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Herbal remedies for fitness -

Many studies have been done showing that it not only reduces feelings of fatigue, but seems to reduce blood lactate levels and skeletal damage. It helps your body handle the stress of workouts.

The ground powder is actually useful for reducing the discomfort of over training or stress. As athletes we have to find ways to decrease both life and workout stress to keep from pushing our bodies too far.

A little stress is where we find growth, but stress from too many angles at once is when we shoot our cortisol sky high and start to have all kinds of issues from adrenal fatigue to holding on to belly fat.

This super cool adaptogen came on to my radar a few years ago thanks to some of my very wise plant based loving friends. An adaptogen works in the body many different ways by working with the body to help it minimize the impacts of stress physical, emotional and mental.

This herb is designed for calming, so unlike the rev of ginseng, this is perfect for helping your body absorb the stress of a workout or to promote restful sleep. There is also some data to support it as an anabolic herb!

So all in all ashwaghanda is giving you a bounty of benefits for a tiny amount needed. The Brits were on to something with all that tea drinking and getting in all kinds of herbs while we were over here focusing on lemonade and soda.

Beyond herbal teas, green tea alone has been shown to have a number of health benefits. Yes indeed, we want our body to be prepared when we give it fuel during a run to quickly utilize it in the most efficient manner.

Often known as Peruvian Ginseng, Maca has been show to support energy and endurance. The powder form has a slightly nutty taste, making it an easy addition to your green smoothie or even those protein pancakes. Probably the most well known of these is good old ginger.

Thanks to great brands like Ginger Chews we can use it to calm the stomach and aid digestion. When my travel schedule became crazy while living in Miami, I found myself getting sick after many flights. About that time I was working with a functional medicine doctor to figure out my hormones and mentioned this off hand.

His recommendation was to start taking oregano oil capsules with me or anytime I was starting to feel a cold come on. I like this quality brand of capsule. It simply dries things out! Thyme is another spice you might be familiar with thanks to the Thanksgiving turkey.

Why not add it to a little more of your meals knowing that it could help boost your mood, fight off the sniffles, even help to clear up your skin thanks to the high levels of Vitamin C and Vitamin A! Checkout this more detailed article on creatine for runners to understand how it works.

Other ways to connect with Amanda Instagram Daily Fun: RunToTheFinish. Facebook Community Chatter: RunToTheFinish. Sign Up to Receive a Weekly Newsletter with Top Running Tips and Laughs. I do want to say that I appreciate your efforts at sharing your experiences. Generally, it would take me at least one month of full use to assess whether a supplement is providing me what it claims and what I need.

In some cases, I will take a cupplement despite no specific noticeable improvement ie glucosamin and chondritin. Totally get it, which is why I listed so many other options and ways to see what works for you.

Many of them will have the actual herbs listed above that you can buy in bulk. Most of these can come in powder form and you can add to whatever you wish, or make your own capsules.

It will be much, much cheaper than buying a company version. Mountain Rose Herbs also should sell most of these, although their shipping tends to be expensive. After a year you will want to toss and get new herbs.

Warm and stir in saucepan, note it will be grainy. Drink up! About half an hour before bed is best. I absolutely love Resilience! Just recommended their bath bomb in my wellness guide.

I feel like these are two different types of products. Rightful is really designed for chronic pain or recovery after a injury in my mind. Despite their increasing popularity, recent events have illuminated possible concerns regarding efficacy and safety of herbal supplements.

Remarkable sports performances at the end of the 20th century raised suspicions about supplement use by athletes, prompting the formation of the World Anti-Doping Agency, or WADA. Shortly thereafter, the deaths of two professional athletes raised concerns that an herbal supplement, ephedra, may have contributed to their deaths.

These events and others have prompted clinicians and scientists to reevaluate the role of herbal supplements in athletics. Figure 1. The meaning of the term herbal supplement is itself nebulous. Some use it to refer to products derived directly from plants, whereas others use it to mean any product containing molecules of botanical origin, such as caffeine pills.

Herbal supplements are variously called botanicals, phytomedicines, dietary supplements, nutritional supplements or nutraceuticals. Why do athletes consume these herbs?

Do they use the product as directed on the label or by a doctor? What claims are made about these supplements, and does clinical research support them? How can scientists and sports medicine personnel best design experiments to answer these questions, and what obstacles do they encounter?

Herbal supplement sales, the number of available herbs and the number of preparation types have all grown in recent years, and many of these are popular among American athletes see Figure 2. Figure 2.

Sales of selected supplements popular among athletes, including soy 2 in overall sales , garlic 4 , echinacea 7 , St. Illustration by Tom Dunne. Data from M. Blumenthal et al. Early studies of any herbal supplement are almost exclusively of the clinical variety.

They strive to address questions of efficacy by testing supplements available for over-the-counter purchase. But such studies frequently lack information about the chemical contents, botanical origin or agricultural provenance of the supplements. In addition, medical pilot studies are often characterized by small sample sizes, and a paltry number of studies typically exist for a given herb.

This complex interplay of factors makes results hard to replicate or interpret and makes it difficult to identify confounding variables among studies.

Even when every study for an herb is stalwartly reviewed, one is typically forced to conclude that the data are equivocal—for every study that supports efficacy, another refutes it, even after controlling for demographics, dosing and so forth. The predictable outcome is confusion and miscommunication within the sports science community.

Dovetailing botany, chemistry and medical disciplines from cell biology to physiology is absolutely critical to the advancement of research on herbal supplements in athletic contexts. The species of plant chosen, the location from which the plant was gathered, the specific organ extracted or the extraction method may in large part explain the heterogeneous clinical outcomes.

Figure 3. The seed-to-stomach model identifies preclinical factors that may impact clinical trial outcomes. Generally, these preclinical factors are not accounted for. Planning factors 1 occur prior to planting selection of species and seed supplier. Field factors 2 are introduced as the crop grows, such as ecological factors hydration, soil, sunlight exposure, pathogen infections and time grown.

Production factors 3 include harvest factors a , or how the plants were removed and transported to the processing site, and manufacturing facility factors b , or how the herb was processed and packaged, such as the plant organs, solvents, procedures or bottling used.

Postproduction factors 4 cover warehouse factors a , market factors b and household factors c , because storage conditions such as temperature, oxidation and expiration often vary across these sites.

Consumer factors 5 include demographics, supplement dosing, preexisting health status and psychological or societal contexts of those individuals enrolled in the study. One of the biggest challenges such a multidisciplinary approach presents is conceptualizing the myriad preclinical and clinical factors that can potentially influence a trial.

In a article in Exercise Immunology Review, we proposed a conceptual model for this multidisciplinary approach. We originally categorized factors in our model by botanical, chemical and clinical disciplines.

Our revised seed-to-stomach model incorporates these as well as commercial factors to better reflect the societal context of herbal supplement research see Figure 3. Exercise is a physical stress. Thus exercise can serve as either a positive or negative stressor.

Figure 4. Individuals who exercise regularly at moderate intensities have lower incidence of upper respiratory infections than sedentary or rigorously training counterparts. Figure adapted from D. Nieman, Journal of Athletic Training , For example, the J-curve model proposed by David Nieman of Appalachian State University shows that individuals who exercise regularly at moderate intensities have lower incidence of upper respiratory infection events than their sedentary or rigorously training counterparts see Figure 4.

Individuals who train moderately—for example, people who run three times a week for 30 minutes—demonstrate decreased incidence of such infections compared to sedentary counterparts.

On the other hand, elite athletes often demonstrate increased incidence of such infections due to the stress of their demanding training schedules. These athletes may include college and high school athletes and even so-called often erroneously amateur recreational athletes.

Herbal supplements appeal to the sports community because of their potential for improving performance capacity either through conferring ergogenic benefits or through offsetting the deleterious effects of rigorous training regimens. Most herbal supplements, such as ginseng and echinacea, are available over the counter, making them both legal and readily available; others, such as ephedra or ma huang, are now illegal.

Ephedra, for example, is banned because it has no confirmed ergogenic benefits yet contains toxic alkaloids. athletes performed by Andrea Petróczki at Kingston University, in collaboration with colleagues at the University of Birmingham and Swansea University.

Circumstances may be different for nonprofessional, noncollegiate athletes. Many people assume that the Food and Drug Administration regulates herbal supplements, but in the United States the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of allows most herbal supplements to be sold without FDA approval.

Vendors position herbal supplements on store shelves alongside regulated items such as vitamins, which may perpetuate this perception. Part of the problem is that few studies address this topic.

In the United States alone, 17 to 61 percent of athletes reported using herbal supplements, although the categorization of herbal supplement varied across surveys, and this likely explains the huge discrepancy. Figure 5. Herbs popular with athletes include supplements from the above plants, clockwise from top left, arctic root Rhodiola rose a , echinacea Echinacea purpurea , caltrop Tribulus terrestris , ginseng Panax ginseng and elderberry Sambucus nigra.

Photographs courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. Purportedly performance-enhancing herbs include those that benefit both endurance and strength athletes, such as ginseng Panax species or Eleutherococcus senticosus , ephedra Ephedra sinica and arctic root Rhodiola rosea.

They also include herbs such as caltrop Tribulus terrestris that may primarily benefit strength athletes see Figure 5. Ephedra and ginseng are also considered central nervous system stimulants along with guarana Paullinia cupana.

Herbs taken primarily to boost immune function include echinacea Echinacea species , elderberry Sambucus nigra and milk vetch Astragalus species. Other herbs, such as caltrop, soy Glycine max and sarsaparilla Smilax species , are believed to contain plant-produced compounds capable of modulating anabolic steroidal pathways.

And some supplements are promoted as having more specialized functions, such as the supposed metabolism-enhancing fungus, Cordyceps sinensis. Still others are treated as multipurpose food ingredients, for example, the cyanobacterium Spirulina Spirulina species.

The organisms mentioned above demonstrate that these supplements are taxonomically diverse and include flowering, seedless vascular and nonvascular plants, fungi and algae with distinct evolutionary histories. The bioactive molecules attributed to each taxon are equally diverse, although most are classified as secondary metabolites , chemical compounds produced by living organisms but not required for their primary functions.

Many herbs used in sports supplements or energy drinks contain alkaloids —small, nitrogen-based compounds that encompass many notorious naturally derived molecules, from morphine to cocaine—that act as stimulants. Examples include caffeine from the kola plant Cola species , ephedrine and pseudoephedrine from ephedra, guaranine from guarana, and theobromine and theophylline from the chocolate plant Theobroma cacao.

Current research on the dozens of botanical dietary supplements used by athletes all suffer from the problems outlined above. Two of the most well known of these supplements, echinacea and ginseng, will serve as representative examples. Echinacea is purported to boost defense against upper respiratory infections, so athletes use it primarily to offset the deleterious effects of intense training on immunity.

Although the general public uses the genus name as the common name, genus Echinacea is comprised of nine species some divided into subspecies. The three species most often used commercially are Echinacea angustifolia , E. pallida and E.

Bioactive molecules produced by these species include alkamides , organic molecules made of fatty acids often found in plants, and phenols , another class of organic molecules also dubbed carbolic acids that are known for their acidity.

Phenols encompass caffeic acid derivatives, echinacoside and ketones; distributions and quantities of these molecules vary by species. It is important to differentiate these molecules because the body processes them differently and they have different effects.

Alkamides move from gut to bloodstream apparently unmodified within an hour. Complex carbohydrates have largely been discounted by multiple studies due to their inability to move from gut to bloodstream without modification. Roots contain the highest levels of these compounds, but oftentimes manufacturers will instead harvest aboveground parts, such as leaves and stems, to allow the plants to regrow and thus provide multiple harvests per planting.

In North America, echinacea is most widely consumed as capsules or tablets. Figure 6. Immunological and physiological effects of Echinacea purpurea supplementation in aerobic athletes, summarized from five studies, and based on illness rates and blood, saliva and urine analyses.

Athletes supplemented with echinacea reported reduced incidence or duration of upper respiratory infections, perhaps because of changes in circulating concentrations of immune system signaling molecules cytokines and antibodies.

However, more studies are needed to understand the full gamut of possible outcomes. Pictured: Erin Poss, Drake University cross-country. Photograph courtesy of the author. Only five studies have been published concerning in vivo dosing of athletes with echinacea supplements Figure 6.

Studies by Aloys Berg of Albert Ludwigs University and collaborators and Heather Hall of Elmhurst College and collaborators reported reduced incidence or duration of upper respiratory infection events after intense exercise such as competitive sprint triathlons or laboratory sprint cycling in athletes dosed with E.

purpurea supplements for four weeks either before or after a scheduled bout of exercise. The reduced incidence of infections was corroborated by molecular immunological data from blood, saliva and urine samples, demonstrating increases in circulating concentrations of certain antibodies and changes in circulating concentrations of several signaling molecules important in regulating inflammation see Figure 6.

White blood cells are the cells associated with the immune system, but no changes in white blood cell subsets or counts were identified. Taken together, the findings suggest that echinacea may reduce incidence and severity of upper respiratory infections by changing the quantities of immune molecules produced by white blood cells, rather than changing other aspects of white blood cells, such as their rate of multiplication or specific functions.

In further support of the link between echinacea, exercise and upper respiratory infections, Roland Schoop and colleagues at Bioforce AG in Switzerland reported reduced incidence and duration of self-reported upper-respiratory-infection symptoms in athletes dosed in a similar manner to those in the previous two studies, when compared to a control group generalized from control data in previous studies.

Looking at physiological parameters important in athletic performance, Malcolm Whitehead, now at Stephen F. Austin State University in Texas, published two reports with colleagues from Troy University, College of Charleston and the University of Southern Mississippi on a recreational group of athletes, dosed with E.

purpurea for four weeks and compared to placebo-treated controls. They found that common measures of aerobic performance—maximal oxygen consumption VO 2 max , running economy oxygen use efficiency and erythropoietin a hormone that controls red blood cell genesis —were higher among the echinacea-treated group than among controls.

However, the authors reported no differences in total red blood cell count, hemoglobin the molecule within red blood cells that carries oxygen or hematocrit packed red blood cell volume between the two groups.

The fact that there were no changes in red blood cell—associated parameters but there were changes in performance parameters is difficult to interpret but may suggest that echinacea supplementation influences performance by modulating oxygen dynamics or metabolism at body sites distinct from the red blood cells themselves.

Other scientific teams report relatively good tolerability and low side effects from echinacea supplements, although interactions with certain prescription medications have been documented. Figure 7. Putting the seed-to-stomach model into action reduces variation introduced by preclinical factors.

These first two steps account for many preclinical factors that are ignored in many studies. Using metabolic monitoring, intensity is standardized.

Measurements such as cell proliferation rates or signaling molecule production are used as markers of immune function. Photographs courtesy of the author. In contrast to studies in athletes, studies of echinacea supplementation in the general population have yielded conflicting findings, likely due to the confounding factors discussed previously.

Our team has endeavored to reduce the problem of preclinical factor variation by translating the concepts from our seed-to-stomach model into an experimental design adapted for athletic applications Figure 7.

We opted for an ex vivo approach, where white blood cells were taken from study participants before and after an acute exercise bout and then treated with echinacea extracts in the laboratory. This method, although less representative of the organismal context, allows us to more tightly control some variables.

We initially worked with white blood cells from resting donors to establish the effects of key preclinical factors. Several interesting findings accrued; for example, our lab and others have repeatedly demonstrated that different echinacea species vary in the way they modulate the immune system, probably because of differences in plant chemistry.

We showed how deliberate choices in species, plant organ, solvent and extraction method influenced cell growth rates and production rates of immune system signaling molecules. Figure 8. Different species of echinacea may result in different immune system effects. White blood cells isolated from the blood of male soccer athletes, both before rest and after post a two-hour aerobic exercise bout, were cultured in vitro with Echinacea pallida tincture, E.

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