Six years ago I had a freak accident. Someone fell into my left knee at a “team building” workshop that was poorly organized.
Most know where I’m going with this.
My anterior cruciate ligament and my medial meniscus were damaged in the mishap.
This is a common injury with many athletes and lay folk alike.
The strange thing is that I have been extremely active all of my life and have done a multitude of sports, inclusive of ballet, without chronic injury and with very little sprains or strains over my 50 years of running, jumping, skating, yoga, dancing, swimming, cycling, hiking, climbing and whataver else was the activity du jour.
Five surgeries to the same knee later, I began an indepth search on what is called HIT Medicine from the Far East. The herb that stood out again and again in “Jow” formulas that are applied topically was Tienchi Ginseng also known as Panax notoginseng.

I, of course am terminally curious, and set about doing a search to see if there had been any modern research studies exploring the mechanism of Tienchi ginseng. Truly, it is enought that every Kung Fu artist uses Jows with excellent benefit and this should be enough for me, but I just can’t help myself.

I found a trail of breadcrumbs that lead me to this gem. In an early study, published in 2015, there it was, a well conducted and written expose’ of the possible mechanisms of Panax notoginseng of promoting self-repair of the anterior cruciate ligament. Bellow is the abstract and you may follow the links to the full free article.

I backed up from my computer after reading the entire study (with my magnifying glass, of course) and I wondered why I had spent the last 6 years and 5 painful surgeries where two of the three grafts screwed into my tibia failed. Why had I not given my injury a year or two and a boat load of Panax notoginseng to heal itself? I can only say that if something were to happen with my other knee, I am going the route of the martial art masters of old. With this new insight firmly planted in my mind, I am starting now to encourage my battered and still unsound left knee to heal to the best of its ability in the face of all the insults, trauma and scar tissue by taking Tienchi ginseng daily.

I’ll let you know how it goes…..