Fitness School

Herbal Medicine

Feel better with willow bark. The herb willow bark contains salicin, which is the chemical forerunner of aspirin. Sipping willow bark tea may help relieve muscle soreness, says James A. Duke, Ph.D. To make the tea, simmer about 2 teaspoons of powdered bark in 1 cup of boiling water for 10 minutes. Then strain, cool, and drink.

Home Remedies for Muscle Soreness

First, apply ice. At the first sign of muscle soreness, apply an ice pack to the sore spot for 20 minutes every few hours. If you don’t have one of those gel packs handy, put a few ice cubes in a plastic bag. Even better, use a bag of frozen peas or corn, suggests Jeffrey Housner, M.D., clinical assistant professor at the University of Michigan Medical Center in Ann Arbor. It can be molded to fit the contours of the injury site.

Whatever sort of ice pack you use, be sure to wrap it in a towel before putting it against your skin. Otherwise, you could give yourself frostbite, says Bryant A. Stamford, Ph.D., director of the Health Promotion and Wellness Center at the University of Louisville in Kentucky.

Later, apply heat. You don’t want to use heat treatments immediately after muscle soreness sets in, because they can aggravate inflammation and swelling. So wait a day or two, then feel free to soak in a hot tub or to apply a heating pad or heated gel pack. (Most gel packs can be warmed in the microwave.)

Heat not only soothes soreness but also promotes blood flow to your muscles, which speeds healing.

There are so many things you ignore when you are young but for every woman at some stage in her life she will firmly believe that her body hates her. Some women only start to really suffer with menstrual cramps (the bane of many women) when they enter their menopause. For the ten percent of women who suffer with either endometriosis or PCOS, the complaint can be considerably worse each month. There does not seem to be any reason for those who feel no menstrual discomfort and those who experience regular agonizing effects.

The problem is getting a menstrual cramp relief remedy that you can guarantee will work every month. Pain relief pills seem to be the most prescribed option amongst women. You can try any pain relief remedy and they should work but many women swear by Pamprin which was designed just for this reason. Perhaps, if you are someone that doesn’t like to take medication it is time to think about this again and stop having this pain for days on end every time you have a cycle.

Nothing can take the wind out of your sails or put a dampener on your day like painful cramps. If the cramps aren’t bad enough, women can also suffer with a bloated stomach and the sensation of queasiness too. Eventually I came to the conclusion that I would need to find a reliable menstrual cramp relief remedy to get rid of those pains each cycle. There doesn’t seem to be any consistency about it either, most months I have an awful time and then the odd cycle that is completely pain free.

Sometimes, my relief comes in the form of a heating pad which I normally use on my stomach, and other times it works best when placed on my back. You may not have tried this for your problem before but it is well worth giving it a go particularly if you haven’t had any success with pills. This may not be that effective for women that exhibit painful and disabling menstrual cramps each cycle: they might want something more powerful. If this is a problem that affects your work attendance then you may need to do something about it before it damages your chance of promotion.

You can’t just let it go on every month so it may be wise to speak to your doctor and see what ideas he may have on helping menstrual cramp. They may have options you have not considered, so if you aren’t currently on the Pill, this may be something you want to try because for many women, being on the Pill reduces or even eliminates their cramps. Obviously this would be a stupid option if you are trying for a baby but there will be other remedies you doctor can prescribe to help the cramp you feel each cycle. Don’t give up on your search because a remedy does exist if you are persistent.