I heard a fascinating interview with author Patricia L. Gerbarg on the Smart Drug Smarts podcast, in which she exuberantly praised this Nootropic adaptogen, Rhodiola, which is (literally) mythological.
This herb has a fascinating story intertwined with ancient and recent history, after listening to the Smart Drug Smarts interview twice, I was a little skeptical, yet determined to discover if this is the robust antiaging Biohack that Dr. Gerbarg describes it as...
After reading this book, I was very sold on trying Rhodiola itself. I've concluded after reading this book, writing a 3000-word article, and spending many hours scouring Pubmed looking at studies that Rhodiola as a Nootropic has a biological risk-reward trade-off tantamount to Piracetam or ALCAR - some of my favorite all-time Nootropics.
Much of the book is on the interplay between the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems. One of the interesting points it makes is that when these systems are not functioning optimally it negatively affects our Heuristic decision-making. To quote the book:
"The vagus nerve also is a major conduit for mind-body interactions— so the next time you experience a “gut reaction,” you’ll know that your vagus is speaking to you."(693-694)
A lot of times you hear high performance people talking about how they owe a lot of their success to following their gut. Yet a lot of people who aren't so successful blame their impulsiveness or poor instinctual decision-making. I would assert that the difference between these two kinds of people is the elasticity of their respective nervous systems and this book explains a lot of strategies to improve this.
The book includes several interesting surveys to try to determine the health of your own stress management, here's how I scored:
Quiz I: How High Is Your Stress Level?
Scored 6 - Low side of the Moderate range
Quiz II: How Well Do You Replenish Your Energy Supply?
System?
Scored 12 - Breaking even
Quiz III: How Sensitive is Your Stress Response System?
Scored 1 - Mildly overactivated
So I'm not doing a great job of replenishing my energy supply but my stress level is relatively low and my stress response is pretty balanced, so I'm getting by ok. I'm pretty productive and happy but there's some room for improvement! My weaknesses that the book's surveys pointed out are primarily that...
I don't exercise consistently enough.
I need to devote some more time to having fun outside of my work.
While I have some good friendships (some are with you people who follow Limitless Mindset) and my relationship with my family is quite good, I lack close relationships with the people physically near me. This is my fault because I'm constantly moving to new cities in new countries, so I should more carefully consider this biological trade-off in exchange for cultural novelty.
One study indicated that Rhodiola is something of a language learning hack, in a placebo-controlled study, foreign students taking a Rhodiola-derived drug improved language ability by 60% in learning Russian. я немного говорю по русски. Es una idioma muy deficil que appender! If it helped them learn Russian, it can help you!
One of the cool things the book covers is the interesting history of Rhodiola which is intertwined with the history of the Russian space program and connected to some iconic moments in the space race.
The book is NOT just about Rhodiola, it's about the Nootropic class of Adaptogens which includes Eleuthero, Schisandra, and Ginseng. So I think it could have been appropriately named the Adaptogen Revolution, while Rhodiola is probably the best option for increasing performance.
Why would you want to buy and read a book about Rhodiola instead of buying and taking Rhodiola?
I would say if you are an otherwise healthy person who just wants to take Nootropics for performance enhancement, just take Rhodiola. It's pretty inexpensive and it's very safe.
However, if you have some health issues like depression, being overweight, sexual performance, or are facing the specter of heart disease I'd recommend getting the book as it contains some authentic specific protocols for dealing with these issues. For example, a potent weight loss cofactor of Rhodiola is Rhododendron Caucasicum.
A book like this is maybe a good gateway drug to encourage someone in your life (who is maybe a little bit older) to get into Biohacking. You know if you talk to a younger person about Biohacking, they will Google it, watch a few YouTube videos, and be like heck yeah, this looks cool! I'll try it. However, if you talk to an older person, they are probably going to be VERY skeptical, paranoid about side effects, and resistant to changing their habits. A book like this can change their minds and assuage their doubts.
