I thoroughly enjoy what I do as a permaculturist and people enthusiast. However, there are times when documenting events or times when my mind is engaged in something else other than what my feet are doing. This, over the past month, has led to TWO sprained ankles on the same foot! The latest being on my way to our latest Permaculture Design Course at The Yoga Forest in San Marcos, Lake Atitlan, Guatemala and a few weeks prior I had sprained it in Phoenix, Arizona while interviewing Brad Lancaster (stay tuned for that by the way).
Fortunately, my co-instructor Jeremy Fellows was quick on the job and recommended I take comfrey and horsetail tea. (If you have not already heard about comfrey and it’s amazing qualities as a permaculture plant, watch this video). Now, understand that in every site I have ever established or designed, comfrey has been a major element to any biological system implemented from tree guilds to rabbit and chicken feed to garden sloping to literal swales of comfrey. And even being aware that the Native Americans called comfrey knitbone as well as the German name for comfrey being beinwell which also means bone “well” – I was still unaware how beneficial drinking comfrey tea would be for “internal” swelling of something such as a sprained ankle.
What was just as curiously very interesting was finding that horsetail (Equisetum Arvense also known as snakegrass, puzzle grass) is actually a living fossil. It is the only living member of the Equisetaceae plant family and is high in silica which helps the body “fix” calcium to repair bones, collagen, and other tissue, aside from being one of the strongest natural diuretics in all of plants and having the ability to remove lead deposits from the body.
I was a bit concerned the day I arrived after being banged up and not able to quickly move during daily routines and teaching, however, I could not recommend comfrey and horsetail tea more for internal and external pain and swelling to muscles, joints, and tendons. Two days of drinking the brew brought the swelling from tennis ball size to just a small pocket of swelling above the ankle. It is also of interest to note that I was constantly praying for healing and did get a quick session of reiki. I could not recommend it more!
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