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When Christianity displaced the old religion, lichen and moss medicine persisted because it worked. There was no theological conflict with treating coughs using Iceland moss or dressing wounds with sphagnum. The practices continued, passed mother to daughter, healer to apprentice, generation to generation.
Modern pharmaceutical research has vindicated this ancient knowledge. Usnic acid from lichens has been isolated and studied, its antibacterial properties confirmed. Sphagnum’s effectiveness as wound dressing has been documented in controlled studies. The old healers did not know why these treatments worked, but they knew they did work—and that knowledge, refined through countless trials across hundreds of generations, was accurate.
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