The precise mechanism of Rhodiola is not well understood, with limited data from yeast and fruit flies, and potential links to cortisol, HPA axis, dopamine, or serotonin.

“And frankly, the mechanism by which Rhodiola rosea modulates cortisol is still under investigation. I hope to do an episode about it in the future or at least make it part of an episode because the hypothesized mechanism that's starting to emerge is really interesting as it relates to neurons in the brain that control the stress response and glands in the body like the adrenals that control the stress response and that secrete cortisol.”

“In fact, the some data like have indicated that but most of the research suggests actual performance enhancements from it. We're just now with the cortisol and stuff we're speculating because at some point if you actually block cortisol response then you actually inhibit stimuli right? Which you don't want. So our hands are up in the air. Like I haven't seen anybody really do a lot of human trials and figuring out definitive mechanisms.”

“How is it working? Nobody knows. We don't really have outside of like stuff in yeast and I think there's some fruitfly data. There's not a lot of mechanism here. I could guess I could spout out. Is it an adaptogen? What is is it a polyphenol? What is it with both? Right. Right? So you have both of those effects, but the only little bit of mechanism data is maybe cortisol, right? Maybe something HPA access, maybe dopamine, maybe serotonin, like something's happening here.”