Comment · Wed, August 11, 2021 · ND Owner
I have to give up tongkat ali
Original post in this thread
FriedDuckEggs · 26 points
I’m on week three of ND 10% tongkat ali and I just can’t get over this extreme fatigue and demotivation. I’ve been taking it 5 days on and 2 days off and noticed that I’m much better on my days off. When I get back on TA on Mondays I feel like I got hit by a train with fatigue and knock out in bed for 8-9 hours.
On my third week I tried reducing it to half a dose a day for 5 on 2 off. Same issues. I also tried adding iodine from a multi. Still no good. I’m now replacing TA with 9 mg boron daily.
For reference: I had my T levels tested a month before and 2 days into tongkat. In between those months I added zinc and weight lifting, which I’m in pretty sure are the reasons for the increase.
June 4th:
Total T: 338 ng/dL (249-836)
Cortisol: 6.4 ug/ (6-18)
___________________________
July 29th (2 days of TA):
Total T: 502 ng/dL (249-836)
Free T: 9.87 ng/dL (6.00-27.00)
SHBG: 36.8 nmol/L (16.5-55.9)
Estradiol: <25 pg/ml (<43.2)
Edit: I have ordered 5 mg tabs of DHEA and will be testing this with TA on a 5/2 schedule. Will update this post with my findings.
Edit 2: I have given up on TA.
What they were answering
solothesensei · 11 points
Well it's probably the low e2 like some other guys here have experienced, including myself.
Combining TA with DHEA has worked really well for me and a few others because of the e2 conversion downstream.
I know u/parabolic_33 is also trying out pueraria mirifica for its phytoestrogenic properties, that could be one mechanism to explore. ND's TA is one powerful extract, it'd be a waste to not be able to harness its full potential.
u/MisterYouAreSoDumb · ND Owner
100%. People getting side effects from tongkat need to try combining it with DHEA/pregnenolone, Microzinc, and sometimes iodine. As with anything that affects hormones, everyone is different. One size does not fit all, and everyone thinking taking just tongkat ali alone will give them the same effects as someone else are not fully understanding the interactions in various hormones. It will take some trial and error to find which doses/combos work best for your individual body chemistry.