Drug-free relief of acute back pain and osteoarthritis pain

Oh Your Aching Back

This is a little unsettling.

I don’t usually…no, make that: I NEVER find myself playing on the same side of the fence as international drug giant Merck. That’s right, the same Merck that makes Gardasil and used to make Vioxx.

And yet, today, Merck and I are singing the same tune.

But before you start thinking somewhere has frozen over or pigs are about to fly, let me assure you that it’s not about one of their drugs – and it’s definitely not about Gardasil. But I am going to share some information about an effective painkilling ointment…and Merck just happens to be the maker of this (non-pharmaceutical) ointment.

Looking for relief…on YouTube?

Well, sort of.

If you’d like to see a hilarious advertisement, go to YouTube and search: Kytta-Salbe. You’ll be directed to a German language video in which an American Indian on a mountaintop makes a pitch for Kytta-Salbe, a comfrey root extract ointment made by Merck.

And surprise! This American Indian speaks fluent German. Small world, isn’t it?

But if you suffer from chronic acute back pain, you probably don’t care much about a product’s advertising, as long as the product works.

In a new study published last month in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, researchers from various German research centers examined the effectiveness of Kytta-Salbe in treating lower back pain.

STUDY PROFILE

• The German team recruited 120 patients with acute upper or lower back pain
• Divided into two groups, subjects were treated with four grams of Kytta-Salbe daily, or a placebo ointment
• Treatment period lasted only five days
• Results showed that pain intensity decreased about 95 percent on average in the Kytta-Salbe group
• Pain intensity decreased less than 38 percent in the placebo group

The authors added that for some subjects the treatment worked very quickly, reducing pain within one hour.

Long history

As you might suspect, comfrey root has a long history as a medicinal herb. It’s been used for centuries in Chinese medicine to treat wounds and reduce arthritis pain.

Two years ago another German study tested Kytta-Salbe in a trial whose 220 subjects all suffered from chronic osteoarthritis of the knee. As in the back pain trial, the ointment reduced pain and restored mobility significantly better than placebo.

Kytta-Salbe may be hard to find in the U.S., but it can be ordered from Amazon.com. In fact, two customer reviews on Amazon note that the ointment relieved pain associated with a sprained ankle and tennis elbow.

If you’d like to do an end-run and completely avoid anything made by Merck (after all, they haven’t exactly earned our undying trust), a little Googling will turn up other ointments that use comfrey root as the primary pain relief ingredient.

Sources:
“Efficacy and Safety of a Comfrey Root Extract Ointment in the Treatment of Acute Upper or Low Back Pain” British Journal of Sports Medicine, Published online ahead of print, 5/21/09, bjsm.bmj.com
“Efficacy of a Comfrey Root Extract Ointment in the Treatment of Patients with Painful Osteoarthritis of the Knee” Phytomedicine, Vol. 14, No. 1, 1/10/07, sciencedirect.com