If you haven’t tried any kind of alternative treatment or medicine before, you might be skeptical. It’s worth exploring, though, if you have a serious OTC habit. In fact, 38 percent of American adults use some kind of complementary alternative medicine according to the National Center For Complementary and Integrative Health. Janet Zand, O.M.D., notes that once people figure out the alternative remedy that’s best for them and their specific type of pain, it’s sometimes possible over time “to move for example to half the dose of conventional OTC pain reliever after adding in a natural one.” Ideally, after awhile you might even be able to skip your OTC medicine altogether. Plus, there are often positive side effects from natural pain relievers, since many of them have more than one use. Before starting any new pain relief regimen (natural or otherwise), Zand recommends checking in with your health practitioner first about appropriate substances for your symptoms, potential drug interactions and correct dosage.

Here are some natural remedies that will help soothe your pain that are both tried-and-true by health practitioners and scientific studies.

1. Ice and Heat

Best for: Muscle and joint pain, cramping pain
Why it works: While this might not be the most surprising treatment, ice and heat are nature’s most intrinsic treatments for pain. Heat is ideal for chronic pain, while ice is better for inflammation or a relatively recent injury. This is because heat increases blood flow to the painful area, which relaxes tight muscles and joints, and ice constricts blood vessels which numbs pain. Check out this handy infographic from the Cleveland Clinic, which explains when to use heat versus ice.
How to use it: Apply an ice pack, damp cloth, heating pad or heat wrap for 20 minutes on, 20 minutes off.

2. Curcumin

Best for: Any kind of inflammation, especially arthritis
Why it works: Found in turmeric, curcumin is one of the more well-researched natural pain relievers. While larger-scale studies are still needed to completely understand all of its uses, it’s been confirmed that it does help alleviate inflammation and some pain. A 2016 study found that the supplement was effective in combatting exercise-induced muscle soreness, and a 2012 study found it effective as part of treatment for patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Curcumin is also currently being studied for several other purposes, notably as part of treatment for and prevention of colorectal cancer.
How to use it: Some people wonder whether eating food with turmeric is enough to get curcurmin’s benefits. According to Zand, “food seasoned with turmeric is healthy but is most likely not a therapeutic dose. It is a good healthy habit to eat it, but if you are experiencing pain don’t expect a bowl of curry to make your pain go away.” She recommends looking for a pill supplement that contains 95 percent curcuminoids. “Generally, the products are standardized,” she notes, and it’s easy to tell from the label exactly how much you’re supposed to take. It should also be added that you should not take more than the recommended dose of this (or any) supplement, as it can cause digestive issues like nausea and diarrhea.

3. Arnica

Best for: Bruising, swelling, and inflammation
Why it works: While arnica is one of the most well-known homeopathic methods, there is conflicting research on its effectiveness. Despite this, many people continue to use it. Zand explains that while most of the evidence around arnica’s effectiveness is anecdotal, if it works for you there’s no reason to rule it out. It’s relatively inexpensive and easy to use, so it’s worth a shot — especially for bruising and light swelling.
How to use it: Arnica generally comes in an ointment form, but can also be taken as an oral supplement.

4. Proteolytic Enzymes

Best for: Inflammation, digestive issues
Why it works: These enzymes are naturally made by your pancreas to help digest food, but they can also be ingested as a supplement for additional benefits. Though they’re generally thought of as supplement used to treat inflammation, they are true multi-taskers. In addition to treating pain caused by inflammation in joints they can also help lessen the symptoms of Irritable Bowel Syndrome and other digestive issues.
How to use it: These are taken as an oral supplement. Zand particularly recommends a supplement called Wobenzym. “It works best when taken between meals,” she says, “and you should definitely consult your healthcare practitioner before you start taking it.” Certain types of enzymes are not appropriate for everyone.

5. Willow Bark Extract

Best for: Musculoskeletal pain, back pain
Why it works: Willow bark extract contains salicylic acid, which Zand likes to call “the original aspirin,” since the chemical makeup of the extract is similar to the active ingredients in the OTC drug. This substance has been proven effective in long-term treatment of musculoskeletal disorders as well as back pain, both with and without the aid of OTC pain relievers and other pain management medications. In fact, many people prefer willow bark extract to aspirin because of aspirin’s digestive side effects.
How to use it: Just like aspirin, willow bark comes in pill form, and you should follow the dosage instructions on the packaging.

Related: A Closer Look at How Acupuncture Works

6. Acupuncture

Best for: All kinds of pain
Why it works: A recent study conducted in the emergency department of a hospital showed promising results of the ancient practice of pricking needles into the skin at specific pressure points. The researchers showed that acupuncture treatments reduced both the pain and anxiety of patients in the emergency room. Additionally, acupuncture boasts the advantage of being one of the most versatile natural pain treatments, as it can help alleviate many different types of pain.
How to use it: The first step to getting pain relief from acupuncture is finding an experienced practitioner. Zand recommends the National Certification Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine’s database as an amazing resource to find someone highly qualified.

7. Corydalis yanhusuo

Best for: Acute pain, inflammation and nerve pain
Why it works: Corydalis yanhuso is rooted in traditional Chinese medicine. In 2014, it was discovered that the plant, traditionally used for pain relief, contains an analgesic called DHCB. The study calls this discovery a “promising lead in pain management” and more research is being done on exactly how to harness this ancient herb’s powers.
How to use it: This pain reliever can be taken in oral supplement form.

The post 7 Natural Pain Relievers That Really Work appeared first on Sonima.

Your Diaphragm

“The average person at rest takes around 23,040 breaths per day,” says Matt Delaney, C.S.C.S., a licensed massage therapist and Tier X Health Coach at Equinox Columbus Circle. “Our diaphragm initiates every single one of them.” That’s not all that this dome-shaped muscle at your ribs does: Along with other core muscles, it helps stabilize your trunk, which is key for efficient, pain-free movement, says Delaney. When there’s dysfunction? You’re susceptible to injury and pain.

Massage it: Sit in a chair and curl the tips of your fingers under your rib cage, says Delaney. Take a deep breath into your belly and on the exhale, flex forward trying to bring your head to your lap; allow your fingers to move further under your ribs. Make sure to exhale fully — this allows the diaphragm to reach its end range under the contact of your fingers. Repeat three to five times.

Your Gut

Many scientists consider the gut the second brain, says Scott Weiss, C.S.C.S., a New York-based physical therapist. That’s because more and more research suggests that a healthy gut (filled with beneficial bacteria) creates a healthy body (and mind). “A mechanical massage aids in moving digestion along,” Weiss says. It also eases muscle tension and relieves air and gas from the system, he says.

Massage it: With firm pressure, make circles to the left on the stomach’s surface. “This circular pattern mimics the normal digestive movements,” says Weiss. Then place one palm on your upper abdomen and overlap it with your other hand (consider this 12 o’clock). Start pressing inward, applying pressure in a clockwise fashion. Slowly go from 12 to 3 to 6 to 9 and back again, he says. This can be done 20 to 30 times with strong, firm pressure.

Your Face and Jaw

Whether you realize it or not, you hold a lot of tension in your face and jaw. Emotions, thoughts, and an internal dialogue can lead you to clench your jaw and facial muscles, says Weiss. “Eating, speaking, and reacting all day can stress these muscles, too.” Yet, most massages leave these stressed out muscles alone.

Massage them: Use the palms of your hands and and pads of the fingertips to apply pressure to the face, forehead, and jaw. Clench you jaw a few times. You’ll find the muscles that need work. Apply pressure where needed. Make your way around the ears, too.

RELATED: 6 Self-Massage Tools to Restore Your Body at Home

Your Thumbs

There are three muscles that sit at the base of your thumb — they make up what’s called the thenar eminence, explains Delaney. And these muscles take a beating all day long as you text and scroll, impacting your grip strength and fine motor control, he says. “It may not sound like a big deal, but grip strength is vital to our longevity,” says Delaney. So much so, in fact, that it’s one of the measurements cardiologists use to predict the outcomes of surgical patients.

Massage them: Start with your thumb flexed into your palm with your palm facing down. With the pointer and middle finger of the other hand, reach under the middle of the palm just below the thenar muscles and draw some tension toward the thumb knuckle. Maintain this tension as you slowly move the thumb away from the palm and allow your fingers to glide up toward its base. Repeat 3 to 5 times per hand.

Your Wrists

In a world of tablets and laptops, your hands and wrist muscles are used more than any other major body part, says Weiss. The best news: Maladies like carpal tunnel syndrome and tendonitis can be kept at bay with some simple massage, he says.

Massage them: Clasp your hands together and make figure eights. Use the prayer position to open and stretch the wrists. Push your fingers to the left and right while together to further stretch the deeper muscles of the wrist, he says.

Your Feet

Most of us take our feet for granted until problems crop up. Here’s why that needs to change: “They are the most dynamic part of our structure,” says Delaney. “Our feet are our first point of contact with the ground and are constantly providing the brain valuable information about where we are.” Plus, a sedentary lifestyle can leave them craving stimulation and too-tight shoes can constrict them, impeding blood flow.

Massage them: Place a golf ball under your foot at the base of the heel, says Delaney. Sitting or standing, trace a line from the front of your heel to each one of the toes and back. Be sure to work across the foot, too, paying special attention to trace the cup of the heel and ball of the foot, he says. Repeat three to five times per foot.

The post 6 Often-Ignored Body Parts That Benefit from Massage appeared first on Sonima.

This perfectly normal post-exercise pain is called Delayed Onset Muscles Soreness (DOMS) and it often strikes between 24 and 48 hours after a hard workout. The culprit behind this aching: Tiny tears in the muscles that form when you’ve pushed your body just past its limit. As these tears heal the soreness goes away and your muscles get stronger. While that sounds promising, this no-pain-no-gain approach isn’t always good for you, especially if you’re feeling too weak, stiff, and sensitive to stick to your fitness routine.

Rather than suffer through it or blow off your workouts, try these six strategies to feel more benefit and less burn the day after a challenging workout.

Before You Exercise

Eat some ginger.

Eating ginger root can actually help make your muscles less susceptible to DOMS. One study from the University of Georgia found that eating 2 grams of the spicy stuff—or around ½ teaspoon—for several days before working out helped reduce soreness in intense exercisers by around 25 percent. Researchers aren’t sure of the exact correlation, but they suspect that ginger’s inherent analgesic and anti-inflammatory properties help temper the soreness. Another study found that eating a single 2 gram dose of ginger one day after exercise can also help cut down on pain.

Add a warm-up.

Jumping straight into intense exercise may be one cause of DOMS, according to a study from Australia. In this study exercises were divided into four groups: one that warmed-up before a workout, one that cooled-down after a workout, one that did both, and one that did neither. All participants did 30 minutes of activity designed to illicit soreness the next day. Those in the groups with a gradual 10-minute warm-up felt less sore the next day than the exercisers who hadn’t eased into the exercise.

Related: A Yoga Warm-Up and Cool Down for Athletes

During Your Workout

Push a little less.

You can absolutely make fitness gains with experiencing DOMS. Easing up on intensity is one option for ridding this pain from your workout plan. By gradually adding intensity in the form of additional reps, time, weight, etc., over time (as in days and weeks, not the duration of the sweat session), you’ll slowly ramp up your workout, giving your muscles a chance to adapt. If the slowing down isn’t appealing, remember this: Pushing yourself to the pain point may make it hard to consistently exercise, making it harder to reach your goals.

Change your location.

Do you have a beach nearby, or a pool? Studies show that taking your cardio workout off the typical flat road and onto one of these surfaces can make you less likely to suffer from post-exercise soreness. Much of this has to do with the ratio between pushing and pulling in exercise: When this is close to even (such as when working against the resistance of sand or water) the muscles get a balanced workout, making it less likely that you’ll overdo it.

After Your Activity

Smooth out the kinks.

What’s one just reward for a hard workout? TLC for your muscles in the form of a massage or a self-massage. One study from Australia found that exercisers who got a rubdown three hours after working out—and for several days following exercise—experienced 30 percent less DOMS than those who didn’t. These exercises also had less swelling than exercisers who skipped the massage. Researchers are still determining why massage is so effective at alleviating this pain, but they suspect it has to do with the increased blood and lymph flow that follow a massage as well as reductions in swelling.

Related: 6 Self-Massage Tools to Restore Your Body at Home 

Put it on the rocks.

Damaged, over-used muscles are often inflamed. Applying cool ice to your muscles right after a hard workout can help reduce this, subsequently limiting the pain you feel the next day too. One study from Loma Linda University in California found that applying a cold pack to the effected muscles directly after exercise and 24 hours later reduced the amount of pain subjects felt. Heat worked too, just not as well. Scientists believe that applying cold right after exercise actually reduces the amount of damage done to the muscles during exercise.

The post 6 Ways to Ease the Ache After Exercise appeared first on Sonima.

“People often don’t realize how easy it is to give themselves a massage—or how beneficial it can be,” says psychologist Tiffany Field, Ph.D., director of the University of Miami Touch Research Institute who has researched the benefits of massage for years. “Of course, there are countless benefits you’ll experience when a trained massage therapist works on you, but there’s also plenty you can do on your own that will provide major benefits.”

While scientists have shown that massage can ease stress, depression, and anxiety, new research has uncovered more surprising benefits: In one recent study published in the International Journal of Preventive Medicine, researchers found that massage therapy helps lower blood pressure, and the results last for up to 72 hours post-massage. Other research found massage can prevent migraines and PMS and even help manage the side effects of cancer treatments.

Recently, more researchers have applauded self-massage, in particular, with a new study published in the International Journal of Therapeutic Massage Bodywork finding that it significantly improves the outcome of those with osteoarthritis of the knee. Field adds that much of the research she has conducted at the University of Miami Touch Research Institute over the last four decades has included a control group who performs self-massage in addition to receiving professional massage. Not surprisingly, those groups tend to have more pain relief than the ones who don’t do self-massage in addition to their professional massage therapy sessions.

“Massage is an external stimulation that sets off a complex cascade of internal activity,” says Field. “When our external pressure receptors are stimulated, it very quickly puts us in a parasympathetic state, lowering heart rate, blood pressure, and the stress hormone cortisol.” Hence the instant relaxation most of us feel mere minutes into a massage. Even better, this stimulation boosts the body’s production of serotonin—our own internal pain-relief or feel-good “juice.” It’s important to keep in mind, however, that the opposite of all of this happens when the pressure used during massage isn’t hard enough. “Light touch or a gentle tickle can actually increase cortisol, raise your blood pressure and heart rate and prompt the wrong kind of cascade of internal reactions,” says Field, “which means moderate pressure is key.”

Self-massage tools can help you achieve that crucial moderate pressure for longer periods of time than you’d be able for with your hands alone, says Field. And you don’t need to spend a bundle on these tools at a specialty store. In fact, one of the things Field and her team of researchers found most effective for self-massage at home is a kitchen broom handle. “The diameter is just right for rubbing legs and hips and is proof that you don’t have to spend a lot of money to keep yourself in good shape,” she says.

Read on for the tools and techniques you need to start incorporating effective massage into your daily self-care routine. The best part? There’s a good chance you already own one or more of these muscle-soothing saviors.

1. Broom
Holding a broom handle about shoulder-width apart and then rolling it along your leg muscles can help give you leverage that’ll allow you to dig in to your muscles a bit deeper than you’d be able to with your hands alone.
The how-to: Roll the handle over your leg muscles (quads, hamstrings and IT bands) and start to identify trigger points and sore spots. Similar to the way you’d hold pressure if you were using a foam roller, focus on those “hot spots” by gently rubbing and kneading. Quick tip: Be sure the broom handle is smooth and if it’s made of wood, that it’s new and doesn’t have any splinters that’ll make it uncomfortable or potentially harmful.

2. Rolling pin or paint roller
Similar to a broom handle but even easier to use (which makes this especially great for older folks), a simple kitchen rolling pin can be a wonderful way to “roll” out sore quads and IT bands. You might even use this to gently roll out your abdomen, says Erik Krozen, D.C., a chiropractic physician in Modena, Illinois. And if a rolling pin provides too much pressure, swap it for a paint roller, he says, which can be a bit more gentle and easier to maneuver because it only requires one hand.
The how-to: Holding the rolling pin handles, gently apply pressure as you roll up and down each leg, focusing on areas that feel particularly tight or sore. Depending on your flexibility, you might even be able to hold it behind you and give your lower back and glutes a massage.

3. Lacrosse ball
For Kyra Williams, a certified personal trainer and powerlifting coach, lacrosse balls are a crucial part of her at-home fitness and feel-good routine. “They’re great because they are small enough to really work out knots in the most common spots where we hold tension, and they’re just hard enough to help you apply the right pressure,” says Williams. “Tennis balls are a bit too soft.”
The how-to: Think of these like a much smaller version of a foam roller, says Williams: “Place one on the floor and roll out your back, shoulders, traps and even your bum,” she says. “Or, place the lacrosse ball on a wall and lean into it with your shoulders, chest, and back, applying just enough pressure until you feel it working out your muscle tightness and knots.” If you suffer from chronic back pain, tape two lacrosse balls together so they look like a peanut in its shell and use to roll up and down your spine, either laying on the balls on the floor or using them against a wall.

4. Frozen water bottle
If you deal with foot pain regularly or spend a lot of time standing for work, there’s a good chance all of those little muscles in the bottom of your feet are strained.
The how-to: Simply place the frozen water bottle on the floor and roll back and forth under your whole foot, paying special attention to super-sore areas as well as your heels, says Williams. Uncomfortably cold? Slip on a pair of warm socks and keep rolling. Williams suggests rolling each foot for five to 15 minutes at least once a day, and possibly more frequently if you’re a runner or have been diagnosed with plantar fasciitis.

5. PVC pipes
When Williams travels for running races, she stuffs her clothes into a two-foot long PVC pipe and packs it in her suitcase so she can “roll” out her muscles the night before her race. “It does the same thing as a foam roller but the material is even harder, which means you get a deeper massage,” she says. This can feel particularly great on large muscle groups, such as hamstrings, which can be tougher to release than smaller, more easily accessible muscles, says Williams.
The how-to: Place the PVC pipe on the floor and lean your body weight into it, bracing yourself with your hands or legs so that you can easily control the pressure. Then, roll up and down your muscles along the back and front of your body, focusing on particularly tight spots.

6. Car buffer
This may sound ridiculous, but rather than go to a store to buy a specialty massage wand, Williams says her car buffer works just as well—for a fraction of the price. “It really sends some deep vibrations into your muscles and the best part is that it’s a small, handheld device so you have complete control over where you want those vibrations to go,” she says.
The how-to: Holding the buffer and starting with the slowest setting, apply just a little bit of pressure to your chest, quads, hips, IT band, calves and any other tight spot that you can reach, suggests Williams.

The post 6 Self-Massage Tools to Restore Your Body at Home appeared first on Sonima.