Ashwagandha | Benefits For Men | Why Most Men Should Take Ashwagandha

argaï so in this video we're talking about the specific effects of ashwagandha on men's health in particular so let's dive right in hey guys my name is Zach Allison and welcome to nutrition library our trusted resource for an evidence-based approach to supplementation and wellness if you haven't already or you are new to channel do me a huge favor and hit that red subscribe button that's below this video so that you can stay up to date with all of our future content thank you so much alright guys so in this video in particular we're gonna be talking about the four primary health benefits that are associated with actual agonda intake for men specifically but Before we jump into that real quick I do want to let you guys know that I just got done finishing up a massive 19 page free PDF with all of the compounds that are known to increase testosterone and help to regulate hormone production and balance in men and so guys if you were interested in that do me a huge favor go down to the description and click on the link down there is a simple form that you guys would fill out and I'll have that emailed to you ASAP but when it comes to ashwagandha in particular I am a huge fan of ashwagandha as and medicinal herbs specifically for men for two primary reasons before we even get into the primary health benefits and that is one that ashwagandha contains compounds in the herb that essentially aren't found anywhere else except for ashwagandha and so when it comes to just a simple philosophy of supplementation one of the main things that you want to look out for is trying to find supplements and compounds that essentially aren't available anywhere else in the diet which is why verbal supplementation import tickler I think is so popular right now and so effective and that is because a lot of the compounds that are found in these medicinal herbs aren't found anywhere else in the diet which actually makes them a great candidate for supplementation now another reason I'm such a huge fan of ashwagandha is because it crosses off a lot of different health goals when it comes to supplementing with ashwagandha and what I mean by that is that a lot of the health goals in particular with men things like hormone balance and mental performance and physical performance and just overall health in general ashwagandha has been shown to be effective and highly effective in most of those categories which actually brings me to a schwag ondas for primary health benefits which are one improved hormone regulation to improved mood 3 improved mental performance as well as improved physical performance which is the fourth health benefit all right so again the first health benefit that were me talking about today is ashwagandha z' ability to improve hormone balance now there are a handful of studies that have shown a Schlag andhe's ability to increase one by one.hoorah to luteinizing hormone 3 testosterone as well as reduce cortisol now all of these hormones seem to kind of work interchangeably and together but it seems like ashwagandha is kind of primary target of effect is in the thyroid gland and so it appears that ashwagandha is active ingredients in the compounds that are in the herb once ingested have the ability to actually directly stimulate the production of thyroid hormones in the thyroid gland and it actually does this by bypassing the step of the hypothalamus stimulating the pituitary to stimulate the thyroid gland and so typically there's this chain of events that happens in the body once low thyroid levels are detected where there's a negative feedback actually a positive feedback loop that then stimulates the hypothalamus to release a hormone that then stimulates the pituitary to release another hormone that then stimulates the thyroid gland to produce thyroid hormones however what it appears is going on here is that ashwagandha is bypassing all of that and directly stimulating the thyroid gland to produce thyroid hormones now one of the positive regulatory effects of this is that once fire roid hormones are increased that that thyroid hormone then stimulates the hypothalamus to release a hormone that then stimulates the pituitary gland to release a hormone known as luteinizing hormone which is the primary stimulatory hormone for the testes to produce testosterone and this is actually one of the primary mechanisms by which ashwagandha has the ability to increase testosterone now ashwagandha has also been shown to decrease cortisol and the exact mechanism by which it does this isn't fully well understood at this moment however it does appear that ashwagandha has a fairly reliable effect on reducing cortisol and once cortisol is reduced cortisol and testosterone have a negative inverse relationship in the body meaning that when one is high the other is low and vice versa and so if you have low testosterone for instance typically cortisol is also high and vice-versa so if cortisol is really high it has a cortisol has a very suppress Ettore effect on the pituitary gland specifically preventing the pituitary gland from releasing luteinizing hormone which then subsequently decreases testosterone and so by ashwagandha Sybilla to reduce cortisol there is a increased ability within the body to then produce luteinizing hormone and subsequently testosterone now the second health benefit that we're going to talk about today is ashwagandha ability to improve mood now there are a handful of studies that have shown a schwag andhe's ability to reduce the symptoms of stress and fatigue reduce the symptoms of anxiety improve feelings of subjective well-being decrease symptoms of depression as well as decrease symptoms of irritability now one of the primary mechanisms by which ashwagandha is able to improve mood is by decreasing cortisol now cortisol is your primary stress hormone and so by decreasing cortisol cortisol has a massive chain of events and Cascades that it affects in the body and so by reducing cortisol there is a positive regulatory effect on mood now another primary mechanism by which ashwagandha is able to improve mood is that it also has been shown to affect the serotonin and gaba receptors now serotonin and gaba are two of your primary relaxing neurotransmitters and deficiency in both of those neurotransmitters have been linked to things like anxiety and depression and so by Asha laganja's ability to affect the receptors specifically and improve the function of those receptors it is theoretically able to affect mood through these mechanisms now one of the things that I find so interesting about ashwagandha as opposed to other herbs is that it doesn't appear that ashwagandha has the capacity to directly bind to neurotransmitter receptors what it appears is happening is that it's actually modulating the receptors meaning that it's actually just simply making them more effective for the neurotransmitter themselves to then directly bind to those receptors and cause the cascade of events that those neurotransmitters cause and now because of this it does appear that ashwagandha can remain effective for long periods of time which is why the typical duration of taking ashwagandha is roughly three months and this also makes it one of the safer dietary supplements to take because it's not directly affecting the neurotransmitter receptors but actually just modulating them and making them more effective for your body to then operate the way that it should be operating and so because of this again it makes ashwagandha a fairly safe option for daily long-term use now after that three-month period I typically do recommend taking a what I call micro cycling dosage schedule where you take it for a handful of days and then cease taking it for another handful of days but I do have another video on that in particular that I'll link at the top of this video now the third health benefit that we're gonna be talking about today is ashwagandha z' ability to improve mental performance now there are a handful of studies that have shown that ashwagandha has the ability and the capacity to improve motivation improve social functioning improve attention and alertness improve executive function and cognition as well as memory processing speed and decreases in reaction time and improvements in spatial processing now ashwagandha appears to do this through two primary mechanisms and that is one through improving cholinergic neurotransmitter signaling as well as adrenaline neurotransmitter signaling now cholinergic neurotransmitter signaling within the central nervous system is thought to be one of the primary mechanisms by which the brain consolidates memories and so by improving the signaling of these receptors there is a theoretical ability of ashwagandha to improve the consolidation of short-term memories in to long term memories now some of the improvements in executive functioning and cognition and attention and alertness seem to be linked to the improvements in adrenaline signaling and so adrenaline is your primary hormone that drives the fight-or-flight neural network within your central nervous system and so by ashwagandha x' ability to not necessarily increase adrenaline per se but to enhance the receptors so that when adrenaline is released in an instance where you're possibly taking a test or doing something that is slightly stressful or requires attention there is a theoretical improvement in those parameters because of ashwagandha ability to improve adrenaline signaling now this is one of the reasons why I consider ashwagandha to be such a potent wellness compound and that is because it doesn't have a super super super narrow effect on the body meaning that it has several positive modulatory effects on different hormones and neurotransmitters systems where they all seem to be positive effects and so because of this it has relaxing properties it has stimulatory properties which can lead to an overall balanced sense of wellness now the fourth health benefit that's associated with ashwagandha intake in men in particular is an improvement in physical performance now there are a handful of studies that have shown a schwag andhe's ability to increase power output increase vo2 max increase an aerobic running capacity improve aerobic exercise capacity improve motor control and increase lean mass and decrease fat mass now it isn't 100% clear as to how ashwagandha does this in particular it could be because of the improvements in thyroid function which can then subsequently lead to increased energy increased power output increased energy utilization as well as ashwagandha x' ability to increase testosterone now I wouldn't personally expect to see this level of increased performance simply because the slight increase of testosterone that ashwagandha provides and so there is probably another mechanism that's going on here possibly the antioxidant content of ashwagandha but it isn't super clear yet however what is clear is that not only is ashwagandha able to improve physical performance and decrease fat mass and increase lean mass gains and not only untrained men but also elite level athletes which makes ashwagandha and extremely interesting and promising herb for increasing performance now again because ashwagandha has such a potent ability to target and improve the functioning of several different parameters of health especially in men ashwagandha is at the top of my list of herbs that I recommend to men on a daily basis to combat specifically the effects of stress in daily life now it is kind of my personal philosophy that men are kind of built whether you want to look at this from a design or evolutionary perspective but they are built to handle stress to take on stress and so in my opinion anything that we can take to help and get an edge to take on more stress take on more responsibility is welcomed in my book but other than that guys that's all I have for you today again if you want a complete comprehensive list of compounds and supplements that have been shown to improve hormone function and men check out the description link and I'll have that emailed to you but other than that if you have any questions in regards to anything that was discussed in this video please feel free to leave a comment down below I love answering your guys's comments but other than that I will see you guys next time

Channel: Nutrition Library

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Id: AppwY3pJJUA

Length: 15min 40sec (940 seconds)

Published: Thu May 14 2020