In a recent blog  I provided a summary of a study showing that if you take ashwagandha on a regular basis, your brain will be protected from damage if you suffer a stroke. The drug company AsraZeneca recently conducted a trial of a drug to provide "neuroprotection" from strokes. The drug was a complete failure, and researchers say they are scrapping the project. The irony is that if the drug was even moderately successful and had many side effects, people would pay through the nose to get the drug! Doctors would be prescribing it for anyone at risk, and taxpayers would be paying for it for Medicare recipients. Yet, since there is no big-business financial incentive, people aren't encouraged to go out and buy an $18 dollar pound of ashwagandha that will last them a year. Recall from my earlier blog that this wonderful herb, which has many other health benefits, decreased the area of brain damage due to stroke by nearly half! The New York Times Article reporting on the failed drug study reported "Pharmaceutical companies and other medical researchers have tried for years to develop so-called neuroprotectant drugs, created to help shield brain cells from the damage caused by a stroke." They have all failed! Why don't they recommend ashwagandha? Read the New York Times article here. Read the ahwaghanda study here.