Benefits of Ashwagandha include enhanced resilience to stress, improved endurance, longevity, decreased inflammation, protection against neurodegenerative disease, enhanced cognition, protection against cancer, immune boost, reduced anxiety, and improved muscle performance.
Ashwagandha is an herb traditionally used for thousands of years in Ayurveda medicine for its many health benefits. Now, scientific findings back up these ancient claims.
Ashwagandha contains many beneficial compounds, including alkaloids, lactones, and withanolides. All with complex structural elements and multiple bioactivities. Studies have found that Ashwagandha does everything from affecting gene expression to interacting with neurotransmitter receptors.
With these far-reaching and proven benefits, chances are, if you feel less than 100%, Ashwagandha can help.
Life is hard. Sometimes there is no way to avoid stress. However, you can become more resilient to stress, helping you to better cope with difficult situations.
One study found that taking 300mg of Ashwagandha twice a day lowered cortisol levels (the stress hormone) while significantly reducing reported levels of stress (Chandrasekhar et al. 2012). With lower cortisol levels, you will experience fewer of the harmful physical side effects of stress, like inflammation, while also feeling less stressed thanks to Ashwagandha.
VO2 max is a measure of your body’s ability to use the oxygen you consume. Generally, the higher your VO2 max, the fitter you are. VO2 max is also used as a measure of endurance capacity. A high VO2 max means your muscles are better able to use the oxygen you take in, keeping you moving faster, harder, longer.
One study found that twice-daily 300mg Ashwagandha supplements increased VO2 max after just eight weeks. More importantly, study subjects reported improved quality of life when taking Ashwagandha compared to those taking a placebo (Choudhary et al. 2015). Better endurance and improved quality of life, now that is what I call a win-win.
Longevity refers to lifespan, the longer and healthier, the better. Many things affect longevity including diet, lifestyle, and genetics. Research has found several longevity genes that appear to increase lifespan along with healthspan. While you don’t get to choose the genes you are born with, you can influence how they are expressed. This is where Ashwagandha comes in. Ashwagandha increases the expression of a couple of these longevity genes.
FOXO3 is one of them. This gene can turn on DNA repair, initiate stem cell differentiation, and breakdown reactive oxygen species, three essential processes to increase longevity. FOXO3 expression also helps protect against cardiovascular disease, cancer, type 2 diabetes, and neurological disorders (Morris et al. 2015). Four major diseases associated with aging.
SIRT3 is another longevity gene. This gene is a primary regulator of mitochondria function. Mitochondria are the energy producers of your cells and important signaling organelles. As we age, mitochondria function and numbers tend to decline. Boosting our mitochondria can help us live healthier, longer. SIRT3 keeps mitochondria running smoothly, protecting against neurodegenerative diseases, cancer, cardiovascular disease, and metabolic syndrome (McDonnell et al. 2015). Most importantly, Ashwagandha increases the expression of both FOXO3 and SIRT3 (Pradhan et al. 2017).
Furthermore, another study found that Ashwagandha can increase telomerase activity along with increase telomere length (Raguraman and Subramaniam 2016). Telomeres are structures at the end of our chromosomes that protect our DNA. As we age, our telomeres naturally shorten, leaving our DNA susceptible to damage. Longer telomeres are associated with increased longevity.
Chronic inflammation is associated with everything, from cancer to cardiovascular disease to metabolic syndrome. Poor diet, sedentary lifestyle, a leaky gut, and even stress can cause chronic inflammation. Chronic inflammation can leave you feeling tired and sluggish. It is a leading culprit behind brain fog.
To reduce chronic inflammation, you need to get rid of pro-inflammatory molecules in the body. NF-kB is one of these pro-inflammatory molecules. Ashwagandha decreases NF-kB while also reducing reactive oxygen species (Sun et al. 2016). Two essential pathways to keep your body healthy and inflammation free.
Neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s Disease and Parkinson’s result from the progressive death of nerve cells. Ashwagandha can decrease nerve cell death while restoring connections between nerve cells, helping to keep your brain sharp and healthy. Furthermore, Ashwagandha increases the body’s endogenous antioxidant defenses while reducing inflammation, preventing further nerve cell damage and death (Farooqui et al. 2018).
Ashwagandha is already giving your brain a boost by fighting inflammation and protecting against neurodegenerative disease, but it can even go a step further to enhance cognition.
Ashwagandha increases the expression of a protein (CaMKIIalpha), essential in long term memory storage and synaptic plasticity. Furthermore, the benefits of Ashwagandha also include an increase in Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF), a protein crucial for neuronal plasticity, learning, and memory (Manchanda and Kaur 2017). Even more impressive, research found that improvements in memory, executive function, attention, and processing speed can happen after just eight weeks of Ashwagandha supplementation (Choudhary et al. 2017).
The anti-cancer properties of Ashwagandha include everything from helping to prevent metastasis to slowing tumor growth by inducing cancer cell death to protection against chemically induced cancers from forming (Vyas and Singh 2014). Stopping cancer from spreading, causing cancer cells to die, and helping to prevent cancer from forming, now that hits the trifecta of anti-cancer activity. Furthermore, Ashwagandha can also repair oxidative damage and reduce inflammation, further protecting against cancer (Rai et al. 2014).
One study found that supplementing with Ashwagandha increases white blood cell count. White blood cells are the part of the immune system responsible for fighting infection, ingesting foreign material including bacteria and viruses, and producing antibodies. Not only does Ashwagandha increase white blood cell count, but it also increases circulating antibodies while enhancing the clearance of harmful foreign particles, including bacteria and dead cells (Davis and Kuttan 2000). This process helps your body to clear an infection fast so you can get back to living your best life.
Disfunction in the regulation of brain circuits and neurotransmitters can cause anxiety. Ashwagandha works to prevent anxiety by activating GABA receptors, a calming neurotransmitter that is often dysregulated in those with anxiety. When GABA receptors are activated, they reduce activity in neurons, helping to slow and stop anxious thoughts and feelings. The GABA pathway is the same pathway used by many pharmaceuticals to treat anxiety (Candelario et al. 2015).
Do you want bigger, stronger muscles? Do you want to recover from workouts more quickly? Ashwagandha may be the answer. One study found eight weeks of resistance training combined with supplementation of 300mg Ashwagandha twice a day, increased muscle strength, size, and muscle recovery compared to a placebo group (Wankhede et al. 2015).
No matter the benefits of Ashwagandha you hope to get, the magic dose seems to be 300mg twice per day. Whether the study was looking at endurance capacity, longevity, or anxiety, 300mg Ashwagandha twice per day lead to results. Just stick with it. Most effects happen around the 8-week mark.
When choosing a supplement, look for something natural containing 100% Ashwagandha pills with no fillers. These are the best Ashwagandha supplements:
Both. Ashwagandha is ideally taken twice per day. Aim for 300mg in the morning and 300mg at night.
In all of the studies looked at, subjects tolerated Ashwagandha well and reported minimal adverse effects.
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