Most of us acquire small nicks, scrapes, and bruises all the time – it's just a fact of life! Even though you can't proactively avoid accidental scratches, scrapes, or even bug bites, you don't have to just sit back and accept the pain.
For many of us, our first instinct is to head to the store and get an over-the-counter cream to help relieve this minor pain. But, there are plenty of natural pain relief creams that can do just as good a job compared to the synthetic stuff. Let’s break down the best natural pain relief creams you can find in 2020 now.
Why Use a Natural Pain-Relief Product?
These days, it’s possible to get creams and ointments for pain relief at any regular grocery or pharmacy. Over-the-counter medicines are effective, popular, and backed by lots of science. So why would you use natural pain relief creams instead of over-the-counter options?
The truth is that many of those medicines do a great job of relieving pain and similar symptoms, but they also tend to be chock-full of synthetic chemicals and other ingredients your body simply doesn’t need.
Furthermore, natural ingredients and pain relief creams often provide extra benefits in addition to regular pain relief. That’s partially because many of the best pain relief ingredients come from plants that have multiple benefits for your skin, not just one.
No matter which way you look at it, natural pain relief ingredients and creams are better for your body and often better for the environment since they are easier to make and are usually biodegradable. That’s why companies like Green Goo prioritize making pain relief creams and other products only with natural ingredients instead of stuffing them with artificial ingredients and lab-made chemicals.
Natural Ingredients Great for Pain Relief
Just which natural ingredients are the best for pain relief? Turns out, there are really two main players that stand out as the champions of being able to relieve pain:
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Arnica is an excellent herb typically found in the mountains, and it’s been used since the Middle Ages for pain relief. That’s partially because it can help to relieve pain when applied externally as an analgesic. It’s so effective that we use it in our pain relief creams and balms (more on those below!).
- St. John’s Wort comes in at a close second. Its rich composition including fatty acids, antioxidants, tannins, and flavonoids help it to not just relieve pain, but to provide other key benefits such as moisturizing, soothing, nourishing, and cleansing.
Other Ingredients That Play Supporting Roles in Natural Pain Relief
Here are some of the other plants we use in our pain relief salves that can offer benefits to your skin alongside arnica’s pain relief:
- Beeswax can be an effective soother, even if it doesn’t look like it; that’s because it contains tons of vitamins and minerals, as well as antioxidants, helping to soothe your skin or any wounded area and help nourish it so that it can regenerate a little more quickly
- Did you know that cinnamon, in addition to being one of the world's best spices, is also an effective skin supporter? It contains vitamin K, along with tons of other antioxidants and minerals. In addition to softening the skin, it can also soothe, cleanse, and nourish.
- Like cinnamon, ginger is most often used in cooking. It contains tons of antioxidants, fatty acids, vitamins and minerals, and essential oils, and can work to tone, even, and invigorite skin when topically applied
- Olive oil has been an effective replenisher ingredient for thousands of years. It's particularly rich in vitamins, fatty acids, and antioxidants, and it can cleanse and replenish in addition to moisturizing and soothing when used correctly.
- Peppermint continues the trend of foods or spices acting as skin-healthy powerhouses. This aromatic hybrid mint plant contains fatty acids, oils, minerals, flavonoids, and terpenoids, all of which contribute to a general soothing. calming, cooling sensation for your skin.
- Don’t forget sage, which comes packed with vitamins and minerals, along with tons of antioxidants. This can tighten and soothe the skin while relaxing many of the effects of common skin conditions or rashes.
While arnica and St. John’s Wort are effective by themselves, it’s even better when you combine them with supporting ingredients to really help them shine and offer you (and your skin) muh more than just pain relief. So, that’s exactly what we did.
Green Goo’s Pain Relief Salve
First on the list is our dedicated Pain Relief Salve, which has many of the ingredients mentioned above, including: arnica, olive oil, peppermint, cinnamon, and ginger, as well as a few other helpers not mentioned above including sunflower oil and rosemary.
All of these ingredients are combined with a beeswax base so you can easily and gently apply the salve wherever you need it. This pain relief salve can provide the support you need and can temporarily ease the aches and pains of sore muscles, bruises, and even long-term conditions like arthritis.
Even better, our Pain Relief Salve can emulate common hot and cold therapies for that familiar and welcome soothing effect. This increases blood circulation, which can help provide additional relief where you need it most.
A little goes a long way with 100% natural ingredients, and while you can apply as much as you need, you really only need a little to feel the relief.
For convenience, we offer one of our most popular salves in a few different sizes and packages, including our 4 oz. jar, our 1.82 oz large tin, our .7 oz travel tin, and our .6 oz jumbo stick.
Green Goo’s Natural First Aid
If you have a surface injury, there are few all-natural salves better than our Natural First Aid Salve. This 100% plant-based goo can support your body's own healing abilities and can even replace up to 20 traditional first aid items.
It's a particularly good choice for temporarily relieving minor injuries like cuts, blisters, sunburns, and even some of the symptoms of poison ivy. You can also use it to temporarily alleviate the symptoms of bug bites or as a dressing for minor wounds, as well as using it to moisturize and soothe chafing or cracked hands and feet.
This salve is truly multi-functional, and is perfect for taking along with you on your outdoor adventures, which is typically when this first aid salve really earns its spot in your backpack as a worthy travel companion.
It gets all of its benefits thanks to its particular blend of ingredients, which include calendula, plantain, chickweed, comfrey, yarrow, myrrh, sage, and St. John’s Wort.
Adding some of this to cuts and scrapes paired with proper dressing can go a long way toward helping your body to heal as it should while providing some temporary relief to the often uncomfortable (if not straight painful) side effects of these types of wounds.
Green Goo’s Cold Sore Salve
Last but not least is our Cold Sore Salve. While it’s designed to specifically help relieve the tingling, itching, blistering, and pain associated with cold sores and fever blisters, it could work well to help temporarily relieve pain for just about anything else, too, especially if the pain is accompanied by itching and tingling.
A lot of the ingredients in our Natural First Aid salve are also included in our Cold Sore Salve, including sage and St. John’s Wort. These botanicals combine with other skin-supporting plants such as yarrow, plantain, calendula, and chickweed to give your skin the nourishment it needs to naturally heal!
Summary
Why use a bunch of synthetic, lab-made ingredients to relieve pain when nature has pain relief powerhouses of her own? All of our salves work to temporarily relieve pain naturally, using botanical ingredients like arnica and St. John’s Wort. Not only that, but they also work to nourish your skin and provide that extra boost of plant-based power to give your skin the nutrients it needs, with rich ingredients like calendula, yarrow, and sage.
So, if you’ve got that ache that’s begging for a little TLC, or if you’re looking for a new travel companion to reliably cover your back (or knee or shoulder), check out our natural pain relief salves and see nature’s pain relief power in action for yourself.
Sources
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/antioxidants-explained
https://www.webmd.com/vitamins-and-supplements/supplement-guide-vitamin-k