Getting Real Pain Relief with Helichrysum Essential Oil

Yes, it’s true: Helichrysum essential oil provides fast-acting, effective pain relief for a great many physical ailments. Aromatherapy companies are, by law, prevented from advertising this fact directly along with their products, but it’s true. Many, many individuals are regularly using this very healing oil to both reduce pain and, depending on the injury or ailment, to actually speed healing. As noted by Dr. Kurt Schnaubelt, America’s leading medical aromatherapist, the effects of this oil are “so convincing that it has never met with any kind of criticism.” So what’s special about Helichrysum, where do you get it and how do you use it?

The essential oil steam distilled from the little yellow flowers of the Helichrysum plant (the oil is also known as ‘Everlasting’ and ‘Immortelle’) is in a class by itself for the three most important factors for a medicine: safety, efficacy and ease-of-use. Some essential oils used for pain must be used with caution; those containing methyl salicilate should be used sparingly due to their toxicity potential. Helichrysum however, has no such restrictions in the aromatherapy literature. It is in fact, one of the few essential oils recommended for direct application to the skin in the most critical or immediate cases.

It’s the efficacy — the ability to reduce pain and heal that is most remarkable about Helichrysum. Nearly every form of pain seems to respond positively to Helichrysum essential oil application. Joint pain, back pain, muscular and connective tissue pain, nerve pain, and pain resulting from injury, surgery and trauma can all be helped. The most common usage of the essential oil is a dilution in Jojoba oil, massaged into the affected areas a few times a day. The oil can also be used completely undiluted if desired for the most severe or immediate situations.

Making our own formulation is very easy to do. It is recommended to start of with lower dilutions and work your way up only if necessary; this helps you conserve the precious oil by only using as much as required for the desired results. Forty drops of Helicrysum in each ounce of carrier oil will create an approximate 5 percent dilution; eighty drops for a 10 percent dilution; etc. The pure essential oil, not diluted in any carrier oil, is recommended when a trauma has just occurred, to prevent further tissue damage due to swelling and oxidative free-radicals. For example, a twisted ankle could receive a few drops of the pure oil from a fingertip, massaged into the painful region immediately after the injury, and several times over the next 24 hours.

Beyond its efficacy for pain relief, the oil is thought to actually speed healing and recovery. The oil does this though its synergy of natural chemical constituents; some quench free radicals, some reduce inflammation, and others signal tissues to regenerate on a cellular level. These effects make the oil an excellent addition to many blends for natural skin care — it is found in recipes for anti-aging, wrinkly reduction, scar reduction and dermatitis. It is also excellent for minor burn treatment, often instantly relieving pain from those small wounds that happen occasionally in the kitchen and around the home. Further, if one has just received a cut and wishes to reduce the potential for a scar, the oil can be applied once bleeding has stopped regularly until healing is complete (a 10% formula in Rosehip seed oil is an excellent choice).

The finest of Helichrysum essential oil varieties is considered to be that distilled from plants grown on the island of Corsica, France. The environmental conditions and sub-species genetics result in a unique natural chemical composition of the essential oil with strong anti-inflammate, analgesic and regenerative properties. This oil may be listed as Helicrysum italicum sub-species ’serotinum’. You may find that other varieties work as well for your needs, and can experiment as you see fit.

Helichrysum is considered by many therapists to be one of, if not THE, most profoundly healing essential oil used today. It is safe and effective for a wide variety of physical pain and ailments where the body’s connective tissue, skin, muscles, joints and nerves are affected. (More esoteric aromatherapy even uses the oil as a healer of the heart center, which may be constricted or closed from many years of emotional trauma). Whatever your need for pain relief and healing, Helichrysum essential oil may offer the help you need, quickly and safely.