ADAPTOGENS
“An adaptogen is a botanical that greatly improves your body's ability to adapt to stress, whether it's a hectic schedule, heat or cold, noise, high altitudes or any number of other stressors. This elite class of herbs impart strength, energy, stamina, endurance, and improve mental clarity.”– Chris Kilham, Oprah & Friends
To qualify as an adaptogen, an herb must be completely safe and non-toxic, it must have broad uses for health, and it must specifically reduce stress, both mental and physical. To put it simply: Adaptogens help you adapt. The following herbs (in alphabetical order) demonstrate significant adaptogenic activity:
- Ashwagandha: Of all the medicinal plants used in India’s several millennia old tradition of Ayurveda, Ashwagandha, Withania somnifera, is the most highly prized.
Ashwagandha is a plant. The root and berry are used to make medicine.
Ashwagandha is used for arthritis, anxiety, trouble sleeping (insomnia), tumors, tuberculosis, asthma, a skin condition marked by white patchiness (leukoderma), bronchitis, backache, fibromyalgia, menstrual problems, hiccups, and chronic liver disease.
Ashwagandha is also used as an “adaptogen” to help the body cope with daily stress, and as a general tonic.
I personally use Ashwagandha every day to assist in my protocols for Arthritis and have replaced my prozac with it. It took me about 6 months to wiene myslef from my prozac, all the while adding Ashwagandha into my protocols and building up to the dosage that I have found right for me, which is now 2 capsules in the morning and 2 capsule before bed.
Some people also use ashwagandha for improving thinking ability, decreasing pain and swelling (inflammation), and preventing the effects of aging. It is also used for fertility problems in men and women and also to increase sexual desire.
Ashwagandha is applied to the skin for treating wounds, backache, and one-sided paralysis (hemiplegia).
The name Ashwagandha is from the Sanskrit language and is a combination of the word ashva, meaning horse, and gandha, meaning smell. The root has a strong aroma that is described as “horse-like.”
In Ayurvedic, Indian, and Unani medicine, ashwagandha is described as “Indian ginseng.” Ashwagandha is also used in traditional African medicine for a variety of ailments.
Don’t confuse ashwagandha with Physalis alkekengi. Both are known as winter cherry.
How does it work?
Ashwagandha contains chemicals that might help calm the brain, reduce swelling (inflammation), lower blood pressure, and alter the immune system.
Ashwagandha has a lot of uses. But so far, there isn’t enough information to judge whether it is effective for any of them. Please consult your Functional Medicine Practitioner to see if this is right for you.
