Have you heard of wintergreen oil therapy? You might have thought of it as something that is added to gum or mouth wash in an attempt to give it bite, but there is a lot more to this essential oil than meets the eye.

Practitioners of alternative medicine consider it a staple, especially if they work with massage and also aromatherapy. You may not find it easily in your supermarket, and as far as alleged cures are concerned, wintergreen oil is still somewhat of a second cousin to other herbs and essential oils that have meanwhile found their ways into soaps, bath salts, and other personal hygiene products.

Practitioners of alternative medicine have discovered that wintergreen and pain relief go hand in hand. Since wintergreen does not have any of the side effects you can read about on the bottles of chemically derived pain meds, it is a perfect means of living a homeopathic lifestyle. Patients of alternative healers usually appreciate this approach and open to the suggestions that when combined with other essential oils – most commonly eucalyptus – the pain relief could indeed be quick and long lasting.

In recent years, wintergreen oil pain therapy has made headlines when it was mentioned in the same breath as chronic illnesses associated with pain. This is especially true for the kinds of pains that tend to be less localized and instead travel from one muscle group to the next.

Even the discomfort commonly associated with the early stages of arthritis may be treated with a lotion that incorporates wintergreen oil. In some cases the direct application of wintergreen oil in conjunction with a deep tissue whole body massage is a surefire way to relax pain away while also giving it that little herbal kick it needs to truly be gone for the time being.

Physicians are attempting to find out what exactly makes wintergreen oil such a powerful pain reliever, especially when it is combined with essential eucalyptus oil. It has been surmised that both substances tend to dilate the little blood vessels, allowing more oxygenated blood to flow through the areas where pain is experienced, and in so doing affects the healing.

This, of course, is already well known in the circles of alternative medicine, but it bears repeating that now even the so called medical establishment is taking note. It only stands to reason that physicians are looking for alternatives to the pain killers they have thus far trusted to provide the pain relief their patients needed.

Since liver problems are such a common response in those predisposed to their development, over the counter pain relievers have fallen into disfavor. Wintergreen oil at this point does not have any known side effects on the musculature and the organs of the human body and it is therefore considered a safe, natural way of relieving pain.

It is good to know that at least one of the substances associated with alternative medicine is finally making it into the mainstream and therefore elevating the art and science of natural healing just a bit further.