alright guys so in this video we're gonna be talking about the best way to take ashwagandha
in order to maximize results so let's dive right in hey guys my name is Zack Allison and welcome
to nutrition library or trusted resource for an evidence-based approach to supplementation if you
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content thank you so much so we're gonna break this video down into four primary parts the first
being when to take ashwagandha the second being how long to take it the third thing we're going
to talk about is other compounds that you can actually take with ashwagandha and while you're
cycling off of it and then the fourth thing that we're gonna get into is how to maximize absorption
so again the first thing we're going to talk about in this video is when to take ashwagandha and the
truth is there really isn't a best time to take off lagonda it really just depends on your own
personal biochemistry and unfortunately we just don't have a ton of research that's available
at the moment on when the best time to take it might be and because it has so many active
ingredients in the active ingredients that are in ashwagandha do several different things some
of them are stimulating some of them are more sedating and relaxing and so it kind of presents
a tad bit of an issue when it comes to trying to pin down and nail down a perfect time to take it
now the two primary ways of taking ashwagandha are either one in a split dose throughout the
day or two in a single dose throughout the day now ashwagandha has a relatively short half-life
of around two to four hours now because it has a half-life of roughly two to four hours this
essentially means that after about 12 hours that 95% of the active ingredients of ashwagandha are
typically out of your system by then now with the understanding that ashwagandha is half-life
is around 2 to 4 hours and is excreted 95% of it is skree today after 12 hours the optimal dosing
period is gonna be taking it every 12 hours now for most people this means taking a dose in the
morning and then also taking another dose in the evening time and essentially splitting the daily
amount that you're aiming for across those two doses now by doing this you are gonna get the
most consistent intake of ashwagandha and reap the most benefits from it however the downside
to this is obviously that you're having to keep up with making sure whether or not you actually
took your morning dose and your evening dose so for those of you that are very very simple
and like to take all of your supplements or whatever it might be in one single dose this
may not be the best route for you but for those of you that are trying to maximize the effects
of ashwagandha this is definitely going to be the route that you want to take so now the alternative
to taking a split dose in the morning and in the evening time is obviously going to be just
simply taking it once per day and now I actually kind of veer from some of the conventional wisdom
when it comes down to one particular time of day to take ashwagandha a lot of people will
actually tell you to either one take it right when you wake up in the morning because that's
when cortisol is naturally highest and one of the things that ashwagandha is primarily used
for is to reduce cortisol and then the other way that people typically recommend that you take it
is by simply taking it in the evening time before you go to sleep in order to aid in sleep quality
I actually don't like either of those options because ashwagandha again does have stimulating
and relaxing properties to it and so by taking it in the evening time you do run the risk of it
keeping you up and kind of disrupting your sleep patterns to some degree and by taking it in the
morning you can actually kind of cause to much relaxation if you're taking your entire dose in
the morning time and because of this I'm a huge fan of taking your single dose in the afternoon
with lunch and this essentially ensures that you're not going to disrupt your sleep patterns
or cause too much relaxation in the morning time and kind of finds a happy medium between those
two in order to reap the full benefits while also minimizing the side effects now one of the huge
questions that I get almost on a weekly basis is how long it can I take ashwagandha and this is
a very legitimate question because ashwagandha is like a lot of compounds and that it actually
loses its effectiveness at a specific dose if you continue to take it indefinitely which is
why it's traditionally recommended that you cycle your ashwagandha intake and what is traditionally
recommended is what I would call a macro cycle and that's simply just a fancy term that I like to
personally use in order to delineate between the two types of cycles that you can do and so again
the first way that you can cycle your ashwagandha intake is through a macro cycle which would simply
just be a two to three month period where you take it every single day followed by a period
of roughly one to two months after that where you completely abstain from taking it now the benefit
to this is obviously that while you're in that three month on period you're able to pretty much
take it every single day without having to wake up and wonder and think about and keep up with
well did I take it yesterday do I need to take it today and so it makes it a whole lot easier
especially for individuals that are just getting into or supplementation and don't want to think
about these things but the downside however is obviously that after that three-month period
that you do need to go through a one to two month period where you're not consuming it in order to
prevent your body from developing a tolerance to the compounds that are in ashwagandha and this is
why I'm actually a bigger fan of doing what I call micro cycles which is where you take ashwagandha
for one - five days followed by a period where you do abstain from taking it that is right
around half - equal the amount of time that you were taking it so for instance if you want to do
an on cycle of about three days that would mean that she would take it for three days wouldn't
that be in the morning and in the evening time or just in one dose in the afternoon and so you
would take it for about three days followed by a period of one to three days where you don't take
it and I am a huge fan of this for two primary reasons one is that it prevents your body from
developing a tolerance to the compounds that are in ashwagandha and the second reason is that it
actually allows you to take it indefinitely because of that and this is essentially what
tolerance is at the end of the day so tolerance is essentially when your body begins to adapt
to the intake of specific compounds in such a way that those compounds then become less and
severely less effective at doing what you were consuming them to do now there are three primary
ways that your body does this one is by simply up regulating the enzymes that your body uses
in order to break down the compounds that you're ingesting so there are very specific enzymes that
your body uses in order to break ashwagandha down and this actually goes across the board
for almost any compound that you're consuming and really any pharmaceutical for that matter as well
and so your body up regulates the enzymes that are required to break that compound down which
means that your body's actually able to excrete it at a higher rate now the second way that your body
adapts to the consistent intake of specific compounds is that it actually withdraws the
receptors that are on cells that respond to those compounds it withdraws those into the
cell in order to make the cells less responsive and less sensitive to that compound and it makes
sense if you think about it because your body is always trying to get to a state of homeostasis
so if you are throwing something into your body that is drastically increasing neurotransmitter
output or directly binding to the receptors on specific cells your body essentially doesn't
want that to happen on a consistent basis and so in order to remain at a state of homeostasis
it will actually begin to pull those receptors into the cell so that it's not as responsive
to those compounds now the third way that your body develops tolerance is actually downstream
of that so once those receptors that are on cells withdrawal into the cell after a prolonged period
of doing that what they will actually begin to lose their protein content and once they lose
their protein content they actually essentially die and so you lose receptor density to specific
hormones and neurotransmitters now the third thing we want to talk about when it comes to how
best to take ashwagandha is that we want to talk about other compounds that we can actually cycle
with ashwagandha while we're on an off period so for instance if you are taking ashwagandha
for stress and maybe even anxiety to some degree and you're choosing for instance to do a five-day
cycle on with a three-day cycle off there are other compounds which you can actually use while
you're on your off period to reap the benefits of ashwagandha while you're taking it but then
also to treat that level of stress that you're trying to treat with other compounds when you're
not taking the ashwagandha so a great example of this would be something like l-theanine now
if you guys haven't seen my video on l-theanine yet i'll link it at the end of this video but
suffice it to say that l-theanine is also very effective at treating stress and so if you're
taking ashwagandha primarily to treat the symptoms of stress during that five-day on period you can
take something like theanine on the off period in order to reap the benefits of both compounds
while also not developing a tolerance to either of them now another great example of this would
be if you are taking ashwagandha in order to increase testosterone levels ashwagandha
does have a slight effect and slight increasing effect on testosterone and so if you're taking it
for those purposes but you also want to reap the benefits of increased testosterone while you're
on your off period compounds like forskolin and you kuna pruriens and even things like tongkat
Ali are great options to take while you're on your off period in order to reap the benefits of
all of those compounds without again developing a tolerance to any of them alright so the last
thing we want to talk about before we close out this video is how to maximise absorption now the
first thing you want to think about when you're trying to maximize the absorption of ashwagandha
is that most of the compounds and most of the active compounds that are in ashwagandha are
fat soluble and this is why it's typically recommended that ashwagandha is consumed in
a traditional format with milk and honey and that's because milk is a fairly good source of
fat and so when you mix the ashwagandha with the milk and then the honey for taste if one provides
a tasty treat to some degree but it also provides a chaperone for that ashwagandha to be absorbed
through the gut lining now I will say that it's important to note here that if you're consuming
an extract like KSM 66 or since grill it really doesn't matter if you're taking it with a fat
source because those extracts have already used an ethanol extraction process in order to get the
active ingredients and kind of activate them so to speak already so when you consume an extract
it's really easy for your body to absorb those through the gut lining and so again you really
don't have to worry about taking it with of that source now if you are consuming the root powder
you do need to consume it with a fat source because the root powder has not gone through
the extraction process which means that you need something that those compounds can dissolve into
like that fat in order to be absorbed through the gut lining but other than that guys that's all I
have for you today I hope this was helpful and I hope you guys can implement this in your life
not just with ashwagandha but also other compounds that you're consuming on a regular basis in order
to maximize their effectiveness across the board so if you guys have any questions or any comments
about anything that was stated in this video as always simply leave a comment down below and I
will get back to you as soon as possible but if not I will see you next time thank you so much