Ginseng’s most studied and verified health benefits follow:

• Softens and dilates the arteries and veins
• Enhances male erection and stamina
• Fights cancer
  Promotes hormonal balance
• Increases sperm count and motility
• Improves cognition in when you are tired
• Enhances proper immune system function
• Antimicrobial activity
• Helps maintain healthy blood sugar levels

Softens and Dilates the Blood Vessels

If people with vericose veins only knew. Ginseng is just one of the herbs that will fix them! A study at the Institute for Physiology in Vienna, Austria found that polysaccharides concentrated from Asian Ginseng promoted the synthesis of nitric oxide. Perhaps the most important role of nitric oxide is to soften and dilate the blood vessels, increasing blood flow and helping arteries and veins to stay healthy and resist clogging.

The increased blood flow Ginseng provides throughout the body also helps the brain deal with mental stress, the muscles and other tissues recover from stress or overload, and the entire body deal with undesirable conditions.

Enhances Male Erection and Stamina

Because ginseng softens and dilates the arteries and veins, it increases blood flow to the sex organs, which improves the ability of a man to get and sustain an erection. It is especially helpful for men who have sexual problems as a result of smoking. While it can’t fix the problem if you continue to smoke, it certainly can help repair the damage after you quit.

While it does play a role in improving sexual performance and satisfaction, ginseng’s actual role in improving libido and other symptoms of erectile dysfunction is unclear. Researchers tend to suggest that the improvement in these symptoms is actually the result of improved physical strength and stamina.

In addition to helping men achieve an erection, Ginseng has a mild impact on sperm count and motility. Increased motility improves the sperm’s ability to pass through the fallopian tube and reach and fertilize the egg.

Since sexual prowess seems to fade a little with age, these are all things that help promote longevity. You don’t have to give up sex because you get older. In fact, a healthy sex life helps people stay healthy and live longer.

Fights Cancer

Perhaps ginseng’s most powerful but untapped benefit is its ability to protect against cancer. It has been shown to reduce the risk of cancer in at-risk individuals by more than fifty percent.

Central Nervous System Support

Ginseng contains a group of chemicals that scientists call ginsenosides, which are forms of natural steroids and saponins. Researchers have shown that in mouse and human cells in a petri dish, the ginsenosides Rg1 and Rb1 repaired spatial memory in rats with induced Alzheimer’s disease. In the brains of normal rats, the ginsenosides had no effect.

The ginsenosides appear to have the ability to improve synaptic activity by restoring neuron filaments. Further, researchers also showed that ginsenosides improve the survival rate of neuron stem cells during differentiation.

Ginsenosides’ antioxidant properties have also been shown to protect neuron cells against glutamate and Amyloid beta. Amyloid beta is the primary component of the plaques found in Alzheimer’s patients. Glutamate increases calcium concentration, lipid peroxidation and excessive production of nitric oxide, which results in the destruction of cells. Ginsenosides prevented all of those things from happening,
Ginsenosides from American ginseng also afforded neuronal cell protection from apoptosis, or cell suicide.

Many of these studies indicated that pre-treatment with Ginseng provided a protective action, possibly reducing or at least slowing the onset of brain disease.

The saponins in ginsenosides have been shown to reduce inflammation in brain cells by inhibiting the production of nitric oxide. However, other studies have shown that ginsenosides have increased inflammation in Alzheimer’s brains.

Researchers believe that individual cell chemistry may play a role in whether the saponins inhibit or stimulate inflammation.

Researchers at the Department of Neurology, Seoul Medical Center in Korea completed a human trial to determine Ginseng’s impact on Alzheimer’s patients. They treated subjects with powdered Ginseng capsules, one group a low dose and another group a high dose for 12 weeks. They reported that the group taking the high dose showed substantial cognitive improvement over the control group and that the improvement faded and patients returned to their pre-trial condition after stopping the treatment.

Scientists have also reported similar results for patients with Parkinson’s disease and other neurological conditions.

Immune System Support

Ginseng uses more than just one pathway to maintain and build immunity. A study at the College of Pharmacy, Chung-Ang University in Seoul Korea reviewed the ways Ginseng helps our immune systems stay strong.

According to the review, research has shown that Ginseng stimulates phagocytic activity. Phagocytes are cells that ingest bacteria, chemical pathogens and dead or dying cells. An easy way to think of them is that they are some of the many different forms of white blood cells. We have millions of phagocytes in our blood at any one time.

Macrophages are another kind of white blood cell. They also ingest invaders, dead cells, cancer cells, and anything else that shouldn’t be in our bodies. One of the ways they kill invaders and cancer cells is by subjecting them to nitric oxide. As we discussed above, Ginseng stimulates the production of nitric oxide.

Macrophages also induce the inflammation process. When treated with polysaccharides from Ginseng, macrophages produced more of the enzymes that induce healthy inflammation.

There is one type of immune system cell that Ginseng both stimulates and inhibits. Dendritic cells work with the lymph system to activate lymphocytes, which are the body’s primary defense against invaders. T-cells, B-cells and natural killer cells are lymphocytes. However, researchers don’t yet understand exactly how Ginseng and dendritic cells work together. While Ginseng and Mother Nature are keeping a secret from us, studies have shown that the net result of the Ginseng-dendritic alliance is a boost in natural killer cells.

Ginseng enhances the formation of antibodies, sharpening our response for a quick suppression of repeat infections.

Finally, by modulating the inflammatory process and limiting immune response, Ginseng protects against autoimmune diseases such as arthritis and asthma.

Antimicrobial Action

Studies have shown that Red Ginseng has antibiotic properties against many bacteria. It also has the ability to minimize DNA damage and cell death caused by viruses such as the Asian flu, H1N1, and even HIV-1.

In many cases, the ability of Ginseng to fight microbes was greatly enhanced by pre-treatment. This is important for those of us who might take it as a supplement. By doing so, we are protecting ourselves from infection by pathogens we might encounter on a daily basis.

Diabetes

Asian medicine systems often call for the use of Ginseng to control diabetes. However, many studies have been done researching the effectiveness of this herb in the control of blood sugar, without finding conclusive evidence that it does or does not impact diabetes.

Some research suggests that it lowers blood sugar levels briefly in both diabetic and healthy people, stopping the surge of glucose levels that are blamed for many conditions, including heart disease and dementia. There is no evidence that it cures or controls diabetes over the long term.

Dosage

The dosage is based on a standardized extract. Supplement dosage of this extract is 200 to 400 mg once per day. The higher dose is best for cognitive support.

Research using Korean Red Ginseng extract for erectile dysfunction generally use 3g of extract per day in three doses of 1000mg. in my experience, this is a very high dosage, and should only be taken after consulting with an herbalist or naturapathic professional.

Warnings & Side Effects

Possible side effects include lack of sleep, nausea, vomiting, bowel irregularities, loss of appetite, nose bleeds, headaches, fatigue, palpitations, itchiness, vision impairments, edema and irritability.

However, most of these happen only at dangerously high dosages.

Both American and Asian ginseng may interact with blood thinners such as aspirin, or Big Pharma’s prescription drugs, warfarin, dabigatran, or rivaroxaban, which are better known by their brand names:

Coumadin, Jantoven and Xarelto.

Avoid Ginseng before and after surgery.

People who suffer from hypertension should avoid Ginseng because it may elevate blood pressure.

If you are a smoker and haven’t quit, the sudden rush of blood to the brain after taking Ginseng may cause a rush of nicotine, resulting in headache, eye or ear damage, or other dangerous conditions.

Start with a low dose and build up slowly. Better yet, just quit smoking!

American Ginseng is slightly milder than Asian Ginseng, but provides approximately the same health and longevity benefits. For some people, Asian Ginseng may be too powerful. If you find you are experiencing side effects when taking Asian Ginseng, try the American version.