Great-grandfather Mark Stewart suffered chronic asthma but now he’s breathing easy and believes it’s because of a centuries-old remedy.
The Epping man is part of a clinical trial by RMIT’s Bundoora Chinese Medicine school into the effect of ginseng on lung disease. It is a blind study in which participants are given ginseng tablets or placebos without knowing which they are taking.
The university is seeking 50 more volunteers. Stewart, 66, says that before he started the trial his breathing was so laboured he had to give up his job as a school crossing supervisor for four months and couldn’t walk up stairs.
“Now I walk up and down Epping Plaza and it’s a breeze. My doctor and pharmacist can’t believe I am the same man.”
