Ching Chun Bao — Antiaging tablets from China

Ching Chung Bao also spelled Qing Chun Bao is an interesting tonic I found while on my quest for Shark Oil.

Chin Chung Bao
Chin Chung Bao

It’s meant to be taken twice a day and over a long period of time. The bottle says, “Main functions: Postponing aging, maintaining youthful face, enhancing youthful vigour.” Sounds good to me!
These are the listed ingredients:

  • Ginseng
  • Rehmannia Root
  • Chinese Asparagus Root
  • Siberian Solomon Seal
  • Cistanches
  • Goji Berries
  • Astragalus root

All of the above are Tonic Herbs. As long as there aren’t any hidden ingredients, I think this is a superb formula to take over time. Everyone’s heard of goji berries and ginseng. Solomon Seal is a wonderful lesser known tonic that is said to help restore your body after stress and over indulgence. Cistanches is a great nitric oxide enhancer and probably a decent pde-5 inhibitor (must research that sometime). Astragalus is another great tonic and has a reputation for enhancing your immune system. You should be able to find it for about 8 usd a bottle.
Generally, and according to the traditional chinese medical system, all of these types of tonics that benefit the kidney and liver system are good for anti-aging because those are the systems that are mostly responsible for keeping us young. They govern the condition of your hair, teeth, bones, connective tissue, memory, sex drive and youthful vitality. Check out the jing post on this site for more info.
Although this one is interesting, I doubt I can commit to taking it religiously twice a day. Anyone interested in trying this one out?

Shou Wu Chih 3 Month Update

It’s roughly 3 months now that I’ve been drinking Shou Wu Chih fairly regularly. It’s hard to take something almost every night even with free dailynudge reminders sent to my cellphone! Daily Nudge. Because it has a fair amount of alcohol in it, I didn’t take it on nights I had a few drinks or got caught up with work late into the evening. It’s non stimulating, so I find it’s a superb tonic to take before bed.
I do have to say, that my hair is much much darker. I haven’t found a hair with a dark root yet, but overall my hair is darker. Why the hair is darker is hard to say. More oil? Any experts out there?

Other benefits

If you read my first post on this product: Gray Hair Experiment you will notice that Shou Wu Chih is one of the more effective tonics out there. It’s taken to restore energy depleted from too much sex or stress. This is a good one to have and it’s certainly not expensive. I’ve been finding mine in a asian grocery store for just a few dollars. And it tastes good!

Wray and Nephew White Overproof Rum — Jamaican Robitussin

I believe certain foods and supplements have the ability to increase life force or Jing. Wray and Nephew Overproof Rum is certainly one of those products.

Wray and Nephew White Overproof Rum
Wray and Nephew White Overproof Rum

Considered a medicine in Jamaica, it is often rubbed into the chest and back when you’re sick or on any part of your body that is in pain. At upwards of 60% alcohol, it’s certainly potent.

A couple shots of this stuff and you’ll be sleeping like a baby!

One of the best known uses for this rum is a sore throat and cold antidote. At the first sign of a cold or sore throat, mix the following into a glass:

  • Raw Honey (I think buckwheat honey is the most potent)
  • Lime Juice
  • Wray and Nephew White Overproof Rum

Use your intuition for the right amounts, a little experimentation is needed. Drink this before you go to sleep, you’ll sleep like a baby and in the morning you’ll feel like a million bucks.

I like to take this as a tonic whenever I feel a little run down. I find I sleep very well after drinking it. I also believe the white rum, honey and lime all work synergistically to boost the immune system and as a Jing or power booster.

Note: You have to get Wray and Nephew Rum and it has to be the white rum. Jamaicans believe the white is best as the darker rums are harder on the liver.

Salud!

Gray Hair Experiment

One of my all time favorite tonics is something called ‘shou wu chih‘ and it’s found in any chinese herbal shop or asian grocery. It looks like this:

The main ingredient in Shou Wu Chih is an herb called polygonum multiflorum. There’s a raw version of this herb that is sold in many herbal tablets for hair loss and graying.. However, traditionally, the raw herb is specially prepared by boiling it in a broth made primarily of black soy beans and then carefully dried. Many people don’t know this, but if you’re interested in this herb for it’s reported hair benefits, you want the prepared herb, not the raw version.
This herb is also called FoTi and He Shou Wu. You’ll probably encounter just as many spellings and pronunciations as you can imagine. You’ll also find countless variations of the legend that states a person who was gray haired and really old, ate this herb and became young again with dark black hair. I’m told in chinese, he shou wu means something like ‘mr. he black hair’.
Many people familiar with Chinese Medicine take this tonic everyday in hopes it will either darken their hair or keep it from turning gray. There is another benefit–this is also a very good overall tonic that is supposed to benefit the ‘Jing‘ if you are depleting your energy from stress or other activities (read my post on Jing-Chi-Shen).  It’s purported to be a reliable youth tonic and powerful libido enhancer.  I really like the taste of this one.  There are two versions–one made with alcohol (it’s labeled ‘cooking wine’ in some stores) and one made with water.

I could go into all the other ingredients, but you could google it. There’s a wealth of information on it.

The Experiment

So, I’m not happy that I sprouted some gray hair on my temples and scattered throughout what used to be very black hair.  I’m going to take this everyday and report on results after a few months.  If I see some gray hair with dark roots coming in, I will claim this a success.

I’m thinking about picking this up as well:

Shou Wu Extract
Shou Wu Extract

Shou Wu Pian is a concentrated version of the single herb in a small black pill.  It’s supposed to be taken for a long period of time to see results.  I think I may add this to the regimen.

The products are in my amazon store on this page.  Your best bet if you live near a metropolitan area or asian community is to buy it yourself.  These products are inexpensive.  Try my links or search the web for a better deal.  In the future, I may setup a store.  Let’s see…

 

Jing Chi Shen

As I come across interesting theories and paradigms, I’ll be writing about them here.

One very helpful paradigm for comparing items on this site comes from  Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and it’s view of the body’s energy system.    In TCM, there are three concepts called ‘Jing Chi and Shen‘.  There aren’t very good english equivalents for these terms, but loosely translated, ‘Jing’ means the core energy you were naturally alloted at birth.  One can think of this as the size of your energy battery you are given.  There are alot of really esoteric ideas concerning how this  ‘Jing’ size is determined but it largely is inherited from the parents and the circumstances around conception.  Interestingly enough, this concept is not unique to TCM, but is found in many Spanish cultures as well.  The bottom line is, according to this theory, when your Jing starts to fall short, you grow old and eventually die.  We’ll be looking at strategies to make the most of our Jing on this site.

Next is ‘Chi‘.  I’m sure everyone has heard of ‘Chi’ and it’s alternate spelling, ‘Qi‘.  Chi can be thought of as your energy level and ability to accomplish things in the world.  People who get a lot done and rarely get sick are said to have alot of ‘chi’.  Chi is also thought of as the ingredient of the flow of ‘energy’ in the body (primarily via fascia)  and many TCM doctors aim to get this flow properly balanced in the body through herbs, acupuncture, etc.  The amount of Chi we have can be augmented by diet, certain practices (which we’ll be exploring too) and through sleep.  However, the amount of basic Jing is an important driver for how much Chi someone has (according to this paradigm).

Just to be clear, I’m not crazy about vague terms like Jing Chi Shen, but just bear with me.  I think this is a good model to have in our arsenal for the quest.

The last concept, ‘Shen’ is loosely translated as ‘Spirit’.  This is often seen in the eyes and people call it ‘charisma’ or ‘aura’.  How much chi you have drives your spirit and charisma.

In TCM, many herbs are said to operate on one or all of these levels.

A very common analogy is a candle.  The wick is compared to Jing.  The wax is compared to Chi and the flame is compared to Shen.

I read this book many years ago and found it to have a good explanation of these concepts and pretty decent overview of many herbs and tonics medicines from China.