Over-the-counter medicines such as ibuprofen and acetaminophen are effective pain relievers, but long-term use can cause side effects. Prescription medications may be addictive and have even more adverse effects. What are the best natural ways to relieve pain?
People have used essential oils, herbs, and alternative therapies as natural pain relievers for hundreds of years.
Researchers have not fully explored these options, but some evidence suggests that certain remedies can help, and that many people find them useful.
In this article, we discuss natural pain relievers and the science behind them. Read on to learn how to manage pain naturally without relying on over-the-counter pain medication.
Warming Ginger Cayenne Salve
This salve is great for all sorts of muscle aches, pains, arthritis, bruises, and even (my own arch nemesis) nerve pains! You can use essential oils in this salve, but it is already very effective without them. If you would like to add essential oils to this salve, ginger, black pepper, peppermint, eucalyptus, sweet marjoram, turmeric, lavender, and roman chamomile are staples in my own muscle salves (you can buy essential oils here)! Just be sure to research each of the essential oils you choose to add, and use them with safety in mind!
Warming Ginger Cayenne Salve
Ingredients
1 cup carrier oil (olive or coconut or even a combination of the two)
¼ cup beeswax pastilles
1 tablespoon cayenne pepper powder
1 tablespoon ginger root powder
1 tablespoon turmeric root powder
1 tablespoon arnica flowers (optional – I love to add arnica flowers to my salve)
Directions
Using one of the oil infusion methods of your choice (like one of these), infuse cayenne, ginger, arnica, and turmeric in your carrier oil. My favorite method when we don’t have a lot of sunlight outside, is in a Mason jar in the oven over night.
Once your oil is infused, using a cheesecloth, strain the herbs from the oil. Be sure to squeeze out every last bit of oil from the cheesecloth! You do not have to make a salve with this oil, if you do not want to. Keep this as a massage oil if you do not have the beeswax on hand. It even works well as a spot treatment, when you put this oil into a roll-on bottle.
In a double boiler, combine beeswax and herbal infused oil. Remove from heat once the beeswax is melted, if you choose to add essential oils to this salve, this would be when you would add them to salve.
Pour salve into jars or tins to cool and harden. Once totally cool, cover and store in a cool dark place when not in use.
To Use: Using a small dab (a little bit goes a long way!), massage into sore achy muscles and joints. If using for chronic pain such as arthritis, daily use is suggested and can take up to a week or two before you start seeing results.
Safety: Not for internal use. Do not use on open cuts or wounds. Not for use if pregnant or nursing. Keep out of the reach of children. Avoid use around face and other mucosal membranes because it will burn. Take extra care to wash hands thoroughly after use or use gloves when applying the salve.
Cayenne Salve for Herbal Pain Relief
The health benefits of cayenne are truly astounding. An herbal pain reliever, cayenne has heart-protective qualities and can boost the immune system. It will even stop bleeding from a cut or wound!
This recipe is a super simple salve that can be made up very quickly and bring big-time herbal pain relief.
What you’ll need…
1/2 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons cayenne powder (or 15 grams)
1/2 ounce beeswax
Begin by combining the cayenne and olive oil in a double boiler or a pan on very low heat. Heat the oil and cayenne until it is warm, turn off the heat, and let it sit (warmly) for about 20 minutes, then turn the heat on again. I repeat this process for at least one hour to a couple of hours. You could do it for 24 hours if desired.
Once the cayenne and olive oil have been infused, strain off the powder through a cheesecloth. Reserve the infused oil.
Heat the beeswax until it is melted. Stir in the infused oil until the beeswax and oil have been thoroughly melted together and combined.
Immediately pour this mixture into jars or tins. Let it cool and then label it. Yield: About 4 ounces
Using Your Cayenne Salve This cayenne salve can be used on aches and pains, from sore muscles and joints to bruises and even nerve pain. It is best for closed wounds and may sting a bit on open wounds. Even on closed skin you may feel a bit of burning or heat in the area where it is used. It should be applied externally only and used within 6 months for the best results. If using it for arthritic pain, it may take up to a week or two to see results. In this case you want to use it daily to decrease chronic pain.
Take a look at this collection The Lost Book Of Remedies, taken word for word out of a circa 1845 manual.
What is The Lost Book of Remedies? The Lost Book of Remedies PDF contains a series of medicinal and herbal recipes to make home made remedies from medicinal plants and herbs. Chromic diseases and maladies can be overcome by taking the remedies outlined in this book. The writer claims that his grandfather was taught herbalism and healing whilst in active service during world war two and that he has treated many soldiers with his home made cures.
Calendula blossoms are pain relieving, and promote the healing of cuts and wounds.
Calendula is a big player when it comes to skin healing properties. Calendula is a hardy annual that should be grown in every garden. If you haven’t put any calendula in your garden this season, grab a package of seed at the grocery store this week and put some in the rows between your vegetable plants. Bees love calendula and once you’ve used it, you’ll never want to be without it again.
Calendula blossoms are pain relieving, and promote the healing of cuts and wounds. Calendula reduces inflammation, stops bleeding, aids in the rebuilding of tissue, and is anti-septic, anti-microbial, and anti-fungal, ensuring that the wound heals cleanly. Calendula can be combined with lavender and tea tree essential oils to heal burns, cuts, scrapes, and rashes.
To increase the effectiveness of your first aid ointment, adding another herb to increase the effectiveness of Calendula is helpful. Comfrey adds more anti-septic and anti-microbial virtue to calendula, as well as speeding healing by increasing the rate of cell proliferation. Plantain, promotes the drawing of poison from the body, as well as reducing inflammation and increasing the range of anti-microbial effects of both comfrey and calendula. The ruby red infused oil of St. John’s Wort helps cleanse the blood and rebuild nerves after trauma, while also promoting the healing of cuts and wounds.
This recipe starts with dried Calendula flowers. You can either purchase them dried or dry them yourself.
I’ve also made salves with only pure, organic olive oil, and they turn out wonderful. Feel free to use a blend of different oils if you would like. Virgin coconut oil and sweet almond oil are known for being great for the skin so I often add a bit of those in, too.
Calendula Salve
Ingredients
Dried Calendula flowers
Oil for infusing the flowers (olive, coconut, and sweet almond oil make a good blend)
Beeswax (one ounce per one cup of infused oil, more or less)
Essential oils (10-20 drops per cup of infused oil, optional)
Directions
The first step is to make infused Calendula oil. There are many ways to do this, here is more information: How to Make Infused Herbal Oils.
Strain the infused oil using a cheesecloth and strainer, squeezing out as much of the oil as possible.
Put the infused oil into a double boiler, which can be as simple as a stainless steel bowl that fits over a pot with an inch or two of water in it. Bring that water to a simmer to gently heat the oil.
Add the beeswax, and stir occasionally until it has completely dissolved.
Add essential oils if using, and stir to combine.
Carefully pour the hot salve into tins or jars.
Let cool completely before use.
How to make a hot oil extraction
You will need a full day to infuse the oil using a low heat. I like to do this in my smaller crock pot.
Put 3 to 4 cups of fresh, chopped herbs in a heat resistant sauce pan or use your crock pot on low. Use a combination of calendula blossoms and a mixture other herbs available in your area. Use the chart above to help you decide which ones are best for your circumstances.
Cover the herbs with oil so that they are just barely covered.
Leave the pan uncovered, and slowly raise the temperature of the oil until the mixture just barely begins to bubble. Having the pot uncovered allows the moisture in the fresh herbs to evaporate off. Simmer gently, stirring frequently, until the herbs are crisp. If you use your crock pot on low to do this, your herbs will not cook too fast. This process should take 4 to 5 hours or up to a full day to complete.
Cool, strain and you are ready to use this to make your own first aid ointment.
For my personal first-aid ointment I make my oil with 1 cup of calendula blossoms, 1 cup of finely chopped comfrey, 1 cup of St. Johns Wort blossoms, and 1 cup of finely chopped plantain leaves to 4 cups of olive oil.
Making your salve or first-aid ointment
Once you have your herb infused oil ready, for every 4 ounces of herb infused oil,
add ½ ounce of cocoa butter,
1/4 oz. of bees wax, melted,
½ tsp. of vitamin E oil as a preservative.
Add the 15 drops of the essential oils of your choice. I like 5 drops of lavender, 5 drops of tea tree, and 5 drops of myrrh. This increases the anti-fungal, anti-biotic, and skin soothing properties of your salve.
Benefits of natural methods
While many people use pain relief medication such as acetaminophen or ibuprofen with no problems, people who experience side effects can try using natural pain relievers. These include herbal remedies could provide other health benefits alongside pain-relieving effects, such as having antioxidant effects to help keep the body healthy.
Cayenne is famous for reducing many types of pain. It works by affecting your nervous system. Substance P is a neurotransmitter that relays information and results in what we call pain. Capsaicin, a major constituent of cayenne peppers, blocks substance P and therefore reduces pain. When cayenne is used topically, it can relieve many different types of pain, from diabetic neuropathy to shingles, migraine headaches, back aches, arthritis, menstrual cramps and bruises.
The Lost Book of Remedies is the revolutionary e-book which is suitable for one of the tools in survival kit because the creator of this program was mentioned lots of benefits about natural medicinal herbs and ingredients to make you feel safe, secure by protecting the health of yourself and dependents in any crisis. Even you can plant it in your backyard to grow effective medicinal herbs to save the life of anyone without wasting your money and time. This e-book will guide you on the right path to provide security, water, food, and all the medicines for securing your life or loved ones at all the time. This guide discussed the common plants that are grown in your backyard, but you don’t know the benefits of that plan which may help you to overcome any significant issues. Sometimes it may replace your antibiotic pills, reduce inflammations, stops bleeding, reverse arthritis, lowers cholesterol, regulates blood sugar level, defeats degenerative brain diseases and much more.
Books can be your best pre-collapse investment.
Carnivore’s Bible (is a wellknown meat processor providing custom meat processing services locally andacross the state of Montana and more. Whether your needs are for domestic meator wild game meat processing)
The Lost Book of Remedies PDF ( contains a series of medicinal andherbal recipes to make home made remedies from medicinal plants and herbs.Chromic diseases and maladies can be overcome by taking the remediesoutlined in this book. The writer claims that his grandfather was taughtherbalism and healing whilst in active service during world war twoand that he has treated many soldiers with his home made cures. )
Easy Cellar(Info about building and managing your root cellar, plus printable plans. The book on building and using root cellars – The Complete Root Cellar Book.)
The Lost Ways (Learn the long forgotten secrets that helped our forefathers survive famines,wars,economic crisis and anything else life threw at them)
LOST WAYS 2 ( Wordof the day: Prepare! And do it the old fashion way, like our fore-fathers did it and succeed longbefore us,because what lies ahead of us will require all the help we can get. Watch this video and learn the 3 skills that ensured our ancestors survival in hard times offamine and war.)
Survival MD (Best Post Collapse First Aid Survival Guide Ever)
Conquering the coming collapse (Financial advice and preparedness )
Liberty Generator (Build and make your own energy source)
Backyard Liberty (Easy and cheap DIY Aquaponic system to grow your organic and living food bank)
Bullet Proof Home (A Prepper’s Guide in Safeguarding a Home )
Family Self Defense (Best Self Defense Strategies For You And Your Family)
Survive Any Crisis (Best Items To Hoard For A Long Term Crisis)
Survive The End Days(Biggest Cover Up Of Our President)