Back to Homepage

Five Surprising Benefits of Ashwagandha

By now, the vast majority of people who are interested in supplements will have either seen or heard about the benefits of ashwagandha, as it is easily one of the fastest-growing products to hit the health and fitness industry in several years. Despite this, many people will still have very little understanding of exactly what ashwagandha actually is or what it is even supposed to do.

This is a great shame, as while many of the new fad supplements that gain some level of notoriety turn out to be of very little use once more tests are run on them, Ashwagandha is one that really does work, and which can offer a great number of different health benefits for the human body.

With that in mind then, allow us to give you a brief introduction to ashwagandha and explain just what it is you are missing out on by not taking it, and how best to go about using it for yourself.

Table of Contents

What is Ashwagandha & How Does it Work?

Ashwagandha is a plant extract that is found in the roots of an evergreen shrub called the winter cherry. Also known as both withania somnifera and Indian ginseng, it is an adaptogenic herbal supplement that has been used in ayurvedic medicine and various other forms of traditional medicine around the world for centuries, particularly in Asia.

While taking supplements which contain ashwagandha extract in any form can be very beneficial, the quality and quantity of ashwagandha that you use each day will both have a huge impact on the beneficial effects that you actually experience.

Clinical studies have conclusively proven that it is safe for the vast majority of people to take ashwagandha extract in dosages of up to 1,000 mg per day, although they do suggest that dosages this high will ideally be split into two equal doses, just to be on the safe side and keep the levels in your body constant.

Thosee same studies then also show that at least 250 mg is the minimum daily dosage of ashwagandha extract which is required to produce any of its beneficial effects, while its maximum benefits can be achieved by taking 500mg to 600 mg per day, with very little evidence proving that using dosages higher that this will produce any additional health benefits

5 Surprising Benefits Of Ashwagandha

Improves Testosterone Levels

Easily one of the most popular health benefits of ashwagandha extract and the reason that it was first introduced in traditional medicine years ago is its ability to improve the production of testosterone and boost testosterone levels overall, particularly in older or overweight men.

This makes it a great natural alternative to testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) for men (and women) who just want to restore normal testosterone levels, as well as for anyone who wants to reap the many benefits that are associated with enhanced testosterone production and levels.

The benefits of elevated testosterone levels include, but are not limited to, better fertility, sexual performance and health, male sexual function, semen volume, and sperm motility, the improved growth of lean muscle mass, enhanced recovery time, fat burning, and body composition, and the ability to prevent or treat certain sexual health issues, such as erectile dysfunction (1)(2). Ashwagandha supplementation has the ability to provide all of these benefits.

Prevents Or Treats Anxiety & Stress

Beyond its effects on male testosterone production and fertility levels, one of the earliest recorded uses of ashwagandha extract was to help people who were dealing with severe stress or anxiety. Since its introduction into the world of western supplements, it has been conclusively proven to be extremely effective at achieving these goals.

An 8 week study that was conducted in 2018 on people between the ages of 18 and 55 who were suffering from differing levels of stress or anxiety. The subjects were split into three groups, with one asked to take 250 mg of ashwagandha extract per day and another to use 600 mg of ashwagandha extract per day, both of which were split into two equal doses, while the third took a placebo pill.

Both of the ashwagandha groups experienced a significant improvement in their cortisol levels, the hormone that is responsible for your stress levels, when compared to the people who were in the placebo group, as well as a significant reduction in anxiety. The 600 mg group then also experienced greater results (albeit not massively different) than those in the 250 mg group (3).

Boosts Brain Health & Functions

Ashwagandha extract boasts a number of very beneficial nootropic properties, and its use has been repeatedly proven to be capable of improving a person’s brain health and cognitive functions in a wide range of different ways.

Clinical studies have proven that it is particularly useful to prevent memory loss and improve memory recall, mental clarity, and focus when taking between 225 and 500 mg of ashwagandha extract daily for at least 30 days, with the benefits being more impressive with the higher doses (4).

It can then also help to prevent your brain health from deteriorating in a number of different ways, while also combatting mental health conditions such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. This helps to ensure that a person’s cognitive performance remains at the highest possible levels for the whole time that they are taking the supplement.

Promotes A Healthy Sleep Cycle

A common ingredient in many of the most popular sleep aids in 2025, clinical trials have shown that taking at least 300 mg of ashwagandha extract daily a short time before going to bed has the ability to greatly reduce the amount of time that it takes a person to fall asleep (known as sleep latency or sleep onset), while also significantly improving both their sleep quality and sleep duration.

This all leads to a far healthier sleep cycle and circadian rhythm. This was even seen to be true among people who had severe difficulty falling asleep, such as people who suffered from stress or anxiety, making ashwagandha extract a fabulous treatment to help people who suffer from insomnia.

The overall effectiveness of taking ashwagandha extract to help improve your sleep cycle was then also demonstrated to far greater if double the 300 mg dosage was used, especially if it was taken in two equal doses that were spread out throughout the day, with one still taken before bed (5).

Relieves Inflammation & Arthritis

One of the least talked about health benefits linked to ashwagandha extract, yet perhaps one of its most useful, is its ability to increase your body’s natural production of an anti inflammatory cytokine called interleukin-10 (IL-10), while reducing its production of the pro inflammatory cytokines TNF-α (tumour necrosis factor) and NF-κB (nuclear factor kappa b).

By regulating the levels of these cytokines (which are a type of protein) that are present in your body, ashwagandha extract has the ability to greatly prevent or reduce inflammation levels (6).

As a result, ashwagandha extract can be utilised to effectively help people who are dealing with everything from the inflammation that is caused by an injury, reducing their pain levels and speeding up recovery time, to the severe pain and symptoms that many people who are suffering from the various forms of arthritis will go through.

Do All Ashwagandha Supplements Produce The Same Results?

While it would be nice if you could experience all of the health benefits that we listed above simply by taking the cheapest ashwagandha supplement you can find, not all products that contain ashwagandha extract are going to produce every one of its many beneficial effects.

Then you also need to consider that even some of those products that can produce all of its many health benefits will do so to differing degrees. As a result, it is vital that you choose the ashwagandha supplement you are planning to use wisely.

The two big deciding factors you have to consider when it comes to selecting an ashwagandha supplement are the quality and the dosage of ashwagandha extract that it actually contains.

While not getting enough ashwagandha extract each day will ensure that your body can not reach the concentrations which are required in order to produce the desired effect, the same also goes for the quality of the ashwagandha extract, as low-quality supplements will often contain less of the bioactive compounds that make things like ashwagandha work in the first place.

As a result, people who want to reap the maximum rewards from using ashwagandha extract should stick to using a high-quality product that contains an optimal dose of ashwagandha in each serving, such as Prime Male Ashwagandha. The fact that it is then also one of the very best value ashwagandha supplements currently on the market in 2025 is just the icing on the cake.

Tested and Trusted
By Over 1 Million Men

Order Now