MAKING THE HEADLINES
Are you suffering from anxiety, sleeplessness, and depression? Are you looking for something natural to support your immune system, thyroid, lower your blood pressure, support healthy cholesterol levels, and dementia? There is a long list of health benefits gained by taking Ashwagandha. Ashwagandha is an amazing multi-tasking herb that is making the headlines!
Ashwagandha is an herb that has been popular in other parts of the world, specifically India, for more than 2,500 years and one of the most researched herbs to date. This multi-task herb has many purposes and benefits but the primary goal of taking ashwagandha is to help people stay healthy without the need for suffering and prescription drug options or complicated surgeries. Ashwagandha has a number of benefits such as improving thyroid condition, improving anxiety, depression, decreasing inflammation, to name just a few. It is also known to strengthen the immune system, especially after illness. It improves your vitality and stamina and also works as a very effective natural stress reliever by improving the function of the adrenal glands which sit on top of the kidneys. The ability of ashwagandha to control stress is what has made it very popular. it maintains a balance in the moments of physical or emotional stress. It helps to lower cortisol which is the hormone secreted by the adrenal glands and also balances the hormones associated with the thyroid. There have been over 200 peer reviewed studies showing that ashwagandha not only improves thyroid function and reduces anxiety, depression and stress and also help to balance the adrenal glands, but it can also prevent and treat cancer, reduce brain cell degeneration, felt to lower cholesterol and stabilize blood sugar.
A study in the “Alzheimer’s Research and Therapy” revealed that ashwagandha has proven to be useful in relieving a number of health concerns with Alzheimer’s. A study in 2017 in the “Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine” revealed the benefits of treating patients with subclinical hypothyroidism which showed stimulation of the thyroid hormones which improved the symptoms of the low functioning thyroid. A study published in “PLOS One” in 2009 revealed ashwagandha’s ability to replace antidepressants and anti-anxiety medications and thereby eliminate the side effects associated with these medications such as insomnia, loss of sexual desire and increased appetite. In 2000 a study concluded that ashwagandha can be used as a mood stabilizer in clinical conditions of depression. In the “Reports of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology” it was found that ashwagandha improved diabetes and helped to achieve normal blood sugar levels in rat studies. Therefore ashwagandha is helpful in improving insulin sensitivity and reducing inflammatory conditions in humans. Research also suggests that it has the ability to prevent tumors and cancer growth, specifically breast cancer, lung cancer, stomach cancer and colon cancer.
You can see that ashwagandha has a number of benefits and it would be advisable to take advantage of this safe and natural herbal remedy to improve the quality of your life.
Until next time, stay healthy,
Dr. Steven M. Nickels, DC, NMD, DACBN, DCBCN
