STRESSLESS new with ashwagandha KSM-66®

Stressless, Biologically Active Food Supplement, is an Ayurveda preparation based on Withania somnifera (Ashwagandha) and Bacopa monnieri (Bacopa), useful in all cases of reduced dietary intake or increased need for useful components to improve physical and mental condition.

Two capsules a day of Stressless are able to supply Ashwagandha E.S. 5% in withanolides 1200 mg, Bacopa E.S. 10% in 100 mg bacosides. Ashwagandha is an expertly formulated extract of Ashwagandha containing the highest concentration of the root available today.

The particularly balanced formulation seems to play a positive role in the psycho-physical balance, with plants of proven activity and great tradition such as Ashwagandha and Bacopa capable of improving the physical and mental condition, increasing the capacity and defenses of the organism, stimulating it to react positively to stressful situations;

Stress is a condition resulting from external physical or mental overload. It can bring nervousness, anxiety and reduced ability to respond completely and normally to environmental demands. Prolonged exposure to stress can unbalance a person’s mental and physiological state, leading to other diseases such as depression, hypertension, heart disease and metabolic disorders. Such conditions, rooted in mental or emotional factors, are rapidly increasing in prevalence and emerging as major global diseases. It is therefore not surprising that a growing portion of the population is seeking medical help to overcome stress nowadays. Stress causes systemic increase of hormones, such as cortisol, which can lead to changes in eating behavior, increased visceral adiposity, metabolic syndrome and gaining body weight.

Adaptogens are herbs that improve an individual’s ability to cope with stress. These herbs normalize the body’s physiological process and help the body adapt to changes, decreasing stress-induced damage, without causing negative effects such as withdrawal symptoms and not affecting normal functions. Ashwagandha is an adaptogenic herb that has all the characteristics listed above, it increases the body’s resistance to stress and unfavorable conditions of any kind, as it is endowed with a “non-specific normalizing action”, that is, independent of the pathological state.

Cognitive enhancers include any substance that enhances cognitive function, including concentration, learning, memory and mood, they are usually synthetic molecules with potential negative side effects and pharmaceutical companies invest enormous resources in identifying them. The nootropics instead are natural neuroprotective substances able to alleviate debilitating disorders and delay the mental deterioration that afflicts many people around the world and relatively non-toxic whose potential has yet to be fully exploited. This cognitive decline is associated with age, but also with emotional stress. Several plants have been selected in traditional medical systems and subsequent research has identified natural bioactive compounds that could act as nootropic agents. because it can increase concentration and enhance creative processes.

Bacopa monniera is a popular adaptogen used in Ayurvedic traditional medicine, known as “Brahmi”, has been used as a brain tonic and restorer of debilitating conditions by Ayurvedic doctors in India for almost 3000 years and classified as medhyara sayana, which is used to improve memory and intellect (medhya).

In Ayurveda, Ashwagandha has been used as an adaptogenic, antistress and nootropic tonic for the treatment of general debility, nervous breakdown, insomnia and memory dysfunctions. It has been recommended as a natural drug for neurological disorders such as traumatic brain injury, brain tumors and neurodegenerative disorders. The active constituents are steroid alkaloids and lactones.

Bacopa monnieri, a plant belonging to the Scrophulariaceae family, has been used in the traditional system of Ayurvedic medicine to improve intelligence, learning, concentration and memory for a long time. Several meta-analyzes have examined and validated the efficacy of Bacopa monnieri in the treatment of cognitive performance and in the prevention of dementia risk in the elderly. Bacopa monnieri improves cognitive performance by stimulating synaptogenesis in different areas of the cerebral cortex and modulating neuroplasticity in the brain. It is able to increase protein kinases and neurotrophins, a family of proteins that determine the survival, development and function of neurons. with effects of cognitive enhancement in humans in several clinical studies.

The nootropic activity of the extract was attributed to the presence of two saponins, bacoside A and bacoside B. Bacoside-A showed a potential application for the treatment of amyloid diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease. The bacosides have shown a powerful antioxidant and neuroprotective action.

For the first time a preparation based on this combination of herbs and active ingredients in a mixture is proposed and marketed.

Ashwagandha

Ayurveda is one of the oldest medical traditions practiced in India, Sri Lanka and other South Asian countries and has a solid philosophical and experiential base. Ayurveda has different formulations for managing stress and physical and mental condition.

In Ayurveda, Ashwagandha has been used as an adaptogen, an anti-stress tonic and for the treatment of general debility.

In experimental models such as the test of resistance to forced swimming in rats, it showed increased resistance and preventing variations of ascorbic acid and cortisol in the adrenal gland following the induced stress. In models of neurodegenerative pathologies such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease in which the principle functional impairment is due to the interruption of the neural network and the premature death of the neurons, the Ashwagandha extract showed a good therapeutic potential leading to the formation of dendrites and induction of sleep and relaxation with action similar to GABA.

The brain is very sensitive to stress: even slight and uncontrollable stress can cause a rapid and dramatic loss of cognitive abilities. Oxidative stress contributes to a wide range of brain disorders and dementia including Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and Huntington’s disease. Ashwagandha extracts have an enormous capacity to protect neuronal cells from different types of stress factors that alter brain function leading to memory disorders, cognition, and predisposing to stroke and neurodegenerative diseases.

Several studies have been done.

One of these is that realized by Choudhary D. et al., in which 56 individuals between 18 and 60 years old were chronically affected. The individuals of this study group received 300 mg standard Ashwagandha root extract twice a day for eight weeks; those individuals in the control group received placebo capsules twice a day. At the beginning and end of the study these individuals were submitted to clinical examinations and stress assessment questionnaires. Another similar study, which lasts 60 days, with the same active substance dosage, was realized , who recruited 64 adults with a chronic stress background.

A group of authors, also realized a review in 2014, mentioning 5 studies which have the aim to test the efficacy of Ayurvedic plant on chronic stress. Bhattacharya SK et al experienced the effects of Ashwagandha on rats exposed to chronic stress. The effects were compared to those obtained by synthesis ansiolitics intaking. At the end of each study, the level of cortisol in blood was reduced, stress resistance increased and general well-being improved with resulting eating behavior improvement, body weight and BMI reduction.

Bacopa

In vivo studies, chronic administration of Bacopa inhibited lipid peroxidation in the prefrontal regions of the cortex, striatum and hippocampus of the brain, through a mechanism of action similar to vitamin E. In rodent astrocytes, treatment with Bacopa resulted in a significant reduction in damage caused by high concentrations of nitric oxide. Furthermore, several studies have suggested that the bioactive components of Bacopa protect the brain from oxidative damage and age-related cognitive decline with different modes of action and cause memory increase. The improvement in cognitive action has been attributed to the increase in free radical scavenging activity by bacosides.

The antioxidant action is also related to the neuroprotective and memory-enhancing effects, Bacopa is able to decrease the formation of peroxides and control oxidative stress at the level of neurons. Thomas et al. showed that bacosides A and B exert neuroprotective action by restoring the dopamine D1 receptor, abundant in the central nervous system, with the function of stimulating adenylate cyclase and indirectly activating protein kinase A, stimulating the neuron and regulating growth and neuronal development and some behavioral responses.

Bacopa monnieri could be useful in age-related neuro-degeneration, including Parkinson’s, maintaining redox homeostasis and mitochondrial activities. Anbarasi et al evaluated the neuroprotective role of bacoside A against oxidative stress in the brain of rats subjected to cigarette smoke, showing a significant increase in brain levels of glutathione, vitamin C, vitamin E and vitamin A in addition to increased activity of antioxidant enzymes such as SOD, catalase, glutathione peroxidase (GPx) and glutathione reductase (GSR).

In other studies it was observed in animal models in which neurotoxicity was induced by colchicine and ibotenic acid, a dose-related inversion of cognitive deficit. Acrolein is a highly reactive compound formed as a by-product of lipid peroxidation. It is not only a marker of lipid peroxidation, but also serves as an initiator of oxidative stress. The brains of Alzheimer’s patients show significantly higher levels of acrolein in the hippocampus. The neuroprotective effect of the standardized extracts of B. monnieri against acrolein-induced toxicity was studied by Singh et al on human neuroblastoma cell lines.

• Mood and stress support
• Supports sexual health in males and females
• Promotes a healthy body weight
• Supports cognitive health
• May enhance cardiorespiratory fitness
• May promote muscle recovery after resistance-training exercise
• Promotes improved cognitive processing
• Supports mood and well-being
• Promotes improved memory
• Supports focus and attention

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