Podcast 376: Rhodiola Root and Maca Root

Master Herbalist Elijah Free explains fatigue and adrenal exhaustion. And how to choose between Adrenal-Ease, Safe Energy, Rhodiola Root and Maca Root, all available as herbal tinctures.

Martin: Hi, everybody! This is Martin Pytela for Life Enthusiast online TV and radio network! Coming to you with Elijah Free, a master herbalist at Earth Friend Herb! Hello, Elijah!

Elijah: Hi, Martin! Nice to be here today! Thank you so much for the opportunity!

Martin: You are welcome! Let’s talk about stress today. You have some amazing tinctures with herbal combinations that are helpful for dealing with exhaustion. We are living in an overstressed world, and I get so many calls from people saying: I am exhausted, I am dragging, I can’t get my mojo going… Why am I so tired all the time? I think you may have some answers, right?

Elijah: Yes, we do! But first, let’s talk about what can cause this extreme exhaustion. Probably the most common things these days would be things like adrenal fatigue, too much stress, and also as we talked about several times before, a MTHFR gene mutation. So we have different ways to deal with different types of tiredness; different causes need different solutions. For example, for adrenal exhaustion, we suggest our adrenal formula.

And just a side note, if you want to find a protocol to use for adrenal exhaustion, you can go www.earthfriendherb.com, and you can find all kinds of protocols on the website with product recommendations, and of course if you click on the product, it will take your right to the Life Enthusiast store, where you can purchase all of our products, and you can also get in touch with Martin, if you need more information and help.

If you are looking for something that will just give you more energy, we have our Safe Energy product we talked about before. But today, I’m going to talk about one of my favorite single herbs in the world, which is Rhodiola. We have a source of Rhodiola that comes from China, it is grown organically. I was told that some of the very, very important people in China get their Rhodiola from the same harvesting place, the same farm, so that’s  pretty exciting. It’s some of the best Rhodiola in the world that you can get.

About 8 years ago, I had a heart attack that was almost fatal. I recovered from it fantastically, even though the doctor said I wouldn’t. But when I was out of the hospital and back at work, I was exhausted, I was really having a hard time, and my energy wasn’t coming up. At that time, I had just started to study adaptogens, and as I was reading about Rhodiola, I got incredibly excited, ordered some from my favorite supplier, made some tincture, and I took it for about the next five months. At that point, at the end of those five months, I joined a gym and broke every running record I had ever made in my life. I’ll be very honest, I attribute my recovery to the Rhodiola. At least a good portion of it.

Now, what adaptogens do is this: they help your body get through stressful periods. A lot of people can’t heal, because their bodies are just too stressed. It is very common that people come in… it looks like they get all the right stuff, they do all the right things, they eat right, but they can’t seem to get better, because they are constantly stressed.  We have two classifications of herbs to help, one is tonic herbs, which we have in products like Digest Ease, that actually help the cells to absorb nutrients better, and to work better.

Rhodiola, however, you can literally say, provides the specialized nutrients to help the cell recover from the stress: from being ill, injured, hurt, sick, all kinds of things like that, and Rhodiola deals with that stress in an incredible chemical metabolic manner. Rhodiola is my favorite. I wasn’t going to do any single herb products at first, but then I chose two herbs to do singles, and that is Rhodiola and Maca. I think people really should have these two in their regimen, they are the best of the best, and you can get them at a really, really fair price.

I love Rhodiola, that herb and I are awfully close. Later, I began to reformulate some of my older formulas, and you can now see that Rhodiola in some of them, and I also started to design new formulas, and I added Rhodiola in those as well. And if you look at things they like the PTSD formula or the Cortisol-Ease, you will see a fairly‌ ‌large amount of Rhodiola in these formulas. Of course, I use a lot of other adaptogens, but Rhodiola quickly became my go-to friend, and I have to say to the Rhodiola spirit: THANK YOU! (laughs)

Martin: Wow, recovering from a heart attack is an experience that I wish on no one.

Elijah: Well, let me tell you, after about a month at the gym, I nailed five miles in under an hour. That was my average run, five miles in under an hour, I did it for years, and I could do it again after a heart attack, and I believe it was from the Rhodiola. Truthfully, I never ran that well until after a long time with Rhodiola, and I took it for years.

Martin: That is a fantastic story! Let’s talk about the other single herb you offer, which is Maca. To those who don’t actually know what Maca does, the most common marketing line is that it will get your libido going, but it really can do so much more than that, right?

Elijah: Yeah, you know, it is not really like an aphrodisiac or something, but from my experience, when I used Maca around 10-15 years ago, what it did for me as a male, I was feeling younger, this is what happened in terms of libido. It didn’t just give me more libido or make me more interested, it overall made me feel like my whole body used to feel when I was younger, and the libido was a part of that. I really liked how that worked a lot, it felt very natural.

Martin: And it works for all genders, right?

Elijah: Oh, it works extremely well for all genders! According to the studies it works on all kinds of little mammals, too! (laughs)

Martin: (laughing) All the rabbits!

Elijah: (laughing) That was in the advertising! I won’t even go into it, but they quoted all the stuff about little animals, and I thought: Wow, I feel like a squirrel! It’s a wonderful herb, and it really helps a lot of people. It actually appears in our Meno-Ease formula too.

Martin: So do you use these single herb tinctures in combination with the Adrenal-Ease, if you are a person that has been really run down?

Elijah: Well, you can use Rhodiola with Adrenal-Ease for sure, but Maca is already in it, so there is no reason for that. The Rhodiola itself is the one that actually rebuilds from the foundation up, but you have to take it for an extended period of time, we are not talking a few weeks, we are talking six months, a year! I took it for a year and a half. Doctors, first of all, couldn’t figure out why or how I survived, and then they called me the suicide guy when I told them I was running and doing all that weight lifting. I tried to explain that it was Rhodiola that helped me, but they didn’t believe it.

So I would say that if you want a single herb for recovery, Rhodiola is the one. If you are really low on energy, Adrenal-Ease is great. I think everyone should get tested for MTHFR because it is very common! And then, if the person does not have MTHFR, we can address the problem one way, but if they have MTHFR, we need to go about the same problem in a different way. There’s not a middle ground in the two. So the way that we actually treat has changed, because if the person does have MTHFR, the first thing you have to do is you have to treat the MTHFR, because if you don’t, you can try everything else but it won’t work as well, because you cannot get the good stuff and nutrients into the cells.

Martin: Okay, wonderful! Elijah, thank you very much!

Elijah: Thank you very much, Martin! I’m always so grateful to chat with you!

Martin: Thank you for listening, everybody. Head over to our website to learn more about these wonderful products, or call me directly! My number is (866) 543-3388! This is Martin Pytela for Life Enthusiast, we are restoring vitality to you and to the planet! See you next time!

Author: Nina Vachkova