The Ashwagandha Experiment: Day 11

Things have gotten interesting in the Ashwagandha Experiment in our house.  I've messed with taking it at different times and splitting doses, my husband is trying it now, and we have learned a few things.

Thing 1: It really helps to take it in the morning for us.
Taking it at night made it so I didn't get any deep sleep and took forever to fall asleep.  I did feel like I had slept really well, but the tracker says I didn't, and the brain fog says I didn't.  We both take it in the morning, though we have found it helps to take it a bit later in the morning due to Thing 2.

Thing 2: It is not fun when it wears off.
I tried doing a divided dose for a few days in hopes that it would make the evening easier when it wears off, but instead, it just made it not work as well overall with the headache still hitting hard in the evening.  My husband didn't take one yesterday (as part of his experiment), and his headache was bad all day.  We're both starting to question taking this at all due to the almost-rebound-like headaches when it wears off.

Thing 3: Divided doses did not help, but taking the one pill didn't help with a bad weather/rainy day, either.
In other words, it definitely is no miracle worker for me.  Yesterday, it stormed and rained all day, and I had zero energy and really bad pain.  The ashwagandha did nothing to help with that at all despite going back on a full dose.  Honestly, the longer I'm on it, the less effective it seems to be, which is weird.  I'm going to stay on it the full month to see if that changes.

Thing 4: Both of us are finding that our allergies and GI issues are worse on it.
I've been starting to wonder if I'm mildly allergic to it, especially since my allergies and asthma are worse and my GI symptoms are starting to look more and more like they did with soybean oil (which I've become allergic to).  I'm not quite there yet, and it is fall (and a usually bad time of year allergy-wise for me), but if my asthma keeps acting up, I will have to stop taking it entirely.  If my husband keeps having the GI issues he is, he's going to stop taking it, too.

In conclusion, over a week later, and I'm not seeing the benefits I did at first.  There is the possibility that it's the dosage or the configuration we're taking, but if I'm really allergic to it, then it doesn't matter in the end at all if it works or not.  So, I'm going to continue on it and watch everything carefully.  If the allergic symptoms continue or worsen, I will have to stop taking it and then see what happens.