THE BIRCH LEAF CURE

His nephew tells the story:

By the time Henry had passed his mid-thirties, his body was being progressively bent with crippling pain - his arms, shoulders, back and legs. Nearly bed-ridden he was staying with his brother-in-law.

One day Old Man Ross was visiting and noticed Henry slowly shuffling along with the aide of home-made Willow crutches. Old Man Ross was at that time known for his herbal treatment for assorted "ills". He told Henry he'd soon fix him up.

The next day they procured a 45 gallon drum, filled it with water and added an unknown amount of birch leaves - unknown, by the fact that the young nephew, though fascinated with the procedure being undertaken, did not pay that close of attention to some details, and the fact that he is now recalling an event that happened at least 60 years ago.

They heated the barrel of water and birch leaves. Once the hot water and birch leaves reached a temperature that a body could stand, they carried Henry from the house and immersed him up to his neck in the barrel. They kept him in there for somewhere around a half hour to forty-five minutes. Then they lifted his now green body out of the barrel and scrubbed and rubbed him down with cool water in the steam bath.

They repeated this procedure once a day for three or four days in a row. On the last day Henry walked from the steam bath on his own.

From then on he led an active outdoor life of work and play, eventually dying at the age of 75 - never having a recurrence of pain.

THE POSSIBLE SCIENCE THAT MAY BE BEHIND HENRY'S "CURE"

While I was researching my firewood birch Post, I had come upon 'oil of Wintergreen" as one of the uses of birch leaves and twigs. I remembered my neighbour telling me the story of Henry so I put 'Oil of Wintergreen' into the search box on my computer.

The active 'ingredient' methyl salicylate is in the leaves and bark of some plants of the Genus Betula; Family: Betulaceae; sub Genus: Betulenta especially the Black Birch. In plants it acts as an anti-herbivore defence. In humans it has a use as an anti-rheumatic, anti-arthritic application (among a great many other ills).

Birch and Wintergreen were the best Essential Oils for pain prior to the 1920's when synthetics were created.

CAUTION

Today TRUE Wintergreen Essential Oil is not commonly used. The British School of Aroma Therapy site safety concerns. It can be Toxic if improperly used. In 2007 one death was attributed to the too liberal application of a topical muscle pain relief product.

So, while it is tantalizing to think a pain-free-life is just sitting in a tub of hot birch tea away, not knowing the amount of leaves to use could prove fatal.