Managing Muscle Pain

A week and a half ago I injured my back and had limited mobility coupled with back pain. This gave me an opportunity to try out some pain relief options. Knowing how to relieve pain and heal quickly is important, especially if you depend on your physical mobility for your livelihood. Here are two topical pain relief options (one commercial and one homemade) we found that work exceptionally well.

Balm of Gilead

I recently made a batch of this balm using cottonwood bud oil, St. John's wort oil, and an essential oil I had on hand: copaiba. I was very surprised by the pain relief this homemade salve provided. It kept up well with the Relieve muscle rub mentioned above. Click the link above to see how to make this salve.


It is recommended that you avoid cottonwood bud products if you have an allergy to aspirin or to bees. Also, St. John's Wort is known to interact with some modern medicines. Be sure to consult your physician before using this if you are taking medication.

Relieve Muscle Rub 

This is the best product we have found on the market to help manage intense muscle pain. It works even better than my former favorite because it not only relieves the pain but also  helps the muscles relax, giving longer periods of relief. We have used it to head off migraines and tension headaches caused by neck and/or back tension. I recently used it to help with the muscle spasms caused by my back going out of alignment. Its natural ingredients include hemp cannabis, wintergreen, camphor, menthol, peppermint, rosemary, and more.  


To manage my back pain, I applied heat first thing in the morning. I then rubbed the Relieve on in the early morning and the Balm of Gilead at mid-day, even if it wasn't yet needed for pain. These were an immense help in my healing!


Note: This blog post contains affiliate links for your convenience. As an affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases. This means that if you make a purchase from a link on my site, I may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Each purchase helps to keep our website and blog going. Thank you in advance for your support!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Water Glassed Eggs & Homemade Butter

Image
I love to experiment with new recipes, different methods of preservation, and ways to avoid waste.  Here are last week's efforts: Water Glassing Eggs  I finally tried water glassing eggs this past week.  I read about this method of preserving eggs a long time ago, but I needed to get unwashed farm fresh eggs in order to try it AND I needed to have enough eggs on hand to not cut us short in our weekly egg usage (we eat a lot of eggs throughout the week). Last week was finally the week. I got the pickling lime I had been saving for this purpose out of storage, picked out the cleanest unwashed eggs I had purchased from some friends down the road, and preserved 18 eggs in a gallon sized glass jar.  I followed the instructions from The Prairie Homestead, which can be found here . Why preserve eggs in this manner? Since we do not have our own chickens, we rely upon a couple of friends having extra eggs to sell. I wanted to preserve some eggs for those times when we cannot get them fresh
Read more

Fried Daisies, Yarrow Tea, and DIY Rose Oil

Image
We had a lot of rain last week, which "dampened" my forays into the woods to forage, so I spent some time on the website better organizing it and adding another article.  We now have a DIY project section and an article on jean quilts. Click here to see what is new! In spite of the damp weather, I spent a bit of time outside and picked enough to fill the dehydrator.  While I collected several kinds of plants, here are the ones I focused on this past week:   Oxeye Daisies I collected oxeye daisies mainly to dry for tea, but they are also wonderful to eat.  They can be battered and fried, much like fried mushrooms.  We have tried both a sweet and a savory batter for these and have enjoyed both. As with any new food, be careful to avoid these if you have an allergy to other plants in the asteraceae (daisy) family.  One of its many uses in tea is for coughs accompanied by an excess of mucous. Oxeye daisy is said to decrease mucosal secretions and calm inflamed tissues. It reporte
Read more

Garden Report - 10/9/23

Image
Last week I spent a bit of time tidying up the garden for fall. I gave my tarragon and mint their last trim for the year.  I bundled the bounty and hung it in the attic to dry along with some dill.  I had three nice bundles of orange mint, two smaller bundles of tarragon, and one of dill. I also filled the dehydrator with borage, winter savory, oregano, and mullein. I gathered some seed from the nasturtiums, dill, cilantro, and calendula. I then picked the ripe tomatoes and pulled the onions. What did well in our garden this year? Our tarragon produced very well. I think this was my third or fourth cutting of this year.  I am pleased we have enough to share with the girls and a couple of friends as well. The orange mint I planted last year also produced well as did the dill, pepper plants, and the nasturtium. We were pleased to have a nice crop of potatoes, too. The potatoes produced well for the 3 foot by 3 foot area we planted (we were following the square foot garden method).  I lef
Read more