blackbird
20th September, 2006, 08:49 PM
well today i called the company who makes the Rhodiola Rosea product called Rosavin. i've decided to go with that product and have ordered it.
the Rosavin is one of the product brands recommended by those two big Rhodiola Rosea researchers, Dr. Richard Brown and Dr. Zarik Ramazanov. the company who makes it is called Ameriden, and they claim that their Rosavin is the only product used in US trials on Rhodiola Rosea. i'm sure there are a few other companies/brands that are the authentic deal, but i'm just going with the Rosavin because it seems the safest bet with what i know so far. i called Ameriden to order it and talked to a product info. person. take all of this with a grain of salt, since she is working for the company etc. but she said that most of the RR products flooding the market are not the authentic RR that has all these great benefits. there is this one mountainous region in Siberia that has this one particular strain of RR, 'THE ONE', and that's it folks. there are 200 strains of rhodiola altogether (i've read '20' strains, elsewhere. so is it 20 or 200? i don't know!!), and the Rhodiola harvested from N. china and other parts of europe ARE rhodiola but are not the strain we want-- the correct balance of all the key components is not present in them. she said even if it says they are standardized for the correct percentages of those key components, if it's not the strain from Siberia it's just not the potent one thats going to have all the miraculous benefits we hear about. some of the inauthentic ones, becasue they have a different make-up from the RR that has been researched and proven, can even be toxic. well, i'd read all this before on a zillion different articles/sites about RR, so i belive that part. of course Rosavin gets their RR from the special region in Siberia and is processed according to both Dr. Brown's and Dr. Ramazanoz's specific guidelines etc. etc. (she said, and their web-site says).
she said she herself had been taking the Rosavin for seven years and did not notice anything like building up a tolerance and not getting the same effects after long-term use. re. this question about tolerance, russian people for whom RR is indigenous, have drank it as a tea regularly for overall health and logevity... they have done so since forever. she said that maybe what happens is that it makes you well, and you get used to feeling well-- having relief from stress and depression, more energy, concetration etc,-- you get used to that and you become less aware of what the herb is doing for you because you are now well, so to speak. she said you notice what the RR has been doing for you when you get off of it. she has gotten off of it and then realized what it did for her and gotten back on. anyway, she said she's been on it for seven years and it still works. she does not feel the need to cycle it. again, i realize this is a person who is working for a company that is trying to sell a product. but she could also be telling the truth, stranger things have happened. i'm going with that product because it's recommended by those two doctors and they have researched RR the most extensivly (and i have not!!). they have no stake in Ameriden, it is stated. they recommend certain products for quality but do not get finacial gain from the sale of any RR product. they DO sell their books which contain info on all the research done on RR, testimonials etc., which i plan to read.
there's tons of info and articles about Rosavin and Rhodiola Rosea on the Ameriden site. it's the same stuff you can read on plenty of other sites, just they have an awful lot of info all in one place (their site). they seem quite proud and smug about the supremacy of their product. i don't know if it's inappropriate to put the site adress on here, may be pushing the envelope. but if you google search the company name, it pops right up. also if you google both doctors names, a ton of info on RR comes up. i'll let you know what i think about the Rosavin.
another thing i've discovered about RR is definitly less is more. it has a calming effect as well as a energy boosting effect. if you take too much you will feel overly sedated while also feeling too much energy i.e. edgy, irritable and you may possibly get insomnia-- you will get both extremes at the same time, believe it or not. RR is one of the few herbs that can do both--calm and increase energy--at the same time. i tend to overdo everything becasue i am greedy that way. i used to like to drink alcohol to self-medicate, and i always figured if one drink makes me feel better, 5 more should really do the trick. next thing you know you can't do anything fun because you are too drunk to function (i'm since on the wagon for many years). i tried over-doing the RR with the same sort of greediness/more is better mentality. YUK! it's awful when you overdo it. it's great, if you are respectful of it's potency and stick to the recommended dose. NOW brand says on their bottle that you can take up to1000 mg/day. i beg to differ. tried it, it's not nice. anything over 400 or 500mg/day is likely too much, but you all can read about that. as little as 100mg can do a lot. 300 to 450mg, split into two doses (one in the morning, one in the early afternoon), would be right around the top daily dosage, any more than that seems to be asking for trouble. take it from the substance junkie here. but read up on it yourself and draw your own conclusions.
the Rosavin is one of the product brands recommended by those two big Rhodiola Rosea researchers, Dr. Richard Brown and Dr. Zarik Ramazanov. the company who makes it is called Ameriden, and they claim that their Rosavin is the only product used in US trials on Rhodiola Rosea. i'm sure there are a few other companies/brands that are the authentic deal, but i'm just going with the Rosavin because it seems the safest bet with what i know so far. i called Ameriden to order it and talked to a product info. person. take all of this with a grain of salt, since she is working for the company etc. but she said that most of the RR products flooding the market are not the authentic RR that has all these great benefits. there is this one mountainous region in Siberia that has this one particular strain of RR, 'THE ONE', and that's it folks. there are 200 strains of rhodiola altogether (i've read '20' strains, elsewhere. so is it 20 or 200? i don't know!!), and the Rhodiola harvested from N. china and other parts of europe ARE rhodiola but are not the strain we want-- the correct balance of all the key components is not present in them. she said even if it says they are standardized for the correct percentages of those key components, if it's not the strain from Siberia it's just not the potent one thats going to have all the miraculous benefits we hear about. some of the inauthentic ones, becasue they have a different make-up from the RR that has been researched and proven, can even be toxic. well, i'd read all this before on a zillion different articles/sites about RR, so i belive that part. of course Rosavin gets their RR from the special region in Siberia and is processed according to both Dr. Brown's and Dr. Ramazanoz's specific guidelines etc. etc. (she said, and their web-site says).
she said she herself had been taking the Rosavin for seven years and did not notice anything like building up a tolerance and not getting the same effects after long-term use. re. this question about tolerance, russian people for whom RR is indigenous, have drank it as a tea regularly for overall health and logevity... they have done so since forever. she said that maybe what happens is that it makes you well, and you get used to feeling well-- having relief from stress and depression, more energy, concetration etc,-- you get used to that and you become less aware of what the herb is doing for you because you are now well, so to speak. she said you notice what the RR has been doing for you when you get off of it. she has gotten off of it and then realized what it did for her and gotten back on. anyway, she said she's been on it for seven years and it still works. she does not feel the need to cycle it. again, i realize this is a person who is working for a company that is trying to sell a product. but she could also be telling the truth, stranger things have happened. i'm going with that product because it's recommended by those two doctors and they have researched RR the most extensivly (and i have not!!). they have no stake in Ameriden, it is stated. they recommend certain products for quality but do not get finacial gain from the sale of any RR product. they DO sell their books which contain info on all the research done on RR, testimonials etc., which i plan to read.
there's tons of info and articles about Rosavin and Rhodiola Rosea on the Ameriden site. it's the same stuff you can read on plenty of other sites, just they have an awful lot of info all in one place (their site). they seem quite proud and smug about the supremacy of their product. i don't know if it's inappropriate to put the site adress on here, may be pushing the envelope. but if you google search the company name, it pops right up. also if you google both doctors names, a ton of info on RR comes up. i'll let you know what i think about the Rosavin.
another thing i've discovered about RR is definitly less is more. it has a calming effect as well as a energy boosting effect. if you take too much you will feel overly sedated while also feeling too much energy i.e. edgy, irritable and you may possibly get insomnia-- you will get both extremes at the same time, believe it or not. RR is one of the few herbs that can do both--calm and increase energy--at the same time. i tend to overdo everything becasue i am greedy that way. i used to like to drink alcohol to self-medicate, and i always figured if one drink makes me feel better, 5 more should really do the trick. next thing you know you can't do anything fun because you are too drunk to function (i'm since on the wagon for many years). i tried over-doing the RR with the same sort of greediness/more is better mentality. YUK! it's awful when you overdo it. it's great, if you are respectful of it's potency and stick to the recommended dose. NOW brand says on their bottle that you can take up to1000 mg/day. i beg to differ. tried it, it's not nice. anything over 400 or 500mg/day is likely too much, but you all can read about that. as little as 100mg can do a lot. 300 to 450mg, split into two doses (one in the morning, one in the early afternoon), would be right around the top daily dosage, any more than that seems to be asking for trouble. take it from the substance junkie here. but read up on it yourself and draw your own conclusions.