3 Adaptogens For Stress And Anxiety
Video Transcript:
Hi everybody today, I'm gonna share with you three adaptogens that I have actually personally used at one point or another during my life.
What's an adaptogen?
It's basically a herb or a plant that helps the body adapt to stress. So adaptogen, they can be really great if you're going through an extra stressful time in your life. So acute stress is actually healthy for the body. It's like chronic stress when it's prolonged, it lasts for way too long, where it starts to be detrimental to the body.
I'm Ashley Oswald. A functional medicine, gut health dietitian, and owner of Oswald Digestive Clinic, where we help people improve and eliminate bothersome gut issues like gas, bloat, diarrhea, constipation, and more. If you wanna schedule with our clinic, we accept insurance. So many of our clients get full coverage, which is so exciting. So without further ado, let's talk about these three adaptogens.
3 Adaptogens For Stress And Anxiety
Ashwagandha Root
So the first adaptogen I'm gonna talk about today is one you've maybe heard me talk about before it's Ashwagandha root. So this is a shrub that grows about two and a half to five feet high year-round in India. It grows in some parts of the US, seasonally.
Ashwagandha actually translates to, I'm gonna read this to you, that which has the smell of a horse; it smells and tastes awful. We'll get to that. As it gives the vitality and sexual energy of a horse.
So it can really help to restore strength and vitality research shows that it can help to improve sleep reduce anxiety, and improve energy, basically allowing and supporting you to heal from deep exhaustion. And it's been used for almost 4,000 years in traditional uses in India, which is pretty cool long history of using this to help us adapt to stress.
There's some research showing that it can support and improve the immune system as well. So the first time I took Ashwagandha, I took it in powdered form, and that's where I truly understand the saying of that. I just shared with you about how it has the smell of a horse. It's not tasty. You can get by.
And if you start noticing benefit, it'll probably be fine to you. Most people prefer to just take it in like a capsule form and I've adapted to being able to tolerate the tincture and actually like the taste of the tincture now, too.
So I will share with you some links at the end of this blog if you want to explore this for yourself.
Lavender Oil
So the second one I wanna share with you is lavender oil. When I was using this, I was using Lavela, which is a product by integrative therapeutics. It's a great product. I would even travel with it.
It comes in really easy, like tear sections. So super easy to travel with really helpful for sleep and anxiety. So especially if somebody's having issues sleeping because of anxiety. There are a lot of other ways that you can use it too.
There's usually at many farmers markets that sell lavender where you can do the spray, or you can put some of the actual shrub, you know, they cut off pieces of the shrub, like in your pillow. I bought it for friends and they say they spray it on their pillow before bed. And it really helps them with sleep and so a lot of possible uses.
Basically it's a shrub, that'll grow about three feet tall and has been known to be used for anxiety, depression, sleep, and even headaches. You can put some oil in like some of fresh essential oil lavender, and some coconut oil rubbing on the temples.
And then there's even some research showing that it can help gut health by improving spasms that might be caused by anxiety and then helping to relieve some gas.
So I've already shared with you some ways that you can take it. I think one that is pretty popular, I have left out is doing like a lavender epsom salt bath where you can just put a few drops of lavender oil in the bath, or you can buy epsom salts that actually have lavender in it.
Licorice
The last one I wanna share with you is licorice. I'm not talking about that black licorice candy. This is real licorice root, and I'll show a picture here.
I've been craving it lately. I think it tastes so delicious. And it's been used for a long time in different traditional medicines, like traditional Chinese medicine, Ayurveda, Egyptian, Greek, and Western. So a lot of use over the past thousands of years.
It grows about three feet tall and its benefits really come from playing with that cortisol hormone. Again, basically it helps keep that cortisol around longer, which this means pregnenolone, if you know about the hormone cascade, doesn't get stolen as much. So it can be used to then properly create the other hormones.
You don't need to know that all you have to know helps to keep your hormones balanced. And this is how it helps with chronic stress. It can also help with stomach health.
Research shows it can improve gastric, which is stomach, irritation and cramping. So that's pretty cool. There's a lot of ways that you can take licorice.
My favorite is just using the root, putting it in some water or just buying some like licorice tea and it's so delicious. That way you might see it in different supplement combinations, there's tinctures of it, and more. Just caution, if you have high blood pressure or water retention, don't use this one.
And then also don't take it consistently for more than four to six weeks as this could cause a drop in potassium, which could lead to high blood pressure and weakness. So if you start to notice the symptoms definitely stop your licorice supplementation.
There are so many more that we haven't talked about today, like ginseng, lemon balm, tulsi, and lemongrass. Even catnip which the benefit that has for cats and helping them to chill out, well, humans can actually take that too!
Here are some products below I recommend if you're interested in exploring any of these. (always check w/ your main healthcare provider before starting any new supplements - feel free to schedule with our clinic if you don't have a nutrition-literate provider)
LavenderOil: https://flussonutrients.nutridyn.com/...
Lavela: https://us.fullscript.com/welcome/flu... (create an account & search for Lavela)
Ashwagandha Combo: https://flussonutrients.nutridyn.com/... & https://flussonutrients.nutridyn.com/...
Licorice & Ashwagandha Combo: https://flussonutrients.nutridyn.com/...
Licorice Combo: https://flussonutrients.nutridyn.com/...
If you are looking for PROFESSIONAL QUALITY SUPPLEMENTS, link below:
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Schedule an appointment with us, or you could just download our free guide to get started, which is five ways to improve gut health and end food intolerances for good.
So I hope you have a great day and I will see you on our next Topic!
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