Dandruff or scalp irritation? Try BLOO.
In this study even very small doses of basil were able to almost double testosterone. They gave rats 2 and 4 mg /kg of a basil powder, which translates to just 25 and 50mg for a human. Surprisingly 25 mg was even slightly superior in terms of testosterone-enhancement.
I don't know if they used holy basil in this study. They just refer to it as basil. But it seems that different kinds and especially different dosages are effective, as the other studies I posted used much higher doses.
@Joop3000 you're welcome . Looking forward to your testimony.
I'm surprised it's not talked about more often !
Interpretation:
If you look at study 2. , you might conclude that holy basil contains some exogenous androgen in high amounts that increases blood testosterone to such an extent that it suppresses their pituitary hormonal output as a feedback mechanism and decreases their sperm count, similarly to exogenous testosterone.
But if that was the case, we would see a strong virilazation in study 1 and the females rats testosterone would be through the roof as well. But we don't see that, only progesterone increased.
Study 3 begs to differ as well. We see no signs of shut down whatsoever here. All measures of sperm health increased.
So it's hard to say what holy basil exactly does, only one way to find out 
Tulsi / holy basil only increased progesterone by about 20% in female rats . It didn't lower testosterone or increase estrogen.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30908416/
In male rats however it seems to be very androgenic .
It increased the testosterone level of every single rat above the capable measurement limit of 1500 ng/dl ! Lol
It seems to behave like exogenous testosterone in some ways: they had lowered sperm count and LH and FSH (feedback mechanism). So we should maybe be cautious long term us, but pro progesterone and testosterone?... I'm intrigued .
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3059441/
In this study in male lambs it was very androgenic again.
It increased testosterone by about 80% and lowered cortisol by about 90%. A drastic increase in the T/C ratio !
But this time it even increased sperm count health and testicle size.
Not sure why it was different here maybe it's a dosage issue. Maybe it has to do with the different digestive system of lambs.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10850854/
Effect of Ocimum Sanctum on Serum Concentration of Thyroid Hormones
Lowered stress and cortisol in humans
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36185698
Tulsi also contains ursolic acid which has its own benefits : anti-serotonin and estrogen and pro dopamine.
https://bioenergetic.forum/topic/1797/ursolic-acid-anti-serotonin-anti-estrogen-pro-dopamine-and-more
Vitamin A supplementation in third world countries drastically reduces mortality.
"Among children aged 12-71 months at baseline, mortality in control villages (75/10 231, 7·3 per 1000) was 49% greater than in those where supplements were given (53/10 919,4·9 per 1000) (p<0·05). "
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(86)91157-8/fulltext
(Mild)Vitamin A deficiency still affects almost a billion people
"In 2019, VAD and mVAD affected 333.95 million (95% CI = 253.00-433.74) and 556.13 million..."
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10416138/
92% ofChildren with measles had Vitamin A deficiency. Giving them Vitamin A reduced their mortality by 50%!
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2194128/
From: "Endocrine Physiology" by Constance R. Martin, Ph.D. :
"Laboratory mammals maintained on Vitamin A-
deficient diets stop growing, acquire numerOuS epi·
the]ial cell and connective tissue disorders. and be·
come blind and sterile. "
"However. retinol or a precursor is needed for
spermatogenesis, for the ability to sustain preg·
nancy, and for the formation of visual pigments. "
"Vitamin A supports bone remodeling. In defi·
ciency states. the passageways for nerves and blood
vessels do not enlarge sufficiently. Infants deprived
of the vitamin have detective loolh formation_"
@Serotoninskeptic said in Methionine/Cysteine restriction increases longetivity AND energy expenditure:
@Mauritio Look into @anabology's posts on FGF21 and the "honey diet." The idea is intermittent protein restriction from morning until dinner eating just fruit, sugar, honey etc. Then meeting your protein requirements at dinner, getting like 1g-1.2g/kg of protein total. Tons of people are getting great results from it including myself. You can read more on his X account and longestlevers.com.
I finally had some time to look into it and I'm on board with most of it. But are you really eating massive amounts of protein with little to no carbs? Sounds like a recipe for high cortisol especially so close to bedtime (no carbs for the next 8h).
I think if you kept carb intake throughout the day that would be a better idea.
@jamezb46 No, kind of forgot about that one.
Really into phytoprogestogens lately.
Im taking one of the daily.
Most of the time guggul or L. Chuanxiong. IIRC Guggul contains actual progesterone+ prog metabolites .
I saw diosgenin listed as a phytoprogestogen by haidut although I think its effects on DHEA and DHT are much stronger, but it has a never ending list of benefits.
Most herbal remedies are toxic, but Im doing really good on those one.
Benefits I noticed :
feeling more social and confident
hair loss reduced a lot
better sleep
muscle fuller and bigger
Downside:
Sometimes I get slightly serotoeegoc effects until I get a BM , I think it has to with bile excretion and estrogen being excreted via bile. Important to keep things moving via magenisum, fiber, molybdenum etc.
Pomegranates
One of the main polyphenols of pomegranate peels, Punicalagin, seems to have anti-estrogen and pro- progesterone effects. The anti- estrogen effect should be achievable by taking a supplement the pro- progesterone effect would be difficult. But this was an in vitro study in rats , so the dosages are a bit of a gamble anyway.
"Punicalagin (at 100 microg.ml(-1)) significantly (P<0.05) increased progesterone secretion. On the other hand, the release of 17beta-estradiol was significantly (P<0.005) decreased by punicalagin addition (at 10 microg.ml(-1))."
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26291726/
Several polyphenols of pomegranate are aromatase inhibitors.
"These studies suggest that pomegranate ET-derived compounds have potential for the prevention of estrogen-responsive breast cancers."
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2805471/
"PME binds ER and down-regulated the transcription of estrogen-responsive reporter gene transfected into breast cancer cells. The expressions of selected estrogen-responsive genes were down-regulated by PME"
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21839626/
This study hints at pomegranate extract containing significant amounts of syringic acid.
"WPE indicated that syringic acid (SA), vanillic acid and caffeic acid were the predominant flavonoids..."
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0377840121000973
Pomegranates peel extract increases progesterone and offspring weight and survival .
"Fppee improved homeothermy, progesterone concentration, and pregnancy outcomes."
"Lambs born to Fppee ewes had the highest birth weights and survivability. "
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S030645652400261
Pomegranate extract increased Energy expenditure, V02, VCO2 and increases body temp after cold exposure.
Which probably means that it restores shivering cold thermogenesis, which is lost in unhealty people, meaning they can't mount an adaptive response to a stressor (cold). This is corroborated by the fact that Ucp, is increased in the Pomegranate group by 3- told, but only after cold exposure. It also increased SIRTI a lot and a protein called BMPB8, which stops preadipocytes from maturing into fully functional adipocytes.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9499678/#ijms-23-10460-f006
Pomegranate contains 7 (!) Carbonic anhydrase inhibitors, leading to increased CO2.
https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/bpb1993/16/8/16_8_787/_article
Pomegranate polyphenols inhbit mTOR (similar to protein restriction) . Mango too.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27028006/
Pomegranate peel polyphenols lower adrenaline and cortisol induced by chronic, mild stress. It also I I it's MAO, strongly favoring MAO-B, leading to an increase in the dopamine/serotonin ratio.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/pcn.12100
It reduces brain lead concentrations by about 90% in animals consuming high lead amounts.
https://scholar.google.com/scholar_lookup?journal=Pol. J. Nat. Sci.&title=Algerian pomegranate peel decreases lead concentration in brain and improves neurological disorders&author=L. Gadouche&author=N. Djebli&author=Z. Khayra&volume=35&publication_year=2020&pages=97-107&#d=gs_qabs&t=1738438268566&u=%23p%3DvYGsC48cmZEJ
Ellagic acid (one of the major active molecules in pomegranate). Decreases brain NO and NMDA receptors.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0143417919300204
In this study pomegranate juice increased plasma catalase by 2x, vitamin C by 3X and and vitamin E by 5x, also increased testosterone by about 30% .
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18222572/
@Mauritio said in Random, interesting studies:
Dates, olives and walnuts contain the highest amounts of the phytoprogestogen syringic acid.
Not only is syringic acid a phytoprogestogens, but it also had very potent pro thyroid effects in this study.
They gave rats a known anti- thyroid drug (PTU) to induce hypothyroidism.
Then they gave them syringic acid or T4.
Syringic acid completely restored the T3 and T4 levels of hypothyroid rats.
It even increased them above baseline.
T4 levels were even higher with syringic acid compared to giving them actual T4.
It also lowered TSH quite drastically .
@cs3000 they also included a control + synstingic acid group, and even in normal animals it helped their thyroid and increased T3 by about 30% .
Syringic acid had an affinity for the thyroid receptor TRb that was twice as strong as that of T3!
Syringic acid also increased antioxidants like SOD and catalase powerfully and lowered inflammatory cytokines.
These dosages they used are not achievable by diet alone though . Maybe there is a supplement. I also read something about pomegranate peels contain syringic acid.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34047416/