Let's face it: the last three years have been all about stress. The pandemic loomed large in our thoughts, creating a background hum of low grade anxiety. We were all worried for our jobs, our kids, our parents, our vulnerable elders, our friends with co-morbidities. We worked from home, erasing all boundaries between work and enjoyment, and of course, work won.
We know stress is bad for us. Of course we do. But this is where the world is at, right now. 84% of men, and 79% of women suffer from stress; and burnout has become a recognised, legitimate diagnosis according to the World Health Organization. The worst part is, it isn't limited to the working parent - even for those over 50 years old, stress affects 64% of the population. Students have enormous anxiety, and increasingly, children are struggling with eco-anxiety.
If stress isn't going away, then can we improve our ability to deal with it?
Yes. However, it requires the sort of effort that most of us, who are stressed out to begin with, have no space, time or inclination to make. Try suggesting meditation to a stressed out colleague, and observe their reaction. Relieving stress seems to beget stress. So, how does one adapt to stress, without making significant effort?
There are no pills, no injections, no herbs that will take away your stress permanently, unfortunately. There's nothing that you can ingest that will turn you into a peaceful, zen buddha who takes everything in their stride.
There are, however, herbs that will reduce the burden of stress on the body. Stress hurts the body in several ways - reducing immunity, creating digestive issues, causing us to gain weight (and the stress that comes from that!), insomnia, adrenal fatigue, rapid aging, hairfall, persistent aches and pains… the list goes on. Most of the damage from stress comes from stress hormones: cortisol, adrenaline and noradrenaline. These aren't bad hormones. They are powerful chemical agents that kept our ancestors alive in hostile environments by triggering the flight/fight limbic response. Unfortunately, today, when we no longer need to run from tigers, but are instead handling multiple demanding clients/bosses, these hormones can be overkill.
The Magic of Adaptogenic Herbs
There exists a class of herbs that work on mitigating the impacts of these hormones on our bodies. Adaptogenics, as the name suggests, help our bodies adapt to our new normal. The first name in adaptogenic herbs is Ashwagandha, a well-known and well-researched herb that has been used in Ayurvedic remedies for over 3000 years. The west has recently discovered and mainstreamed it. It works by reducing serum cortisol, has the ability to modulate the immune system and its responses, stimulates the actions of lymphocytes and phagocytes, arrests premature aging, and also has anxiolytic and anti-inflammatory properties.
It's a hard working herb that has gained recognition from western practitioners. This, in turn, has created a market for Ashwagandha, flooding the marketplace with Ashwagandha tablets, syrups, powders, even candy. How legitimate are these products? Unfortunately, the supplements market, especially for herbal supplements, isn't adequately regulated. Identifying the legitimate from the fake is a question of buyer beware.
A name we trust
Fortunately, there is one brand of Ayurvedic products that we're all intimately familiar with. If you've grown up in India anytime in the last 70 years, your morning routine includes a spoonful of Chyawanprash. With offerings ranging from hair oil to toothpaste, honey to fruit juice, Odomos to Hajmola and Pudin Hara, chances are you've already consumed or applied a Dabur product today.
For the 79% and 84% of us struggling with stress, Dabur's Stresscom, a premium Ashwagandha capsule, couldn't come at a better time. Each capsule contains 300 mg of Ashwagandha root extract, and the equivalent of 6 mg of Ashwagandha Churna. Its lipid-based formulation makes it easy for the body to extract and absorb actives from it, giving it a more potent effect than other marketed Ashwagandha brands. Dabur recommends taking one capsule twice a day, preferably with milk.
So, while you can't erase your stress with a pill, you can mitigate its impact on your body with a capsule, twice daily! As with all things Ayurvedic, the time to start is today.
Moneycontrol journalists were not involved in the creation of the article
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