What is Gemmotherapy?
Phytotherapy is the use of plant-based ingredients to treat certain illnesses, conditions, and diagnoses.
Within phytotherapy, you have a subcategory called ‘gemmotherapy’. Gemmotherapy specifically uses buds and young shoots of certain trees and shrubs for a variety of physical therapies. They are gathered in spring at an early stage in their natural growth cycle, often handpicked and put in maceration in a solution of water, alcohol, and glycerin to naturally procure all of the active ingredients.
The result of all this hard work and cultivation are natural, plant-based extracts. It’s using the healing compounds of plants to support a strong immune system among other benefits. An immune system that’s working like it should can fend off a range of viruses, bacteria, germs, illnesses, and colds and flus. If you are dealing with a chronic illness, are interested in better lymphatic drainage and waste elimination, or simply want to maximize your immune system’s capabilities, gemmotherapy may be for you.
Common Gemmotherapy Extracts
There are dozens of gemmotherapy extracts that can be used in combination to boost overall health.
Common alder.
Black currant.
Black honeysuckle.
Dog rose.
European blueberry.
Common fig.
Hornbeam.
Silver lime.
Walnut.
Some of the most common gemmotherapy conditions to treat include anxiety attacks and generalized anxiety disorder, headaches, blocked ear, sore throat, sinus congestion, cough, bronchitis, vomiting, diarrhea, stings and insect bites, and post-antibiotic diarrhea among other symptoms.
Does Gemmotherapy Work?
Gemmotherapy is safe to take for people of all ages. It is most often used to treat acute illness and infections, although it can be used on an ongoing basis for immune system support. Gemmotherapy tends to work best when it is also being combined with a plant-based diet, exercise or some sort of daily movement plan, and restorative sleep. Understandably, some people are limited by how much movement they can do or the amount of quality sleep they obtain.
Unlike pharmaceutical medications which are more instant and impactful and often to the detriment of one’s health, gemmotherapy works over the long term. It is not a quick fix for anything. It’s like trying to lose weight. If you have 30 pounds to lose, it doesn’t happen in a day. Months can go by, losing a pound or two a week at most. Eventually, you get there but it’s an adjustment that requires your body to click into new lasting changes. Natural supplements, vitamins, herbs, and gemmotherapy all work in the same way. It takes time but the benefits are real.
It can take anywhere from 4-12 weeks for gemmotherapy to take effect in full force, though this depends on the person taking it. If you miss a day here or there taking gemmotherapy, aren’t following a proper protocol, or if it’s a chronic condition you’ve been trying to overcome for an extended period of time, it may take the full twelve weeks to see the result of your commitment.
In a sense, what gemmotherapy is is a way to empower your body to do its own healing. Medicines and other synthetic materials have their place in health. No question about that. Managing health with natural materials though and ingredients that are going to increase efficiencies in the body so that it is the body that’s doing the healing and self-management as opposed to adding a synthetic is the preferable route for most.
Gemmotherapy V. Herbal Extracts
Some understandably confuse herbal extracts and gemmotherapy. The plant material used is different, however. Gemmotherapy uses buds and young shoots. This is where you have the meristem cells. These cells are what holds the growth material of the plant, similar to stem cells. Embryonic in design, they are highly potent and deliver the sort of energy that would be dedicated to a tree or shrub into the human body. Comparatively, a herbal extract is only an individual part of a plant.
The primary benefit to gemmotherapy is a stronger immune system. That’s the goal. Fighting allergies, colds, and flus becomes a lot easier when the immune system is backed up with the ingredients it needs to do its best work.
Gemmotherapy dates back to the ancient Egyptians. The first gemmotherapy studies in contemporary medicine were in the late 1950s and since then, more and more natural health practitioners particularly in Europe have advocated for its use. Initially tied to homeopathy, gemmotherapy is very much its own category of healing. In Europe, it’s been studied to such an extent that it’s been deemed an ‘approved medicine’ by the European Union, a contrast to ‘herbal supplement’ which is how it’s classified by the US FDA and why it is sold as such or as an extract.
Gemmotherapy can be taken in water and is an easy way to start the day along with breakfast. Remedies in gemmotherapy are taken by many and they see the true extent of the benefits ongoing. Shop gemmotherapy extracts and tinctures at Your Wellness Depot.
Source: https://yourwellnessdepot.com/what-is-gemmotherapy/