Shilajit: Blood of the Mountains, Destroyer of Weakness
Supplementation is a very tricky science! Plenty of people might try to convince you that all supplements are worthless & that they only make for expensive urine – they’re generally wrong. Others believe that supplements are everything; trading in a healthy diet for comfort food & 20 tablets – they’re also wrong. It’s important that we walk the fine line when it comes to supplements, because they are just that: supplements to a healthy, balanced diet!
Unfortunately, there’s a lot of snake oil out there; and, for every snake oil supplement there’s a slither of “experts” selling it! Even for smart people, it’s hard to suss out the good from the bad when the big-name bloggers & influencers are all making their grand claims about what they’re ingesting & what it’s doing for them!
Shilajit is the latest social media supplement of choice, but if you’re anything like me, this might be your first time hearing about it!
New to me & you, but old to the world!
From traditional Indian medicine and even into Northern Russian home remedies, shilajit’s been making the rounds for over 3,000 years now (Wilson et. al, 2011). We’re talking about a black, tar-like substance, found at extremely high altitudes of over 1,000 meters, that oozes from mountainous rocks like blood from a wound! Fittingly, it’s referred to as the blood of mountains by some cultures; the protecting organism & destroyer of weakness in others!
Like something straight out of a fantasy novel!
What does the literature say about its potential health benefits?
Due to its chemical makeup, researchers believe that shilajit is the product of a centuries-long decomposition process of specific mountainous molds, mosses, and latex plants due to extreme heat & sunlight (Agarwal et. al, 2007). As far as nutritional value goes, shilajit is packed with 10 amino acids (Frolova & Kiseleva, 1996), as well as more than 84 bioavailable minerals including copper, zinc, and iron (Meena et. al, 2010).
Now that’s nutrient density!
Throughout history shilajit has been hailed as a fat-burning, memory-boosting, antioxidant-filled aphrodisiac that slows aging & increases vitality! The miracle compound has been prescribed to treat genitourinary & digestive disorders, diabetes, edema, epilepsy, anemia and anorexia!
If it sounds too good to be true, then it might be; there have only been a few attempts to support these bold assertions, but the jury’s still out on many of these claims!
In a study on the effects of shilajit extract in post-menopausal women, when supplemented with 250 or 500mg of the supplement regularly, participants saw increases in bone mineral density as well as decreases in oxidative stress & inflammation (Pingali, U., & Nutalapati, 2022). Another interesting study looked at the effects of purified shilajit supplementation on testosterone in middle-aged participants; when taking a 250mg dose twice each day, users saw over a 20-percent increase in total testosterone over a 90-day period.
So there’s something!
In fairness to anyone who’s skeptical, the evidence in support of shilajit’s effects is overall pretty lacking. Good research on the supplement is few & far between! On the bright side, the social media star supplement’s been shown to be pretty safe; the recommended dose is between 250 & 500mg and animal testing has shown no negative effects with intake up to 3 grams per kilogram of body weight (Meena et. al, 2010).
When we consider how nutrient poor modern diets are & how many of us are experiencing deficits in key micronutrients (Bird et. al, 2017), 84 minerals & 10 amino acids can’t hurt!
Hopefully, as contemporary & alternative medicine becomes more socially & scientifically accepted, we can get more information on this one, because so far it looks really promising! It definitely does seem like there’s much more to the shilajit story than the current literature would let on! They can’t call it the destroyer of weakness for nothing, right? For now, keep it simple, don’t overdo it, and happy supplementing!
Works Cited & Further Reading
Wilson, E., Rajamanickam, G. V., Dubey, G. P., Klose, P., Musial, F., Saha, F. J., Rampp, T., Michalsen, A., & Dobos, G. J. (2011). Review on shilajit used in traditional Indian medicine. Journal of ethnopharmacology, 136(1), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jep.2011.04.033
Agarwal, S. P., Khanna, R., Karmarkar, R., Anwer, M. K., & Khar, R. K. (2007). Shilajit: a review. Phytotherapy research : PTR, 21(5), 401–405. https://doi.org/10.1002/ptr.2100
Frolova, L. N., & Kiseleva, T. L. (1996). Chemical composition of mumijo and methods for determining its authenticity and quality (a review). Pharmaceutical Chemistry Journal, 30, 543-547.
Meena, H., Pandey, H. K., Arya, M. C., & Ahmed, Z. (2010). Shilajit: A panacea for high-altitude problems. International journal of Ayurveda research, 1(1), 37–40. https://doi.org/10.4103/0974-7788.59942
Pingali, U., & Nutalapati, C. (2022). Shilajit extract reduces oxidative stress, inflammation, and bone loss to dose-dependently preserve bone mineral density in postmenopausal women with osteopenia: A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. Phytomedicine : international journal of phytotherapy and phytopharmacology, 105, 154334. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.phymed.2022.154334
Bird, J. K., Murphy, R. A., Ciappio, E. D., & McBurney, M. I. (2017). Risk of Deficiency in Multiple Concurrent Micronutrients in Children and Adults in the United States. Nutrients, 9(7), 655. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu9070655
