May 19, 2026

Cabbage for Arthritis? The Study That Surprised Me | Featuring Todd Bailey

It's a Tuesday afternoon. You just stepped off the curb wrong — or knelt down to grab something off the bottom shelf — and that familiar hot, grinding signal runs through your knee. You stand back up. You wince. And the arthritis question pops up again, the one that's been popping up for years now: is there anything that actually works, or am I just going to keep cycling through ice packs and tubes of gel?

If you've lived with knee osteoarthritis long enough, you already know the rhythm. Try the gel. Try the ice. Try the cabbage leaf your aunt swears by. Repeat.

Wait...did we just say cabbage?

This is a look at what happens when real researchers put cabbage, gel, and ice head to head in a real clinical trial — and what the results may mean for people who'd like a gentler, more sustainable kind of joint comfort.

Watch Todd break it down on the Herbal Mana Podcast:

If you'd rather read, or want a breakdown of what the study found and where the conversation goes from here, here's what's covered:

Why Osteoarthritis Hits So Differently

Osteoarthritis isn't just "getting old." It's the wear, the tear, the stress, the inflammation, the stiffness. It can come from age. It can come from overuse. It can come from a kneecap that's slightly misaligned in its groove. And sometimes, it comes from an old injury you thought you'd left behind in high school.

Todd knows this one personally. A pass, a plant, a turn — and a kneecap that "went off and stuck" during a high school football game. By the end of basketball season, he was on the operating table. He was 16.

"It can hit you when you're young, it can hit you when you're old. When you get it, it's miserable." — Todd Bailey, Herbal Mana Podcast

By his early thirties, the day-to-day looked like this: mow the lawn for thirty minutes, and he was done. Ride a stationary bike for twenty minutes, and he was done — not just that day, but for the week. His knees were hamburgered.

And in between every flare-up: another ice pack, another tube of gel, another hope that this one would work a little longer than the last.

The Study: Cabbage vs. Ice Pack vs. Voltaren

Cabbage For Arthritis Todd Demonstrating the Cabbage method

Pictured: Todd demonstrating the cabbage-leaf wrap protocol from the study on the Herbal Mana Podcast.

A small but legitimate clinical trial took 60 patients with knee osteoarthritis — the wear-and-tear kind, the kind that shows up after years of stress on the joint — and split them into three groups:

Group 1 — Cooling Pad (Ice Pack): 20 minutes once daily for 1 month.
Group 2 — Chilled Cabbage Leaves: 60 minutes a day, once daily, for one month. The leaves were gently rolled with a rolling pin to break up the fibers, chilled in the fridge, and then wrapped around the joint with an ace bandage or cellophane.
Group 3 — Topical Diclofenac (Voltaren): Applied four times a day, for one month.

The researchers tracked self-reported pain throughout the month and used a standardized pain scale to measure whether the achiness, throbbing, and joint problems changed over time.

What the Study Actually Found

The results surprised even the researchers.

The cabbage group and the ice pack group both showed statistically significant improvement in self-reported pain — meaning the change moved the needle by enough that the folks in the white jackets called it meaningful.

The Voltaren group showed no measurable change at all.

"The pharmaceutical drug got beaten by an ice pack and a vegetable." — Todd Bailey, Herbal Mana Podcast

Suprising Results of the Cabbage vs Ice vs Voltaren Study

Here's how it broke down:

What to Keep in Mind	Cooling Pad (Ice Pack)	Cabbage Leaf Wrap	Topical Diclofenac (Voltaren)
How it was used	20 minutes, once daily	60 minutes, once daily	Four times a day
Mechanism	Cooling + gentle pressure	Cooling + gentle pressure + extended contact	Topical NSAID, anti-inflammatory
Self-reported pain change	Statistically significant improvement	Statistically significant improvement	No measurable change
Common trade-offs	Temporary relief only; doesn't address underlying inflammation	Temporary relief only; doesn't address underlying inflammation	Some people tolerate topical NSAIDs well; others don't notice a difference
Best for	Hot, swollen, cranky joints that need a quick "volume down"	Same — with a longer, gentler contact window	Short-term, acute support under medical guidance

A quick caveat: this was a single small study with self-reported outcomes. One trial doesn't promise the same result for everyone. But for a pain warrior who's been cycling through the same three things for years, it's a real signal worth paying attention to.

Why Cooling and Pressure Beat a Pharmaceutical Gel

The most likely explanation is what researchers sometimes call the cooling-and-pressure effect.

When you've got a cranky, inflamed joint, two things tend to help in the moment:

Cold calms irritated, swollen tissue and temporarily quiets the pain signal.
Gentle pressure supports the joint and gives it a break from constant movement.

Both the cabbage wrap and the cooling pad delivered those two things. The cabbage just did it for longer (60 minutes versus 20), and with a softer, more plant-like contact surface.

The takeaway isn't that cabbage is magic. The takeaway is that cooling, gentle pressure, and consistency can do more for a cranky joint than we sometimes give them credit for.

That said — and this is the part that matters — neither cabbage nor an ice pack addresses the underlying inflammation or tissue damage. They're pushing the mute button on the TV. Sometimes that's exactly what you need. But if you're here, you probably want something that lasts longer than an hour.

After the Mute Button: A Gentler Daily Routine

That question is what led Todd to build Herbal Mana in the first place.

After full knee replacements — where they cut parts of bones off and, by his description, "really make a mess of things" — Todd went home from the hospital with three prescription pain medications. They worked. He felt great for about an hour. Then he had to wait four or five hours before he could take them again. He was miserable.

A couple of days in, his wife sat him down and asked him to try something different.

"She rubbed a cream on my knee — heavy oil base, a few essential oils in it, including frankincense and wintergreen. I got as much relief from that as I did from the three prescriptions the doctor sent me home with."

That moment changed everything. It sent Todd down the path of researching DMSO, studying how carrier compounds interact with essential oils, and eventually building the blend that became Alpha Warrior DMSO Cream — Herbal Mana's topical for joint and muscle comfort.

Three reasons a daily topical routine like Alpha Warrior tends to stick:

It goes where the discomfort is. No whole-body trip through the digestive tract. Just the joint that's asking for care.
It layers well. DMSO, magnesium, MSM, frankincense, peppermint, wintergreen — every ingredient has a job, and together they do more than any one of them alone.
It doesn't ask you to choose between comfort and the rest of your health. That was the trade Todd had been making for twenty years. He was ready to stop.

If you've been making the same trade, you're not alone. And you're not stuck.

Try Alpha Warrior: Todd's Daily Joint Routine

Alpha Warrior DMSO Cream is built on the same combination of DMSO, magnesium, MSM, and essential oils (including Frankincense, Peppermint, and Wintergreen) that became the foundation of Todd's evening and pre-sleep routine after his knee replacements.

It's designed for the pain warrior who wants:

A natural-feeling, daily topical routine for joint and muscle comfort
Comfort support that goes where you ask it to
Something gentle enough to use morning, midday, and before bed

You are allowed to care for your body gently. You don't have to push through, push down, or push past.

Ready to try the routine Todd reaches for every day?

Try Alpha Warrior DMSO Cream →

alpha warrior cream sitting on a bedside table with gym bag nearby

Frequently Asked Questions

Is cabbage actually proven to help with arthritis pain?

A small clinical study on 60 patients with knee osteoarthritis found that chilled cabbage leaf wraps — applied for 60 minutes a day for one month — produced a statistically significant reduction in self-reported pain. In that same study, topical diclofenac (Voltaren) produced no measurable change. The study was small and self-reported, so it's not a cure, but the results are real and worth paying attention to.

How do you use cabbage leaves for knee pain?

In the study, participants chilled white cabbage leaves, rolled them gently with a rolling pin to break up the fibrous structure, wrapped them around the joint, and covered them with plastic wrap or an ace bandage for 60 minutes once daily. Consistency mattered more than a single application.

Is Voltaren more effective than an ice pack for arthritis?

In the cited study, no. Topical diclofenac applied four times daily produced no measurable change after one month, while a cooling pad used 20 minutes a day produced statistically significant improvement. That doesn't mean Voltaren never works for anyone — it just means that for this group of 60 patients, cooling plus gentle pressure did more than the pharmaceutical gel.

What does the cabbage and ice pack comparison tell us?

The most likely common factor is cooling plus gentle pressure. Cold calms irritated tissue, and gentle compression supports the joint. Together, they may help interrupt pain signals — not by healing the underlying damage, but by giving the joint real relief in the moment.

What's a natural option that lasts longer than an ice pack?

For ongoing comfort, many people managing chronic joint discomfort turn to topical creams designed to support comfort over time. Alpha Warrior DMSO Cream combines DMSO — a well-studied carrier compound — with frankincense, wintergreen, peppermint, and other botanicals that herbalists have trusted for generations. It may help support comfort and mobility as part of a daily routine, beyond what a 20-minute ice pack can offer.

About Todd Bailey

Todd Bailey is a founder and owner of Herbal Mana, and host of the Herbal Mana podcast, where he shares practical education for people who want to hurt less and live more. Todd is not a medical doctor, and Herbal Mana content is for educational purposes only.

Connect with Herbal Mana: