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Randomized trial · measured other health measures

8-week trial in 50 overweight men: ashwagandha did not clearly change cortisol or fatigue

Lopresti and colleagues · American journal of men's health · 2019

Original title: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled, Crossover Study Examining the Hormonal and Vitality Effects of Ashwagandha ( Withania somnifera) in Aging, Overweight Males.

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What the study found

No difference

Cortisol, fatigue and vigor did not differ between groups. DHEA-S rose 18% more (p = .005) and testosterone 14.7% more (p = .010) with ashwagandha than with placebo.

The study at a glance

Type of study
Randomized trial
Who or what was studied
50 people · overweight men aged 40 to 70 with mild tiredness
What was tested
Ashwagandha extract (Shoden beads, 21 mg of withanolide glycosides a day) for 8 weeks, vs placebo, in a crossover design
What it measured
Several kinds of outcomes
How long
8 weeks
Who has a stake
Company stake
Arjuna Natural Ltd., maker of the extract, is named in the disclosure as not involved in design, analysis or writing.
Journal
American journal of men's health, 2019
Source
PubMed record 30854916. This page is based on the abstract only.

How much this study counts

  • ✓Randomized: people were put into groups by chance, so the groups start out alike.
  • ✓Compared with a placebo, a dummy treatment.
  • •Medium size: 50 people.
  • –Short: 8 weeks. Longer-term effects are unknown.
  • •Measured several kinds of outcomes.
  • –Company stake: Arjuna Natural Ltd., maker of the extract, is named in the disclosure as not involved in design, analysis or writing.
  • •Summarized from the PubMed abstract only. The full paper may hold details the abstract leaves out.

✓ Strength– Limit• Note

These points come from fixed rules about the type of study, its size and length, what it measured, and who has a stake. Every study on Digestery gets the same rules.

Where this study sits

Each dot is one on-topic paper on this question. Steps near the top answer the question more directly.

↑ Stronger evidence

  1. Trials in people: stress and anxiety

    9

    7 benefit, 2 no difference

  2. Trials in people: other measures

    6

    3 benefit, 1 mixed, 1 no difference, 1 no direction

    ↑ This study is the ringed dot

  3. Trials in people: lab tests or safety

    1

    1 benefit

  4. Population studies

    1

    1 benefit

  5. Blood levels and genes

    0

    None among the papers we read.

↓ Weaker evidence

  • Points to benefit
  • Mixed
  • No difference
  • No direction
  • Points to harm

How it fits with the other research

The short answer to “Does ashwagandha reduce stress and anxiety?”

Possibly, but the evidence is weak.

Confidence: low. Based on 24 on-topic papers.

Read the full answer

Of the other 4 papers on the same step: 3 benefit, 1 mixed. This one found no difference. It differs from most of them.

Other papers on the same step

See all 24 studies on this question

How this page was made

Label

First read of the abstract
Claude Sonnet
Independent second read
Claude Haiku
Differences settled
The reviewer corrected 5 fields after reading the abstract. Claude Opus 5.5.
Headline
Claude Sonnet, from the checked study record. A script checked its numbers and wording.
Numbers
Checked against the abstract by a script
“How much this study counts”
Fixed rules, the same for every study
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