4 ms·

Great. May be I am wrong. But just found that Ashwagandha regulates Cytokines too. https://www.spandidos-publications.com/ijmm/42/1/425 https://www.spandidos-p

Great. May be I am wrong. But just found that Ashwagandha regulates Cytokines too. https://www.spandidos-publications.com/ijmm/42/1/425 https://www.spandidos-publications.com/ijmm/42/1/425 I think its use for stress & anxiety reduction is studied too, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3573577/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3573577/

kekebo 8y ago
It's not so much being wrong than just naming one piece of a more complex puzzle. A wide range of things affect cytokines, nutrition and exercise are central, but also cognitive stress and sleep, and lifestyle factors like smoking, alcohol, certain drugs like amphetamines, to just name a few. In general, expecting that the intake of some chemical will fix the multitude of factors contributing to this complex disease seems short sighted and may create false hopes in people suffering from it, so far no easy chemical fix has been found or it would instantly replace SSRIs in their lacking efficacy. For me personally the only things that helped over long were radical mental discipline (daily mindfulness, cognitive behavior therapy), daily exercise, nutritional changes and a willingness to be comfortable being uncomfortable to make those changes.
- rygxqpbsngav 8y ago
  Agree. I am a strong believer of treating things without medicines at all. Although I do take herbal supplements proven through centuries to be safe. One thing I can be sure is, there is no negative effect using ashwagandha. > A wide range of things affect cytokines, nutrition and exercise are central, but also cognitive stress and sleep If that is true, you get best sleep when using Ashwagandha and its effect on stress, like I said previously is well studied. https://examine.com/supplements/ashwagandha/ https://examine.com/supplements/ashwagandha/ it is there for centuries and affects in a multitude of ways for a body to bring it into balance in every front. In ayurveda, if a practitioner or doctor was unable to diagnose a disease properly, they simply give them Ashwagandha, as it will work or fail to but never works adversely. I still strongly recommend trying it with any other interventions you mentioned like exercise, etc. I never discouraged any other interventions. It helped me personally, so I am inclined to suggest it to others who are hopeless at the moment. Like I said, zero harm. I never suggested it as a one shot solution. People with depression need more caring than any other.
- rygxqpbsngav 8y ago
  I have to disagree with the false hopes part. Just went to find some reviews(in 100s) on aswagandha products who gave 5 star reviews who claim it helped them with their depression better than prescribed ones. I think we are getting lost in the loop again - "I won't take it until it is well studied" while rest of the people already befitting from it without any side effects reported. Problem is no one wants to do it for other medicines like "Metformin" which is proven to result in a person getting promoted to insulin injections later. Strangely no one till date knows how it works! Diabetes is similar too, it happens because of a multitude of factors, yet it all reduced to one single medicine "Metformin". Did you ever question that? Why?
  - kekebo 8y ago
    It's nice that it works for you and others, it doesn't for me and most people around me. Selling it as a magic cure leaves me and those people excluded. While science has its pitfalls I think we should try to be more scientific than giving out general recommendations based on (potentially faked) online reviews for a marketed product. I can recommend checking out the Sapolsky lecture i linked above which should quickly make clear that a single chemical treatment approach is highly unlikely to ever become a general cure for all cases of depression.

kekebo 8y ago

It's not so much being wrong than just naming one piece of a more complex puzzle. A wide range of things affect cytokines, nutrition and exercise are central, but also cognitive stress and sleep, and lifestyle factors like smoking, alcohol, certain drugs like amphetamines, to just name a few. In general, expecting that the intake of some chemical will fix the multitude of factors contributing to this complex disease seems short sighted and may create false hopes in people suffering from it, so far no easy chemical fix has been found or it would instantly replace SSRIs in their lacking efficacy. For me personally the only things that helped over long were radical mental discipline (daily mindfulness, cognitive behavior therapy), daily exercise, nutritional changes and a willingness to be comfortable being uncomfortable to make those changes.

rygxqpbsngav 8y ago
Agree. I am a strong believer of treating things without medicines at all. Although I do take herbal supplements proven through centuries to be safe. One thing I can be sure is, there is no negative effect using ashwagandha. > A wide range of things affect cytokines, nutrition and exercise are central, but also cognitive stress and sleep If that is true, you get best sleep when using Ashwagandha and its effect on stress, like I said previously is well studied. https://examine.com/supplements/ashwagandha/ https://examine.com/supplements/ashwagandha/ it is there for centuries and affects in a multitude of ways for a body to bring it into balance in every front. In ayurveda, if a practitioner or doctor was unable to diagnose a disease properly, they simply give them Ashwagandha, as it will work or fail to but never works adversely. I still strongly recommend trying it with any other interventions you mentioned like exercise, etc. I never discouraged any other interventions. It helped me personally, so I am inclined to suggest it to others who are hopeless at the moment. Like I said, zero harm. I never suggested it as a one shot solution. People with depression need more caring than any other.
rygxqpbsngav 8y ago
I have to disagree with the false hopes part. Just went to find some reviews(in 100s) on aswagandha products who gave 5 star reviews who claim it helped them with their depression better than prescribed ones. I think we are getting lost in the loop again - "I won't take it until it is well studied" while rest of the people already befitting from it without any side effects reported. Problem is no one wants to do it for other medicines like "Metformin" which is proven to result in a person getting promoted to insulin injections later. Strangely no one till date knows how it works! Diabetes is similar too, it happens because of a multitude of factors, yet it all reduced to one single medicine "Metformin". Did you ever question that? Why?
- kekebo 8y ago
  It's nice that it works for you and others, it doesn't for me and most people around me. Selling it as a magic cure leaves me and those people excluded. While science has its pitfalls I think we should try to be more scientific than giving out general recommendations based on (potentially faked) online reviews for a marketed product. I can recommend checking out the Sapolsky lecture i linked above which should quickly make clear that a single chemical treatment approach is highly unlikely to ever become a general cure for all cases of depression.