Other than the changes in sleep, I would say one of most predictable benefits of taking adaptogens like TA-65 or Recharge is the benefit in exercise performance and recovery from injury.

A few years ago, my older son twisted his ankle in sports and it is swelled up. I had him take TA-65 and by the next morning, the swelling, pain and injury was gone. Last week, my younger son also had a similar injury and experienced what we all recognize: Inflammation…which is characterized by rubor (redness), calor (heat), dolor (pain), and functio laesa (functional loss). Even my son knew we treat minor injuries with RICE (rest, ice, compression, elevation.

But I gave Oliver three Recharge (containing 30mg of pure cycloastrogenol) and by the next morning, there was no residual pain or functional loss. Not weird. Typical, actually.

I believe the ability to heal is in direct proportion to the proliferative capacity of the cells and also the quality of their response to inflammatory modulators orchestrated by mesenchymal stem cells which arrive on the scene and diagnose and orchestrate therapy. Watch this podcast to learn more about sports injuries. I’m suggesting that the benefits of adaptogens to assist healing are even more pronounced in young peoples’ cells although I wouldn’t advise routine use in younger people for reasons explained here.

Apropos of this illustration from my book, I was riding through San Francisco last week with my 13-yo son who did just fine despite injuring his ankle two days before. I never exercise and only stretch in yoga so I was feeling “The Streets of San Francisco”  hills of our 16-mile ride in my sore quads quite a lot towards the end.

Of course, Oliver woke up without muscle soreness without needing Recharge owing to younger stem cells!

In my past (pre-adaptogen) life, I remember waking up the following day with residual aches after a sudden and atypical exertion like this. One of the odd things that we all take for granted is that there is little to no workout “hangover” because of the mysteriously efficient overnight healing. Watch this podcast to understand more.

I was speaking with a Lokahi Guru distributor this week and she said her hike down and back up the Grand Canyon was a surprisingly easy adventure to recover from. One of her clients, a yoga instructor in her mid 50s took for granted that she was fine until she called from her new state to get more Recharge sent out ASAP as the aching was coming back.

One warning, sometimes the youthful exuberance and surging hormones and neutrotransmitters get the better of us. Always listen to your body because pain is a sign of injury in progress and I have noted some people who don’t heed their pain can get injured- especially in the Achilles’ tendon. Watch this video for info on tendon injury, not from adaptogens, but from not heeding your body in medias res.