There are a few popular brands these days, but beware. Just because a  product is popular doesn’t make it the most effective or healthiest choice. To review from our last article on how to choose a pain relieving gel, your next decision is which ‘active ingredient’ is best suited to your individual situation.

There are four main categories of effect for pain relief to look for in these ingredients  – analgesic, anesthetic (pain-killing), anti-inflammatory, and irritating or rubefacient (which, counter-intuitively, is not undesirable in a pain-medicine).

Be careful, some ingredients can trigger allergic reactions or unwanted side effects. Some ingredients may have more than one of these effects – aspirin, for instance, is both analgesic and anti-inflammatory. ‘Irritating’ ingredients are those such as menthol and camphor, which cause a mild, not-unpleasant stinging sensation that some people feel as heat and others feel as a chill.

This causes a pain-relieving effect because the nerves are ‘distracted’ in sending the brain the heat/chilling message, and thus can’t carry the sore-muscle message at the same time.

Look for the following common ingredients on the labels of pain medications:

How to Read Ingredients:

When evaluating whether a pain relieving gel is right for you, take into consideration whether the active ingredients come from natural plant sources or are synthetic.

You will also want to check how many of the ingredients are fillers, such as water, or are included just to change the texture, such as thickening agents. These types of ingredients do not necessarily add to the effectiveness of the preparation, yet you are paying for them anyway.

Many over the counter gels are manufactured with alcohol and glycerin, neither of which necessary for pain relief and can irritate the skin.

What to Look for in a  Pain Relieving Gel:

All natural or herbal, little or no chemical synthetic ingredients More pain relieving ingredients than inactive or filler ingredients The preparation pure and has little or no added water?

Be sure to evaluate the popular brands and then consider alternatives that meet all of the requirements.

Well Known Brands of Pain Relieving Gels

The most well known brands of pain relieving gels are: Flexall Biofreeze Sorenomore Compare the ingredients:

Ramedica Herbal Wonder Balm is by far the best all- herbal,  natural pain relieving gel out performing Biofreeze gel, Flexall and Sorenomore.

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