Menstrual Cycle Health Benefits from Green Tea: A personal study

Sorry guys, this is a post specifically for the ladies.

 This is my own personal study, that I have been experimenting on myself with. I learned something awesome about green tea, that will help you with your painful periods.  I don't take pain medications for ANYTHING. No Ibuprofen, no Tylenol, Midol, nada. Not with headaches, the flu, nothing (I just deal with the pain, hoping to build a pain tolerance or an amazing immune system of STEEL! hahaa). I don't want my body to get used to having to take pain pills for minor things, then build an immunity against it, as well as damage my liver/ get stomach ulcers, then not work when I really need it to. I DID try ibuprofen ONCE because I was hurting so bad (I felt like puking every single time I would breathe), BUT, all it did, was stall the pain until the next day (when it's usually gone for me). NO THANKS! I want the pain DONE AND OVER WITH.

For those of you who don't know me personally, I'm a HUGE TEA junkie. Specifically green teas, white teas, fruity flavored teas (NOT tea with fruit syrup poured into it like at restaurants). So naturally, places like Teavana are my heaven (www.teavana.com), or therepublicoftea.com now that Starbucks bought and closed all the Teavana stores -_-. The more obsessed with tea I've been, the more I've noticed some things.

-------------- Currently known health benefits of green tea: ----------------

Research shows that green tea benefits many other things for your body. It improves cognitive functioning, helps your memory and spatial learning, gives you a feeling of well-being, increases bone density, helps prevent cavities and tooth decay, helps blood pressure, helps cholesterol, heart disease, diabetes, ETC. So many other reasons to drink it!

 

http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifestyle/11-benefits-of-green-tea-that-you-didnt-know-about.html

http://www.blisstree.com/2013/01/31/food/nutrition/benefits-of-green-tea/

 

Other than the obvious health reports and studies out there, I'm adding to the list, YOUR PERIOD!  I don't know if this is already a known thing posted somewhere else on the internet, as far as I know (without looking it up), it isn't.

Now to the point: I noticed that if you drink green tea regularly, but especially and mainly a few days to a week before your period, it'll actually make your period far less heavy (we all know the first days are the worst), and no where NEAR as painful (it wont be postponed to the next day either like on ibuprofen). It's more like, the last 2 days of your period. At least for me, since this has only been tested ON ME. Usually I cant move, breathe, eat, drink, NOTHING but SLEEP on the first day since I hurt so bad. Ever since I started rinking green tea more than usual, I noticed that when I drank green tea around the start of my period, it lightened it up a lot, and had little to no pain. I've been making sure I do it every month haha. It has also worked if i only drink green tea a few days prior to my period instead of regularly.

This has only been tested with the drink. NOT the "tea" from soda fountains, and not that garbage ARIZONA that claims to be tea (isn't even really tea at all).

I'm talking more along the lines of home brewed tea from loose leaf or tea bags, and a very small amount  of store made teas -if you don't want to make it yourself-  like my personal faves: 

(for those who love sweet tea, there's:)

Sweet Leaf Tea

(for those who love lightly sweetened tea, there's:)

 Honest Tea

These are the only store bought ones I've tested myself with (and several home brewed ones since I LOVE making tea for some weird reason, like a hobby). I would like to add that "herbal tea" is just that: herbs. There are no actual tea leaves in it, but you can mix an herbal tea with a green or white tea to give it flavor if you like.

I'm not sure about the green tea supplement capsules yet. I'm actually testing myself on those right now as a matter of fact. If they work, I'll add it to the end of this. 

No matter WHAT amount of green tea you drink, AVOID ALL SALT FOODS before your period!! Everyone knows salt DESTROYS YOU around your period (if you didn't know that, now you do, because it RETAINS WATER and makes you even more bloated, which causes more pain). I think salt also counters the awesome effects of the green tea (sad face for my love of salt n vinegar chips and salt n vinegar popcorn), because you will still hurt. I was curious who would win the battle between green tea and salt, so I ate some while also drinking the tea before my period lol. That was NO BUENO. Not a good idea lol. Salt wins, and it isnt a good win lol.

So there you go. Another reason to invest in the good green stuff. If you find this same info on another site, give me the link to read it. If you actually try this, and find that it works for you, LET ME KNOW! :D

Also, SHARE this information with every girl that you know! Save a fellow girl some pain, will ya? :)

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UPDATE: 8/22/2012

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The green tea capsules/ supplements didn't work at ALL. At least not for me, you can still try them yourself.  Some of you in the comments say that it works for you. This might be one of those body chemistry differences, where its different for different people, but its worth a try if you haven't yet.

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UPDATE: 5/20/2018

I found that drinking brewed green tea with local honey (im not a fan of store bought honey, I like to find local bee keepers and buy from them since they tend to have more nutrients in the honey and they take care of the bees- Gallberry honey is my fav, Wildflower is my 2nd fav) when you are starting to feel sick is very helpful in reducing the symptoms of getting sick. It might even prevent you from getting sick altogether depending on how soon you do it. I work in a place where I am surrounded by sick people all day every day and when I feel any potential sick symptom coming on, I immediately brew a green tea with honey (maybe also with lemon), and take a zinc tablet if I have any. I don't get sick, and on the rare occasion, I might only get a stuffy nose instead of a full blown cold or flu. Green tea has antioxidants, [good quality] honey has antiviral,antibacterial, antimicrobial, antifungal, and antioxidative effects, with a high nutritional value (per research by Maryam Alsadat Hashemipour- read the discussion part of the study in link below). Zinc fights early cold symptoms.
http://www.woundsresearch.com/article/antiviral-activities-honey-royal-jelly-and-acyclovir-against-hsv-1