Subject: Senility?

From: [email-masked] (Douglas Wiggins)
Date: Sat, 14 Jan 1995 19:44:00 GMT

BR>From: [email-masked] ()
BR>Newsgroups: alt.folklore.herbs
BR>Subject: Senility?
BR>Organization: Binghamton University, Binghamton, NY

BR>My Grandmother is suffering from extreme senility. She is 91.  She
BR>often does not know who anyone is.  Doctors refer to all mental
BR>impairment in the aged as alshiemers(sp). I am not sure this is
BR>useful.  It seems quite possible that granny's troube may be caused by
BR>a lack of oxogen in the brain caused by a decrease in blood flow.  She
BR>does have hardening of the arterys. No medication has been persribed
BR>for her condition. . . .
BR> . . .                   I want to  give her tinctures
BR>of Ginko and Gota kola three or four times a day in small doses. The
BR>dose would be 3 or 4 drops of each tincture in warm water 4 times a
BR>day. I would also like to give her some vitamin B12 suppliments as her
BR>previous doctor said she had a deficency.  I do not anticpate seeing
BR>any response for at least 2 to 3 weeks of treatment.

Well, the problems of old age are usually insurmountable, but they
can sometimes be helped. Increasing blood flow to the brain is good,
and just plain exercise will help that. One of the problems is
getting this person into the groove - teaching old dogs, etc. Be
careful with the vitamins - giving just one vitamin in excess can
cause problems (consult an MD on the proper vitamins and dosages).
Giving a complete food, such as Ensure (to name a $$ brand) may help
- there are many, MANY, complete foods and supplements to choose
from. Several small meals are also better than a few larger ones.

There is a mushroom, named Ganoderma lucidum (King Reishi, or
Ling-Zhi, pronounced ling-chee), which has been used for millennia
in China. You may be aware of the Chinese practice of prescribing
packets of herbal material to be boiled in water, to be drunk
several times during the day. These herb packets are tailored to the
person - older people may have Ling-Zhi added to their mixture.

Ganoderma grows on wood, and is, itself, woody and hard. To extract
the active principles, it is broken up and boiled, then broken up
some more and boiled some more - it is a multi-hour process - and
then it is stored in the refrigerator until needed. A small amount
is drunk three times daily - about an ounce of mushroom is consumed
in a week. If you can't find it in your local Chinese herbal
institute, you may be able to find it in bouillon-cube form in a
Chinese grocery store - it comes in an orange box sporting a poor
picture of a mushroom, which costs about $3 for a box of 12 cubes,
each being one dose to be used three times daily. If you cannot find
either source, it is possible to buy it from a mushroom farm in
Olympia, Washington (Mushroom People) - they sell the mushrooms for
about twice what you can get them for imported from China, but they
have fewer worm holes. You may also buy spawn from them, which is
grown on wood dowels - holes are drilled in a fresh stump or 4"+
diameter FRESH logs into which these dowels are pounded - mushrooms
should come out in two years.

Here is a quote from the label inside the box of Ling-Zhi cubes:

"Ling Zhi"
(Longevity-assuring Ling Zhi)
a tonic prepared from Ling Zhi, the miraculous plant

   Ling-Zhi (Ganoderma), a member of the family of fungi, is one of
the most precious and rare wild medicinal plants in China. Tradition
of the Chinese people says, "Ling Zhi, the miraculous plant, has the
virtue of raising the dead and giving him life again." This is
enough to prove how high Ling Zhi is appraised for the invaluable
qualities it possesses as a pharmaceutical plant. "The Chinese
Materia Medica", a pharmacopia (sic) by our world-famous
pharmacologist Li Sheh-chen, justifies this valuation of ancient
times and depicts: "Ling Zhi strengthens the heart, increase (sic)
vitality, and mental activity, and preserves one's youthful
complexion."

As for my qualifications: I am a scientist, and have spent my life
studying a wide range of subjects. Originally, my career interest
was medical technology, for which I spent two years in college
getting the basics. Since then, I have been poking around in places
like oriental grocery stores, looking for just such things as Ling
Zhi and Lo-Han-Kuo (for breathing disorders and coughs, and also
good in soup) - one time I even found fresh-frozen Betel nuts. Now I
narrow my solid research to those areas which make money for me, and
I keep a resource at hand for answering any herbal questions I might
have - Brian Altonen of The Medical Garden here in Portland is a
full-time plant researcher, studying the presence and value to man
of the chemicals in plants. I would give you his phone number, but
he won't talk to anyone for free (except for those with whom he has
an interactive relationship).

Hope this is not too long - Douglas Wiggins [email-masked] Portland OR
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