Ginseng when young.

[angelo]

Hello.

 

I am 18 years old and I have been taking some herbal tonics that contain ginseng. A friend of mine was explaining to me that his understanding is while you are young, it is unnecessary & even harmful to take something so fiery because your body is producing a large amount of jing naturally, and it isn't beneficial until your body begins to slow down as you age.

 

What do you all think? If it makes a difference, I have a regular practice of Taijji Chuan.

 

-∆ngelo

[bindo]

Hello.

 

I am 18 years old and I have been taking some herbal tonics that contain ginseng. A friend of mine was explaining to me that his understanding is while you are young, it is unnecessary & even harmful to take something so fiery because your body is producing a large amount of jing naturally, and it isn't beneficial until your body begins to slow down as you age.

 

What do you all think? If it makes a difference, I have a regular practice of Taijji Chuan.

 

-∆ngelo

It depends on too many things to make a blanket statement like your friend said.

 

Which type of ginseng is it? Is it a Ginseng formula with supporting herbs?, or is Ginseng one of the supporting herbs? What are your lifestyle needs? What are your elemental strengths/weaknesses? What's the weather like where you live? Are you a meat eater or vegetarian?

 

I guess the bottom line question is...how do you feel after taking it?

 

Astragalus is also called "young person's Ginseng".

[thelerner]

I'm no herbalist. I took ginseng when I was younger, 20's 30's. After some reading I decided to stop. There is an old saying if you take ginseng at 30, what are you going to take at 60? <something like that>.

 

Westerners tend to think the more yang the better, really its not so. Balance.

 

Michael

[Taomeow]

 

You may want to uproot (pun unintended) this book:

 

The Tao of Medicine: Ginseng and Other Chinese Herbs for Inner Equilibrium and Immune Power, by Stephen Fulder.

 

In a nutshell:

 

there's absolutely nothing wrong with taking ginseng while you're young, except if you have fever (common cold, flu, or anything else with elevated temperature), or experience any side effects you subjectively don't like. It's true that older people get more benefits from ginseng, but there's many situations where younger people benefit from it too -- exertion, physical or intellectual stress (occasionally emotional too, especially for lowered mood associated with chronic fatigue), constitutional weakness, low energy (it's a MUCH safer energy booster than, e.g., jogging), recovering from an illness, cancer prevention, autoimmune disorders prevention... the list goes on and on. The book referenced above cites studies conducted in different non-English-speaking countries with young healthy people (e.g., groups of soldiers on a march who were given ginseng vs. control groups of soldiers who weren't). Check it out, then decide if you fit the profile of a potential young beneficiary of the wise old human-root.

 

Sometimes I have this gnawing suspicion that most of the urban legends about ginseng (it's "too yang," "too hot," too this, too that) have been disseminated by those moneyed consumers who don't want everyone else to be envious and to generate too much competition and to drive the prices even higher. Good ginseng is very expensive, and the best ginseng is as expensive as unique art, i.e. there's literally no limit on how pricey very old wild roots can get. Some of them are indeed kept in museums.

[宁]

Ginseng study

[VCraigP]

Hello.

 

I am 18 years old and I have been taking some herbal tonics that contain ginseng. A friend of mine was explaining to me that his understanding is while you are young, it is unnecessary & even harmful to take something so fiery because your body is producing a large amount of jing naturally, and it isn't beneficial until your body begins to slow down as you age.

 

What do you all think? If it makes a difference, I have a regular practice of Taijji Chuan.

 

-∆ngelo

 

When in doubt - go for Siberian ginseng. aka Eleutherococcus senticosus, or Eleuthero. Can be taken long term with little to no potential problems. Huge body of research on it's adaptogenic properties as well. Get good quality pure powder in capsule form or SUN Brand tablets. DONT buy the extract as it is mostly less effective than the pure powder.

Also, try American ginseng which is closely related to Panax ginseng but viewed as Neutral not Hot like Panax.

 

But, yes, using Panax is also good. My preference would be in formula with other elements to balance, and also rotate it's use with off periods or other tonics.

 

You are your own experiment. What results are you getting? Are you able to discern?