agk’s Library of Herbal First Aide
When the nerves are injured we feel intense pain or numbness because they have been so damaged that they can no longer function. It should always be remembered that when there is numbness it does not mean the nerves are dead. Rather, when nerves are damaged they may stop working but sometimes they will still keep themselves alive, even if they are no longer functioning. That is why there are strange and unpredictable recoveries to spinal and head injuries.
This is the remedy for injuries to tissues that are very sensitive or to people who are sensitive or have a low pain threshold so that they ‘cannot bear the pain.’ They whine and complain. Have sympathy but give them chamomile, either the homeopathic Chamomilla 6x or an herbal preperation made from the fresh herb, like tincture or salve/rub.
This European herb, easy to grow in the American garden, is more of a ‘brain tonic‘ than a wound remedy, but it can be useful in some conditions. It is definitely the remedy for an acute head injury.
This well-known herb has a deserved reputation for treating mild depression; it has, however, long been used as a wound remedy for severe nerve injury. It is specific for injuries to areas rich in nerves – eyes, ears, nose, tongue, lips, spine, genitals, fingers, and toes. It is also a specific for sharp, shooting, needle-like pains. There is a ‘signature’ here for this use: the leaves contain tiny punctures (or windows actually) through which light shines. It is like a needle prick and the remedy is for needle-like shooting pains and puncture wounds.
One of my students helped a friend who was cut by a table saw between two fingers down through the wrist joint! Horrible! His wife called my student from the hospital. He was repaired and wrapped up by the doctors but still in horrific pain. Taking the St. John’s wort he was soon laughing with his wife and friends! My student, Carol Maki, said, “Matthew, you know how you always claim that boneset helps the broken bone pieces find each other?” It stimulates the hormones released by broken bones, which seek the other part broken off. “Well I think St. John’s wort helps the cut nerve ends find each other.”
My cousin Winnie cut off two of his fingers with a table saw. They were hanging by the skin. He was an experienced industrial designer so this can happen to anyone! He went to the hospital, they reattached the fingers, sat him down and told him, in two days you’ll know if your fingers will take or not. He was in his fifties and they told him older people don’t heal as well. He recovered completely and could play the mandolin as well as before!
By comparison, a nurse told me the following case. A man in his late thirties came into the ER with two fingers cut off. They were sewed back on. He went outside to smoke a cigarette. In three hours his fingers turned gray and died.
This is a superb remedy for very severe, torturous pain. The pain is even worse than in the St. John’s wort case. The people literally writhe in agony. If you haven’t seen a person writhe, that means they can’t stop moving in their chair or around the room. The pain is terrible.
Years ago I helped one woman who had severe menstrual pain. “It feels like my ovaries are being ripped out by wires.” She had these pains since age 13 and had been on social security her whole adult life. She was now 39. She writhed in agony for four days a month. I gave her prickly ash. Six months later she came back with an empty prickly ash bottle and big smile. No pain at all. “You gave me my life back,” she said. Then she took a box out of a bag. It was one of the all time best presents I ever had! An old homeopathic remedy box from a pharmacy in Minneapolis!
Some people I have known want to say on the dole and don’t want to work but this woman was chomping at the bit: she moved to Hollywood, became a make-up artist, and had a boyfriend within the next six months.
Prickly ash is also for numbness and tingling for nerve injury. One of my friends gave it to a woman who had a numb spot on her face after a car accident thirty years previous. In a few days the sensation came back.
This herb teaches us something very important: a nerve may be numb but it may still be alive. The last thing a nerve does is keep itself alive, even if it is no longer doing its chores. These nerves can be brought back on line.
The FDA disapproves of the internal use of this rhizome (not root) in herbal medicine because some of the Asian varieties contain a carcinogen; the wild American one does not but it is no longer possible to tell visually if one has picked the wild one or an introduced species.
No mind, we are using this plant externally. The Vedic doctors of India make an oil for use in the nose from calamus, called nasi. This can be used externally as well.
Calamus root or rhizome is for numbness, tingling, and pain in the nerves. I don’t know the specific indications so I use it after St. John’s wort and prickly ash have failed.
------------------------------------------- from Matthew Wood: THE EARTHWISE HERBAL © 2008–2009 North Atlantic Books (two vols) -------------------------------------------