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Comparison

Ashwagandha or theanine for cortisol? It depends when you need it

For lower cortisol over the long run, the evidence points to ashwagandha taken daily. For a stressful task a few hours away, one trial points to a theanine drink taken beforehand.

AshwagandhaL-theanine

Both are sold for stress, but the evidence points them at different jobs. For the long run it is ashwagandha, taken daily: after weeks of it, blood cortisol ended below where people started, though not below a placebo. For a stressful task it is theanine: three hours after a drink carrying it and three other ingredients, the task raised cortisol after a placebo but not after the drink, in one industry-funded trial, and resting levels were never compared. So this is a split by use, not a winner.

The findings behind this

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Mood & wellbeingIn nine cortisol studies, ashwagandha was taken daily for weeks

All nine studies in one cortisol review had people take ashwagandha daily, in studies lasting 30 to 112 days. None tested what one dose does.

★★★Well replicated — this finding’s sources average out to meta-analyses, systematic reviews or high-powered trials.The review gives each study's cortisol only at the end of its course, so how soon any fall begins is unknown. The falls it reports are measured against where people started, not against placebo, and one of the nine had no placebo group. The two studies that measured cortisol in saliva disagreed, and one found no change. Extract and dose differ from study to study, from 60 mg to 5 g a day.Click to keep this openManage stress and anxietyAshwagandha
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Mood & wellbeingA theanine drink may blunt cortisol's rise under stress, in one trial

Three hours after a drink with 200 mg of theanine, a stressful task did not raise the typical person's cortisol; after placebo it did. Resting cortisol was not compared.

★★★Well replicated — this finding’s sources average out to meta-analyses, systematic reviews or high-powered trials.Thirty-six people enrolled and 34 finished, but the effects were computed on 26, chosen after testing and before unblinding for having reacted to the task at baseline. Four people gave too little saliva and were left out of the cortisol analysis, and the paper does not say how many remained. The drink was not theanine alone: it also carried 25 mg of alpha-glycerylphosphorylcholine, 1 mg of phosphatidylserine and 10 mg of chamomile. Before dosing and at one hour the task did not reliably raise cortisol, so the rise the drink blunted appeared at one session out of three. A grant from a company, Neurobrands, paid for the trial, and the paper says the funder had no input into its design, conduct or interpretation.Click to keep this openManage stress and anxietyL-theanine

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