Holy Basil, also known as Tulsi, has been used in Ayurvedic medicine for centuries. Due to its medicinal properties, holy basil offers benefits to boost your health. The most significant being its properties as an adaptogen. Adaptogenic herbs are used in stress reduction, as they help you adapt to stressful situations more effectively. When stress is over, adaptogens also help to shut down the adrenals more quickly, thus preventing adrenal fatigue and chronic inflammation.

Learn How Stress Impacts Your Body

Let’s step back for a minute to fully understand what high-stress levels are doing to your body. Stress can elevate cortisol levels. Cortisol, among its other effects, triggers the production of inflammatory COX-2 enzymes, the first step in a series of inflammatory processes. This cascade effect then influences blood sugar changes, which also increases metabolic inflammation, and the cycle continues. It is important to understand that although inflammation is necessary and useful in terms of healing and protecting the body, it can also be very damaging to the body, as well.

Discover How Inflammation Impacts Your Health

Almost every disease in the body begins with an inflammatory response. If the body cannot repair the damage and the inflammation becomes chronic, not only is the disease process exacerbated, but other problems like Atherosclerosis, Type II Diabetes, Metabolic syndrome, Crohn’s/Colitis and autoimmune disorders, such as SLE and Rheumatoid Arthritis are also more likely to develop.

Key Health Benefits of Holy Basil

Holy Basil is an anti-inflammatory, immune tonic and anti-diabetic, as well as an adaptogen. In terms of stress reduction and disease prevention, holy basil treats the root of the problem, as well as major disease processes that most often branch off, regulating blood sugar and reducing inflammation. You can see now why it is also often called the Queen of Herbs.

Shopping For Quality Holy Basil Supplements

The dried leaves of Holy Basil can be powdered and used in capsule form or made into an alcohol extract or tincture. There is no known maximum dosage in terms of safety, although a typical dosage ranges anywhere from 300 mg to 2g/day. 

Final Considerations & Potential Side Effects

Although Holy Basil is considered safe and harmless, individuals already undergoing pharmaceutical intervention for high blood sugar or to prevent blood clotting should be careful of the additive effect that Holy Basil has with these medications. It has not yet been determined safe in pregnancy or lactation.