Is ashwagandha the new super herb?

It is an anxiolytic, so it reduces anxieties. It increases the immunity of a person. It also is a muscle relaxant. Very renowned as a sexual tonic. How much would you pay for an anti-cancer, anti-stress, you know, happiness-inducing natural product? Ashwagandha is an increasingly popular herb these days in the roughly $9 billion U.S. herbal supplement market. This is how it looks grown in the field. You can currently find it in a variety of products, including lattes, pills, and even moisturizing creams. And recently, my wife even bought a bottle of conditioner with ashwagandha in it. It made me wonder, is this herb legit? Can it cure cancer and make my hair a little more voluminous? It doesn't help that the current definition of ashwagandha involves another fairly trendy but hard to define term. Ashwagandha is an adaptogen, meaning a super herb that supposedly helps the body adapt and deal better with stressors. These products have not been regulated by the Food and Drug Administration, and there is no clear science yet on their effects. But they are popular amongst wellness influencers and have a tradition spanning centuries. Ashwagandha is a drug which we use as Ayurvedic medicine. The history of Ayurveda spans about almost 3,000 to 5,000 years back. Although the use of these herbs in India dates back over thousands of years, the term adaptogen was coined much later in 1947. The original research on adaptogens starts in the late 1940s in the Soviet Union. And basically, a Soviet researcher who was basically funded by the military was trying to find a way to create better soldiers, better factory workers, and eventually better cosmonauts. According to herbalists, adaptogens are herbs which support and improve our body's ability to respond to stress internally. So this is ashwagandha. It's really the root that's the medicine. Herbalists say ashwagandha and other adaptogens are supposed to work by targeting the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, commonly referred to as the HPA. This is our body's control board for managing stress. It is basically acting like you're going to be under stress, and it's a bit like a stress vaccine. And that's what adaptogens are doing for us. They're basically saying, stress is coming, get ready, be prepared. I sometimes refer to ashwagandha as a mesmerizer, as a hypnotist. So if you picture yourself as a snake that's a bit out of control, flailing, right? And who doesn't feel like that sometimes? Ashwagandha is the snake charmer, right? Ashwagandha is that snake charmer just to bring you back into center. In 2020, there were twice as many studies published on ashwagandha in the National Institute of Health than in 2010. But that might be less telling than it seems. Just because something is in PubMed doesn't mean it's this wonderful journal and it went through a peer-reviewed process. And it also seems quite confined to the alternative medicine field and also what I'll call fringe studies, which are either groups of people or small journals that I had not heard of before. I worry about then the name adaptogen because, you know, that would be like calling your morning coffee or your weed or your double martini lunch an adaptogen because it just helps you take the edge off. So, you know, I mean, honestly, we could call that like I just need an adaptogen, a glass or two every night at dinner, it's helping me adapt. I think it's a much more clever way of selling it. But I wasn't sure how it really helps you rebalance. What's really impressive is the business volume related to ashwagandha. Mainstream sales of the herb rose by over 45% between 2018 and 2019, amounting to $10.8 million. I am not discounting that herbs are these powerless things. Herbs are potent. What's going on now, I think, is just the 21st century version of what's been going on since hormones, since the word hormone was coined in 1905. Ever since that first discovery that said this is how hormones work, there have been people selling things to say, but take this and it'll keep you in balance. And who doesn't want to be in balance these days? As the science is not there yet to find a definitive answer on the efficacy of this super herb, I decided to ask the only question on which everyone seems to have a clear answer. Will it help my hair? I have not seen any studies showing that ashwagandha has any benefit in a shampoo. And I have not seen in any of the texts that it can beautify the skin or it can do better to the scalp. Guess not.