Ashwagandha - Mini Episode

Hi, this is Rita Hogan and welcome to the Dogs Are Individuals podcast. I'm a clinical canine herbalist and I've been practicing for over 20 years. This podcast is all about your dog through an herbal lens. So let's get to it and dive right in. Hi, everyone. Welcome to the Dogs are Individuals podcast shorts. Today we're going to talk about ashwagandha. The reason why I want to talk about ashwagandha is because it is fall. And ashwagandha is a really great, like, cardiovascular normalizing herb that I just love. I think it's a pretty popular herb. But what I love about ashwagandha is that it helps strengthen your dog's total body energy. It definitely helps bring down stress, anxiety, and it also works for trauma. So one of the things about ashwagandha is that it's warming. Some dogs can have issues with it. Dogs that are really, really warm themselves, you know, like, how hot is your dog? You want to kind of figure that out before you start giving ashwagandha on a more of a long term basis. But if your dog tolerates it well, it again, it really does help your dog's body recover from chronic situations, chronic dise. Chronic stress, chronic anxiety and trauma. It's known as an adaptogen. So it helps the body adapt to stressful situations better. And it's pretty safe for puppies, which I think is a huge benefit. The Latin name for ashwagandha is Withania salmonifera. And you really want to check your Latin names when you purchase ashwagandha. One thing about ashwagandha that a lot of people don't realize is that it's a nightshade. So it can aggravate arthritic conditions. So you kind of want to just keep an eye on that. You can use ashwagandha in a powder, you can use it as a tincture. I'll go over that in just a minute. But it's very edible. You're going to use a dried root. And the constituents of ashwagandha are pretty awesome. It's really high in antioxidants. It definitely helps with raising glucothione in the liver, which is one of its superpowers. It's bitter, it is full of fatty acids and flavonoids. It has some resin to it. The. The root does. I would definitely say that as far as, like a nutrient profile for Ashwagandha, we've got alanine, which is an amino acid. Got calcium, we've got glycine, iron, protein, tyrosine, and vitamin C. Again, the taste of ashwagandha, I would definitely taste it, get used to it, kind of bring it into your body and try to understand it that way. Taste is such a magical way of understanding herbs because it's warming, it's and it's astringent. So it tends to tonify things. You can taste that. It's bitter, it's pungent, but it also has a sweetness. It has a sweetness to it and it's really good for again puppies, geriatric dogs, dogs that are depleted. Sometimes dogs with more type of chronic loose stool can benefit from helps with cognitive function which makes it good for geriatric dogs. It is definitely in herbalism, it's definitely a good hypothyroid remedy. And as I said in the beginning, it can bring down nervousness, it can decrease anxiety, it can help with skittish dogs. I definitely would consider it kind of like an energy calming herb. In traditional Chinese medicine you might relate to this as like a yang tonic. It has some lung support as well as increasing positive spleen energy. It does have some antibacterial properties, but they're not huge. I would include it as an anti cancer herb. I like to mix it with mushrooms. Turkey tail mushroom, cordyceps mushroom, shiitake mushroom. They make good kind of synergistic components of a good formula for ashwagandha. Ashwagandha definitely is high in antioxidants. It's an antispasmodic, it is an anti inflammatory and mixed with turkey tail mushroom it can be very chemo protective. For anyone that is going through chemo. I love the combination of ashwagandha, turkey tail and astrologous. When dogs or people are going through chemotherapy, it's definitely immunomodulating. It modulates immune system to help it function better. And I would include it in kind of your herbal tonics because it's an adaptogen, it slowly helps bring balance to the body. Some of those things that I think about when using Ashwagandha, I think about stressed out dogs, stress, diarrhea, dogs with excessive weakness, dogs with bronchial issues. Again they're, you know, anxiety, anemia, the dried out, stressed out dogs that kind of have like a depletion in the adrenal system, Ashwagandha, I'd say the affinities to the organ systems would be well quite numerous. So an affinity towards the nervous system, the musculoskeletal system, the cardiovascular system, the digestive system, the endocrine system, the immune system and the intergamentary system, which is like the skin. It definitely is a dog as ecosystem like systemic tonic. I don't really think I could say it better as just like a whole body tonic. Working with the blood, the brain, the digestive system, the endocrine system. It's great for dogs with loss of appetite and again, stress diarrhea. For stress diarrhea, I really like using ashwagandha as an infusion in warm water poured over the food or in bone broth. That's a really good way to use ashwagandha. It definitely helps build and strengthen the immune system. It is autoimmune friendly. Okay. And especially that autoimmune condition that affects the musculoskeletal system, the knee joints, the back, different smaller joints in the body. Definitely with pain and arthritic conditions. Even though it's a nightshade, I don't find it kind of having the effects like tomatoes do on arthritis. I think it's much milder and I don't see a lot of direct kind of like degradation when using ashwagandha in dogs. For arthritic conditions. I think it definitely has a positive effect. But again, dogs are individual. So just kind of keep an eye on it. Right? Keep an eye on it. It really does help revitalize the nervous system. I like it for dogs that have early signs of graying around the muzzle. I like to combine it with an herb called nettle seed for that. There's definitely a kidney component there. So it's a really wonderful, when mixing it with ashwagandha for that type of, you know, normalizing the graying of the face. The way that you use ashwagandha, you can use it as a decoction of the root. That's where you're going to simmer the root for about, I would say 30 to 40 minutes, really low and extract those constituents out of the root. Or you can use it as a dried powder, as an infusion in hot water, as a dried herb in the food. You can use it as a tincture for internal use. I would definitely say it is safe for long term use. For a decoction, you probably use about 2 tablespoons of the dried root simmered in about 2 cups of water, again for about 30 and 40 minutes. You're going to give about a quarter cup per every £25. So for something acute in the body, you want to use about 5 drops for small dogs, 10 drops for medium dogs, 20 drops for large dogs and 30 drops for giant, giant breed dogs. But that definitely is acute, something that has come on all of a sudden. You just use it for about a week at those dosages. For the chronic dosage. For the tincture, it's really low. So 1 to 2 drops for small dogs. I would say 1 drop for extra small dogs, 3 to 5 drops for medium dogs, 6 to 8 drops for large dogs, and 10 drops for giant dogs. Given twice daily in the mouth, you can mix it with about a mil of filtered warm water if you want to kind of bring down the taste of it. And for dried herbs, 100 milligrams per every 25 to 30 pounds of body weight given twice daily in the food. If your dog eats once daily, then you can give it in a little bit of raw goat's milk or bone broth if that's acceptable and tolerable for your dog toxicity. It's pretty safe, pretty safe in large dosages. The only cautions that I can say again, it can aggravate arthritis, even though it's good for the musculoskeletal system. It can irritate the digestive system if given in too high qualities or if your dog is not conducive for it. Be very cautious to where it comes from. Make sure that the source that you're using has been tested for lead. Definitely in India, they're having some lead contamination problems. You wanted to avoid it with dogs with hyperthyroidism and graves disease. So I think, you know, really, the cautions really come from really high dosages. It definitely can cause stomach upset and vomiting. You just want to be careful with that and you want to avoid it again with hyperthyroid, not hypothyroid. I think the consensus is that ashwagandha is definitely a wonderful adaptogen. It's used as a tonic to nourish the whole body, and its roots are really high in antioxidants, which helps fight free radicals, which helps support the liver, the digestive system. And combining it with mushrooms, I think is a really good idea. It really combines well with Reishi mushroom as well as the other ones I've mentioned in this short. And that's about it. So I hope you enjoyed this, and I'll catch you next time on the next short. Thanks for listening to this episode of Dogs are Individuals. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review in your podcast app. And don't forget, sharing is caring. So if you love Dogs Are Individuals podcast, share it with your friends and family who love dogs. This will help me so much. And remember, as a listener, I appreciate you. Much thanks to Resonant Media, my podcast production team. This podcast is produced by Drake Peterson and edited by Mike Fry. Any questions, email the show, go to k9herbalist.com Click podcast contact in the menu and then fill out that form and I'll answer any questions here online. Okay, so thank you so much for listening to this episode of Dogs Are Individuals Podcast, and I'm going to talk to you in our next episode.