Birch and Health

 

The Birch Tree – a natural solution for maintaining health.

The birch tree grows widely in certain areas in Europe, North America and Asia. It is known for its many traditional medicinal uses and has been an important component in remedies   for millennia, particularly among Northern civilizations because of its widespread presence in nature and traditional use in those regions.

In fact, the tree is known as "The Giving Tree", acknowledging its generous properties of providing health benefits to man. Both its leaves and branches are beneficial and exhibit specific applications – leaves containing substances that promote blood circulation and the branches provide relief from painful muscle strains and sprains.  The raw sap of the tree has also been taken advantage of for medicinal purposes since olden times and even nowadays people retrieve it and keep a bottle handy in the refrigerator as a health beverage.

However, the most significant part of the tree that has been associated with traditional medicinal uses is the bark of the birch tree, the outer bark layer in particular.

 The birch bark contains numerous substances with high biological activity. Fifty percent (50%) of the bark contains substances, which have been proven effective in managing inflammation in many organs. The ancient wisdom of herbal medicine combined with modern medical science has demonstrated that long-lasting (chronic) inflammation is associated with the principal ailments plaguing humankind today. These include diseases affecting the heart and blood vessels, diabetes, and skin diseases such as psoriasis and atopic dermatitis (also known as 'asthma of the skin').

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The birch bark extract used by ESPA Biomedical is a proprietary full-spectrum extract consisting of betulin, betulinic acid, lupeol and betulin caffeates and is a core ingredient in many ESPA products, both dietary supplements and skin care products.