What Is Ashwagandha?
The trendy adaptogenic herb is easy to buy. Here’s what the data says.
When Wyatt Brown, a member of the research team at Examine.com — an independent database of nutrition and supplement research — first tried ashwagandha, he says the herb had an extremely potent calming effect. “I wouldn’t have wanted to be driving or operating heavy machinery at that time,” he says.
Long administered as an herbal antidote for social anxiety, ashwagandha has been used in Indian traditional medicine for 6,000 years and is purported to help with symptoms of a range of physical and mental health problems like arthritis, anxiety, bipolar disorder, trouble sleeping, and more. The herb is gaining attention due to the fact that it’s a so-called adaptogen, another buzzy wellness category of reportedly nontoxic plants that are believed to combat both physical and emotional stressors in the body.
Brown, who says he tried ashwagandha to deal with his own stress and anxiety, acknowledges that there’s not a lot of research available to support his use. “Like any plant, its effects in the body depend on what the chemicals in it do, how much of them there are, how well they get into the body, and where they tend to go,” he says.
It is an innocuous-looking plant, and its medicinal properties are believed to come…
