Mantaining Stress, Anxiety And Insomnia With Adaptogens
Updated: Jul 24, 2022
I'm an herbalist. I've been studying and researching herbs for quite a while now, and I love being able to maintain my family's health with natural medicine.
As many of you may already know, I openly talk about my stress, anxiety and insomnia. I've been dealing with these issues for over ten years, but I have finally found a resolution. I've been using myself as a guinea pig for the past few months using adaptogens.
Nowadays, it seems as though the majority of people in America are overly stressed and depressed. And more people have anxiety than ever before. Our fight or flight response is always on, which isn't normal. Because of that, we think it IS normal. Most people don't realize that their bodies are always in distress. Well, I realized it. I knew that what I as feeling wasn't normal, and I wanted to something about it.
What are adaptogens?
a-dapt-o-gen
noun
"(in herbal medicine) a natural substance considered to help the body adapt to stress and to exert a normalizing effect upon bodily processes."
What do they do?
Adaptogens don't just fix a specific ailment. The hypothalamic, adrenal and pituitary glands all create the flight or flight response. Adaptogens work by normalizing how we react to stress. They are meant to help regulate hormones and work at a molecular level by resetting homeostasis. Here's one of many studies done on adaptogens.
List of adaptogenic herbs (I actually grow a few of these herbs myself):
Maca Root Ashwagandha Holy Basil
Astragalus
Eleuthero
He Shou Wu
Jiaogulan
Rhodiola
Schisandra
My results
I began taking maca root and ashwagandha in power and pill form. I put the powder in smoothies, and on days I didn't feel like making one, I would take the pills. Two of each. Natural medicine often time takes a bit longer to kick in unlike western medicine. So I took both herbs daily for about two months. It became a part of my daily routine. So much so that I forgot why I was taking them. That was a good thing. I I've been suffering from insomnia since 2009. I noticed that I was able to sleep without waking up 15 times throughout the night. Not only that, I was able to fall asleep with no problem. And my level of anxiety had decreased tremendously.
It was a little too good to be true. Not that I doubted it would work, but I felt great. So I did a little experiment. I stopped taking the herbs, and I stopped meditating. After 3-4 weeks, I began to feel restless. I couldn't sleep, I was stressing more and my anxiety was through the fucking roof! I repeated the experiment a few times and sure enough, I got the same results every single time. As an herbalist, I want to be sure to educate people on herbal medicine based off of my own experience and the most reputable information that I have found and studied.
Here are other ways that adaptogens can help:
they can reduce cholesterol
increase libido
give you more energy
help with immune support
improve heart and liver function
help fight cancer
reduce inflammation
If you'd like to reach out to me for assistance with natural medicine, I offer free consultations. Contact me at themominmeblog@gmail.com.