longevity

[Guest guest]

siberian solomon's seal (is this yu zhu? seems like it would make

more sense as huang jing) dioscorea (shan yao), and adenophora

(sha shen).

> 1. could this be remotely true?

one can only hope.

> 2. given it has a grain of truth, does this suggest the kernel of longevity

> lies in kidney yin tonics?

 

 

Longevity lies in kidney yin tonics if per chance that is your weak

link, me thinks.

 

you know, I don't think of any of these herbs as significant kidney

essence tonics, not like shu di, han lian cao and nu zhen zi, he shou wu

and gou qi zi. more for lung and stomach yin and even spleen qi xu.

Maybe the mixture is directed at the spleen as much as the yin and is perhaps

more about producing fluids than directly impacting lower yin sources.

But it does make sense that longevity is rooted in the kidneys. That

is where the jing is stored. Several of the herbs that I mentioned

for yin have notable effects on hormone metabolism, probably via the anatomical

liver. But alterations in hormone metabolism are thought by many

gerontologists to an important marker of aging and many hormones decline

with age. Many of the effects of aging can be reversed with hormones,

but often with often with risk of cancer or liver disease. So certain

chinese herbs which restore jing may exert some of their action to retard

aging by somehow mitigating the effects of hormonal changes. Possible

mechanisms include decreased breakdown of circulating hormones by the liver

and increased receptor number of sensitivity to hormones.

So how long could a person live? Forever? Cells cannot live

forever and copies will invariably have mistakes. and the mistakes

can become cumulative because say the first mistake prevents proper production

of a certain enzyme. Without this enzyme, the body does not function

optimally. So the next time the cell divides, the conditions are

even less optimal. the body is less able to prevent damage to chromosomes

from toxins and free radical than the first time. So this time more changes

occur and so on. And all the mistakes get copied, so that the body

begins to accumulate the sign of aging. Maintaining jing may slow

this process, but can anything stop this process? Nothing that grows

from the earth I bet. But perhaps the elixir can actually be made

from the human mind, as some alchemists say.

I think it is interesting that just about every psychoactive chemical

that occurs in plants also occurs naturally in human brains. The

brain even produces a THC like chemical (the active ingredient in marijuana)

which some stoner researchers named anandamide (the amide of bliss).

The brain also produces substance like harmine and tryptamine, which occur

in the notorious amazon hallucinogenic cocktail, ayahuasca. I would

suspect the brain is more unlimited in this creative regard than the plant

world, given the vast scope of human consciousness. So perhaps methods

that alter our consciousness like meditation, yoga, qi gong are the key

to longevity. The other interesting thing about aging is that it

has also been discovered that as cells replicate, a portion of the nuclei

called telomeres begin to deteriorate. telomeres somehow play a key

role in proper chromosomal replication. some researchers believe

the body automatically self destructs to balance the increasing risk of

cancer with aging. and the telomere deterioration is the self destruct

mechanism. but the interesting thing about telomeres is that they

are part of the connective tissue matrix of the body. Since the acupuncture

channels seem to be enmeshed with the connective tissue somehow, is it

possible that qi gong can be used to mentally traverse the channels down

to the telomeric level and later the aging process at the source. I am

not suggesting that the ancient chinese had a cell theory of any kind,

but rather that their channel based methods may have somehow been able

to impact DNA. I would also strongly suspect that certain herbs would

be used to aid this psychic process. A student of mine did some research

on chinese herbs used for shamnic purpose and found quite a few herbs that

affect the eyes and open the orifices to have a history of shamnic use

in Asia. Kevin O Neil at http://www.ancientway.com knows more about

this, like good sources.