Ashwagandha—also known as Withania somnifera, Indian ginseng, or winter cherry—has long been a staple in Ayurvedic medicine, prized for its healing and restorative properties. Centuries saw ashwagandha used to heal various ailments, ranging from joint pains to stomach aches. Now, conventional medicine recognizes ashwagandha for its tremendous potential in managing a host of inflammatory diseases, including IBS, IBD and diverticulitis.
Available in powders, capsules, teas, gummies, and extracts, this adaptogenic herb is now more accessible than ever. Exhale, Evinature’s exciting take on a combined Ashwagandha nutraceutical, confers multiple rehabilitative benefits to patients in a multitude of biological pathways. Here’s how ashwagandha can help support your mind, body, and gut—especially if you’re living with inflammatory conditions.
Ashwagandha Benefits for Stress & Anxiety (IBS)
One of the most prominent benefits ashwagandha offers to patients is found in its impact on how stress and anxiety is processed in the body. To be clear, Ashwagandha does not take away stress; stress allows us to react to perceived danger in our surroundings. However, especially with modern technological advancement, the amount of stress we perceive nowadays can lead to a prolonged stress response. Hormonally, this translates to elevated cortisol levels, higher CRH levels (which regulate how cortisol is secreted in the body) and increased receptivity to serotonin.
Ashwagandha helps by regulating cortisol and supporting the nervous system, allowing the body to maintain essential functions like digestion even under pressure. It doesn’t eliminate stress—but it helps your body handle it better.
Ashwagandha Benefits for Cortisol Levels
As mentioned before, Ashwagandha plays an important role in reducing the impact of stress on the body. In a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study, even a small dose of ashwagandha taken consistently over 60 days was shown to decrease cortisol levels. Through modulating the brain-gut axis, Ashwagandha directly impacts cortisol production, and increases GABA-receptor efficacy to exert a calming effect on the body.
Ashwagandha Benefits for Sleep
Sleep and stress are controlled by similar systems. For example, the same system that slows your heart-rate and upregulates digestive processes is responsible for sending you straight to dreamland. However, even if you manage to drift off, you can still wake up exhausted. This is called NRS, or ‘non-restorative sleep’.
In traditional Ayurvedic healing practices, ashwagandha extracts play a huge role in not just promoting sleep, but making sure that you wake up refreshed and ready to start the day. Ashwagandha has been studied for its role in modulating sleep architecture through its effects on the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis.
In the context of gut health, where poor sleep can exacerbate symptom flare-ups and impair mucosal healing, the inclusion of ashwagandha in a daily regimen may support recovery through improved sleep quality. Evinature’s Exhale supplement leverages this effect with the addition of chamomile and mimosa bark—both of which contribute to better sleep without the addictive dependency of many sleep aid drugs.
Ashwagandha Benefits for the Brain
Stress and lack of sleep certainly confer an impact on brain function, but ashwagandha goes farther in improving memory and learning functions. Through improving prefrontal cortex and midbrain function, specifically in the areas of the hypothalamus and amygdala, ashwagandha demonstrates an ability to enhance working memory, executive function, and processing speed. This is accomplished through a combination of improving GABAergic reactivity and ashwagandha’s ability to reduce oxidative stress in the central nervous system. Additionally, its impact on cortisol modulation plays a key role in preserving hippocampal function, which is often compromised in chronic stress states.
Ashwagandha Benefits for Digestion
Stress slows down digestion, disrupts the gut-brain axis, and increases inflammation—all of which can trigger GI tract flare-ups. Ashwagandha helps reverse this by reducing stress-related hormones like cortisol, calming inflammation, and restoring healthy gut motility.
Ashwagandha supplements such as Exhale interact with overstimulated systems, leading to an upregulation and restoration of gut function, while directly decreasing inflammation and improving gut motility.
Ashwagandha Benefits for Hormone Balance
Hormones are small, rigid fats that are used to signal multiple processes in the body. Through binding to receptors on their target organ or cell, they stimulate or block different functions in the body in a dynamic manner that allows the body to react to all sorts of stimuli.
Ashwagandha modulates the secretion of a number of hormones, such as androgens like estrogen and testosterone, through early regulation of the process to create them. Additionally, even minimal doses of ashwagandha demonstrated efficacy in reducing DHEA-S, an important signaling hormone in women that mediates the menstrual cycle.
These effects have important implications for individuals facing hormonal imbalances, reproductive challenges, or metabolic dysregulation—especially considering the interrelationship between hormonal health and gastrointestinal function. In conditions like IBD, where stress and systemic inflammation often disrupt hormonal signaling, ashwagandha may even assist in the absorption of sugars and warding off insulin resistance.
Ashwagandha Benefits for Skin and Hair
Stress puts undue pressure on hormones controlling skin regeneration and hair follicle development. Without the proper internal balance, skin and hair cells aren’t supported for proper growth. Likewise, they are unusually vulnerable to damage from environmental stressors, such as UV, which can lead to further breakdown of these cells with stress repressing the healing response of the body.
Ashwagandha contains a number of anti-oxidant materials, which support development of healthy skin cells and maturation of hair follicles. These compounds help neutralize reactive oxygen species (ROS), which are known to damage cellular structures.
Ashwagandha may contribute to healthier skin and hair not only through its antioxidant action but also by addressing underlying physiological stress—one of the most common triggers for dermatological and hair-related conditions in individuals with chronic inflammatory diseases like IBD.
Ashwagandha Benefits for the Thyroid
Ashwagandha modulates thyroid function through increased conversion of the T4 hormone produced by the thyroid into the more bioavailable T3 form. This shift is critical, as T3 governs key metabolic processes including energy production, thermoregulation, and lipid metabolism. Stress impacts this pathway, hijacking it and disrupting the balance of hormones in the body.
By supporting optimal T3 levels both directly and in reducing the impact of stress in the body, ashwagandha indirectly influences the synthesis of reproductive hormones such as estrogen and testosterone, which are downstream products in various endocrine pathways. These hormones not only play essential roles in reproductive health but also act as systemic messengers that contribute to metabolic regulation and cellular repair.
For individuals experiencing thyroid dysregulation—especially those with inflammation-driven conditions like IBD—ashwagandha may offer a gentle but effective means of restoring endocrine balance and improving metabolic resilience.
Evinature’s Exhale Supplement Benefits
Exhale is a novel, ashwagandha-based supplement produced by Evinature containing additional elements such as chamomile and mimosa bark. All three of the active components have demonstrated scientific efficacy in reducing the impact of stress on the body, improving sleep, and decreasing muscular tension. Together, these ingredients:
- Calm the nervous system
- Reduce stress
- Improve sleep quality
- Support gut-brain balance
- Relieve muscular tension
Each batch of Exhale undergoes rigorous quality control to ensure purity, potency, and consistency. No fillers, no fluff—just therapeutic-grade botanicals designed to help you feel better, naturally.
Side Effects, Dosage & Considerations
Ashwagandha is generally well-tolerated, but some people may experience mild digestive upset. It’s not recommended for:
- Pregnant or breastfeeding individuals
- People with hyperthyroidism
Always talk to your healthcare provider before starting a new supplement, especially if you have an underlying condition.
Quality and safety are paramount. Exhale is manufactured under rigorous quality control standards to ensure purity, consistency, and bioavailability. This commitment minimizes the risk of contaminants or variable potency often associated with poorly regulated supplements, ensuring that patients receive reliable, therapeutic-grade support with every dose.
To learn more about Exhale and how it can support your health, click here.
Summer Pitocchelli-Schwartzman
