Biofreeze Menthol Pain Relief Gel, graded Emerging-evidence on Magellan — a small triple-blind crossover trial also found a 10% menthol solution superior to placebo for aborting migraine attacks. Menthol is used for the temporary relief of minor muscle and joint pain, including strains, arthritis, and delayed-onset muscle soreness, and small randomized trials report modest reductions in pain intensity and pressure-pain sensitivity.
Source: J Int Med Res 2019, PMID 31353997 ↗ · Topical Pain Relief · How Magellan grades evidence · Study write-up · evidence confidence: medium
Menthol is a naturally occurring organic compound obtained from peppermint and other mint oils, or made synthetically, that is widely used in over-the-counter topical analgesic gels, creams, and patches. When applied to the skin it activates the cold-sensing TRPM8 receptor on sensory nerves, producing a cooling sensation, and acts as a counterirritant. Evidence also indicates menthol can block voltage-gated sodium channels on nociceptors and increases blood flow in the treated skin, both of which may further contribute to local analgesia.
Menthol is used for the temporary relief of minor muscle and joint pain, including strains, arthritis, and delayed-onset muscle soreness, and small randomized trials report modest reductions in pain intensity and pressure-pain sensitivity — in one soreness trial menthol gel even outperformed ice — often with a cooling effect users find soothing. A small triple-blind crossover trial also found a 10% menthol solution superior to placebo for aborting migraine attacks. However, most studies are small, short, or combine menthol with other agents, and systematic reviews rate the overall evidence for topical menthol as limited; some knee-osteoarthritis and neuropathic-pain data show within-group improvement but little advantage over placebo. Relief is fast but symptomatic and short-lived. This evidence describes the compound menthol and its cooling/counterirritant mechanism rather than this specific commercial product.
Peer-reviewed studies on the active compound — citations link to PubMed.
“Both ibuprofen/levomenthol and diclofenac gels provided superior global pain relief compared with ibuprofen gel, with a shorter median time to significant pain relief. Only ibuprofen/levomenthol gel provided cooling for up to 2 hours.”
“No significant improvement was observed with topical 1% diclofenac/3% menthol gel compared with placebo, 1% diclofenac, or 3% menthol gel in treating pain from ankle sprain.”
“The primary efficacy analysis (SPID8 with movement) indicated that patients receiving the active patch experienced significantly greater pain relief (approximately 40%) than those patients receiving a placebo patch (mean [SD], 182.6 [131.2] vs 130.1 [144.1]; P = 0.005).”
“A menthol-based topical analgesic increased PPT (decreased pain sensitivity) overall (P = .05; 11.6% [2.4%]; d = 1.05) and PPT was higher (P < .0001; 31.5%-44.2%; d = 1.03-1.8) for lower versus upper body locations.”
“Patients in both groups experienced statistically significant pain relief on Day 8 over baseline, with the MC plus OGT-treated group reporting statistically significantly greater pain relief than the MC group (P = 0.016).”
“These findings suggest that DOMS reduced corticospinal excitability and after the administration of menthol-based topical analgesic, there was a reduction in pain, which was accompanied by increased corticospinal inhibition.”
Research describes the active mechanism and is not a claim about this specific product.
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Yes — its active compound is linked to 18 peer-reviewed studies, summarized and cited above.
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