When looking for a remedy for life's little aches and pains, one
often goes to the pharmacy section of their local grocery store and
picks up a bottle of the most popular painkiller. Midol, Aspirin,
Tylenol, Advil, Excedrin, all of them claim to be formulated to be
excellent for taking care of everything from headaches, backaches, even
PMS pains. However there are many people who feel that these options
simply aren't for them, whether out of concern about Big Pharma's
practices, or simply feeling that there must be better, more natural
options for dealing with everyday aches and pains.
Essential oil blends are often a popular go to for those who choose to avoid over-the-counter medicines, and want to be able to mix a cure that is customized to their particular problem. In this how-to we're going to present you with a few blends that can be used to help deal with the full spectrum of symptoms that come with a woman's monthly visitor.
Base Oils
The first thing to take into consideration is a base oil for your solution, which is simply the oil that you use to carry the essential oils you'll be applying topically. Grape-seed oil is a favorite due to its lightness, and the tendency to soak in quickly preventing an oily residue. Any kind of natural plant oil will work though, even Olive Oil, which appears in just about everyone's kitchen cupboard. Because of its easy availability, our suggested blends are going to use it as a base. Don't be afraid to experiment to determine what's best for you!
Analgesic Oils
The first selection of essential oil is going to come from those that are known to be good analgesics. Analgesics can be thought of as a sort of pain-killer, merely numbing the pain of the region without providing that 'dead nerve' sensation you may get from something like lidocaine. Essential oils typically have more than one thing they're good at, while being well known for a particular effect. Those oils well known for having an analgesic effect are Tea Tree Oil, Sweet Birch, Eucalyptus, Chamomile (both Roman and German), Thyme, Peppermint, and Lavender are good just to name a few. For our blend we'll be using Sweet Birch Oil.
Anti-Spasmodics
Anti-spasmodics basically do exactly what they say on the tin, they stop muscle spasms. While you may not think of your cramps as being 'spasms', they happen to fall under the scope of the things that our blend will be able to ease, if not stop them outright. There are many that include this effect, including Cypress, Marjoram, Helichrysum, lavender, Rosemary, and Wintergreen. For our blend we're going to use Cypress.
Synergistic Effects
A little known benefit of all medications is that known as a synergistic effect. This means that if you are getting the same effect from two different sources, you're going to see an enhanced effect from them working together. The neat thing about synergistic effects is that two different sources of an effect in equal measure are more effective than twice the amount of either of them. You may have noticed that some of the oils listed in the above two categories fall into both of them. We're going to add a third oil to this blend as well, that being Lavender. Lavender also has mood balancing effects which can only be beneficial while experiencing PMS.
How to mix the oil
You're going to want to get yourself an opaque storage container of some kind, preferably glass due to its non-reactive properties. In this container you're going to place one ounce of olive oil to start with. When you measure essential oils, you'll find they're typically measured in drops when listing out a recipe. A drop is literally just that, if you open the bottle you'll find a plastic stopper in the vial, this stopper is designed to allow oil to escape one drop at a time. Do be careful, different oils will flow at different rates, and warm oils always flow faster than cool oils.
Add to the olive oil 40 drops of Sweet Birch, 20 drops of Rosemary, and 20 drops of Lavender, and stir with a non-metallic utensil. After that it's merely a matter of applying the mixture to your abdomen or back. This mixture is actually quite good for dealing with muscle spasms of any kind, and aches and pains in general. How much to use at a time is very much to personal taste, but be aware that in this concentration it's quite a potent mix, so start small, and keep adding every 10-20 minutes until you get the desired effect.
This is just one example of the joys of using essential oils for home medicine, a little research and creativity will lend to finding mixtures that are not only powerfully effective, but can bring a nice fragrance with them!
Essential oil blends are often a popular go to for those who choose to avoid over-the-counter medicines, and want to be able to mix a cure that is customized to their particular problem. In this how-to we're going to present you with a few blends that can be used to help deal with the full spectrum of symptoms that come with a woman's monthly visitor.
Base Oils
The first thing to take into consideration is a base oil for your solution, which is simply the oil that you use to carry the essential oils you'll be applying topically. Grape-seed oil is a favorite due to its lightness, and the tendency to soak in quickly preventing an oily residue. Any kind of natural plant oil will work though, even Olive Oil, which appears in just about everyone's kitchen cupboard. Because of its easy availability, our suggested blends are going to use it as a base. Don't be afraid to experiment to determine what's best for you!
Analgesic Oils
The first selection of essential oil is going to come from those that are known to be good analgesics. Analgesics can be thought of as a sort of pain-killer, merely numbing the pain of the region without providing that 'dead nerve' sensation you may get from something like lidocaine. Essential oils typically have more than one thing they're good at, while being well known for a particular effect. Those oils well known for having an analgesic effect are Tea Tree Oil, Sweet Birch, Eucalyptus, Chamomile (both Roman and German), Thyme, Peppermint, and Lavender are good just to name a few. For our blend we'll be using Sweet Birch Oil.
Anti-Spasmodics
Anti-spasmodics basically do exactly what they say on the tin, they stop muscle spasms. While you may not think of your cramps as being 'spasms', they happen to fall under the scope of the things that our blend will be able to ease, if not stop them outright. There are many that include this effect, including Cypress, Marjoram, Helichrysum, lavender, Rosemary, and Wintergreen. For our blend we're going to use Cypress.
Synergistic Effects
A little known benefit of all medications is that known as a synergistic effect. This means that if you are getting the same effect from two different sources, you're going to see an enhanced effect from them working together. The neat thing about synergistic effects is that two different sources of an effect in equal measure are more effective than twice the amount of either of them. You may have noticed that some of the oils listed in the above two categories fall into both of them. We're going to add a third oil to this blend as well, that being Lavender. Lavender also has mood balancing effects which can only be beneficial while experiencing PMS.
How to mix the oil
You're going to want to get yourself an opaque storage container of some kind, preferably glass due to its non-reactive properties. In this container you're going to place one ounce of olive oil to start with. When you measure essential oils, you'll find they're typically measured in drops when listing out a recipe. A drop is literally just that, if you open the bottle you'll find a plastic stopper in the vial, this stopper is designed to allow oil to escape one drop at a time. Do be careful, different oils will flow at different rates, and warm oils always flow faster than cool oils.
Add to the olive oil 40 drops of Sweet Birch, 20 drops of Rosemary, and 20 drops of Lavender, and stir with a non-metallic utensil. After that it's merely a matter of applying the mixture to your abdomen or back. This mixture is actually quite good for dealing with muscle spasms of any kind, and aches and pains in general. How much to use at a time is very much to personal taste, but be aware that in this concentration it's quite a potent mix, so start small, and keep adding every 10-20 minutes until you get the desired effect.
This is just one example of the joys of using essential oils for home medicine, a little research and creativity will lend to finding mixtures that are not only powerfully effective, but can bring a nice fragrance with them!
