Why Denmark has banned Ashwaghandha

[Farooqji]

mcgill.ca/oss/article/criti...

[gaga1958]

you always find interesting information to post

[crewmanwhite]

Ashwaganda is a wonderful herb but, like all herbal medicine, needs to be prescribed and supervised by a qualified health practitioner with specific training in herbal medicine.

[Bracondale]

Looks as though it has been banned based on very little solid evidence of harm. Similarly there is little solid evidence of long term safety either.

[Bhaktitoo]

interesting. To see how the wrong paradigm skews Good intentions. Traditionally, it is used as part of a formula, not taken by itself. It is also used more for men than for women, substituting other herbs for women, as warranted by the patient’s dosha and presentation. So in Ayurvedic medicine, it is understood to be more generally appropriate for men. I am not one. However, I am also nearing 70, and a small increase in my sex hormones would not be problematic…so I have used it in small amounts, and as part of a formula. I findit has been helpful and would be sad to see it banned here. I have no idea whether a raise my sex hormone levels. I can say it did not raise my thyroid levels.

Over the course of four or five years, I have used successfully the Tranquil Mind formula developed by Banyan Botanicals off and on for relief from “monkey mind” and anxiety, as needed. Ashwaghanda is the seventh of 10 or so herbs in its tablets, A bit more than of pippali, long pepper, which you now find in 3-5 mg amounts in all kinds of supplements to enhance absorption. So it’s a small amount. But I still supplement this with a more appropriate herb for women, to balance its inclusion.

My insomnia is relieved by Gaia herbs’ “nightly adrenal restore,” where two of its capsules contain 80 mg of the herb. (They are not an Ayurvedic outfit) My endocrine function, including cortisol and thyroid levels, are tested monthly and have been for three years. it has made no difference in my thyroid levels. But again, I am hypo thyroid, so an increase would be welcome. Cortisol levels are difficult to test accurately generally, According to my endocrinologist, and without a 24 hour saliva test, which is not available where I am, testing is a blunt instrument for cortisol levels.

i’m sharing my experience, because I find The “one size fits all and the more of the herb/ supplement of the hour, the better,” model of medicine so wrong-headed. It is unfortunate that Western countries, when adopting the use of herbals developed and used India and China for thousands of years, fixate on one herb, or in the case of turmeric, one component such as curcumin, and then monetize it, creating products that use these singly, and in Relatively huge amounts— no one should be taking 500 mg or tablespoons of ashwaghanda alone multiple times a day without knowledgeable supervision or study of its ayurvedic medicine uses.

Even Western medicine acknowledges complexity: that if you take supplemental zinc, you have to keep an eye on your magnesium and copper levels and vice versa. Pretty much nothing has only one effect. Some peoples copper levels are optimally lower or higher than others, and so on.

Every herb has a wide range of active components, most of which have not been identified or studied, and an even wider range of effects which will vary person to person, somewhat. Because we are none of us identical.

Traditional formulae use herbs to balance one another’s effects to achieve a desired goal/s In a person who has certain symptoms and a particular constitution— which may be determined by looking, hearing, smelling, touching—looking at the tongue, hearing the voice, reading the pulses, and asking 100 questions. The premise that a single herb, traditionally used in a particular constellation of other herbs, in particular, complex situations, can beneficially be taken by itself by anybody anywhere at any time in any amount for vague reasons, such as increases in immunity and energy, is wrong. It’s a shame because then an herbcan be written off when in fact, it can be quite helpful when used wisely.

Here concludeth my very long reply, and I will restrain myself From similar comments on this theme in future. I want everyone to be as well as they can And mean to be alleviating potential harm.