Ashwaganda -- Any updates?

Nutrition Q&A [Moderated]
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Hi docs,

I did some searching and the latest post I found on this was from 2021 from Jordan, namely that he didn’t see a great deal of benefit to taking ashwaganda for performance due to generally low-quality research.

Any updates on this so far? I’m not interested in performance benefits as much as sleep and stress benefits. I’ve seen at least one paper noting a statistically significant decrease in cortisol with regular supplementation, but I’m not sure if this has clinical significance. Anecdotally, I do notice a small benefit in regard to stress, but unsure how much of that is placebo. I also realize that generalized recommendations differ from “there might be a difference individually, try it”, and am fine with the latter.

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I don’t see good evidence for sleep or “stress”, perhaps anxiety (maybe). I think we need to appreciate that the testing for “stress” and anxiety are both quite complex. There may be a performance benefit. I’m continuing to monitor the research as it comes out.

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I experimented with Ashwaganda for a bit before I started listening to BBM (got rid of most supplements after that) and I always got depression-like symptoms after a a week or two.

Could be placebo but I didn’t find much research about this apart from Huberman briefly mentioning it on his podcast. He calls it a “numbing” effect but I don’t take what he says seriously anymore, so it’s hard to tell.