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Castor Oil For Joint and Muscle Pain
I spoke with my Mom last week, and she had been having a great deal of pain, in her knee for months. She told me that she had begun applying castor oil to the sore spots, and that it had made quite a difference. In fact she had hardly been able to get around with knee trouble, and she had just been up cleaning-out the rain gutters. She turned 71 last April.
One type of therapy which I had when I damaged my shoulder muscle, was one of alternating cold/heat treatments.
They would rub the area with a plain-water popsickle on a stick, until it got very cold, about 15 minutes. This would contract the tissue.
Then they would apply heat and the tissue would expand.
I took treatments for 5 days, and full use was restored.
Over the years I have had many times when my hands would be swollen and numb in the mornings, and I could not safely pick-up a cup of coffee.
I would soak them in ice water without moving them, and then transfer them into as hot a water as I could stand and then begin to work the joints. This usually reduced the swelling and restored their function.
The ice shrinks the blood vessels inhibiting the flow of blood, and the heat expands the blood vessels and injects oxyginated blood into the area.
I remember some mornings at the meat packing plant. I would awaken at 4:00AM and have to look to see where my right arm was, for it had gone numb.
I would recommend ice paks for the sore joints, followed by a poultice of flannel-soaked in castor oil with a heating pad.
Then some very light flexing movement of the joint and muscles.
I learned stretching exercises when I was involved in Tae-kwon-do. In the years since on a number of occaisons I have hurt my back, such as the time I was throwing 90lb chunks of firewood into my truck. The next morning I could not rise up out of bed. I had to roll over and inch to the side. I layed flat on the floor and began to stretch against the pain. It took three days to recover, but the stretching has often helped to restore the muscles and loosen the joints and tendons.
Here is an article on sports medicine:
www.sportsinjurybulletin....erapy.html
Matthew Karl, MD, and Stanley Herring, MD, point out that the application of superficial heat to your body can improve the flexibility of your tendons and ligaments, reduce muscle spasms, alleviate pain, elevate blood flow, and boost metabolism. The mechanism by which heat relieves pain is not exactly known, although researchers believe that heat inactivates nerve fibres which can force muscles into irritating spasms, and that heat may induce the release of endorphins, powerful opiate-like chemicals which block pain transmission.
Increased blood flow occurs in heated parts of the body because heat tends to relax the walls of blood vessels. That's one reason why sports doctors recommend that you steer clear of the practice of heating up already inflamed joints. Heat appears to be best for untightening muscles and increasing overall flexibility; the proper tissue temperature for vigorous heating is probably 104 to 113 degrees Fahrenheit (40 to 45 degrees Celsius) and the correct duration of temperature elevation is about five to 30 minutes. Although heating can reduce muscle spasms after a back injury, heat should not be used on sprained ankles or strained
What about cold treatment?
Strangely enough, cold therapy can also reduce muscle spasms, and cold is noted for killing pain, reducing swelling, and lowering metabolic activity. Cold' s pain-killing effect is caused by its 'deadening' of nerve-cell activity; hospital studies show that patients who use cold therapy on injuries tend to require much less pain medication. This effect, though, can sometimes be counterproductive; an athlete who has 'iced down' an injured body part may get so much pain relief that he/she returns to activity too soon.
Combined with compression, cold can produce dramatic drops in tissue swelling, because cold initially constricts the walls of blood vessels and compression restricts the amount of blood which can reach an injured body part (another therapeutic intervention, elevation, helps to 'drain' a damaged body region of excess fluid). Studies show that cold produces large decreases in oedema (swelling) and better reduction in discomfort, compared to heating.
Cold decreases muscle spasms by making muscles less sensitive to being stretched, and, like heat, cold can be used to treat low-back pain. Research suggests that cold works better for individuals who have had back pain for more than 14 days, while heat may be more effective for those with more recent pain.
The proper duration of cold therapy is currently being hotly debated. Traditionally, doctors have recommended applying cold packs or ice bags to injured areas for 15-30 minutes at a time, but recent research carried out at the University of Brussels indicates that the permeability of Iymphatic vessels decreases after about 10 minutes of cold therapy. Since Iymphatic vessels drain fluid away from injured tissues and thereby relieve swelling, the Brussels researchers recommend that cold be applied to damaged tissues in no longer than 10-minute intervals (however, individuals with large quantities of subcutaneous fat may require longer periods of icing).
Which form of cold therapy is actually most effective? Again, there's considerable debate, but recent research suggests that ice chips in a plastic bag are most effective, followed by the use of frozen gel packs and blue ice packs, which in turn are superior to chemical reaction packs and inflatable plastic envelopes injected with a gas refrigerant.
('Superficial Heat and Cold: How to Maximise the Benefits', The Physician and Sportsmedicine, vol. 22(12), pp. 65-74, 1994)
Owen Anderson
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A Servant of Christ,
Drew
1 Tim. 3:
16: And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh..
Posts: 3978 | From: Council Grove, KS USA | Registered: Jun 2002
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