Today we’re back with a new product review for fibromyalgia and an exclusive reader offer: get your own free bottle!
AD-dSavannah George from dSavannahRambles tries out Herbal Mana’s topical spray that they specially formulated for fibromyalgia pain. This post is a sponsored review in collaboration with Herbal Mana and dSavannah’s opinion is 100% her own.
An Introduction
A number of health conditions can cause chronic pain. I have dealt with pain for most of my life, starting with headaches and TMJD when I was a kid. I now deal with global pain in my nerves, muscles, and joints, thanks to a number of illnesses, including fibromyalgia (a rheumatologist once told me I was in the top 1% of worst cases he’d ever seen).
As you can imagine, I’ve tried just about everything to deal with pain, so was excited to try this product from two-year-old company Herbal Mana and share my experience with the Chronic Illness Bloggers website.
They sent me one 4 oz. spray bottle and two 10 ml roller bottles of their Inner Warrior #FibroWarrior product, all packaged very carefully. They also included Herbal Mana stickers, and a couple cards with directions and information. I appreciate that the packing peanuts are biodegradable (and re-useable!). The products are in UV resistant, cobalt blue glass bottles.
About Inner Warrior
Herbal Mana created this product specifically for those with nerve and muscle pain, such as fibromyalgia.
One thing that makes this product different than other topical solutions is the inclusion of 99.995% pure pharmaceutical grade DMSO, something I haven’t seen before. I also had no idea what DMSO is.
WebMD says, “DMSO, or dimethyl sulfoxide, is a by-product of paper making” that is “easily absorbed by the skin”. According to Herbal Mana’s page about DSMO, “It’s a sulfur-based compound with some amazing healing properties” and is “an amazing carrier!”.
In addition to the DMSO, Inner Warrior includes aloe vera (the number one ingredient), magnesium, vitamin B12, and a blend of seven essential oils (lavender, vetiver, marjoram, chamomile, geranium, frankincense, and ginger). From what I’ve read and experienced, all of those are beneficial.
Using the Spray and Roller Bottles
I used Inner Warrior on my forearms, neck/shoulders, lower back, and thighs. I also tested it by spraying on one side of my body, but not the other, to see if I could notice a difference in my pain levels.
The directions are to spray on clean skin and let dry 1-2 times daily. I used the spray several times every day for the past month, and used the roller bottle every once in a while, especially on my neck and shoulders. There’s a lot of product left in the spray bottle – it looks like I’ve hardly used it – while the roller bottle is about half empty.
Like most sprayers, it takes a minute to prime. The sprayer mists the product onto your body – but be careful, because it’s easy for the spray to miss your skin, more liquid to come out than expected, and it can roll down your skin (it feels like a drop of water). It gave my skin a pleasant cooling sensation. The Herbal Mana website says that “slight skin irritation is normal”, but I did not experience any.
It feels strange not to massage it in, as other topical sprays recommend, but just to let it dry. The directions suggest that it may leave a residue, but I did not experience that.
They recommend that you “clean the area you’d like to apply Inner Warrior with soap and water.” Sometimes I would forget, or not have the energy, and the efficacy did not seem to be affected.
It has a light natural scent, which smells mostly of the aloe vera to me. After it dried, it smelled a bit like a non-chemical bug spray. The smell did not aggravate my sensory sensitivity.
The roller bottle felt more ‘intuitive’ to use, and its small size means you can carry it in your purse or bag when you leave the house.
Does it work?
Like most people with fibromyalgia, the pain I experience varies in intensity. My neck and shoulder pain, when severe, did not seem to benefit from the spray at all, but did a little from the roller, likely from the pressure of the bottle itself. When in moderate pain, the solution helped lower my shoulder pain by a couple points.
The solution did not seem to help me at all when I was in severe pain, which was disappointing, since that’s when I needed it most.
The spray made a noticeable difference when I was in mild or moderate pain, regardless of body part, and it definitely hurt less than body parts with no spray. After first using it on my lower back (lumbar) for moderate pain, I wrote in my notebook
“I’m shocked! Amazed at difference! It feels… normal!”
I recommend this #FibroWarrior product as a short-term solution to mild and moderate fibromyalgia pain.
Where to buy:
Inner Warrior is available on Herbal Mana’s website in a four-ounce spray bottle, eight-ounce spray bottle, three-pack of roller bottles, and a cream (which I did not try).
How to get your own FREE bottle and a giveaway
Inner Warrior is celebrating their second birthday with a HUGE GIVEAWAY to win over a thousand dollars worth of prizes. Find all the info here. They have also set up a special offer for our community. You can get a completely free bottle of their spray here, just pay postage and handling (and there’s no automatic subscription involved)
I have used several bottles of the Inner warrior and would like to have more.
more.