Rhodiola Rosea - Mito Protectorant, neuro protectorant

[godlovesatrier]

Hi all,

I couldn't see a post that listed the medicinal effects for this herb. I recently started taking it again and noticed it has some similair effects to cell food (See Mary's post) but with more overall support for bodily processes. Please be aware I have no idea if this herb will cause crashing, I take it with Siberian Ginseng (which I know I can rely on when I am in a bad way), so I have no way to know of its individualsied effects.

Name: Rhodiola Rosea, Golden Root, Roseroot

Important info: This is an adaptogen, so be aware it could cause a crash in some ME patients and it can cause insomnia and jitteriness in higher doses.

Scientific credence: Unlike many herbs Rhodiola has a plethora of in vivo and human trial studies. There are literally hundreds of them. So whilst other herbs might be dubious as to their human or mammalian function and usefulness, there is a lot more to backup Rhodiola’s claims.

Natural habitat: Northern hemisphere but grows in most places.

Traditional uses: This is a newer herb, however it has been used in certain manifestations of chronic fatigue (see below) and for low energy and generally low vigor/lethargy.

Main constituent part: Rosavins, Salidrosides’s

Recommended form: Tincture 1:5 dried root.

Modern uses: Adrenal tonic, stress related conditions

Modes of action

Anti-fatiguing: Boosting and protecting mitchondrial function and its potent anti oxidant activity.

Adrenal Protectant: By boosting and balancing adrenal function.

Mitochondrial tonic and protectant: It is meant to both assist mito function and protect from stress.

Antioxidant: A potent anti oxidant.

Cardio tonic: Very strongly works to protect heart function.

Side effects: The usual ones from adaptogenic herbs, over stimulation, potential for crashing in ME, insomnia, jitteriness, anxiety, higher metabolism and feeling constantly hungry.

Specific Studies

Anti viral/Anti bacterial

Rosea genus is specifically active against H1N1 H9N2 and Coxsackie B3.

Neuroprotective/Neuroregenerative

In vivo: Enhances levels of 5-hydroxytryptamine in the hippocampus. Promotes the proliferation and differentiation of neural stem cells in the hippocampus.

Human clinical trials: Increased attention speed and accuracy for cognitive tasks.

Antifatigue/antistress

In vivo: Rosea Extracts increase the life span of Drosophila melanogaster, lower mitochondrial superoxide levels and increases protection against superoxide generator paraquat.

Human clinical trials: Reduced inflammatory c-reactive protein and creatinine kinase levels in the blood and protected muscle tissue during exercise.


Myalgic Encephalitis implications

Brain Fog

Based on the above studies it could be quite useful for brain fog as it sharpens cognitive action. Both in vivo and in human trial studies.

Fatigue

Might help fatigue with correct dosing and regime. Whilst it does help me, I would't take it without another adaptogen that I know works and protects me from crashing.

Safety and Dosages

No known safety concerns or issues.

Further reading

Mitochondrial related:

Abidov, M et al. Effects of extracts from Rhodiola Rosea and Rhodiola Crenulata roots on ATP content in mitochondria of skeletal muscles. Bull Exp Biol Med 136, no. 6 (2003) pages 585-587.

Battisteli, M, et al. Rhodiola Rosea as an anti oxidant in red blood cells: ultrastructural and hemolytic behaviour. Eur J Histochem 49, no. 3 (2005) pages 243-254

Generalised Anxiety Disorder:

Bystritsky, A. A Pilot study of Rhodiola Rosea for generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). J Altern Complement Med 14, No. 2 (2008) pages 175-180

If anyone wants a list of the several hundred long medical journals for their in vivo and human trial bibligraphic references please PM me.

Pleases feel free to point out any mistakes. Hope someone finds the info useful.

 

[godlovesatrier]

Was quite fascinated to find the mitochondrial workups, which again makes me wonder how it compares to SS-31.

 

[JES]

Produced a typical adaptogen herb response in my case, worked pretty nicely for a day or two, then stopped working.

 

[godlovesatrier]

Produced a typical adaptogen herb response in my case, worked pretty nicely for a day or two, then stopped working.

Not surprised. I wonder if our bodies use things properly or whether they just don't work that well for many. In my case I'm taking rhodiola every day but only wirh ginseng. Because otherwise I'm sure I would crash.

Saying that this is the first time I've ever taken ginseng (currently on week 4 or 5 of dosing) and had the effects go up and down. Also the first 2 weeks it actually made me sleepy. But considering I have no idea what my body needed or was/has been dealing with. It could have been a healing reaction.

In my limited experience with rhodiola. I do think it works well with Siberian ginseng. But of course that's just me.

 

[Learner1]

Rhodiola rosa is an antioxidant with neuroprotective effects. Reduces hydrogen peroxide and intercellular calcium:

https://www.researchgate.net/public..._in_the_Accumulation_of_Intracellular_Calcium

 

[Wishful]

Nasty stuff. It made my ME much worse. Many things that other people find beneficial or are "theoretically good for us" make my ME worse. It doesn't matter how many theories there are for why something should be good for us; none of the theories take into account the core dysfunction of ME (still unknown) or what ME influences downstream and what upstream factors influence ME, and none of the theories take into account individual variations.

 

[godlovesatrier]

@Wishful Yes I have a friend who reacts badly to andrographis and branched chain amino acids. Seems to get a fever and a bad allergic reaction to almost anything. Also I am always cautious these things can stop working, in my experience though they've worked to rectify something in my case. Which still makes me wonder if anti virals like valtrex would help me.

 

[raghav]

I have been using Now Rhodiola for the past 6 years (one capsule in the morning). It gives me energy and also elevates my testosterone level which was at a rock bottom.

 

[godlovesatrier]

Interesting Raghav. I haven't read in any literature that rhodiola builds up in the blood stream. Unlike ginseng which I know definitely does. I'm still not convinced the Siberian ginseng I'm taking is actually very well sourced because it seems a lot less potent than it once was. But I am currently going through temporary extra physical stress so that's going to happen.

As for the rhodiola. I've not taken it today and I haven't crashed. So I think I'll keep taking it for some extra support.

 

[godlovesatrier]

Just a quick update to say that apart from some over stimulation from the rhodiola I took 20 to 40 drops when I was under some extra stress last week, whilst taking ginseng tablets as well and the combined effect was actually really useful. Probably because the mode of action of the two is different.

I only took them togehter for 5 weeks but whatever was most problematic in my body over the last 10 months seems to have been reversed. I feel infinitely better than I did. Of course there could be all sorts of reasons, immune regulatory, th1 boost causing viral die off, immune rebalance, adrenal rebalance, adrenal healing. So I have no idea what's helped most.

 

[triffid113]

I take rhodiola for adrenal support and as a "happy pill". I took it in my 40's because I would get a low blood sugar attack just from a car cutting me off in traffic, and I knew an adrenaline suege can make yiu doabetic (my friend became brittle diabetic after a fall on the ice). So tirns out the adrenal gland tells the liver to break down glycogen. Worked for me for 10 years, then wasn't strong enough and I haf to take DHEA (afrenal hormone). 10 mpte years and now I take both. If it works for you, it makes you happy, stress-free.

But I really got in to say found this about rhodiola:
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Fibromyalgia Syndrome, and ADHD
Brown et al. add that their clinical experience shows rhodiola to be beneficial in chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia syndrome. It is also a useful adjunctive treatment in attention deficit disorder (ADHD), since it activates cognition and tends to improve accuracy, alertness and attention.
Exhaustion, Decreased Motivation, Daytime Sleepiness, Decreased Libido, Sleep Disturbances, and Cognitive Complaints
Iovieno et al. state that rhodiola is effective in treating physical deficiencies such as exhaustion, decreased motivation, daytime sleepiness, decreased libido, sleep disturbances, and cognitive complaints such as concentration deficiencies, forgetfulness, decreased memory, susceptibility to stress, and irritability.

[I take lotta supplements, so didn't have these problems to solve... just the shakes from stress. The link to diabetes may be that all these hormones nerd zinc: thuroid, adrenal, insulin.

 

[godlovesatrier]

Thanks for this. It's brilliant sfuff. I've actually been forgetting to take it. You've just reminded me. Supposed to be brilliant for ebv too and definitely works very differently to ginseng. My adrenals always seem to be flat.

Thanks again for the links. Really interesting. Especially your own experiences with it. I'm going to get back to taking it tomorrow.

What dose do you take?

 

[triffid113]

oh, I'll have to check. I read somewherr that 360 or so mg a day has some lovely effects. I just take 1/day of whatever dose Soloray sells (prolly 100mg) and it takes awhile, say a week, to take effect. But when I was having real problems in my 40s (before DHEA) I took a high dose. The Good Food company went out of business and I had already tossed the empty bottle so don't know the dose.

There is a synergy in the supplements I take, so they may work differently for u. So I take 1g/day olive leaf extract to bring down my blood pressure 11 points. It lowers my heart rate to between 60-66 beats/min but it also causes 1 slowed heart beat when I first lie down. The rhodiola cancels this abnormally slow heart beat.

I have always been an intense person. I could say things that were true but I would irritate people by the way I said them, my intensity, inability to relax, or nerdiness. This year with both DHEA and rhodiola and cannot discount Holy Basil, which I take to lower cortisol / balance hormones, I am more relaxed, and it's so much easier for me to make friends and love people and for them to love me back.

 

[godlovesatrier]

What form do you take the dhea in? I would be interested to know the dose and form you take everything in. Whilst anti virals and immune modulators don't seem to be doing me any good. I've never found a hormone balancing combo. So maybe that might help better.

 

[bread.]

where best to source this? ty!

 

[godlovesatrier]

Bread. You can buy rhodiola in tincture form or tablet.

 

[triffid113]

I take MRM dhea capsules 50mg. Except in allergy season or anytime that my body tells me I need more, when I take 75mg. My dhea measures high on blood tests but when I take that 24 hour hormone urine test from life extension, it says my body is making the right things out of it so my doc says it's ok. I get shakey when I need more, which could be due to sickness, like flu, or other severe stress, such as allergies. It shows up on labs as high CO2 when I need more (which docs say is anxiety from under functioning adrenals). Anyone having an anxiety attack will supposedly show high CO2(?).

Rhodiola ia another adrenal assist. I used to take a high dose before DHEA. I don't know how high but I'm thinking maybe 500mg? It didnt help at once but over time it had the most lovely.peaceful water-off-a-duck's-back effect.

 

[triffid113]

ok. I gave my bottle of rhodiola 2 a friend who meeded it more. He said it was Now brand 500mg. I then bought a bottle.locally of only 100mg... which even tripled does nothing 4 me. The 500mg sneaks up on me after maybe 5 days bringing happiness.

I also take Gaia Holy Basil. I started taking itbecause missing sleep raises cortisol levels which causes belly fat, so I took it to fend that off. Between Holy Basil and kombucha, I'm just not hungry anymore. I had to make myself b a little less stupid because I started getting depression from not enough tryptophan and tyrosine to make neurotransmitters (so, like, make sure to eat 1 dairy for tyrosine, etc).

 

[godlovesatrier]

Now brand seems to work for a lot of people. Doesn't do much for me sadly. I did find an old thread about Rhodiola. Lots of old time PR users have tried it and many have had either no effect or it made their ME significantly worse.

I think the issue is if you have mild ME you respond to these things and they can work. If your moderate then forget it. It just causes issues. God knows how or why. I do hate this disease.

 

[belize44]

I was given Rhodiola to take from a naturopathic doctor, and unfortunately I crashed. I am afraid to touch it again.