Adaptogens like ashwagandha, lion's mane, and chaga can be taken for short periods, such as a week or just for a specific stressful week, and then stopped.

“So for instance, if you know that you're coming up on a big week of stress, well, then you could take ashwagandha and/or lion's mane and/or chaga for that week or just that week or heading into that week or in the following week and then stop.”

“I would start with ashwagandha. And then if you feel you need something else to buffer stress, keeping in mind, of course, that you're doing the behavioral and the nutritional things to buffer stress as well. You can never abandon those, right? Well, then I would suggest adding 1,000 milligrams or 1,000 milligrams of chaga per day and seeing how that further benefits your system in terms of buffering stress.”

“And the three supplements that can be very effective in buffering cortisol are ashwagandha, which I'll talk about first, lion's mane and chaga.”

“If you want to explore supplements, the best supplements to act as adaptogens are going to be ashwagandha, lion's mane, and chaga.”