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New Choices in Natural Healing: Muscle Cramps and Pain

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Muscle Cramps and Pain

Muscles are the foot soldiers of the human body. Some, such as the heart, are independent. But more than 600 others bend and stretch to accommodate our every whim.

Only when we’ve forced them to do something ridiculous do muscles make their presence known, often in the form of muscle cramps, which are painful, spasmodic muscular contractions. Cramps often mean you’ve spent too long in an unnatural position: sitting in a cramped car for several hours or sleeping in a position fit for a circus contortionist. Muscle pain can mean you’ve pushed your body too far, whether in a vigorous game of touch football or by attacking the weeds in your garden like a Tasmanian devil. The natural remedies in this chapter—in conjunction with medical care and used with your doctor’s approval—may help prevent or relieve muscle cramps, according to some health professionals.

See Your Medical Doctor When...

You have cramps several times in one day or cramps that “lock” for several minutes.
Your muscle pain is accompanied by a fever or tender areas in the neck, shoulders, back, chest, hips and buttocks.
You have a muscle spasm in your back or neck that causes weakness, numbness or tingling.
You have a muscle spasm that doesn’t improve within three days.

Acupressure

Press point GV 26, situated on your face above your upper lip, two-thirds of the way to the nose, says Michael Reed Gach, Ph.D., director of the Acupressure Institute in Berkeley, California, and author of Acupressure’s Potent Points. (For help in locating this point, refer to the illustration on page 564.) “You can stimulate this point with your knuckle or your thumb,” says Dr. Gach. “You can also press firmly between your thumb and index finger to relieve aches and pains.” Hold this point until the cramp releases, he says.

Aromatherapy

For a fragrant massage oil to relieve your aching muscles, Los Angeles aromatic consultant John Steele suggests a blend of anti-inflammatory blue chamomile, analgesic birch, stimulating rosemary and soothing lavender essential oils. To prepare, says Steele, add three drops of blue chamomile, three drops of birch, three drops of rosemary (or coriander), eight drops of lavender and three drops of ginger (or black pepper) to ½ ounce of a carrier oil such as olive, almond, grapeseed or avocado. (Carrier oils are available in most health food stores.) Massage into the affected area after a warm bath, says Steele.

For information on preparing and administering essential oils, including cautions about their use, see page 19. For information on purchasing essential oils, refer to the resource list on page 633.

Ayurveda

To stop muscle spasms, soak your feet for 10 to 20 minutes in a large pot of hot water with a homemade tea bag of black or brown mustard seeds (two teaspoons of seeds tied up in some cotton or cheesecloth) immersed in it, says Vasant Lad, B.A.M.S., M.A.Sc., director of the Ayurvedic Institute in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Mustard seeds are available in most health food stores.

Food Therapy

Eat your vegetables raw, since cooking them depletes their potassium, magnesium and calcium, the three nutrients most important in preventing and treating muscle cramps and pain, says Julian Whitaker, M.D., founder and president of the Whitaker Wellness Center in Newport Beach, California. “Eating foods rich in potassium and magnesium is the best thing for muscle cramps,” he says. (For good sources of each of these nutrients, see “Getting What You Need” on page 142.)

Food Therapy

For massaging out muscle tension, Mary Bove, L.M., N.D., a naturopathic physician and director of the Brattleboro Naturopathic Clinic in Vermont, recommends this herbal massage oil. Start with one cup of extra-virgin olive oil or almond oil (available in most health food stores). Pour the oil into a bottle or jar and add the following herbs in tincture form: 1 ounce of cramp bark, ½ ounce of lobelia and 1¼4 ounce of willowbark or wintergreen. (If you don’t have wintergreen tincture, Dr. Bove says to substitute 30 drops of wintergreen oil.) These ingredients are also available in most health food stores and through mail order (for mail-order information, refer to the resource list on page 635).

Homeopathy

Rubbing Arnica ointment, cream, gel or oil into a sore muscle, then applying a warm washcloth, three or four times a day can help relieve cramping and pain, says Mitchell Fleisher, M.D., a family practice physician and homeopath in Colleen, Virginia. He says that taking a 12C or 30C tablet of Arnica two or three times a day until the pain and soreness are relieved may also help.

These remedies are available in many health food stores. To purchase the remedies by mail, refer to the resource list on page 637.

Hydrotherapy

A frozen bandage is great for minor sprains, minor sports injuries and spasms that do not respond to heat, says Agatha Thrash, M.D., a medical pathologist and co-founder and co-director of Uchee Pines Institute, a natural healing center in Seale, Alabama. Dip a hand towel in very cold water, squeeze it out, place it in a plastic bag and store it in the freezer over a piece of cardboard, so the towel freezes flat. To use, remove the plastic and lay the bandage over the affected area. The rigid bandage will quickly become soft as it’s warmed by your body heat. Replace with a fresh bandage when the towel feels warm. Dr. Thrash recommends 20-minute sessions of this treatment two to four times a day for a week or until symptoms subside.

Imagery

Close your eyes, breathe out three times and imagine your muscle encased in a block of ice, writes New York City psychiatrist Gerald Epstein, M.D., in his book Healing Visualizations. Picture the ice melting, and as it melts, feel the muscle relax. After the ice has completely melted, open your eyes, and the muscle spasm or cramp should be gone.

Dr. Epstein suggests doing this imagery for 2 to 3 minutes as needed every 15 to 30 minutes until the pain subsides.

Massage

Using the effleurage stroke (page 570), run your fingertips very lightly up and down the length of the affected muscle, says Vincent Iuppo, N.D., naturopathic physician, massage therapist and director of the Morris Institute of Natural Therapeutics, a holistic health education center in Denville, New Jersey. Make sure the strokes are gentle, as if you were running a feather duster over the muscle. Continue until the pain or cramp has subsided.

Relaxation and Meditation

Whenever muscle cramps put a crimp in your day, reduce them with the stretch-based relaxation technique described on page 602, says Charles Carlson, Ph.D., professor of psychology at the University of Kentucky in Lexington.

See also Fibromyalgia; Leg Cramps

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