Wikipedia has a lot to say about adaptogens; The term adaptogen is used by herbalists to refer to a natural herb proposed to increase the body's resistance to stress, trauma, anxiety and fatigue. All adaptogens contain antioxidants but antioxidants are not necessarily adaptogens, and that is not proposed to be their primary mode of action.

Before taking an adaptogen, I’d like to explain that in order for any single herb to be recognized in their full capacity in our bodies we must start with a whole food based multi vitamin/mineral. It has been proven in the last 5-10 years that it is almost impossible to get all the vitamins and minerals our body needs thorough our food. The soils are so depleted the foods are being stripped of the essential nutrients

There are many recognized herbs that are considered adaptogens. Ginsengs, Licorice Root, Maca, Holy Basil, Schisandra, Cordyceps, Ashwagandha, Reishi mushrooms, and my all time favorite, Rhodiola.

Rhodiola is not a common herb but it’s getting more popular every year. It grows at high altitudes in Arctic and mountainous regions throughout Europe and Asia and has over 200 different species. Russia and Scandinavia have been studying Rhodiola intensely for 35 years because of its amazing attributes. They use it as a tonic and remedy for fatigue, poor attention span, decreased memory, to make workers more productive and to increase the capacity for mental work and as a general strengthener. Currently rhodiola is an $80 million market in North America.

The concept of adaptogens dates back thousands of years to ancient India and China but modern study did not begin until the late 1940s. In 1947, Nikolai Lazarev defined an adaptogen as an agent that allows the body to counter adverse physical, chemical, or biological stressors by raising nonspecific resistance toward such stress, thus allowing the organism to "adapt" to the stressful circumstances.

In 1968, Israel I. Brekhman , PhD, and I.V. Dardymov formally gave adaptogens a functional definition, as follows:

It is claimed that adaptogenic herbs are distinct from other substances in their ability to balance endocrine hormones and the immune system, and they help the body to maintain optimal homeostasis. Adaptogens are proposed to have a normalizing effect on the body and to be capable of either toning down the activity of hyperfunctioning systems or strengthening the activity of hypofunctioning systems. However, they are also proposed to be functional at the level of allostasis, which is a more dynamic reaction to long term stress, lacking the fixed reference points of homeostasis