Pain and Essential Oils

Kartikay Dhar
3 days ago
3 min read

Tejasvani Knowledge Desk

Pain is misery.One can live with an ailment, but living with pain is deeply uncomfortable.And here, we are not touching emotional pain — the pain of choices.

Modern research increasingly supports what traditional systems have long believed: natural plant-based interventions, including essential oils, can play a meaningful role in pain management, especially when used alongside conventional therapies. Scientific Evidence

A systematic review and meta-analysis (Bakó et al., 2023) concluded:

“Topical essential oils are effective in reducing pain and stiffness in chronic musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) and contribute well to conventional therapies. Repeated application produces the most effective pain-relieving outcomes.”

This supports the growing clinical relevance of essential oils in integrative pain care.

How Pain Is Classified

A comprehensive classification system for chronic pain was developed by the task force of the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP).This framework distinguishes between chronic primary and chronic secondary pain syndromes and integrates factors such as:

Pain severity
Duration and temporal pattern
Psychological and social influences

These classifications were incorporated into ICD-11, released by the World Health Organization (WHO) in June 2018.

Why We Feel Pain

Pain begins when specialized nerve endings called nociceptors detect tissue damage. These receptors send signals through the spinal cord to the brain.

Example:Touching a hot surface activates a reflex arc, causing your hand to withdraw before the brain consciously processes pain. Once the signal reaches the brain, pain is perceived as an unpleasant sensation.

The brain can also release dopamine and other neurotransmitters to counteract pain, influencing how intensely it is experienced.

Types of Pain

Acute Pain

Short-term and intense
Signals injury or tissue damage
Triggers the fight-or-flight response

Forms of acute pain include:

Somatic pain: Skin or superficial tissues
Visceral pain: Internal organs
Referred pain: Pain felt away from the source (e.g., shoulder pain during a heart attack)

Chronic Pain

Persists beyond healing
Can be continuous (arthritis) or intermittent (migraine)
Often linked to nervous system sensitization

Repeated pain signals can overstimulate nerve pathways, a phenomenon known as “wind-up”, causing pain to persist long after the initial trigger.

Specialized Pain Categories

Neuropathic pain: Nerve damage causing tingling, electric-shock sensations
Phantom pain: Pain perceived in an amputated limb
Central pain: Pain due to brain or spinal cord injury

How the Body Processes Pain

Pain perception follows four key steps:

Transduction – harmful stimuli converted to electrical signals
Transmission – signals travel via spinal cord
Modulation – signals amplified or dampened
Perception – brain interprets pain

Pain Receptors (Nociceptors)

Located in the skin, joints, muscles, and internal organs, nociceptors are activated by high-intensity stimuli and include:

Chemical receptors
Mechanical receptors
Thermal receptors
Polymodal receptors

Silent receptors, found mainly in joints, activate during inflammation (e.g., arthritis).

Ascending and Descending Pain Pathways

Pain signals ascend through the spinal cord to the brain’s higher cognitive regions, where emotional and psychological interpretation occurs.

The descending pathway, originating in the periaqueductal gray (PAG) and rostroventromedial medulla (RVM), can either amplify or inhibit pain.

Natural Inhibition of Pain

Pain inhibition is mediated by endogenous opioid peptides such as:

Enkephalins
Dynorphins

These bind to opioid receptors, reducing nerve excitability and blocking pain transmission.

An imbalance in this system often underlies neuropathic and inflammatory pain.

How Essential Oils Help Reduce Pain

1. Opioid & Cannabinoid Receptor Interaction

(-)-Linalool interacts with opioid receptors
β-Caryophyllene (from Piper nigrum) activates CB2 cannabinoid receptors, reducing inflammation
Cannabinoid and opioid pathways work synergistically to enhance analgesia

2. Central & Peripheral Analgesia

Essential oils show activity both:

Centrally (brain-mediated relief)
Peripherally (direct site-of-pain action)

3. Neurotransmitter Modulation

Oils like lavender promote the release of endorphins, creating a calming, pain-reducing effect.

4. TRP Channel Modulation

Essential oil constituents act on Transient Receptor Potential (TRP) channels, altering how the body detects heat, cold, and pain.

5. Anti-Inflammatory Action

Oils such as eucalyptus reduce inflammation by:

Decreasing edema
Inhibiting neutrophil activity

Tejasvani Pain Relief Oils

Our pain relief oil formulations have shown excellent real-world outcomes and can be customized based on individual needs, targeting both inflammation and neural sensitization.