Heal bruises, stop inflammation, break up scar tissue.

Heal bruises & stop inflammation:

Bruising is pretty much internal bleeding, you got whacked so hard that muscle cells and blood vessels broke and bled under your skin. For some people it can take forever to go away, and depending on the intensity it can be swollen and very tender. Deep tissue bruises, especially on joints, can be enough to keep you awake at night. Painkillers and an ice pack give temporary relief, but it’s not promoting the clean up and healing needed in those cells. 

So we’re going to alternate between an ice pack and uncomfortably warm towel to force blood circulation through the throbbing and infected cut on your finger, swollen and sore knee, or even the frustrating stiff neck you woke up with. The heat and cold will relax muscles and numb the pain while giving oxygen rich blood a chance to reach the injury and clean it up faster. First, it’s important to know how hot is too hot, the water we’re putting on the injury needs to be just a little uncomfortable and tingly warm, not boiling! And depending on who you’re helping, a small child or an elderly person, they could be far more sensitive to what’s too warm. Same goes for the cold water, apply some common sense. 

1. Heat a pot of water and soak a kitchen towel in it, then fill a large bowl with ice and cold water and soak a second kitchen towel in it. (Or depending on the spot you’ll apply this to you could just fill a large bowl with hot water and another with ice water to soak the injury in.) Then sit your “patient” down and let them test the temperature of the towels.

2. Start with heat– apply the dripping, slightly over-warm towel to the swollen bruise and hold it there for 30 seconds. It should be relaxing and tingling, not burning. 

3. Next is the cold– remove the hot towel and keep it warm in its pot, then wrap up some ice in the soggy cold towel and lay it on the bruise for 30 seconds. This is going to feel uncomfortably cold because the skin pores were open and the muscles relaxed.

4. Alternate between the hot and cold, 30 seconds each, for at least 5 minutes. The swelling will have gone down a noticeable amount afterward, and doing this at least once a day will fade the bruise faster!

Break up scar tissue:

Depending on how bad the whack that caused this deep bruise was, scar tissue might form under the skin, leaving a small tender lump that feels almost like a stiff muscle. After you do the hot and cold treatment, make cloth bandage and put about a teaspoon of organic castor oil on it, letting it soak in before wrapping it on the bruise. Caster oil is antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, and full of ricinoleic acid– a fatty acid that penetrates deeper than any other topically used oil. It’s able to break up scar tissue, heal scars, draw out slivers, and even dissolve bone spurs. Use it on scar tissue overnight (the sooner the better) to speed up your healing! 

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In the Shade of the Silver Poplars provides content of general nature that is designed for informational purposes only. The content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Do your own research, consult your own sources, make healthy choices.