Extra Virgin Olive Oil More Effective than Ibuprofen in Treating Menstrual Pain

Moderate to severe men­strual pain, oth­er­wise known as pri­mary dys­men­or­rhea, is a com­mon prob­lem for women of all ages. However, it is more com­mon in the teenage years than among women 25 years of age and over.

Menstrual pain results in loss of school and work hours, along with per­sonal and social rela­tion­ship issues. Therefore, chem­i­cal treat­ments such as the oral con­tra­cep­tive pill and non-steroidal anti-inflam­ma­tory drugs (NSAIDs) such as ibupro­fen are com­monly used to relieve pain symp­toms. Unfortunately, chem­i­cal treat­ments do come with side effects, which some peo­ple can­not tol­er­ate and which may not be a viable long-term option for young women.
See Also:Olive Oil Health Benefits
In a sin­gle-blinded crossover trial, pub­lished in Scholars Research Library, sixty female stu­dents between 17 – 30 years who suf­fered mod­er­ate to severe men­strual pain, with a pain sever­ity above four on the VAS score, were eval­u­ated over six con­sec­u­tive peri­ods. The first month estab­lished the base­line VAS score, with each group under­go­ing two dif­fer­ent inter­ven­tions for a period of two months, with a four-week washout period in the mid­dle of the trial.

Group one took 25 mLs of extra vir­gin olive oil (EVOO) for two months, start­ing the dosage two weeks before the begin­ning of each men­strual cycle. After the four-week washout cycle, they were given 400 mg ibupro­fen three times per day dur­ing the first three days of men­stru­a­tion. Group two received the same treat­ment but in oppo­site terms, ibupro­fen dur­ing the first two cycles, then EVOO for sub­se­quent cycles after the washout period. Pain sever­ity data was logged for the first three days of each of the men­strual cycles.

There was no dif­fer­ence in pain sever­ity between groups at base­line, an aver­age 6.7 VAS score. However, the dif­fer­ence in pain sever­ity was sig­nif­i­cantly dif­fer­ent dur­ing the inter­ven­tions, decreas­ing to 3.8 for the ibupro­fen group and 1.1 for the EVOO group. There was also a sig­nif­i­cant dif­fer­ence between the groups for the first two cycles. The group tak­ing ibupro­fen dur­ing the first two cycles had a pain sever­ity score of 4.7 for month one and 3.8 for month two. While the group tak­ing EVOO dur­ing the first two cycles had a pain sever­ity score of 2.4 and 1.4 for the two con­sec­u­tive cycles.

Extra vir­gin olive oil is well known for its anti-inflam­ma­tory capac­ity. Previous stud­ies have shown that oleo­can­thal, a polyphe­nol in EVOO, sup­presses prostaglandin (an inflam­ma­tory mol­e­cule) pro­duc­tion along the same path­ways as ibupro­fen at a rate of approx­i­mately 10 per­cent the capac­ity. It has also been shown that daily EVOO intake does have a cumu­la­tive effect on the pro­duc­tion of pro-inflam­ma­tory mol­e­cules.

Until recently no other stud­ies have explored if EVOO could be a viable alter­na­tive to ibupro­fen in treat­ing men­strual pain. As this study shows, tak­ing 25 mL EVOO two weeks before the men­strual cycle does appear to sig­nif­i­cantly decrease pain. This is won­der­ful news for women who suf­fer with such pain because EVOO is a safe, nat­ural alter­na­tive that can be used by a major­ity of indi­vid­u­als with­out ingest­ing chem­i­cals and hav­ing to suf­fer the accom­pa­ny­ing side effects, yet still pro­vid­ing much-needed pain relief.

• Scholars Research Library


• International Journal of Molecular Science