Did You Know Deer Antlers Are a Thing in Traditional Chinese Medicine?

Did you know that deer antler has shown quite the promise when it comes to improving fatigue and building muscles?

Thankfully, you can easily access this in the form of a supplemental deer antler velvet extract.

Traditional Chinese medicine has traditionally considered deer velvet antler to be a potent tonic for treating many deficiency conditions, including kidney failure. Some of the other symptoms include a weak constitution; rapid aging; and so on.

But, if this is the first time you’re hearing about deer antler velvet, then don’t worry. We’ll tell you everything you need to know. Keep on reading for our full breakdown of what is deer antler velvet, and its role in Chinese traditional medicine and traditions. 

Deer Antler Velvet Extract: The Basics

Sweet, salty, and warming, deer antler velvet is a yang tonic. It passes via the kidney and the liver.

Animal ingredients, according to traditional Chinese theory, are more helpful to the body’s jing (essence) than plants or minerals since they are biologically closer to humans. It’s known as the Doctrine of Similarity because of how it regards like.

Ben Cao Gang Mu (Materia Medica), an old herbal treatise, states that deer are among the most beneficial animals for tinkering with the yang and jing of the body (essence). Deer components like the horn/antler, blood, and bone marrow are utilized to strengthen and replace jing because of this.

Yin, Yang, Kidney, Liver, and Jing are all mentioned, but what do they all really mean? Well, let’s take them one at a time. 

Theory of Yin and Yang

According to Chinese thought, yin and yang are the underlying law of opposites that governs all occurrences. In order to maintain harmony, everything must have an equal and opposing counterpart.

There is a mutually beneficial relationship between opposing or contrasting forces in nature. As they relate to one another, they generate new ideas. During the course of the day, the sun sets and rises again. There are many examples of this duality, such as hot and cold or wet and dry.

Yang is the more active element, connected with daytime activities such as waking up and going about your day. There are several ways to describe yang energy, which include the sun’s rays and the heat of fire.

Yin and yang are never completely balanced, but an imbalance in one may often lead to an imbalance in the other. Because of a lack of yin (fluids), your automobile may overheat when you run low on coolant, for example. 

Understanding the 5-Element System

In Chinese medicine, everything is divided into five elements: wood, fire, earth, metal, and water, based on the yin and yang philosophy. In each of these five components, the body’s physical organ systems and their related meridians (or channels) are linked to the respective elements.

Organs and meridians are linked to each other via 12 primary systems and eight more meridians that act in deeper channels. Imagining your heart as a lightbulb may help you better understand how your body works.

Essentially, the heart meridian is like an internal, energetic wiring system that connects to the lamp and all of its accompanying physical systems.

Zang-Fu Pairs

In each of the 12 pairs, the Zang organ (the yin organ) and Fu organ (the yang organ) form a Zang-Fu pair.

Deer antler velvet is a substance that mostly affects the Kidney and Liver. When it comes to organs, the Liver and the Kidney are both yin (Zang).

Yang Tonics 

Deer antler velvet, a yang tonic herb, is known as Lu Rong. Although Kidney, Heart, and Spleen yang insufficiency is rare in yang tonics, Kidney Yang is the most essential use. Kidney yang deficit is often referred to in Chinese Medicine as Kidney yang xu (pronounced like “shoe”).

Kidney yang deficiency is most often associated with weariness on a systemic level. Kidney yang xu comes with a strong aversion to the cold, chilly limbs, soreness in the lower back and knees, a pale tongue, and a weak pulse.

Kidney yang xu is still a mystery from a current biomedical perspective. Kidney Yang Xu’s etiology may be linked to the endocrine system, a chemical messenger system comprised of glands that generate and emit hormones.

Jing and Essential Qi

Jing is stored in the Kidneys in Chinese Theory. Essence or “essential qi” are common translations for the Chinese term jing in English. Because there is no literal translation for qi into English, life-force or energy are regarded as the closest notions to qi in English.

It is thought that Jing is the foundation of all biological existence. Longevity depends on jing’s preservation and protection. Kidney-based urea plays an important role in human growth and development as well as fertility and many other functions. Prenatal Jing (Pre-Heaven Essence) and Postnatal Jing (Post-Heaven Essence) are the two basic types of jing.

A person’s prenatal jing is set during birth when it makes its way from the mother and father. The fetus’s constitution, strength, and vitality are set by prenatal Jing.

After then, you can preserve or deplete jing at a slower rate. Prenatal Jing may be preserved if you have a balanced lifestyle, including healthy food, regular exercise, and enough rest and sex. Once all of our prenatal jing is gone, we die according to Chinese medicine.

Chinese Deer Antler Velvet: The New Superfood

If you’re a novice to the encyclopedic world of traditional Chinese medicine, we know how overwhelming it can be to take your first thorough dive into one of its greatest ingredients.

However, we hope that our guide has sufficiently explained the uses of deer antler velvet extract and its place in traditional Chinese medicine. And, if you liked reading our article, then you’ll want to check out our other explainers, available to you in our health and lifestyle sections.