hey guys so in this video we're going to be reviewing the effects of
shilajit so let's dive right in
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with all of our future content thank you so much all right so shilajit i'm actually
fairly impressed with this one and after doing uh all the research that i have done
over the past week i actually had to do a couple of things one i actually had to go buy some more
so i hadn't taken this supplement in some time and so after doing the research on this and
seeing all the potential benefits and effects uh that come along with shilajit consumption
um i went and bought actually a couple of tubs of it and the second thing that i had to do was to
actually update my hormone optimization guide that you guys can actually download through a
link in the description but i actually had to kind of alter that a little bit because of the breadth
of evidence that there is on shilajit's ability to actually optimize hormone production in men
but before i get ahead of myself let's go ahead and jump into the five primary health effects
of shilajit as well as the research that backs up those effects and the proposed mechanisms as to
why shilajit actually affects the body and how it affects the body in a way that it does now
the first health benefit that we're going to talk about today is shilajit's ability to increase and
improve muscle mass lean mass as well as muscular strength now this study in particular that is
fairly promising showed the ability of shilajit to preserve muscle mass and muscle strength while
taking uh the participants that went through this study through an exhaustive exercise routine now
the reason this study is so special is because it actually used recreationally active males and it
is for any of you guys that have done any research on anything before know how difficult it is to
come by compounds that have actually been studied in recreationally active people you just don't see
it and the reason for that is that typically speaking recreationally active men are usually
fairly healthy and so you just don't see a very large margin of benefit with specific compounds
in this specific subpopulation however this study did use recreationally active men and did find
that while these participants were taking about 500 milligrams of a purified shilajit compound
that while they went through the course of this exhaustive exercise routine for several weeks
that there was a retention in maximal strength as well as maximal muscle retention as well now
there are probably several mechanisms that are at play here but one of the more interesting
mechanisms that has been proposed by a different study is that shilajit has
the ability to improve and increase the genetic markers of improved muscle hypertrophy as well as
muscle retention now again this study is fairly promising as well because it was uh in human
subjects now these subjects were obese that went through this study in particular however when
you take these two studies and put them together it does show a promising ability of shilajit to
one preserve muscle function as well as increase the genetic markers and potential for muscle
growth and strength as well now the second health benefit and health effect that we're
going to talk about today in this video is shilajit's ability to actually increase
testosterone as well as fertility in men now this study in particular showed a very very
unique ability of shilajit given over the course of several weeks to increase testosterone in
healthy men now again for any of you guys that have done research on compounds that are used
to increase testosterone shilajit and ashwagandha are literally the only two compounds that have any
research behind them in improving and increasing testosterone in healthy men which shows just how
special not only this study in particular is but how special shilajit is as a compound as well now
this study also showed the ability of shilajit to increase testosterone levels in infertile men as
well as improved fertility by a very significant degree and so shilajit is fairly rapidly becoming
one of my most favorite compounds in conjunction with some other compounds to improve testosterone
function for one myself but also to folks that i am making recommendations to on a regular basis
now i don't think that the mechanisms that are at play here are fully understood yet but some
of the proposed mechanisms that are in play are one the antioxidant capacity of shilajit
specifically as a testicular antioxidant and it also appears that shilajit is a fairly reliable
source of several mineral compounds that also seem to be at play here um and so for any of you guys
that have seen my other videos i am a fairly big fan of mineral consumption specifically
for hormonal health the effects of zinc magnesium and boron specifically have been repeatedly shown
to improve testicular function and hormone function in both men and women but on top of
that shilajit also seems to be a pro-dopaminergic compound meaning that it increases the function
of dopamine in specific regions of the brain which typically speaking is going to
suppress prolactin which is typically going to have a pro-testosterone effect in the body
now the third health benefit that we're going to talk about today is shilajit's ability to improve
exercise performance as well now the evidence here is only from rodent studies at the moment however
i do think it is fairly promising just because of the mechanisms of action that are at play
here but in this study in particular there was an improvement in overall exercise performance in the
rodents that were put into a forced swim test and this study was hypothesizing that it was because
of an improvement in mitochondrial function so for those of you that are familiar with the
mitochondria the mitochondria is essentially like the powerhouse of the cell that produces
atp which is your most basic fundamental form of energy in the body and so throughout these two
studies there was several improvements in the markers surrounding mitochondrial function and
so the researchers of both of these studies were hypothesizing that the improvement in
exercise performance that was being observed in these rodent trials was because of an improvement
in mitochondrial function now this one is super interesting to me because i am aware of only a
handful of other compounds that have been shown in any type of living model to improve mitochondrial
function and so when you add this possible health benefit on top of the proven effect to
muscle retention and muscle recovery as well as the improvement in testosterone function within
the body shilajit is quickly becoming one of my most favorite compounds now the fourth health
benefit and i'll probably just classify it as a possible health benefit because the evidence
here is also just performed in rodents at the moment however the fourth possible health benefit
is that there is a pro cognitive benefit as well now even though the evidence here and the research
here is extremely preliminary i did think it was notable to put this in here simply because the
mechanisms that are at play and that is that one there is an apparent pro dopaminergic effect with
shilajit which is super important to me because um when i got my test back a few months ago my
hormone panel that was done i was extremely high in prolactin which um isn't that surprising to me
just because of the stress that i've been under the last several months with introducing a new
baby into our home and an extreme lack of sleep that comes along with that but
again my prolactin was super high and so one of the main ways that you can reduce prolactin it was
with pro dopaminergic compounds like mucunapurians which is really one of the only compounds
that i was at the moment aware of that was pro-dopaminergic but it does appear that shilajit
is in the same class of compounds now i also like pro dopaminergic compounds because they
also improve executive functioning and things like motivation as well which i think is something that
every man should be desiring to optimize but what i also find interesting about shilajit
is that it also apparently is to some degree activating the glycine and gaba receptors
which are two inhibitory receptors which kind of makes sense with a lot of the subjective
experiences that i'm hearing online in reddit forums and things of that nature is that it's
shilajit is super grounding which can be explained by the fact that it is activating some inhibitory
receptors as well as some of the more motivating receptors like the dopaminergic receptors and so
the evidence here isn't fully robust yet but i did think it was super interesting and worthy of
noting here now the fifth and final health benefit that we're going to talk about in this video is
shilajit's ability to improve general health now there are a handful of studies that have
been performed in both rodents and human trials that show uh shilajit's ability to affect blood
lipid profile triglycerides as well as hdl and ldl cholesterol as well as improving just
general antioxidant profiles within the body and so i'm not gonna spend a ton of time on this one
in particular however i did think it was worthy to note just because um when i am personally making
decisions on compounds to take i'm always looking for compounds that are checking multiple boxes
and it appears that shilajit is just one of those compounds that not only improves hormone function
athletic performance executive and cognitive performance but also is just in general a healthy
compound to consume so this is personally one that i'm going to be adding into my personal stack
and i don't see it going anywhere anytime soon until some further research comes out but other
than that guys that's all i have for you today again if you're interested in that pdf on ways to
optimize your hormone check out the link that's in the description and if you are interested
in getting a blood panel done which i highly highly highly recommend there is a link in the
description as well for that but other than that i will see you guys next time thank you for watching