Dr. Jeffrey Gladden defines adaptogens as herbs that lower cortisol through the hypothalamus, listing rhodiola, ashwagandha, reishi, and cordyceps. Beyond stress relief, he uses herbs like turmeric and Japanese knotweed to support mitochondrial health and cellular repair in ways diet and exercise alone cannot.
I say adaptogenic because a true adaptogen actually contains chemicals that have an effect on the hypothalamus that lower cortisol and our stress hormones. So, you know, your classic adaptogens, rhodiola, ashwagandha, reishi, cordyceps, and there are many really good ones that, that I definitely use in my practice. But there's some like turmeric, like hawthorn, like Japanese knotweed, cat's claw, some of these, and some of those have really nice antimicrobial effects, they don't have chemicals that directly affect stress hormones, but I call them adaptogenic because, you know, what we're looking at is things that increase our resilience and stamina. So by protecting our cells, they do that. And that's where we see the physiologic benefits. So how do we protect our mitochondria? Besides the fact that we can, things that we can do like clean environment and eating properly and getting the right amount of exercise, sleep, et cetera, the herbs have a higher potential to protect mitophagy and autophagy than anything else you can do.
