Deer Antlers Hold Clues To Stem Cell Research

Thought some might find this interesting.

New research carried out by veterinary scientists at the Royal Veterinary College reveals that deer antler regeneration may use stem cells and involves similar mechanisms to those used in limb development. The research could take us towards a "holy grail" in human medicine: the ability to restore organs damaged through trauma, disease, cancer or excision.

Keep in mind that you can't absorb stem cells through the gut via oral ingestion of an alcohol tincture or decoction, but the chinese were certainly thinking like scientists when they recognized the potential of lu rong (deer antler) and its variants as a regenerative medicine. To me, this is further evidence that the true value of chinese medicine is its empirical observations of the effects of various treatments. For thousands of years before any chinese doctor ever tried to rationalize the effects of herbs on the body, they merely observed patients and recorded what they saw without rationalizing about that which they could not know (i.e., the workings of biochemistry and physiology). If TCM practitioners could set aside their allegiance to the arcane metaphysical dogma about how the body supposedly works and focus instead on the clinical observation made over thousands of years, then and only then will this body of knowledge truly serve to advance the field of healthcare. Ironically, the chinese themselves are already moving in this direction, a fact that many in the west find disturbing. But then it is not westerners who are known for their insights about things, especially not Americans.