Comment · Mon, August 16, 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
hs_recovery · 3 points
For me it’s just the hair loss.
TongkatAli has been the most effective supplement I’ve ever taken, bar none. I think it’s because I have high total T but low free T. Before taking any Tongkat I was around 960 total T.
The effects of Tongkat were so positive that after chasing the dragon for a while I started on TRT. However I was surprised to find that Tongkat actually has a more positive impact on my mood and energy than literally injecting testosterone cypionate.
Do you think the hair loss I experience from TA is because it’s causing a lot of T to become free T?
u/MisterYouAreSoDumb · ND Owner
Bound testosterone cannot convert to DHT. It has to be in free form to convert to DHT through 5-alpha reductase. It's likely that you increasing your free testosterone is allowing more to convert to DHT, which is then leading to the hair issues. Maybe taking some green tea extract to block some of the 5-AR would be a good idea.