Period cramps sometimes turn too much to bear further impeding us from performing our day-to-day tasks. And, here’s good news for ladies who experience pains throughout the menstrual flow!

A study says that treadmill exercise regime can reduce period pain and improve long-term quality of life.

According to the study, the researchers conducted a trial over a seven-month period to see how treadmill exercise helped women going through primary dysmenorrhea, commonly known as menstruation pain.

"Women who have painful periods often take steps to actively avoid exercise - after all when you are in pain it is often the last thing that you want to partake in," said Leica Claydon-Mueller, Professor at Anglia Ruskin University.

For the study, published in the journal Contemporary Clinical Trials, women aged between 18-43 were asked to take part in a supervised aerobic training regime three times a week for four weeks, beginning the day after the end of their menstrual period, followed by an unsupervised home workout for six months.

The results were compared with a control group, who carried out their regular regimes.

The study found that the women who participated in the supervised exercise reported 6 percent less pain after four weeks and 22 percent less pain while continuing the exercise for an extra six months.

Significant benefits of exercise were reported after the seven-month reporting period for other study measures, including a higher quality of life and improved daily functioning.

However, following the trial, the participants did not report any increase in sleep quality.

According to the researchers, the study examined the effect of treadmill exercise on measures such as sleep quality, pain intensity, and overall quality of life.

This trial showed that exercise significantly reduced pain for those people participating in the program and they also reported reduced pain levels after four and seven months.

"The improvements in quality of life scores after seven months were noteworthy, although it was perhaps surprising that there was no significant difference in sleep quality to that of the control group," said Indian origin researcher Priya Kannan from Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

By Sowmya Sangam