Joint Pain - Simple Home Remedies

Joint pains are very disadvantageous because they can interfere in the normal functioning of people. From an Ayurvedic point of view, joint pains occur when there are digestive problems in the body, which leads to the buildup of toxins in the spaces between the joints. Hence, when the joints are moved in the slightest, pain is felt in them.

Some people live with excruciating joint pains that don’t go despite treatment. They look upon these pains as a part of growing up. However, with the right kind of medicine these pains can be totally eliminated.

Treatment with Simple Home Remedies

Remedy # 1

Take the juice of a ginger. Crush some vidanga (Embelia ribes, False Black Pepper) to a fine powder with some rock salt. Mix all of these and take them in quantities of three grams each time with honey. Lick on this thrice a day.

Remedy # 2

Massage the paining joints with the oil extracted from the seeds of the Bishop’s weed. Warm the oil a little before massaging. A similar kind of relief is obtained by massaging with the oil of neem (Azadirachta indica, Indian Margosa).

Remedy # 3

In case of joint pains due to cold weather, add a fistful of Bishop’s weed seeds and one teaspoon of salt in two cups of water and boil it. Keep a sieve on this, and then keep a cloth on the sieve. The cloth will get moistened with the warm fumes of the solution. Use this cloth to foment the painful joints. This will remove the pains.

Remedy # 4

Some joint pains are felt more acutely in the knees, fingers and shoulders when lifting some heavy weight. These are very persistent pains in most cases, and they do not dissipate despite treatments. In such pains, tomatoes are the best solutions due to their rich vitamin C content. Eat four to five raw tomatoes in a day, and eat one bowlful of thick tomato soup twice a day – in the morning and the evening. This provides great relief within a fortnight of continued use.

Remedy # 5

If there are sharp and sudden joint pains in any part of the body, then grind an amalaki (Emblica officinalis, Indian Gooseberry) in water that is a little warm. Then add a slightly crushed piece of cardamom in the water. Drink this concoction once a day. This will retain the zest and vigor of the body and also prevent all the inexplicable pains that arise suddenly in different parts of the body.

Remedy # 6

Take a petal of the yellow oleander flower, known as kaner in Hindi, and grind it to a paste in groundnut oil. Apply this paste regularly on the regions where the joint pains arise. Continuous use will totally eliminate the pains.

Remedy # 7

You can also grind some cloves of garlic and apply the paste on the affected joints. This will remove the pains in a short while. But the problem with this remedy is that the garlic paste needs to be washed off within a few minutes, or it will lead to boils on the skin.

Remedy # 8

Prepare a paste of mustard seeds with a little water. Apply this oily paste onto the affected joints. The pains will be eliminated in a short while.

Remedy # 9

This is a regimen that will take care of joint pains, but it takes some patience. Every morning after waking up, eat castor seeds in the following manner. On the first day of the routine, eat one peeled castor seed, on the second day two and so on keep increasing the number by one till the seventh day. From the eighth day onwards, begin reducing the number of castor seeds by one. Do this till the number comes down to one. The joint pains will vanish by then.

Remedy # 10

Cook some seeds of Bishop’s weed in water. Let the water boil and the fumes come out. Bring your affected joints in contact with the fumes. This will make the joint pains disappear.

Remedy # 11

Put some bitter oil in a pan. Add some seeds of the Bishop’s weed and some cloves of garlic. Use this oil to massage deep into the regions where you get frequent joint pains. This remedy has the potency to remove any kind of joint pains if done diligently.

Remedy # 12

Crush two cloves of garlic and add them to some sesame oil. Warm the oil and massage it deep into the paining joints. You will find immense benefits from this therapy.

Remedy # 13

If the pains are not that severe, then a simple steam fomentation with a cloth will also help. The cloth must be moistened with the vapors and then pressed deep into the affected areas. Fomentation must be done for at least twenty minutes a day, and preferably at dusk.

Remedy # 14

Prepare a brew of ginger juice in castor oil. Take no more than 10 milliliters of castor oil and a teaspoonful of the juice of ginger. Drink this twice a day – at dawn and at dusk – on an empty stomach.

Treatment with Special Ayurvedic Methods

Since joint pains are related to the accumulation of ama, the first step in their treatment is to remove all the toxins. This is done by making the patient fast for a day. After this, fomentation is applied on the swollen joints with dry heat. Castor oil is used extensively in Ayurveda to perform massage in case of joint pains. Herbs prescribed in various potencies are galangal, garlic, guggul and punarnava. Dashamoolarishta is the preparation most commonly prescribed, and treatment is generally carried on for three weeks.