Ashwagandha: The Natural Remedy for Balancing Stress and Cortisol Levels
There’s a good reason all your friends are taking Ashwagandha these days.
It’s an herb used for about 3,000 years to help us adapt to stress.
And yes, it really does work.
Withania somnifera aka winter cherry aka Ashwagandha is a shrub that grows in Asia (including India), Africa and the Middle East which is in the Solanaceae or nightshade family.
The book, The Yoga of Herbs by Dr. Vasand Lad and David Frawley describes it as giving one “the vitality and sexual energy of a horse”.🐎🍆💓 (Goodness!) Ashwagandha is used in Ayurvedic medicine similar to the way ginseng is in Chinese medicine. But it’s far more available and way less expensive, which is why you see it used so often. Vasant Lad describes its traditional use in children and the elderly for weakness, overwork, lack of sleep, or nervous exhaustion. (Sound like anyone you know??)
Ashwagandha in the research
But let’s dive into some of the peer-reviewed research in case this 3,000-year-old system of healing doesn’t inspire confidence. When I put ASHWAGANDHA into PubMed (the National Library of Medicine database), I got 687 results today. That’s a fair bit of research. It’s been studied for its benefits for stress, anxiety, depression, insomnia, neurodegenerative disease, physical performance, cancer care, sexual performance, testosterone levels, viral infections, cognitive function, and more.
The doses used in the studies ranged from 250-600mg/day and most studies were done over a period of 8-12 weeks. Adaptogens are known to provide benefits over long-term use and tend to get better as you go along. That means if there were improvements seen in 8-12 weeks, it was only going to get better the longer they were taking it.
Ashwagandha lowers cortisol
Cortisol is one of our stress hormones, but it’s more than that. In a healthy person, cortisol levels naturally rise about 30 minutes after waking up in the morning to their peak level. This gets us out of bed, reduces inflammation, and spurs us onwards with our day. Its levels then fall and (ideally) reach their nadir at bedtime. However, when we experience chronic stress, our cortisol levels can start bumping up in the afternoon, evening, and nighttime, which disturbs our sleep. Chronically elevated cortisol also causes insulin resistance, leading to higher blood sugar levels, more visceral adipose tissue/belly fat, and poor immune function. If chronic stress goes on long enough, some people start to have LOW levels of cortisol, especially in the morning. Either way, you’re usually really fatigued.
Now, you wouldn’t want to block cortisol. Low cortisol has many of the same debilitating symptoms that high cortisol has. What we need is to modulate it to healthier levels. And if you read the previous article on adaptogens, you’ll remember this is what adaptogens like ashwagandha are all about.
Many studies show that ashwagandha lowers serum cortisol levels and improves sleep. These results are seen at 250mg/day and results were even more significant at 600mg/day. (1)
Other studies showed it reduced the Perceived Stress Scale score, HAM-A anxiety scale, and improved sleep index. (2,3)
Will taking ashwagandha cause my cortisol to go too low?
I asked Dr. Jill Stansbury ND this very question. She’s a renowned botanical medicine expert and she basically said, “No.” She explained to me that adaptogens don’t work this way and when she dug into the literature, it showed that it can actually help people with LOW cortisol as well. So unlike a drug that can have a one-way effect, adaptogens like ashwagandha help the body find balance and act more to normalize these hormone levels and help your body to adapt to your environment. It generally makes them safer to use too.
Ashwagandha improves blood sugar control and lipids
Since I specialize in working with people with blood sugar issues, this is an important outcome for me. It’s not usual when monitoring my client’s continuous glucose monitor (CGM) data, to see that their diet isn’t the problem. It’s stress. That stress raises cortisol levels and therefore blood sugar. So it’s no surprise that in a study in diabetic rats, treatment with ashwagandha improved the following metrics: Urine sugar, blood glucose, HbA1c, total cholesterol, triglycerides, LDL cholesterol and ALT (liver enzymes) and all at a similar level as a standard anti-diabetic drug (glibenclamide). (4)
Ashwagandha improves sleep
One thing we know is that if you have elevated cortisol in the evenings, it’s going to disrupt your sleep. So one could infer that it would be helpful for sleep… IF … your sleep issue was due to elevated cortisol levels. And indeed, in multiple studies doses of 250mg/day and 600mg/day improved sleep quality. One study looked at both serum cortisol and sleep and showed participants receiving Ashwagandha had significant improvements in sleep over the placebo group. (1,3)
Ashwagandha increased testosterone
The reason testosterone levels are of interest to me is that it plays a key role in carbohydrate, fat, and protein metabolism. Low testosterone is associated with impaired glucose tolerance and increased risk of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. (5)
A review of the literature looking at a variety of herbs and their effects on testosterone levels in men reported that 9 out of 32 st studies showed a statistically significant increase in testosterone levels in men when using ashwagandha.(6)
Can I take Ashwagandha if I’m allergic to nightshades?
Caution: Nightshades! 🍅🥔🌶️🍆
While Ashwagandha is generally safe for most people to use long-term, no substance is without drawbacks. The only caution using it that I’ve seen is in people who are VERY sensitive to all nightshade vegetables (tomato, potato, peppers, eggplants/aubergine). If you are only sensitive to one of these (say, tomatoes) but can tolerate others, then Ashwagandha might be fine. It’s important to note that there is no lack of adaptogenic herbs to choose from. Ashwagandha is just widely available and cost-effective.
My Top 4 Ashwagandha Supplements
Cortisol Manager by Integrative Therapeutics
2 tablets contain 500mg of ashwagandha, 100mg phosphatidylserine along with magnolia officinalis and L-Theanine. That’s a solid therapeutic dose that the research shows can lower cortisol levels and improve sleep. It’s a favorite with people wanting to reduce cortisol levels in the evenings. It’s recommended to take it daily for at least 8 weeks to truly evaluate its effectiveness. However, many people find immediate improvement in sleep taking this in the evening on very stressful days.
Jarrow Ashwagandha
This is just straight-up Ashwagandha 300mg/capsule. Jarrow is a good brand with a fair price tag.
Adrenal Response, by Innate Response
This is a nice combo product that I like because it includes a therapeutic dose of ashwagandha (250mg in 2 capsules) along with some of my other favorite adaptogens like Rhodiola, astragalus, holy basil, and Schisandra. When I’m looking for an all-around adaptogen to support one of my clients, I often recommend this one (I use it for myself too).
Ashwagandha tincture: Herb Pharm
Tinctures are a great way to go if you don’t like pills and want to add them to your tea. These are alcohol tinctures and I like using them by adding a dropperful in my tea cup, then pour boiling water over it and my tea so the alcohol can evaporate off in the heat. You can combine multiple tinctures to make your own custom blend.
If you would like to try any of these, I invite you to click on the link below to create an account on my Fullscript online dispensary. You’ll find it’s a great resource for professional supplement lines and the price will be comparable to Amazon, but you can be assured of better storage practices. 👇👇
References
Salve J, Pate S, Debnath K, Langade D. Adaptogenic and Anxiolytic Effects of Ashwagandha Root Extract in Healthy Adults: A Double-blind, Randomized, Placebo-controlled Clinical Study. Cureus. 2019 Dec 25;11(12):e6466.
Lopresti AL, Smith SJ, Malvi H, Kodgule R. An investigation into the stress-relieving and pharmacological actions of an ashwagandha (Withania somnifera) extract: A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study Medicine (Baltimore).2019 Sep;98(37):e17186.
Gopukumar K, Thanawala T, Somepalli V, Rao TSS, Thamatam VB, Chauhan S. Efficacy and Safety of Ashwagandha Root Extract on Cognitive Functions in Healthy, Stressed Adults: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Study. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2021 Nov 30;2021:8254344.
Udayakumar R, Kasthurirengan S, Mariashibu TS, Rajesh M, Anbazhagan VR, Kim SC, Ganapathi A and Choi CW. Hypoglycaemic and Hypolipidaemic Effects of Withania somnifera Root and Leaf Extracts on Alloxan-Induced Diabetic Rats. Int J Mol Sci. 2009 May; 10(5): 2367–2382.
Kelly DM, Jones TH. Testosterone: a metabolic hormone in health and disease. J Endocrinol. 2013 Apr 29;217(3):R25-45.
Smith SJ, Lopresti AL, Teo SYM, Fairchild TJ. Examining the Effects of Herbs on Testosterone Concentrations in Men: A Systematic Review. Adv Nutr. 2021 Jun 1;12(3):744-765.