Passionflower has always been an herb I liked for stress and anxiety, but in doing more research into how it actually worked, I’ve been really impressed with the findings.
Passion flower is a part of many sleep blends, but it can also be used during the day for anxiety and stress. Keep in mind that higher doses may make you feel tired. Many people have reported a more positive mood as well after using passionflower. With herbs like passion flower it's good to look for an extract versus just the dried herb in a capsule, since that way you know you're getting enough of the beneficial active ingredients.
Mt. Sinai hospital reported that studies of people with generalized anxiety disorder show that passionflower extract is as effective as the drug oxazepam (a prescription sedative for anxiety) and produced less impairment on job performance than oxazepam.
Scientists believe passionflower works by increasing levels of a chemical produced in the body called gamma aminobutyric acid (GABA) in the brain. GABA lowers the activity of some brain cells (it's thought to play a major role in controlling nerve cell overactivity associated with anxiety and stress), making you feel more relaxed. GABA is actually available in supplement form, but it’s not very well absorbed, which is why taking supplements that boost the body’s own production of GABA- like passionflower- can be more effective.
Passionflower is safe to be combined with other supplements for mood and anxiety if needed- it's often a part of many stress and sleep blends that combine a number of different ingredients.
Passionflower dosage and use depends on what you're using it for. For occasional stress and anxiety it can be taken just when needed, but for more consistent anxiety, it's more effective when taken daily as a 200-300 mg of a standardized extract, twice a day.
Passionflower has been shown in many studies to be safe, but if you’re already taking prescriptions sedatives, combining them with passionflower may not be a good idea. It’s always a good idea to talk to your doctor about possible drug interactions.
Stop by and see us, our Solaray Passionflower Extract is a good potency product that’s on sale every day at Pass Health Foods.
Something else to note: even though the flowers look very tropical, there are varieties of passionflower that are hardy to our growing zone in the Chicago area. I’m planning my garden for next year and am hoping to grow some passionflower vines since they’re a host plant for fritillary butterflies, some of which are listed as threatened species in Illinois (their caterpillars are very interesting looking too!).