Posted by Meri-Tuuli on August 4, 2006, at 5:30:48
In reply to Re: Meri-Tuuli Re: Rhodiola, posted by Mistermindmasta on August 2, 2006, at 23:10:27
Hey again!
> One thing that frustrates me about the natural foods industry is that everything tends to be idealized. This is not to disagree with you at all, but more with your herbalist: any chemicals and compounds in herbs are still "drugs" to the body... to say that herbs don't wear off is non-science, to me. Certainly, herbs that function as antidepressants tend to not "wear off" after a few hours, with an example being St. John's Wort. SJW isn't a stimulant, really, which has been supported by science. It's an antidepressant, whose effects don't exactly wax and wane over the course of a day. But herbs that have a stimulating or anti-anxiety quality, such as valerian or possibly rhodiola, definitely have potential to wear off. Another thing about herbs is that sometimes they have compounds that offset the side effects of the active compound(s)... or they have natural antioxidants that will offset the side effects of the active compounds. Of course, to assume all herbs possess this quality to the fullest extent is non-science. The practice of selling or promoting herbs in a non-scientific way is exactly why the FDA loves to crack down on the alternative industry and its exactly why the alternative industry is constantly being threatened.
I totally agree with you. My herbalist has a tendancy to say things like she 'percieves herbs as not having any side effects', yet readily admits that with SJW you have to watch out for photosensitivity and liver enzyme issues. Which are obviously side effects. But to be fair, she does know her stuff. I guess part of the herbal culture is to be quite mystical and things like that to try and separate it from conventional medicine. But really, all herbs/medicines are just chemical compounds, whether they come from a plant or a pill factory as you pointed out. And alot of conventional medicine is derived from plants anyway, eg paracetamol, atropine, blah blah blah.
> Rhodiola is sometimes classified as an adaptogen, and I'd say that's somewhat true. Based purely on my own subjective observations, I would say that's it's 50% herbal stimulant and 50% adaptogen.
I'd probably agree with you on that one. Having never really taken a adaptogen or a stimulant before rhodiola, I have nothing to compare them to so I couldn't really say. All I know is that rhodiola does something I really like!!! Hmmm. I'm begining to think that 100mg might be a touch too low. Hmmm. Well, its probably good to have it at this level for now (I'm far from stressed etc) so when I go do the masters in the fall, I could bump it up somewhat as the occasion requires. Plus I've got the cocktail of herbs that the herbalist gave me. Interestingly, she'd not really heard about rhodiola.....but she's really looking into it now.
poster:Meri-Tuuli
thread:671851
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/alter/20060704/msgs/673545.html