MING MEN AND TESTOTERONE

Ming Men and Testosterone

Is there a link between Ming Men and testosterone levels?
Perhaps. What Chinese Medicine calls 'Jing-Essence' is the source of our life en
ergy and very closely linked with Ming Men. (You could say that the Fire of the
Gate of Vitality comes from the oil-reserves of the Jing-essence.) They both der
ive from the area of the Kidneys and one might say are regulated by your Kidney
Qi.
The original idea behind Jing-Essence was that you received a fixed quantity of
it at birth and gradually used it up through life. If you lived a very stressful
, disease-ridden or draining life (too many illnesses, poor nutrition, too many
drugs, too much sex in the case of men, etc) you'd get through it faster, so you
r teeth would fall out earlier, your bones grow brittle and you'd age faster.
It was said that you needed many pints of blood to create one drop of Jing-essen
ce and that the best way to do this was to lead a life unhampered by factors tha
t drained Jing-essence. But Chinese medicine didn't have our understanding of th
e glandular system which, even now, it approaches basically from another directi
on.

However, people can increase their testosterone levels and high testosterone is
fairly like having more Ming Men Fire and Jing Essence.
For example, some exercises (such as doing squats - as in weight-lifting) appear
to increase testosterone levels.
It appears that taking testosterone persuades some people that it helps too. Som
e scientists have yet to be persuaded of this, however, and I would say, rightly
so. Why? Because without adequate levels of Yin to balance it you should not in
crease Yang artificially. If you do, you may get the wrong kind, or an unbalance
d kind, of Yin result.
So is Ming Men/Jing Essence the same as testosterone?
Hand on heart? Possibly not.
It's probably more accurate to say that it increases Kidney Yang energy which th
en makes better use of Ming Men and Jing-Essence: this could be a fruitful topic
for research. We'd all certainly like to know!