The Ins and Outs of Pain Management through Aromatherapy

December 6th, 2008 Subscribe To Our Feed

While aromatherapy can be incredibly successful for a lot of people when it comes to pain management (among other uses), there are also some drawbacks to using aromatherapy and using essential oils in general. When it comes to pain management, the difficult thing about aromatherapy is keeping it safe, as most essential oils should not be ingested. Read on to find out how to use essential oils for pain management without creating new problems for yourself and your body.

While essential oils are 100% natural (at least the good quality ones are), that doesn’t mean that they are safe for all manners of usage. A lot of people make the mistake of thinking that if it’s natural it must be safe; in order to keep yourself healthy, you have to be better informed than that. Essential oils are extremely potent and should be used only in ways that are completely safe for all aspects of the human body. You should never use essential oils on your children—especially never have your child ingest essential oils! As for yourself, a little common sense goes a long way.

Some common pain management aromatherapy uses are for menstrual pain and other physical, muscular pains. One of the most widely used essential oils in this sort of context is peppermint oil. Other mints are also used, but peppermint oil has a particularly relaxing effect on muscles. Many women apply peppermint oil to their bellies when menstrual cramps turn up; this sort of essential oil usage is essentially the same as applying a hot pack to the abdomen. peppermint oil relaxes the muscles and has a slightly numbing effect to help you forget the pain. While many women do this, ask your doctor in your specific case if he or she would advise you to do it. On the one hand, applying essential oils to the skin is generally safer than ingesting essential oils; however, diluting essential oils is also a good idea. You might consider diluting peppermint oil in carrier oil before using it on your abdomen in this way.

Many athletes also use peppermint oil to help relax and numb overworked muscles or aching joints. Sufferers from arthritis often enjoy the effect of peppermint oil applied to aching joints. As with menstrual cramps mentioned above, consult with your doctor before using this sort of treatment, especially if you will potentially be using this technique daily or very often in the week. Not all doctors are convinced that essential oils are safe for use by everyone.

A highly contested form of pain management is in managing internal abdominal pain with either peppermint or basil oil. Typically, essential oils should not be ingested because they are not tested by the FDA for this type of usage. On the other hand, many faithful essential oil users swear by this remedy for tummy ache. If you’d like to try this but are unwilling to ingest essential oils, you could try an herbal tea that is either peppermint or a mint mix, or simply make your own basil tea.

The safest way to use aromatherapy for pain management is to keep it only in the air and breathe it in through steaming. What this does is calm the senses and relax the body so that you can easily sleep. If going to sleep is an option for you, it’s the best way to relieve pain, as a sleeping body does not tend to notice pain unless it is severe, in which case you probably wouldn’t be considering aromatherapy anyway. lavender oil is a good choice for steaming and falling into a relaxing sleep.

If your interested in learning more about Aromatherapy, and how it can help with a variety of conditions have a look at Learn the Power of Aromatherapy