Not only Wayne Rooney or Usain Bolt, you too can have sports injuries. You can injure any part of your body during exercise or while participating in a sport. There may be an accident such as somebody charging at the football which misses and lands on your foot during a game of football. It can be a hamstring injury, a fall, a calf muscle cramp, or anything else. The gamut of sports injuries is really undefined.
Some common sports injuries that you can suffer from are knee injury, tendon injury, shin bone injury, fractures and dislocations. Poor training methods, improper sports gear etc can also cause sports injuries. Whatever it is, it hurts. If the injury is acute the pain and inflammation hurts. If it is chronic you may have been advised by the doctor to stay out of sports for a long time; that hurts more than the injury.
The first step in treating sports injuries is to stop activities, especially activities that may hurt. Then you should apply some ice on the injured area to act fast on the swelling and pain. But along with all these you should have treatments that can alleviate all the symptoms of injuries. There are a lot of herbs for such injuries. Let us explore some herbal remedies for sports injuries.
Herbal Remedies For Sports Injuries
St. Johns Wort
The natural oil present in St. John’s wort has been found to work quite well against deep muscle spasms and pain. It is significantly useful against neural pain and joint pain.
As neural pain can be the severest form of pain you can get a lot of relief by using natural oils found in St. John’s wort. You can get St. John’s wort oil in local pharmacy stores. Quickly bring a bottle of this and massage the affected area with this. You will feel relieved a lot.
Calendula, Juniper Berry and Rosemary
A tub of water infused with the goodness of calendula, juniper berry and rosemary can give your tensed muscles and injured tendons a lot of relief. All these herbs have deep tissue oils. The effect is felt deep inside the muscles. The combination has been found to be very effective against muscle soreness.
It can drastically cut the healing time. It can prevent swelling and reduce pain. It can also increase the blood circulation which helps in healing the injury fast. You need to massage a mixture of all these oils on the affected area. You will feel the difference in about an hour.
Ginger
This is a household herbal root that has been found to work very well against a variety of health conditions including injury. It has been seen that ginger can bring down inflammation and soreness of muscle tissue. It also has the ability to reduce stiffness of joints.
For this boil few chopped pieces of ginger in a cup of water for at least 10 minutes. After the solution has cooled off soak a piece of cloth in it and apply on the injured area. With repeated application you will see that the pain and soreness along with stiffness, if any, has considerably come down.
Astragalus
This one is a Chinese herb, but has been growing its clout on the western hemisphere. It is mostly an energy tonic, but the greatest benefit of this herb is that it can strengthen your immune system.
When the immune system is strong you can prevent infections which can accompany injuries or cuts. As an ointment it can be used externally. But it is most beneficial when taken internally. That is when it acts as a immune booster. For consumption you can make tea with this herb or add the herb in culinary preparations.
White Sage
This herb is a powerful disinfectant with excellent anti-inflammatory effect. It’s biggest advantage is that it takes the pain out of injuries and cuts. It also brings down the inflammation.
Monarda
If you have burnt a part of your skin and are suffering from the resulting irritation you can take the help of monarda. It is very useful for irritated skin conditions such as bruises, burns as well as rashes. A diluted tincture of monarda can work wonders for your burn, scratch or bruise.
Arnica Oil
This herbal natural oil has been used since a long time for preventing swelling, redness and pain. The oil helps in increasing circulation. This speeds up healing of injuries. You have to rub the oil on the affected area for at least half an hour. The oil will go deep inside the muscles and prevent swelling and pain.
Caution: Please use Home Remedies after Proper Research and Guidance. You accept that you are following any advice at your own risk and will properly research or consult healthcare professional.