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At my age, especially with my ‘ADHD’ handicaps, I waste too much time trying to write on my computer dealing with the new apps in Microsoft 365, especially those involving AI.   After the past few years struggling with my new computer, at least I can now write with fewer problems.  But handling my phone (esp. trying to text, write & communicate with it) is still a problem.   Which is why I seldom answer my phone and interact on it with people I don’t know.

Throughout my long career, I had always kept to myself, seldom volunteering to reveal my weaknesses.  Then, around late 2010, while writing my last book, My Life & Rollercoaster Career (my memoir + my newsletter of 8 yrs), I felt differently for whatever reason, maybe more technically secured or mature?  This book was published in 2018 by CreateSpace, now available from Amazon.  I recommend the e-version.  Unlike the paper version with an incomplete Index, the e-version is only a few dollars, but you can google any subject or word and it will lead you to the page describing it.

Since then, I have been more open with myself, weaknesses and all, along with my good points.  From an ordinary boy with lots of handicaps, but also a lot of help from family and friends, plus schoolmates  throughout my educational process (primary school through graduate school), I somehow ended up in achieving remarkable things that will continue to benefit my fellow humans. 

The very first thing I want to stress to parents with inattentive children (esp. boys like me) is to read my story.  My family knew I had inattentive problems (never-diagnosed ADHD), but they kept an eye on me and let me do my own thing.  I have always been thankful that I was not born in an era or into a family that uses drugs (mainly toxic synthetic) to treat conditions in children.  Then, when I flunked out of elementary school because I didn’t pay attention in class and got kicked out, my parents sent me to another school.   During that year they hired me an English tutor and that changed my life.

Tomorrow, I’ll finish describing that period of my life in the next post.  So, stay tuned…

Cured fo-ti (zhiheshouwu) is a key ingredient in our PhytoChi, one of several supplement products I have formulated which is still on the market, now only manufactured by Phyto CZ, s.r.o. in the Czech Republic.  It is sold/distributed worldwide.   All the other PhytoChi, using the brand name “EarthPower” stolen from me, are fake.    

At the start, PhytoChi was manufactured by Phyto-Tech and marketed by Earth Power, both companies owned by my family. Then, our Earth Power brand was stolen from us and PhytoChi was marketed under the EarthPower brand by companies without our permission.  Yet, they didn’t even have our formula nor the sources of the ingredients!  Not long after, we gave PhytoCZ the exclusive rights to manufacture PhytoChi in the Czech Republic under my guidance and market it worldwide.  Hence, PhytoChi has been on the market for over 20 years now and is still going.  So, only the PhytoChi originating from PhytoCZ is the genuine product!  I have been watching the treatment of Cured fo-ti (zhiheshouwu) by the Chinese Pharmacopoeia (ChP) since the late 2000s.  If I notice anything unusual resulting from this change, I’ll let you know.

From now on, I will concentrate on drug therapy with synthetic drugs vs. therapy with natural traditional medicines because I believe these two kinds of therapies are the answer to our future that soon would be overwhelmed by synthetics and the vicious cycle they cause.  These chemicals have lots of deficient qualities that can only be complemented with the experience and accumulated wisdom of natural medicines.

They have been used for over a thousand years in China – raw fo-ti mainly as a cathartic and detoxicant and is considered toxic, while cured fo-ti has tonic properties and is widely used in preventing white-hair growth and for various other conditions, and is generally considered non-toxic. 

The raw fo-ti after harvest is washed off its dirt and simply dried.  While the cured fo-ti is boiled in black bean broth for hours in non-iron pots until the liquid is absorbed.  There are also numerous other ways to make cured fo-ti, some using wine.  They all take hours, if not days, to complete.  Which is why when I first noticed the ChP specified actual amounts of chemicals in its standards of identity and quality for fo-ti, I was very surprised.  That was the reason I mentioned that some Chinese scientists, after having newly learned the synthetic-chemical or ‘scientific’ way, were awed by this ‘science’ and went along with their Western colleagues’ wrong thinking without seriously pondering the issues of the major differences between synthetic drugs and natural medicines.

The new standards in ChP 2015 (1% in raw fo-ti & 0.7% in cured fo-ti) of 2,3,5,4’-tetrahydroxystilbene 2-O-beta-D-glucoside (THSG) are obvious to me as a source of future trouble.  After prolonged boiling, there would be practically no THSG left in the cured fo-ti.   Requiring manufacturers to have 0.7% of THSG in their cured fo-ti would be impossible after all this cooking!   They would have to ignore the new ChP standards to continue to produce the cured fo-ti the traditional way which would fail ChP requirements but have a safe product that they have been used for generations.

The therapy with TCM herbs and formulas has been based on experience and accumulated wisdom.  It is a completely different system from modern synthetic drug therapy with its vicious cycle that I have written about for years!  The two cannot be treated alike.

There is no lack of motivation gurus to tell you how to discipline yourself and learn their tricks and tips to get ahead in life and make lots of money.  Do they tell you to give back?  I haven’t heard of any. 

          And there are these religious or cult leaders telling you to live according to the teachings of Christ or some other historical religious figures but that they need your money to do their religious or charity work, usually giving pittance to a faraway land with naked children crawling around that you only see in films, but nothing for the poor children in our own rich United States of America who are hungry and can’t afford healthcare because someone else acting and living according to these gurus’ teachings hoard most of the money and resources for their own personal enjoyment.  I have been a lousy businessman because I don’t listen to them.  But I have no regrets.  To me, there is no true winners in business.  When you win, someone else loses.  It’s all about greed and money and not always gotten honestly.

          As the only intelligent species on earth, we have ruined much of its environment.  As to our own living selves, few are aware of the deleterious effects of the brand-new chemicals (synthesized from toxins) that we ingest daily to treat illnesses.  Over the past 70 or 80 years, these drugs have led us to the vicious cycle.  If not broken or bypassed, its toxic drugs will cause irreparable harm to our body.  And to rub salt into the wound, this vicious cycle only benefits the drug makers and their associates (insurance companies, marketers, crooked politicians, etc.) because it is self-generating and perpetual.   The more toxic the drugs the more diseases, hence more income for Big Pharma!

          We need to do something about it for the sake of our future generations.  Hence, last year, I published my last book “My Life & Rollercoaster Career.”  One of my main reasons for writing it is to publicize the vicious cycle and to try to interest those of you who see this human disaster coming at our children’s and grandchildren’s generations and want to do something practical about it.  We already have the technologies to bypass it by first shaping up some so-called “herbal supplements” currently on the market, followed by starting to replace them with genuine herbal products with their unique fingerprints.   Then, we’d start to replace some modern toxic synthetic drugs in the vicious cycle with isolated natural chemicals that, unlike synthetics, have already been with us since our species appeared on earth umpteen years earlier. 

          My idea is to have nonprofit organizations (e.g., crowd-funded by consumers) or minimal-profit companies manufacture them and supply them directly to consumers, without the participation of marketers and insurance companies.  I am a scientist and an entrepreneur at heart.  I have over 50 years of research and manufacturing experience in chemicals and herbal products.  If you want to check me out, please buy my last book, or at least its e-version.  Although I have many handicaps, scientific thinking is not one of them. 

If you are not trained by one of the above gurus and want to start a new industry for the benefit of the less fortunate, please message me.  We can take it from there.  But please first read my memoir to know who and what I am.           Thank you all!         

Since the synthetic chemical era started about 150 years ago, all the synthetic drugs, additives, and supplements have one thing in common.   Being made from toxic petroleum and other fossil fuels, they are all brand new to our planet and have never had long interactions with us.  Hence, they are inherently toxic.  The toxicities of drugs generally show up in days or weeks, while those of additives and supplements, because of their lower doses, may appear years after our having started using them.   Now, due to the accelerating synthetic activities, producing countless of these chemicals, their side effects and new diseases are increasingly obvious among fellow Americans.

However, there are no efforts by the mainstream medical profession to try to reduce the use of conventional drugs made from fossil fuels.  Hence, I don’t see any movements to reduce legitimate drug use in the USA, despite its inherently toxic properties.  Even some bright Chinese scientists who had influence with the ChP have unknowingly changed the properties of a well-known anti-aging herb, cured Fo-Ti, to the cathartic, raw Fo-Ti.  [My next post will include this tonic vs. cathartic now in the ChP and the confusion in the English literature].

Chinese ginseng has been used in China since ancient times.  American ginseng was only introduced into China in the 18^th century and within decades, it was described as different from Chinese ginseng.  The Chinese didn’t use the science of botany or chemistry to tell the difference.  They used the experience of trial-and-error that their ancestors had used and taught them.  Unlike modern synthetic drugs with brand-new unknown impurities, whatever present in TCM herbs have already been there since our ancestors tried them eons ago.  They have all been tested  as safe, which is why we can safely ingest these herbs and formulas.  Not so with brand-new synthetic drugs with their impurities, for which our recent forebears were smart enough to design scientific tests (in-vitro, in-vivo, etc.) before clinical trials and finally approval for patient use.  Only then, the trial-and-error process that our ancient ancestors used is started all over!  There is no other choice for us to gain experience and time. 

So, the 2 therapies are very different!  But we can still use both, keeping in mind our health continues to be ruined by synthetics, which can be alleviated by TCM formulas containing tonic herbs or bypassed with natural chemicals. In my next post, I will address the confusions in TCM herbs in the English documentation, specifically addressing the tonic/cathartic named cured Fo-Ti and raw Fo-Ti.   Which is which?

Regardless, I think I know what it is trying to say:  there are these 2 groups of products – one is just herbs, whatever they are is immaterial, because you just have to do your best to market and  sell them; the other eventually will be destined to be scientific and evidence-based drugs.  I think the people involved in either group know what they can do.  One thing this article has done for me is that it has given me the reason why there are no standards of identity and quality for commercial herbal supplements, about which I have often complained.  Now, there would be no need to worry about what you sell, because the goods are not important.  The main objective of their existence is just being ‘health’ goods, especially the DSHEA does not allow specific claims.  The other kind of supplements (herbal or chemical), according to those dealing in them, is one step closer to ‘scientific’ or ‘evidence-based’ drugs, eventually with Big Pharma behind it.  Even with this group, I don’t think the players have any clue what they are dealing with – herb or chemical?  Especially they are not scientifically trained and don’t recognize that there is no science in drug therapy once a chemical gets  into our complex multichemical body.   Or they are so intimidated by ‘science’ that  they simply go along.  I have numerous posts on LinkedIn and on my blog  discussing this chemical vs. herb issue, especially the last one uploaded a day ago.

www.ayslcorp.com/blog

We should take both and bring them together, taking the good and ignoring the deficient in each and let them do their best in complementing each other.

A. Synthetic drug –   1.  made from toxic petroleum  

                                           2. brand new to our planet

3. with identity and purity issues (can never be absolutely pure like 100.000000 %)

                                           4. inherently toxic (already ongoing and non-changeable)

B. Traditional herb –   1. already developed by our ancestors and handed down to us

                                             2. our body knows it, so no surprises

3. absolute purity is not an issue, whatever therein dates to ancient times

                                             4. no inherent toxicity issues

Modern drug therapy using mainly synthetics is responsible for most of our illnesses (side effects & new diseases).  Just look at the promotions and advertisements on your family TV.  They make you feel like you are missing something if you don’t try their advertised drugs.  And we are openly blaming drug addiction as due to our young folk’s weak will power!  This reminds me of watching war movies of the Second World War era (1940s), seeing sailors smoking in submarines was common.  Smoking was not banned in public until around 1990s and 2000s!  And smoking physically and visually affects others nearby, which took more than half a century for us to ban in public.  I  don’t expect to see synthetic chemicals like drugs, additives, and supplements (now ubiquitous but quietly ruining our health) to draw the attention of the nontechnical public.   

Consequently, with the even more abundant synthetic chemicals that are not ingestible which we have been making for our convenience and comfort (like plastics, nylon, polyester, other synthetic fabrics, & foam rubber, etc.), they first pollute our environment and then over time decompose to minute entities (e.g., microplastics) that enter our body through our drinking water to further do us harm.   It is a serious situation.  But no one with fame and money seems to openly talk about it.   Scientists like me write about it but we are mostly ignored.  Regardless, I don’t give up.  I’ll keep trying until I croak. 

When dealing with A3 and A4, try to bypass the synthetic drug therapy with naturally isolated chemicals whenever possible.  Try to discourage continued drug advertising on family TV.  The only way to eliminate it is by passing laws to afford taxpayers (citizens & residents) free universal healthcare so that there would be no need for insurance and healthcare companies to continue to find ways to exploit the public. There should be term limits for members of our Congress so that they would not continue to get free perks (like healthcare) for themselves and ignore the rest of us Americans.    

TCM traditional medicine is mostly based on observation, experience and accumulated wisdom over time. It is as complex as our body and contains as many chemicals.  B3 and B4 allow it to be safely used.  The herbs and formulas are well documented both in print and through word of mouth among families.  There are dozens of formulas available from Asia already being sold as herbal supplements in Chinese herb shops throughout major American and Canadian cities.  They are for common ailments such as colds, flu, cough, and heat conditions (canker sores, pimples, etc.).  They can be fingerprinted by TLC or HPTLC.  I have already published my work on 3 dozen tryptamines that include several common psychedelics (psilocybin, psilocybin, LSD, etc.) with Rf values on 5 different solvent systems (mobile phases) and 3 adsorbents.   Well-promoted brands can be fingerprinted so that consumers can at least see what they look like when compared to a trustworthy brand.   Furthermore, the formulas containing tonic herbs are particularly suitable for improving our natural immunity.  

That can serve as a start, so can my organization, PBN Naturals Worldwide Consortium.  And I can provide initial guidance.

1. There are no uniform identity and quality standards for our herbal/traditional medicines and supplements!  My colleagues and friends at the USP/NF and the FDA, among other health agencies, seemed to have refrained from assigning specific chemicals among the countless present in herbs to represent these botanical medicines.   Or they might have neglected or forgotten to deal with these chemicals none of which represents any traditional herb.  Regardless, for whatever reasons, the USP/NF doesn’t have provisions to deal with active chemicals in traditional medicines & supplements (esp. commercial ones) since the Dietary Supplement Health & Education Act (DSHEA) was enacted in 1994.  I’m not complaining, just curious.  Regardless, there is now a big void in our standards of identity and quality for our commercial herbal supplements that are supposedly overseen by these agencies.  So, for over 30 years, 2 supplements by 2 different companies with the exact same herbs on their labels can be different as night and day on HPTLC/TLC fingerprinting.   Which is why I never recommend any supplements unless I know the producers.

• Most of my science colleagues still seem to be clueless about modern synthetic drug therapy and therapy with traditional herbal medicines.  Hence, the mess we continue to make when we try to deal with them.

Here is a story I like to share regarding American ginseng (Panax quinquefolius L.), when it was first introduced into China from Canada in the 18^th century by the Jesuits who believed it to be Chinese ginseng (Panax ginseng C.A. Meyer).   However, a couple of decades later, an herbal described it as different from Chinese ginseng, and the two have since been treated as different herbs.  American ginseng is described as cooling while Chinese ginseng  as warming that has tonic properties.  I want to use this example to show the difference between synthetic drug therapy and therapies with herbs and foods. 

This brings up an example that I want to share with you.  It is about how modern synthetic drugs and traditional natural medicines have come about – via very different routes!

Synthetic drug therapy relies on its in-vitro, in-vivo, and other testing to show it is scientific.  But it is NOT, especially when  you don’t even know what your test chemical’s identity or purity is.  Furthermore, after all the testing, including our clinical trials to show it has no serious side effects, it is approved for patient use.  Only then, the trial-and-error process begins, this same process was used by our ancestors for millennia since time immemorial.  However, for modern synthetic drug therapy, it only starts now, without the important element of time as with traditional herbal medicines!    Modern drug therapy using synthetics is based on a single chemical that is brand-new to our planet, which, being made from toxic petroleum, is also inherently toxic.  Because of its lack of history or experience, it is often misunderstood, and some aspects of it are often confused with those of traditional herbs.  In contrast, traditional medicines have already been tried and true over time (>millennia), based on our observations, experiences, and accumulated wisdom.   

Thus, the time experienced by modern drug therapy is comparable to a grain of sand (synthetic drug) on a sandy beach (natural medicine).   Again, using ginsengs as examples in therapy, we tend to try to use specializations in botany to make therapy with ginsengs scientific.  So, we dig deep into its morphology and chemistry,  trying to make ginsengs scientific, while building new specializations. This certainly would build endless specializations, cluttering our intellectual universe with irrelevance.  In a few centuries or millennia, we may have a new portfolio on the ginsengs.  But for what?  For our curiosity or greed – like a perpetual highly profitable business – the vicious cycle (VC) that you can maneuver whichever way you want?  Thus, USA would be owned by a handful of gazillionaire narcissists who couldn’t understand why truly democratic countries shun us.

On the other hand, traditional medicines, like TCM, have been developed mainly through observation, experience, and accumulated wisdom?   No specific chemicals, just wholesome entities processed certain ways.  Also, interchangeable herbs are often used.  So are a unique class of healing herbs called tonics that double as both foods and medicines.  They are an important preventive-health measure for TCM.   

I believe modern synthetic drugs somehow ending up with the vicious cycle that has led us to our current miserable health state, mostly steered by greed.  If we don’t break the VC or bypass it, we’d end up ruining our health in another generation or two.

The 2 therapies can be used in complement of each other.   We Americans have already suffered too much from the modern system whose synthetic drugs are basically all inherently toxic because they are brand new, made from toxic fossil fuel.  Including synthetic additives and supplements, not even the non-ingestible ones, they are now countless in number after we have been mindlessly producing countless of them over the past 80 to 90 years.     By now, most of us are suffering from their cumulative effects within us.  Despite leading in wealth and in health sciences, we have not been among the world’s top 40 or even 50 healthiest countries for years. 

I know how to get us back on track to a healthier country, but I can’t do it alone.  In my next post, I’ll outline my ideas of how to drastically change our course for the better of all Americans.

In drug therapy using mostly synthetics, we concentrate only on one chemical, even though we can’t control its purity.  For example, psilocybin may contain 1% LSD or other highly active psychedelics for whatever reason.  This will totally mess up the scientific nature of our therapeutic process because now our test object/material (psilocybin) is no longer a pure constant. 

               How do we assess its outcome?  Statistics?  I guess that is what we usually see and experience – more and deeper holes (i.e., specializations) to justify our inability to see the reality in our healthcare system involving multi-elements.  Instead, we follow our own interests (more hole-digging or specializations to satisfy our own individual interests, never mind the scenery above ground (our total health)!  Which is why for the special interests of money  and self gratification of a few, we have ignored our true healthcare for all.   Instead of benefiting our nation of all citizens, like with free universal healthcare, we have chosen the vicious cycle (VC) of synthetic drug therapy that benefits only the drug makers and their interdependent associates, including insurers, promoters/advertisers/pushers, and crooked politicians, all in the name of democracy or freedom to choose.  

Now, with our nation controlled by a few moneyed individuals, where is our democracy?  Especially all our legislators have voted themselves perks like free healthcare  and terms with no limits.  Some are also so corrupt that they dare not challenge our president and his family who openly make big money on our dime.  What kind of American democracy is that?   Sorry about bringing this up. 

Unlike synthetic drug therapy, our traditional medicines (herbs) have evolved in a very different path.  It’s not just days, months or even a century.  It is experience based on long-term trial and error, accompanied by its wisdom over time immemorial.   This trial-and-error process is also used by modern drug therapy.  Except it is only after a modern drug has gone through the usual testing in vitro, in vivo, in small creatures, and then successful human clinical-trial, then the trial-and-error step starts.  

In recent years, maybe up to 3 generations or 90 years, we have observed some ‘long-term’ effects of modern synthetic drugs.  For our older folks, you may remember the Thalidomide tragedy of the 1950s-1960s.    Many thousands of pregnant women in Europe who had taken Thalidomide gave birth to thousands of deformed babies.  Now this same drug is being developed for promoting new blood vessel growth in healing tissues and others.  So, more hole-digging and concentrating in smaller areas with no overall view of our body and whole health!  All I can see is more trouble ahead, with more specialists who have no idea what is involved in total good health. 

The science of our healthcare system is so monetized that our deep holes (specializations) may end up burying us in a couple of more generations.  Unless we recognize this and start taking the best of modern drug therapy and complement it with the tried-and-true traditional herbal medicines along with nutrition, exercises, and avoiding fast foods that are loaded with inherently toxic additives and supplements made from toxic fossil fuels.

I developed hay fever in 1965, 3 years after I arrived in Ann Arbor, Michigan, from tropical Hong Kong to attend graduate school at the University of Michigan.  The physician at Student Health welcomed me to ‘hay-fever’ town!  For 20 years, I was on antihistamines, decongestants, and other hay-fever drugs, along with their equally miserable side effects.  In 2 seasons of taking magnolia tea, my hay fever was gone.  I have not taken any hay fever drugs since the mid-1980s.  I just occasionally take magnolia tea if the air quality is exceptionally bad.   

Since I was born into a family (my mother’s side) with a TCM tradition, I started my renewed interest in Chinese herbs and accumulated within several years probably the most extensive library of Chinese herbs in a single location in America.  I started writing about Chinese herbs for common conditions since the 1980s.  My Better Health with (Mostly) Chinese Healing Herbs & Foods (1995), Encyclopedia of Common Natural Ingredients Used in Food, Drugs, and Cosmetics (2^nd Ed. 1996), Leung’s Encyclopedia of Common Natural Ingredients… (3^rd Ed. 2010), and Leung’s Chinese Herb News (1996-2004), republished in My Life & Rollercoaster Career (2018), all carried a section on magnolia.   

After magnolia cured my hay fever 40 years ago, I only have drippy nose a few times a season (spring and fall).      That is rather annoying.  This time,  it happened 2 days ago.  My nose simply dripped even when I lay down to try to go to sleep.  I had to get up and make myself a cup of magnolia tea.   Within probable 30 minutes I was asleep and for 2 days now I have no more drippy nose, nor other hay fever symptoms.   

Since I no longer take any synthetic antihistamines or decongestants, I feel good for no longer having these toxic chemicals in my body, slowly but surely ruining the good health of mine and that of most of my fellow Americans, including my life 40 years earlier.  I am now a few weeks to 88 years of age.  I think I have seen enough as a scientist and an herbalist that I can speak as an elder in these matters.   I am referring to synthetic drug therapy vs. treatment with traditional herbal medicines, neither is scientific.  But the former is so biased that most of my science colleagues involved never can tell the difference among the elements therein with those in traditional medicines.  The hole-digging in modern drug therapy only ends up in too many holes (i.e., specializations) that haven’t helped us to have even half decent therapies without all these toxic side effects and countless new diseases among us.  The scientists involved don’t seem to have any clue what their hole-digging has done to our healthcare.