Comparison ginger and resistance training on primary dysmenorrhea in female students of Shiraz university

Although some remedies have been suggested for treatment of primary dysmenorrhea, some free of side effects treatment methods such as herbal drugs and exercise are especially important. The purpose of this study was to compare the effect of ginger and resistance training on physical and psychological symptoms of dysmenorrhea. 60 nonathletic female collegiate students of Shiraz university participated in this study voluntarily and were divided randomly to 4 groups including 15 persons (exercise +placebo, exercise + ginger, ginger, and placebo). Ginger groups were prescribed 250 mg of ginger, four times a day for 3 days from beginning of menstruation and placebo groups were recommended the same prescription with 250 mg of placebo drug. Exercise with ginger or placebo groups participated in 2 months of progressive resistance training (3 times a week) besides consuming Ginger or placebo drugs. Menstrual symptoms were recorded with using validated questionnaire, before intervention and during two consecutive periods of menstruation. The analysis was performed with using Covariate analysis of variance with repeated measures by SPSS version 16. A significant reduction was found in physical symptoms of dysmenorrhea in groups of Ginger but no significant statistically changes were found within other groups. Comparison of four groups indicated more significant reduction of physical symptoms in ginger groups compared with other groups. There were no significant difference in psychologic symptoms within and between groups (P>0.05). Ginger is recommended for treatment of physical symptoms of dysmenorrhea.