NEWS - Vitamin E may help ease menstrual cramps

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Vitamin E may help ease menstrual cramps

Last Updated: 2005-04-22 9:18:12 -0400 (Reuters Health)

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Women may find some relief from menstrual cramps

by taking vitamin E a few days a month, new research suggests.

The study, of teenage girls in Iran, found that those who took vitamin E

starting two days before their periods suffered far less cramping than their

peers who used only standard pain medication.

After four months, the girls who took vitamin E had cramps for less than two

hours, on average, during their periods. That compared with 17 hours for

those who did not take the vitamin.

Dr. Saeideh Ziaei and her colleagues at Tarbiat Modarres University in

Tehran report the findings in the British Journal of Obstetrics and

Gynaecology.

Common menstrual cramps, or primary dysmenorrhea, are thought to result from

the release of hormone-like substances called prostaglandins. Prostaglandins

cause the uterus to contract in order to expel the uterine lining, resulting

in menstrual blood flow. Vitamin E, by acting on two enzymes in the body,

can inhibit the formation of prostaglandins -- and, potentially, menstrual

cramps, according to Ziaei and her colleagues.

To investigate, the researchers randomly assigned 278 girls, 15 to 17 years

old, with primary dysmenorrhea to take either vitamin E or an inactive

placebo pill. Girls in the vitamin E group took 200 milligrams (mg) of the

vitamin twice a day, starting two days before they expected their periods

and continuing through the third day of menstruation.]

Both groups were allowed to take ibuprofen if they needed to.

After four months, girls in the vitamin E group showed a sharp reduction in

the number of hours they suffered cramps each month. Few -- 4 percent --

reported using ibuprofen, compared with 89 percent of girls in the placebo

group.

Girls in both groups tended to say their periods got lighter during the

study period, but the change was greater in the vitamin group, according to

Ziaei's team.

The dose of vitamin E used in the study -- 200 mg twice a day -- is

significantly higher than the recommended daily intake of 20 mg, but still

well within the range that experts consider unlikely to cause adverse

effects. U.S. health officials set the " upper tolerable intake level " for

vitamin E at 1,000 mg per day.

" The use of vitamin E for dysmenorrhea in adolescent women is attractive, "

Ziaei's team writes, " because of the marked effect we have demonstrated,

coupled with the absence of significant side effects from vitamin E at

therapeutic doses. "

SOURCE: British Journal of Gynecology, April 2005.

Not an MD

I'll tell you where to go!

Mayo Clinic in Rochester

http://www.mayoclinic.org/rochester

s Hopkins Medicine

http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org