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| first heal the hostile environment. In other words, even if there were a remedy that offered individuals protection against toxic chemicals, it would be preferable to remove the toxic chemical from the environment. This makes economic sense, is the right stance in Hippocratic terms and it is right action in spiritual terms. |
| When attention is given to appropriate support for the body under stressful conditions, nature comes to our rescue. Technically what is needed is an increase in nonspecific resistance to damaging man-made factors and illnesses. A range of herbal remedies are coming to light that do this. Soviet scientists coined the term 'adaptogens' to describe herbs that produce this wonderful increase in resistance and vitality, defining them like this: |
| An adaptogen must show a non-specific activity, i.e., increase in power of resistance against physical, chemical or biological noxious agents. |
| An adaptogen must have a normalizing influence independent of the nature of the pathological state. |
| An adaptogen must be innocuous and must not influence normal body functions more than required. |
| In this sense adaptogens reinforce the nonspecific power of resistance against stressors, increase general capacities to withstand situations of stress, and hence guard against disease caused by overstress of the organism. The general aims of adaptogen treatment are a reduction of stress reactions during the alarm phase of the stress response, prevention or at least delaying of the state of exhaustion and hence a certain level of protection against long-term stress. |
| A number of herbs that can be described as adaptogens include Ginseng, Siberian Ginseng, Ashwaganda, Shiitake and Schizandra. It is worth looking at the evidence for adaptogenicity in a little depth. Rather than exploring the background for all these adaptogenic herbs we will focus on Siberian ginseng. |
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