Healthy Remedies

Holistic Natural Remedies Influenced By Hildegard of Bingen

“Spirit, life that gives life, moving all things, rooted in all beings; you cleanse all things of impurity, wiping away sins, and anointing wounds, this is radiant, laudable life, awakening and re-awakening every thing that is.” – De Spiritu Sancto (To the Holy Spirit); Hildegard of Bingen

Be it of body, mind, or spirit, this section will guide you through the methods to cleanse the things that do not serve us and to renew and revitalize our minds and bodies. Healthy Remedies is where the ancient wisdom of Hildegard’s teachings on natural healing, nutrition, and lifestyle management intersect with new ideas and practical solutions to the complex challenges of modern living. Continue reading for continuously updated content that encompasses the known teachings of Hildegard’s holistic remedies.

Sage benefits — grey-green Salvia officinalis leaves and violet flowers on a monastery windowsill

Sage Benefits for Digestion: Hildegard’s Sun Herb

Sage benefits for digestion, read through Hildegard von Bingen’s Physica: why she called Salvia officinalis warm, dry and sun-fed, what its bitter principles do, and how discretio keeps its use in measure.

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Bertram herb (pellitory of Spain) botanical illustration with apothecary jar

Bertram: Hildegard’s Forgotten Digestive Herb

Bertram, pellitory of Spain, was Hildegard von Bingen’s most-recommended digestive herb—a bitter, saliva-stirring root whose tradition lives on in bitters.

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Mugwort Artemisia vulgaris botanical illustration, Hildegard's bitter digestive herb

Mugwort: Hildegard’s Bitter Herb for Digestion

Mugwort is the bitter herb Hildegard von Bingen praised to warm the stomach and support digestion. Explore its history, traditional uses, and how to bring it to the modern table with Hildegard’s Bitters.

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Galangal rhizome botanical illustration in muted apothecary tones

Galangal Benefits for Digestion: Hildegard’s Spice of Life

Galangal benefits for digestion run deep in Hildegard von Bingen’s Physica. The history and science of her warming “spice of life.”

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Hildegard von Bingen’s Herbs: The 12th-Century Medical System That Modern Science Keeps Confirming

In 1150 CE, a Benedictine abbess in the Rhineland wrote down a complete system of natural medicine — herbal remedies, dietary guidance, fasting protocols, and treatments for dozens of conditions — that would remain the most comprehensive European medical text of its era for over a century. Her name was Hildegard of Bingen. What makes…

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Artichoke Leaf Extract: Benefits for Liver Health, Bile Production, and Digestion

Most people know the artichoke as a vegetable — the spiny, architectural thing you steam and dip in butter. Fewer people know that the leaf of the artichoke plant, Cynara cardunculus, is one of the most well-researched herbs in European phytomedicine, with a specific, documented mechanism that supports liver function, bile production, and fat digestion….

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cleanse with wormwood

Digestive Bitters for Bloating: Why Most Remedies Treat the Symptom While Bitters Fix the Cause

Bloating after meals is one of the most common digestive complaints — and one of the most aggressively marketed. Walk down any supplement aisle and you’ll find an entire shelf of products promising gas relief: activated charcoal, simethicone, probiotics, digestive enzymes, peppermint capsules. Most of them work on the gas itself, after it’s already been…

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Gentian Root Benefits: The World’s Most Bitter Plant and What It Does

If you’ve ever tasted something so intensely bitter it made your eyes water, there’s a good chance you encountered gentian root — or something derived from it. Gentiana lutea, the yellow gentian plant native to the mountain meadows of central and southern Europe, holds the distinction of being one of the most bitter substances ever…

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Digestive Bitters Tablets — The Most Convenient Way to Take Your Daily Bitters

The case for digestive bitters is ancient and compelling. Hildegard von Bingen made it in the 12th century; European apothecaries made it in the 17th; modern gastroenterology makes it now. The problem, historically, has always been convenience. Traditional bitters are liquid — often alcoholic, always intensely flavored, and not easily compatible with modern life away…

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yellow gentian bitter herb

Gentian Root Bitters — The Alpine Herb at the Heart of Hildegard’s Medicine

Of all the bitter herbs in the European herbal tradition, gentian root stands apart. Its active compound, amarogentin, is among the most intensely bitter substances found in nature — detectable in dilutions as weak as one part per fifty thousand. A single root can be tasted in a swimming pool’s worth of water. Hildegard von…

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Detox with Bitter Substances

Herbal Digestive Bitters — Five Bitter Plants Hildegard von Bingen Knew by Heart

Not all bitters are created equal. Herbal digestive bitters — made from whole plants rather than isolated compounds or artificial flavors — have a complexity and gentleness that synthetic alternatives cannot replicate. They work with the body’s own signaling systems, using the same botanical chemistry that European healers, monks, and apothecaries relied on for centuries….

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Digestive Bitters — Hildegard von Bingen’s Ancient Formula for Modern Gut Health

Digestive bitters are herbal extracts made from bitter-tasting plants — roots, barks, and leaves used for centuries to support digestion, stimulate appetite, and calm an overworked gut. Before modern medicine, bitter herbs were the first tool any healer reached for. Across Europe, the tradition of the pre-dinner bitter — the aperitif — existed for exactly…

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