Just take it with a high-fat meal and you’ll get good absorption regardless of brand. I’m sure the study used fasted volunteers, which is the only case where the pill formulation is going to make any difference.
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That’s interesting. Someone noted I was blinking oddly recently. I’ve started taking curcumin. I wonder if that is it? Could be a number of things, I thought it was more to do with an increased intake of caffeine because I was doing some busy work at that time.
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3 grams hah. Did you ever settle on a particular affordable bulk astaxanthin?
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Kind of sounds like potato starch with a dose would have the same effect on absorption as what he says they add to their pills. Any opinions?
n=1 experience:
Using 10mg Astaxanthin EOD (so relatively low dose) for 1.5 years, never tested androgens during this time. Experienced symptoms that made me suspect low DHT, researched what in my stack could be supressing DHT or 5ar. Turns out Astaxanthin is quite potent for that.
Stopped it immediately and in a few months my DHT was 550. However CBC was much worse, LDL surprisingly worse as well. Decided to go back on 6mg ASX EOD.
2 months of usage and my DHT went from 550 to 390. CBC normalized fully.
So at least in my case relatively low-dose Astaxanthin results in 30% lowering of serum DHT but improved other biomarkers.
I would like to preserve DHT levels of 550+ but don’t want to stop Astaxanthin. So any thoughts would be appreciated. Thinking to cut Curcumin now (used it for last 4 years).
PS: Tried Creatine to upregulate 5ar: did not result in any serum DHT increase.
Ginkgo as well no result, Tribulus 10% increase.
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I never saw astaxanthin have any effect on my hair at all. Did you test your DHT at multiple points before and after taking astaxanthin?
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Yes, I did. This is profound effect from Astaxanthin confirmed by multiple blood tests without it and on it. I did not take it for hair loss and would prefer ASX to not be 5ar inhibitor, so no idea how it effects scalp DHT and hair loss. It may very well be effective for this, there seems to be no other herb that inhibits 5ar so much.
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Then I guess you will either have to take a lower dose or quit it altogether. Alternatively try to randomize yourself to either a placebo or an astaxanthin pill to figure out whether you are actually experiencing side effects from astaxanthin or from the mere expectation of it.
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Hmm… I take a decent amount of Astaxanthin and still have to shave every day (if even a day goes by without shaving, my face has stubble). Male facial hair growth is strongly correlated with DHT levels; though genetics also plays a role.
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My DHT must have been sky high before finasteride then because my beard still grows fast. I don’t like having to shave it every day.
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I also get stubble in less than a day and am taking both Finasteride and Astaxanthin.
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Asta being a 5ari in vitro is very interesting, it would be great to have data whether it is in vivo. It is definitely tempting to think this would be related to its lifespan effect. 5ari increasing lifespan in male but not female mice is an explanation that could explain both asta and 17α-Estradiol. It would also be exciting since 5ari is commonly used in humans as Finasteride - will they see a lifespan increase? However, Finasteride hasn’t seen decreases in all cause mortality in large studies which casts doubt on that explanation, or on the hope that it translates to humans.
It seems to me like there is more going on with asta than 5ari - such as with the sun protection it seems to give.
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ITP testing Finasteride would be a great way to determine if the 5ari is causal for lifespan increases of those drugs.
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Wow that’s interesting. I use TRT cream which increases DHT. I’m also on 24mg of astaxanthin per night.
I actually just did a comprehensive blood test a few days ago that included DHT, I’ll be interested to see the results of this. I’ve never tested DHT before.
(2021) Astaxantin and Isoflavones Inhibit Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia in Rats by Reducing Oxidative Stress and Normalizing Ca/Mg Balance https://www.mdpi.com/2223-7747/10/12/2735
"We indicated higher testosterone levels in blood serum following finasteride and astaxanthin treatment, which could be explained by the inhibition of the 5a-reductase enzyme and less conversion of testosterone to DHT in prostatic epithelial cells, but the level of DHT was not assessed in our study. Serum testosterone elevations are known to occur with the administration of finasteride and dutasteride but the values typically remain within the normal laboratory range.
In the present study, both isoflavones and astaxanthin inhibited BPH development in rats with comparable efficacy with finasteride in terms of prostate weight, prostatic epithelium proliferation and prostate tissue cumulative histology score. However, only astaxanthin yielded a significant effect on epithelial area and testosterone level in blood compared to finasteride."
(2005) A preliminary investigation of the enzymatic inhibition of 5alpha-reduction and growth of prostatic carcinoma cell line LNCap-FGC by natural astaxanthin and Saw Palmetto lipid extract in vitro A preliminary investigation of the enzymatic inhibition of 5alpha-reduction and growth of prostatic carcinoma cell line LNCap-FGC by natural astaxanthin and Saw Palmetto lipid extract in vitro - PubMed
“The results show astaxanthin demonstrated 98% inhibition of 5alpha-reductase at 300 microg/mL in vitro.”
Doesn’t mention what types of 5AR it inhibits.
It is in vitro, not in vivo.
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Open Access Paper:
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Astaxanthin or not, overdoing exercise has risks the older you get.
Beloved triathlete, teacher dies after weekend bike ride
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Stories like this remind me to take it easy on the exercise. I like my physique. I feel most of what I like about it, is that I lost body fat so that my muscle and veins show nicely. Most of that was lost from diet (and tirzepatide/berberine), not exercise.
No point suffering, if the suffering has nothing good on the other side.
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Anecdotes always bring a form of bias. You didn’t compare the group of thriathletes as a whole compared with matched couch potatoes. The increase in Afib is significant though and as a result the increase risk of stroke, dementia, etc.
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It’s about people overexercising. Couch potatoes inspire me to exercise moderately lol.
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