Herbal Medicine for Preppers: Medicinal Trees, Birch

[00:00:01] [SPEAKER_01]: Hey y'all, welcome to this week's show. Today we are going to get into

[00:00:05] [SPEAKER_01]: absolutely one of the most useful trees in herbal medicine.

[00:00:12] [SPEAKER_01]: It's a useful tree anyway you look at it. As a wood carver I use birch a lot.

[00:00:17] [SPEAKER_01]: I mean birch is like the go-to for carving. Wooden spoons and bowls and cups and

[00:00:26] [SPEAKER_01]: all the kinds of stuff that I carve. In the Scandinavian tradition which is really

[00:00:34] [SPEAKER_01]: well it's what informs a lot of the traditional wood carving, birch is like the wood

[00:00:40] [SPEAKER_01]: and it's really nice to carve. It carves easily, it's got a beautiful grain, nice color patterns.

[00:00:51] [SPEAKER_01]: There are 16 varieties of birch which have been used medicinally and these are very medicinal plants by the way.

[00:00:59] [SPEAKER_01]: You're going to really want to know these. In my region, gray birch is naturalized.

[00:01:07] [SPEAKER_01]: I think native we have mountain paper birch, river birch. We've got a lot of river birch.

[00:01:15] [SPEAKER_01]: The silver birch, you know you're going to find birches. They're not that hard.

[00:01:20] [SPEAKER_01]: So like I said birch has long use in herbal medicine but it's also been used to make beverages for a very long time.

[00:01:32] [SPEAKER_01]: You can tap a birch tree the same way you would a maple tree.

[00:01:36] [SPEAKER_01]: You can gather the syrup and you can make birch syrup. You can also cook it down a little bit or just leave it as raw sap and make a beer out of it.

[00:01:51] [SPEAKER_01]: It's got just the right amount of water to sugar and all it needs is a little yeast so yeast is in the air and in the environment so it'll make itself.

[00:02:00] [SPEAKER_01]: Why would you do that? Well, one it's very pleasant beverage. Birch beer our founders are pioneers.

[00:02:07] [SPEAKER_01]: I mean they lived on birch beer. The water wasn't necessarily clean or they didn't know if the stream they were drinking out of was safe.

[00:02:15] [SPEAKER_01]: They could make birch beer but the medicinal aspect of it, it has a wintergreen type flavor.

[00:02:23] [SPEAKER_01]: It also has natural salicens or aspirin type compounds in it which would help with muscle and joint pain and help with fevers.

[00:02:33] [SPEAKER_01]: So really in early America birch beer was almost absolutely necessary for survival.

[00:02:44] [SPEAKER_01]: I mean you would normally make a low alcohol beer so people would sip on it throughout the day.

[00:02:51] [SPEAKER_01]: That's probably where people got the idea to do root beers and such. They weren't using the roots of birch but they would add some sassafrasse, add some sassaparilla to the base that was birch.

[00:03:02] [SPEAKER_01]: And they had a medicinal drink that would help with their immune system and make life a little bit more pleasant.

[00:03:09] [SPEAKER_01]: So really very important you can also make a very strong birch beer and that probably became more popular as people got kind of settled in.

[00:03:23] [SPEAKER_01]: They weren't moving around quite so much but in the winter time those strong birch beers were really popular in New England to help stave off the cold and warm you up and make you feel better.

[00:03:37] [SPEAKER_01]: They are actually quite good for you.

[00:03:41] [SPEAKER_01]: Birch leaves, twigs, buds and shoots are used modestly.

[00:03:45] [SPEAKER_01]: Birch is anti-inflammatory and helps break a fever like I said. It has salicens in it.

[00:03:50] [SPEAKER_01]: It stimulates bile so it's good for the liver and gallbladder, good for pre-diabetic conditions as such.

[00:03:58] [SPEAKER_01]: The barks are stringent, the sap's diuretic which means it helps remove excess fluid from the body.

[00:04:03] [SPEAKER_01]: The shoots are laxative. So birch has been used for fevers, colds to aid in digestion, for skin conditions such as eczema and psoriasis, rheumatism and gout, fluid retention, kidney stones, wounds and sores.

[00:04:17] [SPEAKER_01]: So it's really, I mean our ancestors whether here in America or in England certainly Scandinavia, I mean the birch was like probably one of the two or three most important plants in their entire culture.

[00:04:34] [SPEAKER_01]: So at least by 1600s England it was starting to be recorded in British herbal medicine.

[00:04:43] [SPEAKER_01]: I mean it's been used since I'm planning talked about in ancient Greece and like I said huge tradition from Norway, Sweden into Poland and Ukraine and Russia.

[00:04:54] [SPEAKER_01]: We'll get into all that but Colpepper said that the tea essentially made from the leaves was very good for kidney and bladder stones and also as a wash for sore mouths.

[00:05:13] [SPEAKER_01]: Miss Grieve in the 1930s England so skipping ahead a few centuries said that a fusion of the bark of birch tea was good for gout, rheumatism, dropsy that's a edema essentially and recommended as a reliable solvent of the stone of the kidneys.

[00:05:32] [SPEAKER_01]: With the bark they resolve and resist putrification. I think she was saying the leaves in the bark could be used.

[00:05:39] [SPEAKER_01]: A decoction of them is good for bathing skin eruptions and is serviceable in dropsy.

[00:05:44] [SPEAKER_01]: The oils is stringent and is employed for its curative effects and skin effectations, especially eczema and is also used for some internal maladies.

[00:05:55] [SPEAKER_01]: The inner bark is bitter and astringent and has been used in intermittent fevers so this would be like malarial type fevers.

[00:06:02] [SPEAKER_01]: Birch is really good for fevers not just because of the salicin but because of its bitter properties and such.

[00:06:08] [SPEAKER_01]: Sap is diuretic. In the Irish tradition John Kehoe tells us that the liquid that is drained off this tree in the springtime, this is sap,

[00:06:19] [SPEAKER_01]: is good for dispelling urinary disorders like stones, pains and bleeding.

[00:06:23] [SPEAKER_01]: Decoction of the leaves when drunk is considered good for scurvy. Another very important use of this tree.

[00:06:29] [SPEAKER_01]: You know scurvy really plagued our ancestors. They didn't know that they needed vitamin C and in the wintertime they didn't have a lot of plants with vitamin C

[00:06:37] [SPEAKER_01]: and they get rashes and their teeth would get loose and it was pretty bad. A lot of people died from scurvy.

[00:06:45] [SPEAKER_01]: Again, that beer made from birch was a lifesaver especially in the northern areas where you had longer winters.

[00:06:55] [SPEAKER_01]: Brother Aloysius and the German folk medicine tradition.

[00:07:02] [SPEAKER_01]: Brother Aloysius, Father Kunzl, my friend Gellante Wistib with whom I wrote a book.

[00:07:08] [SPEAKER_01]: Let's talk about a little bit of the German tradition because they made a Kunzl Swiss,

[00:07:14] [SPEAKER_01]: Brother Aloysius I think was Swedish. These were very important trees for them.

[00:07:18] [SPEAKER_01]: Brother Aloysius said the bark is bitter and astringent. The leaves are hot, desiccate and solvent and stimulative to the appetite.

[00:07:26] [SPEAKER_01]: It is recommended for dropsy. A decoction of the leaves and bark and thin twigs from about one cup to two cups of water

[00:07:37] [SPEAKER_01]: make a strong tea out of it. It was good for people who suffered from nerves or dropsy and they should take one to two cups per day.

[00:07:47] [SPEAKER_01]: Father Kunzl, he said, and I love the way he writes, you know Gellante and I, we wrote

[00:07:55] [SPEAKER_01]: The only to my knowledge, existent English translation of Father Kunzl's book from the 1920s,

[00:08:02] [SPEAKER_01]: The Herbs and Weeds of Father Johann Kunzl, it's arguably the most important book in herbal medicine of the last few hundred years

[00:08:10] [SPEAKER_01]: because when the Nazis were taking over they tried to outlaw herbal medicine.

[00:08:18] [SPEAKER_01]: Socialists, bureaucratic, communists essentially fascists. They wanted these big government bureaucracies where only people with college degrees

[00:08:26] [SPEAKER_01]: and medical licenses by approved boards could practice medicine.

[00:08:31] [SPEAKER_01]: And Father Kunzl, a very feisty but poor Swiss priest was charged with practicing medicine without a license.

[00:08:42] [SPEAKER_01]: And he went before the courts and proved that his herbs were more effective than the doctor's pharmaceuticals.

[00:08:49] [SPEAKER_01]: Had that not happened, herbal medicine would probably have been made illegal throughout the western world.

[00:08:57] [SPEAKER_01]: And you know American politicians were very sympathetic to the Nazis, so were the English politicians.

[00:09:04] [SPEAKER_01]: The British royal family, they were pure, full Nazi.

[00:09:10] [SPEAKER_01]: I mean really the house of, my ancestors come from the house of Wessex, very different English royal family than you know Queen Elizabeth and Prince Charles and all that.

[00:09:24] [SPEAKER_01]: They're actually German so they were very on board with Hitler.

[00:09:30] [SPEAKER_01]: They would have absolutely sold Europe out, had Winston Churchill allowed them.

[00:09:37] [SPEAKER_01]: And in America you know Wilson and FDR and the progressives were even worse.

[00:09:43] [SPEAKER_01]: And yeah they totally wanted to outlaw herbal medicine.

[00:09:47] [SPEAKER_01]: And one brave Swiss priest went to court and got herbal medicine declared legal in Europe.

[00:09:55] [SPEAKER_01]: Which is one of the main reasons it was never made fully illegal in America.

[00:10:00] [SPEAKER_01]: Even though in, began about 1912, 1916 they began to regulate it through the Pure Foods and Drugs Act etc.

[00:10:08] [SPEAKER_01]: So really important guy, great honor for me to be able to work with that Austrian herbalist to write that book.

[00:10:15] [SPEAKER_01]: Check it out if you know if you like.

[00:10:17] [SPEAKER_01]: It's the Herbs and Weeds of Father Johann Kunzl by Judson Carroll and Gellanto Witteb.

[00:10:50] [SPEAKER_01]: So he wrote,

[00:10:56] [SPEAKER_01]: If your rheumatism has not appeared all of a sudden, but has already been there for years,

[00:11:02] [SPEAKER_01]: or you're 60 or more years old, take a full herbal bath on one day and take juniper on the next.

[00:11:11] [SPEAKER_01]: Drink daily tea from birch leaves, meta-sweet, spiny rest tarot at ladies bedstraw,

[00:11:16] [SPEAKER_01]: and take a sip about every hour and you can be cured in three to six weeks of severe chronic arthritis.

[00:11:22] [SPEAKER_01]: It's very important to know, it's a very old curse.

[00:11:24] [SPEAKER_01]: You may be aware of like the Scandinavian and Russian traditions of the saunas,

[00:11:31] [SPEAKER_01]: and they use birch a lot in those saunas.

[00:11:34] [SPEAKER_01]: They're considered, it's considered to be very good for arthritic conditions.

[00:11:39] [SPEAKER_01]: He said that depending on the depth and length of your illness, you could be cured in three to six weeks.

[00:11:44] [SPEAKER_01]: I have seen 70 year old people suffering and distorted from gout,

[00:11:49] [SPEAKER_01]: who got cured after having undergone this treatment in the spa building near Sargeant Switzerland.

[00:11:55] [SPEAKER_01]: So very, very important to the Nordic, the Scandinavian, the northern people of Europe is the birch tree.

[00:12:06] [SPEAKER_01]: And Gellanto, my co-author, wrote in her commentary to this section, she's from Austria.

[00:12:11] [SPEAKER_01]: She said, I love birch trees. They are so beautiful with their white trunks and the shade they cast.

[00:12:17] [SPEAKER_01]: The light shivering of the leaves and a light breeze on a hot summer day.

[00:12:21] [SPEAKER_01]: They are very pretty trees. It's also where we find the chaga mushroom.

[00:12:24] [SPEAKER_01]: It grows on birch, so I always make sure to look for them in winter.

[00:12:29] [SPEAKER_01]: She says it's a very rough, robust tree, a pioneer tree where the first to start growing after avalanches, mudslides, volcanic eruptions, etc.

[00:12:39] [SPEAKER_01]: Birch is so generous and we are given so much from the birch. Saps, buds, leaves.

[00:12:44] [SPEAKER_01]: Sap is my favorite. Every second spring I am waiting for that moment when I can drill a small hole in the body of my birch tree,

[00:12:51] [SPEAKER_01]: insert a straw into it, and then enjoy the sap. Cold, slightly sweet.

[00:12:56] [SPEAKER_01]: I take a few liters from the tree during a period of five to seven days,

[00:13:00] [SPEAKER_01]: and then close the hole so that the leaves have enough water and minerals.

[00:13:03] [SPEAKER_01]: My day's portion is about 50 grams on empty stomach as I want to get the most of it.

[00:13:09] [SPEAKER_01]: The rest I keep in the fridge. It would stay fresh a day, but then it starts fermenting.

[00:13:13] [SPEAKER_01]: I freeze the rest and it will be there for next year. I do not exploit my tree.

[00:13:18] [SPEAKER_01]: She says I use birch water for boosting my immune system for more energy, which I sometimes lack in the spring.

[00:13:24] [SPEAKER_01]: Birch water has many useful minerals and is useful skin and hair.

[00:13:29] [SPEAKER_01]: Every man in German speaking countries would know birch water against hair loss and dandruff.

[00:13:38] [SPEAKER_01]: I collect birch buds around the same time when I enjoy the sap.

[00:13:42] [SPEAKER_01]: The right time is when the tops of the buds turn green.

[00:13:45] [SPEAKER_01]: I cut a few twigs, dry them, brush the buds, powder them in a coffee grinder, and store them in a jar.

[00:13:51] [SPEAKER_01]: The powdered buds are used in salad soups, bread, and are added to my morning herbal infusion.

[00:13:58] [SPEAKER_01]: I use the buds for strengthening my immune system and for detoxification.

[00:14:03] [SPEAKER_01]: And then comes the soft spring leaves. They are part of my salad, or I just eat the leaves now and then when I pass a birch tree.

[00:14:09] [SPEAKER_01]: Very good wild edible. We don't really think of it that way in America, but in Austria and on up they do.

[00:14:17] [SPEAKER_01]: She says, toward summer I collect birch leaves, the young and healthy ones.

[00:14:21] [SPEAKER_01]: These I dry from my detox mixtures. They are mildly diuretic and for anti-inflammatory mixtures.

[00:14:27] [SPEAKER_01]: And then I leave my birch tree in peace until next spring.

[00:14:31] [SPEAKER_01]: Now turning to America, Dr. Samuel Thompson in the early 1900s wrote of black birch,

[00:14:38] [SPEAKER_01]: bachelor lyncha, he specifically used the bark.

[00:14:42] [SPEAKER_01]: He said, a tree of this bark is useful in curing all complaints of the bowels to remove obstruction.

[00:14:48] [SPEAKER_01]: It is also of use in dysentery. This tree with peach meats or cherry stone meats,

[00:14:54] [SPEAKER_01]: made into a syrup is an excellent article to restore patients after having been reduced by that disease and to promote the digestion.

[00:15:03] [SPEAKER_01]: Now we got to be a little careful with cherry stone and peach pits.

[00:15:07] [SPEAKER_01]: They contain a little arsenic, a little one in her chill, a lot could be of course quite poisonous.

[00:15:12] [SPEAKER_01]: Same with apple seeds, believe it or not.

[00:15:15] [SPEAKER_01]: I eat the whole apple, I eat the core and all, so I'm not worried about it.

[00:15:19] [SPEAKER_01]: But if you ate enough apple seeds you'd get quite sick.

[00:15:24] [SPEAKER_01]: He said the leaves can also be used as a medicine and are more diuretic

[00:15:29] [SPEAKER_01]: and are soothing to the entire urinary apparatus in case of renal and cystic irritation and inflammation.

[00:15:36] [SPEAKER_01]: So cystitis, bad urinary tract infections.

[00:15:41] [SPEAKER_01]: The dose of the tincture is from 15 to 45 minimums, which essentially drops.

[00:15:48] [SPEAKER_01]: They can be taken in hot or cold water and hot water at the same as an infusion and is diuretic.

[00:15:54] [SPEAKER_01]: In other words, the tincture works like a hot tea if you put the tincture in hot water and it can help break a fever.

[00:16:01] [SPEAKER_01]: I'd probably just make a tea out of it if that was my goal.

[00:16:05] [SPEAKER_01]: Unless it was wintertime and I didn't have access to the leaves.

[00:16:08] [SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, it's good to have tincture on hand.

[00:16:09] [SPEAKER_01]: I shouldn't dismiss it out of hand.

[00:16:12] [SPEAKER_01]: It's just not usually the way I use birch.

[00:16:15] [SPEAKER_01]: King's American Dispissant Tory in 1898 says actions, medicinal uses and dosage of birch

[00:16:22] [SPEAKER_01]: Gently stimulant, diuretic, again means helps break a fever and estrange it,

[00:16:27] [SPEAKER_01]: used in warm water infusions whenever a stimulating diuretic is required.

[00:16:32] [SPEAKER_01]: Also in diarrhea, dysentery, cholera, etc.

[00:16:36] [SPEAKER_01]: A decoction or syrup of it forms an excellent tonic to restore the tone of the bowels after an attack of dysentery.

[00:16:43] [SPEAKER_01]: Said to have been used in gravel and female obstructions,

[00:16:46] [SPEAKER_01]: oil and birch will produce a drunken stupor vomiting and death.

[00:16:50] [SPEAKER_01]: So you know how I always say don't use essential oils internally?

[00:16:54] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[00:16:56] [SPEAKER_01]: You definitely don't want to consume internally the oil of birch,

[00:17:01] [SPEAKER_01]: at least in whatever amount will cause stupor vomiting and death.

[00:17:06] [SPEAKER_01]: But it has been used topically in gonorrhea, rheumatism, chronic skin diseases,

[00:17:11] [SPEAKER_01]: dose of 5-10 drops.

[00:17:13] [SPEAKER_01]: In the Native American tradition, native plants, native healing states,

[00:17:18] [SPEAKER_01]: the chemical actions are found in white, black, sweet or river birch trees.

[00:17:22] [SPEAKER_01]: It has a layer of bark that resembles a skin, but it is the inner bark that is medicinal.

[00:17:29] [SPEAKER_01]: It is best gathered in the wintertime when the sap is flowing and the bark is richer.

[00:17:33] [SPEAKER_01]: There is less chance at this time of the bark having insect or fungal damage.

[00:17:39] [SPEAKER_01]: I usually gather mine in the spring.

[00:17:41] [SPEAKER_01]: Most tree barks I will gather in the spring,

[00:17:43] [SPEAKER_01]: but I do get his point here because of the bugs and such.

[00:17:48] [SPEAKER_01]: As with other barks, it is best gathered when the days are 40 degrees or higher,

[00:17:53] [SPEAKER_01]: Fahrenheit, and the weather makes a sap rise.

[00:17:55] [SPEAKER_01]: So again, he's saying early spring, so I don't think we have much disagreement.

[00:18:00] [SPEAKER_01]: This timing varies according to the droughts and is dependent on the water levels

[00:18:04] [SPEAKER_01]: in the phases of the moon.

[00:18:06] [SPEAKER_01]: The bark comes off easier if there's a full moon.

[00:18:08] [SPEAKER_01]: That's actually folklore that tends to be true.

[00:18:11] [SPEAKER_01]: The bark does seem to come off easier at a full moon or closer to the full moon.

[00:18:16] [SPEAKER_01]: You also find that's the best time to kill a hog.

[00:18:20] [SPEAKER_01]: Nobody really knows why, but folklore is empirical evidence gathered over centuries of human experience.

[00:18:27] [SPEAKER_01]: It's not necessarily superstition.

[00:18:30] [SPEAKER_01]: There's usually a good reason for it.

[00:18:32] [SPEAKER_01]: The signature of this plant is like the skin layers of the bark.

[00:18:36] [SPEAKER_01]: This shows that tea made from the inner bark is good for skin problems.

[00:18:40] [SPEAKER_01]: The oils found in birch bark are very similar to those found in human skin.

[00:18:44] [SPEAKER_01]: This makes it very soothing, rough, itchy, and sensitive skin.

[00:18:47] [SPEAKER_01]: When made into a water-based wash, it is used externally to ease skin problems.

[00:18:53] [SPEAKER_01]: The birch water is used as a skin wash for any type of rash, dermatitis, insect bite, or sting.

[00:19:00] [SPEAKER_01]: It is also used as a wash for some burn and hemorrhoids.

[00:19:05] [SPEAKER_01]: It is good for cradle cap and children or dandruff and scaly scalp of any kind.

[00:19:09] [SPEAKER_01]: It is useful for dogs with mange or dry skin problems.

[00:19:13] [SPEAKER_01]: And sebaceous adenitis symptoms of itching, rough scaly skin, and even hair loss.

[00:19:29] [SPEAKER_01]: Native American and German tradition are very similar on that.

[00:19:32] [SPEAKER_01]: Again, empirical evidence from people in different parts of the world that weren't comparing notes.

[00:19:38] [SPEAKER_01]: The water can be used as an aftershave.

[00:19:42] [SPEAKER_01]: It is used on elderly people who develop thin paper-like skin.

[00:19:46] [SPEAKER_01]: If you've ever been around elderly people with skin sores, bed sores, and stuff, it can be very helpful.

[00:19:55] [SPEAKER_01]: It is used once a month on invalids.

[00:19:57] [SPEAKER_01]: Elderly is a preventative to keep the skin toned.

[00:20:00] [SPEAKER_01]: It can be used for poison ivy and other itchy rashes.

[00:20:02] [SPEAKER_01]: The leaves made into a tea, the tea is used internally in one cup doses.

[00:20:13] [SPEAKER_01]: It is used as a mild calmative and diuretic.

[00:20:15] [SPEAKER_01]: It is used to induce sleep and calm stress.

[00:20:18] [SPEAKER_01]: It is very good during menses and for PMS.

[00:20:21] [SPEAKER_01]: The tea taken to calm the lower back nerves during bouts of sciatica.

[00:20:25] [SPEAKER_01]: Now that's interesting.

[00:20:27] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm assuming it's the salicin, the aspirin type properties.

[00:20:31] [SPEAKER_01]: I've been having horrible sciatica the past couple of weeks.

[00:20:34] [SPEAKER_01]: I probably need to give that a try.

[00:20:38] [SPEAKER_01]: The birches are just now starting to bud out so I probably will give that a try actually.

[00:20:43] [SPEAKER_01]: A bath with a little tobacco in the water is actually really good.

[00:20:49] [SPEAKER_01]: Between birch and tobacco you can really help some sciatic issues.

[00:20:53] [SPEAKER_01]: Just always be careful with tobacco as it can make you nauseous and faint if you're not used to nicotine.

[00:21:00] [SPEAKER_01]: A mixture of sassafras, ginseng and birch is used for muscle regrowth even where the muscle has been severed.

[00:21:07] [SPEAKER_01]: Now this, I said this came from Native plants, Native healing.

[00:21:14] [SPEAKER_01]: I believe that's Tizmao Crowe's book if I remember correctly.

[00:21:18] [SPEAKER_01]: He is a Muscogi medicine man.

[00:21:22] [SPEAKER_01]: This is a remedy they use for muscle and nerve damage.

[00:21:29] [SPEAKER_01]: Like you said, severed, really severe stuff.

[00:21:33] [SPEAKER_01]: He didn't give a lot of information in the book.

[00:21:36] [SPEAKER_01]: I think it would be very...

[00:21:39] [SPEAKER_01]: If you have an issue like that, if you have severe nerve damage or muscle damage like that,

[00:21:47] [SPEAKER_01]: it would probably be very worth trying to get in touch with Tizmao, T-I-S-M-A-L and Crowe like the book.

[00:21:55] [SPEAKER_01]: Tizmao Crowe is his name and find out how they use that combination because apparently he's quite effective.

[00:22:03] [SPEAKER_01]: But it's sort of like one of their tribal secrets.

[00:22:07] [SPEAKER_01]: So you may actually have to get in touch with him, travel there,

[00:22:12] [SPEAKER_01]: find somebody who's studied under him if he's not still active.

[00:22:16] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm not sure I think he is.

[00:22:19] [SPEAKER_01]: I think it definitely, especially in this time of so many horrific injuries coming out of Iraq and Afghanistan,

[00:22:28] [SPEAKER_01]: somebody needs to be looking into that.

[00:22:30] [SPEAKER_01]: I'll just put it that way.

[00:22:31] [SPEAKER_01]: Mixer of sacipheras, ginseng and birch used for muscle growth even where the muscle has been severed

[00:22:36] [SPEAKER_01]: and elsewhere in the book he talks about severe nerve injuries.

[00:22:39] [SPEAKER_01]: It would also help.

[00:22:43] [SPEAKER_01]: Modern herbal books like Plants of a Future say birch is anti-inflammatory, colagog and diuretic.

[00:22:52] [SPEAKER_01]: The bark is diuretic and laxative and oil obtained from the inner bark is astringent

[00:22:57] [SPEAKER_01]: and used in the treatment of various skin afflictions especially for X-men psoriasis.

[00:23:02] [SPEAKER_01]: The bark is usually obtained from trees that have been felled for timber

[00:23:05] [SPEAKER_01]: and can be distilled at any time of the year.

[00:23:09] [SPEAKER_01]: Still it's easier to get the bark off in the spring, but anyway.

[00:23:12] [SPEAKER_01]: The buds are balsamic.

[00:23:14] [SPEAKER_01]: That means kind of aromatic and helps in cleansing and warming.

[00:23:20] [SPEAKER_01]: Warming is a very important part of being balsamic as they put it.

[00:23:25] [SPEAKER_01]: The young shoots and leaves secrete a resinous substance which has acrid properties

[00:23:31] [SPEAKER_01]: when combined with alkalis it is tonic and laxative.

[00:23:37] [SPEAKER_01]: The leaves are anti-cholesterolalimic, very long words.

[00:23:42] [SPEAKER_01]: It helps prevent buildup of cholesterol in the body.

[00:23:46] [SPEAKER_01]: And diuretic they also which I am not concerned about at all.

[00:23:51] [SPEAKER_01]: If you actually do research on cholesterol, high cholesterol levels have never actually been proven to be detrimental.

[00:23:58] [SPEAKER_01]: It's a total myth that cholesterol is a problem.

[00:24:03] [SPEAKER_01]: Now low vitamin B levels that cause the buildup of plaque and arteries is a big problem.

[00:24:08] [SPEAKER_01]: But low levels of cholesterol will kill you.

[00:24:11] [SPEAKER_01]: High levels of cholesterol have not yet, even with all the hysteria over the past, you know,

[00:24:18] [SPEAKER_01]: at least since the 70s about cholesterol, high cholesterol has never been proven to have any deleterious health effect.

[00:24:26] [SPEAKER_01]: Your doctor will probably tell you that it does.

[00:24:29] [SPEAKER_01]: He has no evidence to back that up.

[00:24:31] [SPEAKER_01]: And if you were to ask him for empirical studies proving that high cholesterol levels have a negative effect on health,

[00:24:41] [SPEAKER_01]: one he couldn't do it and two he'd probably get very angry because you just proved him to be a fool.

[00:24:49] [SPEAKER_01]: Sorry, but it's the truth.

[00:24:51] [SPEAKER_01]: They are also contained phytocytes, which are effective germicides.

[00:24:57] [SPEAKER_01]: And infusion of the leaves is used in the treatment of gallop, dropsy and rheumatism and is recommended as a reliable solvent of kidney stones.

[00:25:04] [SPEAKER_01]: Young leaves and leaf buds are harvested in spring and dried for later use.

[00:25:09] [SPEAKER_01]: But a cox of the leaves embark is used for bathing skin eruptions.

[00:25:14] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, we'll just spend a little more time on this.

[00:25:16] [SPEAKER_01]: Rodale Erdbook talked about the beer and that's really, you know, as a prepper and everything.

[00:25:23] [SPEAKER_01]: I think birch beer is something we really need to look into incorporating to our preps.

[00:25:29] [SPEAKER_01]: Medicinal and very practical and very useful.

[00:25:33] [SPEAKER_01]: The beer is usually made from the sap of sweet birch.

[00:25:37] [SPEAKER_01]: A type of oil of winter grain is distilled from the inner bark and twigs

[00:25:40] [SPEAKER_01]: and is used for remedies to purify the blood, rheumatism and expel worms.

[00:25:47] [SPEAKER_01]: For some reason, herbists don't really like to talk about blood purifiers anymore, but I know what it means.

[00:25:52] [SPEAKER_01]: It means it's a spring tonic.

[00:25:53] [SPEAKER_01]: Applied externally is used for boils and sores.

[00:25:58] [SPEAKER_01]: Rodale's herbal encyclopedia states birch contains methyl salisate, which has countereridant and analgesic properties.

[00:26:07] [SPEAKER_01]: In other words, aspirin.

[00:26:09] [SPEAKER_01]: Thus there may be some validity.

[00:26:11] [SPEAKER_01]: The folk medicine use of birch to relieve the ache of rheumatism.

[00:26:14] [SPEAKER_01]: Well, there is validity, much more than some.

[00:26:17] [SPEAKER_01]: The skin absorbs methyl salisate.

[00:26:20] [SPEAKER_01]: A poultice can be used on skin irritations and wounds.

[00:26:23] [SPEAKER_01]: But going back to the birch beer, Amy Stewart wrote a really good book called The Drunken Botanist.

[00:26:30] [SPEAKER_01]: And she says starting in the early 17th century, so 1600s,

[00:26:35] [SPEAKER_01]: several scientists wrote of the use of birch sap in medicinal or purely recreational liquors.

[00:26:41] [SPEAKER_01]: Flemish physician Johann Baptiste von Helmont,

[00:26:49] [SPEAKER_01]: so I guess he was somewhere around Belgium,

[00:26:51] [SPEAKER_01]: wrote that birch sap could be collected in the spring and poured into ale

[00:26:56] [SPEAKER_01]: after the greatest settlement of its boiling or working.

[00:27:00] [SPEAKER_01]: He recommends his naturally-fermented sap as a treatment for ailments of the kidney's urinary tract and bowel.

[00:27:07] [SPEAKER_01]: So that's a little obscure.

[00:27:09] [SPEAKER_01]: You'll Givens, you know, the great outdoorsman and forager of the 1960s,

[00:27:13] [SPEAKER_01]: gave a great recipe for birch beer in his classic book, Stalking the Wild Disparagus.

[00:27:19] [SPEAKER_01]: He said,

[00:27:19] [SPEAKER_01]: Measure four quarts of finely cut twigs of sweet birch into the bottom of a five-gallon pot

[00:27:26] [SPEAKER_01]: in a large kettle stirring one gallon of honey to two gallons of birch sap

[00:27:31] [SPEAKER_01]: and boil this mixture for ten minutes.

[00:27:35] [SPEAKER_01]: Then pour over the chopped twigs when cool, strained or removed,

[00:27:38] [SPEAKER_01]: and now expended twigs and return the liquid to the crock.

[00:27:42] [SPEAKER_01]: Spread one cake of soft yeast on a slice of toasted rye bread

[00:27:47] [SPEAKER_01]: and float this on top of the beer.

[00:27:48] [SPEAKER_01]: Yep, that's a lot of beer and wine recipes say that.

[00:27:52] [SPEAKER_01]: Essentially by putting the yeast on a piece of bread or toast and floating it.

[00:27:58] [SPEAKER_01]: You made sure that by the time the yeast hit the work or the liquid,

[00:28:02] [SPEAKER_01]: it was cool enough not to kill the yeast.

[00:28:05] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, that's all there is to it really.

[00:28:07] [SPEAKER_01]: You can just wait until the liquid is room temperature or body temperature

[00:28:13] [SPEAKER_01]: and add your yeast then.

[00:28:17] [SPEAKER_01]: People associate yeast with bread and that just became a way people did things.

[00:28:22] [SPEAKER_01]: It certainly wouldn't hurt and perhaps the bread even adds a little,

[00:28:26] [SPEAKER_01]: what you call yeast nutrient.

[00:28:29] [SPEAKER_01]: It may add a few vitamins and food essentially for the yeast

[00:28:35] [SPEAKER_01]: but not entirely required.

[00:28:39] [SPEAKER_01]: So cover with a cloth and let it firm it until the cloudiness just starts to settle.

[00:28:44] [SPEAKER_01]: This usually take about a week and it depends on the temperature.

[00:28:49] [SPEAKER_01]: Firmation happens much faster when it's warmer than it does when it's cold.

[00:28:53] [SPEAKER_01]: Bottle the beer in cap it tightly stored in a dark place

[00:28:56] [SPEAKER_01]: and serve it cold before meals or after the weather gets hot.

[00:29:00] [SPEAKER_01]: It has a reputation for stimulating the appetite.

[00:29:04] [SPEAKER_01]: However, he says, more than a glass or two at a time

[00:29:07] [SPEAKER_01]: is likely to stimulate other things for this beer has a kick like a mule.

[00:29:11] [SPEAKER_01]: So bear that in mind.

[00:29:13] [SPEAKER_01]: Givens Birch beer is traditional recipe

[00:29:16] [SPEAKER_01]: and you may want to play around with it.

[00:29:18] [SPEAKER_01]: You can do soft drink, lower alcohol, you can flavor it however you want.

[00:29:24] [SPEAKER_01]: I love to firm it stuff so I get into that.

[00:29:26] [SPEAKER_01]: I'll spare you all the details right now.

[00:29:30] [SPEAKER_01]: But Stephen here at Buehner, the great herbalist who was the nephew of the surgeon general said

[00:29:36] [SPEAKER_01]: in his book, Sacred and Healing Herbal Beers,

[00:29:40] [SPEAKER_01]: methyl salicylate, the main active ingredient in Birch sap

[00:29:45] [SPEAKER_01]: and the herb wintergrain has the delicious and easily recognizable taste that we call wintergrain.

[00:29:52] [SPEAKER_01]: Methyl salicylate is similar to aspirin.

[00:29:57] [SPEAKER_01]: It is strongly analgesic and anti-inflammatory

[00:29:59] [SPEAKER_01]: being therefore of use into cautions for treating arthritic and rheumatic conditions.

[00:30:04] [SPEAKER_01]: Furthermore, Peterson Fieldguide's Birch bark was widely used by American Indians.

[00:30:11] [SPEAKER_01]: Inner bark for fever, stomach aches, lung ailments.

[00:30:14] [SPEAKER_01]: Twig tea for fever, essential oil, methyl salicylate distilled from the bark

[00:30:18] [SPEAKER_01]: was used for rheumatism, gout, scropula, bladder infections, neuralgia.

[00:30:22] [SPEAKER_01]: It is anti-inflammatory and analgesic.

[00:30:25] [SPEAKER_01]: It is used to alleviate the pain of sore muscles as the oil.

[00:30:33] [SPEAKER_01]: They warn again about taking essential oil internally as toxic

[00:30:38] [SPEAKER_01]: and could even be absorbed through the skin and cause fatality.

[00:30:42] [SPEAKER_01]: So I should say, stay away from the essential oil, use it in its natural state.

[00:30:47] [SPEAKER_01]: Botania dais as the tea of the leaves or twigs can be used externally as a stringent wash

[00:30:54] [SPEAKER_01]: internally for diarrhea and boils.

[00:30:56] [SPEAKER_01]: Tea of the twigs is also somewhat anthalmintic.

[00:31:01] [SPEAKER_01]: The birch contains some amount of methyl salicylate like willow or aspirin

[00:31:09] [SPEAKER_01]: making them diaphragmatic and analgesic.

[00:31:11] [SPEAKER_01]: Birch twigs are chopped, simmered overnight and distilled,

[00:31:15] [SPEAKER_01]: used commonly as a substitute for wintergreen oil.

[00:31:18] [SPEAKER_01]: Strong tea of the bark or leaves can be used as a wash for poison ivy or acne

[00:31:24] [SPEAKER_01]: and internally as a mild sedative.

[00:31:26] [SPEAKER_01]: A compound called betulinic acid derived from the bark is being tested on some types of skin cancer.

[00:31:32] [SPEAKER_01]: And finally, the physician's desk reference for herbal medicine, the big book doctors use,

[00:31:39] [SPEAKER_01]: says effects of birch leaf.

[00:31:42] [SPEAKER_01]: Birch leaves have a mild, saluretic effect and are anti-piretic.

[00:31:48] [SPEAKER_01]: In animal tests they have shown to increase the amount of urine.

[00:31:51] [SPEAKER_01]: Well, that doesn't mean a whole lot to us, but under unproven or folk use they say

[00:31:57] [SPEAKER_01]: the leaves are used in flushing out therapy for bacterial and inflammatory diseases

[00:32:01] [SPEAKER_01]: of the urinary tract and for kidney gravel.

[00:32:04] [SPEAKER_01]: They are also used in adjunct therapy for rheumatoid arthritis

[00:32:08] [SPEAKER_01]: for increasing the amount of urine.

[00:32:10] [SPEAKER_01]: In folk medicine the leaves are used as a blood purifier for gout and rheumatism.

[00:32:15] [SPEAKER_01]: Externally the leaves are used for hair loss and dandruff.

[00:32:18] [SPEAKER_01]: No health hazards or side effects are known in conduction with proper administration

[00:32:23] [SPEAKER_01]: of designated therapeutic dosages.

[00:32:27] [SPEAKER_01]: So we'll wrap that one up there.

[00:32:30] [SPEAKER_01]: Birch trees are fantastic as herbal medicine, as food, as drink for carving wood,

[00:32:40] [SPEAKER_01]: for wood use to make furniture, birches, beautiful tables, wood floors.

[00:32:48] [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know why recently I ran into a lady and she wanted me to carve some cooking spins for her.

[00:32:56] [SPEAKER_01]: And I told her I had some beautiful birch, would that be okay?

[00:33:00] [SPEAKER_01]: And she just loved birch, she just flipped out.

[00:33:03] [SPEAKER_01]: She ordered several and she said that she regrets not still having

[00:33:10] [SPEAKER_01]: birch trees that some arborists came by and said they were trash trees

[00:33:15] [SPEAKER_01]: and she should get rid of them and she let them cut them down.

[00:33:19] [SPEAKER_01]: You know, if someone comes into your yard and points to a beautiful useful tree

[00:33:24] [SPEAKER_01]: and says that's a trash tree you need to get rid of it, tell them to get off of your property.

[00:33:29] [SPEAKER_01]: They're either trying to rip you off or they are idiots.

[00:33:33] [SPEAKER_01]: Probably a combination both.

[00:33:34] [SPEAKER_01]: At the very least those birch trees would have made fantastic firewood.

[00:33:40] [SPEAKER_01]: Birch is some of the very best, hottest burning firewood when it's good and cured.

[00:33:46] [SPEAKER_01]: Even if you don't use it for woodworking and such, it's such a wonderful tree.

[00:33:52] [SPEAKER_01]: The bark makes beautiful baskets, especially in Russia and Scandinavia.

[00:33:57] [SPEAKER_01]: They have this tradition of making birch bark baskets which are just gorgeous

[00:34:02] [SPEAKER_01]: and worth a fortune if someone really knows what they're doing.

[00:34:05] [SPEAKER_01]: People will really seek these things out and collect them.

[00:34:10] [SPEAKER_01]: Anyway, if someone comes on your property and tells you you need to get rid of a tree

[00:34:15] [SPEAKER_01]: they probably don't have any business being on your property in the first place.

[00:34:21] [SPEAKER_01]: They're probably just trying to rip you off.

[00:34:24] [SPEAKER_01]: Sometimes obviously you might have a diseased tree

[00:34:27] [SPEAKER_01]: and a licensed arborist who actually knows what they're doing may come and say

[00:34:32] [SPEAKER_01]: my advice is for you to remove that tree.

[00:34:35] [SPEAKER_01]: But even then, no tree is worthless.

[00:34:40] [SPEAKER_01]: You'll find some use for it, even if it's just firewood.

[00:34:45] [SPEAKER_01]: But you can grow mushrooms on birch trees.

[00:34:48] [SPEAKER_01]: You can do so much with birch.

[00:34:50] [SPEAKER_01]: It is truly one of our greatest natural resources for so many reasons.

[00:34:57] [SPEAKER_01]: And like I said, chaga mushrooms grow on birch.

[00:35:00] [SPEAKER_01]: I go out in the wintertime when the snow's on the ground

[00:35:03] [SPEAKER_01]: and the silver birch trees they usually grow in a stand stand out against the snow.

[00:35:09] [SPEAKER_01]: And that's when I look for chaga mushrooms.

[00:35:14] [SPEAKER_01]: Truly, one of my favorite trees and I hope you'll make full use of it.

[00:35:19] [SPEAKER_01]: You'll probably never run out of uses for the birch.

[00:35:23] [SPEAKER_01]: Y'all have a great week. I will talk to you next time.

[00:35:27] [SPEAKER_00]: The information in this podcast is not intended to diagnose or treat any disease or condition.

[00:35:33] [SPEAKER_00]: Nothing I say or write has been evaluated or approved by the FDA.

[00:35:37] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm not a doctor.

[00:35:38] [SPEAKER_00]: The U.S. government does not recognize the practice of verbal medicine

[00:35:42] [SPEAKER_00]: and there is no governing body regulating herbalists.

[00:35:44] [SPEAKER_00]: Therefore, I'm really just a guy who studies herbs.

[00:35:47] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm not offering any advice.

[00:35:48] [SPEAKER_00]: I don't even claim that anything I write or say is accurate or true.

[00:35:52] [SPEAKER_00]: I can tell you what herbs have been traditionally used for.

[00:35:55] [SPEAKER_00]: I can tell you my own experience and if I believe in herbs help me.

[00:35:58] [SPEAKER_00]: I cannot nor would I tell you do the same.

[00:36:01] [SPEAKER_00]: If you use an herb, anyone recommends you are treating yourself.

[00:36:05] [SPEAKER_00]: You take full responsibility for your health.

[00:36:07] [SPEAKER_00]: Humans are individuals and no two are identical.

[00:36:10] [SPEAKER_00]: What works for me may not work for you.

[00:36:12] [SPEAKER_00]: You may have an allergy, a sensitivity and underlying condition

[00:36:16] [SPEAKER_00]: that no one else shares and you don't even know about.

[00:36:19] [SPEAKER_00]: Be careful with your health.

[00:36:21] [SPEAKER_00]: By continuing to list my podcast or read my blog

[00:36:24] [SPEAKER_00]: you agree to be responsible for yourself

[00:36:26] [SPEAKER_00]: do your own research, make your own choices

[00:36:28] [SPEAKER_00]: and not to blame me for anything ever.