Do you know what the causes of stomach cramps are? At home comfort measures, you hurt badly; you are doubled over and knotted up. You want to scream You want to sleep. Anything to get rid of this pain; continuous stomach cramps can create around your abdomen like a ball on a billiard table. Almost every woman has had cramps sometimes.
If you suffer from irritable bowel syndrome, lactose intolerance, or even have the occasional bout of PMT, you know a cramp when it grips you. The exact diagnosis or cause of stomach cramps may or may not be obvious. It could be stress, a virus, or something else.
Stomach cramps will go away on their own after a few hours or days. But you don’t have to suffer that long. Women’s doctors offer these comfort measures. A cramp is really just a knotted muscle. If stomach muscles are making you cramp, lying in bed with a hot water bottle on your stomach may help ease the pain.
A hot water bottle is much safer than a heating pad because it cools down, while a heating pad stays hot and can burn you if you fall asleep or use it overnight. Stick to the BRAT diet—that’s bananas, applesauce, and dry toast foods that are easy to digest and won’t hurt your tummy.
High-fiber foods like popcorn, nuts, or cabbage can be hard to digest and make cramping worse. Drink plenty of water. If your cramping stems from constipation or diarrhea, the best way to ease the cramping is by drinking more water. Water gets the waste products moving through your intestines, which should ease your constipation. If you have diarrhea, drinking water will keep you from becoming dehydrated.
Cook up a batch of chicken soup; it works, and nobody knows why, but chicken soup soothes the stomach and abdominal cramps and cleans out the digestive system. If you have diarrhea or lactose intolerance, you’ll find that milk and other dairy products, such as cheese and milk, are hard to digest and often cause cramping. So until your cramps subside, go easy on the white stuff.
If you have bowel spasms or trapped wind, peppermint oil stops the aching. Peppermint oil is available in capsule form in health food shops. Take one capsule two or three times a day between meals until your cramping goes away. Valerian fennel, ginger, chamomile, rosemary, peppermint, and lemon balm teas also relieve wind and stop spasms of mild stomach cramps. So be careful and know about the causes of stomach cramps.