Herb Review: Ashwagandha

(Withania somnifera)

By Clint Allsup

Published on 2 FEB 2022

If you went to your doctor to get a prescription for anxiety, insomnia or an autoimmune issue and they gave you a medication, how well would you say the doctor actually understands what that medication will do to your brain? Or the rest of your body? How many years of research would you guess have been put into the development of the medication? Who created it? Was it created by a company that is foremost concerned with profit (due to a fiduciary duty to their stockholders?). Has your doctor used it and is speaking from experience? Or have they given you this medication, something they likely do not fully understand, because they were told to by an organization (a medical board)  that relies on research from the company that produced the medication (a pharmaceutical company with a profit motive)? No overseeing body has the time or the resources to run independant testing on the overwhelming majority of these drugs, after all. So they rely on the company that made it (which is almost always subsidized by taxpayer money) to do the testing. 

So is the medication you are being given in your best interests? Is there a cheaper, older med (or herb) that could do the same thing as the one you were given? If so, is there any profit to be made off you (and your doctor for that matter) if you are given it? Did that play a factor in the med that was prescribed to you?

How many pens or notepads with the names of drugs are in your doctor’s office? How many times do you think they have prescribed a new (and more expensive) medication when an older generic (or herbal) med would have probably worked better? Perhaps you would be better served by taking something that has been used by human beings for eons and has been proven over and over again during that time to be able to help things like anxiety and autoimmune issues. Perhaps thousands of years of human use from a medicinal herb that grows out of the ground would be a better alternative than a chemical made in a lab with only a few years of research behind it.

Hail to the King

Ashwagandha has at least 3,000 years of human use behind it. Probably much more than that, but records are not great for herbs that are (at least) 1,000 years older than the Bible. That is much more longitudinal data than pretty much anything you are going to get from your doctor. The herb itself is essentially a number of different herbs with different compounds that have combined over centuries to create something that has a number of incredibly powerful beneficial effects. The herb is referred to some (including me) as the “King of Adaptogens”. Adaptogens are things that help the body deal with mental and physical stress. Ashwagandha is not the strongest adaptogen per se, but its overall profile is so incredible, both for apoptogenic properties and the fact that it acts as a master hormone regulator in the body, that I have no issue with calling it the “King” of this class of herbs.

This herb is also gaining popularity in mainstream circles. Even people who know little about herbal medicine or holistic healing have at least heard of this herb. The only pitfall of this popularity is that a lot of drug companies are now putting the herb into their products in trace amounts (that will not have a meaningful effect on your body) so they can advertise that their product “contains ashwagandha”. Be aware that this herb typically takes quite a bit of the active to work in a meaningful way. I have seen at least two advertisements for products on television that stated they contained ashwagandha, only to realize they contained so little that it would have no meantingful effect on the body when I examined the product.

So what does this herb do specifically?

Ashwagandha works on parts of your body that regulate your hormones, particularly the HPA (Hypothalamus/Pituitary/Adrenal) axis. It also does other things, however I will not regurgitate the specific mechanisms in detail here as there are hundreds of other places online where that information can be found. Instead, I will list specifically what this herb has done for me and what the likely mechanism was:

1. Obliterated negative stress response (when I was in a stressful situation) – Ashwagandha will regulate the way your body handles stress. When I first took it and was placed in a stressful situation, I noticed that the usual stress feelings magically weren’t there. It was amazing. As my body began to produce stress related hormones, it is as if Ashwagandha hit the breaks and I could function calmly in the stressful situation without the burden of my body producing things I did not need at the time. Almost paradoxically this herb did not do this by creating a sedative effect. To the contrary, in that situation I was sharper mentally than I usually would be, as if I got the benefit of heightened awareness (adrenal response) and energy from the stressful situation without the negative effects. It was remarkable. This is usually the primary reason that people take this herb.

It is important to note here that Ashwagandha has (about) a 4 hour window and that you will not feel ANYTHING if you take it and spend that time in a stress free environment. In this case the herb will have nothing to regulate (or at least take no action that you will be able to notice) and you may develop the false belief that “ashwagandha didn’t do anything for me”. This stuff works best when it negates bad things. This means you will know it is working when you do not feel bad things that you normally would.

2. Raised testosterone and lowered stress by an order of magnitude – This was a remarkable benefit that I experienced from this herb. This was likely because Ashwagandha lowered the amount of cortisol (stress hormone) in my system and my body compensated for this vacuum by increasing my testosterone. To say that suddenly I felt better in every conceivable way when I was working out would be an understatement. It must be noted that this effect was far less noticeable after taking the herb for a while, however I believe this is due to the fact that my testosterone is now stabilized at the improved level.

3. Insulin regulation – Ashwagandha seems to have a stabilizing effect on my blood sugar. While taking the herb I do not suffer blood sugar “crashes” after eating high sugar foods. It is important to note here that insulin resistance from bad diet is a major contributor to anxiety in many people. Ashwagandha likely regulates insulin levels in some way (either by regulating the pancreas itself or the endocrine controlling parts of the brain) and this in term reduces anxiety caused by blood sugar spikes and drops. For those who have problems with anxiety due to insulin resistance taking inositol is a decent alternative to ashwagandha, but the two should not be taken together.

4. Mental Clarity – This herb makes my thinking much clearer usually when I take it. Since there could be a number of reasons for the herb to have this effect (or a combination thereof) there is no real point in speculating. It regulates hormones somehow and this results in blissful mental clarity.

5. Thyroid Regulation – This herb (along with iodine and selenium) helped me regulate an underperforming thyroid. Again, this is likely due to the herb acting on parts of the brain that control the endocrine system. Ashwagandha was not the primary reason my thyroid performance improved, but it was a noteworthy contributor.

6. Estrogen modulation – This herb does seem to help control estrogen levels somewhat but not to the same degree it controls other hormones, for some reason. A number of materials (plastics, especially when put in the microwave), foods (soy) and herbs (Japanese Knotweed) will act as estrogens (or phytoestrogens) or otherwise signal to your body to produce more estrogen. It is important to control this as it is never good to have too much of a given hormone for too long. Ashwagandha helps but cannot be relied on to control this entirely. Fenugreek is a solid herb that helps control estrogen levels if such an herb is needed.

Other Benefits

There is some evidence that other compounds in the herb can stop certain types of harmful cell proliferation (cancer). While this is not a concern for me and I do not have great knowledge of this effect, I do think the possibility of this is just another great reason to keep cycling this herb.

Extracts of Ashwagandha

Ashwaganha is a complex herb with alot of different components. The herb is most commmonly extracted for its withanolide content. Without getting too complicated withanolides are a collection of naturally occuring steroids. When compounds are named, they often name the active after part of the Latin name of the plant (in this case withanolides due to the herb being named withania somnifera).

There are two extracts on the market that I am aware of for ashwagandha: KSM-66 and Sensoril. I have tried both and I think neither one is worth it, I much prefer a supplement made up of the regular herb that has some standardization of the withanolides.  KSM-66 and Senoril are standardized much more than you will find in a regular herbal product. The reason that I do not like these extracts is, primarily, that they do not work as well for me as a less processed supplement. KSM-66 will either put me right to sleep or do absolutely nothing, and Sensoril does the same only faster. Again “somnia” is in the Latin name for a reason, the herb and extract are commonly used to relax people so they can sleep.

My primary issue with using an extract only product is that they are an attempt by humans to improve on nature, and I do not trust humans enough to do that. Ashwagandha is a complicated, ancient, powerful herb full of compounds that can and have benefitted me. Why would I need a human to improve that by taking and amplifying part of the plant (in effect) and discarding other parts? I trust natural evolution more than I trust the modern extraction process by a lot. This is of course my own personal philospy, you have the right to believe whatever you wish, but I do not like extract-only products for this reason.

I also believe there is some benefit to getting a varied amount of the active parts of the herb everyday. Just as your body would never get an exact amount of something each day in nature, I think there is a great (and underrecognized) benefit of your body recieving a varying or inconsistent amount per day.

Remember that these herbs are living things that have been harvested, cut, dried and then placed in a capsule or tincture. They are not simply inert chemicals that have never been alive. They are powerful things and will help you on your journey to heal and improve. We don’t need to treat them like the chemicals we make in labs simply because we think we can always outdo nature.

“But I took Ashwagandha before and It didn’t do anything”

I hear this from about 10%-15% of the people I recommend this herb to. There are three likely explanations:

1. Your gut is imbalanced due to poor diet or leaky gut. Fix Your Gut. This means you can’t properly break down and absorb the herb. Once your gut is fixed, you can begin exploring the miracle that is proper nutrition and proper herbal supplementation.
2. You took a supplement that had ashwagandha (possibly listed as withania somnifera on the label, or the product had some withanolide content) that was insufficient to have an effect. Often Ashwagandha supplements have an absurd amount of the herb in them (1 gram, 1.3 grams, etc) because they are attempting to get as much of the active (withanolides) into your system to increase the effect. There is considerable variance in how much of the active is in the herb, so some supplements will up the amount to attempt to get to some level of standardization. In short, you “took ashwagandha” but you did not actually get or absorb a proper amount of the active into your system. Or you took something that claimed it contains ashwagandha, but it actually only contained a small, ineffective amount. They do this so you will buy a trash, ineffective supplement because you heard other people talk about how great ashwagandha is.
3. You took a good herbal supplement, but you were not in a situation where it would work on a noticeable level. Again, you will not “feel” ashwagandha working unless you are in a situation where you would normally feel anxiety/autoimmune flare/etc. If you took the herb and then were to enter into a situation where you would typically feel a significant amount of anxiety, the herb will control the amount of anxiety you feel.
4. You didn’t take it with a fat containing meal. Some of the compounds in this herb are fat soluble. Take the herb with a fat containing meal to make sure you can break them down. Traditionally the herb is taken with milk to supply fat and also protect the stomach (some people have stomach issues with the herb, but I never have).

Tolerance and Cycling

The greater an effect an herb or drug has on your system, typically, the sooner tolerance will develop. With ashwagandha tolerance develops rather quickly as it is a very powerful herb. It is important to not take herbs to the point of complete tolerance as this is a waste of time, money and puts some amount of stress on the body. In some cases taking an herb longer than you should will result in it causing new problems for you, instead of fixing old ones.

The primary way to handle tolerance is to cycle on and off of the herb at set intervals. For ashwagandha you want to cycle on for anywhere form 5 days to one month and cycle off for at least half that amount of time. Typically I do a 7 day on and 7 day off cycle and I set Google calendar reminders to help me remember when to take the herb. It is highly unlikely that staying on this herb past an appropriate cycle will hurt you, however it is not a best practice to do so.

Verdict

One of my favorite herbs. A powerful and wonderful gift from the Earth. For some it could help far more than anything a doctor will ever give you and it will do so for much cheaper. Incredible for people who suffer from chronic illness and people who just want to improve their athletic performance, reduce anxiety, improve their sleep or just feel better. Learn this herb, use it properly and it will be one of your greatest allies in your healing journey. If you need a weapon in your fight against chronic illness, this is one of the strongest ones. This herb has helped countless over thousands of years and will do so for thousands more.

Amount of Time I Have Personally Used This Herb

3 years. I will cycle this herb forever.

Primary Indications

*To control anxiety

*To improve athletic performance

*To help balance hormone profile

*To reduce inflammation and aid in chronic inflammatory issues. The herb does this by changing what the immune system reacts to (particularly beneficial to those with Lyme and Co. or autoimmune issues of any sort)

*To alleviate insomnia

Side Effects

Typically, nothing at all. The most common complaint I have heard about is GI disturbance. Traditionally it was taken with milk and honey to protect the stomach and provide fat so the fat-soluble parts of the herb could be used by the body (I assume the honey was just to mask the taste). If you take a collagen (or gelatin) supplement you will have no problem with GI issues with this herb (or pretty much anything else after a while).

It has been used in the pass as an abortifacient. This was with very high doses but I would not recommend this to any woman who is pregnant or trying to become pregnant. This herb acts as a master regulator of hormones and during pregnancy a womans hormones are going into overdrive to create the miracle of life. Don’t mess with that.  

There is no literature I can find on this that is really conclusive  but I do not recommend this to women on hormonal birth control. Adding a tremendous amount of synthetic hormone and then taking something that will attempt to regulate it just seems like a bad idea to me, but this is just my opinion.

I personally have only experienced side effects with this herb when I took something that had an effect on my hormones (like inositol to lower blood sugar). When I took ashwagandha and inositol together (as an example) my blood sugar lowered too low and I had to stop taking the inositol. It was annoying when my blood sugar was low but the issue stopped immediately when I stopped taking one of the two things that was attempting to lower my sugar.  

Effectiveness

Hail to the King.

Dose

Depends heavily on the product. If there is no (or little) withanolide extract content you will likely need to take a lot, up to 1 gram or more. If there is an extract in the product you will need less. When I am on cycle, I take between 350mg to 1.3 grams twice a day with meal, breakfast and dinner. Because of variance in products, it is best to test things out, but I have never experienced negative consequences when I accidently took too much. Again the effect lasts about 4 hours so taking it twice (or even three times) a day will keep it active in the system when you are on cycle.

Contraindications

Do not take with any other med that affects your brain chemistry. This includes SSRI drugs (antidepressants of any kind), anti-anxiety drugs, or hormone replacement drugs (including things that change your thyroid or insulin levels).

I advise against taking this if you are taking other hormone meds or things that can act in the same way (like inositol).

Precautions

Always take a ¼ or ½ dose of the herb when first taking it to see if you are allergic. If you do have an allergic reaction then fix your gut and try the herb again. Also you can take the herb with an OTC antihistamine like loratadine (quercetin also works exceptionally well) to mitigate the negative reaction.  

Interactions

Likely interacts with any other substance that modifies hormone levels or acts on the endocrine system. Likely interacts with any substance that interacts with your brain chemistry (anti-anxiety, anti-depressant, etc).

Typical Cost

Really cheap for the benefit. I use the Gaia herbs supplement usually and it is only $25. Given the benefit and the fact that you cycle this herb it is certainly worth it.

You Can Fight Forever

And

You Can Overcome Anything