Ashwagandha: what's the evidence?
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So where do you sit, Tegan?
In a chair.
Oh, good. In that case, where do you sit on your chair with Ayurvedic medicine? Have you tried it out?
Well, not sort of intentionally trying out Ayurvedic medicine, but I do love yoga. You know, I've eaten things with turmeric in them. I think it has infused a lot of our lives in ways that maybe we're not realising, but I haven't actively sorted out.
So, I mean, we're talking here about ancient Indian practice, effectively, the same way as you've got Chinese medicine, which goes back thousands of years. You've got Ayurvedic medicine, which cuts across interventions which include philosophy, religion, and beliefs about the way the body works. That's what we're talking about here. But there's lots of interventions around. And there are people who do practice ancient Indian medicine in the form of Ayurvedic practice.
It's the sort of thing I think some people might look down their noses at a little bit, and I want to interrogate that a bit today.
On What's That Rash?
Which is the show where we answer the health questions that everyone is asking. So today's question comes from Wayne. And Wayne is asking a question, as we skillfully foreshadowed, about a particular ingredient in Ayurvedic medicine. So ashwagandha. Wayne says, I have a question regarding the effectiveness of ashwagandha in reducing cortisol levels and therefore perhaps some of the adverse consequences of stress. I see from a search or two on the internet that there is some indication that clinical trials show a reduction. Are those trials meaningful? Is the amount of reduction enough to offset high stress and warrant taking the supplement? Wayne, you are asking excellent questions. Because we're talking about a traditional medicine, as we said before.
We're talking about evidence. And I think today, Norman, we're also going to end up talking about things like imperialism and colonialism, conflicts of interest. It is a very rich theme that Wayne has opened up with his question today.
But it starts with withenia somnifera.
Right, which is a mouthful, which is the Latin name for the plant that ashwagandha comes from.
It's an evergreen shrub cultivated in tropical and subtropical areas of Asia, Africa and Europe.
A fact that you just had on the top of your brain and definitely didn't read off a Wikipedia entry.
Tripped off the tongue. Do you know why it's called ashwagandha? No, I don't know why it's called ashwagandha.
So that's the Sanskrit name for this plant. But the plant's roots are said to smell like a wet horse. Ashwa means horse and gandha for smell. So that's what we're saying when we're saying ashwagandha. We're saying effectively wet horse.
Is that a way of testing whether or not you've got genuine ashwagandha?
I think you need to have a wet horse nearby to compare the scent. So that is expensive as much as anything else. So, okay, let's talk about this plant, what we know about the plant.
Yeah, it's also called Indian winter cherry or Indian ginseng. And in fact, it's one of the core herbal medications of the Ayurvedic system and has apparently been used for millennia for its wide-ranging health benefits.
Yeah, sort of as a tonic, a kind of overall health tonic. And so that's not that uncommon in traditional medicines that you might sort of have something that's like good for you in capital letters. But then the science is really about unpicking what the claims are and how well they're supported by the actions, which is really what we're going to talk about today.
Yeah. But in Ayurvedic medicine, there is this mix, if you like, called rasayana, which is described as a herbal or metallic preparation.
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