How To Heal Broken Bones Naturally

One thing I had always been quite proud of was that I had never broken a bone in all my twenty five years. I suppose I kind of felt a little.. well badass maybe.. that I had never been hurt badly, or been injured even after all my years of sports and dancing and gallivanting in the outdoors. I felt a little invincible perhaps, like things like that just didn’t (or wouldn’t) happen to me. But then, 8 weeks ago, a simple slip after coming out of the shower robbed me of my smug “I’ve never had a broken bone” claim and shook my faith in my invincibility. I was fragile. I could be hurt. And in an instant, things in my life could change.

You see I was rushing. Rushing to get ready to be in time for an early morning bus that I was going to catch to go visit my boyfriend. But as I stepped out of the shower, I heard the ‘snooze’ alarm going off in my bedroom, and for fear it would wake my nephew, I didn’t bother to dry my feet, ran into my room and slipped right across the wooden floor and my whole weight fell onto my outstretched hand. I remember screaming out in pain and my first thought was “well, this cant be good.” I got up slowly, convincing myself that it was a pain that would pass and I should continue on getting ready, but as I attempted to towel dry my hair, an overwhelming fainting feeling came on. I lay down on the bed, still telling myself to just maybe take a few minutes rest and then continue getting ready, (as there was no way I was going to miss spending the day with my boyfriend) and I thought desperately of ways I could still get myself together enough to make the bus. I attempted to get up again but this time I was overwhelmed with a want to throw up. I held my wrist as it hung pretty lifeless and fought to hold back the flood of tears that were welling up inside. My mind raced… my thought process went something like this…..

“It could hardly be broken? My bones don’t break… And they hardly break that easily, do they?! …God it hurts so bad and I cant move it… It must be broken.… I ‘ll probably have to go to ER… This sucks so bad… Yep, I really don’t think I’m going to catch that bus today..”

It was broken. I did have to go to ER,  and I definitely didn’t catch the bus anywhere.

A distal radius fracture was what they called it. Looking at the X-ray the Doctor said it was a very bad break and I was very close to having had the bone smash into smithereens. Wonderful. It was probably the most pain I’ve ever felt in my life but as soon as they wrapped it in a plaster cast it eased up a little. My next thought was of the fact that I was about to travel to Japan in less than two weeks for another tour, singing, and how the hell was I going to pull of the “cast look” on stage while wearing long fancy gowns. That was definitely going to be interesting. I asked for a shorter cast but they said it had to go to my elbow for support. Oh lovely!

Fi doing Reiki to heal my wrist!

But after I arrived home later that day with my left arm all bound by plaster, my sister Fi and even I was surprised at how cheery a mood I was in considering the circumstance. And I really was quite happy. I think while I had been at the hospital I had thought about the idea of how fragile we really are as humans. In a split second everything can change on you. I no longer had the use of my left hand, and I wouldn’t for god knows how many weeks, but I was also hugely thankful. Thankful firstly that it wasn’t worse. A leg, or my face. Thankful that it was my left wrist and not my right, (I would still be able to hold a microphone). Thankful that it was an injury that would heal, with time, and I would be back to being whole again. Some people are not so lucky. I was lucky. It was a weird feeling as I sat looking at my new cast and my arm in a sling, I felt content and relieved and just grateful for life. Accidents can happen so quickly and we don’t appreciate the things we have until their gone. I never appreciated my wrists or any of my limbs and body as I do now.

In Japan in costume, trying to pull off the “cast look” :)

But the point of my story is really in the journey with my wrist. From being badly broken to going to my first physio appointment and seeing how baffled the lady was to find my wrist so mobile and normal.
“It’s like it was never broken”, she said in disbelief.

Perhaps it was luck, or maybe it was the hundreds of Japanese ladies as we toured Japan who came up to me after the shows touching my cast as a means of “blessing it” or maybe it was the fact that I was determined to heal myself naturally and the fact I have a pretty clean healthy diet, took homeopathic remedies, and had my sister use ‘Reiki” on my arm meant I not once had to take a drug to kill any pain, or maybe it was the combination of all of the above… but whatever it was, I had my cast off at 5 weeks (when they said it would need 6 or more) , the X-ray showed perfectly healed, and I had gained pretty much full mobility back after just two weeks out of the cast to the disbelief of the Physiotherapist.
A distal radius fracture is treated as a serious injury as it can be tricky to heal and can never really be right again, but because I feel like my healing was so easy and successful, I want to share with you just what I did to help my broken bone heal properly so that maybe someone somewhere who is interested in aiding the body’s ability to fix itself using only natural remedies will have something to reference.

ALL NATURAL BROKEN BONE HEALING REMEDY

ARNICA
I took the homeopathic remedy Arnica when I first broke my wrist to reduce the swelling pain and inflammation. Arnica is a plant related to the sunflower family and has been used for centuries for its medicinal purposes. It really helped me in relieving pain and I never had to resort to any western pain killing drugs which can actually slow the bone healing process down. I took TWO  30c tablets morning and evening for the first 5 days. And then I didn’t take it again unless I had a day or two where my hand was aching.

COMFREY (SYMPHYTUM)
Is an herb that’s also been used for centuries in skin and bone treatments. Its been known for centuries is Europe as “knit-bone” for its amazing ability to knit the bones together rapidly. I only started taking this after I had my second X-ray and the cast had been on about a week. The bone was set in a proper position and it is important to wait until the doctor says the bone is set properly before beginning to take Comfrey as it works very quickly putting the bone back together and you wouldn’t want it to fuse when it’s not been properly set. I then took the Comfrey, (two 6c tablets in the morning and evening) for the next 7 days and then I didn’t take it anymore.
REIKI
My sister recently began her Reiki training recently so I was a great test for its healing abilities. Reiki is an alternative medicine and spiritual practice developed by a Japanese Buddhist Mikao Usui. Better known as “hands on healing” or “palm healing” which uses the universal energy to promote self healing. My sister would hold her hands around my wrist and I could feel intense heat through the cast and it would last for varying amounts of time and as soon as the heat disappeared and the area went cold that meant the healing session was ended. At times when my wrist ached I had her do Reiki on it and it always relieved the ache.

EXERCISE

Iusedmy fingersas much as I could while I had the cast on and as soon as I got some power in it back I was using it to put up my hair, lift light things, anything to keep it mobile while it was still in the cast. We had somedance moves with our singing for the show and I had to hold the microphone in my left (cast) hand for one song. Initially this was hard and very heavy and I felt it pulling on my wrist which caused some pain but becauseI had to do it for the show I pushed through and about 3 1/2 weeks into the broken wrist I was able to hold the microphone with relatively no trouble. The point is I kept my arm moving and did what I could with it to keep the muscles working as much as I could without causing pain.I also ran on the treadmill after about 4 weeks as it’s good to keep doing light exercise to keep the blood circulating to help heal the bone. Then when the cast was removed, although the first day was terrifying (my hand was shrunken and pale and gross looking), Ipushed through with the exercises and within two days I practically was able to twist and turn my hand in all the ways I could before. So by the time I visited the physio (two weeks post cast) she said she’d never have been able to tell I broke my wrist!

A HEALTHY BALANCED DIET
As you know if you’re familiar with my blog I make sure to eat a pretty clean balanced diet. Your diet plays a huge role in the prevention and healing of any and every illness or injury. A broken bone requires a lot of nutrients to heal itself and often times it can pull calcium and vitamin D from your body in attempts to heal and if you are deficient in these vitamins and minerals it will slow the healing process and it may not even heal properly. I made sure to drink green juices packed with spinach and Kale as much as I could before I went to Japan (as I knew it would be hard to find juice bars there) but the good thing about being in Japan was that I ate a ton of raw fish which is packed full of omega 3’s and these are also extremely important in healing a broken bone.

And finally POSITIVITY
I didn’t let myself get down over the whole thing. Don’t get me wrong it was a stressful few weeks, not being able to do my hair, or taking a half an hour to pull up my jeans, or trying to get costumes on and off every night, traveling all over Japan on very little sleep in dead summer heat with the heavy cast, showering with a plastic bag over my left arm for weeks… I did shed a few frustrated tears I wont lie, but all in all I feel lucky to have had that journey. I feel stronger and most importantly more grateful to have all that I have in my life. I believed I would heal perfectly and all the remedies I was using would serve to put by bone back together perfectly and quickly and I’d be back in action in no time. And I was. I am.
So that’s my broken bone remedy recommendation! I just want to say thank you to everyone, my family, friends and tour mates who were all so helpful and patient and supportive the whole time.. I know I was a bit of a bother, always needing help on everything but I’m so grateful for all of you.

Me and my lovely sisters

UPDATE *** Jan 2016 .. because so many of you are asking about where to get Comfrey, I have linked here to Amazon UK where there is a good quality dried comfrey leaves that can be made into a tea. It is not recommended for use in pregnant women, even externally. As always, consult a doctor and/or qualified herbalist before using this or any herb! The link is here COMFREY TEA LEAVES . This is available in the UK and Europe but Im not sure about its availability in the U.S! Any questions just ask in the comments below!!

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