Comment · Tue, February 15, 2022 · ND Owner
Cistanche vs Shilajit as test booster?
Original post in this thread
PachoCali · 16 points
My bloodwork showed that my testosterone has gone to the lower end at 391 ng/L.
I have already started taking vitamin D (also tested), ashwagandha and boron, which were available locally. I will be ordering Tongkat Ali 10% from ND. I have some budget left for either Cistanche or Shilajit. I am leaning more towards Cistanche for the testosterone, but I would love to hear some opinions.
What they were answering
DisturbedBurger · -2 points
Can we get it If I document myself on fadogia for 4 months without any serious complications? Pretty sure cistanche only shifts cholesterol metabolism while fadogia is apparently a pituitary boost.....they'd go great together. C'mon ya'll allow ashwagandha the liver killer 😄
Edit: and equating the outcomes of giving this stuff to rats vs humans is a decades old traditional ludacrisy that needs to die
u/MisterYouAreSoDumb · ND Owner
Can we get it If I document myself on fadogia for 4 months without any serious complications?
Uhh, no... One person's anecdotal experience can't be used to invalidate the risks of something for the population as a whole. Also, how would you be measuring your testicles and kidneys during that time? Do you have baseline numbers we can compare to from before you started taking these things?
Pretty sure cistanche only shifts cholesterol metabolism
Cistanche is much more complex than that!
Cistanches Herba: A Neuropharmacology Review
while fadogia is apparently a pituitary boost
Can you cite that research, please?
C'mon ya'll allow ashwagandha the liver killer 😄
Ashwagandha has orders of magnitude more scientific data than Fadogia agrestis and Bulbine natalensis combined. This goes for both efficacy and safety. It has been used for over 3,000 years in India, and the recent liver issue studies all have confounding factors and study limitations. The Iceland case series were all from a single supplier, and they didn't test for heavy metals in the extract. All of the liver issue reports have been recent, too. So it was used for thousands of years without issue, we didn't see toxicity in animal studies, then suddenly we see extremely limited issues from a single supplier and now the plant itself is suddenly kills the liver? It's asinine! Obviously we shouldn't hand wave it away, and it should be researched more to understand those limited cases. However, writing off something as "killing the liver" that has been used safely for thousands of years because of a few recent studies is silly.
and equating the outcomes of giving this stuff to rats vs humans is a decades old traditional ludacrisy that needs to die
We are bringing up valid risks for people to make informed decisions. Everyone and their mother came out with a Fadogia agrestis product after that Joe Rogan interview. It was like cockroaches coming out of the walls. I can see the sales data on it. People are making BANK off Fadogia right now because of the hype. As tempting as it is for us to release one to capitalize on that hype, until the risks of testicular and kidney toxicity are better understood, there is no reason to risk it. The effects are not that great. They certainly don't justify the risks at the moment.