Ashwagandha (aka Withania Somnifera) Supplementation

[Giselle Vargas]

Hi,

We are also interested in Ashwaganda. I’ve read lots of positive reviews /info on it. May I ask, what is the name of the supplement your Dad takes? How much does he take?
Thank you and hopefully more people will chime soon in with info!

Giselle

[DAVID]

Hi Giselle

My dad takes Ethnodyne Neuro, sold on ethnodyne.com. It is backed by research from a team of French scientists from CNRS (French national research center). They use a bioconversion extraction process meant to enhance their active components. My dad takes two doses a day. Note that it is a combination of ashwagandha root extracts As well as two other well known Ayurvedic plants. But ashwagandha has the highest concentration (800mg per two doses).

[Giselle Vargas]

Thank you Dave! I will order this for my husband. I also was reading about a Pomegranate seed oil extract from Israel that uses nanotechnology… I believe it’s called Granagard. Have you heard about this?

[Owen]

Here’s an ALS Untangled article you might want to read: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.3109/21678421.2015.1088707

It’s in regard to this supplement (https://www.lifevantage.com/us-en/shop/protandim-nrf2), which also contains Ashwagandha. It sounds pretty similar to your Dad’s supplement. It got a promising (and rare!) “A” rating on mechanism, but it hasn’t really been studied so the ALS untangled team wasn’t able to recommend it (they did recommend it for further study however).

I’d be interested in learning more too if anyone has any thoughts.

[DAVID]

Hi Giselle, Owen,

I wished I replied earlier but I somehow did not receive ALS forum notifications…

@Giselle : thank you for the pointer, never heard of it but will definetly look further.

@Owen : you are totally right, most raw ingredients are the same I believe. Before I found out about Ethnodyne, I was indeed considering taking a shot at Protandim. Considering I was in France, I managed to grab more info about Ethnodyne from their research team, so I decided to go for it. I believe that one difference between Protandim and Ethnodyne Neuro though, is that the Ashwaganda active compound in use in Protandim is Withaferin A whereas the active compound in use in Ethnodyne Neuro are essentially Withanosides. Both are believed to have neuro-protective effects though and I am not sure to have a proper understanding of the key differences between the two to share them here, but you can make your own call by googling the related & significant litterature.

[Dagmar]

For the sake of our forum members who are not familiar with chemical terms, or these particular compounds, let me provide some context:

• Ashwagandha is a plant that helps the body/brain manage stress. It can boost brain function, lower blood sugar and cortisol levels, and help fight symptoms of anxiety and depression.
• Ethnodyne is a supplement derived from a plant and is being researched for use in Parkinson’s disease.
• Protandim is a supplement shown to reduce oxidative stress. But according to the ALS Untangled document (cited by Owen) There are no known studies of Protandim in preclinical ALS models. “One unpublished report of Protandim benefit with a validated ALS diagnosis and benefits in ALSFRS-R score. This study had a small sample size (29 patients). One of the authors on this study, J. McCord, was associated with LifeVantage (the company that sells Protandim) at the time this article was published. This creates a potential conflict of interest. The study has never been replicated by an independent group, and has never been carried out in PALS.

So, my question to you all is – – where is the connection that David made to reducing neuro-inflammation? How will these benefit someone with ALS?

[DAVID]

Hi Dagmar

I was referring to the fact that, in some experiments, Withaferin A is shown to reduce neuro-inflammation, as explained in the specific context of ALS at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4322065/.

[Dagmar]

David – – Thank you for the reference document. It shows the Ashwagandha was able to extend the life and motor neurons in mice who were simulating the inherited genes SOD1 (G93A) and SOD1 (G37) – – which the researches stated occurs in 20% of the cases of inherited ALS.

Certainly a good outcome. Now we will have to see if these results in animal models translate into similar results in humans.

[DAVID]

Exactly – it is unfortunate no clinical trials to confirm those findings were funded so far though.

[DAVID]

Hi

I thought of providing quick feedbacks on Ashwagandha (Withanoside IV compound only) and Pomegranade seed oil supplements that my Dad has been taking for 15 months and 8 months respectively (on top of CQ10, TOCO and Ginkgo).
Despite daily intakes of those supplements, my Dad unfortunately kept experiencing some steady decline in upper & lower limb, as well as speech. That is not to say such supplementation is useless, as I have no idea of what would have happened without it. But I thought it would be good to share with you that, sadly, nothing groundbreaking happened in my Dad’s case. We do not plan to stop supplementation, though, and keep investigating other candidates.

For the context, my Dad was diagnosed with ALS in 2017, the most noticeable symptom being dysarthria which started in 2015. Difficult to say if this was a real bulbar onset, given that he did not seem to have experienced the “standard” phenotype and rapid progression usually associated to it. Which make me believe that earlier light limb symptoms may have gone unnoticed (I wish so much that bio-markers will become a reality).

[Harish Chander]

Hi,

My mom is suffering from  ALS for the past two years. It was started with Bulbar Palsy.

Now she cannot eat and speak. For the past one year she is on PEG tube for feeding.

I am thinking of starting an Ashwagandha powder. Just wondering what is the good dose?

I have seen two scientific articles for the use of Ashwagandha in ALS.

Any advice please!

[Dagmar]

Harish –

• Ashwagandha is a plant that helps the body/brain manage stress. It can boost brain function, lower blood sugar and cortisol levels, and help fight symptoms of anxiety and depression.

There was an article published in ALS News Today discussing research on mice. It shows the Ashwagandha was able to extend the life and motor neurons in mice who were simulating the inherited genes SOD1 (G93A) and SOD1 (G37) – – which the researchers stated occurs in 20% of the cases of inherited ALS. It was tested on patients with Familial (genetic) ALS, and not on Sporadic ALS. We will have to see if these results in animal models translate into similar results in humans.

At this point I find no recommendations of dosage for human intake.

https://alsnewstoday.com/news/medicinal-plant-extracts-improved-motor-function-delayed-worsening-als-mice/