THE STORY OF KALTER BRUDER®

How it all began: The story of Kalter Bruder® began in Bielefeld. It was there that I (Carsten) had founded my first start-up in the medical sector and, in doing so, had literally worked myself into hospital. Working 80 hours a week with far too little balance from sport or hobbies, I certainly had a rather unhealthy workload. But what ultimately finished me off was restless legs syndrome, which made it increasingly difficult for me to sleep over the years. I tried cannabis back then, and initially it worked quite well. But over time, my body craved more and more of it, and eventually I found myself regularly waking up in the mornings feeling utterly knackered, dragging myself through the day just as I had before my attempt at self-healing. This unhealthy spiral of too much work, drugs and poor sleep culminated in a full-blown panic attack during a business lunch, which took me straight from the restaurant to hospital.

My roommate. Once there, I met my roommate, a stately man in his late 60s, with whom I quickly became friends and exchanged views on life. When I told him about my restless legs, he reacted with almost unexpected enthusiasm and told me about a ‘miracle gel’ from Gran Canaria that he used to relieve the nerve pain in his legs and which would certainly help me too. The very next day, his wife brought two bottles along and I tried the slimy stuff straight away. The cooling effect, which set in after just a few minutes, was very strong and felt very pleasant. However, because of the sedatives I’d been given at the clinic, I wasn’t yet able to properly gauge whether – or how well – the gel would help with my restless legs.

A night-time brainwave: Back in my own bed, I started using the gel more and more often and was quite impressed by its effects – even though, at the same time, I’d been prescribed Parkinson’s medication, which, incidentally, completely wrecked my gut flora. When I stopped taking them because of the severe side effects and the build-up of tolerance, the gel’s true power really became apparent – without any tablets (and, of course, without cannabis), I slept through the night as I hadn’t done for years. During one of these wonderful nights, I was jolted awake at around 2 am by a flash of inspiration: from my nights of research in the past, I knew that almost 10 per cent of the population in Germany suffers from RLS. And amongst these fellow sufferers, there are bound to be many for whom the gel will be just as effective as it was for me.

I set off to visit my twin brother in Lüneburg and told him about my experiences and thoughts. Thanks to his work in the medical technology and pharmaceutical sectors, Stefan is extremely knowledgeable about medical matters and jumped at the idea straight away: Kalter Bruder was born. A lot has happened since then, and today tens of thousands of people affected by these conditions use Kalter Bruder® every day. Over time, we’ve learnt from users that our cooling gel is also a great help for polyneuropathy and inflammatory joint pain. For me personally, the bottle naturally has a place of honour in the fridge door and still reliably helps me get to sleep. Stefan uses it regularly after intense workouts to prevent muscle soreness.