Stress has become increasingly commonplace in todays fast-paced, hectic world, affecting the health and well-being of millions of people and costing the U.S. economy billions of dollars as a result of increased healthcare costs and lost worker productivity. In fact, because stress is so pervasive in peoples lives, stress reduction has become the number one lifestyle and health issue for consumers according to Food Technology magazine. Stress is the bodys response to real or imagined emotional or physical threats that cause it to become unbalanced. Sources of stress can vary from the relatively benign such as keeping up with day-to-day responsibilities to more acute causes such as loss of a job, divorce, or financial problems.
No matter the cause, the body responds to stress in a similar manner. This stress response, also known as the "fight or flight" response, is a series of physiological changes that prepares the body to either confront a stressor or escape from it and then bring about a return to homeostasis or balance. In the short-term, the stress response can be an asset, enhancing a persons ability to deal with lifes changing circumstances. But if a person is subject to repeated stress over an extended period, the body gradually loses its ability to cope, resulting in the breakdown of vital functions and a decline in health and well-being. It has been estimated that chronic stress is responsible for causing or complicating over 90% of diseases that affect the body. Because chronic stress has become so rampant today, consumers are increasingly seeking nutritional products that reduce stress-related symptoms while improving mood.
When the body is stressed, normal homeostasis in the body is disrupted which causes a series of physiological reactions along the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. In response to a stressor, neuroendocrine cells of the hypothalamus (a component of the brain) release corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH). CRH travels to the nearby pituitary gland and stimulates it to release adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH). ACTH, in turn, travels through the blood until it reaches the adrenal glands which sit atop each kidney. ACTH stimulates the release into the blood of catecholamine hormones like adrenaline as well as corticosteroid hormones like cortisol. These adrenal hormones are responsible for producing stressrelated symptoms that prepare the body for intense physical and mental activity associated with the "fight or flight" response. Adrenaline acts primarily in response to short term stress while cortisol produces symptoms associated with both short-term and chronic stress.
Nutritional supplements that contain ashwagandha derivatives have a unique ability to relieve symptoms of chronic stress and bring the body back into its natural balance. This was confirmed in a double-blind, placebocontrolled human clinical trial in which subjects taking a nutritional supplement containing Ashwagandha at the recommended dosage had a 69.9% reduction in an overall measure of stress-related symptoms. These subjects also experienced significant reductions in individual symptoms of stress including: irritability, anxiety, sleeplessness, inability to concentrate, fatigue, sweating, headaches and muscle pain, and heart palpitations. In contrast, the placebo group saw no significant change in any of these symptoms for the duration of the study.