 I previously described how ginger, works as well as the leading drug in the treatment of migraines, described as one of the most common pain syndromes affecting as much as 12% of the population. You call that common? How about menstrual cramps to plague up to 90% of younger women? You can tell this was written by a guy because he emphasizes the absenteeism in all the lost productivity for our nation, but it also just really hurts. So can ginger help? A quarter teaspoon of ground ginger, ginger powder, given three times a day during the first three days of menstruation, and pain dropped from like a 7 on a scale of 1 to 10 down to a 5, whereas in the placebo group there was no significant change. Most women in the placebo group said their symptoms stayed the same, whereas those unknowingly in the ginger group said they felt much better. A subsequent study found that even just an eighth of a teaspoon, three times a day, appeared to work just as well, dropping pain from an 8 to a 6, but then the second month down to a 3. The alleviation of menstrual pain was more remarkable during the second month of the intervention, and they'd only been taking the ginger for 4 days, not the whole month, suggesting that it might work even better if women used ginger every period. What about the duration of pain? A quarter teaspoon of ground ginger, three times a day, not only dropped the severity of pain from about 7 down to 5, but decreased the duration from a total of 19 hours in pain down to about 15 hours, indicating that 3 quarters of a teaspoon of ginger powder a day for three days is a safe and effective way to produce pain relief in college students with painful menstrual cramps, compared to placebo capsules filled instead with powdered toast. But women don't take breadcrumbs for their cramps. How does ginger compare to ibuprofen? An eighth of a teaspoon four times a day of ginger for three days, or 400 mg of Motrin, and the ginger worked just as well as the drug of choice. If you do take the drug, though, I was surprised to learn it may be better to take drugs like ibuprofen and naproxen on an empty stomach as this may speed up the pain relief and help keep people from taking higher doses.