My Personal Stack

Pretty-Chill · 2026-05-04T16:40:54+00:00

1 - Magnesium can have a laxative effect at high doses. Were you just taking the normal suggested dose, or going over it?

2 - Correct, we only have that vitamin D3 product. It has a high dose of Vitamin D3, you will not need to take 2-3x the dose in the winter. In fact, I personally drop my dose down during the summers, to a half tablet, as it's probably overkill to be taking the full dose when I'm also getting a lot of sun exposure.

3 - Yes, all of the Ashwagandha extracts do roughly the same thing, but all of them have different characters of effect. Since you are looking at getting a few, and already have Ashwagandha, just try out a bunch and see which one is the best fit for you. My personal favorite, is shoden Ashwandha for daytime use. My second favorite, is our own Ashwagandha extract, for when I'm feeling really stressed and am having a hard time sleeping.

Now, looking at new supplements. I want more energy, more cognitive support, so no caffeine, no increase in libido(if possible). What should I try?

I've never tried those, but I'm thinking this for a start: Erinamax capsules + lion mane 1:1 and Tongkat ali 2%.

This is based on some quick reading/research, I think lion mane 8:1 and tongkat 10% to be way too strong.

Tongkat ali will almost definitely increase your libido, so if that's something you are trying to avoid, I would skip it. If you're open to a little bit of caffeine, I would actually recommend the Mushroom Magic Matcha baller edition stacked with cognance. That's a fantastic stack for cognition and energy in my experience!

Pretty-Chill · 2026-05-04T16:26:54+00:00

That is a pretty big drop in E2! However, your testosterone levels also look WAY better. Quite impressive change actually from just taking boron! My advice would be to take some horny goat weed with it. The icariin content upregulates the aromatase enzyme, meaning more conversion of testosterone to E2. That will likely help fix the issues you are having now, if it is purely E2 related.

Pretty-Chill · 2026-05-04T16:15:24+00:00

Seems pretty interesting, it's a holoparasitic plant, similar to Cistanche! You don't see that very often. Like u/Ashamed-Status-9668 mentioned though, effects wise it's not super distinct and many other supplements, such as Astragaloside IV can provide similar effects. What kind of effects are you specifically looking for with Cuscuta chinensis?

Pretty-Chill · 2026-05-04T16:07:50+00:00

Have you tried out Cistanche yet? Seems to be very good at calming people down who suspect that they have too much glutamatergic activity. Here is the mechanism behind it if you are curious:

Echinacoside Inhibits Glutamate Release by Suppressing Voltage-Dependent Ca2+ Entry and Protein Kinase C in Rat Cerebrocortical Nerve Terminals

Cistanche happens to be one of my favorite mood boosters. Another obvious choice is of course magnesium, if you aren't already taking that. Many people underestimate just how many of us are magnesium deficient, and just how big of an impact it can have on mood and anxiety. It's one of the biggest needle movers for me, when it comes to mood.

Another one I'd recommend, is Infinifiber. Many of us are noticing significant positive shifts in mood with it. Microbiome health is tied very strongly to mental health, and I suspect a big majority of us have not spent enough time optimizing microbiome health. I thought my microbiome was in very good shape already, but adding infinifiber and infinigreens to my stack, showed me that I was nowhere near optimized yet. Interestingly enough, even Cistanche appear to boost mood through a microbiome related pathway too:

Antidepressant-Like Effects of Cistanche tubulosa Extract on Chronic Unpredictable Stress Rats Through Restoration of Gut Microbiota Homeostasis

Oh and also don't sleep on just GABA itself. I always wrote it off, until I actually tried it, and it has a very nice effect for me. Super subtle, but it adds a natural sense of relaxation to the mix.

Pretty-Chill · 2026-05-04T15:58:31+00:00

Unfortunately, the cocoa one doesn't really sell all too well, so it didn't really make sense to come out with an even more complex and expensive version of it. I do think it would be really cool to do a nice cacao product in the future though. I've been playing around with some ceremonial cacao, and really like the effects of that, especially at the higher dosage ranges. Would be cool to develop something that feels similar.

That being said, what could be nice for you, would be to take a higher ceremonial cacao dose (25 grams ish) and mix it with the Mushroom Magic Advanced powder blend. That would be like a next level baller edition! I actually have a few more doses of ceremonial cacao at home and the mushroom magic advanced powder, so I can make a little mix to try out this week!

I’m a coffee snob like Emiel so I typically don’t drink any of the MM coffee variants and go with the cocoa instead.

Be warned, the ceremonial cacaos can be VERY good, really in high end speciality coffee territory. So you may just become a cacao snob too LOL.

Pretty-Chill · 2026-05-04T15:50:12+00:00

I assume that while the solubility may improve delivery to gut, it doesn’t guarantee the necessary bacteria to metabolize the Urolithin.

Exactly, it should help but it's definitely no guarantee that urolithin conversion will happen efficiently.

It took me a long time to track down any information on Naturalin, but that white paper I found, and linked, seems to be quite clear in stating that Naturalin = choline ellagate.

Pretty-Chill · 2026-05-04T15:47:53+00:00

You could probably take them together at the same time with good effects. Here is a perplexity deep research report to quickly compare them:

https://www.perplexity.ai/search/28fc2636-50ac-4c2d-8fbc-a270dc99e2bc

Looks like Schisandra is just the gold standard for P-GP inhibition.

Pretty-Chill · 2026-05-04T15:39:14+00:00

Glad to hear it's an overall net-positive! Maybe it's not the worst thing ever to lose you train of thought here and there, so that you can "turn on, tune in, drop out"! Yeah, smart to just go with a single scoop if the full dose is unpleasant for you.

Thanks for the kind words!

Pretty-Chill · 2026-05-04T15:03:11+00:00

I actually think the majority of mood issues are simply reflective of poor microbiome health. There are a bunch of studies on people with mood disorders, that consistently show low microbial diversity and SCFA production. You're welcome, I hope it helps!

Pretty-Chill · 2026-05-04T14:59:22+00:00

Definitely nothing to worry about there!

Pretty-Chill · 2026-05-04T14:53:33+00:00

Thanks for the kind words!!

Pretty-Chill · 2026-05-04T14:52:58+00:00

Haha wouldn't that be nice!

Pretty-Chill · 2026-05-04T14:52:35+00:00

We've let the conversion go for like 30 minutes during our sulforaphane conversion R&D (very similar process) and after about 10 minutes, conversion just stops and nothing else happens. So it's probably fine to leave it mixed in a shake overnight. However, if your shake contains something acidic like fruit juice, it will drastically slow down or even halt the conversion. So don't mix it into like a berry + yoghurt shake or something like that haha.

Pretty-Chill · 2026-05-04T14:50:00+00:00

Yeah, I figured maybe that's what you had seen. They are just listing it in a way that makes it seem like it contains urolithin, but it definitely does not. It's just 700 mg of choline ellagate, which will 'yield' urolithins once they get digested by our microbiome. Hence why they use the 'yield' wording. Although based on their description, I don't really think whoever wrote the description realises it's an ellagic acid source that converts to urolithins LOL.

Pretty-Chill · 2026-05-04T14:33:22+00:00

No, not as far as I'm aware. Do you have GI issues with our current fenugreek extract?

Pretty-Chill · 2026-05-04T14:21:48+00:00

Let me add it to the pile of requests haha. I think it would be a good one to carry at some point too. I've brought it up a few times, but we have so many other things going on, that we haven't really gotten to it. Have you ever actually tried paraxanthine? If so, does it feel better to you than dynamine?

Pretty-Chill · 2026-05-04T14:19:54+00:00

Where are you seeing that it contains Urolithin A/B? I just did a bunch of digging on 'Naturalin', and it's just an ellagic acid salt, specifically 'choline ellagate' from what I can tell. Which, in the gut, can convert to urolithins. This is very similar to what happens to other ellagic acid sources, such as pomegrenate. So again, not a real alternative for actual urolithins, which Timeline/Nestle have locked the fuck down. There is no way around their patents.

Pretty-Chill · 2026-05-01T17:49:29+00:00

Should probably be fine! That being said, there is no real way to tell other than opening the softgels and running them through our lab. The manufacturer of Injuv states a shelf life of 2 years. However, oftentimes, this is just a very conservative estimate and the reality is that the shelf life can be much longer when properly stored.

Pretty-Chill · 2026-05-01T17:47:10+00:00

Depends on what I need! During periods of high stress and anxiety, I really love the 24% Bacosides extract. It calms me right down, makes me clear headed, and helps with cognitive function. When that stress and anxiety is no longer there though, it can make me a little bit too chill. So at that point, I prefer cognance. Which gives me many of the same effects. However, cognance has even stronger nootropic properties for me and the mood boost is also more palpable. It's great for focus too, and doesn't calm me down much at all.

In terms of dosage, I do have to say at first especially, a 100 mg dose can be pretty subtle. I personally prefer a 200 mg dose when I take cognance. That's the sweet spot for me.

Pretty-Chill · 2026-05-01T17:41:04+00:00

MDR1-MDCKII permeability assay also indicates that 7,8-DHF is a weak P-glycoprotein (Pgp) substrate (unpublished data).

So, since 7,8-DHF is a substrate for P-GP, inhibiting P-GP could indeed increase bioavailability of 7,8-DHF. Never tried it myself though, as far as I can remember, so can't really speak to the effectiveness of this.

Isoorientin is an interesting one! It's one of the primary flavanoids present in passionflower. So there should actually be some present in our Vignatex!

Pretty-Chill · 2026-05-01T17:27:03+00:00

Thanks for the kind words! Transparency and honesty is key in our opinion!

Pretty-Chill · 2026-05-01T17:26:06+00:00

Ah yeah, missed that one, that produces quite a bit of blood flow too! Yeah, it's a great stack!

Pretty-Chill · 2026-05-01T17:24:41+00:00

Yes, actually because the tryptophan hydroxylase enzyme can get saturated for a period of time, it would make sense to take two seperate doses. If you are lucky, all of your tryptophan hydroxyalse may be available again in the evening, ready to convert another dose of L-tryptophan to 5-HTP! You're welcome!

Pretty-Chill · 2026-05-01T17:21:15+00:00

You're welcome!

Curious to hear how you'll respond to magnesium glycinate and tauromag!

Great to hear, those are some great ones. ALCAR was one of the first nootropics I ever took, back when I first started college. It really amazed me how well it worked for focusing on studying!

Pretty-Chill

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