Comfrey: The Comforting Herb

Neck Injury
Posted by Ryan (Perth, Wa) on 08/27/2009
★★★★★

A month or two ago I felt the need to crack my neck but i think i did it on a bad angle or had something in there at the site. As when i did so, it made a terrible sound that resulted in some pretty intense sharp pains. the back of my neck bulged half an inch out over a few hours and it became seriously painful. As the day progressed i lost most of the range of motion in my neck and the pain only got worse.

I researched and ended up at 'disc bulges' and a recommendation for a 'cold anti-inflammatory cream like Comfrey' or something to that effect... and periodic ice pack treatment.

I put something frozen on it ten minutes in each hour and that seemed to help a little until i could get somewhere to do something proper about it. I then went to a health food store and got some Comfrey cream they had... and it really was amazing, on the first application it went from a serious 8/10 pain level down to 4/10, it was like pouring water onto a fire.

I alternated between ice pack and the comfrey cream every 30-60 minutes and that kept the pain well down.

I did make the mistake of trying to lie down and sleep... very, very silly. not for a day or two of this treatment could i lie completely down without all of the pain returning. i recommend sleeping mostly sitting up until most of the pain is gone, its not worth risking setting it off again.

Apparently the reason it works is because if the muscles around the joint/disc become inflamed they will swell up and that will then put pressure on the joint/disc causing the pain. the comfrey is a 'cold acting anti-inflammatory' it is anti-inflammatory and the net effect of the cream is cooling which reduces swelling. the cold from the ice pack also directly reduces swelling.

I also took some anti-inflammatories internally to speed up general recovery, ginger, tumeric, omega 3.

Ryan.