Thoughts of Aging and What to Do About It.

Dear friends and colleagues,

As you may know, I lost the love of my life, my precious Chana Fayge a little over 2 months ago.  Thank G-d I've kept very busy with changes that I've made in my life (to help elevate her soul) and with my practice. We were blessed to know each other exactly 35 years, almost to the day.

I've also thought a lot about the 23 years that she suffered, what I did, and what I could have done. 

I want to share with you what I think is a remarkable observation that I have made, and which has changed my life.  Follow me carefully if you will:  As any student of Chinese medical theory and gerontology will tell you, to the best of my limited knowledge as a clinician, there are essentially two prevailing schools of thought as to what precipitates aging and the debilitation that accompanies it:   Blood Stasis and  Yin Vacuity. I would contend that they really are two manifestations of the same phenomenon.  Think about hemoglobin:  Hemoglobin is the iron containing and oxygen/Co2  transporting protein constituent of the red blood.  Amazingly hemoglobin makes up 97% of the dry weight of erythrocytes and over 1/3 of the total weight (counting H2O). Remember also, that we humans are over 2/3 water.   Now from a Western Biomedical perspective, there are any number of factors that we know contribute to aging, but certainly three such common contributing factors are malnutrition/malabsorption, dehydration and oxygen deprivation. These obviously have a major impact on the Blood and Yin, both in terms of volume and motility. 

So with that background in mind, I began to think: what can one do differently to nutritionally nourish the Yin and move the Blood.  Or to state it differently, what can one do to promote the production of healthy hemoglobin?

Then I remembered reading in Victoria Boutenko's book, "Green for Life" that chlorophyll is essentially an analog of hemoglobin, meaning that they're almost identical chemically.  And what food substance is the most concentrated form of chlorophyll?  Wheat grass juice.  

So I started drinking wheat grass juice, (and as a matter of fact, a half a dropper of wheat grass juice was the last food that Chana ingested before her passing) but there was a problem.  I was getting a little headachy and nauseous having it, and it tended to give me a little diarrhea.  I read that this is a typical Herxheimer die-off reaction, but I didn't buy that entirely.  Rather, I recalled yet one more interesting phenomenon of biochemistry: the Goldilocks principle when administering any medicinal substance: Too little will be ineffective, and too much will illicit a toxic reaction.  The dose has to be "just right!"

 So instead of taking small amounts, one or two ounces at a time, I started experimenting with much smaller doses: one teaspoon with each meal, and with each green smoothie (which I make myself), essentially ingesting 6 teaspoons or one ounce per day. (BTW, wheat grass juice is very volatile, must be refrigerated and should be used up within 3 days).  

The result is that I have no side effects whatsoever, and I feel like I have a new lease on life:  I have remarkable energy, I am clear-minded and  my vision has improved.  I am very aware of my intestinal motility (it's actually a pleasant sensation) and my elimination is efficient but not loose at all.  It's just very simply, a wonderful sense of feeling vibrant and alive, not slowing down and getting old.

Of course this is all anecdotal, but I wanted to share it with you for your consideration.