Stress Balls Gummies: Do They Work?

These are a product from the Stressballs company.

They contain a combination of a few key ingredients that are well-studied, primarily in Ayurvedic medicine. Research has shown them to help reduce stress and anxiety and potentially have other health benefits.

According to the Stressballs brand, this supplement won’t cause drowsiness and is non-habit forming.

Ingredients

The ingredients in these gummies are listed as an herbal extract blend. There is 230 mg total of this blend, but we couldn’t find information about how much of each specific ingredient is in a dose of these gummies, which we’ll talk a little more about below.

Ashwagandha

Ashwagandha is an adaptogen.

It’s an herb that comes from an evergreen shrub native to India. It has been used medicinally for thousands of years, and it’s also known as winter cherry or Indian ginseng.

An adaptogen is a substance that can help your body respond better to stress.

Benefits of Ashwagandha include:

• Many studies have found that it has calming effects on anxiety symptoms, and some research has found these effects are comparable to prescription lorazepam.
• In a 2019 study in humans, researchers found that taking 240 mg a day of ashwagandha significantly reduced stress levels and cortisol levels compared to a placebo.
• Ashwagandha may work as a pain reliever because it has anti-inflammatory properties and can potentially keep pain signals from traveling along the central nervous system.
• Heart health benefits are associated with ashwagandha, including its potential to lower blood pressure and cholesterol. A human study in 2015 found it can improve cardiorespiratory endurance, which is beneficial for heart health.
• Ashwagandha has been shown to reduce blood sugar levels in people with diabetes and healthy individuals.
• A lot of research is being done to look at the possible anti-cancer properties of ashwagandha. Withaferin, an ashwagandha compound, has been shown in some test-tube studies to induce apoptosis, which is programmed for cancer cell death.
• This has been touched on a bit, but ashwagandha can potentially reduce cortisol levels. Cortisol is a stress hormone, and your adrenal glands release it in response to stress, which is normal. For some people, cortisol levels get chronically high, leading to health problems, including fat storage in the midsection and high blood sugar. In a human study of adults with chronic stress, ashwagandha significantly reduced cortisol compared to a control group.
• Along with being helpful for anxiety and stress, ashwagandha may help improve depression symptoms. For example, there was a study of adults, and those participants who took 600 mg of ashwagandha extract per day had a 79% reduction in their severe depression symptoms.
• Ashwagandha may help reduce inflammation and improve the activity of natural killer cells, immune cells that help you stay healthy.
• Taking an ashwagandha supplement may help improve brain function and boost your memory. This is likely because it is an antioxidant that can protect your brain’s nerve cells from damage.

We like ashwagandha because, in addition to being very studied and used for thousands of years, it’s also thought to be safe for most people.

Of course, you should talk to your doctor before taking a supplement, but from what we know, there are minimal side effects of ashwagandha for most people.

Lemon Balm

Lemon balm is another ingredient in these relaxing gummies. Lemon balm is an herb from the mint family and has a long medicinal history.

Benefits of lemon balm include:

• It can help reduce stress and anxiety. Several double-blind studies have found that taking around 300 mg of lemon balm twice a day can significantly reduce symptoms of anxiety and stress. You can also take a higher dose for severe stress.
• Lemon balm may boost your mood and be a stress reliever.
• Lemon balm can help cognitive function and improve performance and alertness.
• Sleep disorders may be improved with the use of lemon balm, and it can reduce restlessness.

Much like ashwagandha, lemon balm has few major side effects, and most people tolerate it.

However, there might be mild side effects like nausea or dizziness. This is typically only in people who consume very high amounts, as in more than two grams daily.

Ginseng

The other ingredient in the gummies is ginseng root extract, which is often used in traditional Chinese medicine.

There are two main types: American ginseng and Asian, and the American type tends to be more relaxing, while Asian ginseng is more stimulating.

Benefits of ginseng include:

• Studies have found ginseng is an antioxidant and has anti-inflammatory properties.
• Ginseng is often used as a supplement to improve memory, mood, and behavior. For example, in both animal and test-tube studies, ginseng has been found to protect the brain from free radical damage. There was also a study of people who took 200 mg of ginseng daily for four weeks. At the end of the study, they had improvements in mood, social functioning, and mental health.
• Taking ginseng could help the immune system.
• Some types of ginseng can help improve energy levels and reduce fatigue.

Ginseng is considered a safe supplement for most people, but you should talk to your doctor before taking it as a supplement.

How Do You Take It?

You can take two gummies at a time, as needed. You can do this up to twice a day. You don’t necessarily have to take them before bed because, for many people, the ingredients can be mildly stimulating. Still, if you have issues with stress or anxiety before trying to fall asleep, you might try them then.

What Do the Reviews Say?

We saw a lot of great reviews for Stress Balls on other websites, and overall the Amazon reviews are pretty good. They have an average customer rating of 4.1 out of 5.

There are quite a few reviews that say the product works. According to reviews, gummies may be more effective in helping with stress and taking the edge off rather than more severe anxiety disorders.

Based on overall reviews for effectiveness, we would say this product seems to do pretty well. The biggest thing is to realize that the ingredients are gentle and herbal.

They’re not going to be like taking prescription anxiety medicine, nor should they be.

We advise using them regularly so your body can build up the ingredients, and you’ll probably get better effects.

So what about the downsides?

Of the negative reviews, some say they don’t like the taste. Also, we saw a few times that people don’t like the supplement having sugar. However, any gummy supplement will come with that risk, and even some supplements that aren’t gummies might have sugar.

What Are the Pros of This Stress-Relieving Supplement?

The following are what we think the pros of these gummies are, based on our research.

Root and Leaves of Ashwagandha Are Included

If you’ve read any of our reviews before, you probably know that we are big fans of ashwagandha in general. It’s one of the most powerful, beneficial herbal supplements with many health benefits.

The fact that the gummies include ashwagandha is a big pro in and of itself. We also like that the ashwagandha is full-spectrum and sourced from the roots and leaves of the plant, meaning you’re going to get a high level of bioactives.

Well-Studied Ingredients

All three primary ingredients in Stress Balls gummies are well-studied for effectiveness and safety. We included links to just a bit of that research below. Ashwagandha, lemon balm, and ginseng have all been shown to help reduce stress and improve mood, along with having many other health benefits.

Inexpensive

These gummies are a cheap supplement with three great ingredients. It’s a lower-cost product than many other stress-relieving blends and will be cheaper than buying each ingredient individually.

Easy to Take

Some people prefer gummy supplements because they’re easy to take, and we think that’s an upside.

What About the Cons?

There are downsides to consider before buying, including the following.

Proprietary Blend

Our biggest issue with the product is its blend of ingredients. That’s fine, but we couldn’t find a list of how much of each ingredient is included in the formulation. We just found a total for the combined blend of three ingredients.

What we often find with supplements that are blends of ingredients, especially if the amount of each ingredient isn’t listed, is that the doses may be too low for some people.

For example, if you look at research about ashwagandha, 200 or 300 mg doses might be given several times a day. These amounts that are in Stress Balls are probably much lower.

If not, we’d like to see a more specific breakdown of how much of each ingredient is in the product.

That could also help with dosing. You’d know whether or not it might be beneficial to go up a bit in how much you take.

Additives

Another thing we don’t like about these gummies is the ingredients that could be considered fillers or additives.

For example, they include corn syrup and Yellow 6, as well as soy. We think the ingredients could be cleaned up to make a better product. Stress Balls gummies are gluten-and lactose- and gelatin-free.

Other Related Products

Additionally, a couple of other products are sold under the Stressballs brand name. There are Stress Balls De-Stress and Focus, and De-Stress and Snooze.

De-Stress, and Focus contains ashwagandha, just like the original formulation but also has green tea and sage rather than lemon balm and ginseng.

Green tea is incredibly healthy in so many ways. It can help lower the risk of heart disease, improve fat loss, provide protection against some types of cancer, and improve brain function. Green tea can also give you a natural energy boost.

Sage is high in antioxidants and has been found to help support brain and memory health in different ways. First, it has antioxidants that protect your brain, and Sage also slows the breakdown of something called ACH, which plays a role in memory. Sage may help improve mood and increase alertness too.

The Stressballs De-Stress and Snooze Blend have ashwagandha, melatonin, chamomile, valerian, and lavender. All the ingredients have been researched and shown to help promote relaxation and sleep.

All three of the Stressballs products have pretty good reviews on Amazon and are inexpensive.

Final Thoughts

We think these gummies could be a good overall product, and we couldn’t find any major side effects associated with this supplement.

It could be worth a try, and the three included ingredients are good for anxiety and stress based on clinical research.

Talk to your doctor before taking Stress Balls gummies or any other supplement.