Ashwagandha
Ashwagandha is an herb/root that has become very popular in the West in recent years but is not really new. Ashwagandha has been used for about 4000 years in Ayurvedic philosophy in India and is also called "Indian ginseng". Ashwagandha is known to affect the quality of life in our everyday life. Mainly through a calming and soothing feeling, which creates better conditions for harmony and joy. Elexir Ashwagandha contains extracts from the roots of the plant where there are extra high levels of a group of active substances called withanolides. The extract contains 2.5% withanolides, which corresponds to 15 mg per daily dose.
Managing everyday stress
The mechanisms behind Ashwagandha's ability to help the body cope with stress appear to lie in its balancing effect on the stress hormone cortisol. It thus counteracts the negative effects of stress and helps the body achieve mental and physical balance. Many people today experience chronic stress in their daily lives, which over time can have a negative impact on the body. Ashwagandha's adaptogenic properties make it a highly valued herb for both men and women.
What is an adaptogen?
Adaptogens is a collective name for plants and fungi containing certain bioactive substances that affect the body's ability to adapt to physical, chemical and biological stress. The name adaptogen comes from the English word "to adapt". Adaptogens normalise and optimise the body's functions to create balance, they do not stimulate a function to its upper limit. They therefore do not work in the same way as central stimulants, such as caffeine, which have a lower effect the more you use them and which stimulate even when you are in balance. Adaptogens have the same effect continuously without you having to gradually increase the dose to get the same effect as at the beginning. They are also not addictive.
Some of the best known adaptogens are Ashwagandha, Rose Root, Russian Root, Schisandra and Reishi. To be called an adaptogen, there are certain criteria that the plant or mushroom must meet:
1. the effect must be general and broad, in that it improves resilience to a wide range of stressors of a physical, chemical and biological nature.
2. they must have a normalising, i.e. restorative, function.
Adaptogens must be harmless and have a broad therapeutic effect with minimal or no disruption of normal biological processes.
Vitamin B5 and Bioperine®
Elexir Ashwagandha is supplemented with vitamin B5 (pantothenic acid) and the black pepper extract Bioperine®. B5 is added as it helps maintain normal mental performance and reduce fatigue and exhaustion. Bioperine® is a patented black pepper extract with as much as 95% piperine which increases the bioavailability, i.e. absorption, of certain herbs and nutrients.
