Best Stress Relief Supplements

What are the best anxiety supplements, and should you take them?

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Are Stress Supplements Any Good?

For a long time there's been a lot of claims around whether or not herbal supplements can help relieve stress and anxiety. We review the scientific data, and tested the supposed best on the market so you don't have to waste your money on dietary supplements that do nothing to help. 

The good news is that there are some supplements that have been proven to have a positive effect on mental health, reducing stress and cortisol levels. Some work by targeting the stress hormone directly, and others simply help alleviate factors that cause stress and anxiety such as improving sleep quality. Which supplement is best for you is going to come down to your personal circumstances, so that's where we come in. We try before you buy, to make sure you don't waste your money on stress relief supplements that aren't going to do anything to help you. 

That all said, any of the products on this list could've earned the number one spot. There isn't a clear winner, they all do slightly different things. Stress issues generally also come with other problems (sleep, anxiety, focus, mood, lethargy or contrastingly insomnia), so depending on what your secondary issues are different products may be best. 

For example, if you're drowsy we wouldn't recommend something that will help you sleep. 

They're all also quite a bit different in the way you take them, although that's going to come down to individual preference.  

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SRS - Best Supplements For Anxiety & Stress Relief

Spruce - Best Oil For Stress And Best Supplement For Broken Sleep

Hunter Focus
- Best Supplement For Mood, Brain Fog and Lethargy

Super Green Tonik
- Best Greens For Stress And Fatigue

Individual Supplements
- The Best Supplements For Stress Relief (Ingredients)

Do Stress Relief Supplements Work?

For the most part the answer is yes, but only to a point. No supplement is going to be enough to overcome a severe stress response. However, mild anxiety and stress can be helped. Particularly if it's related to a vitamin deficiency such as vitamin d. Several randomized clinical trials have been shown to be effective in relieving stress or physical symptoms of stress. So yes, they do help, but if your stress is caused by an issue that hasn't been resolved, or severe anxiety then you are much better off speaking to a healthcare professional.

What Vitamins Are Good For Stress Relief?

Vitamin deficiencies can cause anxiety and stress, the most notable are vitamin b, magnesium and vitamin d deficiency. It's been shown that magnesium supplements are effective for both sleep related issues and stress and healthy sleep is essential for flushing cortisol (the stress hormone) from the brain. As for b vitamins they've been shown to be essential for reducing cortisol in high stress situations and vitamin d levels are well known to correlate with overall mood and stress. It's worth supplementing for these, particularly for vitamin d as almost half of the US population is deficient, this becomes especially important in winter. And vitamin supplementation is ultimately the most cost effective and safest form of supplementation.

Are Stress Relief Supplements Safe?

Dietary supplements are usually safe with only mild side effects reported excluding allergies, although some supplements designed to help manage anxiety can have interactions with other medications, so if you are at an increased risk of side effects as a result it is important to consult a healthcare professional before taking any supplements. The most common side effects are typically related to an upset stomach or other form of gastrointestinal issue. All of the supplements on our list are known to be safe in general although the FDA does not regulate supplements as long as the ingredients are marked as safe for human consumption and they don't directly claim to treat a medical condition.

SRS - ​Best Supplements For Anxiety & Stress Relief

SRS took several of the best stress and anxiety supplements and put them together into one pill. This makes them a really good catch all to "take the stress" out of trying to figure out which ingredients are best for you. 

Whilst it's not the cheapest stress supplement on the market, it is an awful lot better value than the sum of it's parts, meaning that you'll get dozens of proven ingredients in one pill offering you the best chance of getting something that works first time around. We rated it 9.5/10 as far as stress supplements go and as such it gets our number one spot. The only thing we'd mark it down on is that to get the best value out of it, you really have to buy a couple of months supply. 

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SRS Ingredients

The supplement contains Ashwagandha, L-Theanine, Taurine, Zinc Magnesium and Camomile Extract as well as a host of vitamins known to help break down cortisol and a couple of other herbal extracts like Rhodiola. But, most importantly it uses the dosages of the core blend that have been proven to reduce stress in double blind placebo controlled studies.

Whilst some of the doses they put into a proprietary blend, they openly talk about their core ingredients, with Ashwaganda listed at 500mg for example. Ashwagandha has been shown to reduce stress hormones and improve sleep quality[1], it's arguably the best ingredient for a supplement like this. It follows this up with the amino acid L Theanine which is the other ingredient that would be in the toss up for the best stress relief supplement, it's been shown time and time again to reduce stress, depression and anxiety levels in clinical studies [2]. Whilst they may be the highlights there's a host of other ingredients in here that are pretty good, so if you're not sure what's right for you, it's a safe bet that SRS will be a great catch all supplement. 

Customer Reviews

Customers reviews of Stress Relief Supplements (SRS) are almost universally great, with a couple of exceptions for people who don't tolerate Ashwagandha all to well. Unfortunately this can have some unpleasant side effects, but it is a relatively small subset of the population (around 1%).

Pros

Great Catch All For Stress
High Doses
Great Ingredients Great Customer Reviews

Cons

Only Available On Their Site
Not The Cheapest

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Criteria Rating
Ingredients 10/10
Stress 10/10
Anxiety 10/10
Other Symptoms 9/10
Value 9/10
Recommended 9.5/10

What Ingredients Are In The Best Stress Supplements

Ashwagandha

As far as dietary supplements go, ashwagandha is one of the go to options. If you're on a particularly tight budget, we would recommend starting with a multivitamin and an ashwagandha supplement. However, do take note that you need a dosage of 500-600mg, and some people do have some side effects. This can be reduced by taking them with food, as nausea is the most common issue. For men it can also raise testosterone levels, which can have a secondary effect in that it too will reduce stress levels.

L Theanine

This extract from green tea has been shown to be particularly effective to manage stress and has been tested on multiple participants suffering with an anxiety disorder. As a result it makes it into pretty much all of our recommended anxiety supplements. If you're looking for a low budget alternative to ashwagandha and a multivitamin, then go for L Theanine.

Magnesium

Magnesium supplements have been shown to aid stress management in multiple trials, it's in a lot of the combined supplements that we recommend, however, if you're not getting enough in your diet naturally, it's definitely worth trying. Although a multivitamin will likely suffice.

Rhodiola Rosea

Rhodiola has been shown to be nearly as effective as prescription medications in some trials for aiding with social anxiety disorder, however there are a fair few trials to the contrary on this. However, it has been shown repeatedly to be effective at treating stress overall and is one of the best over the counter medications for stress.

Valerian Root

We like valerian root, however, the reason it's not in a lot of the combined supplements it that it can interact with blood pressure medications.

Chamomile Extract

This is one of those supplements that's almost common wisdom. We've all heard that a cup of chamomile tea will help reduce stress. And there is some truth in that, multiple studies suggest that the extract is actually more effective. 

References

1 - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3573577/

2 - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6836118/

3 - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8704602/

4 - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4604171/

5 - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6326553/

6 - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1863555/

7 - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6982118/

8 -https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4237891/