In the USA and many other countries, when experiencing pain of some kind, we often head out to the nearest drugstore to stock up on medications and creams to soothe away the pain and all the troubles associated with it. When we have a headache, we are quick to reach out for good ol’ aspirin trusting that it will make the pain go away. And, when it comes to tight and aching muscles, we don’t hesitate to take something like ibuprofen.
We trust in our doctor usually and we trust in his writing out a prescription for medicine that will quickly take pain and fever away so we can quickly get back to living life again. But did it ever occur to you that there are natural ways to deal with pain without needing to rely on conventional medications – most of which also include other chemicals and side effects as well?
What about essential oils? Have you ever considered that plants from nature have the capacity to heal not only light pain but chronic and serious pain, too? Essential oils are miracle workers, getting down to business and penetrating your cells quickly, providing you with oxygen and even improving the circulation to your joints that are writhing in pain from inflammation.
The History of Essential Oils for Pain
The use of essential oils goes back thousands of years to the Chinese, the Jews, Egyptians, Indians, Romans, and Greeks, who used them for not only magnificent cosmetic purposes, but also for medical purposes to handle the effects of pain. Much later in time, the French chemist, Gattefossé, applied lavender oil to heal his hand of burns, and because of the success, he yearned to help injured and suffering soldiers in the First World War.
Chronic pain can be frustrating and debilitating and can extend further to affect us emotionally and mentally as well. This can have an adverse impact on our ability to start the healing process. So, if your pain continues to persist for longer periods – like over a few weeks – then it’s important to get help from your general medical practitioner.
But getting back to the magic of essential oils, let’s take a look-see at the names of some fantastic essential oils that will help to relieve your pain as well as general discomfort including the stress and anxiety that often accompanies pain.
God’s Apothecary Provides the Answer
- Basil is an uplifting and energizing plant and it has both muscle relaxing and anti-inflammatory benefits as well.
- Peppermint just sounds so calming and cool and that’s exactly what it is, offering anti-inflammatory benefits. It helps the gallbladder.
- Wintergreen – Sometimes when we are on the sports fields, we can often catch the smell of wintergreen, but it is because it pays special attention to problems like a herniated disk, neck pain, nerve pain and carpal tunnel pain as well.
- Clove – This little plant literally does wonders for tooth pain, it improves your memory and it is anti-aging too. If you suffer from rheumatism and arthritis pain, check out what cloves can do for you. It also does wonder for a toothache!
- Lavender – Relaxing lavender balances the body and helps to fight against inflammation.
- Sandalwood – When you are all tensed up, sandalwood will come to your rescue, relaxing you and helping you to overcome depression as well.
Oh, My Aching…
A person can suffer from crippling joint and bone pain for many reasons. Simply put, natural aging is one reason but injury and trauma to these parts of the body can also cause pain. Bone and joint pain are to be found more among middle aged people and not so much in the young unless it is the result of an injury.
As a person gets older, their bodies go through life changes, including a decrease in the density of the bones. Joint and bone pain usually do require medical attention from your general practitioner, but still, there are essential oils that go a very long way in helping one to cope and to manage this type of pain. Good essential oils for back and joint pain are lavender, clary sage, eucalyptus, rosemary, juniper, yarrow, and clove, to mention a few.
Sometimes, when we exert ourselves can feel the muscles aches and pain for a couple of days and then the pain gradually subsides. But the pain that lingers, that won’t go away after a couple of days needs more attention – and this is particularly so for back and neck pain.
Over 80% of Americans experience this type of ongoing lingering pain at certain stages in their lives making it one of the most common reasons why they end up in their doctor’s office and are out of work.
When you have muscle pain, it is difficult to ignore the aching, stabbing, shooting pains while being unable to flex yourself fully. Sometimes it is almost impossible to drive your car properly because as you are reversing or trying to look to the left or right, you are sharply brought back to reality with agonizing muscle pain.
In these instances, it is recommended that you see your doctor. But it is also worth trying out essential oils that can alleviate some of that nausea, pain, discomfort, and stress.
These are some excellent essential oils for muscle pain that are known to soothe and comfort:
- Roman Chamomile will help you over the stress and anxiety associated with muscle pain as it is a relaxant, it is anti-inflammatory and detoxifying.
- Marjoram will sooth pains and aches associated with muscular cramps.
- Rosemary is wonderful for the memory but is known to soothe muscle soreness as well.
- Thyme helps you overcome fatigue and is excellent for rheumatism.
How Essential Oils Work for Pain
Essential oils are highly effective because they get absorbed directly into your bloodstream – getting to work right away as they do not have to go through your digestive system. It’s no wonder that essential oils have been used for centuries already to help in the effective use of aches and pains.
Many of the plants used for essential oils contain pain-relieving ingredients and pharmaceutical companies use some of them to make their synthetic pain relievers. The fantastic news about essential oils is that they have far, far fewer side effects than the synthetic pharmaceutical products and they are so more easily absorbed into the body.
Essential oils are compatible with the human proteins in our bodies, and they are chemically structured in similar ways as that of human cells – even having a similar type of hormone compounds.
They also have tiny amounts of chemical structures in them so that as you apply it to your body, they start reaching the cells of your body rapidly, within a few minutes helping the body to start its recovery and healing.
Essential Oils Help Maintain the Right Balances in Your Body
Essential oils that assist you with pain are homeostatic. What does this mean? It means that they are natural complexes and are unable to disturb your body’s normal, natural balance. Pharmaceutical drugs are synthetic, therefore, they have a huge capacity to disrupt your body’s homeostasis.
When you start taking a lot of synthetic drugs for chronic pain, the kidneys start working overtime to deal with the intake of the synthetic chemicals. The process of them having to continuously having to rid the body of said chemicals will disturb your body’s homeostasis.
Medications for pain can be very harmful because the kidneys work extra hard to flush out the chemical waste. Some of these synthetic medications may even prevent the kidneys from doing their job properly. Diuretics and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory type drugs have been known to cause up to 5% of kidney failure in people every year.
Wintergreen and Helichrysum
Wintergreen, as mentioned above, is a very well-known pain reliever. It comprises of around 90% Methyl Salicylate and when you rub it onto your affected painful areas, the Methyl Salicylate kind of causes a soothing aesthetic effect on your nerves.
Wintergreen also increases blood circulation, bringing delicious warmth to the painful area. It is said to even have cortisone-type of effects which go towards relieving pain in rapid quick time. While soothing your pain, wintergreen relaxes and uplifts your mood too and the strong aromas can height your senses. Aren’t these sufficient enough reasons to let nature intervene and do the healing?
What about Helichrysum? This is another powerful pain reliever containing big amounts of Neryl Acetate in it. The main components of this amazing plant relieve pain and soothe trauma, being an antispasmodic as well. Spasms occurring in the muscles result in painful cramping. Even severe stomach cramps can get quick relief from Helichrysum.
Make Your Own Pain Relieving Balm
It could be that you have spent too long in the gym, maybe too long horse-riding, rowing or bending and straining muscles doing housework – whatever the case. But sore and tired muscles are generally inflamed and can be very painful. In order to reduce inflammation and to increase circulation, you need to rub healing and natural balms on to your muscles.
Cinnamon, a very popular herb rich in therapeutic properties is one such soothing spice – keeping the pain away with its prostaglandin-inhibiting properties. What about adding some Camphor? It is so readily absorbed into your skin, acting as an anesthetic to relieve pain. And, powerful Rosemary? She is very well known to reduce muscle pain and soreness, even those associated with arthritis. With some Ginger added in, that just simply increases the circulation and takes away the pain.
Ingredients
8 oz sweet almond oil
1 oz of beeswax
5-10 drops of the above essential oils added
Directions
- Melt the beeswax and the almond oil together over the stove.
- Add your essential oils, stirring gently and allowing to cool.
- Rub this onto your sore muscles in circular movements until absorbed. Apply up to around 3 times a day as required.
In the USA, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) doesn’t regulate essential oils, meaning that essential oil products can vary according to different manufacturers. These will vary according to their strength, purity and quality. That is why is it important that you only use top quality essential oils from manufacturers you know and trust.
How Do You Use Essential Oils?
Essential oils can either be applied to the skin or they can be inhaled. When applying to the skin, they need to be mixed and diluted with carrier oils. You should never just apply essential oils directly to your skin.
Carrier oils are often overlooked because they don’t have the therapeutic constituents that essential oils have, and yet they are the companion of essential oils. They are derived naturally from vegetable oils and are not volatile like essential oils.
Things like vegetable shortening, margarine and butters are not carrier oils and are not designed for topical use. Neither should you use petroleum jelly or mineral oil as your carrier oil. Real carrier oils are ideal for diluting with essential oils to dilute the strong essential oils. Carrier oils help to carry essential oils to your skin.
Here are a few true carrier oils to mix with essential oils:
- Grape seed oil
- Apricot oil
- Olive oil
- Avocado oil
- Rose Hip oil
- Hemp oil
- Sesame oil
- Evening primrose oil
- Camellia seed oil
Inhaling means adding a few drops of your favorite essential oil to a diffuser which you could purchase. Then you inhale the steam as you sit in a closed room. In this instance, you don’t need the added carrier oils.
If you have a headache, for instance, there have been a couple of studies completed by research teams where applying peppermint oil topically on the forehead showed the ability to cure headaches. The first study involved 32 patients and it was discovered that 10% of the peppermint oil showed pain relief when it was sponged on to the patient’s temples and foreheads.
Tension headaches occur when there are feelings of pressure and peppermint oil alleviates stress and tension. Just add 5-10 drop of peppermint oil to your diffuser or warm bath for soothing effects.
Are Essential Oils Safe to Use for Babies in Pain?
- Chamomile – for its soothing benefits.
- Citrus limon – helps for babies energy and mood levels.
- Dill – wonderfully antispasmodic and calming, helping to relieve the pains of indigestion.
- Tea tree – naturally antifungal, antimicrobial and disinfectant. Helps and soothe the pain for a baby with fungal infections and nappy rash.
Apart from these ones, there are quite a few essential oils that are wonderful to use around young kids and babies, although it is advised to avoid the use of them on babies that are under 6 months old.
To ease congestion in a baby and to help with coughs, cold and pain, there are baby-safe oil blends which you can diffuse around the baby which are safe and natural alternatives to the usual over the counter medications.
For Coughs and Colds
Look at this delightful blend to help your baby get back to his or her old self in no time after colds and congestion upset his life:
- Frankincense essential oil, 1-2 drops
- Lavender essential oil, 1-2 drops
- Lemon essential oil, 1-2 drops
- Place all essential oils into the diffuser, diffusing in an open and large room.
Always remember that essential oils are very powerful and have fantastic benefits when they are used correctly. Similarly, because they have such healing powers, they also have the potential to cause harm if they are used incorrectly.
For Teething Pain
There are superb essential oils that go towards easing the pain that comes with teething. Some of them will go towards promoting calm and relaxation and some can be added to the above-mentioned carrier oils and gently massaged along baby’s jawline. It is not really recommended that essential oils get massaged directly onto the baby’s gums – just gently on his jawline.
- Roman chamomile essential oil, 1 drop
- Lavender essential oil, 1 drop
- Ginger essential oil, 1 drop
- Carrier oil such as sweet almond oil, 2-3 tablespoons
- Mix all together and massage gently along the baby’s jawline to bring teething relief.
For Ear Infections
You will know just how painful earache can be if you have ever experienced it, and when it comes to babies, it’s a huge concern, causing the baby to scream and be uncomfortable.
Some excellent essential oils contain antimicrobial and even antibacterial properties. Basil essential oil and tea tree oil have medicinal properties known for being useful in treating infections of the ear. Tea tree oil contains terpinen-4-ol, an ingredient noted to kill off bacteria.
- Dilute 1-2 drops of essential oil into the carrier oil (in this case it can be warm olive oil). The mixture should not be too hot.
- Using a clean dropper release the oil directly into your ear, with head tilted for to be absorbed into the ear.
- Wipe excess oil away.
Remember, don’t use any of the above methods if the eardrum is perforated, and contact your doctor.
Essential Oils are Even Being Used in Hospitals
Because aromatherapy has so many health benefits and is able to be used in so many settings, and because of its non-evasive way of healing, many medical facilities are starting to treat their patients with essential oils. Take a typical traditional hospital like the well-known Vanderbilt University Hospital – they are using essential oils in their treatment of anxiety, infections and depressed.
There are certain essential oils that midwives use to reduce anxiety for childbirth. A study done in 2007 showed in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine that women who used essential oils during their labor time reported less pain and took less pain medication.
A recent 2016 study shows that essential oils can treat pain successful when combined with other conventional medicine and treatments. This makes sense, of course, seeing as essential oils contain antifungal and antibacterial benefits.
Many of these amazing gifts of the earth have the ability to treat burns, scrapes, cuts, and open wounds, and today essential oils are not going ignored when it comes to fighting cancer.
Conclusion
But while the medical facilities are getting on with the important business of incorporating essential oils in hospitals, you can start simply, too.
If you are suffering from aches and pains, lavender essential oil is the number one remedy for pain and tension. Others are chamomile, peppermint, eucalyptus, rosemary, juniper, wintergreen, cayenne – and the list just goes on and on and on.
Thing is, they are so excellent at treating the common aches and pains, that in using them, you might be unaware that you are digging deeper down to an even more serious disease – and that is because Nature is so powerful. You cannot afford not to yield to its healing touch and power!
