Comfrey Oil: Sprained Ankle Anyone?

Comfrey oil! I’m so glad you’re here because this is a good oil to have on hand! I’ve seen comfrey help people with injuries involving muscles, tendons, joints, bones, ligaments, ankles, knees, pulled muscles, joint dislocations and even fractures.

Let’s get down to it. When “fall off” is included in a sentence: “fall off your bike,” “fall off the stool…”

Think comfrey.

Trip, twist, roll, fall down, run into…

Think comfrey.

What can I say? Comfrey oil is not a “luxuriate in the bath” kind of oil. It’s an oil for when, “I bruised my bum. Let’s see if we can move things along a little quicker, so I can get back on my feet again.”

This is an oil that I have a lot of stories about. Unfortunately, they are mostly stories involving bumps and bruises, pain and trauma. But hey, that’s what comfrey oil is good for.

Some of the common names of comfrey are things like bruisewort, knitweed, knitback… Hmmm, I wonder why it’s called that?

 

My Comfrey Miracle Story

You’ve got ligaments, tendons, bones and muscles that all come together in the joints. We humans tend to move our body beyond its normal range of motion and at least once in our lives end up stretching or tearing the ligaments, muscles or tendons.

The most common place where we move our body beyond normal range of motion is in the ankles. Everyday 25,000 people sprain their ankle in the United States.

Have you ever done that? Have you ever sprained your ankle? It’s so common. This is where my comfrey miracle story comes in.

I have to say, as an herbalist, I don’t want to directly experience every amazing herbal benefit; but I’ve had the honor of receiving the healing gifts from comfrey.

There I was, enjoying a wonderful spring camping trip. I was walking along, not in a hurry, and I stepped into a gopher hole or some sort of animal hole. The next thing I knew, I was on the ground with my leg in the air screaming. I mean, not just screaming, but shrieking in pain.

The pain was so intense. I’ve had mild sprains in the past, but nothing like this. The problem is that we were out in the bush. We were camping.

I did it toward the end of the day and we couldn’t leave in the dark. I couldn’t get home until the next day, so I slept in the tent that night, I mean I laid in the tent, not sleeping. I was in so much pain. If my blanket even slightly brushed my ankle, shooting pains would run up my foot and I would feel nauseous.

We got home the next day and I immediately started doing comfrey oil soaks.

 

Over the years, I’ve heard so many people talk about how incredible comfrey was for their sprain, but to tell you the truth, I was doubtful that comfrey was going to be able to help me out with this one.

But wow, just wow. I felt almost immediate relief. The swelling went down by around 20% within a couple of hours. My husband couldn’t believe how much change there was in such a short amount of time.

I soaked my foot in that oil for 1 hour, 3 times a day for several days. It kept the swelling and inflammation down. Which is what you want, because that allows the body to heal quicker.

3 weeks I had to lay low! I had to rest and take it easy and let my body heal. Everyone else had to do everything around the house. My husband took over cooking breakfast. I had always been the breakfast cook. To this day, he still prepares breakfast. Nice silver lining on that one!

So, again, if words like “fall” and “twist,” enter your reality, just try to get home asap and get the body part into some comfrey oil.

When stuff like that happens, it is good to go get things checked out. Make sure nothing is continuing to bleed or that you don’t have deeper damage that needs attention.

Always get yourself checked out, but then when the doctor says, “Go home and take 2 Advil,” then put comfrey to work.

 

A Couple More Comfrey Stories

I have a student that fell off a tractor. Nothing was broken, but she was sore all over. She used comfrey oil. She did full body comfrey oil massages for a week and she said that it was miraculous for her. How bad she felt just didn’t add up to how quickly she healed. She really feels like it was the comfrey.

I could go on and on with “bump and bruise” stories, but here’s just one more.

I have another student that many years ago fell off a ladder. Again, go get yourself checked out. Be smart about it. Take care of yourself. Don’t try to have the herbs do something that maybe needs more attention.

She was fine. Nothing was broken, no bleeding, but she bruised her arm and shoulder badly. She massaged comfrey oil into her arm and her shoulder 4 or 5 times a day for 2 weeks and she felt like it made such a huge difference.

 

Vulnerary

Comfrey is an amazing vulnerary herb. It increases the rate at which skin cells regenerate. It speeds up the regeneration of damaged tissue. It’s a cell proliferant. It stimulates new cell growth and supports skin healing.

Think of it for skin regeneration where the skin is almost healed up or it’s not a fresh open wound, but it needs a little help. Herpes lesions, acne, dried and cracked lips. Things that are not deep; they’re almost dry, but they’re still a little cracked like, hemorrhoids, dry feet and elbows, chapped, cracked skin – these things, it’s really good for.

I’ve seen it help a lot of skinned knees and minor cuts and scrapes.

Comfrey also speeds up the healing of the connective tissue that’s in the tendons and ligaments. Once you get the connective tissue healing, then the connective tissue helps to deliver blood to all the tissues. If you can regenerate the connective tissue, then you set up conditions for the body to heal itself.

Knitweed, knitbone… it knits the skin and bones back together.

Many years ago, I took classes with Juliette de Bairacli Levy. She taught through stories. You just sat at her feet and listened to her stories. She said that comfrey strengthens strained or weak ligaments and muscles.

I’ve seen comfrey help people with injuries involving muscles, tendons, joints, bones, ligaments, ankles, wrists, knees, pulled muscles, joint dislocations and even fractures.

Comfrey Contraindications

• Don’t use it on deep wounds, puncture wounds or anything that’s more than a superficial cut
• Oil attracts dirt. The other thing is that if you put the oil on a scrape or cut and then you go out, the oil will attract dirt. I only use comfrey on the open superficial cuts if I am staying home and things around me are clean.
• External use only for comfrey oil
• The Herb Pharm comfrey oil label says that topical use of comfrey is contraindicated in pregnancy.

 

Comfrey oil is not our super self-care bathing luxury herbal oil, but what it’s good for, it is good for. When I hear of a sprain or a strain, I reach for the comfrey.

I’m so glad you’re here. I’m glad that you’re part of this amazing movement of people bringing the art of home herbalism back into the culture.

Oh gosh, as I am ending this article, I hear one of my students in my head… “Don’t forget my story, you have to tell them this.” Ok, one LAST comfrey story!

Sheryl swears by comfrey oil. She had a horse step on her foot and as you know, horses weigh a lot. She had no open skin, no broken bones. It kind of crushed her foot, but didn’t break anything. It wasn’t a crush I guess, but she said it was crushing pain.

She soaked her foot in a basin of comfrey oil for 1 hour, 3 times a day, and she said it was like a miracle. The comfrey oil would stop the pain, keep the swelling down and it helped her relax. Ok, that is the last comfrey story for now!

Have you used comfrey oil? Let’s hear your comfrey miracle story!