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It was in the Tea Garden that I discovered deer antler velvet. Coveted, revered and used in Asia for more than 2,000 years, it remains the second most important ingredient in Asian medicine after ginseng. Its active ingredient, pantocrine, can be "of considerable help both to those who are potent but sexually exhausted, and to those who are impotent and wish they could be sexually exhausted," according to pharmacologist Stephen Fulder.

I'm exhausted, but it's not from too much sex. The approach of 40, hardcore parenthood, multiple workloads, urban living and long-term serial monogamy have done little to improve my overall energy level, let alone make me feel particularly sexual (or remotely sexually exhausted). In this no-zone of post-boomer weariness I am not alone. Deer velvet interests me and a growing number of strained, health-conscious, alternative-minded consumers. But its reputation as an aphrodisiac, which wrongly puts it in the same queerly zoological and folkloric pen as rhino horn, only touches on its vast therapeutic value.

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A 2,000-year-old scroll discovered in a tomb in Hunan Province, China, listed over 50 different diseases that could be treated with deer velvet. The 16th century "Materia Medica," which was and remains the standard text of Chinese herbalists, lists deer velvet as one of the most highly prized natural medicinal substances. It's used today by Asian, Russian and a growing body of Western medical practitioners to treat degenerative diseases, strengthen muscles and bones, promote strength and stamina, stimulate the immune system, ward off common colds and flus, increase the production and circulation of blood and promote cell growth and the healing of ulcers and wounds.

According to Thomas Brown of Gold Mountain Trading Company, velvet is known to "increase the natural flow of chi (vital energy) through the kidney, thus helping to regulate the function of the adrenal cortex and restore a person's natural vitality." It has also long been used to restore sexual vitality and balance.

All this could be thrown into the reservoir of folklore and hyperbole were it not for the accumulating body of clinical evidence from ongoing scientific research. One of the first people to apply traditional research techniques to the analysis of deer velvet was Dr. Brekhman, a Russian research pharmacologist and physiologist. Brekhman, who coined the term "adaptogen," originated a new science of ecological pharmacology by investigating the complex formulas found in the ancient Chinese pharmacopoeia. In the 1960s he was the first clinical researcher to substantiate Chinese claims associated with ginseng, and in so doing introduced the twisted, anthropoid root to the Western world. His work was used in programs for Russian cosmonauts to combat difficulties associated with space flight and later by the Russian Olympic team. It included preliminary studies into the efficacy of deer velvet.

Next page | "Deer antler velvet is the only mammalian organ that regenerates"