A common theme of muscle aches and pains would be sprain, strain, bruising, overuse or repetitive use, all of which cause inflammation and pain.
First off, this is not medical advice, but rather tips on healthy alternative and complimentary home-based routines, that are readily available with ordinary items that you already have in your household.
Here are a few tips on how to aid and support your body for muscle aches and pains relief:
Epsom Salt bath or soak:
Yes, dig out that bag of Epsom salt at the back of your pantry cupboard that you never thought you'd ever use for anything. Epsom salt (aka Magnesium Sulfate) is a wonderful way to relieve muscle aches and pain. The main reason being: it contains magnesium, an essential mineral, that supports our body with muscle and nerve health. So, a 20-minute foot soak or a bath is one way of re-mineralizing our bodies to avoid or lessen those aches and pains. Use 1/2 cup in a foot soak or 1cup in a bath. You can also add a few drops of your favorite essential oils, either for the lovely aroma and/or the therapeutic properties accompanied by the Epsom Salts.
Hot pack:
"Now where did I put that hot water bottle or rice/wheat bag?" just as the saying goes: "out of sight, out of mind". Well, it's finally time to get some use out of it. Heat is an effective treatment to reduce pain and inflammation, so if you tend to forget to use this simple home-remedy, just put some reminders in place, whether that may be setting a daily alarm, or putting the bottle/bag on your pillow or favorite chair so that you simply won't forget to use it. This heat-remedy can be used as often as you like, and it works wonders if you rub your favorite salve (Janelley Relief salve) into the affected area first, then place the hot water bottle or bag onto that same area, sit back and relax while the soothing and healing begins. This can be done as often as 5 times a day, for 15 - 40 minutes at a time, so you decide the need according to the severity of the ache or injury. Common sense is key: if it feels nice and soothing at first and then becomes uncomfortable after a while, stop, and let the body rest. This sort of therapy is supposed to soothe, not injure, so if it feels wrong, stop and try something else instead.
Cold Pack:
This is equally as effective as the hot pack, and it is believed that alternating hot to cold and repeating this a few times would be even more effective for relieving pain and inflammation.
Now, you don't need a fancy ice-pack, instead just use whatever you have in the freezer. It may be a bag of peas, grated cheese or even that weekend barbeque steak. Just wrap it in a clean tea towel or hand towel, and press it onto the affected area. Again, rubbing in your favorite Salve (Janelley Relief Salve) before applying the cold-pack could add the extra benefit of giving you the healing therapeutic effect of medicinal herbs that you have been longing for.
Wrap it:
Wrapping the affected area after applying a salve (Janelley Relief Salve) and covering/wrapping it (poultice style wrap) a few layers of clothing or gloves are easy ways to keep the active ingredients in the salve concentrated and warmed in order to aid your body in healing itself. Remember not to wrap a limb (arm, leg, ankle etc.) so tight that you inhibit blood flow, but rather just enough pressure to support, warm and add comfort. If the affected area cannot be wrapped or bandaged, you can use extra layers of clothing to achieve a similar effect, like 2 pairs of socks over each other, gloves for hands or a layer of thermal wear under outer clothing etc.
These remedies are so simple and easy for anyone to achieve, but we seem to forget to use them in our every day lives. Perhaps it's time to put these thoughts of how you can support yourself and your family with these easy remedies at the forefront, by adding these items to your emergency kit or medicine cabinet, so that, the next time you or a family member reach for those synthetic pain relief medications, just seeing these items in there too may spark a reminder of some healthy alternative options.
And this is how we can support muscle aches and pains relief naturally xxx
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