Adaptogens: Herbs for Strength, Stamina, and Stress Relief [Paperback]

Hi,
For anyone who like me is slowly beginning to question the values of the pharmaceudical industry then this book will be invaluable to your health whether you have a health issue or not.I myself am an active person,involved in sports and have known all about the benefits of the herb Rhiodiola Rosea which i have been taking for 2 years now,which is still one of the best in my opinion for boosting my mental and physical endurance.What i would like to say is that if you are suffering from stress or depression at any level you owe it to yourself to read this book and give some of the herbs within a try,they really DO WORK and are very affordable and unlike pharmaceudical drugs are completely safe and actually enhance your health in other areas of your body too.10/10 great read.

This book is by a highly knowledgeable herbalist but can be easily understood and used even by laymen with no previous herbal background. Adaptogens are explained repeatedly in different ways, including as a general tonic, for balancing hormones and other body systems, to help build up reserves in the body, and increase our ability to adapt to, and avoid damage from, the environment. Who, in today's world, wouldn't want all this?

As an informative and helpful starting point to such herbs, I could want nothing better than this book. You could pick and choose from the 40 or so herbs that are so well-described here and, with a little luck, get some benefit. For all these reasons I have given this book 4 stars.

Unfortunately, for me, it has a fatal flaw: it doesn't really seem to have an integrating philosophy or central principle by which I could work out where to start and how to take further steps. It is a sort of dictionary. You pick any one symptom (perhaps night sweats) or medical term (like cholesterol) and there are a number of possibly useful herbs. You might shortlist several and end up trying one of them, or combining several because they are said to work better that way, but it's basically guesswork.

Too many books on nutrition and nutritional supplements (vitamins, minerals, fats, etc) are like this - homeopathy and herbs too. They lack any focus on causation, there is no consideration of a unifying thread or starting point which, when addressed, could clear a number of seemingly different symptoms. (Homeopathy claims to do this but why, for example, is ignatia overwhelmingly given for just one symptom - grief?)

Those who have studied Chinese Traditional Medicine (CTM) understand my point. CTM looks for, and addresses, a root cause for all the symptoms presented by a specific person. Too many health books, just like the conventional medical system, see patients as a collection of parts, or of diagnoses, each separate item to be fixed by a different specialist or herb or nutritional supplement (or combinations), for example.

I would like to see more health books "boiling down" to main, or "umbrella", causes and issues. The body is not a machine such as a car, in which replacing the battery (perhaps a kidney or a heart in a human) or adding engine oil (the equivalent say of putting a few selected adaptogens or vitamins into a body) will put it back on the road in good working order.

Also worth knowing: "Cancer Salves" by Ingrid Naiman is possibly the most brilliant book on herbal remedies.

[Later notes: Although not on herbs, I feel it's important to mention the new mental/emotional healing process explained in "The Healing Code" by Loyd/Johnson/Eble - an amazing process for emotional clearing. There are hundreds of personal successes, including physical, listed in the reviews on Amazon.com.

For those looking for general health improvements, I also suggest:
- "Outsmart Your Cancer" by Tanya Harter Pierce is a considered and thoughtful review of successful alternative remedies - and, anything that can HEAL cancer is also a general healer and should be able to help much else in the body;
- "Never Fear Cancer Again" by Raymond Francis, a brilliant distillation of what is truly needed for health;
- "Trick and Treat", which turns upside down everything governments have told us to eat for health;
- "Transdermal Magnesium Therapy" by Sircus on the amazing benefits of magnesium - a fundamental supplement for a healthy body - particularly magnesium chloride flakes (transdermally), available comparatively cheaply, and
- "The XXL Syndrome", basically a booklet, about the essential part potassium plays in health (food grade potassium bicarbonate powder is also available cheaply.]

I bought this book for my wife who was in training for her license as a Master Medical Herbalist. She tells me it proved to be comprehensive and useful, which seems to say it all.