The root of being - Stephen Fulder

Between medium and large paperback , spine creasing - cover has light wear
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Ginseng and the Pharmacology of Harmony

The Root of Being is the first full and critical exploration of the remarkable healing properties of ginseng and (for the West) its newly discovered relatives. The author highlights the areas in which such drugs can fill the gaps left by the failures of Western therapy: control of stress, increasing human resistance to disease, provision of a safe stimulant, coping with the symptoms of ageing and so on. He argues that ginseng is just the first of a new generation of subtle, non-toxic medicines which are destined to change the face of pharmacology.

Harmony drugs, as Stephen Fulder calls them, achieve their effect by improving inner equilibrium. The user in peak condition therefore, feels no obvious effect but the drug will keep him in that condition. For anybody at all under par the effect is rapidly noticeable as the body is brought into harmony.

The author shows that adaptogens have, indeed, been used since ancient times in Asia to increase human capacity, for example in combat, and are now commonly given to cosmonauts, athletes and explorers. In the absence of a suitable term, he has coined the word somatensics for drugs used in this way and suggests some uses for them in our everyday experience, including night work, examinations, board meetings, and while flying aircraft. Stephen Fulder concludes that we need to work towards a more sophisticated and refined relationship with the medicinal substances of our environment. The time of the slapdash discovery and application of synthetic drugs is drawing to a close, as is the time of the anxious and sometimes foolish consumption of health products. The year 2001 will see many new subtle and non-toxic medicines, applied with much greater sensitivity.