Adaptogens - herbs that help us to heal stress/fatigue
05/08/2008

Source: Wikipedia

The term adaptogen is used by herbalists to refer to a natural herb product that is proposed to increase the body's resistance to stress, trauma, anxiety and fatigue. In the past, they have been called rejuvenating herbs, qi tonics, rasayanas, or restoratives. All adaptogens contain antioxidants, but antioxidants are not necessarily adaptogens and that is not proposed to be their primary mode of action.

The concept of adaptogens dates back thousands of years to ancient India and China, but modern study did not begin until the late 1940s. In 1947, Nikolai Lazarev defined an adaptogen as an agent that allows the body to counter adverse physical, chemical, or biological stressors by raising nonspecific resistance toward such stress, thus allowing the organism to "adapt" to the stressful circumstances.

In 1968, Israel I. Brekhman , PhD, and I. V. Dardymov formally gave adaptogens a functional definition, as follows:

1. An adaptogen is nontoxic to the recipient.
2. An adaptogen produces a nonspecific response in the body—an increase in the power of resistance against multiple stressors including physical, chemical, or biological agents.
3. An adaptogen has a normalizing influence on physiology, irrespective of the direction of change from physiological norms caused by the stressor.

Under this definition, adaptogens would be nontoxic in normal doses, produce a general defensive response against stress, and have a normalizing influence on the body.

It is claimed that adaptogenic herbs are unique from other substances in their ability to balance endocrine hormones and the immune system, and they help the body to maintain optimal homeostasis.[1] Adaptogens are proposed to have a normalizing effect on the body and to be capable of either toning down the activity of hyperfunctioning systems or strengthening the activity of hypofunctioning systems. However, they are also proposed to be functional at the level of allostasis, which is a more dynamic reaction to long term stress, lacking the fixed reference points of homeostasis.

What are examples of adaptogenic herbs?

Dang shen  
Aleuthero                               
Ginseng                   
Guduchi                    
Ashwaganda
Cordyceps
Reishi Mushrooms
Licorice
Maca
Rhodiola  
Schisandra
Jiaogulan    
Holy Basil
Chaga Mushrooms