Adaptogens are a group of herbs that work systematically in the body to help balance out, restore, and wear off the toxic effects of everyday stressors. Consider them nature’s stress remedy!
The function these herbs fulfil, vary based on the specific needs that exist within the body at any given time, e.g. they can speed up or slow down certain processes within the body as needed. This helps the body to find its balance again despite the circumstances and environmental triggers.
These herbs themselves are resilient at their core since they have lived in and survived some of the harshest conditions on earth, such as the Ice Age! No wonder they can help us face stress and learn to adapt to and even thrive in it.
These magical little stress-antidotes are definitely not a trendy modern find, in fact they have been used for centuries in Ayurveda - the oldest healing science on earth, in Traditional Chinese Medicine, as well as Traditional European herbalism. In the early 1900’s adaptogens were used to give soldiers an energy boost during wartime and elite athletes an energy advantage without the crash that comes from synthetic and artificial energy enhancing mechanisms and drugs.
Adaptogens have four key characteristics that make them unique:
They are:
Neuroendocrine:
Which means they have an impact on the neuroendocrine system - a combination of the nervous and endocrine systems and specifically utilizes the two major pathways that the brain uses to signal to the adrenal glands that a stressor or combination of stressors are present.
Non-toxic:
These herbs are known to have no health-related side effects in recommended doses. (Remember to always consult your healthcare provider).
Non-specific:
They bring about a non-specific barrier to physical, emotional, and or environmental stress and help build our resistance to any form of stress the body can experience.
Normalizing / Restorative:
Adaptogens help restore normal physiological functions that were affected by chronic stress. In other words these herbs gently brings us back to a balanced state of being from whatever state the body was in.
Follow along this series of blog posts for a breakdown of the most prominent adaptogens available on our website: