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Kratox Supplements?

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  • 21-01-2023 6:47pm
    #1
    Registered Users Posts: 2,139 ✭✭✭


    Looking for a particular supplement in Dublin and I came across a website of a company that I think I heard of before, who have the supplement in stock. The stockists has good reviews on TrustPilot and Adverts which is good.

    The supplement company that produces the supplement I want are a brand I’ve never heard of, although packaging looks high quality. I Google the name of the company and nothing comes up about them? Is this strange? In this day and age to have no online presence!? Should I avoid?

    The brand is - “Kratok”. Anyone ever hear of them or use their products?



Comments

  • Registered Users Posts: 1,381 ✭✭✭Cill94


    As a general rule, most supplements are a crock, save the few that are already well established and researched (creatine, caffeine, whey etc).

    I can see they're selling stuff like turkesterone and test boosters (i.e. bullsh*t), so red flag central. Steer clear.



  • Registered Users Posts: 788 ✭✭✭markmoto


    The labels have bare minimum. Worth to send to Fitz Scientific, vitamin & mineral testing lab for analysis.




  • Registered Users Posts: 713 ✭✭✭foxsake


    if you cant find anything on them , they are likely a crock

    there are plenty reputable brands out there to choice from



  • Registered Users Posts: 1,573 ✭✭✭WhiteMemento9


    I am pretty certain that the OP is talking about Eurycoma longifolia better known as Tongkat Ali. It is very hard to source within Ireland because there is still some sort of European ban around it. It is a little strange considering it has been on the market in places like America for a decade without any significant issues related to it being reported.

    It came to fame in a Joe Rogan podcast when Andrew Huberman claimed it could increase testosterone. That claim has been supported now by multiple studies and so the evidence so far is fairly clear that it does work to boost test levels by about 20-30%

    You can see two fitness guys from youtube talking about it below and I think Derek gives a really good summary of it although I am pretty sure we still haven't figured out exactly how it works. I think initially it was thought as Derek suggests that it acts as a selective estrogen receptor modulator but in the latest studies, I believe that has been shown not to be the case.

    The thing though is that it is very hard to impossible to know if what you are getting even contains TA because it is a grey market and people buying it even if it contains what it should (which I highly doubt) are getting absolutely fleeced on the price.





  • Registered Users Posts: 788 ✭✭✭markmoto


    Tongat Ali has purity problems and some batches come with high amount of Mercury. Is it worth the money to poison yourself?




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  • Registered Users Posts: 1,573 ✭✭✭WhiteMemento9


    Yeah exactly, I stated in my post that because it is a grey market you have no idea what you are actually getting.

    I just wanted to make the point that this particular supplement at least in so far as the trials that have been done so far has been shown to work which is not true for 99.9% of other supplements.

    There are American companies selling it where it is lab tested but because of the grey market situation here, it is all very under the table, and impossible to know what you are getting. I presume since the UK is not part of the EU anymore that you must have some reputable companies providing lab-tested TA in the UK but I haven't looked into it much.



  • Registered Users Posts: 1,573 ✭✭✭WhiteMemento9


    I just watched the video. Just to make the point that he says TA only works in men who already don't have normal levels of testosterone. Some of the studies have shown in young healthy males with normal levels it still does boast testosterone levels. Either way, the studies are still not enough to say which is correct so he should not be talking in absolutes. We certainly know at this point that it has some effect on test levels, probably greater if you are low.

    The purity problems he talks about are with Fadogia Agrestis. I think it has been shown to be toxic in high doses. Those toxicity problems are at very high consumption way beyond what is recommended. I know very little about it though apart from that the only studies as he said done on it are in animals. I don't know why anyone would be touching it when it has no basis for efficacy in human consumption.

    TA has on the other hand an increasing number of human trials which have so far shown positive results.

    Post edited by WhiteMemento9 on


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,381 ✭✭✭Cill94


    It came to fame in a Joe Rogan podcast when Andrew Huberman claimed it could increase testosterone.

    Jesus wept, Joe Rogan - of course. 99% of his 'science' guests are quacks, Huberman included. That guy legitimately has made the claim that you can't get fitter if you sit for 5 hours a day. Quack.

    That claim has been supported now by multiple studies and so the evidence so far is fairly clear that it does work to boost test levels by about 20-30%

    It really has not been supported at all. If you believe that, then I have a bridge to sell you. One or two studies is not enough. Creatine is the most evidence based supplement, with thousands of positive studies over decades, and it still only has a tiny performance effect.

    Hundreds of mystical supplements have come and gone with new charlatans selling them under the guise of 'testosterone boosting'. Not a single one has ever panned out.

    There are only three things that can permanently boost testosterone:

    1. Puberty
    2. Living healthier (training, diet, sleep)
    3. Literally injecting testosterone




  • Registered Users Posts: 1,573 ✭✭✭WhiteMemento9


    I mean the question of whether it works isn't even a talking point anymore. Derek (moreplatesmoredates) is considered one of the foremost authorities on the internet around Testosterone and he explains in the video I posted that it works and how he believes it works. No doubt in your mind he is another idiot as it seems from your post you are the foremost authority on everything in this space while people who spend their lives dedicated to studying all this stuff are idiots. With that kind of self-delusion, I don't think you need to worry about test levels.



  • Registered Users Posts: 1,381 ✭✭✭Cill94



    LOL the same Derek of MPMD who has been caught lying about Turkesterone?



    I'm not an expert, I'm just not gullible enough to believe every charismatic meathead with a product to sell.

    When you're around the fitness industry for long enough you understand that the same snake oil scam has been repeated for decades on naive consumers. It's easy money. The faces selling it and the names of the supplements change, but it's all a ruse to make you believe you can get jacked without the basics.

    You don't have to believe me, but let's not pretend this has anything to do with science or experts.



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  • Registered Users Posts: 1,573 ✭✭✭WhiteMemento9


    Turkesterone had no human trials IIRC.I don't understand anyone who wants to put stuff in their bodies without human clinical trials. That whole sage with Derek is extremely nuanced which I am sure you know. Your whole argument style is extremely jarring. You attribute one wrong thing a person has said or done and then extrapolate that means everything they say or do is rubbish even if they are considered largely in very good standing within these communities. I haven't seen a single person of any credibility actually question that Tongkat ALi probably works to raise test. Even in the video, Markmoo posted from the guy who is skeptical he admitted that it does look like TA works.

    I have been on and off the fitness train for over 20 years. In that time outside of eating healthy and training hard to get results the only supplements I have ever taken are creatine, protein, caffeine, Fish oil, Vit D.The whole industry is complete BS and unless you are willing to stick a needle in your arse you are not going to get quick results.

    Tongkat Ali is the only thing I have seen in that time that I have researched quite heavily and come away with the conclusion that it works. All of the current data does point to this. the supplement has been in use for decades in other parts of the world. It isn't some new wonderdrug but something which has been used successfully for a very long time by a huge body of people and has only been fed into popular western culture recently through some high-profile advocates.



  • Registered Users Posts: 1,381 ✭✭✭Cill94


    Not sure what you mean by my ‘argument style is jarring’. He literally promotes and sells supplements that don’t work.

    There’s plenty of non grifters with good reputations I’d rather follow who are actually evidence based (Layne Norton, Alan Flanagan, Danny Lennon, Barbell Medicine crew etc).

    Where is this positive testosterone research on T.Ali in humans you’re referring to? Because everything I find is on rats or people with hypogonadism, and even that is tenuous. The claim above of 20-30% increase is preposterous..

    https://examine.com/supplements/tongkat-ali/



  • Registered Users Posts: 1,573 ✭✭✭WhiteMemento9


    examine.com used to be such a great resource until they started looking for your credit card.

    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9415500/

    Above is a Meta-Analysis of I think 9 different studies in humans. I already stated in another post that it most likely works best in people with low T. We don't have nearly enough data for young healthy males so it is impossible to tell currently one way or another. The fact is most people who consider TRT for legitimate reasons generally have Low T for one reason or another so if this does act as a booster it would be huge for those people to have an alternative before jumping on TRT. I know personally people who have had symptoms such as hair loss, increased libido, etc after taking Tongkat

    The whole point is that it doesn't just look like more snake oil as it is doing something hormonally. The targeted effect of exactly what, who, and how it is doing all this to give a clearer picture of exactly who and how it helps is still a good bit away from being known.



  • Registered Users Posts: 1,381 ✭✭✭Cill94



    C'mon man.. the guys who are pushing this stuff online and the supplement companies are clearly not marketing it towards people with hypogonadism. Those people can just go an actual TRT.

    They conveniently leave that part out, because they know their audience of young males won't go looking into those studies.

    If you've looked at that evidence and decided it's worth spending your money on, of course have at it.

    But there's a reason why it hasn't been endorsed by serious evidenced based nutritionists and sport scientists. Just guys with supps to sell.



  • Registered Users Posts: 1,573 ✭✭✭WhiteMemento9


    We don't know enough about healthy subjects. The studies are obviously going to come much quicker on people who have an underlying problem to treat because that is where the medical need is. The studies on other sections of society will take much longer and for now, the data is almost non-existent in that area. It doesn't mean that it doesn't work.


    Andrologia, found that among a sample of thirty-two males in their mid-twenties, both testosterone and free testosterone levels dramatically increased by 15% and 34%

    It is a small study that means nothing but I am pointing toward it to show that we don't know!



  • Registered Users Posts: 1,381 ✭✭✭Cill94


    It could work, it’s just really, really unlikely given that in the entire history of supplements, not a single ‘natural’ test booster has ever panned out once it’s been studied with sufficient quality. And many of them had just as convincing sounding mechanisms and cool looking initial studies as T.Ali currently does.


    People can play those odds if they want, it’s their money.


    I’ll happily eat my words if I’m wrong. Until then scientific thinking would say the burden of proof is on the people claiming it works.



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