Pain Relief Using Essential Oils

Pain Relief Using Essential Oils : There is an enormous selection of wonderful essential oils on the market, so it is important to know which ones are suitable for your pain. What’s even more surprising about essential oils is that, in addition to relieving pain, they can also help treat some of the issues that contributed to it.

For instance, when peppermint essential oil is applied to sore muscles, it reduces inflammation while also relieving pain and enhancing blood flow to the area. Additionally, soothing your body, the scent of peppermint also eases stress and anxiety.

What are Essential Oils?

Essential oils are made from different plant parts like stems, bark, roots, and leaves. Then they are concentrated into oil through “distillation,” where they capture the plant’s essence. After the extraction of the aromatic elements, a carrier oil is mixed to create the final product.

Which Essential Oils Are Best for Pain?

Researchers have found evidence to suggest that some essential oils might be beneficial in treating ailments like inflammation, headaches, depression, sleep disorders, respiratory problems, and more. Further research is essential to fully understand how essential oils can work for pain management, although there’s generally no harm in adding essential oils to your current pain management plan. Still, it is suggested that you consult with a healthcare practitioner to make sure essential oils are right for you. The following essential oils are known to alleviate pain:

Lavender Essential Oil

Lavender essential oil is best known for helping calm your nerves, but it’s also a powerful pain reliever thanks to its strong antimicrobial, analgesic, and anti-inflammatory features, and it is also de-stressing. When you inhale its aroma, it helps to reduce muscle tension and relieve stress and anxiety, thereby increasing its benefits to the whole body. Various research It has It has been suggested that lavender could be used to help treat pain associated with inflammation, and it can also reduce the severity of migraine headache pain. You can add a few drops of lavender essential oil to carrier oil and rub it into the affected areas. It will help to reduce pain.
Rosemary Essential Oil

Rosemary is often used to treat headaches, tension, muscle aches, and joint pain. It can also help to enhance memory, concentration, and mental alertness. Due to its analgesic and anti-inflammatory properties, it was found in research that rosemary essential oil has the potential for pain management in combination with analgesic drugs. It can also help reduce shoulder pain when added to a carrier oil and applied to the affected area.
Peppermint Essential Oil

Peppermint essential oil is one of the most commonly used essential oils for pain relief, mainly because of its analgesic, anti-inflammatory, and anti-spasmodic features. The main chemical component of peppermint is menthol, which has a cooling effect on sore, achy muscles. It is most useful for headaches, neck and shoulder tension, and muscle aches and spasms. It relaxes muscles in the lower back as well as intestinal spasms and pain due to fibromyalgia and arthritis. For headaches, you can blend a few drops of peppermint oil with a tablespoon of carrier oil and massage into the forehead, back of the neck, and temples. You can also add a few drops of lavender or rosemary to your peppermint oil for added pain relief and circulatory properties.
Eucalyptus Essential Oil

Eucalyptus is mainly known for its anti-inflammatory and analgesic properties, but it is also beneficial if used for relieving muscle aches and strains. Eucalyptus oil is perfect to combine with a carrier oil and massage into areas that are painful after strenuous use or added to salts and put in the bath. It’s recommended for treating nerve pain, sprains, strains, muscular pain, and aches.
Clary Sage Essential Oil

It helps reduce pain associated with menstruation and cramps. When clary sage oil mixed with other essential oils is applied to the lower abdomen daily between menstrual cycles, it helps to have a significant reduction in menstrual cramps.
Frankincense Essential Oil

Frankincense essential oil is a very effective healer and has so many amazing uses, like pain relief, reducing swelling, immune boosting, skin abrasions, muscular tension, arthritis, and nerve pain. It is known to have potent anti-inflammatory and analgesic properties. You can add a few drops of frankincense essential oil to any carrier oil or bath salt for tension, aches, nerve pain, and arthritis. The aroma of this oil also helps to reduce stress.
Ginger Essential Oil

Renowned for its anti-inflammatory benefits, it has several therapeutic properties, including pain relief, pain receptor blocking, reducing inflammation, anticancer, and relieving cough.
Juniper Berry Essential Oil

Juniper Berry oil helps with reducing muscle spasms, joint pain, muscle aches, and other similar ailments. It has anti-rheumatic, anti-spasmodic, and analgesic properties. It also strengthens the nerves and, when used regularly, can also be helpful for neuropathic pain.
Other Essential Oils

Multiple other essential oils are quite well-known for their ability to reduce pain. For instance, wintergreen oil boasts similar properties due to its methyl salicylate component. Lemon essential oil can be instrumental in reducing inflammation and pain, and helps reduce headache and migraine pain, as well as stomach pain. Chamomile essential oils are known to help reduce overall inflammation and muscle spasms. They also help soothe muscle tension and reduce spasms. A recent study found that bergamot essential oil was successful in reducing nerve pain, usually caused by chronic nerve disease. Cypress essential oil calms and relaxes muscle spasms and works to soothe inflammation.

How to use essential oils to help reduce pain

Essential oils are potent, and if they aren’t used properly, they can irritate your skin and add to your swelling. Before application, essential oils must be diluted with a carrier oil. There are multiple ways to use essential oils to help reduce pain; a few methods are discussed below:

Apply it pre and post workout

Prepackaged roll-on pain relief bottles containing essential oils are available online or you can even look for them at your local health store. You can even refill the bottles with your diluted oils by creating a mix of your essential oil with a carrier oil and other essential oils. Applying it pre and post-workout can help you relax the muscles and reduce pain.
Use it for a massage

If you apply a diluted essential oil topically and massage it over the painful parts of the body, it can assist in working out knots and fast-releasing tension, in addition to the oils’ ability to reach deep beneath the skin to relieve pain, edema, and stress. You can also massage some onto your feet, arms, wrists, neck, or behind your ears.
Add it to a relaxing bath

You can take a bath with essential oils to ease your sore muscles. Simply mix an ounce of carrier oil with 10 to 12 drops of essential oil and add that to the water coming from the faucet, then fill the tub after letting the water settle. By burning a scented candle or playing relaxing music, you can further enhance the ambiance.
Inhalation

Inhale the steam from a diffuser while in a closed space after adding a few drops of the essential oil of your choice. For this technique, no carrier oil is required. To acquire the most aroma, it is best to wrap a towel around your head, inhale for about 5 minutes, and repeat the process several times.

Safety and side effects

It’s important to remember that natural does not always equate to safe, so avoid relying solely on the fact that essential oils are natural. Plants and the products made from them frequently include bioactive components that could be harmful to your health. That is why, if you use fully natural essential oils without a base or carrier oil, they might be harmful to you. Nevertheless, they may cause some side effects, including rashes, skin conditions, asthma attacks, headaches, and other allergic reactions.

According to reports, lavender, tea tree, and peppermint are the oils that have been associated with the worst reactions. And again, some essential oils can intensify sunburn, so it’s best to avoid the sun while applying them to your exposed skin. It is advisable to use it in tiny, gradual doses at first because you may easily add more if necessary. Again, as essential oils are highly potent, they might irritate the skin, so apply vegetable oil to it immediately to dilute it. And it is very important not to apply essential oils to important and sensitive organs, as any wrong step might cause permanent damage to the organ. And it is recommended to always read the label directions before using or applying essential oils.

Conclusion

Essential oils are highly concentrated plant extracts with some medicinal benefits. They are not a substitute for general medicine but do have certain added benefits, so there is no harm in using them as a complementary therapy for issues related to pain. However, there is a lack of research and evidence supporting those claims, so it is better to consult with a medical expert before opting for any option.