A new study has found that a teenage girl’s diet could have a big impact on pain during her menstrual cycle. It is not easy being a teenager, and they are going through a lot of changes. They are trying to navigate a tricky stage in development, and learn how to balance school, work, and social life.
They are also dealing with a changing body. Since they have recently gone through puberty, and may still be dealing with some fall-out, they are still adjusting to this new version of themselves. For teenage girls, this means getting used to a menstrual cycle that they will have for the rest of their lives and the side effects that come with it.
According to Medical Xpress and US News, research has shown that a teenage girl’s diet could impact her odds of experiencing pain during their menstrual cycle.
There are a lot of women and young girls who deal with intense cramping and pain during their menstrual cycle. While a lot of attention is paid to how to ease this pain, there is also work being done to see what can make it worse. Thinking that if women can avoid these things, they may be able to ease some of that pain.
This research was done by a student who was doing her senior research project on analyzing various peer-reviewed studies to look at menstrual pain, and she decided to do this because of the struggles she faced with her own cycle. She knows how debilitating it can be, and she was motivated to try and find out what factors can raise a woman’s risk.
What she found was that foods that are high in omega-6 fatty acids actually promoted inflammation. Inflammation is a key component in menstrual pain.
In doing this work, she also found that a diet that was high in foods with omega-3 fatty acids could reduce inflammation, therefore, reducing the pain every menstrual cycle. This can give teenagers, and parents, a clear guide to follow when it comes to their diets, and while it may not take away all pain or discomfort, it is certainly the place to start.
Unfortunately, a regular US diet contains a lot of omega-6 fatty acids, and it may take some work to change a complete diet, but the items that may want to be avoided are meat, sugar, salt, dairy, coffee, and oils.
Sources: Medical Xpress, US News