Back-to-School Stress: How Adaptogens Can Help You (and Your Family) Cope

OMG — Summer is over and the kids are going back to school. Families are rushing around to get back into the morning rhythm of getting up early, dressing quickly, gathering homework and books, making lunches and finally rushing out the door. Whether it’s a school bus to meet or a mad dash to school by car or foot, the whole family is feeling that back-to-school stress from the new routine.

If your life has moved past the school rush years, you may still be overloaded with responsibilities, juggling too many tasks or facing too many problems at once. Your relationship to stress makes the difference between coping well and falling apart. There’s lots of advice telling you to do everything from meditation to exercise but it all takes time you may not have. If you're looking for a natural way to manage stress that doesn't require carving out more time in your day, that's where adaptogens make a perfectly easy addition.

Recognizing When You’re Stressed

The state of stress can sneak up on any of us. It’s not like anxiety, which makes itself well known as it gnaws in your gut. Although you can be both anxious and stressed at the same time, you probably pay a lot more attention to those anxious feelings than you do to the more subtle overall sense of being under stress.

People around you may perceive that you’re stressed before you realize it. They see the shortness of your temper, the irritability, the tenseness of your face. I personally found myself realizing I was much more stressed than I fully comprehended and I began tracking the symptoms. Tense shoulders, tired eyes from staring at screens, uptight reactions, panic around taking care of everything, and maybe worst of all, an inability to really think clearly.

If you can’t change the things that are causing you stress on a day-to day-basis, what can you do to reduce it?

The answer is, you can rely on adaptogens, the renowned herbs and mushrooms that offer real stress relief by supporting your body to adapt to it. Adaptogens help you stay calm and keep out of the high stress zone.

How Do Adaptogens Work?

The story starts with a bit of history.

Russian scientists in the 1950’s were researching which herbs would help their Olympic athletes and their cosmonauts adapt to stress under extreme conditions while producing health benefits like increasing their endurance and enhancing their immune systems.

Here’s the definition of “adaptogen” that has evolved since those days for the term they created:

Adaptogens are herbs and mushrooms that increase resistance to stress, whether the cause is physical, chemical or biological. They have a non-specific normalizing effect on the body’s physical systems by strengthening the immune system, the nervous system and the glandular system. Adaptogens also enhance the body’s ability to recover after exercise, to reduce fatigue and increase cognitive function. They may be taken on a continuous basis without causing any harm.

The Three Stages of Stress

When you’re first succumbing to stress, your body enters the “fight or flight” response. Your adrenal glands pump out cortisol and other stress hormones to heighten the feeling of being energized by increased mental alertness while your liver floods your blood with glucose for quick energy. If you’ve read my newsletter for awhile, you’ll know that caffeine stimulates this stress response too. At the same time, your body pulls energy away from your digestion and immune system so you can prepare to fight off an enemy or run from danger.

Hans Seyle, a Canadian researcher and medical doctor, identified three stages of stress he called the General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS). The first stage is the alarm stage when you initially react to stress and are in the fight-or-flight response. The second stage is the resistance stage when your body tries to adapt to the stressful state. Cortisol will stay elevated in your blood stream, increasing the duration of stress, which begins to affect your mood and your body. Your blood pressure may remain elevated; you may be irritable and have poor concentration. You are quickly frustrated and various muscles remain tense.

If you remain in the resistance stage too long, you enter the third stage of stress, which is the exhaustion stage. This is when you feel burnt-out, exhausted all the time and your mood may be anxious or depressed. Your immune system is depressed too which puts you at risk for developing an illness or chronic health condition. Prolonged stress may cause heart disease, strokes, digestive problems, insomnia and weight gain.

Adaptogens Affect Cortisol Production, the Stress Hormone

One of the standard tests for evaluating an herb or mushroom to determine if it qualifies to be an adaptogen is to test whether or not its continuous use will normalize the adrenal gland’s production of cortisol. The battle to maintain optimal cortisol levels is the key to relieving stress.

Although the mechanism that adaptogens use to support the body in relieving stress isn’t well understood, they seem to normalize the balance between the sympathetic nervous system, which activates the fight-or-flight response, and the parasympathetic nervous system which stimulates the body to “rest-and-digest”. Thus if you have too little cortisol, adaptogens will support the adrenals in producing more whereas if your adrenals are producing too much cortisol, they will help its production come back into balance.

Studies also look at the ability to perform better on cognitive tests when under stressful conditions in order to determine the ability of an herb or mushroom to support a better response to stress.

Nine Best Studied Adaptogens for Stress and Anxiety Relief

These 9 adaptogenic herbs have a history of use in diverse cultures to protect health by lowering stress and relieving anxiety.

Eleuthero

The first herb Russian scientists were studying when they developed the term ”adaptogen”. Originally known as Siberian ginseng, eleuthero is a member of the same botanical family as ginseng. Russian studies showed it to have many of the same health benefits as ginseng such as increased endurance, lowered stress response and support for the immune system.

Find this herb in Teeccino’s Reishi Eleuthero French Roast Mushroom Herbal Tea.

Reishi

Asia’s Mushroom of Longevity has been renowned for 2000 years for its strengthening effects on health so much so that it was believed that consuming reishi mushrooms helped prolong life. Its antioxidants and polysaccharides are some of the active ingredients thought to support stress reduction and anxiety relief.

Find this herb in Teeccino’s Reishi Eleuthero French Roast Mushroom Herbal Tea.

Astragalus

Considered a tonic herb in Asia, astragalus is often added to soups to help prevent illness and strengthen vitality. Its unique antioxidant, astragalosides and its polysaccharides protect the respiratory tract. Animal studies show that astragalus improves cognitive performance such as memory and learning as well as reducing anxiety under stressful conditions.

Tulsi

Revered in India for over 5,000 years, Tulsi has been well studied for its effects on reducing stress whether from physical, psychological, metabolic or chemical stressors. Animal studies show that tulsi optimizes physical endurance, improves cognitive performance under stress, and human studies have shown results for mood improvement and reduction of stress scores.

Ashwagandha

Ashwagandha root, one of the most highly revered herbs in India’s Ayurvedic medicine, has been used for four thousand years as a ‘rasayana’ — which are tonic herbs that are considered excellent for rejuvenation and longevity. Now modern science has shown that it helps the body adapt to stress. The name, Ashwagandha means ‘strength and smell of a horse’ and ‘somnifera’ was given because of its use to promote restful sleep. Its many health-promoting uses have earned its reputation as the “King of Herbs” in Ayurvedic medicine.

Rhodiola

Growing in the northern most climate of Siberia where cold temperatures subject plants to stress, rhodiola has shown the ability to improve the response to stress. Human studies show rhodiola can reduce fatigue associated with burn-out, uplift mood and relieve anxiety while improving mental performance.

Lion’s Mane

Traditional Chinese medicine believes that lion’s mane supports the body's “qi” or vital energy and it is often prescribed for people who need a restorative for both physical and mental performance. Hericenones and erinacines are two compounds found in lion’s mane that encourage the growth of neurites, which then form complex neuronal circuits necessary for memory and learning. Although lion’s mane has been shown to help reduce fatigue, as an adaptogen, it can also help improve the quality of sleep.

Chaga

Referred to as ‘the Gift of the Gods’ and ‘the King of Mushrooms’, chaga is drunk as a coffee-like beverage by Siberian natives who live in the coldest of climates and need protection from stress and the elements. Chaga has one of the highest ORAC (oxygen radical absorbance capacity) scores of any other herb, spice, fruit or vegetable. Its health-promoting properties are in large part due to its high antioxidant content.

Turkey Tail

Known for the prebiotic compounds found in its mycelium, turkey tail provide fuel for your probiotics, the beneficial microorganisms that improve gut health. It contains several active compounds that help protect immune cells and support the activity of macrophages, specialized cells in the immune system.

Adaptogens Work Through Regular Consumption

A daily cup full of adaptogenic herbs and mushrooms is a delicious way to incorporate adaptogens into your healthy regimen. For their full effects, you need to take adaptogens regularly. They work overtime to help your body adapt to stress, lower anxiety and protect your immunity.

One of the great things about Teeccino is that the whole family can drink it because it’s caffeine free and made of ingredients that are wholesome and nutritious. Sharing a pot together in the morning or evening is a wonderful way to feel connected to our loved ones. That is stress relieving in and of itself!

Teeccino Miraculous Mushrooms collection has 5 adaptogenic blends available both as herbal coffees and herbal teas. Four of them combine a single adaptogenic herb with a mushroom such as Chaga Ashwagandha, Reishi Eleuthero, Lion’s Mane Rhodiola and Turkey Tail Astragalus while Adapt & Protect brings 5 wellness mushrooms to your cup. Four new instant blends combine multiple mushrooms in a single serving such as Adapt & Protect in both the bold café and latte styles, and two low caffeine choices, Matcha Latte and Cacao + 5.

Whether you want to brew a pot, steep a cup, or quickly stir Teeccino into hot or cold water, our Miraculous Mushroom blends make it easy for you to enjoy the health benefits of herbs and mushrooms every day!

Shop the Miraculous Mushrooms collection →