Proven Benefits Of Ashwaganda

Next question is from Cole Cosnick. Are there any proven benefits to taking ashwagandha? Yeah, that's actually a pretty well-studied supplement. It's got lots of benefits. It raises testosterone in men with low testosterone. And it's got this hormone... It's also in your green juice you were talking about earlier, right? It is. It's in the Organifi green juice. They put ashwagandha in there. And it's got this hormone balancing effect to where... It's called an adaptogen because the negative effects that you get from a lot of stress can be quite blunted by supplementing with ashwagandha. It's almost like it gets your body to utilize cortisol better so your body doesn't raise cortisol as much. So you see studies that lower cortisol in high-stress individuals. You see studies showing that it improves recovery and strength and muscle gains in athletes. It's one of those few natural supplements that has a pretty good effect. Now, there may be cases where you don't want to take ashwagandha. I think if you have a nightshade allergy or intolerance, you probably don't want to supplement with ashwagandha. But it's like... Okay, so you know how ginseng is for Chinese medicine? Ginseng is like the king of supplements or herbs or whatever in Chinese medicine. Ashwagandha is like that for Ayurvedic medicine. It's like vitality, libido, energy, strength, recovery. Improves sperm motility and sperm production in men. So it's a pretty phenomenal supplement. It's one of the things that you'll probably... If you have everything else dialed in... This is an herb. What kind of plant is this? I don't remember. I don't know what it looks like. Is it a root? I know it smells. I've had the pure stuff, which blows my mind. You mean the liquid? Yeah, the liquid. Oh, it tastes like alcohol or something. I think, if I'm not mistaken, they called it... I think, if I'm not mistaken, in Ayurvedic medicine, they call it horse piss or something like that because it smelled really bad or they make comments on it. I have the dropper at home. I got that before we started working with Organifi and their green juice. And it's like, oh my God, it's gnarly. Is that a root, Doug? Yeah, it's a root. There it is right there. Doug, look up Ashwagandha horse pee or horse something. It was like this funny... Now, what's your thoughts on... Maybe that's why you feel so good on the green juice. Do you think that may be playing as much or more of a role than the fact of you just getting your vegetables? It's all of it. I love Ashwagandha. It's a supplement that I'll cycle in to my supplement regime. You know what's really good with Ashwagandha is a stimulant because it's got that natural stress balancing effect. So, if you're taking a really strong pre-workout, take a little bit of Ashwagandha with it, and you get this nice balancing effect. I notice recovery from it. I can definitely increase my volume if I'm supplementing with Ashwagandha. So, it's a very interesting supplement. If you have issues with cortisol, you may want to get advice from a practitioner, an expert, because I know it definitely can change the way your body utilizes cortisol, which may be one of the reasons why it's known as this kind of adaptogenic herb. But, yeah, it's one of those great supplements. Do you think it'd be equal in terms of mushrooms and their sort of adaptogenic, yeah, cordyceps type of an effect, or is it a little bit even greater? The studies are better with Ashwagandha right now. Oh, really? Yeah. You know what's interesting, though, with herbs is that they can have a pretty interesting, different effect from person to person. So, like, they call it red panics ginseng, right? Because there's American ginseng. Those aren't real ginsengs. They call them that. But the real ginseng is this red panics kind of Chinese ginseng, and it's got this supposed to be stimulating effect, and it's got adaptogenic properties. I take ginseng, and I don't feel good. It makes me hot and feverish, and I feel kind of bogged down. I had a Chinese herbalist tell me that it was because I had a lot of yang energy, and it just makes your yang go up even more, and so I was unbalanced. That's the way they explained it. Rhodiola can do that to me. You run hot, right? That's how somebody described it to me before, too. Something like that, right? Yeah. Rhodiola's like that, too. Rhodiola's a stimulant. It's got great studies. Rhodiola can make me feel like crap, too. I feel like ---- when I take that. Yeah. I've tried that so many times thinking that. You and I both. Yeah. Yeah, it can do that to me, too. Ashwagandha, I feel great. But, again, it's interesting with some of these herbs how with some people they can feel great and other people can't. The reason why I'm saying this is don't do what I did, which is when I was younger, I would read these studies, and I would take the supplement, and I'd be so hard-headed about it. So I'd be like, I feel like crap, but I'm going to keep taking it, not realizing like, oh, it's probably this herb that I'm taking that's supposed to be great, but it's making me feel like crap. You should find us like a super woo-woo person to come on here and break down all the herbs. Yeah. You know what the problem is? A hermetic practitioner. Yeah, someone who's like a woo-woo in all of it. You know what I'm saying? They can just be like, can tell us all. What's his name? Our functional practitioner guy that we've had on a couple times. Oh, would he be able to break it down for you? Stephen Cabral? Yeah. He's an expert. You know what the problem is? Is that if they talk in Ayurvedic terms, or they talk in Chinese medicine terms- People will scoff at it. Well, not that they're going to talk about like- Yeah, who cares? We'll take care of that. But see, what I want to do is I want to see like the actual, you know, double-blind placebo-controlled studies, and I want someone to break those down. There's a lot of them, right? Well, that's what I mean, but I want somebody who knows that, right? That can tell us, like you just asked a great question, like what is considered better, cordyceps or ashwagandha? Now, you gave kind of your personal opinion on that, but I'd love someone to say like, oh no, there's way more research to support this for these reasons, and I mean, it would be cool to have someone like that on there. Yeah, I'm with you on that.