Question
I really have to hand it to you on Progenadrex and Synthagen, my training is so much better on those. Tranquilogen though, is what my question’s about. It really helps with my mood, like night and day.
I assumed it was the rhodiola, but when I used rhodiola by itself it’s not the same. Why is that?
Answer
I get this about a lot of my products – it’s not an invalid question or exercise. People assume XYZ ingredient is the magic, and just take lots of that. It almost never ends well.
There are several reasons for that, but let’s stick with TQ since that’s what your question is about.
Quality Will Cost You
Rhodiola is like a lot of adaptogens – you can buy really good stuff, or really cheap stuff. Of course, when you buy cheap you usually wind up with less or no active ingredients. No actives, no results. In many cases, it really is that simple.
Anyone with an internet connection can see this for themselves: Google rhodiola bulk raws and you’ll pull up lots of stuff. Alibaba in China is where most people wind up, and you’ll find a multitude of suppliers.
After inquiring via email, you’ll typically get a minimum order quantity and price. But its what you won’t get, that’s usually the most telling – a certified 3rd party lab analysis fo those raws.
So I want you to ask for it… at which point 9 out of 10 companies will send you not a 3rd party lab analysis, but a “C of A”, or certificate of analysis.
These are like the various degrees and certifications you used to be able to order out of the back of shady magazines. For a small price you too, can fly passenger planes or practice medicine.
If you do happen to locate superior material, be prepared to pay for it. Upwards of 3 to 5 times the cheap stuff, depending upon your source. If you happen to be shopping for Rhaponticum, it’s not unusual to pay 10x the cheap stuff – especially if you’re only ordering the minimum.
But its also true that TQ uses a lot more than Rhodiola. There is Curcumin, Ashwaghanda, Astaxanthin and 5-HTP at work. And it’s the same story with some of those ingredients, particularly the herbals.
Now not everything you go shopping for will be this difficult. It would be unfair to indict an entire country (like China) just because they play games like this with some ingredients.
For example, a chemical like 5-HTP either is or it isn’t. There’s a lot more of a fudge factor in the herbal market, and this is particularly true for adaptogens.
But without the benefit of years of experience, you wouldn’t know this. You certainly wouldn’t know it on an ingredient by ingredient level.
You reach a point in this game though, where you decided either to do it right or not do it at all.
I gave up trying to find bargain basement adaptogens decades ago, especially when I figured out how much money I wasted trying to save money. A bit counter-productive.
