 Medicinal herbs have been consumed for thousands of years for the purpose of healthy aging. Lycium barbarum is a powerful botanical also known as Chinese Wolfberry, Snow Berry, Goji Berry and Barbary Matrimony Vine. It has been valued in Asian culture and medicine for its benefits for at least 1700 years. The “Shen Nong’ s Chinese Materia Medica”(230-280 A.D), the first recorded Asian herbal medicine book, describes wolfberry as a “tonic medicine”.
Records show that people who consume this fruit and live a healthy lifestyle apparently lived free of common diseases like arthritis, cancer and diabetes. Moreover, their life expectancies reached over 100 years.
Both wolfberry and ginseng have been highly regarded for centuries as the foremost nutritional and therapeutic plants in Asia. In fact, most Asian cultures hold a strong belief that human life can be extended significantly by using either of these herbs for an extended period of time.
Although both herbs are highly regarded ginseng is considered too strong for continuous use, and large amounts is not suitable for people with high blood pressure or heart disease. On the other hand, the wolfberry is much milder, with no known risk from continuous use.
Recent studies have shown that wolfberry fruit helps to maintain normal cell growth and improve DNA restoration and repair. It contains 500 Times More Vitamin C Than an Orange does. Chinese Wolfberry contains over 18 amino acids. It contains a six times higher proportion than bee pollen, 21 trace minerals, more beta carotene than carrots, and an astonishing 500 times more vitamin C by weight than oranges. It is also packed with vitamin B1, vitamin B6 and vitamin E.
Wolfberry has proven to be a potent antioxidant as well, which may slow the aging process. As we grow older, the levels of lipid peroxide in our blood increase, while levels of health-protecting antioxidants, like superoxide dismutase (SOD), decrease. In a clinical study of people who consumed doses of Chinese wolfberry, SOD in the blood increased by a remarkable 48% while hemoglobin increased by 12%. Even better, lipid peroxide levels dropped by a whopping 65%. Another clinical experiment by the Ningxia Institute (Register No.870306, October 1982 to May 1985) studied the effects of wolfberry on the immune, physiological and biochemical indexes of the blood of aged volunteers. The results were amazing, indicating that the wolfberry caused the blood of older people to noticeably revert to a younger state. All of this means that it can help prevent against the effects of aging and the decline that leads to senility.
Wolfberry possess powerful components that protect the body from harmful conditions including but not limited to aging, tumor, immune-system damage and vision impairment, kidney and liver damage. Wolfberry is considered to be a “Super Fruit” in that it provides a rich supply of nutrients and antioxidants unlike any other food.
Buy Chinese Wolfberries!
This herb and formulas featuring this herb are available through licensed health care practitioners, and may be prescribed as herbal decoctions (teas you brew), or in convenient tablets and fluid extracts.
For information on obtaining the benefits of TCM and natural medicine please contact East West Center for Natural Medicine at 574-210-4982.
Reference:
*Yu MS, et al. Laboratory of Neurodegenerative Diseases, Department of Anatomy, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, SAR.
*Qi Zongshao, Li Shufang, Wu Jiping, et al. Chemical Analysis on Lycium Barbarum Fruit and Leaves. Zhong Yao Tong Bao (Chinese Herb News). 1986, 11(3):41.
*Data in Rich Nature Nutraceutical Laboratories. 1998.
*Cheng et al. Fasting Plasma zeaxanthin Response to Fructus Barbarum L. (Wolfberry; Kei Tze) in a Food-based human Supplementation Trial. British Jounal of Nutrition (2005), 93, 123-130
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