Does Ashwagandha kill Emotions ? Here is the Truth

Last updated on July 5th, 2024 at 11:03 am

Ashwagandha is a powerful Ayurvedic medicinal herb. It provides many health benefits. But recently, there has been a myth about this potent Ayurvedic medicinal herb. There has been a trend about this, that ashwagandha kills emotions.

Is it real?

Does Ashwagandha kill emotions?

And if it does, how long does it take for Ashwagandha to kill emotions?

Anyway, at the end of this blog, you will get all of these answers.

How does Ashwagandha kill emotions?

Though I know exactly what you mean by “does ashwagandha kill emotions”, I would say this is the wrong choice to choose words for your question. Because this sentence is exaggerated in itself. It gives a negative sense of the potential of this drug to manage emotional disturbance.

I mean if I want to answer this directly, taking into consideration the literal meaning of this sentence, I would not be able to answer. The question does ashwagandha kills emotions lacks scientific backing and evidence.

But if I want to interpret this question of yours and answer it correctly, I will link this question with the intent you have. I mean this drug does kill your emotions, but not in the literal sense.

‘Killing emotions’ is an extreme and wrong claim of the potential of this drug. Now you would say what’s the correct way then?

Well, ashwagandha does kill your emotions, but in a positive, neat, and balanced way. Ashwagandha helps to reduce your extreme emotions. In this sense, it gives you relief by numbing unwanted emotions and feelings.

Let’s explore this in more detail and scientific way.

Ashwagandha reduces stress and anxiety

Not necessarily kill your stressed emotions, but ashwagandha does reduce stress. Much research shows the potential use of ashwagandha to manage stress and anxiety, but there are very few and no promising studies that show ashwagandha’s impact on emotional suppression.

Many clinical trials and studies suggest that ashwagandha and its extracts help reduce stress and anxiety. This study was performed on 491 Indian individuals, who were diagnosed with stress and anxiety. Those individuals were instructed to take various ashwagandha extracts for 6 to 8 weeks. Overall, this study found that ashwagandha significantly reduces stress and anxiety.

Another study published in the National Library of Medicine suggested that ashwagandha root extract is beneficial in managing stress and anxiety. It provides and best alternative for supplements in reducing stress and anxiety.

Stating all these benefits of ashwagandha, you also must take into consideration these two thoughts.

• Ashwagandha doesn’t eliminate emotions, but it helps regulate them to manageable levels.
• Suppressing or killing any emotions for a long duration can lead to emotional detachment and another emotional challenge.

Of course, ashwagandha is the best herbal medicine to tackle your stress and anxiety. But it is not surely a magic bullet that aims at entirely killing your emotions. It only does emotion regulation.

Does Ashwagandha make you emotionless?

Apart from stress and anxiety, ashwagandha also deals with negative emotions such as sadness, anger, fear, and frustration. In fact, you did not need to be emotionless regarding this feeling to get rid of these feelings. Blocking or reducing this feeling at a manageable level gets you relief from these negative emotions.

Ashwagandha manages frustration or irritability

Frustration or irritability is a negative emotion. Who wants it? That is the feeling when we don’t know what to do, can’t think clearly, or cannot make any decision.

Lack of sleep is one of the main causes of irritability. Irritability has been highly linked with sleep deprivation. Ashwagandha reduces frustration or irritability by inducing sleep.

A review study suggests that Ashwagandha extract is highly effective in inducing sleep.

Another study in individuals were instructed to take 600 mg of ashwagandha root per day for 12 weeks. The conclusion of the study shows a significant increase in the sleep quality of individuals who completed the trial.

The mechanism behind this is still under study. But there are some potential ways through which ashwagandha may do so.

• GABA receptor: Studies suggest that ashwagandha may interact with GABA receptors in the brain. GABA is gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA). This component promotes calmness and relaxation. Ashwagandha modulates this GABA receptor, which induces sleep and calmness.
• Reduces anxiety: Anxiety is the leading cause of insomnia or inadequate sleep. Ashwagandha helps reduce anxiety and promote calmness and sleep.
• Lowers cortisol: Cortisol is a stress hormone. This hormone also disrupts the sleep cycle. Especially increased cortisol levels at the onset of sleep surely disturb your sleep. Ashwagandha lowers this cortisol hormone which helps in promoting sleep and improving sleep quality.
• Serotonin level: It is another hormone that affects mood and sleep. Some studies show that ashwagandha helps maintain the serotonin level.

All above factors help in inducing sleep and improving sleep quality. This improved sleep quality helps reduce the emotions of frustration and irritability.

Ashwagandha lowers Depression

Depression is a complex mental disorder. It affects every aspect of your mental well-being.

It is characterized by:

• Sadness
• Hopelessness
• Disinterest in almost most of the activities

Who would want this type of mental environment. Off course, no one would wish for it.

People may wish to numb this feeling or stop feeling this like emotions. But it has no cure entirely.

Fortunately, ashwagandha has been reported to deal with depression. Ashwagandha find its uses in many mental disorders including depression, schizophrenia, anxiety, as we have seen.

One of study published in ResearchGate suggest that ashwagandha shows promising results in depression along with schizophrenia. Unfortunately, they could not find the mechanism behind this.

Journal of experimental pharmacology published a study on sustained-release formulation of ashwagandha herb. Study found anti-neuroinflammatory potential of ashwagandha which believed to be helpful in depression and anxiety.

Ashwagandha also:

• Promotes calmness: Since ashwagandha interacts with GABA receptors, it promotes calmness in you. This calming environment helps you to cope with depression.
• Reduces inflammation: Depression is highly linked with the inflammation in body. Ashwagandha contains some anti-inflammatory compound, which helps in reducing inflammation.
• Improves sleep quality: As we seen earlier that ashwagandha promotes sleep, this effect of ashwagandha helps in reducing the symptoms of depression in those patients.

Above all benefits ensures lowering the symptoms of depression.

Ashwagandha lowers the anger

Being the adaptogenic drug, ashwagandha manages your negative emotions. Ashwagandha let you manage your emotions according to situations you face.

Ashwagandha has the ability to cope with many negative mental health issues including anger.

As we have seen earlier that how ashwagandha helps in reducing stress, anxiety, frustration and other emotional disturbances. This overall multi approach use of ashwagandha eventually also helps an anger management.

By addressing stress, anxiety and other negative extreme emotions, we could achieve our goal of anger management.

Let’s wrap up!

Individual experiences about ashwagandha are diverse. I mean there could be also other benefits than I mentioned here in this blog. But there is neither experiences nor research which shows that ashwagandha kills emotions. It does that but not in literal sense, not in the sense you are expecting.

Certainly, some preliminary studies point at some possible connection of ashwagandha about ‘killing’, but that is also no in the extreme and negative sense.

Negative emotions I mentioned above is harmful for any individual. Ashwagandha really does manage those feelings and emotions. These benefits of ashwagandha might be misinterpreted as ‘killing emotions’, but it actually a healthier shift.

Meanwhile, there is currently no scientific evidence to support the claim that ashwagandha kills emotions. But it surely does have potential effect in reducing negative feelings like stress, anxiety, depression, anger, as I have mentioned before.

So, consult with your healthcare professional before starting any new supplement or treatment.

If you have any additional insights or questions regarding this topic, please feel free to comment below. Thank you.

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