Child’s pose FTW!
For some of us, our monthly flow simply means a week of comfy clothes, but for others it means days spent doubled over in pain. While in times like this we’d rather be couch-bound, preferably in front of Netflix with chocolate in hand, a new paper published in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine suggests yoga may be better pain relief – especially if practiced regularly.
In the paper, researcher Jennifer Oates revisited a number of studies already done on yoga’s effects on menstrual symptoms, including pain, mood, stress, mental health and quality of life among women aged 13 to 45. What she found was that the women who practiced yoga for as little as 10 minutes a day reported less discomfort, and better mood.
As Oates explained to Time.com, the scientific reason for this is clear: yoga reprograms the body’s response to stress, encourages the body to release natural pain relief and also adjusts the way that pain is interpreted by the brain.
What is yet to be discovered is what type of yoga is the most effective, the frequency you’d need to practice it in order to get the most relief and when in your cycle it’s best to do it.
If it means the chance to be pain free however, it’s probably worth a shot though, right? Oates recommends trying Hatha classes once or twice a week and discovering the results yourself.
Seems legit, huh?!
