Health Care

The Himalayan mountain range is a spectacular sight that relatively few Westerners have seen. They seem, literally, a world apart; the highest mountains on planet earth, Mount Everest, and the legendary Yeti make the Himalayas the object of fantasy and imagination. For pilots stationed in India during World War II, “the hump,” as the mountains were called, were a daunting, perilous trek over peaks more than 20,000 feet high.

In these incredible mountains grows a Central Asian treasure; the Himalayan goji plant. In Mongolia, Tibet and Nepal, this simple plant and its berries is among the most revered medicinal sources. The Himalayan goji was discovered in about 800 A.D. by Buddhist monks; they found an unknown plant growing near their well and noticed that the berries had fallen into the well water.

As they drank the water, the monks noticed an increase in health and longevity that they attributed to the Himalayan goji. Over the centuries, goji berries proved extremely beneficial in Asian natural medicine, and the unusual manner in which the plant was identified by the Buddhist monks makes Himalayan goji revered as a gift from the gods.

Goji is a newcomer in American and European herbal medicine. Like other alternative healing products such as aloe vera juice, bee royal jelly, and seaweed or kelp extracts, goji has scores of die-hard fans and just as many skeptics. What can’t be denied is that Himalayan goji has been undergoing scientific studies about its properties and abilities to heal for the past two years.

The plant has been found to have beneficial health effects in both healing and prevention; cancer, tuberculosis, allergies, digestive problems, hypertension, sexual dysfunction, fertility, anti-aging, and many more benefits have been thoroughly observed and documented. These clinical trials continue, and Himalayan goji may well prove to have a prominent place in healthcare.

What’s Special About Himalayan Goji?

As word spread about the healing benefits of goji, consumer demand in non-Asian countries increased a thousand-fold. To meet these demands some producers of goji have gone into high gear and mass-produced the plant in various countries, America in particular. Add to the mix the fact that there is more than one variety of the goji plant, and consumers often don’t know exactly what they’re buying and where it’s from.

It comes down to this: Himalayan goji is the “definite article.” In Tibet alone, there are 41 sub-species of the plant. Several decades ago, the Coca Cola Company decided to change its recipe and unveiled “New Coke.” It was a spectacular failure, the public demanded “real” Coke, and they got it back. The same is true of Himalayan goji. Variations of the plant are found in Norway, Outer Patagonia and Arizona of all places but true believers sneer at any goji not grown in its native land.

Himalayan goji is traditionally grown and harvested “wild” rather than “farmed.” Dedicated users note that the mountains of their origin are the only place where the berries are considered to have full beneficial properties. Inner Mongolia, the provinces of Ningxia and Xingjian, and the Heavenly Mountains of western China contain the primary growing grounds for “real” Himalayan goji.

If you want to try authentic Himalayan-grown goji, you can find numerous web sites that claim their products are made only of berries grown in the world’s highest mountains.