Eleuthero Root
In the late 1980s I had the opportunity to interview Dr. Bruce Halstead, a famous medical doctor and medical research scientist. He told me an interesting story about eleuthero root (Eleutherococcus senticosus), sometimes known as Siberian ginseng. Dr. Halstead said that in the earlier days of the space program, our astronauts were quickly shuttled off behind closed doors for what the public was told was a quarantine period. What was really happening is our astronauts were puking their guts out due to space sickness.
Russian cosmonauts, on the other hand, would step out of their space capsules, drink some vodka and join a parade. Dr. Halstead had many friends inside the Soviet Union and was asked if he could discover the cosmonaut’s secret. He learned that the Russian cosmonauts were taking an herb called Siberian ginseng and recommended it to the U.S. space program. Our astronauts started taking the Siberian ginseng and experienced the same benefits as their Russian counterparts. Now that’s an herb success story you won’t hear on the news.
We can’t call it Siberian ginseng anymore because the people who grow and sell the real ginsengs, Korean ginseng (Panax ginseng) and American ginseng (Panax quinquefolius) thought that all the different ginseng titles (i.e., suma as Brazilian ginseng, ashwaganda as Ayurvedic ginseng, etc.) were confusing the public and got a law passed that only the plants in the Panax genus could be called ginseng. Oh well, eleuthero still does what Siberian ginseng did—which is help reduce the effects of stress in the body. The action is called adaptagenic—a name coined by the Russian researchers who first studied eleuthero root.
I don’t know about you, but as an A blood type, stress is my number one enemy. It reduces my effectiveness, causes me to lose sleep and makes me gain weight. Yuck! But if stress is my enemy, then eleuthero and other adaptagens like it are my friends. They reduce stress, help me sleep better, and even help me lose weight. (You’ve probably seen the Corti-Slim ads on TV, too.)
Eleuthero reduces the effects of stress and the production of stress hormones like cortisol (which causes abdominal fat). It improves athletic performance, normalizes immune and adrenal responses, improves recovery time after illness, improves memory, reduces fatigue, and generally enhances feelings of well-being. That’s quite a list, but there’s more. Several studies have shown eleuthero can help eye problems such as glaucoma and myopia. Eleuthero can reduce the side effects of chemotherapy and radiation in cancer treatment. It also stimulates better immune responses.
In Chinese medicine it has been used for “wind damp” conditions such as muscle spasms and joint pain. It’s considered a chi tonic for the Chinese spleen and kidney, therefore it has been used to improve appetite, relieve low back pain, insomnia, fatigue and anorexia. So, the herb has a lot more potential uses than just treating the effects of stress.
Eleuthero finds its way into many NSP formulas. It is a key ingredient in the adaptagenic formula AdaptaMax. It is also in the energy-enhancing formula ENERG-V. Other formulas it is found in include Urinary Maintenance, pH GreenZone, Seasonal Defense and MetaboMax. Even if we can’t call it Siberian ginseng anymore, eleuthero root is an incredible ginseng-like tonic which can help us cope with the stresses of modern society.
Selected References
Encyclopedia of Medicinal Plants by Andrew Chevallier
Herbal Therapy and Supplements by Merrily A. Kuhn and David Winston
