THE RISE OF ASHWAGANDHA

You may or may not have heard of Ashwagandha, but chances are you’re about to see it pop up on your radar from here on in - especially if you’re looking for something to help ease any stress and anxiety you’re experiencing. An adaptogenic herb that’s been used in Ayurvedic medicine for thousands of years, this means it can naturally monitor and modulate the body’s stress responses and act to restore balance in the body. And let’s face it, we could all do with a bit more balance in our lives right now.

Proven to lower cortisol levels and bring on a more relaxed state of mind, the most effective way to take Ashwagandha is via supplement form and is why we’ve added Wild Nutrition’s KSM-66 Ashwagandha-Plus to this year’s De-Stress Edit. “It’s one of our award-winning products and we have seen a huge increase for it since the outbreak of covid in 2020,” reveals Wild Nutrition founder and nutritional practitioner, Henrietta Norton. “We have had customers feeding back to us that they felt the benefits almost immediately although our advice is always to take a supplement for a minimum of six weeks for your body to gain the benefits.”

Studies are showing that more than ever we’re looking for more natural ways to support our health and overall wellbeing and taking two supplements a day is an easy and accessible starting point. Plus, if you’re sceptical about herbal remedies, Ashwagandha won’t need to work hard to convince you because it’s had a plethora of clinical studies to prove it’s worth.

“Ashwagandha is an exceptional Indian botanic that has been used as a ‘rejuvenative’ tonic for over 5000 years,” explains Henrietta. “I met an Ayurvedic doctor in Sri Lanka over 20 years ago and the praise he gave this herb inspired me to start using it, but I spent years looking for a high-quality organic source that had clinical research to support it. I finally found KSM-66 a couple of years ago and the clinical trials on this form of Ashwagandha has meant it’s become my ‘adaptogen’ of choice in the clinic when it comes to supporting a return to balance; whether that imbalance has been caused by external stresses or from internal changes such as inflammation or hormonal fluctuations.”

HOW DOES IT WORK?

If it sounds good to be true and you like some science behind your supplements, here goes. “Ashwagandha acts as a GABA mimetic and GABA is the brain chemical that helps us to regulate feelings of anxiety,” Henrietta tells us. “It has also been shown to regulate the chemicals in our body that generate heightened feelings of stress such as cortisol. In double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trials participants had an average reduction in cortisol levels of 27.9% and a lowering of mild depression and anxiety of 71.6% over 8 weeks.”

That’s no mean feat. If you gauge where you are and how you’re feeling today and then imagine feeling almost three quarters less stressed, you could be floating into homeschooling, zoom meetings and work deadlines with a lot less weight and stress on your shoulders. The tests also showed improvements in premature ageing, memory, cognitive behaviour, sports endurance and recovery as well as promoting libido in both men and women. Because this herb isn’t gender-specific either. Unless you’re pregnant, anyone can take it and feel the benefits. “It also goes especially well with our B Complex Plus for energy support or our Immune Support for supporting the immune system,” says Henrietta.

We should mention it can help your skin too. Stress shows up in many different ways, one of which is inflammation which can trigger anything from rosacea to acne to collagen damage and a weakened skin barrier. By reducing cortisol levels, rebalancing your anxiety levels and even improving your sleep, your skin should even out too and start to become more resilient to persistent flare-ups.

ARE SUPPLEMENTS BEST?

Sometimes you can take herbal medicines in teas and tinctures but Ashwagandha is from the root of the plant and has a bitter taste which is why capsule form is the most pleasant and palatable way of taking it. The Wild Nutrition supplements are also food-grown, which means they are made by molecularly bonding vitamins and minerals into a live food cell. “This then metabolises and re-natures the vitamin or mineral thereby becoming an integral part of its cellular matrix,” explains Henrietta. In short, this means that the nutrients are ‘as one’ and in a structure that the body recognises so, it can utilise it effectively and efficiently. It also means there are no fillers or further toxic load on the body which could create imbalances elsewhere.

The perfect complementary crutch for your wellbeing, whether it’s anxiety, sleep, skin issues or stress that’s causing that horrid underlying feeling of restlessness, Ashwagandha could be the age-old remedy you’ve been looking for.