What did @paulylong actually say?
@paulylong claims his testosterone rose from 630 to 760 ng/dL after six months of taking shilajit resin, and credits a new shilajit-moringa gummy (400 mg shilajit, 200 mg moringa, elderberry-flavored) as a more palatable way to get the same benefits. He says shilajit contains "85 plus different minerals" and fulvic acid that helps absorb nutrients, and lists vitamins A, B, C, E, and K2 as part of the package. His core pitch: click the link, feel better.
To be fair, he's not claiming shilajit is a pharmaceutical. He's sharing a personal anecdote and describing the product's ingredient profile. That's a lower bar, but it still deserves scrutiny because 165,000 people watched this and some of them are going to buy a supplement based on it.
Does the science back this up?
There is legitimate, if limited, clinical research on shilajit and testosterone. A 2016 randomized controlled trial by Pandit et al. published in Andrologia found that 250 mg of purified shilajit twice daily for 90 days produced a statistically significant increase in total testosterone compared to placebo in healthy male volunteers aged 45-55. The effect was real but modest.
That's the good news. The complicated news is that @paulylong's starting testosterone of 630 ng/dL is already within normal adult male range (typically 300-1000 ng/dL depending on the lab). A jump to 760 is a 21 percent increase, which sounds impressive, but testosterone levels fluctuate naturally by 10-30 percent based on sleep, stress, time of day, and even the previous night's alcohol intake. Without a controlled baseline and repeat testing on the same day under the same conditions, this anecdote tells us very little. It could be shilajit. It could be noise.
On moringa, the testosterone evidence is weaker. Animal studies show some promise, but human RCT data specifically on testosterone is sparse. A 2022 review in Frontiers in Pharmacology acknowledged moringa's broad bioactive profile but stopped well short of confirming testosterone-raising effects in humans.
What did they get wrong (or right)?
The "85 plus different minerals" claim is frequently repeated in shilajit marketing and is not wrong exactly, but it is misleading. Shilajit does contain a complex mixture of minerals and organic compounds, primarily fulvic and humic acids. But "85 minerals" is a marketing number, not a clinical endpoint. The quantity of each mineral per 400 mg serving is rarely disclosed and is often clinically irrelevant.
He gets partial credit for correctly identifying fulvic acid as the likely active mechanism. Research, including work by Schepetkin et al. (2009, Phytotherapy Research), suggests fulvic acid may have biological activity including antioxidant and mitochondrial effects. That's legitimate science, even if the supplement industry overextends it constantly.
What he gets wrong is the implied causation. Six months, one blood draw before and after, no controls, and a product change in the middle of the observation period. That's not a winning formula. That's a before-and-after photo with no control group.
What should you actually know?
If your testosterone is already in the 600s, you are not hypogoonally deficient by any standard clinical definition. Supplements like shilajit are not a treatment for hypogonadism and have not been studied as one in rigorous trials. If you are symptomatic, low energy, low libido, poor recovery, talk to a clinician who can order a proper workup including free testosterone, LH, FSH, and SHBG, not just total T.
That said, shilajit is generally considered safe at the doses studied (250-500 mg daily of purified extract). The risk here is not that it will harm you. The risk is that it will cost you money and delay you from getting an actual diagnosis if something real is going on.
One more thing worth noting: the gummy format has not been studied for bioequivalence with the resin or standardized extract forms used in trials. Gummies involve processing, heat, and binding agents that may affect fulvic acid stability. You are not necessarily getting what the research tested.
Is this worth your money or attention?
@paulylong is not a bad actor here. He disclosed his personal experience, described the product honestly, and did not make disease treatment claims. But the framing, "the winning formula" and "click this if you want to feel better," implies a certainty the evidence does not support. A testosterone reading of 760 ng/dL from a baseline of 630 is within the range of normal daily variation. That's not a formula. That's a data point.
If shilajit interests you, look for products standardized to a specific percentage of fulvic acid, ideally tested by a third party like NSF or USP. And keep your expectations calibrated to what the trials actually showed: a modest, real effect in middle-aged men with declining T, not a transformation tool.