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Ashwagandha, Winter Cherry, Indian Ginseng... What Is It?

15th August 2022

Health Nutrition

15th August 2022

By Beth Shelper

What is Ashwagandha?

Looking for a natural way to manage your stress levels? Look no further. An ancient herb, the Ashwagandha plant is a small, yellow flower. Famous for it’s healing benefits and uses in traditional ancient medicine, you may have heard of Ashwagandha before, but by another name, as the herb is referred to in many different ways including Indian Ginseng and Winter Cherry.

Where can I find Ashwagandha?

The Ashwagandha plant is found in both India and Northern Africa. This herb is central in ancient medicinal culture and comes from the Indian word meaning ‘horse’. Indian tradition states that the herb brings strength and healing – but since these first uses, huge alternative benefits of the herb have been discovered, too.

What are the Ashwagandha health benefits?

We think that a better question would actually be, what health benefits does Ashwagandha not carry? This plant is small but mighty, and due to it’s incredibly lengthy list of health and wellness benefits, has actually been being used for its medicinal benefits for thousands of years.

Don’t believe us? Keep reading…

Reduces anxiety and stress

Ashwagandha is an adaptogen, which scientifically means that this herb contains ingredients to assist your body in managing stress. So, if you’re looking for a natural remedy to manage your stress levels – why not give this a go?

Battles the symptoms of depression

Similar to stress, research has demonstrated that these adaptogen ingredients are a key player in easing depression, upping your energy levels and combating low mood.

Boosts testosterone levels and male fertility

Similarly to the research carried out to discover the effects of Ashwagandha on depression levels, there have been studies investigating the effect of this adaptogen on low sperm counts and low testosterone levels, too. One of the leading causes for fertility issues is stress, so it makes sense that incorporating this adaptogen into your diet is a great technique to improving your fertility (and your libido, too!)

Increases your brain function

Looking for help when it comes to staying focus? This Ashwagandha benefit also means that taking Ashwagandha supplements in collaboration with a balanced diet and a healthy lifestyle will help improve your memory and concentration, too!

  1. If you’re finding it difficult to stay on task, why not try The Focus Capsules?

Ups your energy levels

Not only is Ashwagandha great for improving your cognitive functioning and health, but it is a great energy booster, too!

Lowers your blood sugar

If you’re someone that needs to monitor your sugar intake and your blood sugar levels, it’s definitely worth taking a look into Ashwagandha as a natural supplement to bring into your life. Lowering your blood sugar helps stop weight gain, stress and your risk of diabetes – so it’s definitely something you should be keeping an eye on!

Is there any evidence of these Ashwagandha benefits?

We did some research to explore if these had been tried and tested. In 2019, researchers discovered that people who took a recommended average serving of Ashwagandha a day (so, around 250mg), reported far lower stress levels.

How can I incorporate Ashwagandha into my diet?

The good news is that this star ingredient can be formulated into Ashwagandha supplements.

Like we said, we were seriously impressed when we discovered the health benefits of Ashwagandha. So impressed, in fact, that when devising our active ingredients list for The Relax Capsules, we just had to include it. The capsules contain 200mg of Ashwagandha with the aim of improving your sleep, stress and wellness levels. Check out our ingredients list for all the other feel-good features of our fantastic capsules.

When should I take these Ashwagandha supplements?

If you’re taking supplements that contain Ashwagandha, such as The Relax Capsules, we recommend that you take one capsule a day for at least one month, to begin seeing and feeling the benefits of the herb.

Summary

Natural supplementations such as this one are a great way of incorporating health and wellness benefits into your diet, so definitely give these a go if you’re struggling to de-stress as a result of the tribulations of day-to-day life.

If you aren’t so into supplementation, we have tons of tips to leading a mindful life. Check out some of our favourites:

References

Brichenko, V. S., Kupriyanova, I. E., & Skorokhodova, T. F. (1986). The use of herbal adaptogens together with tricyclic antidepressants in patients with psychogenic depressions. ), Modern Problems of Pharmacology and Search for New Medicines, 2, 58-60. Click here.

Rooney, K. L., & Domar, A. D. (2018). The relationship between stress and infertility. Dialogues in clinical neuroscience, 20(1), 41–47. Click here.

Salve, J., Pate, S., Debnath, K., & Langade, D. (2019). Adaptogenic and Anxiolytic Effects of Ashwagandha Root Extract in Healthy Adults: A Double-blind, Randomized, Placebo-controlled Clinical Study. Cureus, 11(12), e6466. Click here.

Sengupta, P., Agarwal, A., Pogrebetskaya, M., Roychoudhury, S., Durairajanayagam, D., & Henkel, R. (2018). Role of Withania somnifera (Ashwagandha) in the management of male infertility. Reproductive biomedicine online, 36(3), 311-326. Click here.

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