Zinc is an essential mineral that your body uses for proper function of the immune system, taste, smell, vision, wound healing, blood clotting, growth, reproduction, thyroid function and insulin function. Zinc may also help with a number of health problems, including colds, acne, ADHD, herpes, sickle cell disease and menstrual pain.
Menstrual Pain
Menstrual pain, also called dysmenorrhea, is common in women, with up to 90 percent of women experiencing some type of pain during the first few days of menstruation, according to a 2007 article in the journal "Medical Hypotheses." Some women experience enough pain that they cannot go about their normal daily activities. Zinc levels may play a part in determining whether women experience this type of pain.
Recommended Zinc Intake
The Recommended Dietary Allowance, or RDA, for zinc is 9 mg per day for females between the ages of 14 and 18 and 8 mg per day for females aged 19 or over. However, those who take zinc for therapeutic reasons need higher doses. The tolerable upper intake level for zinc is 34 mg per day for females between the ages of 14 and 18 and 40 mg per day for females aged 19 or over.
Effect of Zinc
The RDA for females may be too low for women to avoid menstrual cramps, according to the study published in "Medical Hypotheses," which found that women who took one to three doses of 30 mg of zinc per day from one to four days before menstruation did not experience menstrual cramps. This may be due to the antioxidant effect of zinc. One dose of 30 mg per day of zinc would still be within the range deemed safe by the U.S. government.
Considerations
Sometimes, menstrual pain is due to underlying causes, which need to be treated, and zinc would not prevent this type of menstrual pain. Other possible treatments for dysmenorrhea include NSAIDs, omega-3 supplements, vitamin E, vitamin B-1, magnesium, flax seed and following a low-fat diet. If these treatments don't help, your doctor may prescribe oral contraceptives.
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