I wholeheartedly recommend any ginseng variety to anyone suffering from the above ailments.  There is one thing – if your blood pressure is high, make sure you keep a close eye on it as ginseng might increase it.  it didn’t for me but when I spoke with a chinese medicine doctor, she said that was the only main concern, if any.

I have paused my ginseng intake at the moment.  Not because I didn’t like the effects but because I am trying a diet pill named VPX Meltdown.  So far, the side effects are mild and it seems to be working.  That might be yet another blog, however, if I see any significant results.

So, for now, I probably will stop posting about red panax ginseng until I am ready to resume my regimen.  That may be 3-4 months from now if my diet experiment goes well.

Also, my wife noticed that the smoothing out effect of red panax ginseng on my moods was not there with American Ginseng.  Though I could take it every day, it probably wasn’t as potent as the Red Panax variety.  I wholeheartedly recommend American Ginseng to anyone who is feeling hot, needs a milder version of ginseng and still get most of the benefits of it.  But Red Panax remains King for me.  I also switched back to the Royal King brand because I think it really is more potent than the Global brand.  Plus it is packaged so much better.  Sorry, but if you don’t care enough about your packaging, the contents may not be perceived in the best light.  That’s just a known fact of life.

So back to my red Panax, happy as a clam (and WARM).

There is a new experiment underway and I am not sure if this is the right place to go into it. I guess I will see if people are interested and if so, I will post more about it here.

Studying in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) books and online on TCM I found out that my problem is that my body is hot-damp. So I am trying to dry it out with kidney-tonics. The main things I am taking are 1-2 garlic (1000mg) pills and 3-4 horny goat weed pills (400mg + 200mg maca extract, which is a South American adaptogen, similar to Ginseng). they make me feel warmer, I sweat less at night and, um, the horny goat weed makes me, well, like the goat, LOL. But TCM suggests that it’s the waning sex drive which contributes greatly to weight gain. Sort of like a castrated dog, literally, that was the analogy used.
It’s only been a couple of days. The goat weed is awesome in bed (trust me). As for weight loss, my hunger levels seem to have gone down but I am still eating a lot out of “habit.” I will report my findings here, as I said, if anybody is interested or if they are so phenomenal that I just have to tell somebody – just like with the ginseng.

• The Global brand tastes better.
• Global is aged 20 years (and the vials look like it too, LOL) versus Royal King is aged 12 years.
• It seems to be easier on my system as I took it up to 8 days in a row with no side effects.  I just paused for a day so I would not get any side effects but didn’t feel any. I needed a break every 2 days with Royal King otherwise it over-stimulates my adrenal gland.
• This may also be due to the fact that Royal King has 6000mg versus Global 5500mg per 10ml vial but I don’t think that’s a huge difference.

I think the Global brand is better.  So I am throwing a link here to a reputable store on Amazon where I bought it.  I will make a few cents if you click it and decide to buy it. I figured why not make a cent or two, hope you don’t mind. 

Please do share your experiences, I am curious to find out how it helps or acts upon other people.
Global 20 Year Old Red Panax Ginseng Extract 5500mg

If you want to try the Royal King brand, it’s a bit cheaper and not as smooth as the Global above.  It’s your call:
Royal King Red Panax Ginseng Extract 6000mg

There is also the 8000mg variety for the Royal King brand. I haven’t touched that puppy yet but it’s the same brand, just stronger:
Royal King Red Panax Ginseng Extract 8000mg

As promised, I will soon be posting more about red panax ginseng and its effects on weight and diet.  So stay tuned.

Back to the topic at hand.  Aside from my foot problem, I used to constantly hurt my back trying to lift my almost-4-year-old, who is about 35 pounds, and carrying her up and down the stairs as she sometimes likes to be babied (we have a 16 month old, she sees her being babied, you do the math).  Sometimes my back would hurt for days.  I would also get pains in various muscles from “pulling” them.  I remember once I carried a carton of furniture from IKEA up the stairs and I was out of commission for a week – my back and also leg muscles were shot.  Long story short, I had muscular and back pains all the time.  It’s been so long since I had any of these that I am having a hard time remembering it all.  These days, I just grab my daughter, lift her up and give her a hug, even if I stretch my body forward (don’t try this at home unless you’re a 40-year old on ginseng, hehe) (OK, I am not 40 yet, but a few more weeks!).  Hate to brag but I also lift both of them up sometimes, though I am quite cautious about how I move when I do that.  I would have never dreamt of lifting 55 wriggly pounds and walking around.  I am starting to forget how decrepit I used to be, which is wonderful.

Here is one other thing I can not quite believe yet, either.  Over Christmas, I had traveled to California to my in-laws’ place.  On the way back, I had the sharpest tooth pain I had had in years.  My dentist said it could be an air pocket and to pay attention to it.  I did.  It kept hurting, though, on and off, but I refused to go to the dentist because, like everybody else, I hate going there and I know it would be a root canal.  Unpleasant, expensive, and the pain kept going away.  Since I started taking the ginseng, it disappeared about on week 2 or 3.  I don’t know.  It could be that now I have circulation where it was lacking, that my body found a way to heal itself.

That’s what red panax ginseng has been all about for me:  A type of tonic or elixir which is allowing my body to heal itself, mainly by increasing circulation.  The “miracles,” if you want to call them that, are simply my body’s natural healing abilities returning.  But another side effect is that I feel younger.  Two months ago, it would be inconceivable for my fat rear to be running up the stairs.  Yes, I said running (and I said fat, I am 5’10″ and 210 pounds, not good).  I used to always run up the stairs, two steps at a time, until I was in my mid-twenties.  I am doing that again.  I had stopped because, well, I am overweight and didn’t frankly have the energy.  I just smile at the top of the stairs, thinking to myself that I feel young again – not even out of breath.

That’s it for today.  I am going to write something about weight loss: no miracle there, unfortunately, and diet: there are some changes there and for the better, though.  I’ll cover those in another post.  It would also be so awesome to have people relate their own experiences with Chinese red panax ginseng.  If you or someone you know has had an experience, please leave a short comment and I will contact you via email.  It’s not clear to me in which format I am going to do it on this site yet but I’ll figure it out if there is interest.

Another benefit, as some of you who know a little about ginseng might know, was in bed.  Let’s just say my wife is not complaining about me taking ginseng and neither am I.  Libido, or sex drive, is affected in a strange way.  I think the best way to describe it without going into too much detail is to say that I have more control about when I feel the sex drive/urge whatever you want to call it.  And if I decide to pursue it, it is a lot more intense.

But what happened in the next two weeks was nothing short of amazing.  I might not have time to cover all of the things I noticed in this post but I will try to get to them as soon as possible.

First off, I have had this pain in my right foot for almost a year.  It all started with a shoe that had a curved, instead of flat, sole.  It was like a mini rocker chair and I didn’t think anything of it.  After about a month of wearing this shoe, though, I had this pain in the middle top of my right foot so bad, I could barely walk.  I immediately got four new pairs of shoes (one after another, returning three out of four – I am not rich!) – it didn’t help, the damage was done.  I waited a while to see if it would get better on its own but to no avail.  It would get better for a while and then it would get worse.  I went to a chiropractor for three months, no improvement.  Then I tried a regular doctor and took anti-inflammatory medications for two months, nothing.  I finally figured I am just going to have to wait until my body healed it because no type of medicine was working.  Or so I thought.

After about a week of taking this 6000mg red panax ginseng liquid extract, I noticed the pain was almost gone.  How could this be?  After thinking about it there was a pretty decent theory in my mind.  Why were my feet warmer all the time now?  And why were they cold all the time before?  If you guessed blood circulation, I think you and I are on to the same theory.  After all, ginseng is best known for its sexual performance enhancement and isn’t that also explainable with increased circulation to certain parts of your body?

Let’s just say after two weeks, the pain in my foot disappeared.  Gone, completely vanished!  A chiropractor for three months, some yoga on my own and anti-inflammatory medications for two months didn’t put a dent in it but Chinese red panax ginseng cured it in two weeks! Months and months of agony, gone!

That alone would be reason for me to tell everybody about this.  if you have any type of poor circulation, get this thing!  Being almost 40, I had (notice it is past tense, not have) other ailments which I was slowly giving in to, including aches, pains and feeling weak, getting the slightest flu the kids have, and so on and so forth.  I am very happy to say that all of them are… gone!  I am coming up to 7 weeks of amazing health and energy.  Not bad for an herb that the Chinese have used for thousands of years but for some reason not many people know much about.  It seems like this should change, and that’s why I am writing this blog.

Don’t ask me how, why or anything like that.  I am not a doctor.  (Here is an excellent article on adrenal fatigue by Patty Donovan, if you want to read more about it).  I just know because I experienced it firsthand.  My solution is simple:  Pause your regimen regularly.  I took my 6000mg vials for two weeks straight and then paused for one day, because, well, I was starting to feel a little fatigued and had diffuculty concentrating.  Incidentally, everyone around me got the cold around the same time so I couldn’t tell if I was just fighting the cold.  By the way, I never got the cold, hehe.  Another wonderful effect of red panax ginseng is that your immune system gets really strong.

Anyways, I made it a point to pause one day, and once two days, per week, because of my experience at the end of the first two weeks.  This past weekend, however, I didn’t pause to see if my experience before was really adrenal fatigue or just fighting a cold.  Today I had so much difficulty concentrating, it wasn’t funny.  So going about 10 days without a break is a no-no for me.  If you know what it is and you are smart to pause regularly, this is not an issue.  Remember, this is a potent herb so it only makes sense to give the body a break from it so it can get the maximum benefit when you do use it.  I can imagine people taking this when they feel they need the lift instead of on a daily basis.  I intend to keep taking it because it has so many ongoing benefits for me.  Plus I like to binge on things to see what happens.  Then again, I am also turning 40 pretty soon here and the older you are, the more you stand to gain by increasing your circulation, boosting your immune system and reviving your adrenal function.  And now that I have tested the ginseng-induced adrenal fatigue theory and know it’s for real, I will make sure I take my breaks.

My theory is this, and this is metaphysical and may be out there but just give it a read:  The Earth is abundant in energy they call “chi” in the East.  This is life energy to all living things.  If it is sucking everything out of the ground, I think it is concentrating and storing this “chi” in the root of the plant.  Then you drink the extract and… you get the idea.

Anyways, back to my first couple of days.  I was not ready for the effect – that is the least I can say about it.  I felt, at the same time, like I had buckets of energy but also like my mind was overloaded and I couldn’t focus or be coherent for too long.  I was OK for the rest of the day and got some work done but I would definitely not recommend taking a first mega dose on a work day.  This thing is potent!  Maybe lower concentrations might be OK for most people but the 6000mg dose is probably the highest you can get.  I also like that it comes in liquid form, and you can even mix it in any type of drink, hot or cold, which also tells me the extract doesn’t spoil easily, even in hot environments.

Then it became night and I was still energetic past my usual bedtime.  Needless to say, I learned my lesson.  But, at the same time, I felt great.  I haven’t had had that much energy in a long, long time.  I finally managed to go to sleep, fearing that I would be tired the next day because of my lack of sleep.

Next morning, I felt chipper, woke even before my alarm went off – which is not unusual by itself but considering I had about three hours less sleep, I thought I would be groggy and drag my rear out of bed.  Nope.  Got right up, went for my green, luxurious but definitely oriental-looking Chinese red panax ginseng box, popped another vial open, found and opened the tiny straw package and used one of them itty bitty straws to suck my next vial dry.  It tastes a bit like coffee but has water, ginseng extract, honey and less than 0.5% alcohol in it – probably used during the extraction process, I don’t know why it’s there but on a 10cc vial, that’s 0.05ccs – umm, I guess they had to mention it.  Funny it says “non-alcoholic beverage” on the cover too.  Oh well.  Down it went and up went my energy.

Second day was a bit jittery too.  In fact, my concentration did not return to normal for about 3-4 days.  Something else also started happening.  My feet always get cold if I walk on tile for a couple of minutes.  No longer!  Since day 3 or so, my feet have been feeling warm and comfy, no matter where I am or if I am barefoot.  I also don’t get cold in movie theaters, something that used to happen to me regularly.

But I am getting ahead of myself – the health effects are nothing short of amazing.  Again, I have my theories.  We’ll get to that, all in due time.  Today I have done about three times as much as I was normally able to do in one day about two months ago.  I still have energy to do more but I want to go to sleep.  Oh, I forgot to mention.  Though on the first day I couldn’t go to sleep at my regular hour because I took it too late and it was my first day, yadi yada yada, since I do so much more with my day, I sleep like a rock now and I have more dreams.

Like I said, I am just scratching the surface here.  More to come…