Ashwagandha. Try to say that three times fast and you’ll probably get tongue-tied.
Besides the name being hard to pronounce, that’s truly the only downside of this natural herb, which works wonders in a number of areas.
If you’ve started reading labels on natural herb mixes or supplements, you’ve probably seen ashwagandha listed there lately.
It’s definitely growing in popularity, and some say it helps with multiple conditions, including cancer, diabetes, inflammation, and autoimmune conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis. But what is it really and what does it actually do?
Ashwagandha is a small evergreen shrub. It grows in India, the Middle East, and parts of Africa. According to medical historians, ashwagandha is one of the most important herbs in Ayurveda, an alternative medicine based on Indian principles of natural healing. The root and berry are used to make medicine.
Ashwagandha is Sanskrit for the smell of the horse, referring to its unique earthy aroma and its ability to increase strength.
Its botanical name is Withania somnifera, and it’s also known as Indian ginseng and winter cherry.
Ashwagandha has been studied in both women and men with a variety of sexual problems. The natural herb has been widely used to reduce stress and many of us know that stress can inhibit sexual performance in anyone.
But eliminating stress is only half of the equation of how ashwagandha works.
One study, published in October 2015, in the journal BioMed Research International, tracked 50 heterosexual women who were experiencing sexual dysfunction — difficulty becoming aroused or having an orgasm, low libido, or other problems — and found that those who took 600 mg of ashwagandha extract every day reported feeling more satisfied with their sexual encounters with their partner, more lubrication and arousal, and more orgasms at the end of eight weeks than women who took a placebo.
This is why it has the nickname “Indian ginseng”, although it’s unrelated to actual ginseng.
Researchers have reported that it blocked the stress pathway in rats’ brains by regulating chemical signaling in the nervous system.
Also, several controlled human studies have shown that it can reduce symptoms in people with stress and anxiety disorders.
According to the National Institutes of Health, a 60-day study of people with chronic stress found that those in the group that supplemented with ashwagandha reported a 69 percent reduction in anxiety and insomnia, on average, compared with 11% in the placebo group.
In another six-week study, 88 percent of people who took ashwagandha reported a reduction in anxiety, compared with 50 percent of those who took a placebo.
Sleeplessness and other sleep disorders, such as restless leg syndrome, are common complaints among the middle-aged population.
Insomnia is one of the most common neuropsychiatric disorders, with an estimated incidence of 10-15% in the general population and 30-60% in the elderly population.
It is closely linked with certain other diseases, including obesity, cardiovascular diseases, depression, anxiety, mania, and deficits, etc. Currently available synthetic drugs often show severe side effects.
That’s where the natural, no-side-effect nature of ashwagandha steps in.
According to the National Institutes of Health findings, ashwagandha extract has sleep-inducing potential, is well tolerated, and improves sleep quality and sleep onset latency in patients with insomnia at a dose of 300 mg extract twice daily.
It could be a potential candidate for the treatment of insomnia and anxiety.
In Ayurvedic texts, ashwagandha is said to improve:
The herb has been used traditionally to reduce:
Ashwagandha is considered a general immune-strengthening herb, used to help the body resist infection and maintain overall vitality.
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