How This 68-Year-Old Grandmother Finally Calmed Her Burning Feet at Night... and Put Away Her Nerve Pills for Good

I went from dreading every bedtime... to my first full night's sleep in years, and finally being able to play with my grandkids again!

Written by Karen S.  |  My Nerve Pain Diary

★★★★★  2,853 Ratings

The Most Frustrating Part Was, I'd Given Up Everything I Loved

If your feet burn like mine, you already know these nights. All day you stay busy enough to push through it. But the second the house goes quiet and you lie down, that's when your feet start screaming.

The burning. The tingling. The electric jolts that shoot through with no warning. You hang your feet off the side, you try every position there is, and some nights you just give up and sit on the couch in the dark, waiting for the sun.

I could have made peace with being tired. What I couldn't make peace with was what it was doing to me and those grandkids.

Because your own kids grow up and don't need you anymore. But the grandbabies? They still do. Being the one who gets on the floor with them, who takes them for the walk after dinner, whose house feels like Christmas morning, that had become my whole reason.

And the burning was taking it, one "not today" at a time.

I stopped getting down on the floor. I watched Emma's soccer games from the car because I couldn't stand that long. I said no to the after-dinner walks the kids loved. Every "not today" was another brick in the little picture she was building of me.

And I was terrified my grandkids would stop wanting to see me at all, because Grandma never wants to play.

And I tried everything I could to make it stop. The gabapentin fogged my head and still let me wake up on fire. A different pill, same story, new side effects. Creams that numbed the top and did nothing underneath. And every appointment ended the same way:

"It's just your age. You'll have to learn to live with it."

Learn to live with it. While the best years I had left with those kids slipped by, one burning night at a time.

That was the night something in me finally snapped. I was done waiting on doctors who'd already given up on me.

If there was an answer out there, I was going to find it myself.

My Feet Were Robbing Me of Everything... Until a Friend Told Me Her Secret

I was venting to my friend Denise, from my Tuesday book club, about my sleepless nights, when she stopped me.

"You need to try what I've been using," she said. "It's a little cream you rub right into your feet."

I'll be honest, my heart sank a little. I'd heard that before. I'd tried so many creams and salves and sprays off the pharmacy shelf, and not one of them ever did a thing. I told her as much.

"I know," she said. "But this one's different. It's all natural, and the main thing in it is ginger."

I paused. Ginger? Like for when you have a cold?

"That's exactly what I said," she laughed. "But it worked for me when nothing else did. Just try it. What have you got to lose?"

And she was right. I was at the end of my rope, so worn down from the sleepless nights, and I would have done just about anything for the chance to get back on that floor with Emma.

She told me it was called Reliev. So that night, I ordered it.

The First Night I Slept in Years

When it arrived, I rubbed a little into both feet before bed, honestly not expecting much.

Within a few minutes, a gentle warmth spread through my feet, and slowly, the burning began to quiet down. Like the pressure was finally letting go. That "ahhh" feeling of taking off tight shoes after a long day, except deep inside my feet.

I lay there almost afraid to believe it, waiting for it to come roaring back the way it always did.

It didn't.

And then something I hadn't done in years.

I fell asleep. And I stayed asleep, all the way till morning.

The Simple Reason This Finally Worked

The next week at book club, I could have hugged her. I told her she'd given me my first real sleep in years, and I finally asked the question I'd been wondering all week. Why on earth does this work?

She explained it the way only a good friend can. Fast, plain, no doctor talk.

"You know that pins-and-needles feeling when your foot falls asleep?"

Of course. Everyone knows it.

That feeling, she said, is your blood flow getting cut off. As we get older, the blood flow to our feet naturally weakens, and those nerves can end up starved all the time. A starved nerve doesn't go quiet. It burns, it tingles, it stabs.

My feet weren't just "getting old." They were starving for blood.

And it explained something I'd noticed for years. You know how getting up to walk around, or rubbing your feet, takes the edge off for a little while? That's you getting the blood moving. The trouble is, the second you stop, it fades right back.

"And the ginger?" I asked.

"Think about how ginger tea warms you from the inside when you're sick," she said. "That's it getting your blood moving. Rubbed right into your feet, it brings the blood back where it's been cut off." (In fact, one study on older adults with poor leg circulation found ginger extract measurably improved blood flow to their lower limbs.)

That's why the pills and numbing creams never worked. They just quieted the pain for a while. None of them brought the blood back. Reliev was the first thing that did.

No pills. No prescription. No foggy head.

The Moment I Got My Life Back

It's now part of my nightly routine, a little dab before bed. And a few weeks in, I finally feel like myself again.

Then last Sunday, Emma ran up with that same hopeful little face. "Grandma, come play!"

And out of habit, I braced. I looked down at that floor and waited for the dread, for the fire in my feet, for the reason I'd have to say no again.

But it wasn't there.

"I'm coming, Emma!"

I got down onto that living room floor, right at her level, and we played the whole afternoon. You should have seen her light up. She got so giddy she could barely stand it.

My knees were a little stiff after. But my feet? My feet were fine. And Emma had her grandma back.

I wasn't "not today" Grandma anymore. I was just Grandma again.

What Happened When Others Tried It

Picture Where You Could Be Soon

Not pain-free overnight. Nothing real works that way.

But picture those first few nights, when the edge comes off and you sleep in your own bed again, all the way till morning.

Picture getting down on that floor when Emma asks, and this time saying yes. Picture standing through the whole soccer game, right there on the sideline. The after-dinner walk, the two of you. Saying yes to the trip instead of talking yourself out of it.

Picture being the Grandma she remembers as the fun one. The one who was always up for it. That's the picture I get to leave her now.

What This Is Actually Worth

This isn't a $15 tube of drugstore menthol. Every jar is dosed with real, potent ginger, in an amount meant to actually do the job.

Now compare it to the road most people are on:

• Pain clinic visits: $200–300 a month
• Prescription nerve meds: $350–600 a month
• Nerve blocks: $2,000+ each, several times a year

That adds up to thousands of dollars a year, often just to cover up the pain instead of working on what's behind it. A jar of Reliev costs a small fraction of that.

Two Roads From Here

You can close this page and keep doing what you've been doing. Keep the pills that fog your head and never reach the cause. Keep sitting on the edge of the bed at 2 AM. Keep telling yourself this is just how it is now, and keep saying "not today" to the people you love.

Or you can give the nerves in your feet the blood flow they've been missing, and see what changes.

With 60 days to see it work, and nothing to lose if it doesn't.

I know which road I'm glad I chose.

Questions People Ask

P.S. If your feet are burning right now, that's actually good news. It means the nerve is still signaling, still able to respond. The ones who wait until it all goes numb are the ones who waited too long. You have a window right now, and you're protected by the 60-day guarantee either way.