Menstrual cramps, pain standing, sitting and lying down ……. It makes it difficult to sleep or eat, toss and turn, and is an unspeakable pain for many women.
According to relevant data, about 80% of women suffer from varying degrees of dysmenorrhea or other menstrual syndromes, even seriously affecting normal study, work and life. So what can you do to relieve the symptoms of menstrual cramps?
Dysmenorrhea strongly associated with prostaglandin levels
Dysmenorrhea, which is divided into two main categories: primary dysmenorrhea and secondary dysmenorrhea.
The majority of clinical dysmenorrhea is primary dysmenorrhea, the pathogenesis of which has not been clarified, but some studies have confirmed that primary dysmenorrhea may be closely related to endometrial prostaglandin levels.
Prostaglandins are not exclusive to men, but are a class of hormones with a wide range of physiological activities and are found in several tissues of the body. During a woman’s menstrual period, endometrial cells release large amounts of prostaglandins, which promote uterine smooth muscle contractions and help expel menstrual blood.
Once the secretion is too high, excessive prostaglandins will cause excessive contraction of uterine smooth muscle, thereby increasing the resistance to blood flow in uterine arteries and significantly reducing blood flow, resulting in ischemia and hypoxia of the uterine myometrium and vasospasm, which ultimately leads to the accumulation of acidic metabolites in the myometrium and increases the sensitivity of the nerve endings, thus causing menstrual cramps.
In addition, when the local metabolites increase, excessive prostaglandins can enter into the blood circulation, stimulating the stomach and intestinal contractions, causing diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, and also causing dizziness, fatigue, whitening, cold sweat and other symptoms.
Study finds red light improves menstrual cramps
In addition to prostaglandins, dysmenorrhea is also affected by a variety of factors such as bad moods like depression and anxiety, and low immune function. In order to relieve dysmenorrhea, most commonly used drugs to improve, but due to the barrier effect of the skin and the physical and chemical properties of the drugs themselves, it is difficult to completely cure, and drugs have certain side effects. Therefore, red light therapy, which has the advantages of larger irradiation range, non-invasive and no side effects, and deep penetration into the organism, has been increasingly used in gynecology and reproductive system clinical treatment in recent years.
In addition, basic and clinical studies in various fields have also shown that red light irradiation of the body can play a variety of biological roles, significantly enriched in the cellular response to stimulation, negative regulation of mitochondrial membrane potential, the regulation of smooth muscle cell proliferation and other related biological processes, which significantly reduces the expression of the pro-inflammatory factor interleukin and the pain-causing cytokine prostaglandin in the damaged tissues, inhibits the excitability of the nerves and promotes the dilation of blood vessels to accelerate the removal of pain-causing metabolites and reduce vasospasm, thus improving the symptoms of female dysmenorrhea. It also promotes vasodilatation, accelerates the removal of pain-causing metabolites, reduces vasospasm, and achieves anti-inflammatory, analgesic, decongestive and restorative effects, thus improving the symptoms of dysmenorrhea in women.
Experiment proves daily exposure to red light can relieve menstrual cramps
A large number of domestic and international research papers have documented that red light is more effective in treating gynecological and reproductive system diseases. Based on this, MERICAN launched the MERICAN Health Pod based on the research of red light therapy, combining a variety of specific wavelengths of light, which can stimulate the respiratory chain of mitochondrial cells, promote the production of biologically active substances in the muscle, improve the nutritional status of local tissues and regulate the expression of related inflammatory factors, inhibit nerve excitation and reduce spasms. At the same time, it promotes blood circulation, accelerates the elimination of metabolites and the process of tissue repair, and strengthens the regulation of the immune system, thus effectively relieving the symptoms of dysmenorrhea and preventing gynecological diseases.
In order to further verify its real effect, MERICAN Light Energy Research Center, together with the German team, and a number of universities, scientific research and medical institutions, randomly selected a number of women aged 18-36 years old with more pronounced dysmenorrhea phenomenon, under the guidance of a healthy lifestyle and physiological education of menstruation, and then supplemented with the illumination of the MERICAN Health Cabin for light therapy to improve the situation.
After 3 months of regular 30-minute health chamber irradiation, the subjects’ VAS major symptom score scores were all significantly reduced, and menstrual cramps such as abdominal pain and low back pain were significantly improved, even other symptoms in sleep, mood, and skin also improved, without any adverse effects or recurrence.
It can be seen that red light has a positive effect on relieving dysmenorrhea symptoms and improving menstrual syndrome. It is worth mentioning that, in order to improve the symptoms of dysmenorrhea, in addition to daily illumination of red light, maintaining a positive mood and good habits should not be ignored, and if the dysmenorrhea persists throughout the menstrual period and gradually worsened, it is recommended to consult a doctor in a timely manner.
Finally, I wish all women a healthy and happy menstrual cycle!