Adaptogens: How do they help and a review of my top 6 adaptogenic drinks.
Ron Teeguarden, an herbalist and author of books like “Chinese Tonic Herbs” says that “an adaptogen is a substance that helps bring the body into a state of harmony with its environment by inducing chemical, cellular, and systemic balance.” He explains that they promote the body’s own ability to adapt to stress and prolong well-being. They do not cure a disease but support the body as a whole to be more balanced.
I can’t think of something our modern bodies need more than something that helps us adapt to the increasing load of stress in our lives. Blood sugar stress, emotional stress, oxidative stress… there’s a lot of it going around and these compounds can be huge allies in our efforts to maintain health.
“ An adaptogen is a substance that helps bring the body into a state of harmony with it’s environment by inducing chemical, cellular, and systemic balance.”
Teeguarden is talking from a Chiese medicine perspective, but you’ll find adaptogenic compounds used in other traditions as well. Another old tradition, Ayurveda, has its own adaptogens like Tulsi, or Holy Basil, as well as Ashwagandha.
In my work with clients in my functional nutrition practice, I focus a lot on blood sugar, metabolic health, and gut health. Most of my clients have a lot of stress in their lives and can make use of a well-chosen plant or two that can help their system find more balance.
The beauty of “tonic herbs” is that they are generally safe for most people to use long-term. You don’t need to worry about many side effects from just dabbling. So it’s perfectly safe and a nice idea to enjoy things like mushroom coffees, green drinks with adaptogens, and tea blends with tonic herbs. Either they help, or the dose is too low to move the needle and they do no harm.
I spoke to Jill Stansbury ND, who is the author of Herbal Formularies for Health Professionals and a renowned expert in botanical medicine who owns Battle Ground Healing Arts. She told me that she uses a lot of adaptogens in her clinical practice here in Battle Ground, WA. “Almost all of us can benefit from adaptogens. They have very few downsides and many can be worked into foods by just putting a tablespoon of this and that into your smoothies or yogurt.” But she also uses them therapeutically for her patients with HPA axis dysfunction (hypothalamus, pituitary, adrenal axis.)
Dr. Stansbury explained a bit about the history of botanical medicine in our country. In the early days, it was all whole plant medicine passed down like kitchen recipes and folklore. In the 1880s through the 1920s, a group of “Eclectic Physicians” elevated botanical medicine with a deeper medical understanding and brought a mechanistic understanding to it that made it more widely used and accepted in professional circles. Then in the 60s and 70s, there was an increase in scientific research into plant compounds that helped to validate the herbal folklore and make herbal medicine more of a broadly-accepted medical approach. (I should note that in countries like China, this has been broadly accepted for some time and applied with great success.)
You’d be surprised how many peer-reviewed research articles are on Pub Med now! When doing research for this blog series I found:
Ginseng: 5,008 results
Reishi (Ganoderma): 1,163 results
Cordyceps: 870 results
Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera): 618results
Scisandra: 462 results
Rhodiola rosea: 458 results
Holy Basil (Tulsi): 258 results
These compounds have been studied for many things, and at therapeutic doses, can actually move the needle in areas like lowering serum cortisol, improving sleep, raising testosterone, lowering anxiety, improving depression, lowering blood lipids, lowering blood glucose levels, reducing inflammation, helping to clear cancer in lab animals, reducing hot flashes, modulating the immune system, etc. This isn’t just speculation… this stuff works. And it does so safely with a few centuries worth of good safety records.
In the Chinese medicine tradition, these compounds are classified into those which can build jing, chi, and shen. You can also be more simplistic and think of some as stimulating or calming, warming or cooling. Some can lower cortisol and some can increase it. They can modulate the immune system to boost immunity and fan the fires to reduce inflammation. So it can help to know what you are doing. But as Dr. Stansbury commented, the idea of an “adaptogen” is that it helps your body find balance. She told me that while many look to, say, ashwagandha to lower cortisol in a system where it’s too high, it can also help raise cortisol where it is deficient. This is how adaptogens roll.
Some adaptogens aren’t herbs. Other compounds can help you adapt to stress too. If something can help you quench free radicals, then it helps you deal with oxidative stress. That could be an antioxidant. Selenium is a mineral our bodies need. It and other minerals are needed to quench free radicals in our bodies. So getting adequate amounts of minerals like selenium in our diet or through supplementation could be considered adaptogenic.
My hope is this post and the following in this series on adaptogens can be a guide to help you filter through the marketing fluff for what might work for you. As always, there is no replacing working with a skilled practitioner. But I know that’s not something accessible to everyone. And adaptogenic herbs really are a pretty safe place to dabble.
Adaptogenic beverages
There are some nice products on the market right now making adaptogens very easy to incorporate into your daily life. When I asked Dr. Stansbury about the mass market for adaptogenic beverages, she didn’t see anything wrong with that. She did mention that some trial and error might help by “taking it for a month or so and seeing if it helps. If it does, keep going for 2-3 months, as it could keep getting better and better. If not, it might be a good idea to get some testing done or see a professional.”
So let’s start with some convenient adaptogenic beverages now, and we’ll get more granular over the coming articles with specific plants.
My 6 Favorite Adaptogenic Drinks
Don’t worry, I’m not going to start hating on coffee. Coffee is a wonderful thing for some people some of the time with plenty of health benefits for those who do well with it. AND… let’s talk about some other drinks.
“Mushroom coffee” has been around for a number of years and I personally think it’s a nice trend. I mean, caffeine is how we give ourselves energy. Or rather, how we borrow energy from our future selves. Dr. Stansbury calls it “beating a dead horse” to keep drinking caffeine on a fatigued system. So adding some adaptogenic mushrooms (and letting them displace some of the caffeine) makes a lot of sense. Besides, the earthy flavor of the mushrooms really works with coffee and tea. The following drinks are a blend of coffee blends, herbal coffee, tea and a green drink. All of them come with a nice daily dose of mixed adaptogens and are pretty convenient.
Four Sigmatic
This company sells ground coffee with a wide array of adaptogenic options. You can get single mushrooms like Lion’s Mane. They also sell an “adaptogen” coffee mix with a combo of Ashwagandha, Siberian Ginseng, Tulsi (Holy Basil) and Chaga. There are quite a few different ones to choose from. I carry this in my FullScript dispensary. Look under Catalog/ Favorites/Mushroom Coffee. They make this so easy for you and sell ground, whole beans, instant, and K-cups.
This is technically mushroom tea. It’s a beverage I personally really like and drink daily. They have two morning versions with caffeine in a chai or matcha blend with the mushrooms, an evening version that is caffeine-free, and a “mushroom boost” that is just the adaptogenic mushroom blend that you can add to your own recipes. I like adding this less expensive mushroom boost to matcha, my homemade chai, hot chocolate, and even soups. I have a DISCOUNT CODE for MUD/WTR purchases to get you 10% off your first purchase. If you are multiple cups of coffee per day person, this is an instant drink that you can keep at work so your 2nd and 3rd cups are not only lower in caffeine, but they help you deal with stress.
You might have seen that I use AG1 already. It’s one of the many “green drinks”. But I like the ingredients and taste of this. I tend to use it as part of my afternoon routine. I need a break, so I get a high-protein snack and down a bottle of AG1 and I just feel better. It has a pleasant taste that doesn’t taste too much of anything. But I like to squeeze a little fresh lemon or lime juice in with it and maybe some creatine or L-glutamine powder, depending on what I’m experimenting with at the time. It has a blend of adaptogens, a good multivitamin and probiotics. It makes taking a daily really easy for me. If you use THIS CODE for your first purchase you get a bunch of extra free stuff with it.
Om Mushroom Energy Blend
Om makes a variety of adaptogenic mushroom products. This one is a box of 10 packets designed to be an instant chai-flavored drink packed with a variety of adaptogens. It’s another convenient beverage to keep at work. They also sell straight-up bags of powdered mushrooms as individual species (which I’ll talk about in future articles). You can find this on my FullScript dispensary. Look under Catalog/ Favorites/Mushroom Coffee.
This is a cool company that makes a variety of herbal coffee replacement drinks. They even have a neat little online quiz that matches your needs and wants to your ideal blend. They tend to use roasted chicory, burdock and dandelion blend for the base flavor (which I love, right there). They then add a thoughtful blend of adaptogens from cordyceps, ashwagandha, rhodiola, reishi and more. Some of their blends have a small amount of caffeine for those who still need a proper pick-me-up. You can check them out HERE.
Ryze Coffee
Contains cordyceps, lion's mane, king trumpet, reishi, shiitake mushrooms, and coconut MCT oil. It also has less caffeine than normal coffee. The precise amounts of each mushroom are unclear. They even have mushroom hot chocolate! When I saw that, I started adding my mushroom blends to hot chocolate, and the taste… totally works. I can’t tell you how much I love the idea of an adaptogenic dessert.
Why would I use adaptogens?
Do you have a new job? A new baby? Caretaker for your parents? Going through a rough patch in menopause? Feeling burned out? Blood sugar out of whack? Not sleeping well? Experiencing a lot of anxiety? These are all great reasons to apply some adaptogens to your daily routine. You can safely try any of the products I’ve listed above for a month or 3 and see if you notice a difference. The longer you use them, the better they work.
Are you are interested in learning more about specific plants and products? Then stay tuned and I’ll keep them coming.
What adaptogens are you interested in learning about and why? Leave a comment!