Healing an Ankle

[Rebekah CarmichaelStudent]

I’m a beginner herbalist. My Dad has been having ankle problems for a while. He tried ibuprofen resting his ankle for a couple weeks ect. A few months back I suggested comfrey poultice. It’s done wonders! I just want to be sure I’m preparing the comfrey right and getting all the nutrients I can out of my plants. I boil some water toss the herbs in and let them steep, with the lid on, for thirty minutes. Then when it time to wrap the ankle I reheat the mixture to a boil and soak the bandage. Is that the best way to do it?

[Greg BoggsStudent]

Hi Rebekah,
You won’t want to bring the water to a boil with the herbs in it, that will cook off a lot of the medicine. The poultice doesn’t necessarily have to be hot, although that might feel good. You could try just getting the poultice wet, put that on the ankle, then wrap the bandage around it. The allantoin in the comfrey will soak through the skin and work on healing the ankle.

[Rebekah CarmichaelStudentTopic Author]

Okay, so I shouldn’t reheat the comfrey infusion after the steeping phase. Would it be better to do a cold infusion to extract the medicine, or just keeping making a hot infusion? In one of the lessons Doc said comfrey doesn’t like heat, that’s what got me questioning my currant method.

[Greg BoggsStudent]

Since you aren’t drinking it, hot is probably fine. But why not experiment with both and see if you find one works better than the other, might be neat to see if there is a difference

[Rebekah CarmichaelStudentTopic Author]

I think I will. Thanks for your insight!

[Author]

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