Ashwagandha Dangers? What Physios Need to Know.

TLDR:

• Many people are taking Ashwagandha to help with anxiety and sleep. The benefits can be enormous, but what is the risk?
• Dr. Wells speaks to a PT case where a patient experienced headaches from long term Ashwagandha use.
• A recent study shows a bump of ~18% in testosterone in those taking 200mg of Ashwagandha daily for several months.

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Transcript:

 Hey y'all, Dr. Wells here from Nutritional Physical Therapy, (0:04) and today we're talking a little bit about ashwagandha. I'm interested to see how many (0:08) PTs and other rehab providers out there have been seeing some of their patients taking ashwagandha. (0:13) I know I have some experience with it as well, and for the most part what I see patients taking (0:18) it for is to reduce anxiety.

Some say it helps them sleep better. Overall, some of the safety (0:24) profiles I've seen with ashwagandha, they seem to be pretty safe. I have had one patient who (0:29) did have some adverse outcomes from it.

This was a female patient of mine. She was taking it for (0:34) anxiety, and what she noticed was that she started developing headaches, and going into the research, (0:41) I had found that there are definitely some hormonal disruptions that can occur, (0:44) and from what she was describing, it sounded like a particularly like a hormonal type headache (0:50) because we had kind of ruled out like cervicogenic type headaches and obviously looked (0:56) at migraine triggers and things, and it wasn't really a migraine. It was just a headache, (0:59) and sure enough, she had some labs drawn, and her testosterone levels were very high, (1:03) and that's what's interesting.

There's another new study by Vidal et al. just published. (1:09) There's a piloted randomized controlled trial looking at ashwagandha, and they found that (1:14) in these individuals, they saw about an 18% bump in testosterone use, or testosterone, (1:21) with just 200 milligrams of ashwagandha taken twice daily.

Now, that was in about six months (1:27) window, so obviously, they've taken it for some time, but interestingly enough, (1:32) there was no other adverse effects and things, so interested to hear what you guys have, (1:36) and obviously, we talk about ashwagandha in our courses quite a bit, and hopefully, (1:42) you guys check them out. It's board approved for nutrition and physical therapy. Check them (1:47) out at www.nutritionalphysicaltherapy.com. Sign up today, and have a good one.