Ashwagandha Explained

Ashwagandha is a product that has recently come to fame in the supplement market, and it’s one that I find quite cool.

As with any supplement, you should have a good understanding of why you would buy it before you commit to routinely spending money on it month after month.

So, my intent with this article is to help you understand what ashwagandha is and how it’ll effect you; and hopefully help you know if it is a worthwhile supplement for you without keeping you here too long

Specifically, this article will discuss:

• What ashwagandha is

• Potential harms of aswhagandha

• How ashwagandha impacts your sleep

• Ashwagandha’s effect on anxiety and stress

• Ashwagandha’s effect on muscle size, strength, and recovery

• How much ashwagandha to take & when to take it

• What I do, personally

What is ashwagandha?

Ashwagandha is also known as Withania Somnifera, or winter cherry. It is a shrub, specifically the root of a shrub, that has most notable origins in India.

It is considered an adaptogen, which are plants or compounds claimed to help the body deal with stress; both physical and psychological.

As a supplement, ashwagandha is most commonly sold as a root extract powder.

If you look at all the available literature of ashwagandha, it has been purported to help just about every ailment you can think of at one point in time or another. [7,8]

Of all that has been investigated, there are few that have been directly observed to occur in living humans.

It is these benefit that will be discussed in this article.

Safety of ashwagandha supplementation

Ashwagandha seems to be safe and well-tolerated in otherwise healthy individuals. At least, this has been shown in periods of 8-weeks.

Longer-term safety trials past 8 weeks have not been conducted, so it is difficult to speak with certainty past this point.

However, there are two instances in which ashwagandha supplementation have been shown to be harmful:

1. If you have a history of liver disease

2. In combination with anti-anxiety medications

In otherwise healthy people, liver health does not seem to be affected as far as bloodwork goes (ALT / AST do not seem to elevate). [11]

Although, there do exist case reports of liver injury with ashwagandha being the suspected culprit. [12,13]

In these case reports, one of the three following points tended to be true:

• Subjects had a history of liver disease

• Subjects were taking a very high dose of ashwagandha

• Subjects were taking ashwagandha in addition to anti-anxiety medication

• Subjects purchased the ashwagandha from untested sources

As a general rule of thumb, it does not seem wise to take ashwagandha in addition to prescription medication of any sort simply due to the fact that there is not much evidence on possible interactions yet.

Ashwagandha supplementation does not seem to be wise in people who have a history of liver disease, of any kind.

In addition, taking doses higher than 600 mg / day is likely a bad idea, as 600 mg / day is the highest dose that has been tested in the research.

Finally, it is important to buy any supplement from third-party tested companies so you can be confidant the product has what it says it has. Third-party testing companies include NSF certified for sport, LabDoor, and WeTestYouTrust.

Ashwagandha’s effect on sleep

A 2021 systematic review & meta-analysis from Cheah et al. [6] looked at how ashwagandha affects sleep using both objective analysis and the subjective perception from the subjects of their sleep quality and next-day mental alertness.

The doses that were studied include 120 mg, 250 mg, and 600 mg / day.

What was found objectively is that ashwagandha reduced the time it took participants to fall asleep, reduced the amount of time awake throughout the night, and increased total sleep time.

What was found subjectively is that subjects reported feeling more well-rested and mentally alert upon waking; potentially indicating that the quality of sleep they had was better.

600 mg / day taken over the course of 8 weeks proved to be better than 250 mg or 125 mg / day.

Ashwagandha’s effect on stress & anxiety

The best paper looking at this is from Salve et al.[1]

They conducted a double-blind randomized control trial looking at this relationship.

Subjects did one of the following:

• took 250 mg of ashwagandha / day

• took 600 mg of ashwagandha / day

• took a placebo

Questionnaires were used to assess stress and anxiety levels (HAM-A & PSS).

In addition, cortisol was measured as it is the hormone most notably associated with perceptions of stress & anxiety.

The researchers collected these data points at the start of the study, 4 weeks in, and then at 8 weeks to conclude the study.

There seemed to be a dose-response relationship between ashwagandha intake & stress and anxiety.

All groups experienced decreases on reported stress an anxiety over the study. However, the 600 mg group did better than the 250 mg group; who did better than the placebo group.

Serum cortisol levels also displayed dose dependency.

The placebo group stayed about the same here. However, the 250 mg group experienced a statistically significant decrease in serum cortisol; and the 600 mg group saw double the decrease as the 250 mg group.

The placebo effect can be significantly stronger than we give it credit for.

This is probably why the placebo group saw noticeable changes in perceived stress & anxiety over the study.

However, because the 250 mg and 600 mg group saw greater decreases in perceived stress AND significantly more decreases in serum cortisol, it is likely that ashwagandha is providing a true physiological effect.

I wanted to outline this study as it displays the effect best, but this has been show in many other trials as well. [9,10]

The chicken, or the egg?

Sleep and stress have a very tight-knit relationship with one another.

Poor sleep can result in elevated stress, and elevated stress and hinder sleep quality. [14,15,16]

Much of the mechanistic actions of ashwagandha are still being unravelled.

As of now, it seems unclear to me if it is reducing stress which is leading to better sleep, or if it is improving sleep which is leading to reduced stress.

Ashwagandha’s effect on muscle recovery, size, and strength

Wankhede et al. [2] studied the effects of ashwagandha on muscle mass, strength, recovery and serum testosterone in men aged 18-50.

The study lasted for a total of 8 weeks, and subjects either took 300 mg of ashwagandha twice per day (600 mg / day total) or took a placebo.

They found that the individuals who took ashwagandha, compared to those who took placebo, experienced:

• Slight, but statistically significant increases in serum testosterone

• Increased strength on bench press & leg extension

• Decreased muscle damage post-exercise

This paper did not address why these effects took place.

My thoughts, though, are that something similar to the following took place.

Subjects experienced better sleep -> they dealt with muscle damage and recovered more efficiently -> their next training session was of higher quality -> then this compounded over the 8 weeks.

Another possibility is that the benefits are coming from a decrease in psychological stress.

Whether it’s physical or mental: stress is stress to our body. At the end of the day, your body can only take so much total stress.

If stress elsewhere in life is decreased, then your body will be able to deal with and adapt to the stress of strength training more effectively.

And, as we just noted, ashwagandha does some to reduce perceptions of stress & anxiety.

The increase in testosterone did reach statistical significance, but was quite small in actuality.

For this reason, I do not believe it is playing much of a role here.

Although this was a very well designed and controlled study, there are a few limitations to keep in mind.

First, subjects were untrained. Individuals who are untrained are more sensitive to muscle & strength gains. It is still notable that the ashwagandha group gained significantly more strength & muscle size than the placebo group, however, the magnitude of difference between groups might not have been as big had they been resistance trained men.

Second, this is the only paper of its kind studying ashwagandha in this aspect. Until more studies are done looking at different populations, it’s probably not a hill you should die on yet.

Nevertheless, there does seem to be a stronger argument than not that ashwagandha is providing some sort of benefit here.

When & How much ashwagandha should you take?

There is not much evidence available as to what the best dosing strategy of ashwagandha is.

However, there is some commonalities in the protocols used in the studies cited so far.

So, all I can tell you is what these commonalities are.

Among the papers cited here, the total daily doses most commonly used were 125 mg, 250 mg, and 600 mg.

250 mg tended to provide more benefit than 125 mg, and 600 mg tended to provide more benefit than 250 mg.

Furthermore, most of the papers here used a twice daily dosing strategy, where the total daily dose was split into two separate intakes (one in the morning and one at night).

There are other factors to this I’d like to see tested, including:

• if sex plays a role

• if body mass plays a role

• if one or two doses per day have different effects

However, these have not been tested as of yet- so I cannot make any claims regarding them.

What I do, personally

If I am personally using a supplement, I like to note how I am using it; as I find it can be useful info in conjunction with the evidence.

As of right now, I am getting ashwagandha from two supplement products: Bare Performance Nutrition’s Multivitamin and from Momentous’s ashwagandha supplement.

I take a half serving of BPN’s multi in the morning and 1 capsule of Momentous’s ashwagandha at night (~1-3 hours before bed or so).

As a result, I get ~62.5 mg of ashwagandha in the morning and 300 mg at night; totaling 362.5 mg / day.

The reason I do this is threefold:

1. It isn’t the full 600 mg / day dose as noted before, but it’s certainly sufficient to give me enough benefit.

2. It makes the purchase of each product last twice the amount of time than if I took the suggested dose.

3. These are both companies that have all their products third-party tested; which is of the utmost importance.

References

1. 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;11(12):e6466. Published 2019 Dec 25. doi:10.7759/cureus.6466

2. Wankhede S, Langade D, Joshi K, Sinha SR, Bhattacharyya S. Examining the effect of Withania somnifera supplementation on muscle strength and recovery: a randomized controlled trial. J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2015;12:43. Published 2015 Nov 25. doi:10.1186/s12970-015-0104-9

3. Choudhary D, Bhattacharyya S, Joshi K. Body Weight Management in Adults Under Chronic Stress Through Treatment With Ashwagandha Root Extract: A Double-Blind, Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Trial. J Evid Based Complementary Altern Med. 2017;22(1):96-106. doi:10.1177/2156587216641830

4. Choudhary D, Bhattacharyya S, Bose S. Efficacy and Safety of Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera (L.) Dunal) Root Extract in Improving Memory and Cognitive Functions. J Diet Suppl. 2017;14(6):599-612. doi:10.1080/19390211.2017.1284970

5. Santabárbara J, Lasheras I, Lipnicki DM, et al. Prevalence of anxiety in the COVID-19 pandemic: An updated meta-analysis of community-based studies. Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry. 2021;109:110207. doi:10.1016/j.pnpbp.2020.110207

6. Cheah KL, Norhayati MN, Husniati Yaacob L, Abdul Rahman R. Effect of Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera) extract on sleep: A systematic review and meta-analysis. PLoS One. 2021;16(9):e0257843. Published 2021 Sep 24. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0257843

7. Mikulska P, Malinowska M, Ignacyk M, et al. Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera)-Current Research on the Health-Promoting Activities: A Narrative Review. Pharmaceutics. 2023;15(4):1057. Published 2023 Mar 24. doi:10.3390/pharmaceutics15041057

8. Wiciński M, Fajkiel-Madajczyk A, Kurant Z, et al. Ashwagandha's Multifaceted Effects on Human Health: Impact on Vascular Endothelium, Inflammation, Lipid Metabolism, and Cardiovascular Outcomes-A Review. Nutrients. 2024;16(15):2481. Published 2024 Jul 31. doi:10.3390/nu16152481

9. Chandrasekhar K, Kapoor J, Anishetty S. A prospective, randomized double-blind, placebo-controlled study of safety and efficacy of a high-concentration full-spectrum extract of ashwagandha root in reducing stress and anxiety in adults. Indian J Psychol Med. 2012;34(3):255-262. doi:10.4103/0253-7176.106022

10. Kelgane SB, Salve J, Sampara P, Debnath K. Efficacy and Tolerability of Ashwagandha Root Extract in the Elderly for Improvement of General Well-being and Sleep: A Prospective, Randomized, Double-blind, Placebo-controlled Study. Cureus. 2020;12(2):e7083. Published 2020 Feb 23. doi:10.7759/cureus.7083

11. Verma N, Gupta SK, Tiwari S, Mishra AK. Safety of Ashwagandha Root Extract: A Randomized, Placebo-Controlled, study in Healthy Volunteers. Complement Ther Med. 2021;57:102642. doi:10.1016/j.ctim.2020.102642

12. Björnsson HK, Björnsson ES, Avula B, et al. Ashwagandha-induced liver injury: A case series from Iceland and the US Drug-Induced Liver Injury Network. Liver Int. 2020;40(4):825-829. doi:10.1111/liv.14393

13. Philips CA, Valsan A, Theruvath AH, et al. Ashwagandha-induced liver injury-A case series from India and literature review. Hepatol Commun. 2023;7(10):e0270. Published 2023 Sep 27. doi:10.1097/HC9.0000000000000270

14. Benasi G, Cheng B, Aggarwal B, St-Onge MP. The effects of sustained mild sleep restriction on stress and distress among healthy adults: Findings from two randomized crossover studies. Sleep Med. 2024;115:83-87. doi:10.1016/j.sleep.2024.02.001

15. Kalmbach DA, Anderson JR, Drake CL. The impact of stress on sleep: Pathogenic sleep reactivity as a vulnerability to insomnia and circadian disorders. J Sleep Res. 2018;27(6):e12710. doi:10.1111/jsr.12710

16. Nollet M, Wisden W, Franks NP. Sleep deprivation and stress: a reciprocal relationship. Interface Focus. 2020;10(3):20190092. doi:10.1098/rsfs.2019.0092