Withania Somnifera - Ashwagandha or Winter Cherry - The stress reliever and the possible future main ingredient of a cancer cure

Withania Somnifera - Ashwagandha or Winter Cherry

 

The Plant

Ashwagandha belongs to the nightshade family like potato or tomato, although this herb is native to India so it is traditionally used in ayurvedic medicine.

DISCLAIMER!
PEOPLE WITH AUTOIMMUNE DISEASE AND PREGNANT OR BREASTFEEDING WOMEN SHOULD AVOID USING THIS PLANT.

Health Benefits

Helps your body deal with stress and anxiety

Ashwagandha is classified as an adaptogen, meaning it helps your body deal with stress, also increasing your body's energy level and improving concentration. The plant is used for thousands of years for this, not to mention studies proved these effects of the plant.

The way it helps you deal with stress is by blocking the corresponding pathways in your brain, making it way harder for you to be able to feel stress at all, confirmed by one animal study.

Due to this effect, it also reduces anxiety in people showed in this study.

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Reduces cortisol levels

Cortisol is known as the stress hormone since it is released when you experience stress or your blood sugar level gets low. This is the reason you feel the urge to eat when you stress, also known as stress eating. Too high of a cortisol level can result in high blood sugar, and more fat to be stored in your body. Studies confirmed that taking ashwagandha supplements can reduce your cortisol levels up to 30%.

It improves brain function and memory power

Ashwagandha reduces oxidative stress helping your brain function better. In one study people took 300 mg ashwagandha extract twice a day, resulting in a significant increase in brain function, general memory, task performance, and attention levels.

Reduces depression

Due to its above-explained effects on the brain and cortisol levels studies showed that taking 600 mg ashwagandha extract per day reduced depression by 79% in the Ashwagandha group, while the placebo group had a 10% increase in depression levels(mainly because they were told it will help, but it didn't, although they didn't get real ashwagandha, since they were the placebo group.).

Increases testosterone levels and fertility in men

In one study it was confirmed taking ashwagandha extract significantly increased testosterone levels and it also increased sperm count and mobility. 

Another study proved that men who took ashwagandha extract had an increased sperm quality and after 3 months their partners got pregnant.

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Increases strength and muscle gain

Due to the above-explained testosterone increase effect of the herb, it also increases muscle gain. In one study men took 750-1250 mg ashwagandha extract per they and they experienced a significantly greater muscle gain than the placebo group.

Reduces cholesterol and triglyceride levels

In one study people who took ashwagandha extract for 60 days experienced a reduction in LDL cholesterol levels by 17% and an 11% reduction in triglyceride levels on average.

Reduces inflammation

Studies showed that it reduces C-reactive protein(CRP) in your body, which can increase the risk of heart disease. In the study, people took 250 mg ashwagandha extract daily, which resulted in a 36% reduction in CRP levels.

Reduces blood sugar levels

Several studies showed the ability of the herb of reducing blood sugar levels in healthy and diabetic people too.

Anti-cancer properties

Animal Studies proved that ashwagandha has an effect of hindering the growth of new cancer cells and it helps induce apoptosis (the programmed death of cancer cells), also it makes cancer cells be less resistant to apoptosis.

Another study showed that ashwagandha generates reactive oxygen species (ROS), which is toxic to cancer cells but not toxic to other cells.

The best study that showed the potential cancer cure effect of this herb was an animal one, where mice with ovarian tumors took ashwagandha extract and had a 70-80% reduction in tumor growth and it also prevented cancer to spread to other organs.

Although there are only animal studies so far the results are still very encouraging, this plant can very possibly be one of the main ingredients of the cure for cancer in the future.

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If you read my post on hawthorn then you know that I have heart issues. This is another supplement I take for it, although since it increases sperm count and quality it kinda makes you hornier than usual as I noticed. (Although it's not that surprising since you can only hold a certain amount of sperm at a time and if the number is increasing your body will send the signal to get rid of it, meaning you become hornier.)

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