Adaptogens: The Miracle Stress Pill?
Stress is inevitable in our modern day society and we all know chronic stress can cause a variety of health problems. Imagine a pill that has the capability of mediating all of these adverse effects with virtually no side effects. This is the definition (simplified of course) of adaptogenic herbs. It sounds like a miracle pill right? So do they really work and are they safe?
Adaptogens, more specifically, are plant derived and help an organism (like us) adapt to environmental stressors and avoid the adverse outcomes of this stress. For a substance to be called an adaptogen they must be “non-toxic, non-specific in its influence on the body and and have a normalizing effect.” So they're supposed to be completely safe for everyone to use. According to evidence based research, there are some theoretical interactions with medical conditions and potential adverse reactions with certain health conditions, but anecdotally, I’ve never seen issues with these concerns. One thing I’ll add is that it is not safe to take in pregnancy or while lactating.
My question was always, “how in the world does this work? How can a substance normalize the body’s response when that response may be opposite from what another person experiences?” One person may get overly excitable when faced with stress, another person may shut down and not be able to get out of bed in the morning. Yet these substances apparently have the capability of bringing one person’s overly excitable state back to normal (decreasing the response) and the other person’s lack of response back to normal (increasing the response). The way these herbs work lies in their constituents (the different components that make up the entire herb). Frankly, nobody fully understands exactly how they work, but scientists have been able to isolate some of the contributors such as molecular chaperones, enzymes, and molecules to see exactly how they contribute. (2) Suffice it to say, they think that because the entire plant is used, rather than individual chemicals (like we do in western medicine) it is able to up-regulate some responses with one particular constituent, while at the same time down-regulate another response with a different constituent in the same plant.
Makes you intested to try one right? See below for some resources.
ASHWAGANDHA: typical dose 300 mg twice daily. Cycle taking for 2 weeks on and 1 week off
Improved physical performance
Decreased anxiety
Improved fertility in men
Mediates cortisol levels
Uses:
Improved physical performance: One study showed ashwagandha “is associated with significant increases in muscle mass and strength and suggests that ashwagandha supplementation may be useful in conjunction with a resistance training program” (3) (300 mg twice daily), Another study showed supplementation improved speed and lower muscular limb muscular strength (4) (500 mg once daily). A study done on elite athletes showed improved cardiovascular endurance after supplementation with ashwagandha at a dose of 500 mg once or twice daily (5).
Decreases anxiety: It appears ashwagandha helps improve overall anxiety levels without adverse side effects. It can be used in conjunction with SSRI’s and may help improve symptoms quicker than typical SSRI’s alone (i.e. Prozac, Celexa, Zoloft etc) (6, 7, 8). Do not start these medications without talking with an experienced practitioner. But be aware if you ask a typical western medicine practitioner, you’ll likely be told not to take these because they may not be familiar with herbs. I would suggest finding someone who is experienced in natural medicine if you want to get a straight answer.
Improves fertility in men: Taking ashwagandha at a dose of 225 mg three times daily showed improvement in semen quantity and hormone levels. (9, 10, 11) I’ll admit I had a hard time finding primary articles on female fertility, but stress is one of the biggest inhibitors to women getting pregnant these days. There are quite a few sites that list this herb’s ability to enhance female fertility. The caveat here is whether it’s safe in pregnancy. In India, women use this during pregnancy but here in the US, they’ve deemed it a potential abortifacient because it produced abortions in animal studies when they were given very large doses. Simply put, at this point, we just don’t know. I could see it being helpful at a lower dose but there’s not enough research on this to date.
Mediates cortisol levels: Lower cortisol levels were seen with supplementation when exposed to stressful circumstances at a dose of 300 mg twice daily (12,13). A normal cortisol rhythm in healthy individuals consists of the highest level in the morning with a slow decline over the day. Chronically stressed individuals often have high cortisol levels throughout the entire day, sometimes persisting into nighttime (the root cause of that wired but tired feeling preventing a good restful night’s sleep). Supplementation of ashwagandha may improve afternoon elevated cortisol levels at a dose of around 300 mg twice daily (14).
Other benefits: May reduce blood sugar in diabetics (15), and may help regulate the thyroid in patients with subclinical hypothyroidism (16).
. RHODIOLA ROSEA: dose 100-200 mg once or twice daily. Cycle taking daily for 2 weeks on and 1 week off.
Improved physical performance
Improves mental fatigue
Improves depression
Uses:
Improved physical performance: Taking rhodiola helps to reduce lactate levels and other markers of skeletal muscle damage after exercise so you don’t feel so sore after workouts (20), For those of you marathoners, triathletes, cyclers etcs, be aware it can also improve endurance exercise capacity so it feels like you can actually breathe well when you’re working out (21).
Improves mental fatigue: as seen in this study of a group of physicians working during night duty, the group who took rhodiola showed a statistically significant decrease in mental fatigue.(17), It has also been shown to reduce burnout in patients with fatigue syndrome as well (18, 19).
Improves depression: “Encouraging results exist for the use of Rhodiola in mild to moderate depression, and generalized anxiety.” “Lack of interaction with other drugs and adverse effects in the course of clinical trials make it potentially attractive for use as a safe medication (22,23).
PANAX GINSENG: most researched 200-400 mg per day but can be taken 500-1000 mg daily. Cycle taking for 2 weeks on and 1 week off
Cognitive improvement
Menopausal Symptoms
Anti-diabetic effects
Anti-cancer
Uses:
Cognitive improvement: Subjects taking panax ginseng showed a “tendency to faster simple reactions and significantly better abstract thinking than the controls” (24 25, 26). Another study showed panax ginseng “can improve performance and subjective feelings of mental fatigue during sustained mental activity” (27).
Menopausal Symptoms: Some preliminary evidence shows panax ginseng may improve quality of life in postmenopausal women, “particularly fatigue, insomnia and depression” by its effects on stress related hormones (28,29). But keep in mind, there is conflicting research regarding this as well (30).
Anti-diabetic effects: A major constituent in panax ginseng, called ginsenoside Re, appears to be responsible for reducing blood sugar levels in subjects treated with this herb (31, 32). Several studies have shown blood sugar reducing effects (33,34). It also has been linked with exerting “protective actions against the occurrence of oxidative stress in the eye and kidney of diabetic rats” (35).
Anti-cancer: Several studies have shown that taking panax ginseng may reduce the risk of cancer, more specifically in breast, ovarian, stomach, skin, liver and lung cancer, but be aware there is conflicting evidence on this (36) . Several different constituents have been found to be responsible for inhibiting tumor growth in different types of cancers. There is no evidence to date that this herb has the potential to cure cancer but it may be useful as adjunctive therapy in combination with chemotherapy and radiation (37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44).