PO Box Lincoln, NH Janelle Bard partners with Standard Process and MediHerb to support health with herbal formulas and whole-food-based supplements.

Standard Process is a third-generation, family-owned whole-food supplement company founded in MediHerb is a company, founded in , that produces and provides the highest quality of herbs and herbal formulas.

Standard Process and MediHerb partner with health care practitioners to effectively and holistically address issues related to health conditions.

Not a patient? Order Supplements Here! Society of Wellness Dr. Lee Carroll. Kerry Bone. Supplements to Improve Your Performance in Sports. Herbal Formulas and Whole Food Nutritional Supplements. Our Top Supplements to Improve Your Athletic Performance.

View Details. Boost Your Athletic Performance. See our recommendations below. Suggested Use: 1 tablet 2 — 4 times daily, or as directed. Purchase Product. MediHerb Tribulus About Tribulus Tribulus is a supplement containing an extract of Tribulus terrestris herb that supports reproductive function and healthy libido in women and men.

This herb is traditionally used in herbal preparations to: Support healthy libido in women and men Promote normal menstrual flow Tonify and promote vitality Promote an overall feeling of well-being Tribulus contains an extract of Tribulus terrestris herb aerial parts — leaves and stems and contains steroidal saponins, mainly furostanol glycosides including protodioscin and protogracillin and small quantities of spirostanol glycosides, sterols and other compounds.

Herbs that increase oxygen absorption are invaluable to muscle performance. Increasing oxygen into the blood, along with supporting the heart and circulatory systems, are both at the core of my herbal plans. Increasing blood oxygenation helps with stamina by reducing the lactic acid buildup in the muscle.

The increased oxygen keeps the body in an aerobic state for longer while exercising, thereby delaying the production of lactic acid. I have a base formula that I use for athletes that I build on or modify, depending on the individual's personal goals and challenges.

It is also important that I know what motivated the client to set their particular goals and that I understand their health history. If the athlete is a runner because they hope to support overall cardiovascular health, I will add hawthorn to the formula.

If the athlete is a rock climber and they need to stay mentally focused as well as physically fit, then I may add some gotu kola. These are just a couple of examples of how this base formula can be customized to the athlete and their sport of choice.

From this base recipe, different proportions of these herbs can be used and consumed in any way. Herbs can be a great exercise partner.

Develop a plan and use them to support your fitness goals. These potent plants can really make a difference! This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. For educational purposes only.

Topics: Recipes , Herbalism. Chris Kitchen has his own herbal consulting practice, Mandragora Herbal, just outside of Seattle, Washington. He is a member of the American Herbalist Guild and studies at the Hermit's Grove in Kirkland, Washington. account Account wishlist Wishlist cart Shopping bag.

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There are a few important factors to consider when selecting herbs for athletes, beyond the obvious allergy considerations. The first is to define the goal. Is it increased cardiovascular endurance, muscular endurance, muscle recovery, mental focus and fatigue, or a combination thereof?

The next consideration is what effects the sport or activity has on the body. In addition to the direct physical impacts, there are often secondary effects on the muscular system, or from environmental factors, that can derail your training plan.

How do you decide which herbs to use in a training application? Endurance Formula Ingredients 1 tsp. organic cinnamon powder Directions Combine all ingredients and store in a dry, airtight container until ready to use.

Pro Tips My favorite way to use this herbal blend is to combine the powder blend with one scoop of pea protein powder and 12 ounces of any milk of your choice. I can bring along this premixed formula in my gym bag for easy nutrition on the go.

You can use a blender bottle for fast and simple preparation. If I have more time and am using my herbal blend at home, I will incorporate it into a smoothie by combining the endurance herb powder mixture with protein powder, milk, frozen berries, and raw, local honey in a blender.

Blend until well mixed and smoothie reaches desired consistency. Another variation is one I developed for a client. If this is a concern of yours, combine the herbal powder mixture in two ounces of water, or into your yogurt or oats and consume.

There is also a final variation on the endurance formula that is a favorite when camping or when you need a little extra zing in the morning. I love making coffee in a percolator on a camp stove, and I love it even more with herbs in it.

I call this a mushroom spice latte see below. I make this when camping before early morning hikes or sip on it when I am driving to the ski slopes.

The profile of mushrooms is growing but more education may be needed for consumers to differentiate between different species. Keeping an eye on creatine. Creatine has seen impressive sales growth, but state legislation putting age limits on the purchase of creatine products in the sports and weight management categories may pose a dilemma.

Ex-vivo study finds potential impact of low-no-calories sweeteners on gut microbiota. Low-no-calories sweeteners may have an impact on gut microbiota and metabolite production. Recent study finds that PEA supplementation may help alleviate migraine symptoms. A PEA supplement from Gencor was shown to reduce the duration of migraines as a well as severity.

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Blood Sugar. Brain Health. Contract Manufacturing. Delivery Systems. Whether supplemented, sprinkled on your food, or sipped in tea, you will notice a difference. Loved by athletes and bodybuilders, maca helps improve strength , increase stamina , and enhance concentration.

Its hormone-regulating properties also help restore testosterone levels, which usually get depleted after a workout, but are essential for proper muscle growth. Furthermore, maca contains both complex carbohydrates and protein, so it is great for providing the necessary macronutrients needed to support said growth.

Cat's claw is one of the most effective anti-inflammatory herbs currently being studied, thanks to its impressive content of flavonoids, tannins, and a unique compound known as pentacyclic oxindole alkaloids or POAs. It is said to be one of the most potent herbal anti-inflammatory substances discovered to date.

The anti-inflammatory prowess of POAs can help athletes shorten their recovery time between each training session, especially after high-intensity or interval training. Additionally, they can prove beneficial for those who wish to remain active in their 60s and beyond, since cat's claw consumption will also support healthy joints and prevent arthritis.

Not to be confused with American or Siberian ginseng, Panax ginseng or Chinese ginseng is the one you need for outstanding athletic performance. The main active ingredient in ginseng are ginsenosides, and they have been found to fight anxiety and fatigue as well as increase stamina, allowing for sustained physical activity.

Type your email…. Continue reading. Skip to content. March 12, sportsmedicineweekly Blog , Featured , Nutrition , Performance , Prevention , Training Comments Off on Herbs to Maximize Your Athletic Performance. But did you know that many herbal supplements can also boost your stamina and actually help to prevent injuries from occurring in the first place The key to maximizing athletic performance is to boost your energy level, maximize your nutrition, and prevent oxidative stress.

Boosting Your Energy Level with Herbs We all experience energy highs and lows. Ashwagandha: Ashwagandha is an Ayurvedic herb thats often used to relieve stress, anxiety, and depression. For athletes, ashwagandha helps to boost focus and improve stamina. It also regulates cortisol levels, which is beneficial for heart health and the immune system.

Taking ashwagandha on an empty stomach or with a small snack maximizes its effects. Tulsi: Tulsi, also known as holy basil, calms the nervous system and regulates the bodys stress response.

Its properties are both calming and energizing at the same time. Rhodiola: Rhodiola is known as a general tonic for longevity. It improves mental clarity and focus, as well as increases energy. Nourishing the Body with Herbs As an athlete, you already know about the importance of electrolytes for athletic performance and recovery.

Nettle: Nettle is one of the most nutritious herbs on the planet. Oatstraw: Oatstraw is loaded with minerals and other trace nutrients that repair and soothe the nerves while helping to build muscles and bones.

Red raspberry leaf: Red raspberry leaf is often recommended for new moms because of its nutritive and digestive benefits. Those same benefits make it a fantastic herb for athletes who want to boost their performance with nutrition and digestive support, which improves nutrient absorption.

Fighting Oxidative Stress with Herbs Oxidative stress produces free radicals , which cause damage to the cells throughout your body. Lychee: Lychee, also known as goji berry, is a Traditional Chinese Medicine herb used to tonify the body. It replenishes the blood supply and supports circulatory health, which allows the body to remove free radicals more efficiently.

Several interesting findings accrued; for example, our lab and others have repeatedly demonstrated that different echinacea species vary in the way they modulate the immune system, probably because of differences in plant chemistry. We showed how deliberate choices in species, plant organ, solvent and extraction method influenced cell growth rates and production rates of immune system signaling molecules.

Figure 8. Different species of echinacea may result in different immune system effects. White blood cells isolated from the blood of male soccer athletes, both before rest and after post a two-hour aerobic exercise bout, were cultured in vitro with Echinacea pallida tincture, E.

simulata tincture or a solvent vehicle control. After 72 hours, cell cultures were assayed for a cytokine important during infection, called interleukin IL simulata extract, but not E. pallida extract, improved IL production. Senchina et al. Inset, Drake University soccer player Logan North. After the work in resting subjects we incorporated an acute exercise component, still controlling for the preclinical factors as we had in our previous studies.

We also showed that acute exercise changed how echinacea supplements interacted with the white blood cells. However, we have since switched to testing athletes individually on treadmills and stationary bicycles so we can better ensure that the amount of exercise is more consistent across subjects.

Collectively, data from studies of echinacea in athletes suggest that different species of echinacea have different effects on the human body, that exercise changes these effects and that effects are cell- and body site—specific.

The work also suggests that preclinical factors have not been adequately accounted for across studies; further, preclinical factors are expected to vary greatly between manufacturers and even between batches from the same manufacturer.

Given that awareness, and the understanding that so few studies have been conducted and often with small sample sizes, one cannot conclusively argue for or against the use of echinacea by athletes. Like echinacea, ginseng is taken to augment immunity, but its primary indication is to improve performance.

The name ginseng refers to any of approximately a dozen species within the genus Panax , three of which are used most often commercially P. ginseng is used most frequently, but also P. pseudoginseng and P. Roots are used most often, typically in dried or powdered form.

So-called Siberian ginseng, Eleutherococcus senticosus, is sometimes confused with ginseng and is also frequently used by athletes, although it has different bioactive molecules and may be less effective in the context of performance enhancement.

Unlike echinacea, studies of ginseng or Siberian ginseng in athletic contexts have yielded conflicting results owing to differences in experimental design or outcomes measured. Systematic reviews by Johannah Shergis and colleagues at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University, and Michael Bahrke of Human Kinetics along with collaborators at University of Wisconsin-Madison, have concluded that human studies have not convincingly demonstrated any ergogenic benefits of ginseng supplementation in athletes, although supplementation may transiently alter cardiological or pulmonary function.

Side effects and prescription drug interactions appear to be more severe and extensive than those associated with echinacea and may include insomnia, gastrointestinal upset and heart palpitations. Figure 9. Summarized from eight different studies on the effects of ginseng on immune function in strength athletes, research remains inconclusive and contradictory.

Preclinical factors could account for some of the wide variation in results. For example, four different ginseng preparations were used across these eight studies. Pictured: Travis Merritt, Drake University football. Less contentious but more complicated are findings regarding the effects of ginseng supplements on immune function in athletes Figure 9.

From eight different studies that used no fewer than four different ginseng preparations along with a spectrum of exercise modalities, no clear overall patterns emerge.

This lack of clarity is probably due to interexperimental variability. Indicators of immune system activity including white blood cell counts, subsets and activities, as well as interactions with signaling molecules associated with the immune system, were variously upregulated, downregulated or unaffected.

Conservatively, these facts together indicate ginseng is likely a modulator of immune system activity, but the specific effects that different preclinical factors have on clinical outcomes are poorly understood.

Thus, although ginseng is a much more popular herbal supplement than echinacea in the United States and globally, experimental data supporting its use in athletic contexts are currently weak. Contrasting echinacea studies with ginseng studies reveals that immunological findings from the echinacea studies were more consistent, whereas those from the ginseng studies were more variable see Figures 6 and 9.

Although the names echinacea and ginseng encompass multiple species each, studies of them in the context of athletic performance focus on one species each E. purpurea and P. ginseng , respectively. Both the echinacea and the ginseng studies drew their participants from diverse populations in terms of age, gender and physical activity levels.

Future studies of ginseng and Siberian ginseng preparations may elicit stronger and more consistent findings if both preclinical and clinical factors are controlled better. Promising strides have been made in our understanding of herbal supplements in exercise and sport contexts.

However, several irksome and perhaps insoluble problems remain. Preparations containing several herbs and other ingredients, such as those used in traditional Chinese medicine, may compound the difficulty of identifying preclinical factors.

And analytical chemists have shown repeatedly that the contents of retail herbal supplements are often inconsistent with their own product labels in terms of ingredients or quantities, even when manufacturers make claims of standardization.

Given these realities, even the most diligent clinical or bench scientists cannot accurately report their findings and may unwittingly report false data. Directions for future research are innumerable.

Hundreds of herbal supplements are currently used by athletes and nonathletes alike, and most of those substances have not been clinically tested. Those herbs need to be explored further. For instance, elderberry is an herbal supplement that is increasingly popular in sports contexts, and it appears to have immune-modulating attributes similar to those of echinacea and may provide similar benefits.

Compounds associated with antioxidant activities, called lectins and anthocyanins , are found in elderberry and may interfere with influenza binding to human cells. One report by Sepp Porta from the University of Graz and colleagues suggested elderberry extracts may lower exercise-induced lactate levels.

Many herbal supplements have the potential to improve both human health and athletic performance, but as the examples show, the potential benefits are greatly influenced by preclinical factors, necessitating an interdisciplinary approach to studies of herbal supplements.

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This Article From Issue March-April Volume , Number 2. Page DOI: Bibliography Bahrke, M. Morgan and A. Is ginseng an ergogenic aid? Berg, A. Influence of Echinacin EC31 treatment on the exercise-induced immune response in athletes.

Journal of Clinical Research — Blumenthal, M. Lindstrom, C. Ooyen and M. Herb supplement sales increase 4. HerbalGram — Castell L. Burke, and S. Stear, eds.

A—Z of nutritional supplements series. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 44— Goulet, E. With those considerations in mind, you can create an herbal plan appropriate to the goals at hand.

If an athlete is training for a race, they will likely have some sort of training plan established, usually involving several phases: ramping up, ramping down, building of endurance or muscle, and periods of rest.

The herbal plan should mirror this. Giving herbs for cardiovascular endurance when the athlete is in a rest period does not make much sense; instead, the athlete may benefit more from fortifying the immune system and promoting recovery.

Prolonged and intense training can deplete the body of essential salts and other minerals because the body is using them up at an accelerated rate. This mineral shortage most often manifests as an increase in muscle cramps that can occur either while the activity is happening or later, during sleep.

Similarly, the more I train myself and work with other athletes, the more I have come to understand that there is a fine line between extreme fitness and overexertion.

Fatigue can lead to a weakened immune system. After an intense workout, you should have at least eight hours of sleep to recover, maybe more depending on the workout.

I like to incorporate daily herbal nourishing infusions to help with mineral replenishment, as I find that they are easy to prepare and are a pleasant way to fit your herbs into a busy schedule.

I like to cycle through the herbs I use for the infusions to vary the nutrients and flavors I enjoy throughout my training. Since I drink infusions on a daily basis, the variety keeps things interesting, helping me to stick with my nutritional schedule.

The right herb regime for any given athlete really depends on the person and the activity. Like everything in herbalism, there is no one size fits all solution. The key is to align the herbs with your fitness goals. While each herbal plan should be tailored to the needs of the specific athlete in question, I have found that adaptogens are often a great place to start.

Several of the adaptogens used in the herbal endurance training formula below help support the immune system. Similarly, as an athlete is approaching the peak of their training plan, a tincture of equal parts echinacea and Oregon grape root , taken morning and night, offers the immune system a little added support.

I recommend taking this combination during the last push in the training plan and through periods of rest. Also, you should not limit yourself to the plant kingdom, as mushrooms have a lot to offer as well.

I find that helpful mushrooms work great for most athletes with few contraindications —t hey can sometimes be bitter, but the benefits are well worth it! Herbs that increase oxygen absorption are invaluable to muscle performance. Increasing oxygen into the blood, along with supporting the heart and circulatory systems, are both at the core of my herbal plans.

Increasing blood oxygenation helps with stamina by reducing the lactic acid buildup in the muscle. The increased oxygen keeps the body in an aerobic state for longer while exercising, thereby delaying the production of lactic acid.

I have a base formula that I use for athletes that I build on or modify, depending on the individual's personal goals and challenges. It is also important that I know what motivated the client to set their particular goals and that I understand their health history.

If the athlete is a runner because they hope to support overall cardiovascular health, I will add hawthorn to the formula. If the athlete is a rock climber and they need to stay mentally focused as well as physically fit, then I may add some gotu kola.

These are just a couple of examples of how this base formula can be customized to the athlete and their sport of choice.

The leaves are consumed in the form of a tea throughout the day. Unlike coffee, yerba mate can be consumed for several hours at a time without causing common side effects of caffeine — such as anxiety, jitteriness, or muscle tension. Athletes also use yerba mate, but instead of drinking the tea, capsules are usually used.

People will always be looking for herbs and supplements to support their athletic output. Chemicals compounds like steroids or stimulants are also used, but these tend to result in side effects like anxiety, depression, heart disease, or worse. Yerba Mate The Ultimate Guide to Yerba Maté.

Best Yerba Maté. How to Prepare Yerba Maté. Nootropics View All. Herbal Medicine Herbal Monographs. Herbs By System. Liquid Herb Dosages. Herbal Actions. Maca Root Lepidium meyenii Maca root holds the title for the highest altitude crop in the world — found in the high Andean mountains of Peru.

Guarana Paullinia cupana Guarana is very high in caffeine and related central nervous system stimulating alkaloids. Eleuthero Eleutherococcus senticosus Eleuthero is another name for Siberian ginseng — a popular energy-boosting herbal supplement.

Cannabis Cannabis sativa Cannabis is useful for athletic endurance, but not for the reason you might think. Cordyceps Cordyceps sinensis Cordyceps is a fungus with the unique ability to improve our bloods capacity to deliver oxygen to the cells — which in turn improves overall muscle function, and recovery.

Rhodiola Rhodiola rosea Rhodiola is another high-altitude herb with adaptogenic benefits. Black Ant Polyrhachis spp. Yerba Maté Ilex paraguariensis Yerba maté is another high-caffeine herb used to stimulate the central nervous system and boost energy levels.

Final Thoughts: Herbs For Athletic Performance People will always be looking for herbs and supplements to support their athletic output. Author: Justin Cooke The Sunlight Experiment. Recent Blog Posts. May 4, COVID Searching For Potential Treatment Options in Plants.

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