Astragalus: The Great Energizer

Having a surplus or deficiency of chi can end up in either Jing loss or a Jing storage. If we have got a deficiency of chi, we're going to start to tap into our Jing saving account and really begin to shorten our lifespan, actually enfeeble our health. If we may be able to have a surplus of chi, a surplus of day-to-day energy over a long period of time, we are essentially going to be able to build Jing and deposit energy into our bank account that is then going to plug and lengthen our lifespan.

Astragalus is a very relevant and crucial herb to be taking currently, because the seasons are changing and we are going from summer into the Indian summer, which is that in-between time between summer and autumn, and then from autumn we are going into winter. Now since astragalus is a chi and a blood tonic, it will help us stay warm, it's going to help us have better circulation, it's going to help us keep our extremities warm, and help build up our body's resistance to cold and what's called "noxious energy" that will come at us as the seasons are changing.

It's also a great immune tonic, explaining why it's really important at this time at this time of the year, because this is the time of the year when everyone starts to become ill, everyone is beginning to catch a cold and catch a pathogen and miss work, whatever. This is really when that energy is beginning to creep up. Because we're going from the energy of the earth component, which is linked with Indian summer, we're going into autumn or fall, which is connected with the lungs.

What can occur is our lung energy or lung chi can start to be deficient, our spleen chi can be deficient, so folks get dry lungs, dry throat, and then their immunological reaction gets a little puny and then they catch a cold, and then all these things start to happen. This is a prime time of the year to begin to build up our chi, build up our immunological reaction, and start to make certain we're keeping our body warm and keeping our defensive energy robust. Astragalus is the ideal herb to start to take right at this time because it's in sync with what nature is doing with the seasonal changes.

Astragalus is likely one of the hottest and most well-tolerated and most effective chi tonics. Now as we begin, I would like to state, distinguish and make clear that when I mean chi and energy, I don't mean stimulation, I do not mean a jolt or a rush of energy like we will often associate with the term "energy" or "energy tonic."

Astragalus extract is something that you can take at night prior to going to bed, you can take it any time and it isn't going to offer you energy in that sense. When people think energy, we think coffee, we think Red Bull, whatever, so I just want to make clear that astragalus does not act like this, it does not act on the nervous system, it doesn't excite the adrenals, it doesn't irritate at the body in any fashion. It produces more energy in the body at the elemental level by toning up the basic cellular processes that actually generate our energy.