I work in a high stress career. I spend the majority of every day on the phone to clients, multitasking many jobs at a time and frequently being treated with severe disrespect. A little over 2 years in the industry and there’s 1 thing I’m literally sick of and that’s stress. I say literally as it has driven me to the point of throwing up on multiple occasions.
I decided just last week that I would seek a de-stress supplement. I wasn’t expecting anything to actually help but I was getting desperate because aside from the stress, I love my job.
So on the way to the train station last Monday morning I swung by my local supermarket to check out the supplements. I had potassium in mind as a good place to start but found myself surprised to find no potassium supplements on offer.
I noticed Swisse de-stress. It was in fact that only supplement available promoting stress relief. The price tag was hefty (about $30 for 60 tablets, taken 2 per day) but I was desperate and willing to try anything.
I’d never heard of its only ingredient, Withania Somnifera, also known as Ashwaghanda. It came in a dosage of 3750 mg “equiv. dry root. On the train I took my first tablet then got straight into researching the herb.
The studies available seemed promising. At dosages of 2000 mg to 6000 mg daily the supplement was found to lower cortisol production significantly in both human and animal studies. It was also found to have another whole range of benefits ranging from weight loss (likely a response to lower stress levels) to aiding cancer treatment. Interesting I thought but I’m really just hoping for its primary stress relieving purpose.
I’m on my second week, 4th day of taking the supplement and while I’m not dismissing placebo effect to be a possibility, I have noticed a significant difference to my stress levels. I haven’t had a single day where stress really got to me since I started taking Ashwaghanda. I’ve been so impressed that I’ve even shared the expensive tablets with friends and coworkers who believe they noticed they were more calm not long after consumption.
Unfortunately due to the price tag this product isn’t going to be sustainable for me. So I looked into alternative brands selling Ashwaghanda. I was surprised to find that despite being so many available, the dosages ranged from 300 mg to 600 mg as opposed to Swisse who provide 3750 mg dosages. And even available these lower dosages per tablet the suggested dosages daily were still 1 to 2 tablets.
It baffled me as to how this could be possible. Why was the Swisse product approximately 11 times more potent than the strongest of its competitors. Will an alternative not work for me? But there’s also many reviews for each varieties claiming they have experienced similarly as I have at varying dosages. I couldn’t figure it out, so I put the question to Swisse and this is their response:
Dear Lee,
Thank you for your email regarding Swisse Ultiboost Stress Relief and Ingredient Enquiry.
We are delighted to hear of your interest in Swisse Wellness and we really appreciate you taking the time to contact us with your query.
Swisse Ultiboost Stress Relief contains 3.75g dry root of Withania (Withania somnifera) per tablet, which equates to 3750 mg.
We can confirm that herbal ingredients commonly have multiple names and Withania (Withania somnifera) may also be referred as Ashwagandha.
Withania present in the formulation of Swisse Ultiboost Stress Relief may help decrease cortisol levels, helping to reduce the effects of stress on the body. Withania has also been traditionally used in Ayurvedic medicine as a rejuvenative tonic to support a healthy nervous system.
OK, so it’s as simple as that then? Swisse simply provide a better product and every other company are severely under dosing. I don’t know, that just doesn’t sound right to me, particularly due to the fact that there’s so many positive reviews for other brands Ashwaghanda supplements. So today I plan to put the same question to a competitor or 2 and see what they have to say about this. I can’t help but think Swisse gave me a false explanation, or at least one that omits any important details, as to help promote themselves. Which is fair enough, they don’t want customers looking elsewhere for less expensive products that do the same thing that Swisse do.
So I’ll await a response or 2 then post back when more info has been provided.