Health | Rhodiola Rosea a secret for better endurance

Article on Rhodiola Rosea

Long before the Russians were caught doping their athletes with steroids, the former Soviet Union spent decades secretly searching for energy-enhancing plants that would help their Olympians, as well as their soldiers and astronauts, perform better.

The government took these experiments so seriously that the scientists involved have been banned from speaking of their results or publishing their findings outside the country, according to Patricia Gerbarg, an Assistant Clinical Professor in Psychiatry at New York Medical College and co-author of The Rhodiola Revolution, published in 2004.

In the course of writing her book, Gerbarg worked closely with the now-deceased Zakir Ramazanov, a Russian researcher who left the USSR after the Iron Curtain fell, taking confidential documents on the adaptogen tests with him to the United States.

The USSR wanted plants that would help soldiers endure nights of frostbite and high elevations in Afghanistan.

The Russians found that it helped soldiers stay alert and energized during sleep-deprivation tests, Gerbarg says, and put cosmonauts at the Russian space station in a better mood after weeks of cramped living.

As for their athletes, the Russians tested Rhodiola on nearly every type of Olympian, claiming it increased endurance and reduced recovery time.

The Russians have since moved on to more over-the-top synthetic substances, a strategy that left more than a hundred of their athletes kicked out of the Olympics this year.

Since the 1960s, there have been more than 180 other studies on the plant.

In a 2013 study published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, Noreen and his colleagues asked 18 participants to bike for six miles after taking a dose of Rhodiola Rosea.

After taking Rhodiola rosea supplements for four weeks, 14 competitive athletes showed lowered blood lactate levels and decreased skeletal muscle damage.

Some experts doubt many of these offer any positive effect and may pose harm, especially after the New York Attorney General's office discovered last year that four out of five of the supplements sold by major retailers, including GNC and Walmart, didn't contain the plant on the label and were sometimes filled with nothing more than powdered garlic and rice.

Alexander Panossian, head of research and development at the Swedish Herbal Institute, which makes a Rhodiola extract used in many scientific studies, considers Rose Root to be a kind of "Stress-vaccine." In an article published in Herbal Gram, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Botanical Council, he and co-author Hildebert Wagner suggest that chemicals in the plant, especially rosavins, tyrosal and salidroside, make people less sensitive to stress.

With Rhodiola capsules now selling for up to $30 a bottle on Amazon, foragers are trying to cash in-so much so that wild populations of the plant, especially in Russia, have been depleted.

Climate change could also hurt the plant's medicinal potency, according to Herbal Gram.

For centuries, Siberian villagers brewed Rhodiola tea for everything from anemia to libido.

Where to find?

You can find all types of high quality Rhodiola Rosea online or in supplement stores. As stated above in the video, the quality of the supplement matters and same does the dose. Here is an example of a Rhodiola Rosea supplement that gives you quanity and quality. The only issue with the product below is that it is in bulk form and not seperated into capsules.