Ashwagandha- The Secret to Reducing Stress or Just Another 3,000 year-old FAD?

Ashwagandha has been used as cure in Ayurvedic medicine for thousands of years.
The purported benefits range from stress relief, to better sleep, to more focus and clarity.

But does it work?

We interview Dr. Stephen O'Connor a functional medicine expert with over 30 years of traditional medical experience and learn about the potential benefits of this "magic" herb from India.

We also learn about a new product from LivLabs- Ashwagandha Hemp Gummies.
Learn more about them and receive a special 20% discount off your first purchase here.

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Transcript

WELLNESS REVOLUTION RADIO- Ashwagandha

VO TALENT (00:01):

You are listening to Wellness Revolution Radio.

DR OCONNOR (00:05):

In a nutshell, the best thing to understand about Ashwagandha is that it's been around for 3000 years and used consistently in Ayurvedic medicine.

JAMES (00:15):

Welcome to Wellness Revolution Radio. My name's James Tackett, I'm your host. Just so we in Lay the Foundation, I'm not a scientist, I'm not a doctor, I'm just a regular guy, but I've happened to have been in marketing and advertising for over 30 years, and for some reason I stumbled into nutrition. I've had over a hundred clients in the nutrition world, and I just became a fanatic about it. So now I'm trying to use this show to answer questions, to find out what's the coolest, newest, hottest stuff out there to debunk some of the stuff that's out there, some of the myths. And today the show is about ashwagandha. I don't know about you, but in the last year I've seen ashwagandha everywhere in grocery stores, in health food stores, online. There's a bunch of TikTok people talking about it Now, I just thought it would be great to dive in to see what it is.

JAMES (01:10):

 understand a little bit more about it. I'm going to introduce you to Dr. Stephen O'Connor in a moment who's gonna talk and weigh in on it and give us his perspective. But basically, what is it? It's an herb. It's native to India. It also does grow and they say in North Africa and in the Middle East, but it's been part of aruyvedic medicine, which is the Indian tradition for well over 3000 years. Just a cursory search gives you what, what they say or, you know, here's the, the top seven benefits. The number one, and this seems to be what most people talk about, is that it relieves stress and anxiety. There's a study out there that I looked at last night that said that they had proven in a relatively small group, it had proven that continued use of ashwagandha did reduce cortisol levels. It also is reported to lower blood sugar, uh, increase muscle and strength, improve sexual function in women, boost fertility and testosterone levels in men sharpened focus memory, and also supports heart health.

JAMES (02:12):

So it's a lot of things that it's supposed to do. And that's, I think sometimes these herbs that we hear about kind of over promise, or at least what the literature says over promises. But what I wanna do is bring on our guest. We hear a lot about ashwagandha, but is it something that you should be using or is it just another fad or is it a 3000 year old fad? Who knows? To discuss it, we have Dr. Steven O'Connor. Dr. O'Connor graduated from Wayne State University of Medicine in Detroit. He did his postgraduate training at Sinai Hospital in Detroit and for 33 years, uh, was an emergency medicine physician. And half of those years he was the director of emergency services, which is a big deal. But now he has kind of come over to the other side. I think he is now really focused on functional medicine, nutrition supplementation. He's a lecturer, he's a formulator. He's now the chief Science officer for a company out of Texas called Liv Labs. And Dr. O'Connor, welcome to the show. Great to have you.

DR OCONNOR (03:17):

Hey, it's a pleasure being here. I'm really excited for this.

JAMES 03:20):

Tell me a little bit about your journey with Ashwagandha. What do you know about it? What have you found out about it? What do you find so fascinating about it?

DR OCONNOR (03:30):

In a nutshell, the best thing to understand about Ashwagandha is that it's been around for 3000 years and used consistently in Ayurvedic medicine for 3000 years. Something that doesn't work, doesn't have any basis in benefit, would not have lasted 3000 years in a tradition that even though they didn't do necessarily, uh, a double-blinded study, they used it over and over and saw consistent benefits to people. And many of the benefits, like you said in the preamble here, when you see something, a product, an herb, especially an urban natural product that has that sort of provenance, you have to look at it. You have to seriously take a look at it and say, okay, if I wanna try and do something more natural, if I wanna try to reduce or support the body in reducing anxiety or distress, or I want to do something that will act as an adaptogen, which means that over time it improves your health and wellness.

DR OCONNOR (04:36):

Then you look at a product that has a 3000 plus year provenance, and that's where I came upon it. It just stares you in the face. Anytime you do research on this herb, you find that there is data upon data upon data that supports it. Most people, you know, they look at data and they say, okay, data's data. What's it gonna do for me? I think that's where ashwagandha shines in empiric information, empiric data that you get one-on-one talking to somebody or talking to groups of people that have been taking ashwagandha for a while. That's where the strongest benefit comes in because it's not a couple of numbers on a printed page of paper. It's real life, real world, real experience, real help.

JAMES (05:23):

In your studies, what do you find as maybe, you know, we listed seven of the benefits, but what do you think really the top two or three are? What do you see

DR OCONNOR (05:31):

The stress and anxiety reduction of this delightful set of compounds is first and foremost the most important, as well as the most obvious thing that you see? The other part that I like personally is the increased cognitive function. It keeps you alert, it helps for general cognitive benefits such as attention span, attention speech processing. It's got lots of beautiful supportive things to the neurons and to the neurologic system of the body. And that's where the adaptogenic part comes through. And over time, it just strengthens your neurologic function. There's other things like immune function and such that is really important, especially we're hearing another wave of covid. If you're hearing another wave of covid, your first thought should be, how do I boost my immune function? Whatever your thoughts on the jab are are one thing, but building a healthy immune system as an individual is exceedingly important. And ashwagandha can show some tremendous immune modulating effects.

JAMES  (06:33):

What would you say to, to someone who's thinking about, or or here, here's what we're saying about the effects and says, well, this is something I, maybe I should try. Who are the people who should be using this? Who are the people who should be considering looking at it? Are there any people who shouldn't be considering it? I did do some research and see that ashwagandha is considered a nightshade. And I know that if you're allergic to nightshade, you probably know it already, but that if you shouldn't obviously take ashwaganda if you're sensitive to those.

DR OCONNOR (07:01):

Correct. Yeah, let's go to the contraindications first and then we can kind of roll back over to who else. Because once you get past the contraindications, anyone else can take it. There are people that are allergic or sensitive to nightshades and uh, that's particularly important to know. And like you mentioned there, you're gonna know it if you've, uh, if you're allergic to nightshades, you're gonna have that experience prior. But anybody else really, it doesn't have much of a counter effective effect on the body. It can cause some gastrointestinal problems. Women who are pregnant and breastfeeding, where that comes in, it's like almost everything else on the market. Any supplement will almost routinely say we don't recommend it, or there's limited information on breastfeeding and pregnancy, so we don't recommend using it. That doesn't mean that you can't use it, it just means that people don't wanna risk and people don't have the money or the legal team to support a prolonged study of breastfeeding and pregnant women.

DR OCONNOR (08:06):

But when you look at how it's been used over the, the millennia, they used it a lot in women who are breastfeeding women who are pregnant. And so it's generally regarded as safe. It's, it was a, an herb that they put in in their foods and kind of like turmeric or cumin and things like that. It's really got a tremendously safe profile. There have been some people with hormone problems that it may increase thyroid hormone levels, which for most people that's not a problem. There's a particular problem called Hashimoto's thyroiditis, which is an overactive thyroid. Those people suffering from that might want to be careful and wary of using ashwagandha. It doesn't mean that you can't, as a matter of fact, it might actually work on a backdoor channel to reduce your sensitivity to the Hashimoto's. So it's unclear. What I would recommend is if you're interested, start low, go slow, see how it affects you.

DR OCONNOR (09:06):

Those are pretty much the contraindications. Outside of that, I think anybody can use this and if you have any questions whatsoever, you know, obviously we don't diagnose, treat or cure any disease through live labs and through our supplements, but you're not gonna find clear data on a supplement just because supplement companies can't afford the budgets that pharmaceutical companies have. So you're just gonna have to do your due diligence. You know, does it seem right to you when you research it? Does it sound like it's something that you could benefit from? If you find that potential benefit, then try it. But start slow, add, introduce a little bit into your lifestyle, see how it does, keep a journal, see if anything shows up. And uh, if after a couple of weeks you do fine with it, then maybe consider bumping it up a little bit if you haven't reached the sweet spot of the effects of the herb.

JAMES (09:57):ERB.

And what would you say about format a search on Amazon? I can buy it as a capsule. I can buy it as a liquid, I can buy it as the root powder. Does that have a impact on the efficacy of the product in your opinion?

DR OCONNOR (10:13):

Yes. Everything has a little bit of a, um, alteration. So a capsule, depending on what the capsule's made out of, will determine whether the capsule digests in the stomach or whether it can actually survive and make it through to the small intestine where it would be absorbed somewhat differently. The powders like root powders, yes, there's differences. Some companies kind of cut corners and they'll throw everything in with the brew, they won't use the root or the, the highest concentrations of the, uh, active compound. But if you get a reliable company, they'll generally have the root powder. It will oftentimes be added with some other things that will help absorption. Timing when you take your capsule makes a big difference. The capsules are better absorbed when you have food in your stomach. A tincture is generally well absorbed, just taking the tincture and maybe some water with it. So it just depends on the company, how it's formulated, like you were saying. But in general, I think if you take it with food, take it with a light meal, maybe something with black pepper, black pepper always seems to help absorption of some of these herbs and nutrients. That's what I would recommend.

JAMES (11:32):

Interesting. And the product that you guys have formulated is actually in a gummy. Why did you choose that? And looking at your packaging, you guys also have hemp with your ashwagandha. Kind of tell me what the theory was behind that and why a gummy and why pair it with hemp?

DR OCONNOR (11:50):

Hemp is another one of those millennia old products that people have used. We actually show data that there has been an association between humans and hemp for well over 12,500 years. So when you look at the benefits of ashwagandha, when you look at the benefits of hemp, they're very, very similar. And the interesting thing, it's not just that they're similar, so we want to double the effect, it's that they have additive effects. Where ashwagandha affects the immune system is different than where hemp affects the immune system. So what you're doing is you're getting where the sum is greater than the parts, you're getting an additive effect of these products, and that has a tremendous benefit. So that's what we were looking for in the product.

JAMES (12:56):

Why did you choose to do it in a gummy format? Was there a reason behind that versus a capsule? And what's the dosage? Uh, how am I supposed to take it?

DR OCONNOR (13:08):

We chose the gummy for a couple of reasons. One, it's a very convenient way to take a nutritive supplement. It tastes good, it's easy to carry, it's easy to take along with you. It's very convenient. You don't have to, you know, do anything. You just open up the bag and you pop a gummy in your mouth. The other benefit to a gummy that we see is that when you chew the gummy, you're actually dispersing the constituent ingredients into your mouth, into your digestive system a little bit more slowly. You're also by triggering the chewing reaction and taking the gummy in your mouth, you're telling your body to start to release the enzymes that are gonna be necessary to metabolize and to make these ingredients bioavailable. And once that occurs, then you have enhanced absorption. So the gummy isn't just a fad, it's not just a acute way to put something in your body.

DR OCONNOR (14:05):

It actually has some tremendous advantages over other different types of methods like tinctures or capsules. It also allows you to enhance the absorption through different digestive techniques. So you're absorbing it not only in the starting to absorb it in the mouth, but you absorb it somewhat in the esophagus. You absorb some in the stomach, then it passes on and gets absorbed again in the small intestine. So you're benefiting, whereas a capsule may only end up absorbing in one spot, and if you overwhelm the local system in that one spot, you might get some of that product that goes and gets passed on undigested. We think that the gummy would be the ideal way to get this in your system.

JAMES (14:54):

Yeah, that makes sense. I actually never thought about that. I, I, I didn't realize you can absorb in the esophagus. I mean, that, that makes sense. I know that, you know, when you take something, you know, the saliva starts the process right away, but yeah, that, that makes sense that you're kind of letting it hit multiple systems on the way down.

DR OCONNOR  (15:13):

All the cells that line the digestive tract, even though they may be very specialized, they still allow a certain amount of absorption. Now, I wouldn't wanna rely totally on my esophageal absorption, but you're still gonna get some of those compounds that will get into the lymphatics or get into the bloodstream. Uh, from there, it's not a major source of digestion, but it, it is a continuation of the gi tract, the gastrointestinal tract, and it is a, a recognized source of absorption.

“We’ll be right back with more Wellness Revolution Radio!”

“Wellness Revolution Radio, the information source for vitamins, supplements, natural and holistic products, and everything in the “alternative health” universe”

JAMES (15:39):

One thing I I think I think about, and I'm, I'm guessing our listeners think about too, is that, you know, we always say in every supplement vitamin herb I've ever seen, uh, you know, even on tv it's, well, consult your doctor to before you start taking, you know, any product, which I get. But the problem is when I go to my doctor and I mention ashwagandha, their eyes glaze over. They have no idea what it even is. What do you say to people? I mean, how do you <laugh> how do you navigate that when you're supposed to ask your doctor? But most doctors don't know. In fact, I remember reading in your bio that you know, even being a 33 year veteran and the director of emergency services and tens and thousands of hours of education, the system, the medical system only gave you a couple of hours of training in nutrition. What are we supposed to do?

DR OCONNOR (16:33):

Well, when you were saying that, I had a big smile on my face because that seems to be one of the big problems in healthcare today. And again, it depends on your training. There are physicians and there are programs that do recognize that nutrition is important in the Middle East, in India, some of these other countries that their healthcare systems, because they don't have the financial benefits that we do in the United States, they have to look at rational, pragmatic ways of helping patients and clients. And so they will recommend nutrition as an important source of benefiting your lifestyle and your, your wellness. Now in the United States, we have a very pharmacologic centric system, and it's very dogmatic. It's very pressured. It's very, for lack of a better word, constrained. And so you don't make money if you can't license or patent a pharmaceutical. Our healthcare system is driven by, most of it was supported by these pharmaceutical companies.

DR OCONNOR (17:41):

And so when you have an educational system that's based on a particular way of thought, you're gonna have those biases that are, are, are gonna corrode the looking into of other sources. So yes, most doctors don't get any nutritional information and because of that, one of two things that's gonna happen, or actually three things would happen. If you go to your doctor and you ask them about a supplement or a nutritional product, the first thing is they're gonna dismiss it out of hand. They're gonna say, well, there aren't any double-blinded controlled studies. They're gonna try to intellectualize you out of taking that particular product. Now, probably more correctly is they don't know what they're talking about. They do know enough that they can say there's probably no double-blinded controlled studies. Which is true because again, what I mentioned earlier, supplements, we don't have the financial resources of the big pharmaceutical companies to do these very elaborate tests.

DR OCONNOR (18:41):

So they're probably correct in saying that, but they're saying that out of ignorance, and I don't use ignorance in a derogatory, uh, sense, I'm using ignorance in just not knowing or not having the time to be able to study this. The first thing is they will dismiss it out of hand. The second will say, you know, I don't know. I just don't know. I don't know if it's gonna be good for you. I don't know if it's gonna be bad for you. I don't know. And if I don't know, then you know, it's up to you. Now, a very tiny percentage will say, you know, nutrition seems to be the way that the body heals itself. Let food be your medicine and medicine be thy food. I think Hippocrates paraphrased something similar to that or, or someone did along the line. And when you have a person that understands that the natural way of doing things is the preferred way of doing things, when you come to understand that as a professional, as a physician, then your options for the care of your client or your patient opens up.

DR OCONNOR (19:47):

Now granted, if you're in a car accident, you don't go to your herbologists or you don't go to your naturopath, you go to the trauma center. And again, with major infections or major surgical things, we've done some pretty impressive things in, in modern medicine. But the day in, day out, blue collar, everyday sort of healthcare, we fail our patients and we're failing them because we're depending on band-aids and not cures. So as a physician, it's much more timely for me to say, take this pill instead of taking this nutritional supplement and altering your lifestyle, am I doing well for my patient? Well, on the front end, yes. Because I can give you this blood pressure medication and measure your metrics and say, yeah, your blood pressure went down on an average of 30% over the six months that you've been taking this product, this pharmaceutical.

DR OCONNOR (20:39):

Whereas if I were to do it the nutritional lifestyle way, it might take a little bit longer. It may take six to eight weeks. It might be dependent upon the person's commitment to, to lifestyle change. But you can get to the same place actually, you can get, I think if you do it the natural way, you end up getting to a healthier point and you cure the underlying problem. Whereas if you have the pharmaceutical, you're seeing results, but you're not getting to the root cause and the root cause is what's gonna kill you, not the particular metric. So I think doctors really need to understand, and I think you intimated that most of us don't because we don't get the nutritional education we should.

JAMES (21:22):

Yeah. That I was gonna say in, in your example of the three types of doctors, the first one, who immediately dismisses it, the second one who says, I don't know. And the third that says, you know, maybe I've never heard a doctor say, I don't know <laugh>. I think I've, maybe I've been going to the wrong doctors. But you know, they, I I think that there's so much invested in their profession that for them to say, I don't know, makes 'em look like they don't know. And they don't want you to think they dunno, because they pretend to know

DR OCONNOR (21:49):

It's a very paternal system. Our people are paying us and coming to us because we're supposed to be this totally knowing, impressive, kind of credentialed person. But that's why we have so much sub specialization in this world is because there is so much information out there, there is so much to know on a day-to-day basis, the amount of medical information increases just exponentially. And so you can't know everything. So you go into a specialty or a subspecialty so that you have an even better understanding of what you don't understand. And that, I think, creates a problem because we are trained as physicians to not admit that we don't know. And you're right, very few doctors will say, I don't know. I hope I'm not one of them. I, I use, I don't know a lot, but my next follow up is I will find out. So what I don't know, I don't know, but I will try to find an answer for you.

Speaker 3 (22:47):

Awesome. I appreciate it. Dr. O'Connor, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for talking a little bit about ashwagandha, about, you know, I guess kind of the current medical situation. And for those of you listening, we do have a special link. The product that Dr. O'Connor helped formulate is Ashwagandha Gummies. We do have a special link on the site for, uh, 20% off your first purchase, and that's available@wellnessrevolutionradio.com. Just go to www.wellnessrevolutionradio.com and find out more. Dr. O'Connor, thank you so much for joining us today.

DR OCONNOR (23:22):

It's been a pleasure and an honor. Thank you.

JAMES (23:24):

And as always, if you want to keep up to date with everything alternative when it comes to herbs and vitamins, supplements, make sure to hit the subscribe button. And thank you so much for listening, and we'll see you on the next show.

VOICEOVER (23:35):

You've been listening to Wellness Revolution Radio. Hit the subscribe button to be the first to hear about both ancient and cutting edge supplements and products for your health and wellbeing. Have an idea for the show. Wanna get in touch, reach out to us@wellnessrevolutionradio.com.