Caster Oil: Your New Best Friend
So you’ve decided to make a New Year’s resolution to get healthy. You start going to the gym and exercising more frequently, but all of a sudden….. your joints ache and you can hardly get out of bed. Hey! Who’s bright idea was this anyway?! Yours and it’s a good one- you just need a little castor oil in your life.
When you overuse your muscles and joints they swell and become inflamed. This swelling, in turn, causes pain. Logically, if you reduce the inflammation the pain will diminish. Here is where castor oil comes in to play.
Castor oil has many joint and musculature benefits mainly thanks to something called ricinoleic acid. Ricinoleic acid has anti-inflammatory properties and castor oil consists of around 90 per cent ricinoleic acid. When applied to the skin, castor oil sooths muscle and joint aches.
The best and most effective way to utilize the benefits of castor oil is to create a castor oil pack:
Make a small pad by folding a small piece of unbleached cotton flannelette into 3 or 4 layers.
Dip the cotton pad into Castor Oil and place it on to the affected joint or muscle.
Cover the pad with a plastic wrap.
Place a hot water bottle or heating pad over the plastic wrapped cotton pad. The plastic wrap will prevent the water bottle or heating pad from getting oily.
Leave the cotton pad on for 45 minutes to an hour, once per day.
This Castor Oil pack can be reused. Simply place it into a plastic ziplock bag and refrigerate it until it is ready to be used again.
