Hi all,
Firstly I know its been a while and I can only apologise! If you are familiar with me then you will know why but this isn't the place for adverts, suffice to say that articles haven't been my priority.
I am back today though because I have been experimenting with the articles namesake... Tongkat Ali.
So getting into it:
What is Tongkat Ali [TA]
Tongkat Ali (Eurycoma longifolia) is an herbal medicinal plant found in Southeast Asia and commonly called “Malaysian ginseng” because of its traditional use as a general health “tonic” for antiaging and aphrodisiac benefits. When used in modern dietary supplements, Tongkat Ali is intended to improve libido and energy, improve stress resilience, restore hormonal balance (cortisol/testosterone levels), and enhance both sports performance and weight loss. [1]
All sounds very promising... as always but those of us familiar with herbal supplements know that with incredible claims comes the inevitable disappointment.
That being said, I'm never one to shy away from a bit of research and an experiment, so lets go through some of the claims:
Increase in Testosterone:
There hasn't really been enough research done here for me to write definitively on how TA increases your Testosterone levels but I will go through the currently proposed methods.
The first claims that TA doesn't so much as "increase" our levels but restores them back to a normal functioning range by freeing up Testosterone from binding proteins such as SHBG. [1,2]
The Second claim is that TA increases your Luteinising Hormone that then in terms stimulates the Leydig cells of the testes to produce more Testosterone [3,4]
Thirdly is that through blocking of the enzyme aromatase, less testosterone is converted to estrogen meaning more Testosterone is free to circulate [6, 12].
The final claim is that through the lowering of the stress hormone Cortisol [5], Testosterone is increased [6].
Naturally, I wanted to test this out.
I decided to take 250mg of 2% eurocomona Tongkat Ali every day in the evenings with a meal and see what effects (if any) I could observe.
Before embarking on this experiment I first did a small blood test measuring my:
Total Testosterone
Estrogen
SHBG
The experiment would be run for 4 weeks.
Things of note:
During this experiment I would be:
On a caloric deficit as you can see by my weight chart below
Taking 4g of Turkesterone (have been for months)
500mg of Ecdysterone
Resistance training 4-5 times a week
10k+ steps a day
sleeping 8 hours a night
Vit D3/K2, ZMA, Fishoil, Vit C, NAC
Things I noticed:
I immediately felt the reduction in Cortisol, from the first night and every one there after I felt calmer and more "chilled" that I did before the experiment.
I am quite sensitive to Ashwagandha and its cortisol lowering effect and find it a little over powering, so I would rate TA as a weaker Cortisol lowering agent but that suited me much better.
I felt no difference to my libido (Mine is already fairly high)
No real discernable energy difference (I don't ever suffer from low energy)
I didn't find it accelerated my weight loss or made it easier
I gained a few reps on my press movements, couldn't measure legs as I suffered an injury due to a fall during the 4 weeks. It should be noted that I hadn't lost any strength from my press movements from the start of the cut and was happily maintained what I had. My training method is to take my last set to RPE 0-1 on all my exercises.
Now for my bloods:
Before:
After:
As you can see I have had a MAJOR change in my blood markers, I normally do my bloods every few months or so and this is the largest variation I have seen since.
E2 - 52%
SHBG - 28%
Total Testosterone + 17%
As you can see I am already fairly high on the reference range so a 17% increase from my already high starting point is absolutely insane. Especially due to my calorific deficit which usually heavily suppresses your endocrine system and your subsequent Testosterone levels. [7]
Side effects
I know you will all be curious on what side effects go along with TA supplimentation so here is a list of common sides associated with TA.
From trawling through anecdotal logs on reddit and random blogs here are the most common reported side effects:
Loss of libido
Irritability
insomnia
Lack of energy
Though not reported in the literature as it is yet to be covered I would speculate these side effects are down to taking to high a dose and crashing their Estrogen [11].
So don't take to high a dose.
Food for thought.
I have played with the idea that maybe the side effects of TA could possibly be attenuated through the use of Ecdysteroids. We know that their effects are facilitated through the estrogen receptor beta, the receptor subpair that is responsible for promoting things such as... libido, mood, sleep, energy... you see where I am going with this.
It is PURELY hypothetical and I was not taking a high enough dose of TA to crash my Estrogen so I cannot and probably will not take it that far. But it is a curious theory to chew on.
This theory would only hold true if TA doesn't bind to both the ERA and ERB, which it may well do [13], until its made clear if this is true or not I'm holding to my theory. Not blindly but because despite my estrogen lowering I felt no negative feedback in my performance despite adding in the TA but the opposite.
I know from previous experiments that taking Ecdysteroids out of my supplement stack has led to an almost immediate halt in my gains during a bulking phase. I would expect that if the ER was bound during this experiment that I would not experienced the gains in my pressing movements.
Regardless, I am pissing in the wind with no evidence so I will leave off here.
Thank you for reading, if you have any questions please don't hesitate to comment below, message me on Instagram or use the chat feature. I am always happy to go into detail on anything I have written here.
Take care and catch you later.
Harry