today we are discussing supplements a rational guide to supplementation many supplements are compounds that are extremely efficacious for enhancing sleep or for enhancing hormone function or for enhancing focus and many of those compounds are simply not found in food to have the desired effect and he experienced big increases in testosterone it's as much as 600 nanogs per deciliter increase from where he was before which is very dramatic it was a near tripling of where his testosterone had started off to where he ended up category of supplementation that I'd like to talk about is hormone support improving or so-called optimizing your hormones is a critical aspect of mental health physical health and performance the supplements that make sense in terms of augmenting hormones come in two forms one are broadband support for multiple hormones and then the others are supplements that are designed to increase or in some cases decrease specific hormones or hormone pathways so let's consider each of those in tandem certain supplements things like Sheila G for instance something from Ayurvedic medicine which may mainly uh has the active ingredient fulvic acid which is known to for instance increase things like FSH follical stimulating hormone which in women is going to increase certain aspects of egg growth pro- fertile and in males can make uh for more sperm production or more motile sperm fsh is also going to indirectly increase testosterone in males it's known to increase libido in both males and females so things like Sheila can indeed augment multiple hormones and support multiple hormone systems generally in the direction of pro-fertility pro- libido and increasing estrogen and testosterone there are other supplements such as ashwagandha that also fall into this category of affecting multiple hormones ashwagandha is a very potent supplement in terms of reducing cortisol levels it has also been shown to increase testosterone levels but probably indirectly when cortisol is lowered in general testosterone tends to increase there are many other compounds present and available supplements that are purported to be pro- hormone support in particular for testosterone estrogen fertility and libido now in terms of supplements to increase growth hormone there are very few supplements that have been shown to augment this pathway there is some idea that arginine supplementation prior to bedtime can further elevate levels of growth hormone especially when fasted that literature is rather weak it's a different story when you start thinking about and talking about testosterone and free testosterone and luteinizing hormone there is a hormone called GNR gonadotropen releasing hormone that is released from the hypothalamus into the pituitary it stimulates the release of luteinizing hormone or LH which then travels in the bloodstream to impact multiple tissues in the body but mainly the ovary and females and the testes and males to stimulate estrogen production and testosterone production supplements that can tickle this pathway or actually can act as a bit more of a directed hammer on this luteinizing hormone pathway may also impact G&R are things like fedogia aggress this is an herb that when taken at dosages of 600 mg per day many people not all report elevated testosterone in some cases elevated estrogen a bunch of hormones downstream of luteinizing hormone but I do want to suggest caution when taking fidogia the cautionary notes are stay within the recommended dosage ranges you can go lower but certainly don't go higher and I think it is wise to cycle every eight weeks or so to come off it for two weeks and then going back on if that's your choice if you feel it benefited you or taking it for 12 week periods of time and then cycling off for a full month before repeating again there are other supplements in particular Tongat Ali which is known to for instance increase libido whether or not it does that by way of augmenting dopamine related pathways or testosterone pathways still isn't clear it is known to increase free testosterone by reducing sex hormone binding globbulin tonga Ali can be beneficial both for men and for women dosages anywhere from 200 millig to 600 millig per day one individual I know who took Tonga Ali admittedly on my recommendation his testosterone was initially very low and he was having a number of different symptoms he did blood work and he then took Tonga Ali and Fidogia in combination and he experienced big increases in testosterone this would be not free but total testosterone he experienced as much as 600 nanogs per deciliter increase from where he was before which is very dramatic it was a near tripling of where his testosterone had started off to where he ended up to my knowledge Tonga Ali does not need to be cycled meaning you don't have to take periods of time off from it i should note that the effects of Tonga Ali can take a little bit longer to experience the next category of supplementation that I'd like to address is supplements related to cognitive enhancement and focus and here there are a number of very useful strategies that one could take i'd like to divide this conversation into two general categories of supplements to address cognitive enhancement and focus the first category are supplements that increase energy by way of stimulant properties so the most obvious of these is caffeine caffeine is of course a molecule that can increase levels of alertness it also can increase levels of focus provided that dosages are in the appropriate range the appropriate range in most cases is going to be 1 to three milligrams per kilogram of body weight taken 30 minutes or so before any kind of mental or physical endeavor again a cautionary note don't drink caffeine too late in the day past 2 p.m it can really start to impede uh your sleep at night even if you can fall asleep at night the architecture of that sleep is not going to be great if you're ingesting caffeine in the preceding 8 to 10 and even 12 hours i mention all that not because I think that you probably already didn't know that caffeine can enhance alertness and focus most people already know that and I acknowledge that but rather as a contrast point for the other supplement-based approach for increasing cognitive function and focus which is to increase certain neurotransmitter pathways that are not stimulant-based so for instance alphag GPC which is essentially a choline donor acts in the pathways related to the neurom modulator acetylcholine and can enhance focus dosages of anywhere from 300 to 600 mg people experience heightened levels of focus for sake of mental work or physical work the halflife of alpha gpc is about 4 to 6 hours so it's relatively shortlasting although you wouldn't necessarily want to take it right before bed i don't recommend that so for instance 300 mg to 600 millig of alpha GPC taken alone will allow people to be more focused but doesn't tend to make people feel jittery or overstimulated similarly 500 mg to 1,000 mg of something like elyroine which is an amino acid precursor to dopamine what people tend to experience is that the chonergic stimulation from alphagpc and the dopamineergic stimulation from elyroine leads to increased levels of focus without the kind of overall feelings of stimulant-based alertness that one would experience with caffeine i do think that there's a category of supplements that can greatly enhance the probability of offsetting depression and maybe even improve mood directly or indirectly andor offset the amount of anti-depressant medication that people need to take that's also been demonstrated and improve metabolic function cardiovascular function and also enhance our ability to do focused work and here I'm referring to the so-called omega-3 essential fatty acids in particular the omega-3 form of the essential fatty acids ingesting 1 to 3 g of EPA in particular in the form of either fish oil capsules or liquid can be beneficial for a number of different aspects of brain and body health and can enhance focus and cognitive ability [Music]