Turpentine: The Healing Oil?
If you can find a better, holistic solution to your aches and pains, would you try it? Skip the Advil, because you’re in luck! Turpentine oil has been used as healing medicine for generations to remedy soreness and muscle pains.
Turpentine oil has been largely used as a paint thinner and brush cleaner. It’s used as a raw material in the synthesis of resins, oil additives, synthetic pine oil and campor, according to Britannica. The oil can be obtained through cooking wood pulp, steam distillation of shredded pine, or from the distillation of the exudates of tapped pine trees.
Turpentine oil is colorless, oily, odorous and flammable and creates a warming sensation when applied to the skin. Many notice an immediate effect after applying, and their pain is reduced within hours. Use a small amount to either massage or swab on the affected area. For best results, apply the oil 3-4 times daily until pain or soreness improves.
Turpentine oil can be used for many ailments:
- Muscle Pain
- Toothaches
- Lung Congestion
- Joint and Nerve Pain
- Cold Sores
- Sprains
- Cramps
Cautions
Please use this oil at your own caution, consult a physician to be sure this the right product for you. Be sure not to apply turpentine oil to any open wounds or swallow in excess amounts. You can use it on cold sores only before they erupt. You can add the turpentine oil to a humidifier or vaporizer to inhale and clear lung congestion.
Make sure to wrap or cover the areas of the body where the oil has been applied for better penetration and avoid staining clothes or furniture. Turpentine oil is flammable, so be sure to wash your hands after each application.
Turpentine oil’s smell is intense, and to some, unpleasant. You can mix it with your favorite essential oils to create a better smelling remedy. Other essential oils have their own valuable uses; find out which oils are best for you.
About the Author
Dr. Jack Kruse Explains the Importance of Sunlight Vitamin D for Health
Of all the health secrets, one of the most sought-after is how to optimize our health, and a common question is why health and healing have to be so complicated. But perhaps it doesn’t.
Neurosurgeon Dr. Jack Kruse carries a simple message to think about how exposure to sunlight has gotten a bad rap over the past few decades and how our relationship to the sun is the key to staying well and energized.
Dr. Kruse says we seem to have forgotten that the sunlight’s system of photosynthesis supports most of the food chain on this planet. And, since our skin is derived from neuroectoderm (cellular structures associated with the brain and nervous system) we rely on the sun for photosynthesis to make vitamin D to protect our health. Vitamin D is too often overlooked by modern medicine in its role to keep us alive and healthy. Maybe, suggests Kruse, we need to rethink our position on Vitamin D and how we produce it.
Let There Be Light
In a recent interview, Dr. Kruse tells Regina Meredith that too many of us are continually exposed to artificial indoor light, causing us to miss out on vital factors required to boost the immune system and allow it to work optimally. Our bodies require the full spectrum of the sun’s rays to produce vitamin D, a hormone naturally created in our skin cells and used for myriad biochemical processes.
The Mayo Clinic explains that vitamin D is needed to regulate many cellular functions in the body and acts to support anti-inflammatory responses, antioxidant activity, nerve cells, the immune system, muscle function, and brain cell activity. Beyond this, explains Dr. Kruse, vitamin D is helpful in warding off viruses and bacteria, and helping the cells efficiently create and use energy.
Vitamin D is an overlooked nutrient, especially in northern climates where sunlight can be scarce for months at a time. Kruse links a number of health issues with vitamin D deficiency, including obesity, bone malformation, psoriasis, heart failure in the newly born, osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease, arthritis, mental illness, diabetes, and even cancer, as well as most autoimmune diseases. Much of these health issues may be attributed to what Dr. Kruse calls a “quantum-biological problem,” meaning that it’s a story about sunlight and our relationship to it.
A fact of nature is that skin color, as well as other personal health factors, influences how much sunlight we need, which determines our state of health, the efficiency of the immune system, and the production of energy in our cells. People with darker skin need more sunlight than those with lighter skin to produce vitamin D. It’s not a racial problem, says Kruse, but rather a biological issue, despite how media may misinterpret it and how some physicians can misunderstand or overlook this fact. We have to be aware of our skin type and gauge our exposure to the sun accordingly, to glean the benefits of good health and to ward off a host of illnesses.
