Its time to bring in the New Year and what better than to resolute Health, Long Life, and Vitality while steering free of colds and keeping your hair color!

I have some herbs along with some preparations to achieve such goals this year! I have some Chinese Herbs and some Western Herbs for you to use, and I will try to give you some tips on some of the easier herbs to aquire (local health food stores).

A New Year’s Resolution for a Healthier Life!

Let me start with the herbs before the preparations:
Goji / Gou Qi Zi / Wolfberry: Goji berry is up top for a couple reasons. Goji berries are really easy to get and available ready to go in a variety of ways. Basically all local health food stores including Trader Joes, Whole Foods, Henrys, and all the little guys too. The easiest way and I think the best way to take Goji berries is dried. Just buy them in a bag of dried berries (they look like little red raisins). You can just eat these straight out of the bag or use them in congee, kicharee, oatmeal, tea, or any other preparation. In Chinese Medicine Goji berries build blood and benefit the eye sight. Goji is rich in antioxidants and make for an easy step into a healthy year.

Astragalus / Huang Qi: Astragalus usually needs little introduction. Known in Chinese Herbal Medicine as Huang Qi, this herb is known to be a staple herb to increase your immunity. A tip top immunity system is key to health and therefore longevity and vitality. In Chinese Medicine this herb is used quite a bit to increase and Qi and used to also build up that blood, therefore this is quite a tonic and strengthening herb! This should not be a tough herb to find.

Polygonum / He Shou Wu / Fo-Ti: He Shou Wu is a more or less another blood builder in Chinese Medicine, but this herb has more documented usage in recent times. This herb is very beneficial to the kidney and supports healthy kidney function. Lastly this herb has documented use of keeping your hair color well into your late years! Take this herb regularly and no need to worry about grey hair! You may need to get this one online or at a Chinese Herbal Store. As an alternative rou cong cong cistanche can be used in place of he shou wu.

Reishi / Ling Zhi: By far the top of the heap of all Longevity herbs is the Reishi Mushroom. Ling Zhi has a healthy past showing incredible properties in Longevity and Vitality. Reishi is also anti-viral, anti-bacterial, anti-cancerous, and builds up immunity. Let me just give you some examples of usage of Reishi so you can understand why its the #1 herb for Longevity, Vitality, Health, and Endurance! Reishi is used to build immunity, treat and prevent cancer, herbal remedy for chronic fatigue syndrome, herbal AIDS treatment, and this herb was traditionally given to the Emperor daily in attempt to help the Emperor live forever! Ling Zhi comes in Purple, Black, Red, and maybe some others. Red Reishi is the optimum herb you want. This herb MAY be trickier to obtain, and it may be easier found in tablets or pills through an herbal supplement company. Make sure to use a reputable company as low grade powdered Reishi is pretty ineffective.

Ginseng / Ren Shen: I wont spend much time on this herb as it is pretty common. It is worth a note here though because it is a powerful tonic! ginseng when used in proper dose is great to build up your body and immune system.

As you can see building blood in Chinese Medicine is pretty important! The ‘blood’ in Chinese Medicine works to help with memory, eye sight, general health, fatigue, muscle/tendon health, and even sleep! Blood is burned out by losing sleep, over thinking, overactive lifestyle, and bad eating habits to name a few. So you can see the relationship of how most of us burn through ‘blood’ pretty quickly and therefore these tonic herbs can really be beneficial to our healthy lives!

Here are some simple recipe and preperations:
I am going to start with some easy ones I have already been given step by step instructions for!
Here is an Energy & Health Congee Recipe.
Simple Health and Longevity Kicharee.
Soup for Kidney Health and Support.
These food recipes are probably the easiest way to regularly take in the benefits of these herbs.
Alternatively try to add some to the rice when you cook rice, add Goji or others to your boiling water for oatmeal, or however you can.

Try a daily cup of tea:
3g Goji Berries / Gou Qi Zi
3g Huang Qi / Astragalus
3g Fu Ling / Poria
1g Zhi Gan Cao / Honey Fried Licorice
Decoct that down into some tea.

Add all of the herbs above including some others in equal parts in alcohol in a 4oz to 500ml ratio to make a tincture! Soak that for over 2 weeks and you take 30-60 drops daily.

Alternatively you can get the BEST Longevity and Vitality product on the market in the most potent way to take, as an Elixir. Elixirs are concentrated alcohol extractions that are similar to both teas and tinctures. They are a bit more complicated to make, but you can buy this recipe from Dimmak Herbs ready to go. Check out their elixir Longevity & Vitality Tonic that includes an excellent formula containing all of  these herbs listed plus many more.