by Kathryn Mays-Wright

Mr. Lee walked in to Dr. Dexin Yan’s office because he was out of options. At only 45 years old, he had been experiencing memory loss, muddled thinking, high blood pressure and cholesterol levels, dizziness, chest pains, buzzing in his ears, numbness in his arms and legs, and purple lips. Five years of prescription drugs had only made his problems worse. Dr. Yan specialized in treating blood and circulatory disorders and was gaining a reputation for his success with difficult cases like Mr. Lee’s.

It turned out that Mr. Lee’s blood pressure was 180/110, his pulse was weak, and blood samples showed that his triglycerides were frighteningly high, at 1150. Dr. Yan prescribed a specialized herbal formula he’d developed called Vital Cell.

After just 45 days, Mr. Lee reported that all of his previous complaints and symptoms had resolved. Even more impressive: His blood pressure stabilized at 170/90, and his triglycerides dropped almost 900 points, to 253.

Vital Cell heals the body by going straight to the source of so many aches and pains—the blood. Combining modern science with China’s rich herbal tradition, Dr. Yan’s groundbreaking formula has helped thousands of patients recover their health and energy by reconditioning blood cells and improving circulation to levels normally seen only in the very young.

Teaching old blood cells new tricks
When you hear someone mention circulation you probably think of the heart and major arteries—and for good reason. Circulatory disorders such as hypertension (high blood pressure) and atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries) are major risk factors for heart disease, heart attacks, and stroke. But there’s more to it than that. With all the attention on the heart and arteries, it’s easy to overlook serious health problems affecting the smallest components of the circulatory system—microscopic blood vessels called microcapillaries, where the critical exchange of oxygen and nutrients actually takes place. If blood isn’t flowing through this web properly, it can trigger all sorts of health problems, many of which may not seem related to circulation at all.

A number of factors contribute to poor circulation as we age. Arteries and veins become stiff and congested as cholesterol and calcium plaques accumulate and restrict blood flow. Spasms in the smooth muscles surrounding the circulatory arteries and veins can also choke off circulation. These same processes also occur in our microcapillaries, reducing microcirculation and impairing the critical exchange of nutrients and gases in tissues and major organs.

This problem only gets worse as we get older because of changes in the composition and structure of blood cells. As you reach middle age, the blood starts to thicken and congeal as platelets and blood proteins make cells sticky. Plus, the spleen—the organ that removes old, damaged blood cells from circulation—begins to slow down with age, which means new, healthy blood cells are replaced at a sharply reduced rate. And to make matters even worse, as blood cells age, they become stiff and no longer appear round and evenly shaped. This makes it harder for them to pass smoothly through the capillaries. In fact, the angular, jagged shape of the old cells can damage the fragile microcapillaries even further.

Eventually, these age-related changes take their toll on the microcapillaries, reducing circulation to the tissues and blocking the flow of nutrients and oxygen. Removal of carbon dioxide and other metabolic waste products is also hindered. This leads to a slow buildup of metabolic garbage that can gradually bury the cells in their own waste products. In time, the cells, poisoned by their own metabolic byproducts, begin to waste away and ultimately cease to function altogether.

The combined effect of poor circulation and old blood contributes to a host of symptoms, including deep fatigue, fuzzy thinking, frequent infections, and lowered sex drive—all conditions usually considered just “normal parts of aging.” If circulation doesn’t improve, it can lead to more serious conditions, such as high blood pressure, heart attack, stroke, diabetes, and arthritis. But giving your body a fresh supply of healthy blood may target all of these problems and more.

The connection between blood and aging
As a professor and physician, Dr. Yan had received extensive training in both Western and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). And in Chinese medicine “blood stagnation” is considered to be the primary underlying cause of many conditions characterized by pain. When blood stagnation occurs, the body's internal organs don't receive their normal nutrients, and waste products aren't carried away at a sufficient rate. This stops the organs from performing their functions, resulting in weakness, disease, and aging.

Dr. Yan recognized that the Chinese view of blood stagnation had a strong corollary in Western medicine—especially in the case of diabetes. In diabetes, chronically elevated blood sugar levels damage the microcapillaries and impair blood flow to the retinas, kidneys, and peripheral nerves. Eventually that can lead to blindness, kidney damage, and potential amputation of limbs. Basically, diabetes can be thought of as a sped up form of the typical aging process in the way it relates to blood composition and circulatory disorders.

Noting the similar role circulation plays in both aging and in diseases like diabetes led Dr. Yan to theorize that many of the health problems he observed in his older patients might be caused by poor circulation and underlying blood disorders. He believed that these problems were damaging vital tissues and organs, just like the damage seen in advanced cases of diabetes.

Dr. Yan joined with other leading medical researchers at the Shanghai Medical Hospital to form a new research team called the Blood Stasis and Aging Research Group. The research group gathered blood samples from young and elderly volunteers for evaluation. They quickly noticed that blood samples from young adults were thinner and had a brighter red color than the samples from the older adults. Intrigued by this simple visual correlation between blood stagnation and aging, the researchers wanted to test the beneficial effects of a number of natural herbs on blood and microcapillary function.

After eight years of gathering clinical data on microcirculation and evaluating changes in blood flow, Dr. Yan’s team arrived at a formula made up of 10 powerful herbs that were shown to promote overall health, enhance energy, and restore healthy circulation.

By enhancing circulation, nourishing cells, and eliminating waste products, Vital Cell contributes to overall improvements in memory, energy, and health while preventing the onset of a wide range of age-related illnesses.

The key to younger tissues
After numerous animal studies established the safety of the formula, researchers measured the actual effects of Vital Cell on the health of various organ tissues in two groups of rabbits. One group of 10 rabbits received normal food, while the other 10 received food that had been supplemented with Vital Cell. After two years, the researchers gathered tissue samples from the rabbits. They also prepared tissue samples gathered from six-month-old rabbits of the same breed.

The researchers examined samples of tissues from the thymus glands, hearts, lungs, livers, kidneys, spleens, brains, and sex organs. The untreated animals showed all the typical signs of aging: Blood vessel walls were thick, clogged and streaked with plaque, while liver cells were shrunken, misshapen, and full of clotted blood. Sex organs were shriveled and had poor cell structure, and kidney cells were ruptured, essentially reduced to mush.

On the other hand, the animals that had been given Vital Cell barely showed any signs of aging at all. In fact, when they compared the treated rabbits with the young ones, there was virtually no difference between them.

Thymus - Old rabbit Thymus with severe atrophy, heavy fatty infiltration	Thymus - Treated rabbit Firm mass, only slight signs of atrophy
>> See all tissue slides

The most notable improvement was in the thymus gland (above). This gland is the key regulator of the immune system. Usually it shrinks dramatically with age, and the loss of thymic tissue is thought to be one of the main reasons for the loss of immune function in the elderly. When the researchers looked at the thymus glands of the old, untreated animals, the signs of aging were clear. The thymus gland had shrunk to less than 1/3 of the size of the younger animals, and most of the tissue had been replaced with connective tissue and fat cells. By comparison, the thymus of the old animals treated with Vital Cell was twice the size of the untreated animals, and the tissues were identical to the young animals, with no loss to fatty infiltration or connective tissues.

You can slow down the aging process
With such impressive results in rabbits, the researchers moved on to humans. In the first study, 50 volunteers, ages 50 to 77, received Vital Cell for 30 days, with blood samples gathered at the beginning and end of the test period. Researchers found that Vital Cell had essentially reconditioned the volunteers’ blood, restoring its properties to those usually seen in adults in their mid-twenties.

A second study showed dramatic improvement in circulation in even the smallest vessels of the body—all the way to the fingernails.

After studying the effects of Vital Cell on elderly patients with circulatory problems, the study authors commented, “From the results reported here, it appears that the Vital Cell formula is not only capable of possibly slowing the aging process, but may also exert beneficial effects on disorders that involve the blood.”

In the largest test conducted with Vital Cell, Dr. Yan’s team enrolled 150 patients in a clinical study. The test subjects, ranging in age from 55 to 89, each took Vital Cell for one month. At the end of the trial the researchers found significant improvements in many common symptoms of aging, such as:

The study results indicated that Vital Cell can expand coronary arteries in the brain and lungs, raise T-cell immunity, and promote the synthesis and metabolism of proteins.

The researchers concluded that Vital Cell would offer significant benefits for elderly patients—even those recovering from serious illnesses like coronary heart disease and chronic bronchitis.

Clinical results in the real world
In 1989, after eight years of clinical study on Vital Cell, Dr. Yan was honored at the International Symposium on Geriatrics in Shanghai for his groundbreaking research. Around the same time, Dr. Yan began prescribing his formula to patients across China. Mr. Lee, who I mentioned earlier, was among these patients, but there are thousands more who have experienced some impressive results.

Some of the following case studies show the wide range of conditions Vital Cell has been shown to benefit.

Mr. B., 45, had suffered from debilitating daily headaches for 10 years as a result of severe head injuries he’d suffered in a car accident. By the time Mr. B. went to Dr. Yan, he was taking prescription sedatives three times a day to control his pain. Dr. Yan prescribed Vital Cell and slowly weaned Mr. B. off of all sedatives over a three-week period. As his pain subsided Mr. B. continued to take Vital Cell. After three months he reported that his headaches were gone, and he was pain-free for the first time since his accident.

Mr. W., 37, suffered from severe arterial inflammation and blood clots in his lower right leg, which would occasionally cause him to be paralyzed from the waist down. Even though he sought medical help from many physicians, his condition only got worse. Eventually his toes turned purple and were cold to the touch. After four weeks taking Vital Cell Mr. W. reported that his symptoms had disappeared, and he was able to return to work for the first time in a decade.

Mr. C., 68, was admitted to the hospital because of severe chest pain due to advanced atherosclerosis. He was treated with both traditional Chinese and Western medicines, but his pain continued. As his condition worsened, Dr. Yan began to administer Vital Cell. Only three days later, Mr. C. reported that his chest pain and the other symptoms had eased. After three months of taking Vital Cell, all of his symptoms disappeared. And for the last five years, he has shown no further sign of illness or symptoms of heart disease.

Mr. Y., 74, suffered from serious cognitive decline. As his condition worsened, he became anxious, confused, and couldn’t sleep. He would forget conversations, dates, places, and names. His gait was unsteady, and he had frequent falls. The family had tried Western medicines but hadn’t gotten good results and hoped that traditional Chinese medicine could restore his health. When Dr. Yan first saw the patient, he was absent-minded and talked nonsense to himself. His pulse was weak, breathing was shallow, and tests revealed that impaired circulation was making his dementia worse. But less than a month after he started taking Vital Cell, all his symptoms disappeared, and he was able to take care of himself again.

Breaking study reveals the power of “young blood”
New research is continuing to uncover the potential healing effects of healthy blood. In fact, 25 years after Dr. Yan began his research, a new study has shown that blood may hold the key to the entire aging process.

The study, published in the Feb. 17, 2005 issue of Nature reveals that young blood may be the key to health and longevity. In the study, led by Thomas Rando, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of neurology at the Stanford University School of Medicine, researchers studied specialized stem cells called satellite cells, which are found spread throughout muscle tissue. Satellite cells normally lie dormant until muscle tissues are injured. Then they suddenly come to life and begin building new muscle cells to repair the damage. In older people, these cells are still present, but they don’t respond when muscle cells are damaged.

In the Nature article, Rando and his group attached old mice to their younger lab-mates in a way that allowed the two mice to share a blood supply. Then they induced muscle damage in the older mice. To their amazement, the satellite cells in the old mice suddenly came to life in the presence of the younger blood, and the damaged muscles healed normally. In contrast, when the young mice were injured in the presence of the old blood, their satellite cells failed to respond, and the muscle cells didn’t heal.

The group also examined the livers of older mice connected to their younger lab-mates. The cells that help liver tissue regenerate are less active in older animals, but, again, the cells responded more efficiently when the livers in older mice were exposed to the younger blood. Clearly, something in the youthful blood was reviving the regenerative cells in the older mice’s muscles and livers.

Rondo observed that, “We need to consider the possibility that the niche in which stem cells sit (blood) is as important in terms of stem cell aging as the cells themselves.”

In other words, it may be the health of the blood surrounding the cells, rather than the cells themselves, that lies at the center of human aging. Which means keeping your blood young and healthy may keep you young and healthy at the same time.

This article is reproduced with permission of Health Sciences Institute.