Dr Norman Swan

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26,995 appearances 288 recordings 3 series first heard Apr 2006 last heard 15 Sep

Dr Norman Swan’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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What's That Rash? · Ashwagandha: what's the evidence? · 21 Jul 2026 podcast

They may reduce inflammation and so on.

And that could happen in the brain too.

which is why some people think it might have a benefit on cognitive function.

Again, not great research in that area.

A little bit of a signal that it might do that.

Again, because of the mix of compounds in there and some may actually have an effect on brain inflammation.

We don't know.

Well, I mean, I don't want to bag this completely, but again, because of the breadth of effects of the various compounds within ashwagandha, it's possible that through anti-inflammatory effects, it's possible if it does for some reason, and there is a little bit of laboratory evidence that it might boost testosterone levels and might boost DHEA, which is a precursor of testosterone, it's possible that you are getting effects on muscle tissue.

which could improve adaptation to resistance training, for example.

So it's not out of court that it could have this effect.

But again, you need better research to be sure.

Well, it's research that you'll never get because it's so expensive to do and it's drug companies who fund it.

And this is the problem where you have potentially useful products out there, but they never get studied.

I mean, aspirin was a classic example for decades.

some signals that it's really good for after a heart attack to 25 years for that to be nailed because it required public funding of research to prove it because no drug company was going to make money out of aspirin.

So this is the problem that you've got here.

I mean, where I would sit just looking at the research for this, what's that rash would be, if you're going to try ashwagandha, try it in small doses in a standardized extract.

We can't tell you what they are.

We're not going to.

We're angels fear to tread.

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