Re: Long worms in my throat/arthritis question

I feel that parasites have everthing to do with arthritis. It sounds like the cartilage is completely absent in the knee joint on the left side. I read an interesting article on comfrey that I'll share below. I have not tried this for arthritis, but it sure healed four broken ribs fast (back to work in two weeks, off painkillers in three days). Best of luck.
Paul

Comfrey: Tomorrow's food, today's medicine
by Ingri Cassel

The comfrey plant, Symphytum officinale, is a member of the borage
family and has been called knitbone, bruise-wort, wound wort, healing
herb and slippery root. Although comfrey is a medicinal plant, it is
also grown to feed animals since it is considered the fastest builder
of vegetable protein. In fact, the amount of vegetable protein
obtained from every acre of comfrey can be nearly twenty times that
obtained from soybeans.

Comfrey is an excellent source of vitamins A and C as well as being
one of the few plants that can extract B-12 from the soil. It is also
high in calcium, potassium, manganese, iron, zinc and magnesium. It
contains 18 amino acids and is a good source of hysine, an amino acid
usually lacking in vegan vegetarian diets. Due to comfrey's superior
nutritional profile, some researchers have considered comfrey to be an
answer in feeding starving nations.

Henry Doubleday

English farmer Henry Doubleday (1813-1902) originally became
interested in comfrey after he read an article in the Royal
Agricultural Society's 1871 Journal. He had read the word
"mucilaginous" and thought comfrey could be used in the manufacture of
glue, possibly replacing gum arabic. He obtained some comfrey roots
from St. Petersburg in Russia and began propagating them. These roots
happened to be a hybrid, symphytum peregrinum. It is assumed that this
form of comfrey is a cross between the European comfrey, symphytum
officinale, and comfrey from the Caucasus mountains, symphytum
asperrium. This strain of comfrey is believed by many to be superior
nutritionally and therapeutically to the traditional European variety.

After numerous successful applications of comfrey while raising
livestock, both as food and medicine, Doubleday founded the Henry
Doubleday Research Association in England. Lawrence D. Hills later
became its director having worked extensively with comfrey since 1948.
He is frequently credited as the impetus behind the research into
comfrey being used for both food and medicine.

Politics of comfrey

Although comfrey root is highly esteemed as a vulnerary (healer of
wounds), it has come under fire in recent years because it contains a
group of alkaloids (pyrollizidine) that are considered hepatoxic
(harmful to the liver.) We have yet to see a study proving a direct
association between the limited medicinal ingestion of comfrey root
and the development of liver disease. Despite the lack of independent
studies proving that limited ingestion of comfrey root damages the
liver, comfrey has been banned for sale in many countries including
Canada, Australia and Japan. In the U.S., comfrey root and leaf is
banned for use internally. The FDA and the American Herbal Products
Association warns that comfrey is for external use only and should not
be applied to an open wound.

Comfrey the healer

Historically, comfrey was mostly used externally until the early
1800s. During this time, herbalists began using an infusion of the
root internally for bronchitis and rheumatism.

Since then, many people have successfully used both the leaf and root
of comfrey internally for a variety of complaints; our family
included.

Today we know that the use of comfrey assists in the development of
strong bones and healthy skin. It also promotes the secretion of
pepsin and is a general aid to digestion.

It is one of the finest healers of the respiratory system and can be
used both internally and externally for the healing of fractures,
wounds, sores and ulcers. It has been used with great success to check
hemorrhage, whether from the stomach, lungs, bowels or uterus. It
appears to have a beneficial effect on all parts of the body, and is
frequently used as an overall tonic.

Testimonials

Following are some quotes from articles I have collected that testify
to the remarkable and miraculous healing properties of comfrey.

"Comfrey root has incredible healing power. It has basically helped
everything that was hurt or bleeding on my three small children,
myself, husband, dog and assorted friends. It has a rare action of
being a catalyst that stimulates all cells in the area to reproduce
quickly. What really impressed me was how the pain subsided. And now
I'm amazed to see that it heals messy scrapes under dirt, lifting
debris off with the scab in a few days with no inflammation or
infection!

The root is a power house of healing energy that, when applied to a
wound, makes blood coagulate which stops bleeding.. I'll never forget
when Joshua was two years old, he dropped a heavy toy on his toenail,
splitting it right down the middle. I just kept sprinkling comfrey
root powder over the mini-gusher of blood until only drips persisted
within minutes of the accident. His sobs of pain subsided almost as
quickly and one hour later, after a nap, he was proud of himself,
hobbling around on his heel! The next day, at a pool party, the scab
floated off exposing pink skin. His toenail grew in over the following
two weeks.

Taken as a tea sweetened with honey it stopped my internal
hemorrhaging after the home-birth of our third child. Our birthing
assistant Betsy was concerned about my heavy bleeding, but it
decreased to a normal flow after two cups of the tea.

Betsy's ulcers never bothered her again after swallowing several pills
made of the root. Years of medication didn't measure up to the
quickness of comfrey roots' healing powers.

Sinus problems and bad head colds respond quite favorably to several
cups of hot comfrey root tea. Sore throats melt away after a few cups.
It has even soothed my stomach and gas cramps that had been known to
bend me over. Headaches and menstrual discomforts cease to be a bother
after a cup or two."

~Excerpted from the article, "Blood Make You Faint? Comfrey Root
Powder Heals All of Life's Hard Knocks" by Judy Vallely, Health
Freedom News, Vol. 6, #11, p. 40

"One interesting story is that of a registered nurse in Provo, Utah.
Her 14-year-old boy broke his arm, so she rushed him to the Dugway
Proving Grounds Hospital to be taken care of, as they are ex-army
people. When the doctor x-rayed the arm, he told them the bone was
clean broken, so clean that he would have to put the boy into a brace
for a few days until knitting started, and then into a cast. He put on
the brace and told them to come back in five days. The nurse told us
she was anxious to get home and use the information she had learned in
the lectures on comfrey. The arm was bare so on arriving home she put
comfrey poultices and fomentations around the arm, and as she said,
she gave him comfrey tea, comfrey green drink, comfrey tablets and
capsules, and put comfrey into salads and steamed comfrey as a
vegetable -- in fact, she got comfrey into him every way she could
think of.

In five days she took him back to Dugway to get the cast on and when
the doctor came out of the dark room with the new x-ray he said, 'What
have you done to this boy?' the nurse said, 'What do you mean doctor'
his answering retort was, 'Don't be coy with me. You're a registered
nurse and this boy's arm is completely healed and the bone knit
together without a hairline crack -- it is perfect in five days- what
did you use?' So she told him. Here was a boy healed of a broken bone
in five days, x-rays before and after for proof (the fastest bone
healing we know of)."

~excerpted from the article "Comfrey -- Heaven's Gift to Man" by Dr.
John R. Christopher, M.H., The Herbalist, Volume 1, Number 5, 1976.

Another story from the same article:

"A lady managing a china shop in Provo, Utah, came to us a few years
ago, asking if a friend of hers could be helped. She said
one-and-a-half vertebras had deteriorated completely in her back, and
the vertebrae below and above were so weak that fusing could not be
done.

She could not sit up or walk, but just lay there waiting for the spine
to continue deteriorating until she died. We told the lady that her
friend could be helped if she would follow our instructions. The back
was to be kept with fomentations and/or poultices of comfrey on it,
and she was put onto the mucusless diet and lots of fresh raw juice
and many cups of comfrey tea each day, slippery elm gruel and a nerve
palliative tea combination.

In six months, the one and one-half vertebrae grew back in the same
form as before (the good Lord left plans and specifications) in the
form of cartilage so the woman could sit and walk again. In another
six months, the cartilage turned into bone and she had a perfect back
from neck through tailbone with no more trouble. The physician took
x-rays of the back with vertebrae gone and later again with them back
in place, built like new by the body."

There are so many fabulous comfrey stories they could literally fill a
500-page book. We hope this column has inspired you to make sure you
have it growing in your backyard. If not, reserve a place in your yard
for it and consult with your community master gardeners about
obtaining a few fresh roots.

If you are inspired to learn more about comfrey and John Christopher's
programs for healing, send $5 to The Idaho Observer and we will send
you several reprinted articles on comfrey along with Dr. Christopher's
Three-Day Cleansing Program, Mucusless Diet and Herbal Combinations.
Our very first Back to Basics column covered the healing powers of
this plant in August 1999. After a discussion with my sister last
week, she inspired me to revisit comfrey once again in this column.
She had gone over to her former residence, now a rental, to harvest
some of the comfrey growing there. Her tenant had no idea that he had
such a valuable plant growing in his backyard. He appeared stunned and
amazed when she told him why she was gathering the leaves along with a
few roots and how she was planning to using it.

It appears that we have lost much valuable history regarding the
proven therapeutic value of this plant and countless others. This
month's column is an attempt to recover some of that history.

"MDs are those who think we have an excess of organs and a deficiency
of drugs." ~Donna Carillo