6 Top Herbal Tonics

Enlarge Image Image Gallery Ginseng's Latin name, Panex comes from the same Greek root as the word "pancea," meaning all-healing — and that's not much of an exaggeration. ISTOCKPHOTO/CHEN CHIH-WEN

Sixteen years ago, Patricia L. Gerbarg, a Kingston, N.Y., psychiatrist, contracted Lyme disease. But as sometimes happens, her blood tests were negative, so the condition was not diagnosed for five years. By that time, she had severe chronic fatigue, painful joints, muscle weakness, balance problems, memory loss and impaired mental function. After her diagnosis, Gerbarg took antibiotics for nine months. “They helped, but I still felt weak, low in energy and mentally fuzzy.”

Then her husband, Richard Brown, a psychopharmacologist at Columbia University, learned of a Russian herb, Rhodiola rosea, which purportedly strengthened the whole body. He thought it might help — and it did. “Within 10 days,” Gerbarg recalls, “I felt better. After three months, my energy, memory and mental function were restored.”

Rhodiola and several other herbs are called “adaptogens.” The term was coined in 1947 by a Russian scientist, N.V. Lazarev, who was interested in substances that helped the body adapt to physical and emotional stress. Lazarev thought that adaptogens should:

• Produce a nonspecific (total body) response that increases resistance against harm from physical and emotional stress (disease, anxiety, etc.)
• Have a normalizing effect, improving the function of many body systems
• Be nontoxic, causing no significant side effects

Since that time, the term adaptogen has been generalized to include herbs that don’t necessarily boost energy or counteract stress, but still have a number of benefits including enhanced immune function, antioxidant action and physiological normalization. Unfortunately, in Western medicine the concept of adaptogens is still not widely known, and the idea remains controversial. “In the West, we’re not used to the idea that one drug — or herb — can have a broad range of physical and mental health benefits,” Gerbarg explains. But when you consider that stress has been linked to a host of other disorders, including depression, heart attacks, hypertension and increased susceptibility to infection, it’s easy to understand how one herb can have an all-encompassing, tonic effect.

For example, ginseng, another adaptogen, not only reduces stress-related hormones, but research shows it also improves stamina and relieves fatigue. Eleuthero, often called Siberian ginseng, improves stamina and enhances immune function, as do reishi mushrooms — another adaptogenic remedy. Ashwagandha, an Indian plant, helps decrease damage caused by stress, and reduces cholesterol and blood sugar levels. Schisandra berries can improve memory and aid digestion.