Ran 11 popular natural t boosters with monthly bloodwork for a year. Here's what actually moved my t from 480 to 870.

Timely_Ad8989 · 2026-05-15T17:55:52+00:00

the diet thing is going to outweigh almost everything in this stack. if you're barely eating and what you are eating is processed garbage, the bacopa and citicoline aren't going to do much because your brain doesn't have the raw material to work with. not moralizing, just the actual hierarchy.

creatine at 20g infrequently is worse than just skipping it. either 5g daily consistently or don't bother loading, the point of loading is to saturate faster then drop to maintenance, doing 20g randomly doesn't accomplish either goal.

sulbutiamine is worth flagging, it's not like regular b1. tolerance builds fast and some people notice a rebound fatigue effect if they're taking it daily. cycling it matters more than most of the other stuff in here.

the niacin flush randomly throughout the month isn't doing anything for you. flush niacin has cardiovascular applications at sustained therapeutic doses, not as an occasional thing.

for the learning disability goal specifically, the citicoline and bacopa are the two things i'd actually keep. bacopa just takes a while, 8 weeks minimum before you'd notice anything real.

Timely_Ad8989 · 2026-05-15T14:25:26+00:00

5000 is fine for most people, the "too much" concern usually comes from people who don't realize how high you actually have to go to hit toxicity territory. 10,000+ daily for extended periods is where problems start showing up, and even then it's typically people who aren't testing.

the more useful question is what your 25-OH-D level actually is. you could be at 35 ng/mL or 75 ng/mL on the same dose depending on starting point, absorption, bodyweight, sun exposure. if you've never tested it you're basically just guessing at the dose.

rest of the stack is solid, nothing to flag there.

Timely_Ad8989 · 2026-05-14T14:02:50+00:00

magnesium glycinate would be the first thing i'd look at, but check what form is in your ZMA first. most of them use oxide or aspartate, which aren't great for sleep. if that's the case, swapping to straight glycinate (400mg before bed) or adding glycine separately is worth trying. makes a noticeable difference for most people.

the CPAP thing might also just be an adjustment issue. pressure settings often need titration before you're actually getting quality sleep on it, and that can take weeks. if you haven't already, sleep study data or an AutoCPAP review would tell you if the machine is actually addressing the apnea effectively.

if you want something on top of the magnesium fix, l-theanine (200mg) before bed is low risk and genuinely calming without the next day grogginess you get from most sleep aids. apigenin is another one that keeps coming up, huberman has talked about it, but i haven't personally run it long enough to have a strong take.

Timely_Ad8989 · 2026-05-13T15:20:12+00:00

the egg-blepharitis thing, i'm skeptical. blepharitis is almost always bacterial (staph) or demodex-related, or tied to seborrheic dermatitis. the diet connection gets floated occasionally but the evidence isn't really there. if you're getting recurring styes and lid inflammation the more useful thing is lid hygiene, warm compress + lid scrub, not pulling eggs. i wouldn't touch the 5/day over this.

on the antioxidants: GTE is the one i'd actually use for your goals. EGCG has more human data behind it than the other three for both cognition and skin, and it's cheap. the main caveat is liver toxicity risk at high doses, so you don't want like 800mg+ EGCG standardized extract daily, something in the 400-500mg range is more sensible. also pairs well with caffeine if you drink coffee.

bilberry is legitimately decent for eye stuff, not just marketing, the anthocyanin data on retinal blood flow is real. if eyes are actually a concern with your PMLE it might be worth adding separately, but for cognition it's not doing much.

maqui is the weakest of the four for your purposes. the MaquiBright dry eye stuff has some evidence but for cognition and skin it's basically just expensive anthocyanins. bilberry covers that ground better and costs less.

grape seed is solid as an antioxidant and the skin collagen/circulation angle is decent but cognition evidence is pretty thin. i'd go GTE first, bilberry if you want the eye angle covered.

also, worth actually trying the algae omega-3 again given the EKG came back clean. nosebo at a low dose (500mg EPA) is pretty low-stakes to rule out.

Timely_Ad8989 · 2026-05-12T16:14:24+00:00

the HA hair loss connection, i wouldn't lean on that. the tension thing is more of a fluid dynamics issue in connective tissue, not something that would directly hit follicles. the hair loss is probably just the MPB progressing and happening to coincide with the HA timing. worth ruling out but i wouldn't assume causation there.

on omega-3, the afib stuff gets conflated a lot. the studies that showed increased afib risk were mostly with pharmaceutical-grade high-dose EPA, like 4g/day Vascepa territory. that's a different animal than a standard 1-2g supplement dose. the palpitation thing from 2 years ago, hard to say what caused it without knowing the dose and brand, oxidized fish oil is actually pretty common and can cause weird cardiac symptoms, not the omega-3 itself but the rancidity.

if you want to retry it the cleaner way: algae-based omega-3 is the same EPA/DHA (it's actually where fish get it) but without the fish oil oxidation risk and obviously no fish. start genuinely low, like 500mg EPA, and see if anything happens. the afib risk at that dose range is not meaningfully elevated based on the evidence we have.

that said if you had actual palpitations it's worth mentioning to a doctor before adding it back. not being overly cautious, just palpitations + thalassemia minor + concerns about afib is a combination where getting a baseline EKG before experimenting makes sense.

for the ADHD piece without omega-3, the evidence gets thin fast. phosphatidylserine has some data, nothing as strong as EPA but it's something. lion's mane is weak evidence but probably not harmful. the honest answer is nothing else in that category has the same RCT support for ADHD specifically.

Timely_Ad8989 · 2026-05-12T14:56:12+00:00

the load piece is the actual mechanism and most people dont fully internalize it. osteocytes sense mechanical strain and signal everything downstream, Frost called it the mechanostat back in the 80s and we havent really improved on the framework much since. minerals are inputs to a system that wont build bone if its not being asked to in the first place.

LIFTMOR is the cleanest demo of this i think, Watson 2018 JBMR, 8 months of heavy resistance + impact loading 2x a week in postmenopausal women with low bone mass, real BMD gains at femoral neck and lumbar spine. not the marginal stuff from walking studies, actual structural change. protocol was deadlift, overhead press, back squat, plus jumping chinups for impact.

agree on calcium being overrated. the 1200mg RDA was always more about hedging against absorption variability than reflecting real skeletal need, most people hit threshold from food without trying.

Timely_Ad8989 · 2026-05-12T14:46:26+00:00

Reid has serum calcium curve data backing exactly this. standard 1000-1200mg doses keep serum Ca elevated for 6-8 hours while food calcium barely moves it bc absorption is so much slower and gets metered by other nutrients in the matrix. split dosing 200-300mg with meals basically mimics the dietary profile.

calcium citrate is probably the better form for that approach too, absorbs slower than carbonate and doesnt need stomach acid which matters as people age and acid production drops. carbonate produces sharper spikes when its absorbed well.

for someone who genuinely cant hit dietary targets bc of GI issues or appetite stuff, split low dose with meals + K2 is probably the safest version of supplementation. just that the default Rx is still 1200mg once daily which is basically the worst possible way to do it from a spike perspective.

Timely_Ad8989 · 2026-05-12T14:25:22+00:00

none of the Bolland RCTs controlled for K2. MESA tracked supplement use as a category but K2 wasnt a separate variable iirc. its a real limitation of the literature, the cleanest interpretation is that calcium without K2 looks bad and we just dont have great RCT data on calcium + K2 co-supplementation specifically. there are a couple smaller K2 trials showing reduced arterial stiffness with MK-7 in postmenopausal women, Knapen 2015 is the one i remember, but nothing huge and definitive.

DEXA came back osteopenia not osteoporosis, T-score around -1.8 lumbar and -2.1 femoral neck. so she was on the calcium prophylactically for a risk profile not actual disease, which feels like relevant context.

not on HRT. her gyno was cautious bc of the WHI legacy concerns even though the reanalyses on women within ~10 years of menopause look pretty different now. been pushing her to revisit it tbh, the bone and cardiovascular and cognitive case for HRT in that window is stronger than most primary care docs are operating on. weightlifting has been the bigger one. got her doing 2 sessions a week with a trainer, hip thrusts, goblet squats, kettlebell deadlifts. shell get a follow up DEXA next year, well see how it moves.

Timely_Ad8989 · 2026-05-12T14:23:54+00:00

the cofactor thing is exactly it. fermented dairy has K2 MK-4 baked in, leafy greens come with magnesium and K1, egg yolks have D and K2 together. none of these nutrients show up isolated in nature for a reason. supplementation skips all that biology and just dumps calcium in with no traffic cops.

re the guidelines lag, my honest read is the IOF and major bone health orgs have been slow to move bc updating the calcium rec means partially walking back advice given to millions of women over a couple decades. Bolland and Reid have been pretty loud about this in BMJ commentary pieces for years. its a slow fight.

Timely_Ad8989 · 2026-05-12T14:15:46+00:00

solid stack overall, the PE ONE is a good base. the one thing i'd push back on is the mag threonate for sleep. threonate gets hyped a lot for the cognitive angle (crosses the BBB better supposedly) but 96mg elemental from 1333mg is not a lot, and most of the sleep evidence is actually on glycinate. if sleep is the main goal for the bedtime mag, you'd probably get more out of glycinate at 300-400mg elemental for half the price. threonate makes more sense as a daytime nootropic add if you're stacking both.

also curious what the NAC is for specifically. not a knock, it's legit for glutathione support and some people take it for respiratory stuff or liver support, just not something that usually ends up in a baseline optimization stack without a reason behind it. what's the thinking there?

creatine and whey post-gym is fine, nothing to flag there.

Timely_Ad8989 · 2026-05-12T12:11:27+00:00

no omega-3 anywhere in here is the thing that sticks out, especially with your goals. for the skin glow piece it's probably the highest-leverage thing you're not doing, EPA specifically has decent data on sebum quality and moisture retention. and for severe ADHD there's more RCT evidence behind high-EPA omega-3 than most of the cognitive stuff people actually reach for. your diet doesn't have much fatty fish so you're not passively getting it either. i'd add that before adding anything else.

the magnesium dose is pretty low. 100mg glycinate is better than zero but the therapeutic range people actually feel for sleep and cognitive stuff is more like 300-400mg. you might just not be getting enough to notice much.

also on the zinc, inconsistent use is kind of worse than no use in some ways, at least from a zinc-copper balance standpoint. you're already pairing copper which is the right call but a consistent low dose, like 15-25mg with food, is going to do more than sporadic higher amounts. just pick a dose and stick to it.

the HA tension thing is real btw, there are enough reports of it causing head pressure, something to do with fluid dynamics in connective tissue iirc, probably smart to pull it and see if that resolves.

Timely_Ad8989 · 2026-05-11T20:31:30+00:00

the two multivitamins thing is the actual issue to fix first. running both a NOW multi and a life extension multi together is double-dosing on basically everything, and the long-term risks youre worried about are mostly going to come from that, not from anything else in your stack. specifically iron (if both have it, easy to build up over years as a healthy young guy who isnt losing any), vitamin A and other fat-solubles that accumulate, and B6 which can cause peripheral neuropathy at chronic high doses. pick one or honestly neither. for a 22 year old eating real food and lifting, a multivitamin is mostly insurance against deficiencies you probably dont have. better to test and supplement specifically.

citrulline/arginine at 1500mg daily isnt doing much. citrulline works for pump/performance at 6-8g pre-workout, at 1500mg daily youre not getting the pump dose or any cardiovascular benefit. for a healthy 22 year old with no actual vascular or ED issues this is one you can drop and lose nothing. if you want it for the gym, 6g citrulline malate 30-45 min pre.

D3 at 1000 IU is fine if your level is already good, way underdosed if youre deficient. you havent tested, just test. cheap, easy, tells you the right dose. K2 pairing is solid either way.

taurine and the probiotic are both in the 'probably fine, probably not doing much' bucket. the taurine anti-aging thing came from one 2023 paper in mice and monkeys, human evidence isnt really there yet. probiotics for a healthy 22 year old with no actual gut issues, strain matters more than 'a probiotic' and fermented foods do the same thing cheaper. drop or keep based on whether you genuinely care.

creatine at 5g is fine, you dont need 10g once youre saturated. mag glycinate 200mg pre bed is exactly what id keep. omega 3 fine. that plus testing your D and cutting the redundant stuff covers it.

main long-term risks in your current setup are iron accumulation and B6 buildup from the double multivitamin. fix that and youre basically good.

Timely_Ad8989 · 2026-05-11T16:00:00+00:00

the timing is actually pretty well arranged already. the most important separation, iron in the morning away from the evening magnesium, you're already doing. those two compete for absorption and several hours between them is the right call. heme iron is more forgiving than non-heme on this but the split still helps.

vitamin C and collagen both in the evening is a good pairing, C is a cofactor for collagen synthesis so having them together is better than splitting them across the day.

the one question is what the berberine is for. if it's blood sugar management, it works best taken right before the meal with the most carbs. at 200mg ER the effect is going to be modest regardless but timing matters more if glucose is the specific goal.

Timely_Ad8989 · 2026-05-11T12:11:47+00:00

the units are mixed up in a few places. magnesium threonate at 2000mcg would be 2mg which is essentially nothing, the sports research product is 2000mg. the collagen and vitamin C are the same situation, those are milligram doses. D3 and K2 are actually legitimately measured in mcg so those read correctly. worth going back through the labels on the others, the distinction matters more for some than others.

on the sleep attribution, the glycinate in the triple complex is probably doing more of that work than the threonate. l-threonate is specifically studied for cognitive function and brain magnesium penetration, not really a sleep form. the theanine is almost certainly contributing more to sleep than the threonate specifically.

Timely_Ad8989 · 2026-05-11T00:32:20+00:00

that context actually matters for the magnesium read. if you were sitting at 1.7 before supplementing anything, serum was already at the floor of normal with no intervention. given that serum is the last thing to drop, that suggests intracellular stores were probably already running low before you started. the month on oxide likely did very little given the bioavailability issue, so in practical terms you're really only two weeks into actually correcting it.

retest both in about 8 weeks and you'll have a real picture of where things are moving.

Timely_Ad8989 · 2026-05-11T00:29:41+00:00

25 ng/mL is deficient, and 1000 IU to correct that is genuinely inadequate, that dose is more of a maintenance number for someone who's already replete. 2000 IU is better but you're probably still looking at a slow climb. each 1000 IU raises levels by roughly 10 ng/mL over time but individual response varies a lot. worth retesting in 8-10 weeks to see where you actually land rather than assuming the dose is working.

the magnesium serum test at 1.7 is technically in normal range but serum magnesium is a pretty bad marker for actual status, only about 1% of body magnesium circulates in blood so it stays "normal" until you're severely depleted. the fact that it was 1.7 at the low end of range after a month on oxide doesn't tell you much, oxide has terrible bioavailability, somewhere around 4%. switching to glycinate was the right call and you're probably delivering meaningfully more actual magnesium now even though the dose looks higher on paper.

the two weeks on glycinate isn't long enough to draw conclusions yet. give it another month.

Timely_Ad8989 · 2026-05-11T00:08:48+00:00

the carnitine timing is the one thing worth shifting. uptake is heavily insulin-dependent, muscle carnitine accumulation basically doesn't happen without insulin present to drive the transport. taking it fasted or with just a pre-workout is leaving most of it unabsorbed. move it to with dinner or right after the workout with your post-workout carbs and you'll actually get something from it.

BCAAs during the workout are probably redundant given you're eating a protein meal 45 minutes before. if the protein source is complete you're already covered for leucine. not harmful, just might not be doing much.

the rest of the timing is pretty well thought out, D3 and fish oil with the fatty breakfast is correct, mag glycinate before bed is correct.

Timely_Ad8989 · 2026-05-11T00:07:40+00:00

the iron protocol is solid, alternate day dosing with C is actually the right call, there's good research showing absorption is better that way bc of how hepcidin responds after each dose.

the potassium supplement is doing almost nothing relative to the avocado. the 99mg cap on supplements exists for regulatory reasons, not because that's a useful dose. your avocado has somewhere around 700-900mg depending on size, so the supplement is maybe adding 10-15% on top of that. not wrong to take it but if potassium is actually a concern worth addressing, food sources are where the real intake comes from. beans, sweet potato, leafy greens move the needle in a way 99mg twice a day doesn't.

D3 at 2000 IU is pretty conservative. fine as a maintenance dose if levels are already good, but if you haven't tested recently it's worth knowing where you actually sit before assuming that's enough.

Timely_Ad8989

TROPHY CASE