Hot Ginger Compress

A hot ginger compress is an excellent way to cure tennis elbow.  The heat will work to treat trigger points, and the ginger works as a natural anti-inflammatory.  It is really a great combination.  In fact, this was the first remedy I tried when curing my own tennis elbow.

Be careful with really high heat  If you have extreme inflammation and no trigger points the heat may cause your condition to get worse, but this is only possible with very serious cases of inflammation.  This procedure was taken and changed slightly from the one that appears in Macrobiotic Home Remedies by Michio Kushi.

How to Prepare a Hot Ginger Compress

1 Fresh ginger root, large
2 Saucepans, 1 small and one large with lid
1 Gallon of water, more or less
1 Ceramic ginger grater
2 Hand or kitchen towels
1 Piece of cotton or cheesecloth
1 Piece of string
1 Sheet of tinfoil
Optional: Rubber Gloves

Procedure:

1. Lay the cheesecloth in the small saucepan and grate the ginger root into the cheesecloth.

2. When all the ginger is grated, use the string to tie up the cheesecloth with the grated ginger inside.

3. Leaving the ginger-cheesecloth packet in the small saucepan, pour the gallon of water into the large saucepan with a lid and bring the water to a boil.

4. When the water boils, take it off the heat and (when the water has just stopped boiling), squeeze the ginger-cheesecloth packet so that the ginger juice flows into the formerly boiling water.  Then drop the ginger cheese-cloth packet into the water too, as well as pouring in any ginger juice that has collected in the small saucepan.

5. Bring the hot, ginger-infused water to a place where you can lie down, where you have gathered the other items. Place the kitchen towels in the hot ginger-water (possably with the rubber gloves). 

6. When the kitchen towels have soaked for a minute or 2, take one out and apply it to your elbow and/or upper arm while lying down.  Wrap the tinfoil around the towel after you apply it to your skin, to concentrate the heat.  You want to apply the towels at the hottest possible temperature you can stand to get the maximum relaxing effect from the heat.

7.  After the temperature in the kitchen towel has dropped and you can no longer feel the effect of the heat forcefully, replace it in the ginger water large saucepan with a lid and take out the other kitchen towel.  Apply this second towel to your arm, and continue the rotation till the ginger water has become cool.  This should take about 15-20 minutes.

This concludes one treatment with a ginger compress.

This great procedure can do great things to cure your tennis elbow.  I recommend doing 2 treatments on a weekend, such on a Saturday and Sunday, to test this method.  If your elbow gets worse after a treatment, or you feel no improvement after 2 tries, discontinue this treatment.

Again, try this along with trigger points and hydrotherapy to complement the more conventional methods of treating tennis elbow you might be trying.  The heat is intense, but this is the first thing that gave me relief after nearly a month of debilitating pain.  Try it, look around, get good info and cure your tennis elbow!