supplementing medicinals

[Guest guest]

it's easy for me to see how a pear or watermelon can nourish fluids,

but how is it that some medicinals are considered yin supplementing

hers, yet are dehydrated and dried out, as opposed to moist, as they

are in their natural " fresh " form? For example, mai men dong is a yin

supplement, but where does the yin come from? If the herb is dried out,

how can it be considered a nourishing moisturizing sustance? does it

act more by directing the redistribution of fluids to those parts of

the body that need them?

 

Also, how does a qi supplement work? Is it simply a stimulant of some

kind? Since many seem to be sweet, are they acting by boosting blood

sugar and thus giving a temporary high? If this is the case, then how

would this be any different than eating a fig, apple, etcetera...

 

does anyone have any thoughts on this?

 

 

ftm

[Guest guest]

Encephaelon wrote

 

For example, mai men dong is a yin

supplement, but where does the yin come from? If the herb is dried out,

how can it be considered a nourishing moisturizing sustance?

 

Yes...... but even when it is dried out it is still quite moist, like tian

dong, and yu zhu as well.

 

One of my teachers told me that modern research in China had shown that mai

dong actually increases the cell's ability to take in water via some kind of

stimulus to the mitrochondria . Otherwise you could just drink water and never

need yin tonics .

 

AS to the qi tonics , I think having 3 slices of dang shen (sweet flavour) would

be quite different to a teaspoon of sugar.The dang shen doesn't give a temorary

high .

 

Heiko

[Guest guest]

> how is it that some medicinals are considered yin supplementing

>herbs, yet are dehydrated and dried out, as opposed to moist, as they

>are in their natural " fresh " form? For example, mai men dong is a yin

>supplement, but where does the yin come from? If the herb is dried out,

>how can it be considered a nourishing moisturizing substance? does it

>act more by directing the redistribution of fluids to those parts of

>the body that need them?

 

You rehydrate the herbs in decoction and drink pills with water (since

fluid is still necessary to build fluids), but the sweetness (sugars are

hydrostatic) of mai men dong and most other yin supplements attract

dietary fluids and redirect them. Steroidal saponins may affect hormonal

fluid controls. Other constituents may work on the water metabolism at

the kidney level or absorbtion in the small intestine. Many will have

minerals necessary to electrolyte transfer which gets fluid and other

materials into the cell. And as Heiko noted, some may stimulate the

mitochondria.

 

Qi tonics which are sweet may give a *very* moderated and attenuated

" sugar " high (usually with protein to prolong the effect), but qi tonics

also produce micronutrients necessary to ATP production and transport,

affect circulation, oxygenation. Astragalus and ren shen affect cardiac

muscles, increasing the pumping action. Codonopsis increases hemopoiea,

increasing the number of red blood cells. Licorice has adrenocortical

hormone-like actions.

 

But yes foods also build yin or yang or qi or blood, and you should look

at food therapy for patients who may be herb averse.

 

Karen Vaughan

CreationsGarden

***************************************

Email advice is not a substitute for medical treatment.

" If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need. " --

Marcus Tullius Cicero

 

 

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