What I Make At Home For Topical Pain Relief

[chartist]

Some people find ibuprofen to give satisfactory pain relief, but regular use of Ibuprofen can cause significant gastrointestinal issues or damage. I make a topical ibuprofen lotion or spray to minimize the potential for these gastro issues and to also minimize the amount of systemic ibuprofen. This method allows for higher local tissue levels of ibuprofen with lower amounts of systemic ibuprofen and lower amounts of ibuprofen in the gastrointestinal system.

I'm not recommending this, just describing what I do to make an ibuprofen spray or lotion for topical pain relief. I believe ibuprofen cream is available in the UK, but not in the US.

Consult your doctor to make sure this will be safe for you and will be compatible with all of your medications and health conditions.

An easy way to test if it will be helpful for you before making a full batch is to take a shot glass half full of lotion and add the contents from two ibuprofen soft gels to the lotion by poking a hole in the soft gels with a pointed wooden toothpick and then squeeze all of the contents from the two soft gels into the lotion. Use the same toothpick to stir the lotion very well. Once stirred very well, try applying it to the painful area. If it works and you find it effective, then you can consider making a good sized batch such as an eight ounce batch.

If you want your batch to be lotion based, then take an 8 ounce jar of lotion. Take ibuprofen tablets that are white in color. Use enough tablets to equal approximately 5000 mg of Ibuprofen. I generally use 400 mg prescription tablet ibuprofen because these are always white tablets and it only takes 12 to 14 tablets. Most 200 mg tablets that you buy at the store have a color coating and you can't use these because the color on the tablet will stain everything. If you don't have white tablets, you can use 25 to 28, 200 mg soft gels the same way you did for the initial testing. Puncture the soft gels and squeeze their contents into the 8 ounces of lotion. Shake very well and it is ready for use.

For the white tablets, I grind the tablets in a bullet type blender until it is a very fine powder. I add this powder to the 8 ounce jar of lotion and shake very well. Allow to sit overnight, shake well and it is ready for use.

If you want to make a spray, take 8 ounces of 50% isopropyl alcohol or if you don't like using isopropyl alcohol use 8 ounces of gin and put it in the bullet type blender. Add the 5000 mg of white ibuprofen tablets and blend until there is just liquid and no more tablets or powder. Pour this liquid into a spray bottle and it is ready for use.

Again, if you can't get the white tablets, use the contents from the appropriate number of soft gels in place of tablets. Shake well and add to a spray bottle. It is ready for use. That's it.

Art

[Sydney75]

Thought the over the counter Voltaren was a nsaid topical gel 1% would ypur veesion be more potent?

[chartist in reply to Sydney75]

Voltaren gel is meant to be used over a limited surface of the body such as knees or neck and may cause organ problems if used over large areas of the body for extended periods of time. The formulation seems to be very well absorbed and more of the diclofenac is likely to go systemic. It is recommended for use on two body parts at a time and has not been studied for arthritis pain relief of the shoulders, hips or back as discussed here :

voltarengel.com/faqs.html#a...

Here is a list of potential side effects of Voltaren :

drugs.com/sfx/voltaren-arth...

Ibuprofen would not likely be more potent.

Art

[Sydney75 in reply to chartist]

Thank you, do you think the cream you make would be hard on the kidneys like other NSAIDs?

[chartist in reply to Sydney75]

I don't think an alcohol base or body lotion base will offer as much systemic availability as a gel like Voltaren with other ingredients that may help enhance penetration of the dermal layers such as propylene glycol. When you consider how much actual ibuprofen you are applying with 2 or 3 sprays, it isn't much compared to taking a 200 mg pill that you swallow, but it allows for a fairly high local tissue concentration that you might not even be able to get from an 800 mg pharmacologic prescription dose of ibuprofen.

Art

[Boscoejean in reply to Sydney75]

Voltaren (diclofenac) high risk of heart attack

npr.org/sections/health-sho....

[MarionP]

Art, can you say a bit about how it works for you, how well it works, how do you use it, a bit of that experience, a bit of all that?

[chartist in reply to MarionP]

It gives faster relief of pain than orally dosed ibuprofen, usually in a minute to 3 minutes and it lasts about as long as oral ibuprofen. I have made it for friends and they tell me that it is convenient to carry a small spray bottle in pocket or purse and gives rapid relief to various joint pains, similarly to oral ibuprofen, but helps to avoid large systemic amounts and large amounts in the gastrointestinal tract. My friends and myself have not reported any problems from this topical application of ibuprofen, but this is a very limited group.

They make an ibuprofen gel in the UK :

boots.com/boots-max-strengt...

If oral ibuprofen does not offer much pain relief, I would not expect this spray to be any better, but it seems worth a try with the simple method I mentioned to test it for effectiveness higher up in this thread.

Art

[MarionP in reply to chartist]

Definitely going to try it, I think it's an excellent idea since it's had results.

[chartist in reply to MarionP]

Did you try it yet, Marion?

Art

[MarionP in reply to chartist]

Okay Art, I mixed up a batch and I tried it and it worked just fine, very good result! Everyone take note!!

[chartist in reply to MarionP]

Thank you for the feedback, Marion, that will be useful info for forum members dealing with pain issues. Did you find the effects to last similarly to oral ibuprofen?

Art

[Smittybear7]

Thanks for sharing. Thank God I don't need this now but it's good information to know.

[Sandmanliz]

thanks for sharing. Remember the other side effects of an ibuprofen is an increase bleeding time. having surgery soon, I would wait to do it till after it’s over. .

[MarionP]

No, sorry, I was using up all the diclofenac I had. But I'm on the last little bit so very soon now. Thanks for asking and I will be sure to let you know.

[House2]

consider adding mugwort and rosemary oil

[enjoy2013]

hi Art,

I’m struggling with a sciatica for 2 months now. Wasn’t able to help myself with nsaid due to GI problems. Voltaren patch was so so.

What about a naproxen solution ?

[chartist in reply to enjoy2013]

I have a friend who also has sciatica pain and I made ibuprofen lotion for her to try. She said it relieved enough pain to make it tolerable so she could function. Naproxen lotion, in my experience, is generally slightly more effective than ibuprofen lotion. Some friends have reported some relief from melatonin lotion for sciatica pain also. I wrote about how to make it here :

healthunlocked.com/cure-par...

Using an ice pack on the area of the sciatic nerve is also useful for relieving the pain. Three times per day for three days in a row until the ice pack is no longer cold.

My impression of sciatica pain is that the stretching exercises are more of a long term fix. The various pain relieving topicals make it easier to do the exercises. There are many videos illustrating these stretching exercises on YouTube. Here is a link to some typical videos :

youtube.com/results?search_...

Art