Ashwagandha's benefits for female health have been known for centuries.
Ashwagandha root extract is a powerful adaptogen that helps to reduce stress and anxiety and has been found to promote balanced hormone levels, menstrual health, and fertility.
Discover seven ashwagandha benefits for women and learn why taking an ashwagandha supplement can help to reduce stress and anxiety.
Seven ashwagandha benefits for female health
Ashwagandha's long-standing use in traditional medicine has ignited considerable scientific interest.
Increasingly more research suggests that ashwagandha can profoundly enhance overall health and may be especially beneficial for female well-being.
Here are seven benefits of ashwagandha for female health.
1. Adaptogen
Ashwagandha is believed to be one of the most powerful
adaptogens, meaning it can enhance the body's ability to adjust to physical and mental stress.
Ashwagandha contains withanolides, a group of more than 40 phytochemicals that can modulate various hormonal, neuronal, and immune functions involved in the body’s stress response.
During periods of stress, your adrenal glands release cortisol, an adrenal steroid-hormone that alters metabolic processes to sustain the body during stressful events such as trauma, exercise, injury, or surgery.
While cortisol plays an essential role in mitigating the physiological effects of stress, chronic stress can lead to imbalanced cortisol levels linked to weak immune defenses, high blood pressure, impaired brain function, and changes in body shape and composition, also known as
adrenal body type.
It’s believed that ashwagandha stimulates the activity of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), a calming neurotransmitter that helps to regulate the stress response and directly reduces cortisol levels.
A
study published in
Cureus found that
ashwagandha supplementation significantly lowered elevated cortisol in stressed adults, resulting in improved well-being, better sleep quality, and reduced anxiety levels.
2. Hormonal health
Ayurvedic medicine regularly uses ashwagandha to manage female hormone imbalances.
Chronic stress triggers the release of sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG), a protein that binds to steroid hormones and decreases cortisol's adverse health consequences.
However,
SHBG also binds to estrogen, rendering it unavailable for your cells and tissues, which can cause a knock-on effect on other female hormones, resulting in low progesterone and luteinizing hormone production.
Female hormone imbalances are linked to menstrual issues, mood swings, infertility, skin problems, and low libido.
Ashwagandha’s adaptogenic properties can inhibit excessive SHBG production and support balanced hormone levels, which may explain why this medicinal herb has been found so effective in promoting female health.
3. Menstrual health
Ashwagandha promotes balanced cortisol levels needed for regular and healthy menstrual cycles. It also has potent anti-inflammatory properties that can help to reduce painful menstrual cramps, discomfort, and abdominal swelling.
Ashwagandha has anti-anxiety effects and enhances the body's ability to adapt to rapid hormonal changes at the time of ovulation and shortly before the menstrual period. This has been found to reduce
premenstrual syndrome (PMS) symptoms, including breast tenderness, cravings, fatigue, anxiety, mood swings, and irritability.
4. Fertility and reproduction
It’s well understood that chronic stress can negatively impact fertility by interfering with hormone balance and disrupting ovulation.
By reducing stress levels, supporting healthy menstrual cycles, and boosting libido, ashwagandha extract may indirectly promote female fertility.
In fact,
research published in
BioMed Research International concluded,
“Ashwagandha has a positive effect in the treatment of infertility both in male and female.”
5. Postmenopausal health
Ashwagandha may help alleviate postmenopausal symptoms such as hot flashes, night sweats, mood changes, and sleep disturbances by promoting hormonal balance.
It may also counteract the effects of declining estrogen levels during menopause linked to an increased risk of osteoporosis.
While more research is needed to confirm ashwagandha's role in maintaining bone mass, there is evidence that it may positively affect bone health by stimulating the activity of osteoblasts, bone-forming cells responsible for maintaining healthy bone mass.
6. Heart health
Ashwagandha is a rich source of withanolides, highly bioactive compounds with blood pressure-lowering effects.
High blood pressure, in combination with elevated cortisol, can significantly impact cardiovascular function and increases the risk of atherosclerosis, irregular heartbeats, and heart attacks.
“Ashwagandha’s potential to lower blood pressure, stress, and anxiety promotes overall health, which is linked to improved cardiovascular health and a lower risk of heart disease,” explains Dr. Berg.
7. Anti-inflammatory
Ashwagandha contains several phytochemicals with potent anti-inflammatory properties that may help to inhibit the release of pro-inflammatory molecules while, at the same time, stimulating immune cells to release anti-inflammatory compounds.
This may explain why ashwagandha has traditionally been used to manage various inflammatory conditions, including arthritis, asthma, inflammatory bowel disease,
eczema, dermatitis, and psoriasis.
