Walk into any Irish health food shop and you will almost certainly find ashwagandha on the shelf. In 2023 and 2024 it overtook St John's Wort as the best-selling herbal supplement in Ireland, driven by a combination of social media exposure and, crucially, a genuine body of clinical evidence that has persuaded even conventionally trained practitioners to take notice.
Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera) is a small shrub native to India, the Middle East, and parts of Africa. Its roots have been used in Ayurvedic medicine for over 3,000 years — the name translates roughly as "smell of horse," both a reference to its root scent and a suggestion that it confers the vigour of a horse. Modern pharmacology has now identified the active compounds responsible for its effects: a family of steroidal lactones called withanolides.
Ashwagandha is classified as an adaptogen — a term coined by Soviet pharmacologist Nikolai Lazarev in 1947 to describe substances that increase non-specific resistance to stress. An adaptogen should: normalise physiological functions disrupted by stress, support the body's own regulatory mechanisms, and be non-toxic at recommended doses.
The concept sounds vague until you understand the physiology. When your body encounters a stressor — whether physical (cold, infection, injury), psychological (work pressure, relationship difficulties), or biochemical (toxins, poor diet) — it mounts a stress response coordinated primarily by the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. The result is a cascade of hormonal changes, most notably a rise in cortisol, the primary glucocorticoid stress hormone.
Short-term, this is adaptive and helpful. Chronically elevated cortisol — the modern epidemic among Irish adults juggling demanding careers, family pressures, and poor sleep — is destructive. It disrupts sleep architecture, promotes abdominal fat deposition, impairs immune function, reduces libido, and contributes to anxiety and depression. Adaptogens, including ashwagandha, appear to modulate the HPA axis and reduce the cortisol response to chronic stress.
This is where ashwagandha separates itself from many herbal supplements: the human clinical evidence is actually good. A landmark double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled trial published in the Indian Journal of Psychological Medicine in 2012 gave 64 adults with a history of chronic stress either 300mg of KSM-66 ashwagandha root extract or placebo twice daily for 60 days. The ashwagandha group showed:
A subsequent 2019 study in Medicine found that 240mg of ashwagandha extract daily for 60 days produced significant reductions in cortisol and significant improvements in subjective stress, sleep quality, and well-being. A 2021 trial in PLOS ONE confirmed that 600mg/day of KSM-66 reduced serum cortisol by 22.2% and improved multiple measures of psychological well-being.
The species name somnifera means "sleep-inducing" in Latin — an ancient recognition of its sedative properties. Modern research has explored the mechanisms. Ashwagandha appears to increase GABAergic activity in the brain, promoting the inhibitory neurotransmission associated with relaxation and sleep. It also reduces the cortisol spike that can impair sleep onset in stressed individuals.
A 2019 randomised controlled trial published in PLOS ONE investigated ashwagandha's effect on sleep in adults with insomnia. The 600mg/day group showed significant improvements in sleep quality, sleep onset latency (time to fall asleep), total sleep time, and sleep efficiency compared to placebo. Morning vitality scores also improved significantly.
This positions ashwagandha as a useful natural alternative to prescription sleep aids — particularly relevant in an Irish context where melatonin requires a prescription (see our separate guide) and many people are reluctant to use benzodiazepines long-term. Unlike prescription sleep medications, ashwagandha does not cause rebound insomnia or dependency, and its effects improve gradually over several weeks of consistent use.
An important consideration for Irish customers: ashwagandha has a meaningful effect on thyroid hormone levels. A 2018 study in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine found that 600mg/day of ashwagandha root extract significantly increased serum T3 and T4 levels compared to placebo in subclinical hypothyroid patients.
For people with hypothyroidism who are already on levothyroxine (Eltroxin in Ireland), this requires careful management. Pat Coffey at The Honey Pot always recommends that customers on thyroid medication discuss ashwagandha with their GP before starting, and if they do take it, to monitor their thyroid levels more frequently, as dose adjustments may be needed. For people with hyperthyroidism, ashwagandha should be avoided without medical supervision.
Athletes and active people have found ashwagandha valuable beyond its stress-reduction properties. A 2015 study in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition found that men taking 300mg of KSM-66 twice daily for 8 weeks had significantly greater increases in muscle strength and size compared to placebo, along with greater reductions in exercise-induced muscle damage (as measured by creatine kinase) and greater improvements in testosterone levels.
For Irish gym-goers and recreational athletes dealing with a demanding training load alongside the stresses of daily life, ashwagandha offers a natural way to support recovery, testosterone, and performance without the risks associated with anabolic agents.
This is an important distinction when buying in Ireland. Much of the clinical research has been conducted on specific standardised extracts, and not all ashwagandha products are equal:
Pat Coffey recommends choosing products that clearly state the extract type and withanolide percentage. "The dose on the label only means something if you know what percentage of active compounds is in it," he notes. "A product saying '1000mg of ashwagandha powder' might have far fewer active withanolides than a product saying '300mg KSM-66 standardised to 5%'."
Ashwagandha is generally very well tolerated but there are important contraindications:
"The most common mistake I see is people taking it once a day and expecting overnight results," says Pat. "Ashwagandha is a tonic herb — it works cumulatively over weeks. I tell people to take it twice daily with food, be consistent for at least 4-6 weeks, and not to give up after a few days." He typically recommends starting at 300mg of a standardised extract once daily, building to twice daily after a week if well tolerated. Most people notice improved stress resilience and sleep quality within 2-4 weeks.