hey everyone during this video you are going to learn how to take ashwagandha ashwagandha this is
a root extracted from india as well as places in africa and this is one of the most popular
nootropic supplements for decreasing stress levels think about it like being more calm being in a
state of joy good energy sleeping better and for general health this is one of the best nootropics
out there because there really aren't a lot of side effects think about it like a natural
herbal remedy and i can share with you that i've been using it for about five years now
and it's really improved my life for the better in fact i like it so much that i have it in
three different forms i have the ksm66 and the other two very popular forms are another patented
extract the central version and this one which is fairly new to the market called shoden here's
what the powder looks like you can see it's this like orange yellowish herb and what so is it's
not something which you would really want to mix with drinks because it doesn't taste great but at
the same time it's not clumpy in this video we're gonna talk about how to take ashwagandha i'm gonna
answer some very popular questions like when during the day is the best time to take it are
you better off taking it once per day or should you spread out the dosage during the day how long
can you take ashwagandha is this something that's relatively safe to take every single day and if
so how often should i take time off of it and how long should i take off during that time span and
then i'm going to give you some tips as far as how to maximize the absorption of this very powerful
nootropic so the first question when should you take your ashwagandha it's important to note
that ashwagandha has a relatively short half-life we're talking two to four hours which means that
95 of the active compounds in ashwagandha are going to be gone after about 12 hours so what
this means is optimally if you really want to get the most out of ashwagandha you would spread apart
your doses by 12 hours so a practical example would be like 8 am and then again at 8 o'clock p.m
in the evening however for most people this isn't something that they want to stick with and at the
same time depending on which form of ashlander you're taking they can be somewhat stimulating
like you'll find that the active ingredients in ashwagandha are such that some of them are
mildly sedating whereas some of them are mildly stimulating like i'm somebody that i don't like
taking ashwagandha before bed personally because i noticed that i do feel slightly more alert
however this is also going to depend on what form of ashwagandha that you're taking so it's
important to recognize the differences generally speaking there are three kinds of ashwagandha the
first would be the root powder the second would be the ksm 66 extract and then the third would
be the central extract so here's what you want to look out for in ashwagandha the primary medicinal
property is called with analyze and the different forms of ashwagandha are going to have different
percentages of with analyze each like for example the central version has the most with analyzed
at 10 but what so is they also don't have a good percentage of some of the more active ingredients
which is one of the reasons why the central version for a lot of people is a bit too sedating
people feel too relaxed almost feeling demotivated the ksm66 version has five percent with analyze
and then the root powder only has point five percent or less so with respect to dosing
what's commonly recommended is taking the sensoral version from 200 milligrams to 600 milligrams per
day the ksm 66 version 300 milligrams to 900 milligrams per day and the root ground powder
is 1 gram to 3 grams again during the whole course of the day based on what we know about ashwagandha
as far as its effectiveness and its half-life it seems ideal to take it in split doses during the
course of the day like two to three times per day however some users report really good experiences
taking it in a single dose taking it just once per day if you are to do that then when should
you take it and there's not a lot of research done on this in order for you to get the best benefit
from it some people report good experiences when they're taking it once in the morning because
first thing in the morning we experience a spike in our cortisol levels you can make the argument
that ashwagandha is applicable then because ashwagandha is going to bring your cortisol levels
down thus allowing you to experience more of a stress-free kind of day and being calmer however
in a practical sense from my experience if you take ashwagandha in a big dose first thing in the
morning you can be somewhat lethargic a little bit more demotivated than typically and in the morning
that's the time when i don't really think cortisol is a bad thing that natural cortisol spike
is really responsible for you having a lot of energy without necessarily needing your caffeine
however though it is important to note that with ashwagandha this supplement really works well once
you take it longer than two weeks like i found that once um you've hit that like 14 to 21 day
mark that you've regularly been using ashwagandha it's almost like it's saturated within your system
and you can afford to miss a dose and still feel present in a state of being in a better mood
and getting a better sleep quality then i would advise you to take it somewhere in the afternoon
between one to three o'clock that'll be ideal and that'll be a way in which you'll get the benefits
of ashwagandha throughout the later portion of the day when you're typically going to be
more stressed out because of whatever occurrences you've had during the course of the day whereas
if let's say you took the whole dose at 8 am you likely wouldn't get all the benefits with respect
to giving you a deep rejuvenating sleep but for me anyway i prefer taking my ksm 66 version once
at 12 o'clock and once again at six o'clock p.m i generally work out in the morning and i don't
really want to take anything that can be somewhat relaxing pre-workout which is why you generally
wouldn't see ksm 66 or ashwagandha in pre-workout blends however there are benefits with body
composition as far as improving testosterone level even improving your thyroid levels and helping you
with general muscle mass next let's answer the question of how long can you take ashwagandha
and there's two ways of going about this some people prefer taking what we call a macro cycle
when they take something like two months on followed by a few weeks off and then resuming
again by two months or something called micro cycling whereas they do something like taking
five days on like two days off so the practical sense would be weekdays on and weekdays off and
for me anyway what i generally find best results with is going with the macro cycling now why do we
need to do this the reason why we need to do this is like most supplements out there most compounds
what so is our bodies can build somewhat of a tolerance your body begins to adapt to specific
compounds and then the compounds just become less effective because you're up regulating the enzymes
that your body uses in order to break down the compound and this is not just an ashwagandha
this is almost across every supplement out there it's especially known in caffeine or coffee
that you simply need to drink more coffee to get the same benefit so that's the reason why we want
to be on the safe side and we do want to cycle off of ashwagandha quite honestly i'm against the idea
of micro cycling and taking a short period of time on followed by a short period of time off because
like i mentioned earlier once you've taken it every day for about two weeks that's when
ashwagandha is really showing its magic and its effectiveness as far as getting all the benefits
how do we maximize the absorption from ashwagandha um traditionally it's been recommended that you
take ashwagandha along with the fat source because it's fat soluble and that's why a lot of people
used honey and milk with their ashwagandha however this really is only applicable you can say with
the ashwagandha root i think now a lot of people are taking the extract form like i mentioned the
ksm66 version as well as the sensorial version and fortunately with these two extracts
they've already been through a process where it's not necessary to take them with food in
order for it to be maximally absorbed through your gut lining so personally most often i'm
taking ashwagandha ksm 66 on a fasted version as i'm practicing intermittent fasting and i'm seeing
just the same results as i would if i were to have a normal feeding window of eating four meals a day
furthermore there are studies which suggest that black pepper can actually aid the bio availability
of the ashwagandha which means it's better absorbed within the body and you should therefore
consume it with pepper and we're starting to see that in a lot of different blends what they're
doing in particular nootropic bottles is they're pairing black pepper along with ashwagandha
however i have observed from speaking to people that a lot of people use this blend
and experience some stomach upset so i would not necessarily recommend it click subscribe
if you haven't already drop a comment even if it's something as simple as a great video
and the way that i'm going to leave you with is an insertion of another video that i've made talking
about alphini and you'll likely find that helpful and i'll look forward to seeing you all next time
and then something neat too is it actually enhances alpha brainwave so this is kind of
like and it may sound a bit far-fetched but it's like wakeful relaxation almost like meditation
in a pill that's how altheanine feels and it's true it's been my experience as well
and the studies showed that after only four weeks of l-theanine use at only 200 milligrams a day