Ginseng

Ginseng, VAAM, Caterpillar Fungus.....all good, all part of my program.

many types of ginseng. Some have different benefits and properties. Caterpillar Fungus is good too prevents fatigue.

and DONT click that link there that says "Buy VAAM from Japan." The "VAAM POWER" website is a complete ripoff.

US$3.00 for one packet....GIMME A BREAK!!!!

The Japanese Retail Price is about US$1.25 per packet, so you would be paying more than DOUBLE the Japanese Retail Price. RIDICULOUS.

Jason

Is there anything wrong with or bad about taking ginseng?

I did a bit of research on ginseng since i read in a climbing mag that some climbers think it improves circulation in the cold (got raynauds-have posted about this before). I didn't find anything about how it could affect running but i came across the abstract below in pubmed- which is where articles from peer-reviewed journal articles are found and it made me decide to skip this. the article was in chinese so i didn't even try to find the whole thing but the abstract had some interesting info. it looks like it was good for patients with heart failure but for normal people, i'm not so sure it's a good idea. even though ginseng was given IV and it doesn't say how much they were given, it increased a couple of thyroid hormones which you really don?t want to mess with. i don't know if small amounts would have this affect. but i'm waiting for some better research comes out before trying this. you could whack yourself out using some of these things.

Zhongguo Zhong Xi Yi Jie He Za Zhi 1999 Apr;19(4):209-11 Related Articles, Links

[Effect of ginseng injection in treating congestive heart failure and its influence on thyroid hormones]

[Article in Chinese]

Dai X, Zhou Y, Yu X.

First Affiliated Hospital, Anhui College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Hefei (230031).

OBJECTIVE: To observe the effect of Ginseng injection on congestive heart failure (CHF) and its influence on thyroid hormones. METHODS: Fifty-four Patients of CHF were divided into two groups. On the basis of conventional treatment of western medicine, the Ginseng injection was given to the treated group additionally. Blood level of triiodothyronine (T3), thyroxine (T4), reverse triiodothyronine (rT3) and thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) of all patients were determined before and after treatment by radioimmunoassay. RESULTS: There were significant difference between the treated group and the control group in cure rate and mean course of therapy. The levels of T3 and T4 of all patients were lower than those of the normal control before treatment, and rT3 were higher. Two weeks after treatment, T3 and T4 level in all patients increased significantly and rT3 level significantly decreased(P < 0.05, P < 0.01). CONCLUSION: Ginseng injection has a good effect on patients with CHF. It also has regulatory effect on thyroid hormones.