What is Rhodiola Rosea?
Rhodiola Rosea is a plant that grows in frigid temperatures and high rocky altitudes. Rhodiola Rosea can be found growing above 10,000 feet in the Altai Mountains of Siberia. The plant can grow 12-30 inches and has yellow flowers and is often called the Golden Root, Siberian Root, Roseroot or Arctic Root.
While Rhodiola Rosea has a striking yellow flower, it is the root of the Rhodiola Rosea that is prized for its health benefits. The root when cut gives off the aroma of a rose - and this is why it is called Rhodiola ROSEA.
Rhodiola Rosea (R. Rosea) belongs to the Crassulaceae plant family. It is important to note that there are over 200 species of the Rhodiola plant, but only the Rhodiola Rosea species has been shown to have significant health benefits.
What is the history of the use of Rhodiola Rosea?
Rhodiola Rosea used as a medicinal plant can be traced back to 77 A.D. - when Greek Physician Dioscorides documented Rhodiola Rosea (called rodia riza back then) in his medical text - De Materia Medica. The Vikings used Rhodiola Rosea to increase endurance and stamina during their journeys. The Chinese Emperors would commission expeditions to remote parts of the Siberian Mountains to bring back the prized Golden Root - rhodiola rosea. In 1725 the herb was given its current name - Rhodiola Rosea by Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus.
From 77 A.D. to the mid 1900's Rhodiola Rosea was prized as a medicinal herb throughout almost all parts of Europe and Asia. Rhodiola Rosea grew primarily in Siberia and it was so valued that it was illegal to trade it outside of Russian borders. Russians used Rhodiola Rosea to survive the harsh Siberian winters.
While there was tremendous anecdotal evidence, there was limited research on how Rhodiola Rosea worked. That all changed when the Soviet Union began extensive and top secret research into herbs after World War II.
After World War II Russia started a country wide scientific program to find ways to increase the performance of its military, athletes, performers, politicians and scientists. Rhodiola Rosea was identified as an adaptogen: an herb that can balance the body, and help reduce all stresses the body may face, and is not harmful.
Dr. Ramazanov, a Russian scientist, earned his PhD in plant physiology and biochemistry from the Soviet Academy of Sciences, and brought the Russian research on Rhodiola Rosea to the US.
What are the health benefits of Rhodiola Rosea?
Normally when it come to herbs, there is not a lot of literature or science to support any health claims. When it comes to Rhodiola, things are very different!
Rather than tell you all the benefits of Rhodiola Rosea, let's point out some published papers and books on Rhodiola...
- Maybe you would like to start by clicking here to read the 13 page cover story on Rhodiola in HerbalGram. This incredibly detailed monograph on Rhodiola Rosea provides over 90 references, so if you want to learn more just follow the references.
- Looking for something a little less technical? How about this story from Newsweek on Rhodiola
- How about an article in Natural Solutions Magazine (formerly Alternative Medicine Magazine) that lists Rhodiola as the Best Energy-Booster Supplements?
- Like to get down and dirty with the clinical studies? Go to pubmed.gov and search on "rhodiola" and you will see over 240 studies on Rhodiola!
- Of course, you could read the book - Rhodiola Revolution. An incredible book written by 2 Medical Doctors and their use of Rhodiola Rosea on hundreds of patients.
Here is a Summary of some of the primary health benefits of Rhodiola Rosea
- Increase energy, endurance and stamina
- Helps reduce stress and anxiety
- Can decrease the recovery time needed after strenuous muscular workouts
- Uplifts moods
- Promotes mental clarity and mental performance
- Helps maintain high levels of creatine phosphate (athletes love this one!)
- Improves sexual performance
- Promotes healthy sleep
- And Much, Much, More...
Here are some positive effects of Rhodiola Rosea interacting with our body
- A powerful antioxidant - helps quench free radicals and defend against oxidative damage in our body
- Increases cellular energy by stimulating the production of ATP and CP (fuel for the body)
- Balances stress response system by limiting the excess release of the stress hormone Cortisol
- Calms the stress response system and supports the parasympathetic nervous system
- Elevates DNA and RNA in muscle cells, which in turn increasing the manufacture of proteins necessary for repair of cells and organs
- Reduces oxygen consumption on a cellular level
- Stimulates the production of neurotransmitters such as serotonin and dopamine
- Stimulates the production of natural killer cells (cells that protect against infection)
- Increases the metabolism of fat for energy
How does Rhodiola help with energy deficit?
Rhodiola Rosea is able to stimulate the production of ATP and CP in our cells, therefore Rhodiola is able to pump up the fuel available to our body. In addition, Rhodiola Rosea can elevate DNA and RNA in cells and trigger the manufacture of proteins used to repair damaged cells, and therefore increase the healthy cells that can produce energy. Rhodiola Rosea is also a powerful antioxidant and can defend against oxidative damage to our cells and in turn the mitochondria.
The ability of Rhodiola Rosea to help our cellular energy production goes a long way in explaining how one herb can have so many positive health benefits.
What is ATP and CP and how do they give me energy?
Every cell in our body has these amazing little cellular structures called mitochondria. The mitochondria are responsible for converting the nutrients from the food we eat into energy. Yes, the mitochondria have the daunting task of providing energy for every cell in our body, so we can eat, move, think, talk, breath, etc.
The Mitochondria converts nutrients into ATP (adenosine triphosphate) and CP (creatine phosphate), which are stored in the cell. Simply think of ATP and CP as the fuel that our body needs to run on. As long as we produce more ATP and CP than our body uses, we have an energy surplus and our body feels great. On the other hand, if those tiny Mitochondria can not keep up with the body's demand for energy - we have an energy deficit - and this can lead to many problems.
ATP is made on demand in our body, we do not keep large reserves of ATP in our body. At any given time we only have about 100 grams of ATP in our body. This may sound like a lot but an active cell requires more than 2 million ATP molecules per second. Some quick match shows that our bodily store of ATP is sufficient to satisfy our needs for only a few seconds, therefore, the store of ATP needs to be continuously replenished. Simply put, if our body stopped making ATP for 4 seconds - we would die.
What causes an energy deficit in our body?
Damage to our mitochondria. It can be oxidative stress, emotional stress, physical stress, toxins in our body, normal wear and tear at a cellular level - basically anything that decreases the capacity of the mitochondria can deplete our supply of ATP and CP and create that dreaded energy deficit.
How does Rhodiola help with stress?
Life can be stressful. We all have had to deal with emotional stress from time to time and we all know it can make you feel run down. Of course, anyone who works out or exercises knows the effects of physical stress on the body. Stressing the muscles can lead to some positive results, but the physical stress on the body can take its toll. Let's not forget the environmental stress we face everyday - smoke in the air, pollutants in our food and water, toxins from our plastic bottles... simply put, the body is under attack from a host of stressors.
All of this stress has a number of negative consequences for the human body. Our body releases a hormone called cortisol when we are stressed. If we experience a great deal of stress we end up with too much Cortisol in the body and this can cause a host of problems.
When we experience stress a complicated series of chemical and neurological systems jump into action. Basically, our body has a stress response system - this allows our body to kick some reactions into high gear to deal with an immediate threat caused by a stress factor.
It is a not a good idea to run your body in a constant state of stress. Rhodiola Rosea calms the stress response system and supports the parasympathetic nervous system.
As you can imagine all this stress can damage our mitochondria and therefore decrease cellular energy. As we just discussed, Rhodiola Rosea can help increase our cellular energy.
Finally, we all know that stress has a real mental aspect on our body, it can get us down, depressed and generally unhappy. Rhodiola Rosea stimulates the production of neurotransmitters such as serotonin and dopamine, that our crucial for making us feel happy and energetic.
We have really just scratched the surface on how Rhodiola Rosea works in the body. Rhodiola Rosea is an adaptogen herb, this means that it works by having a positive impact on the balance of the whole body, NOT just treating one condition.
We purchase from the Best Sources of Rhodiola Rosea
- Wildcrafted from the Siberian Mountains
- Of the over 200 species of Rhodiola, only the ROSEA species has been proven to have health benefits
- The key to identifying pure Rhodiola Rosea is a 3:1 ratio of ROSAVINS to SALIDROSIDE
- Freeze Drying Rhodiola Rosea will maintain the highest level of nutrients
- From Dr. Ramazanov?s company, the scientist who perfected the harvesting and processing of Rhodiola Rosea from the Siberian Mountains
