My personal health journey has taken me through some fascinating truths - none of which have been made untrue by the illumination of the next level of new knowledge.
I used to be a firm believer in regular DETOX of the hard, uncomfortable kind. Purging and eliminating. My personal best? 31 days straight of only pure coconut water and purging herbs, along with 2 daily massages, a daily colonic, a daily meditation and a daily yoga class. I lost only 13 kgs and regained a sense of incredible vitality and an official "remission" diagnosis. A gamechanger and a radical life reset after two previous cancers and the suicide of my lover, Christopher. Unbeknowns to me then, also a phenomenal beginning for the life of my Thai daughter, born just 12 months later after a time of terrible grief and turbulence.
But somehow, along the pathway of decades of detox, my focus changed from purging and eliminating "toxins" to a gentler way of Being: of consciously, daily, adding those things INTO my lifestyle that promote longevity and well being. You could say my focus changed from removing to including.
In the course of INcluding positive elements into my daily life, I discovered that ease and habit can be our best friends, and that no promise of longevity is enough to overcome the daily slugging down of unpleasantness. Those "keepers" of detox and longevity in my personal life tend to be pleasant, easy, affordable and available. Cos I'm not going to fork out gerzillions for some esoteric mushroom or herb from the other side of the world.
And thus I discovered Jiaogulan - often called Immortalitea or the tea of immortality here in Asia.
Jiaogulan. Gynostemma pentaphyllum - is also colloquially called Female Ginseng - the lush, curling, productive vine, as opposed to the powerful, earthy ginseng root. Yet BOTH celebrated across many cultures for their contribution to longevity. And what are longevity and immortality really, other than the PRODUCTS of efficient, daily detoxing?
Jiaogulan is basically a jungle vine which grows easily and freely here in northern Thailand.
I buy my Jiaogulan from Jakatae - an ethnic Lahu friend who harvests it from the jungles around his village near Chiang Rai. Yes, he sells great organic, jungle grown, Thai coffee too!
It's not much to look at when you buy it:
This big bag cost me the princely sum of 50 baht - about USD $1.70. The exotic labeling of the package is mine - it was sold unmarked.
This modest vine PREFERS to grow wild at high altitude, subtropical climates, but it IS possible to grow it in pots in other climate zones so you can manage the temperature zones it needs to thrive.
Great "hot to" here if you're considering growing this amazing herb: How to grow jiaogulan as a houseplant
Why would you bother growing this tea for detox and longevity?
This herb has been shown in tests to lower the amount of Superoxide radicals and hydrogen peroxide in certain white blood cells, an excellent indicator of antioxidant activity. Jiaogulan also has the remarkable property of increasing endogenous SOD (Superoxide Dismutase) in the body. SOD is one of the body's most important antioxidants and studies show that charting SOD levels in various animal species is a reliable indicator of their longevity. Trials in humans showed that SOD levels may return to youthful levels after taking 20 mg of Gypenosides (active elements in Jiaogulan) daily for one month. Source
The most notable pharmacological effects were anti-cancer, cardioprotective, hepatoprotective, neuroprotective, anti-diabetic, anti-obesity, and anti-inflammatory activities. Toxicological studies were conducted only on G. pentaphyllum, showing that the plant extracts were relatively safe in both acute and long-term toxicity experiments at the given dosage while no toxicological studies were reported for the other species. Source
Apart from the obvious current clinical findings, it's the track record over time that impresses me the most!!
Gynostemma pentaphyllum is known as Jiaogulan (Chinese: 绞股蓝 in China. The plant was first described in 1406 CE by Zhu Xiao, who presented a description and sketch in the book Materia Medica for Famine as a survival food rather than a medicinal herb.[4] The earliest record of jiaogulan's use as a drug comes from herbalist Li Shizhen's book Compendium of Materia Medica published in 1578, identifying jiaogulan for treating various ailments such as hematuria, edema in the pharynx and neck, tumors, and trauma. While Li Shizhen had confused jiaogulan with an analogous herb Wulianmei, in 1848 Wu Qi-Jun rectified this confusion in Textual Investigation of Herbal Plants.
Modern recognition of the plant outside of China originated from research in sugar substitutes.[1] In the 1970s, while analyzing the sweet component of the jiaogulan plant (known as amachazuru in Japan), Masahiro Nagai discovered saponins identical to those in Panax ginseng.[5] Continued research has described several more saponins (gypenosides) comparable or identical to those found in ginseng.[1] Panax ginseng contains ginsenosides while gypenoside saponins have been found in jiaogulan. Source
It's a fairly mild tasting tea, bordering on unremarkable. It's available globally as a capsule and as a tea, which most people would brew and drink warm. Since I haven't enjoyed it much when I've tried replacing my early morning green tea with it, I've come across a better way: iced jiaogulan.
I brew up plain old jiaogulan, and then add fresh lime juice and fresh local honey.
Easy to do. Pleasant. Easy to enjoy daily, since it's almost always hot here.
Heck, I even detox my guests without their consent! 😆
My pleasurable inclusion of daily detoxing plants has helped me to attain a better level of health, energy and mental focus.
My closing suggestion: consider redefining "detox" in your head to productive longevity, so it doesn't feel like a chore.
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