Ashwagandha: Better Mood, Better Life!

Anxiety and depression are the most common mental health problems and becoming even more common. Both can seriously affect quality of life. This very exciting herb can help both and improve quality of life.

Anxiety and depression are major problems. The conventional treatments may also bring major problems: the authors of this new study include headaches, seizures, sexual dysfunction and even suicide.

Ashwagandha is a powerful herb that comes from India’s Ayurvedic system of healing. It has enjoyed very impressive recent research for anxiety, stress and insomnia. This new study set out to see what ashwagandha could do for depression, anxiety, insomnia and quality of life.

The double-blind study gave either a placebo or 500mg of ashwagandha root extract standardized for 2.5% withanolides to 70 people with mild to moderate depression and anxiety. The study lasted for 90 days.

The ashwagandha started to work in as fast as a month, and by the end of the 90 day study, it had improved scores on the Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale by 52.91% compared to 11.65% on placebo. That is a significant difference.

The difference on the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale was just as significant. After 90 days it had improved by 52.13% versus 13.59% on placebo. When it came to sleep, the news was just as good. Sleep improved by 68.4% on the Groningen Sleep Quality Scale in the ashwagandha group compared to 29.5% in the placebo group.

What did all this improvement mean for quality of life? The WHOQOL scale measures physical, psychological and social quality of life. It found a 34.47% improvement on ashwagandha versus 9.57% on placebo. Again, that difference is significant.

The study also found that while serotonin levels continued to go down in the placebo group, they increased in the ashwagandha group, and the difference between the two groups was significant.

Ashwagandha did all this life improving work safely.

This study shows that the herb ashwagandha can have “a positive impact” on the lives of people with mild to moderate depression and anxiety (with a good night’s sleep as a bonus!).

Journal of Integrative and Complementary Medicine. October 25 2023;doi.org/10.1089/jicm.2023.0279.

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For much more on preventing and treating depression and anxiety naturally, see our book The Family Naturopathic Encyclopedia.

For comprehensive natural help with depression and anxiety, make an appointment to see Linda Woolven now. Linda’s clinic is now open for virtual appointments.

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