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Shark Liver Update! Watch that cholesterol.

So, I had been taking Shark Liver Oil religiously since October. You can read about it here:
My Shark Oil Post.
After a routine physical last week, boy was I in for a surprise. I was expecting my usual great lipid profile. My cholesterol has been around 200 for the last few years, but with good HDL, low Triglycerides and very low of the bad LDL. However, this time, my LDL almost doubled from last year. The only supplements that were significantly different from other years was the Shark Liver Oil and tocotrienols. The tocotrienols, btw, I feel has contributed to significantly thicker and shinier hair (but more on that in another post). I really don’t think the tocotrienols have contributed to this problem. However, the shark liver oil is not looking too good. Check this study out:
Shark Liver Raises Cholesterol in Hamsters.

Aaargh!! this is horrible. It states: “supplementations of Squalene (SQ) and Shark Liver Oil (SLO) in diets caused significant accumulation of SQ in the liver and adipose tissue. The present results suggest that SQ and SLO are hypercholesterolemic at least in hamsters. Caution has to be taken when SQ or SLO are routinely consumed as health supplements.”

Watch out with this one. To be fair, my HDL was still high and my triglycerides were still low. I’ll test again in 6 months and report on what I find out. For now, I think Shark Liver Oil is not on the recommended list. Until we know more about cholesterol levels and the ratios of the different types of cholesterol and inflammation, be careful.

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Irish Moss – Jamaican Power Drink

How does great skin, a strong “back”, virility and awesome taste wrapped up in one drink sound? Sounds great to me, so that’s why I’m introducing you to a little known Jamaican treat called Irish Moss or Sea Moss. Chrondus Crispus is a variety of seaweed that is found in coastal regions of North America, the Caribbean and parts of Europe. Many of you have heard of the thickener, Carageenan, which comes from this seaweed. It’s popular is Scotland and Ireland as the main ingredient in pudding. It’s high in Sulfur and other minerals and is touted as male performance booster. Here’s how you make it:
Ingredients:

  • Irish Moss
  • Flax Seed (aka Linseed)
  • Condensed Milk (I use skim milk to lower calorie content)
  • Spices–Nutmeg,Cinnamon,Vanilla
  • Optional-Gum Arabic
  • Optional-Isinglass (Agar)
  • Optional-Sugar or Sweetener to taste
  • Optional but recommended-Wray and Nephew White Rum

This is how one of the good Irish Moss packages looks like and where to get it.

Power Drink
Power Drink

How to Make it:
Note:I tend to shy away from listing exact amounts. Experiment, you can’t go wrong.
Some people recommend soaking the irish moss overnight first with some lime juice. I found it’s not necessary. Just rinse it and take off any particles. Put in a pan with water to cover and a bunch of the flax seeds and the optional agar and Gum Arabic. Bring to a boil and simmer until the Irish moss melts away (could be an hour or more depending on how much seaweed you’re using). I recommend starting small until you get the hang of it. Keep an eye on it because it can boil over and make a huge mess on your stove. You can use a fork or one of those hand blenders to speed it up. Put in the vanilla and spices with milk and sweetener. Add the Rum if you want an extra kick.
Be creative. Everytime I drink this mixture, my skin looks great for days afterwards. It must have some kind of nitric oxide, PDE-5 inhibition or related effect because this stuff is seriously powerful and works.
Ideas to enhance the effects:

  • Boil in some peanuts or peanut butter. If using raw peanut, try to include the skin
  • Add a Jamaican Root Drink (these are bitter herbs with reputed aphrodisiac and healing power)
  • Try adding Carrot Juice
  • Ginseng Extract is often added
  • Various combinations of Banana and Oats are also often used
  • Gingko extract is sometimes added

Take the time to make this drink and enjoy it’s tonic effect. You’ll be glad you did!

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Ching Chun Bao — Antiaging tablets from China

Ching Chung Bao also spelled Qing Chun Bao is an interesting tonic I found while on my quest for Shark Oil.

Chin Chung Bao
Chin Chung Bao

It’s meant to be taken twice a day and over a long period of time. The bottle says, “Main functions: Postponing aging, maintaining youthful face, enhancing youthful vigour.” Sounds good to me!
These are the listed ingredients:

  • Ginseng
  • Rehmannia Root
  • Chinese Asparagus Root
  • Siberian Solomon Seal
  • Cistanches
  • Goji Berries
  • Astragalus root

All of the above are Tonic Herbs. As long as there aren’t any hidden ingredients, I think this is a superb formula to take over time. Everyone’s heard of goji berries and ginseng. Solomon Seal is a wonderful lesser known tonic that is said to help restore your body after stress and over indulgence. Cistanches is a great nitric oxide enhancer and probably a decent pde-5 inhibitor (must research that sometime). Astragalus is another great tonic and has a reputation for enhancing your immune system. You should be able to find it for about 8 usd a bottle.
Generally, and according to the traditional chinese medical system, all of these types of tonics that benefit the kidney and liver system are good for anti-aging because those are the systems that are mostly responsible for keeping us young. They govern the condition of your hair, teeth, bones, connective tissue, memory, sex drive and youthful vitality. Check out the jing post on this site for more info.
Although this one is interesting, I doubt I can commit to taking it religiously twice a day. Anyone interested in trying this one out?

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Shark Liver Oil H1N1 fighter?

I discovered Shark Liver Oil recently. It’s been around for centuries. Apparently, fisherman in the cold deep waters off northern Europe have recommended it for wound healing, colds and flu, and as a general tonic. Whenever I hear about something being good for colds and flu and wound healing or general tonic, I start thinking Nitric Oxide related.
I did find an interesting study indicating that Shark Liver Oil may increase Nitric Oxide levels here. The article states shark liver oil may be helpful for boosting the immune system.
If you’re a pig, your sperm will improve. This study indicates that Shark Liver Oil improved sperm motility and velocity:Click here to see study.
Cod liver oil is something I’ll write about in the future. Cod liver oil is a great source of Vitamin D, that many consider the single most important vitamin supplement you could take. Well, shark liver has that too. Cod Liver Oil is a purported Testosterone Booster, however Shark Liver Oil is not as well known. I’ve discovered that no one seems to know what this is. You can certainly find it online, but good luck finding it in conventional health food stores or your local chinatown herb shop. I found mine in a chinese herb shop. The owner smiled when I bought it and said it was an excellent choice and to make sure I drank a lot of water with it. I’m surprised I found it in that store, since no one spoke English.
There’s a bit of hub bub on the net about this Oil boosting the immune system and fighting cancer. Cancer is not something to talk about lightly. I’m limiting my discussion to verifiable tonics. As a tonic, this has some interesting potential. Faster sperm? More nitric oxide? Sounds like a plan!
Shark Liver Oil

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Fenugreek–Interim Results

I’m a little disappointed with Fenugreek. I have three forms of it:

  1. Crushed Seed
  2. Powdered Seed
  3. Testofen Extract

For the first few days of taking the crushed seed, I felt a distinct energy boost. I also felt there was a nitric oxide enhancing mechanism, but could not really find strong evidence on the net. Eagerly, I tried the Testofen Extract because it was getting rave reviews over at Bulk Nutrition. However, I have to give this one a thumbs down, I’m not noticing anything sustainable. I must have had a placebo type reaction for the first two days because I was singing it’s praises! The powdered seed just made me feel really tired. I’m not interested in experimenting anymore with it.
Verdict: If you’re interested in trying Fenugreek, I would recommend the crushed seed. There’s something to it that is sustainable over more than a few days, but don’t expect any big miracles. I’m not sure I can really consider this one a tonic.

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Relaxation-The Greatest Tonic

The greatest tonic is already inside us. Our bodies can produce a healing tonic of hormones, chemicals and other substances when we are happy and at peace. We can produce this state by relaxing. Most people don’t know how to relax or that there is even a technique to it. The best we can do is take a walk, listen to music or do some mindless activity and think we’re relaxed. However, there actually is a technique to relaxing. Although this may seem like an oxymoron, it takes practice to relax. Relaxation is a big part of chinese martial art training. It’s called ‘Sung’ in chinese. If you were to study a chinese internal martial art and certain other disciplines, you would most likely learn techniques to produce relaxation and exercises to test and develop this relaxation. One really good system that is accessible to westerners has been popularized by Koichi Tohei, who is a master of the Japanese martial art of Aikido. In this system, Tohei developed exercises that test the extent of relaxation in your body. He even developed a system to work at perfecting the level of relaxation. One of my favorite books ever is Tohei’s Book of Ki available in my amazon store. He teaches breathing techniques and other exercises called Ki Tests.
Here’s a simple way to relaxation. If you’d like more detailed instruction, please indicate so!
Find a posture that is easy to maintain and allows for the lowest part of your abdomen to freely expand and contract with your breath (don’t worry if you can’t feel that yet). Allow your body to settle and notice your inhale and exhale. Find what part of your abdomen or torso expands with your inhale and exhale without forcing anything. Just observe and make no judgements. Release any holding in your body starting from the top of your head down to your feet every time you exhale. Your elbows will feel like they are lengthening, your chest will release and top of your head will soar upwards. As your elbows lengthen, the top of your shoulders (where an important acupuncture point is and where many people feel sore upon touch) will release. (Some martial artists say ‘drop elbow, release/sink shoulder’.)The more you release, the lower in your torso you will feel your breath on inhale. It takes time and practice. You might fall asleep. Just keep at it and your body will produce the best tonic.
In traditional chinese medicine, you want to feel a warm abdomen and a cool head. When the feeling of heat rises to the head, it’s considered a bad thing. The aim of many chinese health systems is to reverse the heat to move downwards. It’s not uncommon to hear of analogies of a pot boiling in the lower abdomen. Like this:
example-ancient-stove
This is the true elixir!

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Fenugreek — Most underrated testosterone booster?

I’m taking a closer look at Fenugreek. There are a few concentrated extracts marketed under the name ‘testofen‘ or ‘fenotest‘. But you can buy the pure seeds economically. I found crushed fenugreek seeds for $2.99 for 4 ounces at Kalustyans in NYC during a recent trip. Why am I interested in Fenugreek? Check out what people are saying over at Bulk Nutrition about this herb. It seems to be a bonafide testosterone booster. I believe there is a powerful nitric oxide enhancing effect with this product. It’s hard to believe no one really knows about this. Companies market proprietary products to boost nitric oxide and testosterone to maximize profit margins, so there won’t be big money marketing this cheap herb.
Comparisons to viagra, testosterone boosting, and fat burning are making rounds in the web, however, i haven’t easily come across any supporting real scientific studies. There were some studies that showed an insulin sensitizing effect, which is good for type 2 diabetics and people with insulin resistance. If anyone has anything to share please do so.
I’m highly recommending this one for further study.

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Tocotrienols — Testosterone Booster

I just ordered this:
Toco-8.
Tocotrienols Testosterone Booster

As I mentioned in an earlier post, in addition to all the great things it does for our arteries and hair, it also reportedly boosts testosterone. I decided to plunk down the $29 bucks to give this a try. I should have it in a few days. It’s a powder and I heard it tastes delicious.
Admittedly, I should have done a little more research into exactly how it might work for testosterone production and I wanted to look at the studies a little more closely as well. Pub Med didn’t turn up anything obvious, so I’m a little skeptical. Stay posted and please comment with your thoughts and experiences!

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Tocotrienols–Better Hair Stronger Arteries!

There’s a new buzz around Vitamin E.  For many years there seemed to be positive health benefits for Vitamin E such as improved circulation, lower cholesterol, strong antioxidant, male virility and anti-imflammatory. However, the research just didn’t quite prove it. Over time we learned that there wasn’t just Vitamin E, there were different types of Vitamin E like Gamma, Delta, etc.   A Greek alphabet’s worth of granularity! Well, it gets worse! Now we have tocotrienols.

The good news is, these tocotrienols promise to finally vindicate Vitamin E!
Did you know that tocotrienols might grow hair on bald heads?
Check this out!
Vitamin E grows hair.
I believe Tocotrienols increase Nitric Oxide which accounts for the hair growth and the positive effect on our arteries. It may even really boost Testosterone!
Click here to read about tocotrienols and LH for Virility.
So what are you waiting for? Get this now!

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GPLC — The Next Hottest Supplement

Ok, I call this one first.  GPLC or glycine propionyl l-carnitine will be the next hottest supplement.  However, be prepared to pay some money for this one.  Apparently, Sigma-tau, the company that produces this has an exclusive global patent.  That means prices for the supplement are pretty consistent and it’s hard to find bargains on the net. If anyone can find a bulk powder cheap, please let me know.

Now why is this one good?  Rumor has it that it is the only supplement that actually has a good scientific study proving it raises nitric oxide levels.  Read my nitric oxide blog entry to learn why this is important.

There are a whole bunch of products coming out for bodybuilders and those with heart disease and other nitric oxide deficient conditions (diabetes, ED, PAD, hairloss.).  Check out http://www.glycocarn.com/

and check it frequently for new products.

Read this when you have some time: http://www.glycocarn.com/whitepapers/pat-jacobs-whitepaper.pdf

I’m slightly skeptical because of the strong marketing effort, but I’ll certainly be testing this one out. I can say after only 1 week, I feel GREAT on this. I’m going to skip weekends so I don’t build up a tolerance.

Let me know what you think about this one.

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Horny Goat Weed?

Despite it’s unfortunate name (who wants to bring this stuff to the counter), Horny Goat Weed or Epimedium, is an amazing chinese herb.  Bodybuilders take it for increased testosterone (weak anecdotal evidence) and for the ‘pump’ (very strong evidence).  It’s also thrown into herbal preparations for PDE-5 inhibition effects (very strong scientific evidence).

I like to check http://www.pubmed.com for scientific experiments related to the herbs and supplements I’ll be discussing here.

It’s very cheap as a raw herb you can purchase in any chinese herbal shop or over the net.  It’s basically dried leaves packed tightly into little bricks that resemble a pack of dollar bills.

Epimedium
Epimedium

Scientists have found that it has strong Estrogenic qualities.  What??  Yes, despite all the hype around male performance, it has been shown effective for woman going through menopause and for the prevention of Osteoporosis!  Check out pubmed for the studies.

One substance that has been isolated from epimedium is a chemical called icariin.  Again, check pubmed for this one.  It’s PDE-5 inhibition rivals viagra.  In fact, one study mentioned how they were working on derivatives of icariin to produce even more effective inhibition.  Do your research!  Check pubmed, don’t just believe me.

Despite all the clinical evidence pointing to epimedium being estrogenic, this herb has a strong reputation for being a testosterone booster.  I think it’s probably due to it’s PDE-5 inhibition that get misinterpreted as libido enhancing.  Another possibility is that the body absorbs these natural weaker estrogens instead of the dangerous estrogens purported to be in our drinking water, detergents and certain food additives.  So it could have a protective effect against those dangerous substances.  I haven’t studied the estrogen story in depth, but there seems to be strong suggestions that our environment is polluted with toxic estrogens.

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Eucommia Ulmoides

This herb always caught my eye in the herbal shops.  It has a really odd name too–Eucommia Ulmoides.

Rubbery Chinese Herb
Rubbery Chinese Herb

The chinese name is “Du Zhong“.

This is an herb that could be made into a tea without any additional herbs.  It can stand on it’s own.  Traditionally, it’s used to lower blood pressure (read Nitric Oxide).  Interestingly enough, it’s also used to treat back pain and weakness of the legs.  It’s recommended for muscle/tendon injuries and impotence.

Look at the picture closely. The white fibrous part is reputed to be the reason why it is good for our fibrous muscles and tendons.  The herb has a rubbery feel to it.

One traditional recipe is to boil it with Oxtail for a stew.  Don’t use too much.  I’ve ruined a few soups by putting too much Eucommia in it.  It doesn’t taste very good.  I found powdered Eucommia and a teaspoon mixed with tea is not too bad, you can barely taste it.

I haven’t really tested this one.  I do have an injury I can try it on. I’ll see how it goes.  If anyone else wants to committ to trying this one and report back please do!

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Nitric Oxide – The Great Unifier

I consider Nitric Oxide the great unifier. If you do research on just about any tonic or elixir, I bet you will find a nitric oxide connection. Korean Ginseng? Enhances Nitric Oxide. Jiaogulan Tea? Nitric Oxide. Honey? Yep, Nitric Oxide. Acupuncture? Nitric Oxide.  Vitamin C?  I could go on, but you get the point. There are a ton of books and internet articles on Nitric Oxide. I don’t want to repeat that information here or begin a biology/chemistry lesson.

We will be talking about it alot on this quest. This is a good book for information on nitric oxide:

I’ll mention a few things that I think are important. First, if anyone says they understand Nitric Oxide, I think they are lying. It’s been studied alot, however, it seems like people are still figuring this thing out. To get through alot of the information, you need a PhD in biochemistry. That’s why the book above is a good introduction. It was written by one of the guys who put alot of the pieces together and is viewed as one of the discoverers of it–and won a nobel prize for it.

What I do know about it, is that it is involved in helping arteries expand, which in turn improves blood flow and reduces blood pressure. However, that’s extremely simplistic. To make it more complicated there are several forms of it. Scientists are constantly finding new ways it is used in our bodies and the role it plays in disease and health. It has roles in inflammation modulation, blood flow, hair growth, diabetes, hormone release, brain health and even erectile function :O to name just a few things.

Alot of chronic diseases thought to be normal aging are probably caused by our inability to produce enough nitric oxide. Many prescription drugs, like viagra for example, increase nitric oxide by blocking the enzymes that help break it down in the body. There other techniques to increase nitric oxide production by ingesting  the substances that produce it. For example, the amino acid arginine or nitrates from vegetables (yes, nitrates may not be so bad after all).   You can teach your body to produce more by exercise.

Another interesting aspect of Nitric Oxide is that it is a toxic gas that kills viruses and bacteria. In fact, there were some studies that showed producing enough of it killed tuberculosis and scientists were recommending eating peanuts (high in arginine and probably nitrates) to help ward it off. 

As with everything, too much is probably bad and there is some evidence that overproduction probably causes alot of damage in our bodies. That’s why you will see nitric oxide products with liberal doses of antioxidants included. 

Bodybuilders have caught on to this and you will find a wealth of products claiming to boost nitric oxide. These products help the muscles swell up with blood. If you examine the ingredients, you will find a basic formula: amino acids that provide the ‘food’ for nitric oxide and herbs/chemicals that slow or prevent it’s breakdown or speed up it’s production. Read the labels on these products for clues on the next big elixir to try.

I’ll be writing more on this in future posts…