Supplement with ashwagandha reduces anxiety and cortisol during a period of stress
If you're under psychological stress, ashwagandha supplementation can lower your cortisol levels. In addition, the classical Ayurvedic adaptogen reduces feelings of fear and anxiety.
Study
Researchers from the private research company Clinical Research Australia [clinicalresearch.com.au] divided 60 healthy adults into 2 groups. All subjects experienced mild life stress and reported feeling anxious and anxious to some degree. Some subjects were male, others female.
One group took a placebo daily for 60 days, while the subjects in the other group took a supplement containing 240 milligrams of a highly purified ashwagandha extract.The product in question was Shoden. Shoden is produced by the Indian Arjuna Natural. [arjunanatural.com] Arjuna Natural funded the study this post is about.
Results
There was a trend for ashwagandha supplementation to increase the subjects' testosterone levels early in the morning by 11 percent. However, this increase was not significant.
More remarkable and statistically significant was the effect of supplementation on morning cortisol levels. These levels dropped by 24 percent.
In both groups, the level of anxiety and fear decreased during the study, but the decrease in the supplementation group was greater than in the placebo group.
Withanolides
Shoden consists of 35 percent withanolides, the main active bioactive compounds in ashwagandha. The researchers suspect that during periods of psychological stress withanolides not only impact endocrinological systems, but also imitate or enhance the effect of serotonin and GABA in the brain. This may explain the decrease in the measured anxiety.
Conclusion
"Further clinical trials are warranted using larger sample sizes, differing cultural populations, and longer durations to substantiate our findings and those from previously conducted trials", write the researchers.
Source:
Medicine (Baltimore). 2019 Sep;98(37):e17186.
If you're under psychological stress, ashwagandha supplementation can lower your cortisol levels. In addition, the classical Ayurvedic adaptogen reduces feelings of fear and anxiety.
Study
Researchers from the private research company Clinical Research Australia [clinicalresearch.com.au] divided 60 healthy adults into 2 groups. All subjects experienced mild life stress and reported feeling anxious and anxious to some degree. Some subjects were male, others female.
Results
There was a trend for ashwagandha supplementation to increase the subjects' testosterone levels early in the morning by 11 percent. However, this increase was not significant.
More remarkable and statistically significant was the effect of supplementation on morning cortisol levels. These levels dropped by 24 percent.
In both groups, the level of anxiety and fear decreased during the study, but the decrease in the supplementation group was greater than in the placebo group.
Withanolides
Shoden consists of 35 percent withanolides, the main active bioactive compounds in ashwagandha. The researchers suspect that during periods of psychological stress withanolides not only impact endocrinological systems, but also imitate or enhance the effect of serotonin and GABA in the brain. This may explain the decrease in the measured anxiety.
Conclusion
"Further clinical trials are warranted using larger sample sizes, differing cultural populations, and longer durations to substantiate our findings and those from previously conducted trials", write the researchers.
Source:
Medicine (Baltimore). 2019 Sep;98(37):e17186.
