Every home should have a good healing salve within reach. This one is built on Dr. Christopher’s healing ointment: three soothing herbs and four essential oils that are calming and healing to inflamed skin. It’s the salve I reach for after a joint has been overused or injured, for dry, itchy skin, for lesions and eczema, for poison ivy, and for hemorrhoids.
What a Good Healing Salve Contains
The herbs, in equal parts:
- Comfrey Root, 1 part. Known for its ability to knit flesh together, which makes it part of nearly any formula that supports the skin. One of its main constituents is allantoin, a cell proliferant that encourages healthy new cells to multiply.
- Marshmallow Root, 1 part. Very soothing and healing to inflamed tissue. Its high mucilage content helps draw out irritation and impurities.
- Marigold (Calendula), 1 part. One of the herbalist’s most reliable dressings for sores, burns and wounds, gentle and non-irritating. As a salve it’s excellent for chapped skin, and it has long been used to take the sting out of a bee or wasp sting.
“Parts” can be any measure you like, as long as you use the same one for every herb. By weight, that’s simply equal ounces of all three.
The essential oils, added at the end:
- Rosemary, valued for helping heal breaks in the skin and for calming inflammation.
- Lavender, one of the most widely used essential oils, traditionally regarded as soothing to pain and inflammation and as an antiseptic, with a calming scent that rounds out the blend.
- Frankincense, traditionally used for calming inflammation and for supporting skin regeneration and healing.
- Helichrysum, with a long history of use for skin irritation and for supporting the skin’s healing process.
Making the Salve
The herbs are fully extracted in extra virgin olive oil. They go into a 150-degree oven for three hours, then the spent herbs are swapped out for fresh ones, three times through in all. The finished oil is thickened with beeswax, and the essential oils are stirred in at the end.
How It Works
This combination supports faster healing of the skin and flesh. It works as an antiseptic, helping to prevent or clear minor infections, and it calms inflammation, which eases the pain in the affected area. Remember, pain comes from blockage; clear the blockage, and the pain comes down.
How to Use It
Apply it directly to the area, or make a salve pack: spread on a good layer, cover it with flannel, and secure it over the area.
- An overused or injured joint: Once any ice pack has done its job, or right away if there was no impact and no concern for internal bleeding (as with overuse), pack the joint with the salve for a couple of hours. It knocks down the inflammation around the damaged area so healing can happen more quickly, and it keeps the discomfort from building.
- Itching: After hot and cold hydrotherapy on the itchy area, I like to finish with this salve to support the body in clearing whatever is behind the itch. When the itch is persistent or severe, the liver may need support too, since skin troubles like eczema and hives so often trace back to an overloaded liver.
- Hemorrhoids: Apply as needed to soothe the swollen, irritated tissue, alongside changes to the food program. Junk foods that leach calcium from the body are a root cause.
This is shared for educational purposes, from my own study and experience. It is not medical advice.
