I was touring the internet looking for more interesting and weird
things to do to my body and I came across this stuff:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhodiola_Rosea
Actually I had heard of it maybe three years ago when I was messing
with adaptogens. Adaptogens are essentially natural substances that
act in the body to enhance "performance", whatever that may mean to
you. Ashwaganda and Ginseng of various geographical origins are the
only other adaptogens I know of, and what they do, essentiallly, is
modulate the stress response so that damaging cascades of stress
hormones do not interfere with important activities, such as surviving
a Siberian winter or re-educating captives to the glories of
Communism.
The Russians liked Rhodiola a lot because at one point they were into
building supermen who could live under the sea defending the Bering
Strait while training for the next Olympic tri-victory. Rhodiola
research from Russia was classified until the Russians could not
afford to classify things anymore.
Modulating stress response was important to the Russians because, hey,
how fun can it be anyway to be a Commie Tank Sergeant in Afghanistan?
But a week or so ago, Dr. Oz brought up Rhodiola to Oprah and called
it a sex-stimulating herb because it does the one thing I am
interested in -- it reduces levels of cortisol in the bloodstream and
modulates adrenalin. If cortisol levels are lower then sex hormones
can attach to more receptors and this apparently make for a better
sexytime.
But I'm not interested in sexytime. I am interested in lowering
cortisol, modulating dopamine and seratonin and getting my energy
back. Women who are having pituitary/adrenal issues might be
interested in this also -- it's cortisol that adds fat to the middle
instead of the hips. It helps with energy if there are thyroid issues.
It modulates dopamine and seratonin if you're a SAD type of person.
It's good for enduring cold weather, staving off colds -- whatever
you'd need to do if you were some sort of commando in the Andes you
should be better able to do on this stuff. I'd take it if I were
looking at forty page exam or if I had to drive the getaway car.
Ginseng does about the same thing as Rhodiola but I never had any luck
with it. I would take it for about four days and then get in a really
black mood, cursing people in my head with horrible deaths if they
breathed wrong or delivered my mail on time but somehow incorrectly.
I've been taking Rhodiola for about a week and notice nothing. That's
a good sign for an adaptogen. You want a polite one. You don't want to
wake up in the middle of the night because you hear your biceps
growing or something. What I do notice is that I'm not having the
same energy problems exercising and I whipped through cardio in 40
degree weather tonight feeling like a cheerful husky dog.
Okay, so instructions are: take up to 400 mg a day ( I'm taking 200),
not too close to bedtime. Go a few days, then skip a day, see how you
feel. If you realize you have become homicidal or haven't sleep at al
this week, stop, wait a couple days, try again at a lower dose, one
day on, one off.
You can't get a heart attack and die from this stuff I don't think. If
you feel you are starting to go crazy you can stop it and it will go
away, unless you were going crazy already.
More here:
About cortisol:
http://www.trifuel.com/triathlon/nutrition/what-is-cortisol-000667.php
About Rhodiola:
http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20070922/bob8.asp
http://www.smart-drugs.net/Rhodiola-rosea.htm
c
drugs for all