Adrenal Recovery

Adaptogens are phenomenal multitaskers for human health. Not only known for their ability to encourage healthy physical stamina and mental alertness, they deeply support recovery amidst times of occasional stress. There are two parts to this word: ADAPT (which means to change something so that it functions better despite tough circumstances) and GEN (a substance that generates). Adaptogens help us generate a greater sense of resilience in order to adapt to the occasional stress in our lives in a healthy way.

In my teacher Richard’s words: “Adaptogens support non-specific resilience to stressors and reestablish our intrinsic physical, mental, and emotional adaptive capacity.” They have a modulating, normalizing, or regulating effect (in particular on the nervous, endocrine, and immune system or the “HPA axis” where all three interact).

Adaptogens are the main tools that herbalists use to reset someone’s circadian rhythm, support parasympathetic mode (the opposite of fight-or-flight), and regulate the HPA axis. If you’ve ever felt overworked or burnt out, it’s important to understand exactly what your HPA axis is. “HPA” stands for Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal, but is sometimes extended to encompass the Ovaries and Thyroid as well.

This HPAOT axis is quite literally our built-in “stress response system” and functions on a negative feedback loop, meaning all glands and organs involved are constantly speaking to each other in order to control and adjust their hormonal output. When dealing with occasional stress, your body aims to protect you from the effects of exposure to stress hormones. Thus, your brain (the HP part), can downregulate the entire HPA axis which can make us feel tired during the day, but sometimes wired in the evening.

Adaptogens help normalize and regulate the healthy function of this feedback loop and can assist not only healthy energy levels, but also by supporting our circadian rhythm which is crucial for aligning our waking and sleeping rhythms so that energy stays smooth and stable when it needs to be.*

• Aids those who may feel rundown or overworked
• Assists healthy energy levels, stamina and endurance
• Maintains healthy adrenal activity during occasional stress
• Support for those who feel tense or frazzled and want to lean into grounding plant allies*

While digestive bitters are, of course, “bitter” in flavor, and carminative herbs are “pungent” in flavor with their essential oil content, most adaptogens tend to have a mildly “sweet” flavor in their mix of notes. 

My teacher says that when someone comes to him with persistent cravings for sweets, it’s often because they’re feeling depleted from a fast-paced life, and their body is intuitively looking to ground with the flavor that nourishes the “Spleen” or “Earth” element. The sweet, nourishing, grounding flavors and compounds found in adaptogenic herbs help to give our bodies a taste of what they’re looking for when life gets busy.*