What is stress and how can adaptogens help?

What is stress?

All species experience stress. Humans have experienced the stressors of cold, famine, bereavement, infidelity, sickness, and so on since the beginning of our time on this earth. At the most basic level, stress is a mechanism to mobilise other systems in the body.

The stress response sends signals to specific areas of our bodies triggering them to adjust as necessary in response to a stressor. Stress is two-sided, a little bit can be good and necessary, but acute (intense) or chronic (long-term) stress can be harmful.

What is a stressor?

A stressor is any agent or event that threatens the body’s normal homeostasis, or balance. A stressor can be biological, chemical, environmental, physical, psychological, nutritional, or spiritual. Stressors vary vastly and so too does the stress response.

What are adaptogens and how can they help with stress?

Adaptogens are remarkable plants that help the body to adapt to stress and restore balance. They increase the body’s resistance to stress and provide a defence response to acute or chronic stress.

The knowledge and use of these herbs and mushrooms we now know as adaptogens dates back thousands of years to India and China. Featured within many ancient texts, adaptogens have been used to help maintain and restore health, improve stamina and vigour. In the case of some of the Chinese herbs, they were considered so precious that they were reserved for use by the Emperor and his family alone! Russian research in the 1950’s and 1960’s on adaptogens concluded that they enhanced the body’s ability to handle all types of stressors.

I like to use the cup analogy: imagine your stress and survival system as a cup and in this cup is your energy. If you add too many stressors into your cup, it fills up and then overflows, manifesting as worry and anxiety. The problem with an overflowing cup is that it’s either spilling over with nervous energy or it's empty and you’re fatigued. Rather than simply dealing with the fluid in the cup, adaptogens help to build a bigger cup, allowing you to build up a good reserve of energy. 

Adaptogen plants are survivors.

Many adaptogens have adapted to grow in harsh environments, such as high altitudes, desert-like conditions or extreme cold. It's the chemical compounds they produce to support them in those harsh conditions (known as secondary metabolites) that work in our bodies to help build resistance to stress and many other ailments.

According to David Winston RH(AHG), only 15 plants can be truly classified as adaptogens today. He lists a further six as 'possible adaptogens' because, as yet, the research does not exist to confirm their adaptogenic use. Some of our favourite adaptogens are: ashwagandha, rhodiola, holy basil, ginseng, lion’s mane, cordyceps, reishi and chaga. We also use a ‘possible adaptogen’: stinging nettle seed. Adaptogens can be used beneficially on their own, as single herbs, but the more common traditional practice is to rely on complex and well thought out formulas, for synergistic effect. 

“For every human illness, somewhere in the world there exists a plant which is the cure” – Rudolf Steiner

Adaptogens are regaining their appropriate place in modern healthcare as the ancient wisdom and knowledge is translated into contemporary products that help with modern day stressors. The Herbtender has expertly crafted a range of formulations that support with common issues such as sleep, anxiety, energy, focus, physical performance, fatigue and immunity. Natural solutions for modern living.