Balm of Gilead

The National Geographic series "Life Below Zero" profiles people who live off the grid in Alaska, meeting challenges with ingenuity and providing their own needs by hunting, fishing, gathering, and cutting down trees for firewood. One of the people featured is a woman who lives alone at a camp on the North Slope. She used natural ingredients to make a salve to treat her pain. She doesn't have a medical or scientific background and relies on anecdotal evidence, but I wondered if there was any proof that Balm of Gilead was effective for pain relief. We don't know what plant it came from.

The perfume was named after the region of Gilead, where it was produced, and was mentioned in the bible. The expression derives from William Tyndale's language in the King James Bible of 1611. The balm is produced by a tree or shrub. Some botanical scholars believe that the actual source was a terebinth tree.

Various species of plants are proposed as ingredients of the balm, according to an article on Wikimedia. The majority of them are from the Middle East and do not live in Alaska. There is no evidence that the balsam poplar was used in the bible.

The salve is described as an aromatically rich all-purpose healing salve. It's used for a variety of skin conditions. It is gentle enough to use on children and works to heal a variety of skin conditions. Favored by bees to keep their hive clean.

There isn't any evidence for these claims.

End-of-life care for safety-net populations is one of the projects named Balm of Gilead. The salve is not used with that name.

There is a book about an ethnobotanist in the Amazon. I am not familiar with the book, but I would be surprised if he claimed to have found the actual Balm of Gilead. I think the title was meant as a metaphor.

It is the title of a novel and an anointing oil sold by the Judaica web store. This aromatic blend of essential oils is scented with the sweet scent of Rose of Sharon and enriched with the gold-colored sap from the bark of balsam trees. The balsam tree is native to the eastern territory of ancient Israel, now in Jordan. This oil smells great and feels great on the skin.

I didn't find a lot. One study found that a compound they isolated from the Bible, Commiphora gileadensis, can be used to induce apoptosis in tumors. There were articles about the history and identification of plants, but no studies of pain relief in humans.

Sue Aikens prepared a salve to help her deal with her pain. There was a documentary that didn't say anything. We don't know if it was a placebo response or if she thought it helped.

Using a medicine mentioned in the Bible may impress some people, but we don't know if it worked or if it was just a placebo. We don't know if the Balm of Gilead is effective or not. Would it be worthwhile? I don't think it's worth taking the time and money away from other research that is more likely to be productive Sue Aikens put in a lot of time to gather the ingredients and make the salve. She could think so if she had a placebo response. Her motto is "If it hurts, don't think about it". It wasn't possible for everyone but it was for her. According to a report on the internet, when she was attacked by a bear, she dragged herself to a shelter and killed the bear, even though her hips were badly injured.