muscle rubs - any recommendations?

[Gia C]

Can anyone recommend a good muscle rub with natural ingredients? I use deep heat at the moment on my wrist and arm and I was wondering what it actually contained, but can't seem to find out much info., can anyone out there help....

 

[mataripis a ugnay]

Tiger balm is very good and is natural- a lot like deep heat

 

[GreLarueaa]

I second tiger balm. It doesn't have the chemically smell like deep heat and the little pot lasts ages.

Deep Heat Active Ingredients

Menthol 5.91475%Eucalyptus Oil 1.97231%Methyl Salicylate 12.80123%Turpentine Oil 1.47287%Copper sulphate compound 0.56%taken from wiki

 

[Margaret]

tiger balm is my favourite too although i'm in the process of making my own version as tiger balm has parrafin in. try typing in natural muscle rub in to google and see what comes up - there are quite a few available.

 

[Pompal 09.]

Songbird Naturals also have a "tiger" balm it's lovely

 

[tamsie]

Hi All, definitely recommend Tiger Balm, used it for years.

Therapist1960uk

 

[Mouadh]

I think Tiger Balm is effective stuff. But unless you have a sensitivity to petroleum jelly used as a base, does it really matter? Only small amounts are used for therapeutic purposes. The use of commonsense is needed.

Also I must mention there is a lot of fake Tiger Balm around and is generally useless. The original is in a hexagonal container and produced under licence from Haw Par Corporation Ltd, Singapore.

The difference between Red and White Tiger Balm is that the Red has Cassia (Cinnamon) Oil which is used to stimulate blood circulation.

Best Wishes

RP

 

[Sezza]

I recently went on a course and was told that petroleum and paraffin based products create a barrier on the skin which retains moisture in the skin (good thing) but it maintains this barrier for several days stopping your body excreting toxins through the skin (bad thing). They also clog the pores. I also don't like the idea of rubbing something on my skin which is made from petroleum which in it's raw form is crude oil! The main reason it is used in cosmetics is because it's cheap.

 

[Linus Upp]

I'm not keen on mineral oil or petro jelly being used on me either, though i do think sometimes it can be hard to avoid it.
My dad has some red tiger balm and also some himani navratna oil that he uses on his sore joints, he said the navratna oil works best so far, but it contains some mineral oil.....though unlike tiger balm it's not the only base as it contains sesame oil too.
Navratna oil gets rave reviews on mouthshut.com though i can't say for myself that i've found it to work as i don't really use it. If there isn't an Indian grocers near you and you want to read more info about it then the ingredients are listed on spicesofindia.co.uk.
Blue ease cream is meant to be very good too, but it contains emu oil so wouldn't be suitable for vegetarians. Dog oil also has it's fans but i can't remember what's in that.....though i'm sure it's not actually made from dogs.....i think it got it's name from originally being used on race dogs.
HTH

 

[Happy mommy]

Hi Lavendula

Considering that tiger balm is used for small areas, the disadvantage of a petroleum jelly base isn't a big issue. It would be an issue for me using a product from crude oil on a ongoing basis. To me life is about balance and weighing the pros and cons, not based on preciousness ;-)

Best Wishes

RP

 

[Hannah Summers]

Your probably right Reiki Pixie about the effect it will have considering the small area being rubbed. I like to use tiger balm for headaches and sinus problems as well as for muscles - If it clogs the pores then using it on my face is probably not the best move but can see that using it elsewhere on a small scale wouldn't necessarily be a problem. But for products that are supposed to be used widespread on the body that contain petroleum/parrafin, well I would definitely steer clear of them.

 

[Fredric]

Thanks everyone, looks like Tiger Balm it is!

Jojo - I also like your songbird naturals recommendation and just had a browse through their site; I've had massage wax from them before, (the rose one is fab).