Welcome to Cortesia Solomon’s Seal

Sunbeams at Cortesia Sanctuary

The purpose of this blog is to help you understand the potential healing benefits of the plant, Solomon’s Seal. It supports the vast information on our website www.solomonsseal.net.

The featured articles, complete with illustrations and practical strategies, explore the numerous health conditions and injuries Solomon’s Seal may help. But we don’t stop there. You will also find articles about nutrition, diet, exercise and more, including topics that tap the spirit and mind.

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The blessings of health to you, always.

Does Worry Make You Sick?

What robs us of our peace of mind? What steals away our joy? What diminishes our hope, will and faith? What jeopardizes our health? In short, what everyday habit limits our life?

WORRY.

We cannot seem to escape it. We worry about job and financial security. We worry about our health, and the high costs to treat disease and illness. We worry about a natural catastrophe that can wipe our homes and possessions away within minutes. We worry about getting older. We worry about crime and our safety. We worry about basic survival, maintaining a sense of dignity, and somehow getting our fair share. We even worry that our voice will not be heard, that no one is listening.

At its most basic, worry is simply a thought. Dr. Zacharty Bercovitz states, “Some patients I see are actually draining into their bodies the diseased thoughts of their minds.” In other words, worry can be characterized as a cycle of inefficient thought revolving about a pivot of fear. Such fear can keep us restless and filled with tension. “Worry, doubt, fear and despair,” said General Douglas MacArthur, “are the enemies that slowly bring us down to the ground and turn us to dust before we die.”

How Solomon’s Seal Works to Heal You

The medicinal use of the root of the herb Solomon’s Seal (polygonatum biflorum or multiflorum) dates back over 3,500 years ago to the era of King Solomon. He was so impressed by the plant’s diverse healing qualities that he proclaimed it a gift from God, and thus named it after himself. Its more “modern day” acknowledgement was by Dioscorides and Pliny in the 1st Century, A.D. Asian medicine considers it one of the ten top healing plants. Ancient Europeans and North American Indians considered it a medicinal “workhorse” of wide value. Today, there is increasing interest in the therapeutic values of the plant.

Solomon's Seal (polygonatum biflorum)

Just a partial list of its uses demonstrates Solomon’s Seal’s wide healing potential:

• Rebuilds damaged cartilage & connecting tissue
• Reduces inflammation and speeds healing of bruises, wounds and skin irritations
• Hastens recovery from bone injuries (broken, stressed, osteoarthritis) and associated connective tissues, including arthritis
• Produces synovial fluid to reduce grinding in joints
• Tightens or loosens (as needed) tendons, ligaments, joints & attachments associated with repetitive stress, injury & inflammation
• Soothes gastrointestinal inflammation and injuries
• Loosens mucous in lungs
• Regulates blood pressure
• Treats and relieves women’s issues

The question remains, however, what makes Solomon’s Seal work so well? What are its constituents that, when processed into a tincture, salve, tea or liniment, or when combined with those of another herb, empower its healing qualities?

Solomon’s Seal Tea: Healing Benefits

The wildcrafted root of the herb Solomon’s Seal (Polygonatum biflorum or multiflorum) is widely known and used in tincture form (internally) or as a salve (externally). However, when prepared as a tea (i.e. herbal infusion) Solomon’s Seal root has unique healing benefits, as compared to tincture or salve.

The information available on the Internet about using Solomon’s Seal as a tea is not entirely accurate, especially suggested dosage amounts. The purpose of this article is to clarify the potential healing benefits of Solomon’s Seal tea for certain health issues, including its proper preparation and dosage.

Tincture or Tea?

First, it is important to clarify when the tea can offer superior healing and when it is more advantageous to use Solomon’s Seal as a tincture or salve. In some cases, the tincture and tea are interchangeable. If for some reason you cannot consume alcohol-based tinctures, than by all means try the tea. It has a mild, slightly sweet, nutty taste and is cooling and moistening to the body.

Solomon’s Seal tea, in particular, makes the best use of the plant’s excellent demulcent qualities (also referred to as mucilaginous or muco-protective). Mucilage is a polysaccharide substance obtained from the roots or seeds of a plant. A mucilaginous or demulcent herb is viscous and gelatinous, and thus protective and soothing to the mucus membranes and other irritated or inflamed internal tissues of the body.

Treating “Mommy Thumb” (De Quervain’s Tendonitis) with Solomon’s Seal

Mommy Thumb is the current nickname given to De Quervain’s tendonitis. Almost 50% of new mothers experience this condition, as described below. However, it is a condition common to many people who engage in repetitive hand or wrist movement, such as gardening, knitting, cooking, playing a musical instrument, carpentry, walking a pet on a leash, lifting a baby, and the like.

De Quervain’s tendonitis is not carpal tunnel syndrome, a pain that is usually centered on the inside of the wrist where nerves and tendons pass through a narrow tunnel-like space. De Quervain’s tendonitis involves just the thumb tendon, which runs through a canal at the base of the thumb at the back of the hand. Specifically, the protective synovium sheath of the tendon becomes inflamed. In most cases, the condition is not serious and can be easily treated. This article will help you identify De Quervain’s tendonitis and its causes, and suggest treatment strategies including the use of Solomon’s Seal tincture and salve.

How Flower Essences Enhance Physical and Emotional Healing

Why should you consider the use of Flower Essences in your healing strategies? It’s common to focus on the physical aspects of healing because our body may be in pain and we want to make that pain go away. However, it’s equally important to pay close attention to the ever-present emotional aspects of any illness or condition. By better understanding and addressing the emotional component (alongside the physical), we can enhance and speed our physical healing.

Flower Essences are an excellent tool for blending emotional and physical healing. In a gentle yet profound way, flower essences get to the root of one’s deep emotions and bring them to the surface to be looked at. These buried, previously unacknowledged, or unresolved feelings may be part of the original cause of our current physical complaints. If we only focus on a physical cure or relief, we may be doing ourselves a disservice. What ails the body may not be fully healed unless or until we closely examine the underlying feelings. A practitioner once said to me, “Flower Essences are the most inexpensive form of therapy.” She may be right. While some people may choose to go to a counselor or psychologist to work through tough emotional places, Flower Essences are a tool we can use independently or concurrent with counseling, therapy or physical rehabilitation, as we choose.

Treating Dance Injuries of the Foot & Ankle with Solomon’s Seal

There are a number of common dance injuries, but they can be categorized into five basic groups: injuries of the foot/ankle, knee, hamstring, hip, and back. In this article, I will discuss injuries of the foot and ankle. According to Podiatry Today (http://www.podiatrytoday.com/article/3468), approximately 50% of the dance injuries are foot and ankle injuries, and most of these are due to overuse, as opposed to traumatic causes. This is because of the many repetitive movements in dance and the long hours spent in class and/or rehearsals. Ankle and foot injuries require immediate and ongoing attention, and continuing to dance with such injuries is not advised. Treatment typically includes the use of ice, rest, compression and elevation (RICE), and possibly immobilization. In some cases, daily stretching and an anti-inflammatory may also be prescribed. In more severe cases, steroids and even surgery may be recommended and extensive rehabilitation required.

Benefits of Solomon’s Seal Herbal Tincture & Salve

There is, however, an additional intervention that can prove most effective with acute or chronic ankle and foot injuries, or even be used preventively. Solomon’s Seal is an herb long known for its ability to strengthen, lubricate, and nourish tendons, ligaments, attachments and joints, tightening them if they are too loose and loosening them if they are too tight. Keep in mind that ligaments are tissues that connect bones to other bones, while a tendon is a tough band of fibrous connective tissue that most often connects muscle to bone. Healthy tendons and ligaments are able to withstand tension, but if they are too tight or too loose, injuries can result.