hey what's up guys so ashwagandha like tonkat ali is a supplement that i've been taking for
a little over five years now and when i first started taking it it was somewhat like a miracle
supplement for me it dramatically reduced my stress levels and improved my mood as well as
my performance in the gym however it has been a very long time since i've taken ashwagandha on
a daily basis and the largest reason for this is that when i take it for extended periods of time
that i tend to run into side effects well that sucks and i don't appear to
be the only one that has experienced this my buddy lucas over on his youtube channel
uh booster biology has done a fantastic job of outlining uh some of the side effects that he
encountered and he had a particularly uh negative experience with ashwagandha and now my experience
has been mostly positive however i did want to do a video diving a little bit deeper into just
mostly all of the known side effects of ashwagandha so that you guys can have an idea
of what to keep an eye out for if you are deciding to supplement with it on a daily basis now the way
i want to do this is similar to my video on the side effects of tonkat ali which is to
outline the primary mechanisms of action of of ashwagandha as well as the specific side effects
that are associated with those mechanisms of action so let's go ahead and dive right
in now the first mechanism of action that i want to talk about is ashwagandha's ability
to potently increase thyroid hormone levels now for a lot of people increasing thyroid hormone
levels can be a good thing because it's going to increase glucose utilization and increased
energy levels and possibly even lead to increased muscle hypertrophy however for those that already
have sufficient levels of thyroid hormones in your bloodstream increasing thyroid hormones
beyond this point can actually lead to some side effects namely nervousness fast heart rate and
insomnia now again the reason for this is that thyroid hormones do increase glucose utilization
and just energy production in general and have a general stimulatory effect on the
nervous system and so when you increase thyroid hormone levels beyond what they typically are
there is a risk of running into things like fast heart rate and nervousness and insomnia and things
along those lines now again people that already have high levels of thyroid hormones in their
bloodstream or individuals that are on a low carbohydrate diet are at a particular
risk of experiencing these side effects and the reason for that is again thyroid hormones are
used to process and metabolize glucose and so if you aren't consuming a lot of glucose
there is an increased risk of running into these thyroid hormone related side effects
now the obvious way to mitigate against this is to simply increase your carbohydrate intake and this
may help to somewhat relieve some of these thyroid related side effects however it is also worth
noting here that ashwagandha has been shown in a couple of different studies to actually suppress
the endogenous production of thyroid hormones and the reason for this is that ashwagandha directly
stimulates the thyroid gland to produce thyroid hormones and actually shuts down your pituitary
gland from releasing thyroid releasing hormone and so ashwagandha actually suppresses thyroid
production similar to how anabolic steroids suppress testosterone production and so long story
short here is that if you are planning on taking ashwagandha for an extended period of time but
this is definitely something that you want to look out for now the second mechanism of action that
we're going to talk about is ashwagandha's ability to modulate the gaba a receptor now this is one of
the primary ways by which ashwagandha can actually improve sleep and improve anxiety as well as even
improve the release of genanotropic releasing hormone which subsequently leads to increases
in the production of testosterone however there are a number of side effects to look out for here
as well namely a lethargic mood and sedation and the reason for this is that gaba is one of
your primary inhibitory neurotransmitters meaning that when you increase the signaling specifically
through the gaba a receptor that there is a notable reduction in anxiety and stress
levels however if you already have sufficient gaba signaling you can actually tend to run into some
side effects namely again a lethargic mood and sedation now people that are already consuming
other gabinergic substances like l-theanine and turine as well as lemon balm and valerian are at
particular risk of experiencing these side effects however one of the primary ways to
actually mitigate the risk of these side effects is to actually consume compounds that are in
mda agonists such as d-aspartic acid and creatine and the reason for this is that
glutamate is kind of like the the opposite to gaba so glutamate is your primary stimulatory
neurotransmitter and nmda is your primary receptor that glutamate binds to in order to carry out its
biological action and so by consuming substances like d-aspartic acid and creatine which have
been known to bind to this receptor can actually counteract some of the negative side effects that
come from stimulating or over stimulating the gaba receptors now the next mechanism
of action that we're going to talk about real quick is ashwagandha's ability to increase
serotonin signaling now ashwagandha does this primarily by one increasing the expression of the
receptor as well as possibly even increasing just general levels of serotonin as well
now this is one of the primary mechanisms by which ashwagandha exerts its antidepressant effects
however for those that already have sufficient serotonin signaling there are a number of side
effects to keep in mind here namely what is known as an hedonia now anhedonia is a condition in
which you lose motivation and lose pleasure and lose libido and this is largely because when you
dramatically increase serotonin signaling that it also will dramatically decrease dopamine signaling
and because dopamine is such a motivating and somewhat makes doing things feel good when you
suppress dopamine too much you tend to lose pleasure in things that you typically enjoy
doing and so this is definitely a side effect to keep in mind here however one of the primary ways
that you can mitigate against this effect is to simply just consume dopaminergic precursors like
phenylalanine tyrosine and mucuperians now if you actually end up experiencing this i do think it is
super important that you immediately discontinue ashwagandha supplementation however for those that
are continuing to take it and want to prevent this from happening in the first place again taking
dopamine precursors is a good method to mitigate against the risk of this side
effect now the fourth mechanism of action that i want to talk about real quick is ashwagandha's
ability to modulate the adrenaline receptors now adrenaline like dopamine is a highly
motivating neurochemical and so for those that have depressive symptoms taking something like
ashwagandha may help to improve depression-like symptoms however because adrenaline is such a
potent neurochemical there are a handful of side effects to keep in mind here as well
namely nervousness fast heartbeat and insomnia now i think the reason for this kind of goes without
saying when you increase adrenaline levels it's going to increase energy levels and motivation
but you also run the risk of experiencing some slight anxiety and insomnia and a fast heart rate
and so for those that already have adequate levels of adrenaline or adequate adrenaline signaling you
are at particular risk of experiencing these side effects however one of the best things to
keep in mind here is that it is super important to just simply time your dosage of ashwagandha
well especially if you're trying to use it for improvements in sleep i do think it is best to
take ashwagandha in the mid to late afternoon simply because if you take it in the morning
you run the risk of kind of blunting the morning cortisol spike too much and kind of
leading to a lethargic mood for the rest of the day and if you take it in the evening time you run
the risk of disrupting your sleep and so taking it in the afternoon seemed to be somewhat of a sweet
spot for most individuals and so again if you're trying to avoid some of the sleep disruption
that might come from taking ashwagandha too late in the day taking it in the mid-afternoon is
a great way to mitigate against some of these side effects now the last mechanism of action
that we're going to talk about as well as the associated side effects is ashwagandha's ability
to reduce and potently suppress cortisol now this is the primary means by which ashwagandha is able
to potently suppress the effects of stress as well as one of its mechanisms that is responsible for
its ability to increase testosterone however it is also important to keep in mind here that if you
decrease cortisol too much that you can actually suppress your natural stress response and actually
end up leading to a lethargic mood as well now a lot of individuals find that when they take
ashwagandha for too long they just end up feeling super fatigued and a larger reason for this
is that they are suppressing their cortisol too much now chronically high cortisol is not
a good thing and can lead to symptoms of chronic stress however again cortisol is needed by your
body for proper stress responses and so when you combine this with ashwagandha's ability to
increase gaba signaling and serotonin signaling they're definitely
is a risk of ashwagandha kind of leading to kind of what i've called the gray effect where
um you just you lose motivation you lose pleasure and things that you typically enjoyed and so
um that is just one of the major side effects to keep in mind when you're taking ashwagandha
and even though there are ways to mitigate against these side effects if you do run into these side
effects it is super important that you discontinue use and take frequent breaks from supplementation
now i do think it is also worth mentioning here that ashwagandha does not appear to be liver toxic
i hear this rumor floating around a lot of different places on the interwebs and there
are a couple of different case studies that try to make a link between ashwagandha consumption
and liver toxicity however it is an extremely loose connection and is associated with extremely
high doses and there are a number of studies that have demonstrated that ashwagandha actually
appears to be liver protective and so anything in extremely high doses can be taxing on the liver
i mean shoot if you take just a little bit too much caffeine you can actually go into cardiac
arrest and so uh the dosage definitely makes the poison and that somewhat appears to be the
case with ashwagandha in super high doses it may be difficult for your liver to process it but in
adequate and responsible doses it actually appears to be somewhat of a liver protectant now all in
all when it comes to ashwagandha supplementation there is literally no one-size-fits-all approach
some individuals take it for super long periods of time and never encounter any side effect and some
people encounter side effects the first day they take it and so it is super clear that ashwagandha
isn't for everyone however a ton of individuals can benefit from it and this is one of the reasons
why i'm such a huge fan of getting blood testing done before you start experimenting with specific
supplements blood testing gives you a super good snapshot as to whether or not you should try
a particular supplement and so if you guys are interested in getting an at-home blood test done
there is a link in the description down below where you can get 30 off of an at-home blood
test as well as some links to some supplement guides some free supplement guides as well as my
favorite products but other than that guys i think i will see you guys next time thank you so much