Joan Wilen and Lydia Wilen
Joan Wilen and Lydia Wilen are folk-remedy experts and home tipsters based in New York City. They have spent decades collecting “cures from the cupboard” and are authors of several books, including Secret Food Cures.
A sprain or strain is an over stretching or tearing of the ligaments. These are the tissues that bind together bones and joints. The result of a sprain is usually pain, a lot of swelling, and days or weeks keeping the affected joint elevated. Natural remedies can help to reduce swelling, ease the pain, and speed up recovery.
In the following excerpt from Secret Food Cures sisters Joan and Wilen share natural treatments for sprains and strains.
You may have sprained an ankle playing sports or running to catch a bus. Any sudden twist to a ligament causes a sprain. Strains are more minor injuries that affect tendons and muscles.
According to Ray C. Wunderlich, Jr., MD, PhD, director of the Wunderlich Center for Nutritional Medicine in St. Petersburg, Florida, as soon as you get a sprain, take large amounts of enzymes hourly, in the form of fresh vegetable juices and/or bromelain, papaya and pancreatic supplements (available at health food stores). The sooner you start taking enzymes, the better! Then read on to decide what to do next.
We questioned a number of medical professionals about what works best for a sprain, and here is the consensus…
• Don’t use the injured joint, and treat it with the RICE method (Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation). During the first 12 hours after the injury, starting as soon as possible, apply an ice cold water compress to the hurt area. This will reduce the swelling.
Leave the compress on for 20 minutes, then take it off for 20 minutes. Extend the 12 hours of cold compresses to 24 hours if it seems necessary.
WARNING: Seek medical attention as soon as possible to make sure the sprain is just a sprain and not a fractured, chipped or dislocated bone.
We’ve also heard about other remedies that have worked wonderfully well. For example…
• Put the sprained area in a basin of ice-cold water, and keep it there for five minutes. Then bind the area with a wet bandage and cover the wet one with a dry bandage.
• Warm a cupful of apple cider vinegar, saturate a washcloth with it and apply the cloth to the sprain for five minutes every hour.
• Take the peel of an orange and apply it to the sprained area—put the white spongy side on the skin—and bind it in place with a bandage. It should reduce the swelling of a sprain.
• Add one tablespoon of cayenne pepper to two cups of apple cider vinegar and bring it to a slow boil in an enamel or glass saucepan. Bottle the liquid and use it on sprains, pains and sore muscles.
• Grate ginger (frozen ginger is easier to grate) and squeeze the grated ginger through cheesecloth, getting as much juice as you can. Measure the amount of ginger juice and add an equal amount of sesame oil. Mix it thoroughly, and massage it on your painful parts.
• Add one teaspoon of catnip to one cup of just-boiled water and steep it for five minutes. Saturate a washcloth with the catnip tea and apply it to the sprained area to reduce swelling. When the washcloth gets to be room temperature, re-saturate the cloth in the heated liquid and reapply it. Catnip is available at most health food stores—and pet stores.
• Comfrey is popular among professional athletes and their smart coaches. This herb helps speed up the healing process and relieve the pain of pulled tendons and ligaments, strains, sprains, broken bones and tennis elbow.
Use a comfrey poultice on the sprained area, changing it every two to three hours. Comfrey is safe to use topically, if there is no open wound. It’s always best to consult with your naturopathic doctor, of course.
• To help relieve the pain from a severe sprain, rub on leek liniment. To prepare the liniment, simmer four leeks in boiling water until they’re mushy. Pour off the water and mash four tablespoons of coconut butter into the leek. As soon as it’s cool, massage it into the sprained area. Keep the remaining liniment in a covered container. It can also be used for most muscle aches and pains.
• This applies mostly to athletes and dancers who keep spraining the same weakened parts of their bodies.
Before a warm-up session, saturate a washcloth with hot water and apply it to your vulnerable area for about 10 to 15 minutes. In other words, preheat the trouble spot before you work out.
• See the comfrey remedy above.
