Written By: Sayer Ji, Founder

Food is medicine. We know that already. But did you know it can also reverse your biological age and regenerate tissues in your body, therefore preventing you from needing to use medicine in the first place? Here are three common substances you probably didn't know act like "elixirs of youth."

1. Wasabi for Nerve Regeneration

Wasabi is an incredibly spicy and delicious part of the Japanese food experience. This preparation of Japanese horseradish is from the Brassicaceae family, along with broccoli and mustard greens.

It has a wide range of health benefits, from anticancer properties to combatting infection, which you can learn more about on our wasabi research database. One of the least recognized, yet most promising, health properties of wasabi is its potenital ability to stimulate the regeneration of nerve tissue. 

A 2008 study published in the Journal of Neurochemistry found that wasabi contains a compound known as 6-methylsulfinylhexyl isothiocyanate (6-HITC). 6-HITC is similar to sulforaphane, another powerful sulfur-containing compound found in broccoli that's also known to stimulate brain cell regeneration.

6-HITC stimulates the production of nerve growth factor (NGF), which according to the study plays an “essential role in the growth, development, survival and functional maintenance of neurons in the central and peripheral systems.” The study noted this could have a role in addressing both neurodegenerative and ischemic conditions of the brain, such as stroke.  

You can learn more about wasabi by reading Why Wasabi is Good for More Than Just Sushi.

2. Wheatgrass for Reversing Cataracts

Age-related cataracts (clouding of the normally clear lens of the eye) generally progress to severely impair vision and are often treated with invasive surgical procedures. But what if you could elicit your body’s natural regenerative properties to reverse the opaqueness using food as medicine?

We have indexed a wide range of natural substances that may mitigate, and in some cases reverse, cataractogenesis. In fact, there are over 60 substances indexed for cataracts on the GeenMedInfo.com database. There are also substances, such as statin drugs, listed that contribute to degenerative processes linked to cataracts. But of all the factors that are relevant to the topic, one food extract stands out above them all as a powerful healer and source of profound regeneration: wheatgrass. 

A 2005 study published in the journal Biogerontology titled, “Aging reversibility: from thymus graft to vegetable extract treatment -- application to cure an age-associated pathology,” found old dogs fed wheat grass extract for a month saw a reduction in lens opacity of 25% to 40%.

The authors theorized, “The efficacy of wheat sprouts in the recovery of age-related alterations and in treating age-associated pathologies could be due to the contemporary presence of small regulatory acid peptides, a remarkable level of highly energetic phosphoric radicals and antioxidant molecules, peculiarities that may be, to some extent, related to the aging process regulation."  

3. Vitamin C for Bodywide Healing and Hormone Regeneration

Vitamin C is one of the most important vitamins for the maintenance of human health, yet remains one of the most common and underappreciated deficiencies, contributing to over 500 conditions. How do we know this? Visit the GreenMedInfo.com vitamin C database and you will find over 1,200 studies indicating that vitamin C deficiency contributes directly to hundreds of diseases while getting adequate vitamin C prevents and/or ameliorates them.

This is how vitally essential vitamin C is to your basic health and well-being. Yet, it is virtually never discussed by the conventional medical establishment. To the contrary, an incredibly substantive and compelling amount of clinical research exists showing it can be used to support conditions such as deadly cancers, heart disease and infections. Much of that research is housed on the Orthomolecular Society’s website.

One of the most stunning applications of vitamin C, in the case of degenerative diseases and stimulating regeneration, is how it affects your hormone levels and their metabolism.

As reported in our article "‘Sunshine Vitamin’ Regenerates and Detoxifies Your Hormones," a groundbreaking study from 1993 published in the journal Radiation Physics and Chemistry, and titled, "Photo-induced regeneration of hormones by electron transfer processes: Potential biological and medical consequences," revealed vitamin C plays a profound role in preventing the degradation of steroid hormones into toxic and cancer-promoting metabolites known as "hormone transients."

Moreover, the study found that vitamin C’s role as an electron donor (free radical quencher) regenerates steroid hormones like testosterone and estrogen from their metabolic byproducts, which otherwise represent a toxic burden on the system.

And so, in one stroke, vitamin C both regenerates and increases the levels of functional steroidal hormones in the body, as well as prevents their degradation into potentially carcinogenic metabolic byproducts. Specifically, the study found up to 90.9% regeneration of the three hormones studied: 

"Investigations were performed using progesterone (PRG), testosterone (TES) and estrone (E1) as representatives of hormones. By irradiation with monochromatic UV light (λ=254 nm) in a media of 40% water and 60% ethanol, the degradation as well as the regeneration of the hormones was studied with each hormone individually and in the mixture with VitC as a function of the absorbed UV dose, using HPLC. Calculated from the obtained initial yields, the determined regeneration of PRG amounted to 52.7%, for TES to 58.6% and for E1 to 90.9%."

The Most Powerful Secret

The amazing thing is not that these three substances have the ability to reverse your biological clock and stimulate regeneration. You can read my book "REGENERATE: Unlocking Your Body's Radical Resilience Through the New Biology" to learn more about how common this is, across many tissues in your body.

You can also view episodes of my REGENERATE YOURSELF masterclass to find out more on specific topics you are interested in, such as What Supplements Should I Take, or How to Regenerate Brain Tissue. The most amazing thing is how almost all foods studied have powerful healing properties that seem to work far better than drugs to address the root causes of health conditions.

The most powerful secret is that your body's self-healing abilities are so profound that virtually any disease known can often be reversed. This does not mean you will experience this, but knowing it is possible at least means it is attainable. And at the very least, you can use natural substances, and especially foods, to mitigage your symptoms and improve your functionality and well-being, without suffering from the numerous side effects that conventional pharmaceutical treatments can cause. 

© January 9th 2023 GreenMedInfo LLC. This work is reproduced and distributed with the permission of GreenMedInfo LLC. Want to learn more from GreenMedInfo? Sign up for the newsletter here //www.greenmedinfo.com/greenmed/newsletter.