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Not all non-medicated drugs are adaptive

As a reader of this site, you certainly know that Paracelsus drugs are poisons that cure in a small dose . Their opposite is adaptogens, which must not be poisonous or unilateral . However, as a closed list of adaptogens can not be compiled, people tend to knit adaptogens with all non-toxic drugs.

Adaptogen is not the same as a non-toxic drug

Those who are willing to understand what the adaptogens are, can easily be explained that poisonous plants (foxglove, mistletoe, ruffian coil ...) are hard to see as adaptogens. We look at poisonous plants like Paracelsus drugs, the quality of which is measured by the therapeutic index (the ED 50 dose ratio to the LD 50 lethal dose).

It can also be easily explained that it is difficult to look at non-medicated drugs as Paracelsus drugs because they do not have the lethal dose of LD 50 at all. However, the category of adaptogen is not identical to the category of non-toxic medicinal plants . Inadequacy is not a sufficient condition for classifying the drug as an adaptogen. Another condition is that the adaptogen does not have a unilateral effect and, if possible, increases the adaptation range of more than one physiological parameter (the more, the better the adaptogen). Here are two examples of non-toxic drugs that can not be classified as adaptogens due to unilateral effects:

  • Chinese licorice (as well as licorice lysa) meets almost all the prerequisites of being an adaptogen: it is non-toxic, widely used, and in addition it stimulates stress hormones that allow us to survive unfavorable conditions. (Liquorice is not an adaptogen because, unlike ginseng, stress hormones only increase. This unilateral effect of liquorice in long-term use is troubled by the body as well as chronic stress. (In fact, the ginseng increases the stress .) Even chemically, the active substances of licorice resemble ginseng, but the liquorice does not meet the definition of adaptogen.
  • Hemp cannabis is another non-toxic drug that is not an adaptogen. Cannabinoids can affect both CB1 receptor and CB2 receptors and have plenty of positive effects. Most important is the ability of cannabis to suppress inflammation and pain - that's why hemp delivers a sense of relief in a variety of illnesses and is thus approaching the definition of adaptogen. THC cannabis has unilateral effects, which many of them know firsthand. Hemp is therefore not an adaptogen.

So how to look at non-toxic drugs?

Non-toxic pharmaceuticals can be viewed from both points of view: they can be considered as adaptogens and also as medicines. Those plants that do not fulfill the definition of adaptogen must be evaluated as drugs. But even the right adaptogens can be evaluated as drugs if we use the modified drug criteria instead of the classical therapeutic index resulting from the fact that the adaptogens do not at all have a lethal dose of LD 50 . Current laws see all drugs as Paracelsus drugs , which is unreasonable for adaptogens. However, other relatively non-toxic drugs that do not fulfill the definition of adaptogen would deserve more leniency. Drug laws are written to protect the public from the strong poisons that are often contained in medicines. Medicinal plants (not only adaptogens) are considerably less dangerous.

| 2017 - 4.11.2018