Ashwagandha or Rhodiola?
What Is The Difference Between Ashwagandha and Rhodiola Root?
Many of the remedies we stock at Zhi Herbals have overlapping uses, indications, or mechanisms of action. Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera) and rhodiola (Rhodiola rosea) are no exception. Both belong to the herbal medicine category of adaptogens, which have deep, broad benefits for your overall health, including anti aging effects. Adaptogens work by increasing your resilience to stressors, but some have more specific profiles, such as a leaning towards immunity or mental health support. So how do ashwagandha and rhodiola compare?
The Botanical Differences Between Ashwagandha And Rhodiola
Botanically, the two herbs are very different. Ashwagandha belongs to the Solanaceae family, also known as the nightshades. It’s native to India, as well as parts of the Middle East and Africa. Just like other nightshades such as tomatoes, ashwagandha has tiny hairs on its leaves, bell-shaped flowers, and brightly-colored fruits.
Rhodiola is from the Crassulaceae family, and its native territories are much further north, including Siberia. The Crassulaceae family generally grows in semi-arid, rocky areas. As a result, they are hardy plants with a succulent-like appearance. Rhodiola is no exception with its tough, spiky leaves, thick stem, and compact growth.
Common Uses Of Ashwagandha And Rhodiola
Ashwagandha and rhodiola are both root-based medicines, and are used to enhance energy levels, reduce stress, and provide overall anti aging benefits. They relieve mental fatigue and improve mental health and athletic performance. The exact ways in which they work are different, however, and some complement each other. Overall, many professionals and patients describe rhodiola as more stimulating, and ashwagandha as more calming but suitable for debilitated states.
Ashwagandha: The Medhyara Sayana
Ashwagandha is known as a Medhyara Sayana. While the Rasayana category encompasses herbs that have overall longevity-promoting, rejuvenating effects, the Medhyana group specifically indicates support for memory and cognition.
Traditional and modern uses of ashwagandha feature rejuvenating, anti-fatigue benefits that are appreciated to this day in situations such as aging and chronic fatigue. It may also have stress-relieving, immune-stimulating, anti-inflammatory, anti-arthritic, and blood sugar-regulating properties.
Ashwagandha As A Workout Supplement
Ashwagandha can have dramatic effects on muscle mass and strength when taken alongside resistance training. A trial where healthy young men took two 300mg doses of ashwagandha extract each day found that it led to an increase in upper body strength by 46 kilograms, compared to 26.4kg in the placebo group. Arm and chest muscle size increased too, while markers of muscle damage after exercise fell.
Additionally, testosterone levels in the ashwagandha group rose from 630 to 726ng/dL, while they only increased from 675 to 693ng/dL in men taking the placebo. While the stress hormone cortisol was not measured, other research does show that ashwagandha can lower it back into its normal rhythms. Both of these effects are essential in supporting muscle growth and maintenance, as testosterone builds muscle and cortisol breaks it down.
What about cardiovascular fitness? Another clinical trial, this time measuring performance in aerobic exercise, tested an eight-week course of ashwagandha supplementation. Peak oxygen use, velocity, and power output all significantly increased, while no measurements improved in the placebo group.
Could Ashwagandha Be Natural HRT?
Ashwagandha may increase sex hormone levels in middle-aged volunteers. In the case of estrogen, one study on perimenopausal women found a significant rise in the hormone, while FSH and LH fell. FSH and LH usually spike at times during menopause in an attempt to stimulate the ovaries, but a drop in their levels indicates less need for this ability. The women enjoyed relief from symptom categories that include sexual dysfunction, hot flashes, anxiety, and muscle pain.
As for testosterone, several clinical studies show an increase in testosterone by at least 15%. These trials included both younger and middle-aged men. In the study involving infertile men, ashwagandha also increased sperm counts and quality. Perhaps the biggest advantage of ashwagandha over HRT is that it stimulates your body’s own production of sex hormones, instead of taking over and impairing these pathways. Ashwagandha is not a steroid, and is not illegal or dangerous, unless you have an allergy to the plant.
Ashwagandha And Energy Metabolism
One mechanism behind ashwagandha’s ability to restore healthy energy levels and protect against diabetes is through supporting your mitochondrial health. These are responsible for over 90% of your cellular energy production, while aging and chronic conditions that feature fatigue are associated with poorer mitochondrial function.
Lab research shows that ashwagandha can increase mitochondrial function in the face of a high-fat, high-calorie diet. Both fat and muscle tissue showed a rise in energy production, meaning you may enjoy improved fitness and have an easier time losing excess body fat. Ashwagandha supports the conversion of “white” fat tissue into “brown” fat. Unlike white fat, brown fat consumes energy, which prevents obesity and supports weight loss. Other research also shows that ashwagandha extract may slow the breakdown of ATP, the molecule your cells use to store energy.
Ashwagandha Boosts And Regulates Immunity
If you’re less familiar with herbal medicine and how holistic therapies can benefit the body, you may be concerned about the downsides of boosting immunity. Although we need a strong defence against infection, chronic inflammation can result from an overactive immune response. This is even more of a concern when you have, or are at risk of developing, an autoimmune or allergic disorder.
Thankfully, ashwagandha could prevent an overactive response while still enhancing your ability to fight infections. One clinical study found increases in a broad range of antibody and immune cell types after participants took ashwagandha extract for 30 days. The antibodies included those necessary for fighting infection, and others that exist to protect your body against damage or from an infection entering. The immune cells included types with non-specific effects and cells involved in “memory” and recognizing certain microbes once they are “learnt”.
Rhodiola: Stress Resilience In The Toughest Situations
Rhodiola is well-known as an adaptogen for boosting physical and mental performance, even among Soviet athletes and members of the military before its introduction to the West. It has stimulant properties from boosting levels of key neurotransmitters, alongside cardioprotective benefits. For these reasons, you are more likely to see rhodiola in herbal formulas for depression, anxiety, or lack of focus.
Improving Your Mental Health With Rhodiola
Rhodiola is a popular addition to herbal formulas aimed at improving mental health. In a clinical trial comparing rhodiola to the antidepressant sertraline (Zoloft), taking rhodiola led to a 5.1-point improvement in depression scores. This was a smaller effect than sertraline, but rhodiola had far fewer side effects.
How does rhodiola work? The herbal medicine appears to stimulate serotonin, dopamine, acetylcholine, and noradrenaline pathways in the brain. Serotonin is a key mood-lifting neurotransmitter, which promotes an uplifted, calm state of mind. Acetylcholine is the number one neurotransmitter in the brain and a non-negotiable when it comes to cognition. Its levels fall in cases of dementia, leading to slower thought processes and impaired memory.
Dopamine is associated with ADHD. The main cognitive action of dopamine is to subconsciously make the use of effort feel worthwhile. If your dopamine levels are low, you may struggle to find the motivation to work, study, hit the gym, or even practice your favorite hobbies. You aren’t necessarily depressed, and you haven’t really stopped enjoying things, you just aren’t motivated.
Rhodiola And Exercise Performance
A common saying in sports is that performance is all about mind over matter. Beyond physical strength, you do in fact need healthy psychomotor performance, which essentially measures how well your brain can send instructions to your muscles.
A clinical study on 26 young, healthy men found that rhodiola may significantly boost reaction times, possibly including accuracy rates where they had to choose the correct answer as fast as possible. However, physical endurance did not improve. Ashwagandha may provide more consistent benefits when it comes to physical strength and endurance.
The Benefits Of Rhodiola For Energy Metabolism
Similar to ashwagandha, rhodiola benefits mitochondrial health. A lab study in 2019 demonstrated that rhodiola can increase the production of new mitochondria, which must replicate to replace old, worn out ones. This prevented the cells themselves from becoming too aged to divide.
Rhodiola can also increase activity of an enzyme known as AMPK. Besides increasing mitochondrial counts, AMPK supports insulin sensitivity and fat burning. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that AMPK activity declines with age, contributing to weight gain (as fat), fatigue, and insulin resistance. Restoring AMPK activity may help you shift stubborn body fat, improve your energy levels so you can exercise, and potentially even assist in preventing metabolic syndrome.
Rhodiola And Mitochondria, Holding Onto The Light
Perhaps the most interesting testing method for measuring an antioxidant effect was conducted on rhodiola. This test measured its ability to stop your body from essentially bleeding light, otherwise known as “ultraweak biophoton emissions”. Oxidative stress is thought to cause a loss of biophotons, or biological light, from the cells. Rhodiola had stronger effects than a combination of rhodiola, Siberian ginseng, and schisandra, and improved energy levels, too.
The “light” most likely stopped leaking from their mitochondria. During cellular energy production, your mitochondria take a mighty beating from the oxidative stress that this process generates. Reducing the impact of oxidative stress protects your mitochondria, allowing them to continue functioning, and holding onto your biophotons.
Can Rhodiola Help Menopause Too?
Like ashwagandha, rhodiola may relieve menopausal symptoms. The difference between the two adaptogens here is that, while ashwagandha can raise estrogen levels, rhodiola cannot. Instead, it may have modulating effects on your estrogen receptors. This may be the safest option if you have a health condition worsened by estrogen, or are at risk of estrogen-dependent breast cancer.
A case study of a woman with disabling cognitive and mental health manifestations of menopause described significant improvement after beginning rhodiola supplementation. Within weeks, her energy levels and motivation rose, while depression and anxiety fell. Her memory, focus, and overall capacity to complete her work then improved, with no negative side effects. In contrast, pharmaceutical treatments for depression and anxiety caused brain fog, sexual dysfunction, and weight gain.
Putting It All Together
Ashwagandha and rhodiola can work together in certain indications where their benefits are similar, but their mechanisms are different.
When it comes to improving your exercise performance, they’re two peas in a pod. Ashwagandha supports muscle growth by raising testosterone and protecting your mitochondria. The herb also increases maximal cardio performance, including velocity and peak power output. Rhodiola supports your psychomotor function, which improves how fast and how well you respond to stimuli. Additionally, it may increase your production of new mitochondria, restoring youthful counts. Both reduce cortisol and have antioxidant effects, protecting your muscles against damage.
As ashwagandha may work by partially restoring levels of your sex hormones, and rhodiola stimulates their receptors, the two herbs may be even better together in menopause. The estrogen-like activity of rhodiola could stretch your estrogen boost from ashwagandha further. Therefore, you may not have to worry about the potential side effects of HRT.
How To Use Rhodiola And Ashwagandha Root
If you purchase cut ashwagandha or rhodiola root, the best way to prepare them is as a decoction. A decoction is brought to a boil, which you then simmer over a low heat for around 45 minutes. You can make one weeks’ batch of decoction at a time and store it in the fridge so you don’t need to spend over an hour preparing it every day. For more information on making decoctions, check out our handy guide on herbal decoction preparation.
Perhaps you’d like to use both ashwagandha and rhodiola, for the best results. In this case, do not prepare or take them together. Ashwagandha is rich in alkaloids, a very tiny category of phytochemical. Rhodiola is high in tannins, a much larger molecule that latches onto smaller substances – tannins included! This prevents either molecule from working, and you may even notice their stringy, cloudy formations floating in the decoction. We recommend taking rhodiola in the morning for its stimulant effects, and ashwagandha at night for its more calming properties.
Overall, ashwagandha and rhodiola are both amazing adaptogens. While soothing ashwagandha has a number of hormonal and immune-boosting properties, rhodiola supports mental health and psychomotor function.
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References
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