A man who lives off a diet containing 70 per cent foraged foods claims he cures his pain - with stinging needles.<br /><br />Jack Page, 31, has been in pain for the last four years after a suicide attempt left with severe injuries.<br /><br />But after learning about foraging he started using plant-based medicine to help ease his agony.<br /><br />He claims using cleavers - a climbing plant - on his legs helped him to walk again.<br /><br />He now drinks a juice made from it daily for pain management as well as rubbing stinging nettles on his joints.<br /><br />Jack, a full-time forager and content creator, from Crawley, West Sussex, said: "I would say I live off 70 per cent of what I forage.<br /><br />"I came up with this cleaver plant and it got rid of my eczema.<br /><br />"I use stinging needles on the affected areas for 30 seconds. It helps with my pain."<br /><br />Jack has always struggled with his mental health and had a breakdown in November 2020 when he attempted to take his own life.<br /><br />He spent a year in hospital recovering from his injuries and was left in a wheelchair.<br /><br />After meeting a woman in a pub they stuck up a friendship and she helped him learn about plant medicine.<br /><br />He used a plant called comfrey for eight months and claims it helped take his bone growth from 26 per cent to 80 per cent.<br /><br />Jack said: "All my injuries were on my left side. They wanted to amputate my leg.<br /><br />"My legs and bones were not healing. My leg was no good. It was going to disintegrate.<br /><br />"I blended it up into a mixture and applied it around the areas.<br /><br />"My legs are getting better but I'm still in a lot of pain."<br /><br />Jack spent months teaching himself about foraging and switched up his diet to eat off the land.<br /><br />He eats 70 per cent foraged foods but supplements this with some fish and rice that he buys from the shops.<br /><br />Jack says he spends around £50-a-week on food.<br /><br />He said: "My diet has changed drastically.<br /><br />"I eat a lot of stuff from the land.<br /><br />"I eat a lot of stinging needles, mushrooms, cleavers and horsetail.<br /><br />"I eat mushrooms like chicken of the woods, beefsteak fungus, puffball mushrooms."<br /><br />After an eczema flare up in early 2023 he claims using cleavers he was able to clear it up.<br /><br />Jack blends the plant up with some water, before straining it to make a juice.<br /><br />He also uses stinging needles on where he experiences pain on his legs for around 30 seconds - to relieve it.<br /><br />Jack said: "The connection with nature. I'm surprised how healing it is.<br /><br />"It helps my mental health too."<br /><br />Several studies such as Nettle sting for chronic knee pain: a randomised controlled pilot study have shown nettles have reduced patients pain score.
