Amber as Medicine

[jeanne]

I had always thought that amber was valuable simply as something pretty to make jewelry out of. Recently I learned that amber has some medicinal properties which have been recognized for centuries and which probably explain why amber trade was so important to Poland.

Here's how I came to learn these things: When I was asking my daughter (who is very interested in natural food and natural remedies) what gift I could get for my young grandson, age 13 months, she suggested amber teething beads and gave me a link to a website which has natural products for children. I thought that teething beads would be something for a child to chew on to ease the pain of teething. I was very wrong. When I looked at the website, I saw that the beads are actually worn closely around the child's neck. Since I don't believe anything like that worn around the neck is safe for young children, right away I knew I would not buy the product, but what I found out after doing more research is interesting.

It is believed by proponents that amber contains a substance, succinic acid, that works in a way similar to ibuprofen. If placed on the body near the origin of pain, the body absorbs the succinic acid and the pain is relieved (at least in theory). Thus, beads worn around a young child's neck would relieve the teething pain.

While I was learning all this, just by coincidence, Bonobo posted the following on his forum about "amber spirit," with a similar use, which his mother made years ago. Take a look at it...I found it fascinating:

polandsite.proboards.com/thread/3570/amber-spirit-natural-medicine

[Jaga]

Jeanne, thanks for sharing. You also reminded me that we had something called amber ointment. It probably contained some of the succinic acid and was relieving pain.

I visited amber museum in Gdansk. It was created just recently. They contain not only beautiful amber figurines, but also lots of other information and some uses of amber. I should check it out again.

[jeanne]

Jaga,

It just makes so much sense to me now as to why the amber trade was so important to Poland in medieval times...I'm sure they used it for many purposes, making it very valuable. I remember reading about the amber trade in James Michener's Poland.