Deer Antler Velvet
Some of my friends take an alternative medicine called Deer Antler Velvet, which is supposedly harvested in New Zealand. My friends use it for joint pain and fatigue but I am sceptical. Do you know anything about it?
Your friends are not pulling your leg - there really is a remedy made from the nutrient-rich inner tissue of deer antlers. This material is humanely harvested from farmed deer in New Zealand and countries such as China and Russia, at a stage before the antlers would have been shed. It is then frozen and sent to the processing laboratory where it is ground into a powder and encapsulated.
Once the second-most used remedy in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) after ginseng, it is prescribed for a range of conditions including osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. It has also been used in clinical trials to enhance sports performance and increase male and female libido and performance. In animal studies, Deer Antler Velvet has been show to increase monocytes - those white blood cells that are critical to the functioning of the immune system and its related parts, including the spleen, bone marrow and lymphatic tissue.
Rich in muscle-building amino acids, joint-strengthening glucosamine and anti-inflammatory prostaglandins, there are now over 250 published studies investigating the many health benefits claimed for this unusual remedy. It is because it is so nutrient-rich that so many claims can be made.
If, like me, you do not like the idea of farming animals to make remedies or of taking animals from the wild, you will be pleased to learn that researchers at Middlesex University’s department of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) are currently investigating more acceptable alternatives to traditional Chinese remedies harvested from endangered species (Deer are not an endangered species in New Zealand).
The project is led by Dr Henry Lee who has also been pioneering a very welcome international kitemark quality scheme to wipe out suitcase imports of Chinese medicines and to ensure that those herbs and remedies that do enter the UK from that part of the world have passed stringent quality control and criteria.