CortiSync Side Effects: What the Ingredient Research Says

• Common effects: the NIH Office of Dietary Supplements describes ashwagandha as generally well tolerated for up to about 3 months. The side effects it lists are mostly mild: loose stools, nausea and drowsiness.
• In a short trial: in 80 healthy adults aged 18–45, a root extract at 600 mg/day for 8 weeks left physical, blood and biochemical measures, including liver and thyroid markers, within normal limits, and no adverse events were reported. That trial was short, in young healthy people, and too small to catch rare problems.
• Sensoril specifically: in a 12-week trial of 38 men aged 18–45 on a strength program, Sensoril at 500 mg/day left clinical blood chemistries normal and was well tolerated. It was reportedly funded through a grant from the Sensoril maker.
• Liver: LiverTox notes that clinical trials of ashwagandha haven’t reported liver enzyme rises or clinically apparent liver injury, but rare cases of liver injury have been reported, usually 2–12 weeks after starting, with jaundice and itching. Most settle on their own, with liver tests back to normal within months.
• Liver case series: in a case series of 5 patients from Iceland and the US, itching and high bilirubin lasted 5–20 weeks; none developed liver failure, and liver tests normalized within 1–5 months in 4 of them. A case series from India found that some people with existing chronic liver disease developed liver failure after using single-ingredient ashwagandha, and some of them died.
• Thyroid: in 50 adults with subclinical hypothyroidism, an ashwagandha root extract at 600 mg/day raised T3 and T4 and lowered TSH vs placebo over 8 weeks. In a small secondary analysis of an 8-week Sensoril trial (500 mg/day) in a psychiatric population, all 3 people on the extract who had abnormal thyroid values saw T4 rise (reported as 7–24%), while 6 of 7 on placebo saw it fall. The authors suggest watching for possible hyperthyroidism.
• Pregnancy, prostate cancer and medicines: the ODS fact sheet also cautions about use in pregnancy and in hormone-sensitive prostate cancer, and flags possible interactions with medications.
• Long-term use: ODS notes a lack of long-term safety data. A 2023 systematic review of ashwagandha and cortisol reached a similar point: long-term effects aren’t understood, and the authors advise medical supervision.

Most of this safety data comes from other ashwagandha extracts, often root extracts at 600 mg/day. The Sensoril-specific pieces are the 12-week strength trial and the small thyroid analysis.

A lab-stress trial gave single doses of 300 and 600 mg of a standardized extract to 18 healthy young volunteers. At 600 mg, people rated themselves calmer and also less alert. The sources checked don’t report adverse-event detail. One small single-dose study also says little about daily use over weeks, so safety data here are limited.

The human lychee data in the sources checked come from Oligonol, a different proprietary lychee and green tea product. The trial cited here gave it to 19 healthy young men for 4 weeks. Those sources don’t report adverse-event detail, so safety data for lychee fruit extract as a supplement are limited.

A 2020 systematic review of 9 trials of pure L-theanine reported no notable adverse effects. The trials were few, small and varied, and several were industry-linked.

A 2017 review of 24 human studies of holy basil (tulsi) found that none reported significant adverse events, and a 6-week trial in 150 adults, run with authors from the extract’s maker, reported no adverse events. Many of the studies were small, and the review’s authors said dose and dose form still need clarifying.

The human stress trials of magnolia in the sources checked used Relora, a blend of magnolia and phellodendron bark. In a 6-week pilot trial of 40 women, no significant adverse events were reported. The trial was small and company-linked, and it tested the blend, not magnolia on its own.

The rhodiola trials in the sources checked ran from 28 days to 8 weeks, and the longer one was open-label with no control group. Those sources don’t report adverse-event detail, so safety data here are limited.