The Sweet Smell of Treating Chronic Back Pain with Essential Oils
Wouldn’t it be wonderful to enjoy the sweet smell of success when you can finally employ a natural remedy to ease that nagging and sometimes debilitating back pain? As previous articles have discussed, there are a host of traditional medical modalities used to treat inflammation and pain in the back. You can endure physical therapy, take a host of prescription medicines, or, in some cases, undergo surgery. Isn’t there a gentler and more natural approach to treating chronic pain?
Renowned anesthesiologist and aromatherapist, Dr. James “Tad” Geiger, believes in the art of aromatherapy. According to Geiger, in his best-selling book, The Sweet Smell of Success, “the art of aromatherapy is a holistic treatment using the essence of a plant’s essential oils to alleviate common symptoms such as pain, tension, and fatigue, as well as to care for the skin and invigorate the whole body.”
The inherent beauty of aromatherapy as a measure for dealing with pain and inflammation is that it can be simply added to bath water, massaged directly into your skin, diffused to enhance a room, or directly inhaled.
When you breathe in the sweet vapors of essential oils, they are absorbed right into your bloodstream, lymphatic system, and along nervous pathways to areas of the brain that allow for changes in your mood, your stress level, and your state of awareness.
Aromatherapy and essential oils delivered in unique combinations can provide healing qualities for sprains, bruises, and inflammation. A stand-out among the essential oils for this is helichrysum, which has incredible affects on muscle and joint pain. Further, blending the oils of myrrh, lavender, tea tree, basil, frankincense, ginger, and black pepper makes for one of nature’s best anti-inflammatory and pain-altering combinations. Geiger notes that these oils are scientifically referenced as a remedy of inflammation and pain using them in a 10% solution. These oils work on the cellular level like ibuprofen, Tylenol, and certain other medications.
Another natural remedy to treating chronic pain and inflammation is as close as your mouth. Think about the food you eat.
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In addition to those natural methods, you could augment the back pain regimen with an herbal lotion. I've found one that really helps my family and I. It has analgesic herbs to relieve the pain, nerve quelling herbs to get the irritated nerves to relax, and herbs to get the skeletal muscles to relax. Also, it has some herbs to repair damage that may be causing the pain. The herbal decoction is turned into a lotion and put in a cool roll-on bottle so you don't get it all over your hands when you put it on. It's called Back & Neck Relief and I got it from Nature's Rite. My kids like it for Football and Wrestling injuries. I like it for after I go skiing and my back hurts. My wife uses it on her neck to relieve tension headaches. It's good stuff.
Anon - Thanks for letting us know about the success you and your family have had with the herbal lotion you're using. If it's helping with football and wrestling injuries, it's got to be pretty good!
Ann- I took a look at the oilMD site you mentioned and found a lot of great information, especially in the "Educational Links" section. There's much that those of us who've grown up with Western Medicine can learn from ancient practices, and the section has a lot of good data. Thanks for sharing!
Glad you checked out the OilMD's site. He is actually a friend of mine, and I appreciate the fact that as a surgeon, he also implements natural remedies to his practice! As for myself, I always use natural remedies as much as possible. Always appreciate your replies! Ann