I would like to start this off by saying I am no stranger to chronic pain. When I was 16, I was involved in a car accident that ended up causing long term effects to my neck. I began suffering from those effects in my mid 20s with 2 herniated discs at the base of my neck. When you combine that with 30 years of standing behind a salon chair doing hair, I now have what I am assuming by the sound my neck makes when I turn my head is bone on bone. I will admit that a good orthopedic doctor could probably do surgery and relive some of my pain, but I really don't like the thought of that till I cannot find other ways of relieving the pain. So that's what brings me to giving you a much deeper look into pain relief.
Over the years I have went from basic over the counter pain relief pills and creams to prescription pills, to fancy pillows, heating pads, and to nothing at all. I stopped taking all the different pills because of the long-term effects those type of medicines have on your body like liver and kidney issues and digestive issues when your body tries to process and break down chemicals your body wasn't made to deal with.
My journey into pain relief started with my herbal teas and I noticed that over time I was not having the pain as intense as I was, but I also wanted to see how effective an herbal cream, oil or salve would be to meet the pain externally as well. It just so happened that I had not yet been able to work though some of my typical trial and error processes when my husband threw his back out. He was in a lot of pain, and I jumped into action and went off instinct of what I had been learning about herbs topically for pain. From the time of me going into action to him able to get out of bed was about 20 mins. I had him a tea made, a poultice of herbs with a heating pad and was infusing herbs to apply once I took the poultice off. When I saw those results, I knew I needed to and was ready to move forward with my topical pain reliever.
Now before I get to my topical pain reliever, I would like for you give me just a few minutes of your reading time as I break down the ingredients of a very common topical pain cream, Bengay. I chose this one because most everyone knows of it or has tried using it. If you have never used it, I bet you know someone that has as you cannot mistake the smell. In looking into the ingredients of Bengay I wasn't to discourage by the type of chemicals but what I did find was chemicals that really weren't necessary to have.
Most store bought topically rubs will contain some type of capsaicin, camphor, salicylates and anesthetics. Bengay is no exception. They use menthol camphor which is actually chemically altered form of camphor that used to come from the camphor tree but is now processed from the pine tree and is manufactured using turpentine oil. Would be better if they would have stuck to the original camphor.
Next let's look at methyl salicylic which is a basically an oil of wintergreen and I can't find much wrong with that.
Now let's look at some of the ingredients that I see as things that you don't need in a topically pain rub. the first is carbomer. Carbomer is a term used for a series of polymers usually made from acrylic acid, which all sounds science-y, but the end result is basically just a fluffy, white powder used as the basis for this lotion. The carbomer is just there for the most part as a delivery system for the active parts to be dispersed when you apply the rub. Next up is disodium EDTA which is a preservative that “binds to metals like iron, which slows the rate of oxidation, and thus, the development of rancid aromas. EDTA is becoming an environmental pollutant due to large quantities used in industrial applications, medical applications and manufacturing. Disodium EDTA along with potassium hydroxide is commonly added to cosmetics to control the pH value, which basically keeps the product stable for long periods of time and is what needs to be added to keep the PH level and give a stable shelf life. So ok you do need to have a product that can handle being in a medicine cabinet for who knows how long but that can be worked around by natural preservatives and by not using a water-based product as well. That brings me to the next 3 ingredients, triethanalamine, glyceryl stearate SE and stearic acid. Glyceryl Stearate SE is a surfactant and an emulsifier, helping the ingredients blend together and making Bengay appear creamier. Triethanalamine is also an emulsifier. Both of these are there again to make a better blended, eye appealing, easy to use product. Stearic acid is often used as a surfactant or an emulsifier, once again helping the ingredients blend together to provide a product that spreads easily and isn’t too thin.
Thank you for making it this far and allowing me to explain what I was up against in making my own topical pain reliever. I needed herbal substitutes that were going to give you the same relief and ease of use as the typical age old Bengay. My first hurdle was what type of application I wanted to make. After looking over the best naturals ways to get herbs into the skin I decided to go with oils. All of my herbal infusions in the pain oil are infused in avocado oil or they are essential oils (I purchase all of my essential oils from one place, and I will provide a link to it below). Avocado oil is my choice for the pain oil because it absorbs fairly quickly into the skin which allows the pain site to get relief quick.
Once I figured out the method of application, I needed to find the right combinations of oil to give you what you needed for pain and also what could possibly stop the pain from returning. The first herbs were really no brainers because of their cooling and warming effects on the skin. Some of those were wintergreen, peppermint, and cassia. Just like the warming and cooling agents in Bengay these 3 oils work at stimulating the skin to redirect your pain receptors. Peppermint oil has the added ability to help relive inflammation so if you apply the oil for a sprain or other like injury then you may see much quicker recovery process.
I have also included a clove infused oil to work as anesthetic. It was used in traditional Indian medicine as a numbing agent. A lemon balm oil is added as a lesser anti-inflammatory herb for sprains and minor injuries. Next, I have the essential oil of capaiba. This oil comes from tress that belong to the Copaifera family of trees and it's the resin or sap that is used to extract the oil. In some scientific studies copaiba oil showed be able to help with natural pain relief since it has shown to exhibit antinociceptive properties, which means it can help to block the detection of a painful stimulus by the sensory neurons.
Lastly, I needed to find a way to make this product shelf stable and the best part of that was I have not included any water in my blend, so it becomes shelf stable as is but not totally because of our human nature. When we apply this oil, it should be applied on clean dry skin, and we should not touch the roller ball to anything that it could pick bacteria up from. As we all could confess this isn't 100 percent fail proof, so I added rosemary infused oil. Rosemary naturally has antibacterial and antimicrobial properties, so it works as a natual preserv ative. but wait rosemary isn't just another pretty face, it also has properties that work to help relieve muscle pain.
There you have it, a complete lay out of the differences in all natural and store-bought pain relief creams according to my research.
If you are interested in purchasing my Roll Away Pain click here ROLL AWAY PAIN .50 OZ
If you're interested in any of the essential oils I use in my products follow this link to Young Living https://www.youngliving.com/us/en/referral/
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