Hearing you with the active/carrier ratio.
As you noted, we wanted to deliver to market the most compound for the best price.
The other thing I suspect is the R&D guys noted the study doses with dhea were 400mg/d +, with no adverse sides...so I imagine this too was an influence in the final dosing of the product and Hastur's recommendations.
The only thing I will say about the studies I have read on DHEA is that most of them have been conducted based upon oral comsumption of DHEA. I remember reading one study using a DHEA cream that used (I believe) a dose of 150mg of DHEA per day. There are studies out there that show a large difference in bioavailability of oral vs percutaneuos (TD) delivery of the the active compound.
Invalid Link Removed (done on rats) shows that TD application has 33% of the bioavailability of subcutaneous administration, while oral has 3% the bio. of sub-Q delivery. That shows quite a difference between oral and TD routes of delivery. I believe there are other studies showing human oral bio. to be higher than that...... Regardless of the specifics, the point remains that there is a noted bio. difference between oral and TD delivery. Based upon anecdotal usage of other compounds, in a TD vs. oral comparison, I would guess the bioavilability factor is 2-5 fold higher with TD vs oral administration (depending on which by-product we are looking for an increase in). The suggestion of a 10-fold increase seems to be a bit much, especially considering the effects we often see with consumption of 25-50 mg or oral DHEA.
I've not done a lot of research on DHEA bioavailability so I'm happy to be pointed to some literature that would broaden my knowledge base. I am curious (maybe he did and I missed it) to hear Hastur's thoughts on using 400-500mg of TD DHEA per day. That number seems quite high to me. Although, short-term use of high doses of TD DHEA would certainly reap the most benefits and would allow for some good anabolic/androgenic and thermogenic benefits to be seen. Not much of those
specific benefits can be seen in males with low daily doses of oral DHEA (outliers notwithstanding). Maybe it's just that the target audience for this product is different than the competitor? Meaning the increased dosage of actives allows this product to do what others may not be able to do....
Another thing for people to keep in mind if they are considering dosing super dhea significantly lower than what is recc'd in the writeup: doing so may mean you miss out on the benefits of the other compounds in the product, particularly the osthole and acacetin.
I hope to see some benefits of the other compounds. I wonder what the minimally effective doses of the others would be? Maybe TD application changes the game somehwat?
For me, I base my dosing off of what I have needed in the past. Being more economical, I do plan to raise my Super-DHEA dose as time goes on. You can't experiment without experimenting, I guess.
With products like these, I tend to start out with lower doses, and then increase as desired. Some people do well on DHEA products while others do not. I'd imagine it might be hard to find the individual point of dimishing returns (when factored against side-effects) when heavy or maximal dosing is used right off the bat.
Happy to hear some feedback on my thoughts from anybody that feels compelled.
