Rhodiola integrifolia is an important herb in the traditional Tibetan pharmacopoeia, as described by researchers at the Potomac, Maryland, Alternative Medicine Foundation, or AMF. Tibet, high on the Changtang Plateau of the Himalayan Mountains, offers a frigid climate, depleted in oxygen. The China-Tibet Tourism Guide, describes the indigenous plants as possessing a powerful, adaptable constitution that's said to be passed on to humans. Rhodiola is revered as such a plant, an adaptogen, able to confer adaptability.
Adaptogen
Rhodiola, locally known as hongjingtian and in the West as Golden Root and Stonecrop, grows best at 11,000 to 16,000 feet above sea level. At that altitude, according to Dr. Subhuti Dharmananda, director of the Institute for Traditional Medicine, ITM, in Portland, Oregon, many humans suffer from altitude sickness, an oxygen starvation disorder with a sometimes fatal outcome. Rhodiola is reputed by traditional medicine to be effective in treating some of the symptoms, and modern Western medicine has confirmed this ability. This is consistent with a 2009 Polish study reported in the International Journal of Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism, cited by Dr. Ray Sahelian, widely published medical physician and herbalist. Trained athletes, under extreme exercise conditions, experienced enhanced endurance and stamina while taking rhodiola extract. Rhodiola appears to act as an adaptogen under conditions of oxygen stress. This information is not intended to suggest any change in your current medical care. Consult your physician for applicability to any condition for which you are under treatment.
Antidepressant
Dr. Sahelian cites a 2008 study conducted by the Department of Psychiatry at the University of California, Los Angeles, in which rhodiola extract was tested in a well-controlled, double-blind study for its ability to relieve symptoms of patients diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder, GAD. The outcome documented significant relief of standardized stress indicators in the patients under study. Sahelian also cites a 2009 Swedish study published in the journal Planta Medica, demonstrating increased mental performance, decreased stress responses and anti-fatigue activity in overworked subjects at risk for workplace burnout.
Dr. Sahelian cautions that these studies are preliminary, not sufficient to advise general use of rhodiola for anxiety or stress, and that rare cases of irritability and hallucinations have been recorded. Consult your doctor before attempting to use rhodiola.
Analgesic
A species of rhodiola also grows on the North American continent in conditions similar to the Himalayas, in the high and cold mountains of Alaska and Northern Canada. Herbologists at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, report that the indigenous Inuit peoples of that region traditionally used rhodiola root as a food, mixed with walrus blubber. However, they also recognized an analgesic or pain-killing attribute, using it as a chew to treat oral sores, stomachache and gastrointestinal distress. They revered the bright red flowers as a curative for tuberculosis, TB, and to treat the cough and bloody mucus in advanced stages. The AMF reports that Tibetan physicians also attributed an anti-TB quality to the herb. However, Dr. Dharmananda of the ITM says this facet of rhodiola has not been verified by modern medicine and receives little study.
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