impacting your day-to-day activities, preventing you from going to school, from going to work, you're canceling your plans with your girls, then that's something to certainly zoom in on. And let's talk about that a little bit more, with a quick disclaimer or a little asterisk, that today I'm not talking about endometriosis, which is a different cause of pain, but we'll talk about non-endometriosis related pain that is more than normal.

Speaker 1: 2:56

Now, when we have period cramps and this is whether it's normal or normal beyond normal pain then that can be caused, or is caused, by prostaglandins that our body releases in order to get the uterine lining to contract and actually well shed the lining which is our period. That's where the blood is coming from. So we need prostaglandins. That's a normal part of the period ecosystem, let's say. But there are some things that can increase these prostaglandins and therefore potentially cause increased pain.

Speaker 1: 3:38

Now let's talk about histamine. You're probably familiar with the term histamine as it relates to allergies. When estrogen levels are high, histamine levels can also increase, and vice versa. So if histamine levels are higher, so can estrogen and so can prostaglandins. So maybe you want to ask yourself okay, is there some sort of inflammation? Is this allergy season? Are you staying at your sister's house and she has a cat and you're like, wow, this is weird that my period pain is so different than it usually is. Now, that might seem kind of niche, but just something to consider. Now there's also histamine in kind of normal foods that we eat right, or red wine, for example, is relatively high in histamine that we eat right, or red wine, for example, is relatively high in histamine, so that might be something too if you say, okay, I have period pain that I want to work on. So leading up to and during my period, I'm going to avoid red wine and other high histamine foods that could be causing a little bit more pain during that time.

Speaker 1: 4:49

One other thing to note on the diet topic would be dairy. So dairy isn't all evil, but normal cow's dairy, at least here in the United States well, no everywhere, but we have this a lot in the US, right Cow dairy that is made or that has the A1 casein protein, and so it's that protein that can be more inflammatory. So if you are trying to think of what you might want to do to impact your inflammation and period pain, then consider dropping dairy for a little bit, at least, kind with A1 casein proteins. You can opt for goat cheese or goat milk those products, thank goodness, because I love me some goat cheese and see if that impacts what's going on, how you're feeling at all. Some other honorable mentions could be magnesium or zinc, which have been shown to positively impact or otherwise reduce cramping.

Speaker 1: 6:02

And finally, I'll mention turmeric as well. So turmeric can reduce the prostaglandins and histamine that cause normal period pain. So if you are looking for something easy to make with turmeric, because you're like, how do I actually incorporate that? Maybe you want to try out a golden milk latte, or maybe you want to try out making some curry at home. This is a personal favorite of mine. I think it's pretty easy, I can make it ahead and it's still tasty the next day or the following day, and turmeric she's in there.

Speaker 1: 6:36

One other thing I like to mention, and maybe this is just because I personally have had this experience, right, but during times when I've had really bad period cramps, which is pretty relatively infrequent for me, but it was during a time when I realized that I had a urinary tract infection, or that's actually how I knew that I had a urinary tract infection, because I was having so much pain, right, and that's because, of course, my bladder is pretty dang close to my uterus. And so prostaglandins they can, yes, interact with what's going on in your uterus, but also impact what's going on around there. And that's even why period poops are a thing, because prostaglandins they're, you know, not really discriminating which tissues they are impacting, and so when they have action or impact on your digestive system, then voila, period poops. So maybe we'll solve that mystery for you today too. Just know that there is a lot you can do diet and lifestyle wise Again, dialing in some of the other kind of foundations.

Speaker 1: 7:48

How can you minimize or mitigate stress in your life? How can you get more and better sleep, avoid processed foods, maybe decrease the amount of added sugar or eliminate the added sugar that's in your diet? All of these dials that you can start playing with and improving and see what's going to work for you and your body and what's going to help you feel better soon. So I hope that this conversation was helpful for you. If you have a friend who has a lot of period pain, maybe you want to send this over to her. See if this helps her out. I would be really appreciative if you wouldn't mind to rate and review the podcast, and you can always follow me on Instagram at Bridget Walton, where you can see a little bit more about me and the tips I share there. Alrighty, we'll see you on the next one.