Their main purpose is to help balance, restore and protect the body. They are used as part of a "phytotherapy" approach to healing, which refers to the use of plants for their therapeutic abilities. They are also used in homeopathy.
According to naturopath Edward Wallace, an adaptogen doesn't have a specific action. It helps you respond to any influence or stressor, normalizing your physiological functions.
The term adaptogenic herbs or substances was first recorded in 1947 by N.V. Lazarev, a Russian scientist who used it to describe this non-specific effect that increases the body's resistance to stress. Defined by two other Russian research scientists in 1958, adaptogens "must be innocuous and cause minimal disorders in the physiological functions of an organism, must have a nonspecific action, and usually [have] a normalizing action irrespective of the direction of the pathological state."
This effect has been observed in animal studies, finding that various adaptogens have the ability to create this generally increased tolerance to stress....<<<Read More>>>...
