Alphamax XT dry lips

[Jinsun]

Hy! I've been taking 2x2 pills a day now for 14 days. A few days ago I started getting crazy dry lips. No matter how much water I drink, it doesn't really help. Going to the bathroom every 30 - 45 mins now, so I would say I am definitely hydrated enough I'm not taking anything else, so it's definitely Alphamax that's doing this.

Why is alpha causing this? Dry lips can be a sign of low e2, but the Ai in this is not that strong is it? Or do any of the other ingredients cause dry lips?
I was going to wait 3 weeks before I do bloods, but maybe I should do them now?

Bloods before taking alpha:

TSH: 3.31 - (0.27 - 4.2 mIU/L)
Total T: 24 - (8,64 - 29 nmol/L)
Free T: 44,6 (31 - 94 nmol/L)
Estradiol: 22 (11 - 44 ng/L)
DHEA: 11,2 (4,6 - 16,1 umol/L)
FSH: 1.85 (0.95 - 11.95 IU/L)
LH: 2.92 (0.57 - 12.07 IU/L)

My e2 wasn't high, but I don't think DHAA can lower e2 that much to produce such symptoms?? Joints are fine btw, no other symptoms. Also can't say I feel any different.

Tnx!

 

[SFreed]

I've never heard of this before. I've ran AlphaMax twice and didn't notice having dry lips. I'm sure we'll get a couple of reps in here shortly and maybe they can offer some advice.

 

[cubsfan815]

I have not heard any reports of Alphamax XT and dry lips. What State are you in? Has the weather changed? Anything in your diet change?

 

[twuncher]

Dry lips can be caused by ala supplementation if you are not also taking biotin if that is in your stack somewhere?

 

[Jinsun]

Nop, nothing else. Really just wanted to use alpha so I could isolate it's effects and do bloods to see what it does do e2 and T.

Im in normal state Sleeping a bit better the last few days due to more relaxing, but been working a bit more. Nothing out of the ordinary... All is the same really, with the exception of alpha.

Alpha did cause digestion problems, but then I started taking the pills an hour appart of each other and also added a probiotic, so now it's not so bad any more.

Dry lips are the worst an hour to two hours after I take it, then it settles down.

 

[Jinsun]

Alpha did cause digestion problems...

Let me rephrase this: I had to be near the toilet a lot for a few days Never took forskolin before.

 

[cubsfan815]

Let me rephrase this: I had to be near the toilet a lot for a few days Never took forskolin before.

Have you tried taking it with your meals? That really helps the GI distress for the first few weeks of F95.

 

[Jinsun]

Jup. Always. I think it's getting better, probiotics or no probiotics.

 

[Jinsun]

Is it possible for Alpha to lower blood glucose or to increase insulin secretion or increase insulin sensitivity? Just did a couple of really low readings on a glucose tolerance test...

 

[Jinsun]

cubsfan815 What's DHAA's half life?

Anyway, I got bloods done today and my estrogen e2 is higher then before I started taking Alphamax. Before it was 22 now it was 30 ng/L ref range 11 - 44.

Why I'm asking about Alpha's ai's half life? Well I'm surprised my e2 is higher then before started taking Alpha. If anything it should be lower for a couple of points. I'm thinking that maybe DHAA has a short half life and considering that it isn't sucidal that my e2 levels rose up from the last time I took it, which is app 18 hours before blood was taken. So I took bloods today at 10am and I took Alpha yesterday at 16:00. What if DHAA lowers e2 upon ingesting and after a certain amount of time it stops working but the body is still producing more T which ends up being aromatised... hence the higher e2 reading. Still waiting on my T scores from the lab unfortunately.

The other thing is Vitamin D. In spite of taking 4 tabs of Alpha/day my D is at 30,2 ug/L. Ref range > 30. Which means it's at the bottom.

 

[cubsfan815]

I will look into the half-life for you. I can say DHAA takes longer to get going than arimistane does. You are just 2 weeks in, so I would not be too concerned about the numbers yet.

 

[Jinsun]

3 weeks axactly. So it should be working

 

[Jinsun]

One thing I dont understand is why does daa take 3 weeks to start working? I mean, its an ai, shouldn't it start working immediately upon ingesting?

 

[Jinsun]

cubsfan815 Still combating dry lips, it doesn't seem to go away. I will try and dose the pills in 4 separate times of day to try and avoid the drying effects. It's really weird, I've got all the signs of low e2: dry skin, dry lips, no libido... but labs showed high e2. Maybe the halflife of DHAA is really really short? Did you find out maybe anything about the half life of DHAA?

I wanted to ask you, what are the benefits of taking 2 pills at once? Will I loose any benefits if I take the 4 pills separated evenly through the day? For example: 1 in the morning, one at noon, one at afternoon and one in the evening...

I will also do one test: I will take two pills in the morning and an hour later I'll go to the labs to test for e2. I am in week 5 now (day 29).

 

[cubsfan815]

I did not find anything on half life. I'm traveling a bit now, muscleupcrohn or AntM1564 might be able to help out.

 

[muscleupcrohn]

I did not find anything on half life. I'm traveling a bit now, muscleupcrohn or AntM1564 might be able to help out.

I️ recall it being quite short.

 

[AntM1564]

You could try a 1-1-1-1 dosing scheme. It could be the change in weather too. It has gotten cold here in the past week and I have had to break out the chapstick.

 

[Jinsun]

You could try a 1-1-1-1 dosing scheme. It could be the change in weather too. It has gotten cold here in the past week and I have had to break out the chapstick.

I appreciate your sarcasm, but no, it's not the weather. The skin on the lips is falling off all the time, it's cracking and my lips are bleeding and have no time to heal. So it's quite bad. I will start taking 2 pills a day, to see if it helps, but first I will try and endure this bs for a little longer so I can do a 5 week alphamax blood test and a test where I will take two pills prior to the blood test. Then I'll go to 2 ed and if that doesnt help I will cut out alpha all together.

I will test for e2 and T. Any other suggestion guys, anything else you would be interested in seeing?

 

[Jinsun]

cubsfan815

Okey mate, I got my second blood panel done and my e2 shot up to 90 (11-44 ref)!

Now either this was not alpha or dhaa is a tipe 2 ai with an extremly short half life and I am experiencing rebound e2 every day. Or something completely different that I have no idea about.

 

[Jinsun]

This are other today's resoults:

LH: 3.40 (0.57 - 12)
Cortisol: 440 (101 - 535)

This are after 3 weeks of alpha:

e2: 30
Cortisol: 390
Free T: 18.5 (7.0 - 22.7)
SHBG 62 (14.5 - 94.6)
Totall T: 7ng/dl (1.65 - 7.53)

My LH went slightly up, probably due to increase in calories. But it's so small that it's negligible.
What's weird is that free T went up quite a lot, with my LH staying practically the same. e2 rose from 22, to 30 and now sky high 90. All very weird and to my knowledge not logical. How can free T go up without LH and with more e2...

 

[Adizzle1]

What was the timing of the tests, it makes sense Free Testosterone increased as its likely SHBG decreased allowing for more circulating testosterone. Whats weird is your 'side effect' is kind of opposing what the lab results show. Increased estrogen would be linked to increased water retention, bloating, oily skin etc. Where as, low estrogen would be more linked to the dry skin, dry lips, less water retention. I am thinking its possibly the timing of the tests to why estrogen showed so much higher then normal but again the dry-lips would be more linked to lower estrogen then higher, conversly it could be not involved at all and from something completely different.

 

[Jinsun]

What was the timing of the tests, it makes sense Free Testosterone increased as its likely SHBG decreased allowing for more circulating testosterone. Whats weird is your 'side effect' is kind of opposing what the lab results show. Increased estrogen would be linked to increased water retention, bloating, oily skin etc. Where as, low estrogen would be more linked to the dry skin, dry lips, less water retention. I am thinking its possibly the timing of the tests to why estrogen showed so much higher then normal but again the dry-lips would be more linked to lower estrogen then higher, conversly it could be not involved at all and from something completely different.

Yep, that's what I'm think but I just phrased it differently. Short half life of dhaa. Blood was morning while last dose of Alpha was previous day, around 20:00. I will do another test tomorrow, and will take a dose of Alpha 1 hour prior to the test. I hope that with doing so, I will prove or disprove my theory of the short half life of dhaa.

Dry lips is a symptom of low e2 yes (I get them after I take Alpha, they are dry before they just get a lot worse), also high free t needs elevated LH which is a product of lowered e2, due to the ai. I am more vainy, quite noticeably so. Some veins stood out where they previously didn't - even at a lower bf %. This also doesn't make sense with a high e2. I did however get bloated, but this could be bc of Mk. Because of this reasons, the only thing that makes sense to me is that e2 is swinging up and down due to the short half life of dhaa. I'm not sure if this is possible, but it's what I'm going to test. Together with prolactin. Either way, I will stop taking Alpha as something is definitely not ok.

Offcourse, as you say, there could be something completely different wrong. But it's definitely connected to Alpha.

 

[cubsfan815]

Yep, that's what I'm think but I just phrased it differently. Short half life of dhaa. Blood was morning while last dose of Alpha was previous day, around 20:00. I will do another test tomorrow, and will take a dose of Alpha 1 hour prior to the test. I hope that with doing so, I will prove or disprove my theory of the short half life of dhaa.

Dry lips is a symptom of low e2 yes (I get them after I take Alpha, they are dry before they just get a lot worse), also high free t needs elevated LH which is a product of lowered e2, due to the ai. I am more vainy, quite noticeably so. Some veins stood out where they previously didn't - even at a lower bf %. This also doesn't make sense with a high e2. I did however get bloated, but this could be bc of Mk. Because of this reasons, the only thing that makes sense to me is that e2 is swinging up and down due to the short half life of dhaa. I'm not sure if this is possible, but it's what I'm going to test. Together with prolactin. Either way, I will stop taking Alpha as something is definitely not ok.

Offcourse, as you say, there could be something completely different wrong. But it's definitely connected to Alpha.

Mk-677?

 

[Jinsun]

Jup. From Olympus, also from prerd. 2 weeks in.

 

[Jinsun]

Okey, I did a nother blood test today. As I described in my posts above: I took 2 pills of Alpha before the test. Took them at 0715 and the blood was drawn at 0930. So Alpha had 2 hours time to kick in.

And the resoults are... Drum roll... e2 = 35 ng/L
So this more or less proves my theory and it explains my simptoms. On some days I obviously had really low e2 and on some days not so much. Then on some parts of the day I had low e2 and on other parts of the day (morning before I took Alpha) I had really high e2.

Obviously dhaa is not a suicide ai but rather a tipe 2 ai like arimidex or letro. But the way it acts in the sistem is much much more unpredictable AND it's half life is obviously very very short causing great e2 fluctuations. At least it was like this in my case.

Alphamax did help in upping my free t levels, it also made me more veiny and I think it gave me better endurance in the gym. But I didnt feel the same on all days. Obviously, when Mk came in to the game, the recovery got even better.

Now what Alpha also did is mess up my estrogen. This is really to bad. And based on these results I can not recommend DHAA as an Ai to anybody. I will not to do any more tests as I don't want to play with my body like this anymore But I am sure, that if I had done a nother blood test 4 hours since taking Alpha my e2 would be in the 0 to 10 range. As my lips are currently totally dry, but they werent in the morning.

I really think dhaa needs more testing before people would start using it. And IMO arimistane is a much better option for a prop blend in a test booster as it's a suicide ai that is going to be much more predictable. Just don't dose it to high. Dose it on the low end of the safe side and people wont complain of joint pain

 

[Adizzle1]

What time of the day was blood drawn with the result of e2 being at 90?

 

[Jinsun]

9am

 

[Adizzle1]

Odd. A lot of this just isnt adding up for some reason.

Aromatase Inhibitors do not destroy estrogen that is currently in the body, it simply blocks the aromatase enzyme from creating new estrogen, so there is a definite lag time to when estrogen would actually decrease. For example, with a perscription drug(Arimidex), it takes 24 hours to reduce the amount of estrogen by 70%. However, that would mean if 90 was the baseline that Alphamax reduced estrogen by 61% in 2 hours, its just not plausible, as the estrogen already in circulation would need to be metabolized within 2 hours which just wouldnt happen. Also that would make this natural compound one of the most potent AIs, far more then any prescription drug. Something is a bit off here and I dont think it has to do with Alphamax. This formula of Alphamax has been sold for a long time now, zero reports of dry skin, zero reports of low estrogen or high estrogen side effects. By all accounts DHAA has always been known as a mild AI. There must be some underlying issue or the numbers are off cause its just not plausible that DHAA can reduce estrogen by 61% in 2 hours but it takes a prescription drug 24 hours to lower it by 70%.

 

[Jinsun]

Odd. A lot of this just isnt adding up for some reason.

Aromatase Inhibitors do not destroy estrogen that is currently in the body, it simply blocks the aromatase enzyme from creating new estrogen, so there is a definite lag time to when estrogen would actually decrease. For example, with a perscription drug(Arimidex), it takes 24 hours to reduce the amount of estrogen by 70%. However, that would mean if 90 was the baseline that Alphamax reduced estrogen by 61% in 2 hours, its just not plausible, as the estrogen already in circulation would need to be metabolized within 2 hours which just wouldnt happen. Also that would make this natural compound one of the most potent AIs, far more then any prescription drug. Something is a bit off here and I dont think it has to do with Alphamax. This formula of Alphamax has been sold for a long time now, zero reports of dry skin, zero reports of low estrogen or high estrogen. There must be some underlying issue or the numbers are off cause its just not plausible that DHAA can reduce estrogen by 61% in 2 hours but it takes a prescription drug 24 hours to lower it by 70%.

Yeah, I don't know. Im not a biochemist... I could send the pills to a lab, maybe its a bad batch, or something...

Do you think the lab messed up or something?

 

[Adizzle1]

Not sure if the lab messed up your blood results, but you seem to be getting them rather quickly, same day etc. Most blood results take about 24 hours to receive. I am thinking there is another outside factor playing into this equation. Also throughout the day hormones fluctuate, as testosterone raises as a ratio estrogen would be higher so maybe it is somehow changing but it does seem like the timing with tests are quite similar.

 

[Jinsun]

Yes, the lab gives results in app 3 to 4 hours. Some test's take longer however... Like igf, or free t... But thats due to the fact they have to send it to a nother location.

 

[Adizzle1]

Got it, yea at this point I would stop the Alphamax, give yourself a few weeks and get another test done and see where it stands at that point and how similar it is to the first baseline test. Could be its just not a good fit for you personally, which does happen as everyone is different.

 

[Jinsun]

Yeah, I got some arimidex at hand, was thinking of 0.25 eod for a week, then tapper off... But I would also be interested at how quickly E would drop by itself. Hm...

 

[Adizzle1]

Yea to be hoenst, I would definitely not add anything else into the mix, just let your everything go to baseline before throwing more things in the mix.

 

[Jinsun]

Yea to be hoenst, I would definitely not add anything else into the mix, just let your everything go to baseline before throwing more things in the mix.

I just dont really want to walk arround with such high e for to long of a time... I am totally sad and emotional. I just came from the movies, watched justice league and almost cried a couple of times Plus I have absolutely no sex drive...

 

[Jinsun]

But I would like to treat this problem with a suicide ai.

 

[Jinsun]

Hi again!

So I just got my free T results back after cca 5weeks of alpha. And guess what? They are above range! Wtf is going on?? No wonder I'm all jacked up. I'm kinda worried what the hell am I putting in me, PH's that convert to T? Since my LH was the same but T is much higher, this would make sense. But then again my LH is a tad higher then before I started takin Alpha, I'm not supressed more than I was...

Free T: 30 pg/ml (range: 7 - 22.7)

After 3 weeks I had it at 18, after five it's 30, now either Alpha works like a charm on me (and beyond) or there is some other stuff inside.

 

[Adizzle1]

That's exactly what AlphaMax is designed to do with the largest dose of Urtica Diocia on the market.

For total Test to increase there would need to be some increase in LH, however free testosterone is different. Free Testosterone is generally around 10-20% of the total testosterone in the body, the other 80-90% of testosterone is bound to SHBG(sex hormone binding globulin). If your able to lower SHBG you can dramatically increase Free Testosterone without changing the amount of Total Testosterone which is the exact goal of using UD Extract(3,4-divanyltetrahydrofuran).

 

[Jinsun]

Hm... But to put it at supraphysiological levels?

 

[Jinsun]

That's exactly what AlphaMax is designed to do with the largest dose of Urtica Diocia on the market.

Any research to support this claim?

 

[Adizzle1]

Yea theres quite a bit on 3,4-D effects on binding to SHBG. Additionally its not the only lignan in UD to do so but does appear to be the strongest one:

"The natural lignans (-)-3,4-divanillyltetrahydrofuran (1), (-)-matairesinol (2), (-)-secoisolariciresinol (3), (+/-)-enterolactone (4), (+/-)-enterodiol (5), and nordihydroguaiaretic acid (NDGA) (6) reduce the binding of 3H-labeled 5 alpha-dihydrotestosterone (DHT) to human sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG)(-)-3,4-Divanillyltetrahydrofuran (1) has the highest binding affinity" - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9461660 I believe there was also a study done at Wright State University that showed an increased in Free T by 98% with 3,4-Divanill.

Heres another one: Lignans bind to sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG). The lignan with the highest binding affinity is (+/-)-3,4-divanillyltetrahydrofuran. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9463941

Heres another one: Schöttner, Matthias, Dietmar Ganßer, and Gerhard Spiteller. “Lignans from the roots of Urtica dioica and their metabolites bind to human sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG).” Planta medica 63.06 (1997): 529-532.

Also there are a few other ingredients in Alphamax shown to increase Free Testosterone:

Boron Citrate: " Boron in plasma increased significantly following hours and weekly consumption. Six hours supplementation showed a significant decrease on sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG), high sensitive CRP (hsCRP) and TNF-α level. After one week (in samples taken at 8.00 A.M, only), the mean plasma free testosterone increased" - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21129941

Eurycoma Longifolia decreases SHBG and increases free testosterone: "SHBG analysis reduced in 66% of subjects after 3 weeks. Consequently, when SHBG declines, free testosterone index (FTI) goes up in 73% of the subjects" - M.I.M. Tambi, S. Othman AND J.M. Saad. Published: First Asian Andrology 2002

Forskolin has also shown to increase Free Testosterone product with little to no change in total testosterone: "Serum free testosterone levels were significantly increased in the forskolin group compared with the placebo group (p < or = 0.05). The actual change in serum total testosterone concentration was not significantly different among groups" - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16129715

Increasing Total Testosterone is great, but whats more is increasing the Free or Usable Testosterone which was the focus of Alphamax.

 

[Jinsun]

Yea theres quite a bit on 3,4-D effects on binding to SHBG. Additionally its not the only lignan in UD to do so but does appear to be the strongest one:

I've seen in vitro research on Urtica Diocia extract binding to shbg but on human trials it failed... I know specific compounds can have an effect in vitro, but when they are a) a part of an extract and b) used in human or animal studies the results often dont match those of the in vitro studies or just the specific compound standalone. This applies to the lignans and other stuff you mentioned. Tnx for compiling the research.

 

[Adizzle1]

The last three ingredients were all in humans not in vitro and at dosages found in our product. So it doesn't apply there. Also there is the study from Wright State University showing 3,4-D increasing Free T in athletes as well.

"The results of the independent sample t test suggested that there are statistically significant differences for the free testosterone outcome between the two groups"

This is from a supplement that contained 3,4-Divanill and Diosgenin, knowing that Diosgenin has no effect on Testosterone or hormonal levels, the increase in Free T can be attributed do the supplementation with 3,4-D. This was in healthy, trained adult males.

 

[Jinsun]

Was thinking, as I took Alpha 2 hours before the blood test, could the alpha being present in the serum have skewed the results?

 

[Jinsun]

Oh, and regarding the chopped lips... I am using a fancy lip ointement that cured them. I just have to use it a couple of times a day and all is fine. Also, am using 0.125mg dex eod and it helps, but am going to bump it up to 0.25 eod. I think an Ai should be used with Alpha always (in my case that is).