Educational information, not medical advice — ask your doctor or midwife.
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Guaiacum is a single homeopathic remedy. It is made from the resin (sticky sap) of the lignum vitae tree, which grows in the Caribbean and northern South America. It is also sold as guaiac resin.
Homeopaths give it most often for sore, stiff joints, for gout pain, and for sore throats with swollen tonsils. It comes as sugar pills or drops.
The remedy is watered down again and again, step by step. At 30C there is in effect none of the tree resin left in the pill.
Trials have not shown that it works better than a placebo (a dummy pill). Long use in a tradition is not proof that a remedy works, and that holds here too.
There is no known way for a 30C pill to act on the body, because almost nothing of the plant is left in it.
Homeopathy works from an old idea called "like cures like". The claim is that a very small dose of something that causes symptoms can ease the same symptoms. Guaiacum was chosen because the raw resin can irritate the gut and skin.
Homeopaths also say that the watering-down steps leave behind a kind of imprint of the plant. Lab work has not shown such an imprint, and chemistry does not predict one.
Raw guaiac resin is a different matter. It does hold real plant chemicals that can act on the body, and it can also cause harm.
Most people meet it as small sugar pills or as liquid drops.
Common strengths are 6C, 12C and 30C. A higher number means more watering down. At 30C there is in effect none of the source resin left.
Lower strengths, such as 3X or 6X, and the mother tincture still hold some plant matter. These can upset the stomach. The drops are made with alcohol.
Herbal shops also sell raw guaiac resin and wood chips for teas. That is a herbal product, not a homeopathic one. It is far stronger and carries more risk.
Spanish ships brought lignum vitae wood to Europe in the early 1500s. Doctors of that day boiled the wood and gave the drink for syphilis and for aching joints.
By the 1700s it was a well known gout and rheumatism remedy in Europe. It was also chewed for sore gums.
Homeopaths took it up in the 1800s. Guaiacum has kept a small but steady place in homeopathic reference books ever since, mainly for stiff joints and sore throats.
See a doctor within a day if a joint is hot, red and badly swollen, or if you have a fever with joint pain. That can mean an infected joint, which needs fast treatment.
See a doctor if a sore throat lasts more than two days, comes with a high fever, or makes swallowing hard.
Get urgent help, by ambulance if needed, if your lips, face or throat swell, or if you feel short of breath or faint after taking it. That can be a severe allergic reaction.
Also book a review if joint pain keeps getting worse, if you have gout attacks more than once or twice a year, or if you notice easy bruising or bleeding while taking the tincture.
Evidence grades and traditional-use labels are explained in our methodology. Nothing here is medical advice.
What it is typically used for, usual dose, cautions, and the study behind it where real trial data exists.
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