Relieve Stress And Stay Healthy This Holiday Season With Functionalab

December 13, 2009 by Storey
Filed under Latest Posts, Product Reviews

I’ve never been big on taking medications. Growing up, my family generally saw a holistic health chiropractor and took supplements for minor health issues (we still saw the doc when we got really sick and yes, we did take anti-biotics, etc). Tinctures, vitamins, massage for pain and a healthy diet were my normal. So it always makes me giggle when I hear people surprised that an “alternative” medicine treatment works for them.

As this type of thinking has gone mainstream, lots of companies are begining to offer user friendly supplement blends. No more need to troll the aisles of your natural grocer trying to determine what herbs to take to clear your skin, relieve headaches, help rev up your metabolism, etc. These companies are blending them for you and easily naming them. I tried out a few from Functionalab: Immune Health Drops (for immune system support) and Zen Nutrient Tonic (for stress). Easy enough, right?

The Immune supplement is like a tincture, but without the yuckiness. Tinctures are made from herbs soaking in alcohol, to concentrate their effectiveness. You then take dropperful of the liquid either directly or in a glass of water. The water doesn’t really ever help the yuck factor. Funtionalabs liquid supplement is taken in water but is actually quite delicious. It doesn’t contain alcohol, but does have extracts of green tea, grap, white tea, oolong tea black elderberry along with aloe vera, echinacea and fruit flavor. It’s the fruit flavor (and maybe the elderberry extract) that make this enjoyable to take. If you are one of those people who hates to drink water, try a dropper full of this in a glass for a bit of fruit flavor.

Has it helped my immune system stay strong? Tough to say, but the makers of the product say this about the ingredients:

Functionalab Health Drops provide in only one drop of 1 ml specific antioxidants, including vitamins and minerals, intelligently combined with plants and roots that deliver special health benefits. Antioxidants are essential to support healthy immune system. They are excellent fighters against free radical attacks leading to optimal immune system health. In addition to antioxidants, Immune formula includes echinacea, widely recognized for its potent immune enhancing properties. Echinacea supports the body’s own natural defense mechanisms.

The Zen Nutrient Tonic is like a sports drink and supplements had a baby. And that baby comes in a cute little vial. The tonic has a great fruity, citrusy flavor and is only slightly sweet (the part that reminds me of a sports drink). It contains extracts of blueberry, pomegranate, acai, and cranberry along with passion flower, lemon balm, hawthorn extract and L-theanine. Functionalab says:

Passion flower tea has been used to promote a state of relaxation, bringing to a peaceful state of mind. Passion flower has been found to contain very small amounts of beta-carboline harmala alkaloids which are demonstrating relaxant action properties. Citrus aurantium, lemon balm and hawthorn are also recognized for promoting a relaxant effect.

Functionalab Zen tonic formula intelligently combines the relaxation effect of passion flower, citrus aurantium, lemon balm and hawthorn with the health benefits of powerful antioxidants coming from fruit extracts: blueberry, acai, pomegranate and cranberry, thus promoting a peaceful state of mind.

My office has been a stressful place these last few weeks and doesn’t show any sign of letting up. So I broke up my 4 pack of Zen tonics and passed them around. Everyone really liked the flavor, even commenting that they wished there was more than just the 2 oz’s to drink. One coworker especially liked all of the antioxidants. Did they calm our stress levels? We couldn’t really say after only one vial, but with a taste this good we’re willing to give it another shot