Eleuthero for Fatigue
Despite its reputation as an adaptogen, eleuthero (Siberian ginseng) has not been shown to relieve fatigue in controlled human trials. The current evidence is weak, and any benefit appears unlikely.
Why this grade7-layer evidence engine
The grade rests on two modern double-blind randomized controlled trials, both of which were negative. In an 8-week trial of 96 people with chronic fatigue (PMID 14971626), 2 g/day of eleuthero did no better than placebo overall; only an exploratory subgroup with milder fatigue showed a signal (P=0.04, unadjusted for multiple comparisons), which is too fragile to count as proof. A second trial of 144 people with stress-related fatigue (PMID 23740477) found that adding eleuthero to stress-management training gave no advantage over the training alone.
Major health authorities echo this. The NIH Office of Dietary Supplements states plainly that 'no good human evidence' supports eleuthero's use as an adaptogen for endurance or related claims, and notes it may raise blood pressure, bleeding risk, and blood sugar. The WHO monograph and US FDA address only traditional use and product labeling (the name 'Siberian ginseng' is restricted), not proven efficacy.
A single supportive mention from Cleveland Clinic comes from a general adaptogen explainer rather than a fatigue-specific evidence review, so it does not outweigh the negative trials. Older Soviet-era 'work capacity' studies were excluded as low quality. The net result is a weak (Tier C) grade: the mechanism is plausible, but the human data do not show that eleuthero works for fatigue.
Scoring transparency
All scores computed by a 7-layer evidence engine — fully auditable▸View the full decision path (audit trail)
- compute_raw_score — 加權公式: L2×0.30 + L3×0.25 + L5×0.25 + L11×0.10 + L1×0.10 = 0.47
- tier_from_score — 依分數區間映射至 tier letter
- apply_hec_rules — 無高階證據可裁決
- tier_strict_requirement_check — Tier 條件達標，未降階
- detect_disputes — 偵測到 0 個 hard + 0 個 soft dispute
- decide_status — 依 tier + dispute 結果決定 status