Effects of a traditional Asian medicine (TAM) on Profile of Mood States (POMS) in Healthy Stressed Subjects

Abstract

We evaluated the effects of a dietary supplement containing a traditional Asian medicine (TAM) on perceptions of mood, energy, tension, and fatigue in healthy men and women experiencing moderate levels of psychological stress. TAM contains 16 herbal/fruit extracts with historical uses in traditional Asian medicine for improving energy levels and mood (longan, lycium (goji), astragalus, jujube date, gac, cili, hawthorn, seabuckthorn, coriolus, rhodiola, schisandra, tangerine peel, ginger, mangosteen, litchi (lychee) and durian). Previous work has found TAM to reduce fatigue in active subjects following physical stress. We hypothesized that psychologically stressed subjects may benefit from TAM with reduced tension and fatigue. Subjects (N=100, 32 men, 68 women, age = 39 + 11 years) were pre‐screened for moderate levels of psychological stress and randomly assigned to TAM (3oz daily, N=50) or Control (N=50) for 4 weeks. Each subject completed a Profile of Mood States (POMS) survey at baseline and 4‐weeks. There were no significant differences between groups at baseline. Following supplementation, TAM had significantly higher scores for Global Mood State (+19%) and Vigor (+47%), and lower scores for Tension (−24%) and Fatigue (−42%) compared to control. These results suggest that TAM consumption is associated with improvements in subjective perceptions of mood, energy, tension, and fatigue.