Foot massage is really enjoyable. But, you can add tremendous benefits to the foot massage by using essential oils.
Because only enjoyment isn’t enough. You need to care your feet, provide extra nutrients to your feet’s skin, and strengthen them. That’s why you should use essential oil to massage your feet.
They can relax your tired painful feet, fight bacteria and fungi, treat inflammation, and improves skin health.
Let’s dig deeper…
What is Essential Oil
Essential oils are the types of oil that contain the essence of the plant from where they are extracted. It is a hydrophobic concentrated liquid that contains volatile chemical compounds. Other names of essential oils are volatile oils, ethereal oils, and aetherolea.
Essential oils are produced by several processes. The most common process is distillation by using steam. Other processes are cold pressing, expression, solvent extraction, absolute oil extraction, and wax embedding.
Generally, essential oils are used for aromatherapy in a spa salon or massage parlor. It is also used in perfume as fragrance, in food as a flavor, and in various cosmetics products. The essential oil is also widely used to care for health, skin, and hair.
How Essential Oils Work
We know essential oil is good for health. But do we know how essential oils work?
Mainly essential oil works in two ways-
- Through inhalation
- Through topical application
Generally, we inhaled the aroma of essential oil through the nose or mouth. When it enters our body, it delivers some signals to our brain. These signals stimulate the limbic system of the brain. The limbic system works effectively on sense, behavior, emotion, and memory boosting. It also works on some core functions of our boy such as blood pressure, breathing, and heart rate.
Through inhalation, it also enters the respiratory system. Thus it works on various organs of our body through different pathways.
Read Also: Best Ball of Foot Pads for High Heels to Reduce Foot Pain.
On the other hand, when we apply an essential oil topically, it enters into our body because of our skin’s permeability. But, it is not recommended to use directly on your skin. You should use it through blending with other carrier oils or water.
After applying on the skin, the active bio-chemicals of essential oil enter into our body and work on various hormones and glands. Study shows that essential oil absorbs better on those areas where sweat glands or hair follicles are in great quantities. It includes armpits, head, soles, hand palms, genital areas, and wrist.
Most Beneficial Essential Oils for Foot Massage
There are lots of essential oils available with tremendous benefits. But, you can not use all of them to massage your feet. Problems of feet are quite different than others. So you need special essential oils to treat those problems.
Here are some…
- Lavender essential oil
- Peppermint essential oil
- Rosemary essential oil
- Coriander seed essential oil
- Eucalyptus essential oil
- Lemongrass essential oil
- Cypress essential oil
- Thyme essential oil
- Geranium essential oil
- Birch essential oil
If you want to know more about these essential oils, just read the Best Essential Oil for Foot Massage
Benefits of Massaging Essential Oil for Bottom of Feet
Treats Muscle Pain, Cramps, and Aching
These are common foot problems for everyone, especially for those who are athletes or do exercise. Muscle pain is caused by various reasons such as injury, prolonged standing, wearing the wrong footwear, etc.
Massaging with essential oil gives you great relief from muscle pain. The biochemical compounds of essential oils enter into the muscle and relax it. They also reduce the pain sensation while massaging. A good foot massage improves the blood circulation into your feet and helps to work the essential oil more efficiently.
Some best essential oils for muscle pain are lavender, peppermint, rosemary, coriander seed oil, eucalyptus, etc.
Relieves from Tired Feet
Tired feet are one kind of burning sensation or dizziness of your feet. Massaging feet is a great way to reduce the tiredness of feet. It improves blood circulation and mild pressure relaxes the muscle. Essential oil boosts the effectiveness of the foot massage. Some essential oils relax muscles and tendons and provide essential nutrients to strengthen your feet.
Essential oils for tired feet are lavender, eucalyptus, thyme, geranium, and cypress essential oil.
Inhibits fungal infection
Our foot is really prone to fungal infection. It has to face sweat, dirt, and impurities more than any other body parts. The most common fungal infections of the foot are athlete’s feet, ringworm, jock itch, nail fungus, etc. Some essential oils show great activity against fungal infection.
If your feet are not infected by fungus, don’t think there is no necessity of foot massage with essential oil. It can protect your feet from future fungal infections. So, massage your feet regularly with essential oils to treat fungal infections. After massaging, apply essential oil to the infected area. Don’t use essential oil directly, use it by mixing it with a carrier oil.
Some effective essential oils for fungal infections are thyme, cinnamon, oregano, clove, lemongrass, and tea tree oil. You can also use eucalyptus, geranium, and peppermint essential oils.
Gives Antibacterial Benefits
Essential oils are very much familiar with its antibacterial nature. You can use essential oil to fight various bacterial infections. Using essential oil is now a well-established way to kill bacteria inside and outside of the body. It protects you from the bacterial infection of the ingrown nail. Unlike antibiotic drugs, essential oils don’t kill good bacteria. And it doesn’t create resistance against bacterial pathogens.
The aldehydes, phenolics, terpenes, and other antimicrobial compounds make essential oil is an effective tool to fight harmful bacteria (source). The bactericidal activity may vary on the nature and composition of essential oils.
Essential oils that are highly effective against harmful bacteria are cinnamon, thyme, oregano, tea tree, eucalyptus, and lavender oil.
Treats Inflammation
Inflammation is really painful. But, it is not bad. It is the response of the immune system to the injured area. Most of the time inflammation gets cured by itself with a short period of time. But, some also last for long.
Essential oil is a good and proven way to treat inflammation. Study proves that some essential oils treat inflammation by suppressing inflammatory enzyme (COX-2) by 25% to 75% (source).
Essential oils are the rich source of antioxidants which is great for inflammation. It also improves the immune system of your body to settle down the inflammation. Massaging the foot with certain essential oils gives you great relief from the pain of muscle, joints, and tendons. You can also treat swollen feet with essential oils.
The most used essential oils for inflammation are lavender, roman rosemary, eucalyptus, peppermint, black pepper, lemongrass, and birch essential oil.
Removes Foot Odor
Foor odor is very embarrassing. Don’t worry, you can treat it naturally with essential oil. Foot odor is mainly caused by bacteria. The antibacterial nature of the essential oils keeps you protected from bacterial attacks. Massaging your feet with essential oil keeps your feet odor-free.
The Last Words
Essential oils are very much effective to get a wonderful foot massage. You should pick the best essential oil wisely for foot care. Only then you can get the exact benefits of foot massage with essential oils. Don’t massage it directly on your feet. If you have any allergic reaction to a certain essential oil, shift to another. And share the after-use feeling of essential oils with us.
Thanks.