Herbs in this Category

� Abutilon Indicum Atibala

� Aconitum Heterophyllum Atees
� Asteracantha Longifolia Taalmakhana
� Atropa Belladonna Suchi
� Cassia Occidentalis kasonda
� Cinnamomum Camphora kapoor
� Cissampelos Pareira Padh
� Inula Racemosa Pushkarmool
� Madhuca Indica Mahua
� Mimusops Elengi Maulsari
� Mitragyna Parvifolia Kaddam
� Oroxylum Indicum Shyonaak
� Parmelia Perlata Chharchharila
� Pinus Roxburghii Chir ,Saral
� Sida Cordifolia

HERBS FOR THE RELIEF OF CHRONIC AND ACUTE PAIN

BY GAIL FAITH EDWARDS
Chronic pain often long outlives its original cause. It usually worsens over time
and takes on a life of its own. There is probably nothing more debilitating than
chronic pain. Defined as pain lasting for six months or longer, chronic pain
afflicts 50 to 80 million midlife Americans and costs us over $100 billion in
social costs every year.

Recent research has shown that chronic pain is destructive to the body. The longer
chronic pain goes untreated, the worse it becomes. Chronic pain unleashes a cascade
of harmful hormones, such as cortisol, that adversely affect the immune system and
kidney function.

Much has yet to be learned about chronic pain. For instance, doctors used to think
that severed nerves could not transmit pain, and nerve cutting was typically
prescribed to treat pain. Cut motor nerves cause paralysis, but sensory nerves are
quite different. Sometimes damage to these nerves kills them and they stay dead,
causing numbness. Sometimes sensory nerves grow back irregularly, or begin firing
spontaneously, producing stabbing, shooting, and electrical sensations.

The body's pain system is plastic and is easily molded by pain to cause more pain.
A metaphor that is often used to describe this process is that of an alarm
continually being reset to be more and more sensitive. At first the alarm is
triggered by an animal, then the breeze, and then, for no apparent reason, it
begins ringing randomly or continuously. Additionally, pain nerves appear to
recruit others in a "chronic pain wind-up," and the entire central nervous system
becomes involved, revving up and undergoing a kind of central sensitization.
Research at University of California at San Francisco has shown that with prolonged
injury, progressively deeper levels of pain cells are activated in the spinal cord.

Most chronic pain in not in the muscle, bone or tissue, but in the invisible hydra
of the nerves. Of course, not all chronic pain is neuropathic. There is the
shearing pain of inflammation, and muscular pain, or the very real pain of a broken
heart. But many chronic pain conditions such as backache, once assumed to be
musculoskeletal, are now being revisited and realized to have a neuropathic
element.

Many chronic pain sufferers wind up taking huge amounts of anti-inflammatory drugs.
The NSAID'S (Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) like ibuprofen put them at risk
for gastro-intestinal bleeding and liver dysfunction, and the newer class of
pharmaceutical pain relievers, the COX-2 inhibitors, while an improvement in terms
of side effects, still may cause some abdominal distress. Anti-inflammatory drugs,
including aspirin and Aleve, were implicated in the deaths of 16,000 people in the
USA in 2000, due to bleeding ulcers and related complications, according to the
Federal Drug Abuse Network.

Research is also uncovering the fact that anxiety and depression are not so much
responses to pain, but are the consequences of it. Pain and depression share the
same neural pathways, the same circuitry. Serotonin and the endorphins that
modulate healthy brain functioning are the same ones that modulate depression.
Chronic pain uses up serotonin like a car running out of gas. Functional-imaging
scans reveal similar disturbances in brain chemistry in both chronic pain and
depression, and the same medications are used by allopathic physicians to treat
depression and pain. Depression and stressful events can enhance pain, and chronic
pain sufferers usually respond to stress with more pain.

Chronic pain, it turns out, is not simply a sensory, affective, or cognitive state.
It's a biological disease afflicting millions of people. Perhaps the biggest
question surrounding current pain research is whether the pathological cortical
reorganization, the cellular memory, the deeply dug chronic pain channels, can be
undone.

Scientists acknowledge that treatment can help suppress the abnormal nervous system
sensitivity. They also know that it is far easier to prevent the establishment of
abnormal channels than to treat them once they have become established. This means
that when pain strikes, you must act to relieve it immediately. It is absolutely
counterproductive to tough it out. Do not allow acute pain to become deeply
entrenched chronic pain. It appears from the research that substances which
nourish, calm, and soothe the nervous system, can help relieve chronic pain. Pain
relieving herbs in many cases are the same herbs that are used against depression.

Herbal Allies for Pain Relief

Some of my favorite pain relieving herbal allies include skullcap, cannabis,
valerian, turmeric, poppy, willow bark, St. John's wort, angelica, motherwort,
black cohosh, wild yam, lavender, cayenne, kava kava, and rose. Essential oils of
pine, lavender, peppermint, cinnamon, rose, clove, frankincense, rosemary, ginger,
juniper, bay and birch also are traditionally used as pain relievers and are well-
documented analgesic agents. Put 10-12 drops of any one of these essential oils in
one ounce of a carrier oil such as olive or coconut. Shake well and then rub into
painful, swollen joints to allay pain and inflammation.

If you suffer from chronic pain, try drinking four to six cups of skullcap
infusions daily, or take 10-15 drops of skullcap tincture four to six times daily.
Use skullcap as needed, as often as every few minutes, in acute situations.
Skullcap quiets the nervous system, and so will be a valuable ally if you suffer
from chronic pain. A combination of equal parts skullcap, St. John's wort, and
oatstraw is particularly effective for calming the nervous system, and thus easing
pain.
tinctures page

I rub St. John's wort oil, scented with essential oil of lavender, liberally onto
any part of me, or anyone else, that hurts. This simple remedy is especially
helpful for the relief of any kind of muscular or neurological pain.

St. John's wort oil

20-30 drops of willow bark tincture is usually an effective dose to ease the pain
and inflammation of arthritis and rheumatism, as well as headaches and muscle aches
and pains.

willow bark tincture

Rose is a soothing pain reliever, and any part, whether used fresh, or as an
infused or essential oil, tea, tincture, glycerite, or flower essence will assist
in the alleviation of any physical or emotional pain.

Comfort & Joy tea has roses and St. John's wort

Rose glycerite

Rose oil

Angelica is rich in constituents that quiet the nervous system, is grounding and
helps establish ease. Anti inflammatory agents make it one of my favorite allies
for alleviating arthritic aches and pains, and it�s antispasmodic, so eases
menstrual or muscular cramps.

Angelica tincture

Anti-inflammatory herbs are brimming with salicylates and/or steroids. They can
also be nourishing, immune strengthening, bone building, and hormonal balancing.
The buds, leaves, and bark of willow, birch, poplars, black haw, and wintergreen
are all rich in salicylates, and so pain relieving and anti-inflammatory. Vinegar
is an excellent menstrum for extracting the salicylates, one teaspoon being equal
to one aspirin.

Sipping ginger syrup or applying a warm ginger poultice will help ease the pain and
inflammation of arthritic joints. Sweat lodges, saunas, water baths, and steam
baths, especially when using ginger, are all deeply penetrating and initiate
healing energy.

Ginger syrup

The roots of ginseng, angelica, wild yam, and black cohosh are rich in anti-
inflammatory steroids. 20-30 drops of tincture made from the fresh or dry roots of
any of these herbs helps ease sore, painful joints. Synthesized steroidal drugs,
unlike natural herbs, often have a negative impact on the immune system, and are
known to stimulate osteoporosis.

Tinctures page

Equal parts of black cohosh, wild yam, and St. John's wort tinctures are highly
recommended for relieving back ache (20 drops as needed).

you'll find them here

Relaxation therapies are vitally important to those who suffer chronic pain.
Meditation, deep breathing exercises, and visualizations are all techniques that
can be utilized for pain relief. Gentle, low-impact exercise, such as walking and
gardening, is also an important ally for those whose pains are chronic, because
exercise releases feel-good, mood-enhancing, anesthetizing chemicals such as
endorphins, and helps to keep our body limber, flexible, and pain free.

Excerpt from Traversing the Wild Terrain of Menopause; Herbal Allies for Midlife
Women and Men by Gail Faith Edwards Copyright 2003 Gail Faith Edwards

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