Essential Oils for Muscle Cramps

Here are some suggestions for essential oils for muscle cramps.

To relieve muscle cramps quickly, massage the cramping area with warming oils that increase local circulation, such as black pepper, rosemary, or ginger. These oils are hot, so dilute with carrier oil as needed.

If you get muscle cramps during exercise, use the warming oils to vigorously massage the cramp-prone area before you exercise.

For a good muscle warming blend, Advanced Aromatherapy recommends

20 drops cypress
20 drops tarragon
20 drops thyme
40 drops marjoram
2 ounces carrier oil

For soreness or pain after the initial cramping, Aromatherapy: A Complete Guide to the Healing Art suggests this massage blend:

30 drops lavender essential oil
10 drops marjoram essential oil
5 drops frankincense essential oil
2 ounces carrier oil

Specifically for leg cramps, aromatherapist KG Stiles recommends this essential oils for muscle cramps blend:

3-5 drops peppermint
3-5 drops marjoram
3-5 drops lavender
one ounce carrier oil

Muscle cramps are often caused by mineral deficiency or imbalance. Are you getting enough calcium, magnesium, and potassium and not too much salt in your diet? If you tend to be overly tense, consider getting regular massage therapy.

Ayurvedic Aromatherapy

Ayurvedic aromatherapy is used to complement diet and lifestyle choices to balance the doshas and sub-doshas in Ayurveda, the traditional healing system of India.

The five elements combine to form three energies (doshas) that govern our bodies:

- Vata (ether and air) is cold and dry.
- Pitta (fire and water) is hot and wet.
- Kapha (water and earth) is cold and wet.

Each person has a predominant dosha (or combination), plus each dosha has five sub-doshas, giving each person a unique constitution. Ayurveda treats a person based not only on symptoms but also on constitution. Thus two people with the same symptoms may receive radically different treatments.

For the use of aromatherapy and essential oils in Ayruveda, the best resource I have found is Ayurveda & Aromatherapy: The Earth Essential Guide to Ancient Wisdom and Modern Healing. This book explains how to use essential oils in a way consistent with Ayurvedic principles.

For example, essential oils either add heat or have a cooling effect on the body. Blue chamomile is cooling, lavender is neutral, and thyme is hot. So, thyme would increase pitta, which is hot. Neutral oils are balancers and can either cool you down or warm you up.

Ayurveda also classifies essential oils as either wet or dry. Wet oils (for example, geranium and rose) have high polarity and mix well with water. Dry oils (for example, citrus oils and pine) have a low polarity and tend to float on the surface of water. Dry oils would increase vata. Again, some oils, such as lavender, are neutral.

The book goes on to list essential oils appropriate for specific imbalances and also gives you ways to use the oils.




Ayurvedic Aromatherapy at Maharishi Ayurveda

Immune System Essential Oils

If you are looking for immune system essential oils or an aromatherapy immune booster, Aromatherapy for Dummies gives the following recommendations:

General immunity stimulants: bay laurel, cinnamon, eucalyptus, frankincense, oregano, and sage.

White blood cell stimulants: bergamot, chamomile, lavender, lemon, myrrh, pine, sandalwood, tea tree, thyme, and vetivert.

Help individual cells heal: carrot seed, frankincense, helichrysum, lavender, rose, rose geranium, and sandalwood.

Help eliminate metabolic waste (through the lymph system): bay laurel, grapefruit, juniper, and lemon.

Use caution with hot oils such as cinnamon, oregano, and thyme. They can cause irritation.

• Combine the essential oil with a carrier oil for massage.
  
• Add a few drops of essential oil to a piece of cloth or cotton ball and inhale.
  
• Diffuse the essential oil.
  
• Add 5-10 drops of essential oil (diluted in oil or milk) to your bath.

Working with a professional aromatherapist can be the best way to determine what might be most appropriate for you.

Some Research

Comparative study on the antiviral activity of selected monoterpenes derived from essential oils

Frankincense oil derived from Boswellia carteri induces tumor cell specific cytotoxicity

Comparison of bacteriostatic and bactericidal activity of 13 essential oils against strains with varying sensitivity to antibiotics.

Aromatherapy for Pregnancy and for Babies

Does aromatherapy essential oil and pregnancy go together? As with all things during pregnancy, work with your healthcare provider.

I'm going to give you some information from the book Aromatherapy and Massage for Mother and Baby by Allison England, who is an aromatherapist and nurse who runs an aromatherapy clinic for mothers and babies in England.

Rather than looking at essential oils to avoid (about which there isn't consensus), let's look at how Allison says you can use aromatherapy in pregnancy. For any use, she recommends a one percent (1%) dilution:
   - To 3.5 ounce bottle (100 ml) carrier oil, add 25 drops essential oil.
   - To 1/3 ounce carrier oil (10 ml or 2 teaspoons), add 2 drops essential oil.

Bergamot: Mix with water in a spray bottle and use as an air freshener.

Roman Chamomile: Use for relaxation with massage, skin care, baths, or vaporization.

Cypress: Use after fifth month for problems associated with sluggish circulation, such as fluid retention, cramps, and varicose veins.

Eucalyptus globulus: Use to help clear mucous and congestion.

Lavender: Use for relaxation or to help relieve headaches with massage, skin care, baths, or vaporization.

Other essential oils you can use during pregnancy: lemon, mandarin, neroli, petitgrain, sandalwood, tea tree, and ylang-ylang.

Aromatherapy for Babies

Here are some of Allison's tips for baby aromatherapy.
Caution: Do not let a baby's skin come into contact with undiluted essential oil.

Sniffles: Add 2-4 drops of either lemon, eucalyptus, lavender, or tea tree essential oil to a vaporizer (diffuser).

Constipation: Give your baby or toddler a warm bath to which you have added 1-2 drops lavender diluted in 1 tablespoon whole milk. Or give them a gentle tummy and lower back massage using 1 drop Roman chamomile and 1 drop mandarin diluted in 1 tablespoon carrier oil. Massage in a circular clockwise direction.

Diaper Rash Cream: To 2 ounces (50 grams) of unperfumed cream (that does not contain lanolin), add 2 drops German chamomile and 2 drops lavender. (If your healthcare provider thinks the rash is caused by fungus, use 4 drops tea tree oil instead.)

For a calming bath: Add 1-2 drops Roman chamomile to 1 tablespoon whole milk. Add to bath.

For a colic baby massage oil: To 2.5 tablespoons carrier oil, add 1 drop of either tangerine, mandarin, or Roman chamomile oil. Directions for colic massage.

Other Books about Aromatherapy for Pregnancy and Babies

Aromatherapy For Babies And Children

Aromatherapy During Your Pregnancy

How to Make Essential Oils

Have you wondered about how to make essential oils? Well, you can do it at home, but it's not really efficient or cost effective. It can take many pounds of plant material to make only a few drops of oil.

You basically need your own still. Here are some instructions from Aromatherapy: A Complete Guide to the Healing Art that will yield some essential oil but is mostly useful for making hydrosol (scented water).

You need these supplies:

• pressure cooker (stainless steel*)
  
• vegetable steamer (stainless steel)
  
• hose clamp
  
• 1-quart (or larger) glass jar
  
• 10 feet of 1/4-inch diameter copper** or food-grade vinyl plastic tubing
  
• 5-gallon bucket
  
• dried or fresh herbs you want to distill

*Use stainless steel because aluminum may react with the essential oils.

**If you use copper tubing, tape off one end and fill the tube with fine sand to prevent it from kinking. Slowly wrap it around a small bucket or something else with a cylindrical shape so that the tubing spirals in a way that fits into a 5-gallon bucket.

1. Put the pressure cooker on a stove burner. Fill it half-way with water. Place a vegetable steamer inside the cooker, propping it up, if needed, so that the bottom is above the water line.
   
   
2. Place the herbs you want to distill on top of the steamer.
   
   
3. Put the lid on the pressure cooker, but instead of placing the regulator vent on top of the cooker, put a 10-foot length of food grade tubing over the outlet, using a hose clamp to make sure the fit is tight.
   
   
4. Drop the other end of the tubing over the edge of the counter.
   
   
5. Place a 5-gallon bucket on a chair, and coil the suspended end of the tube inside the bucket so that it wraps around at least four (4) times.
   
   
6. Put enough cold water and ice in the bucket to cover the coiled tubing.
   
   
7. Drop the end of the tube that is in the bucket over the edge toward the floor. Place a very clean small-mouth jar (at least 1-quart) on the floor, and insert the end of the tubing into it, positioning the tubing so it falls straight into the jar.
   
   
8. Turn the burner on medium-high.

The water will start to boil, creating steam inside the pressure cooker that rises through the herbs and captures and removes the herb's essential oil, which flows out of the cooker through the tubing. When the steam inside the tubing reaches the cold water in the bucket, the steam condenses and converts back to water, literally dropping the essential oil.

Some oil will float on the surface of the water as it goes into the jar, but the product will be mostly hydrosol.

Another set of instructions on how to make essential oils.

Aromatherapy Back Massage Videos

Wondering how to use essential oils for massage? These aromatherapy back massage videos show one technique.













The technique shown is a variation of the RainDrop Technique. To get a Raindrop Technique kit that includes essential oils, massage oil, and instructional DVD, visit the Young Living Essential Oils. For Raindrop workshops, visit Center for Aromatherapy Research and Education.