The Best Shilajit Supplement

If you’re familiar with shilajit, you may be in the minority. But, studies into its potential effects on human health and wellness indicate it may be a good choice for a wide variety of people. It’s been shown to improve everything from altitude sickness and inflammation to low testosterone levels in men.1 30 2

Given its strange origins — it’s essentially a black, tar-like goo that’s extracted from Himalayan mountain ranges — it would be easy to write off shilajit as another wellness gimmick. So, while a lot more research is needed into shilajit’s potential, our team decided to try it for themselves, evaluating everything from its taste to our perception of its efficacy.

In this guide, we’ll break down everything you need to know about shilajit, including recommendations for products we found to be worthwhile.

If you’re in a hurry, here’s a quick breakdown of our recommendations:

• Best for most people: Nootropics Depot PrimaVie Capsules
• Best resin: Cymbiotika Mineral Shilajit
• Best tablets: Pür Shilajit
• Best liquid: Pure Himalayan Shilajit Sun Dried
• Best capsule: Nootropics Depot PrimaVie
• Best powder: Nootropics Depot PrimaVie
• Best shilajit blend for testosterone: Nugenix Total T-MAXX

At Innerbody Research, we perform hands-on testing with every product and service we review. For this shilajit guide, we acquired the substance in multiple forms from several different manufacturers and tried each and every one of them. This process helped us to determine which form had the best taste, the easiest preparation, and the most noticeable effects.

To bolster our hands-on testing, we pored over dozens of research studies looking into shilajit’s potential. We also spent time studying its extraction and purification methods and how those methods can affect the quality of the final product. Additionally, this article was thoroughly vetted by members of our Medical Review Board for accuracy.

Over the past two decades, Innerbody Research has helped tens of millions of readers make more informed decisions involving staying healthy and living healthier lifestyles.

Evaluating shilajit presented our team with something of a challenge in our assessment of each product’s potential efficacy, which we’ll get into below. Beyond effectiveness, we looked at cost, taste, safety, and convenience as determining factors in deciding which versions of shilajit would be recommendable.

Let’s take a closer look at each criterion to see which companies and products rose to the top.

Effectiveness

Winner: Pure Himalayan Shilajit Sun Dried Liquid Drops

The current state of research into shilajit is relatively limited. Some papers break the material down to study its constituent parts,3 while others look at specific biomarkers in humans after several weeks of use (e.g., testosterone levels or spermatogenic activity).4 These studies sometimes use different forms of shilajit, like resins or powders, which makes their results hard to compare, especially in the absence of studies comparing the bioavailability and bioactivity of these different forms.

Filling that gap in scientific knowledge are centuries of Ayurvedic medicinal practice, in which shilajit is one of the primary rasayanas, or techniques for extending life and increasing bodily vigor. In that context, less processing results in a superior product.5

The most successful and scientifically rigorous studies looking into shilajit use a branded form of the substance called PrimaVie, which is typically standardized to at least 50% fulvic acid.6 Many shilajit manufacturers use their fulvic acid concentration as a marker of quality, as it’s generally considered to be the primary driver of most shilajit benefits. Companies often relay this through third-party test results posted on their websites. However, fulvic acid is only part of the picture, especially when manufacturing processes can denature humic substances above certain temperatures.7

So, we combined these fulvic acid measurements with our understanding of the shilajit production process (considering both purity and concentration) and concluded that Pure Himalayan Shilajit’s Sun Dried Liquid Drops offer a high fulvic acid content with minimal risk that its processing might reduce the product’s potency.

Cost

Winner: Nootropics Depot PrimaVie Powder

If your ultimate goal is to acquire an effective shilajit supplement for as little money per dose as possible, then Nootropics Depot is where you want to start. Its prices for PrimaVie shilajit are excellent, with a cost per dose as low as $0.19. As we’ll discuss below, the taste and convenience factor may have you reaching for the PrimaVie capsules instead, but even then, you’re looking at a cost of $0.33 per dose — just over half as much as the next best cost in our guide.

A solid runner-up here would have to be Pure Himalayan Shilajit’s Sun Dried Liquid Drops. They’re expensive, coming in at $129.99, but that bottle offers 200 servings. That brings the cost per serving below that of every company other than Nootropics Depot.

Here’s a quick look at how these prices compare:

While Pure Himalayan Shilajit’s drops are the second most expensive item on this list, they also have one of the lowest costs per dose. So, the barrier to entry there might be high, but the product quality is arguably higher than PrimaVie from Nootropics Depot.

Taste

Winner: Nootropics Depot Shilajit Capsules

Here’s a hot take: shilajit tastes bad. The good news is that it’s the kind of bad that’s so fascinating and multi-layered that it keeps you coming back for more. We’ll get deeper into this in individual product testing sections below, but there’s a veritable symphony of flavors blending together in each shilajit serving; it’s just that most of that symphony resembles things like tar, burning rubber, and stale potpourri.

By encapsulating its shilajit, Nootropics Depot mostly shields you from the taste that plagues shilajit supplements. The next best option is another pill form in Pür Shilajit’s tablets. These ended up being the product our testers took the most often without complaint, only because the format was less processed than PrimaVie, which we feel offers additional benefits.

Here’s a quick look at our general taste ratings, averaged from among our testers. We’ve rated them on a 1-10 scale and left off the Nugenix offering because there are four capsules comprising a dozen different ingredients.

Safety

Winner: Pure Himalayan Shilajit

As a substance in isolation, shilajit poses about the same risks no matter where you get it, which are low.8 But, as a naturally occurring substance that’s formed by complex biological processes involving the activity of countless microorganisms, there is a risk of contamination, especially with less-processed shilajit.9 Its proximity to various mineral deposits and rock formations also makes it susceptible to heavy metal presence if not properly extracted and processed.

That’s one of two reasons the industry tends to release certificates of analysis. Some are there to show low-to-undetectable levels of heavy metals, toxins, or other contaminants. Others are there to prove a certain concentration of fulvic acid, which is believed to be at the heart of shilajit’s benefits.

Among the companies in our guide, lab results are readily available from Pure Himalayan Shilajit, Pür Shilajit, and Nootropics Depot. Of those three, Pure Himalayan Shilajit has certificates for more of its products — all easily accessible on the website. Pür Shilajit has them, but only for its resins, and Nootropics Depot asks that you contact the company for copies of batch-specific lab reports.

Convenience

Winner: Nootropics Depot Shilajit Capsules

Shilajit can be messy. As a resin, it’s sticky and frustrating to work with. The liquid drops are easier, but a little spillage creates a big mess, and transportation is a pain. Powders require measuring and mixing, and they can harden if left exposed to air. Tablets are better, but they can often get sticky, as well, and they typically come in blister packs, which are harder to transport than a bottle of capsules.

Capsules, like those from Nootropics Depot, are undeniably the easiest way to take Shilajit. They offer precision in dosage, mess-free use, and portability.

Where Nootropics Depot falters in convenience is with its customer service, particularly its lack of a money-back guarantee. Nootropics Depot, like Pür Shilajit and Cymbiotika, won’t accept returns of opened products. Pure Himalayan Shilajit and Nugenix have money-back guarantees, with the former offering the best protection for you to try shilajit out for yourself.

Shilajit is a tar-like substance that oozes out of mountains at high altitudes and steep cliffs with inclines of at least 60 degrees.10 It’s best known as a product of the Himalayas, but similar substances have been found in the Altai ranges of Northern Asia, the Chilean Andes, and even in Antarctica.

Shilajit is thought to have formed from millennia of compression of dead plant materials, similar to how ancient biomass broke down to form crude oil in the earth. It’s important to note that any similarities between the two substances end with their relative appearance and age, and you should not consider crude oil as a wellness ingredient.

Mountain ranges typically exude shilajit in the summer months, when the expansion of rock materials allows it to flow to the surface. These shilajit-laden rocks are shorn from mountainous cliffs, then broken up and soaked — traditionally in local spring water, though that process has been largely supplanted by other water sources with solvents added for speed and efficiency.

The shilajit is then further separated from the rock material by filtration and sometimes heating, depending on the process involved and the intended final product. This substance is filtered further and dehydrated, either by boiling, sun-drying, or industrial evaporation.

In Ayurvedic practice, shilajit is said to treat numerous diseases and enhance both vitality and longevity. While there’s no evidence of shilajit functioning as a cure for anything, research has revealed certain potential benefits that fit into those vitality and longevity categories.31

Many of those benefits likely come from shilajit’s high amount of fulvic acid — a humic substance formed from the decomposition of plant residues. For example, some research has suggested fulvic acid can play a role in mitigating the formation of tau protein in the brain, which is associated with the advancement of Alzheimer’s disease.11

Shilajit has also been shown to:

• Increase testosterone levels in men2
• Improve spermatogenesis4
• Reduce the effects of fatigue on muscle performance6
• Bolster the body against stresses of high altitudes1
• Act as a potent antioxidant12
• Mitigate inflammation13

The consistent theme is that shilajit appears to offer numerous health benefits with very few side effects. But many of these studies are relatively small and need to be repeated successfully before their results can be fully validated. As our Medical Review Board member, Dr. Matt Segar, puts it, “There's very little (if any) good clinical benefit or studies on shilajit.”

When shilajit emerges from steep rock faces, it’s not yet safe for consumption. It needs to be extracted and separated from those rocks first. This is the initial part of a multi-step process that can heavily influence the quality of the final shilajit product.

You can get shilajit in several forms. Research has not yet concluded whether shilajit processing does more harm than good. On the one hand, it would seem that removing more moisture from the material would result in a more potent, concentrated product. On the other hand, evaporation typically involves heat, time, and exposure to air (and occasionally additional solvents), all of which may damage the integrity of its bioactive components.

In our opinion, based on our experience with the products and our review of the research, it’s best to avoid as much processing as possible. Considering the fact that you’re going to rehydrate your shilajit in most cases anyway, you’re better off working with a product that’s had the least chance to degrade.

If you’d prefer to avoid the taste of shilajit, then powder-based capsules may be the way to go, especially PrimaVie, which is standardized to a high fulvic acid concentration.

Here’s a look at the available forms of shilajit in order from least to most processed:

Importance of origin and altitude

Shilajit companies will make many claims regarding their products, including that the specific origin and altitude at which their shilajit was harvested is better than all others. The truth is that we don’t have a scientific basis to consider Chilean shilajit from 12,000 feet to be inferior to Himalayan shilajit from 16,000 feet.

Modern Ayurvedic practitioners would likely prefer the highest possible altitude and a Himalayan origin, but this is likely influenced by shilajit’s history in regions where Ayurvedic medicine originated (around the Himalayas, which happen to be taller than other mountain ranges).

One theoretical argument we’ve encountered is that the disparate flora from different regions of the world surviving at various altitudes could influence the chemical composition of the shilajit, into which it breaks down over centuries and millennia.

For now, until more research becomes available, we recommend focusing on the form of shilajit and personal considerations like cost or convenience before considering a given shilajit’s origins.

Because research into shilajit implies so many potential uses, the majority of the adult population that isn’t pregnant or breastfeeding make good candidates for shilajit consumption. It’s especially interesting for men who are trying to conceive with their partner, as studies suggest positive effects on testosterone levels and spermatogenesis.4 As long as there aren’t underlying issues with sperm morphology, shilajit may enhance the chances of conception.

Shilajit and fulvic acid have also been implicated in the fight against Alzheimer’s disease, with shilajit often touted in Ayurvedic medicine as a neuroprotective agent (albeit in somewhat flightier language).11

And because both shilajit and fulvic acids appear to act as antioxidants and anti-inflammatory agents, their use expands to efforts against aging and disease.12 13

Of course, these potential uses are based on a limited number of studies, but if you and your doctor are confident that shilajit may hold some benefit for your specific situation, it could be worth a try.

Who might want to consider an alternative?

Because of its low risk profile, there aren’t a lot of groups for whom shilajit would be a bad idea (other than those who are pregnant or breastfeeding). However, it’s unclear if its influence on testosterone in male study subjects implies a potential hormonal activity for females. And that activity would be hard to predict, as some testosterone boosters in men appear to boost testosterone likewise in women, while others can influence hormones to the point of ovulation.14 15

We’ve read accounts of children consuming shilajit in areas of the world where it naturally occurs, but we can’t recommend this in the absence of clinical research.

Studies investigating shilajit's potential report few to no adverse events. A pair of studies examining the safety of shilajit and fulvic acid supplementation, respectively, found the substances to be safe in doses far exceeding what anyone would take in a day (upwards of 70g).8 16 It's worth noting that both of those were animal studies and that safety data on human subjects is limited to smaller studies with relatively low doses.

Shilajit’s origins and processing render it susceptible to some heavy metal, toxin, and microorganism contamination, so it’s imperative that you get your shilajit from a company that offers third-party testing results of its products. Nugenix is the only company in this guide not to provide such documentation, but it uses PrimaVie shilajit in its supplements, other manufacturers and distributors of which have shown to be safe.

In our shilajit testing experience, we found taste to be a primary concern. This was true among the members of our testing team assigned to try shilajit, but it was also the first question they were asked by team members assigned to other products at that time.

How you take shilajit matters — not necessarily to the quality of the product, but certainly to your willingness to make a routine out of taking it.

Shilajit is intensely bitter, earthy in a bad way, and complex in flavor. Different brands and forms have slightly different tastes to them, and we found preparations for each to require specific approaches to minimize flavor interference.

Here are our recommendations for shilajit preparation by form:

Best for most people, best capsules, and best powder

Nootropics Depot sells a wide assortment of supplements, most of which are nootropics — cognitive enhancers, adaptogens to help with stress, etc. It offers shilajit in two forms: as a powder and in capsules. The substance in the capsules is the same as what you get in the powder, just with an added stabilizer.

That substance is PrimaVie shilajit, the branded result of a patented manufacturing process that extracts the fulvic acids from shilajit and then reincorporates them with the original humic acid and mineral content.17 The resulting powder has a standardized fulvic acid concentration between 60% and 75%, with a molecular weight that makes it highly bioavailable. That’s the good news. The less good news is that this is an intense processing method that arguably creates a fulvic acid supplement derived from shilajit rather than a true shilajit supplement.

Purists would no doubt argue that this is akin to eschewing whole foods in favor of an all-multivitamin diet, that natural shilajit is more than just the sum of its parts. The science doesn’t bear this out, however, as PrimaVie itself has been utilized in various studies that have shown it to be effective in ways similar to other forms of shilajit.2 4

PrimaVie isn’t a Nootropics Depot creation. The patent belongs to a New Jersey-based company called Natreon. We’ve identified Nootropics Depot as the most reliable seller of PrimaVie at the best doses for the best prices.

Nootropics Depot PrimaVie shilajit pricing

Both the powder and capsule forms of Nootropics Depot PimaVie shilajit are available in two sizes, with the largest of the powder sizes offering the lowest cost per dose in our guide.

The next best cost per dose in our guide comes from Pure Himalayan Shilajit Sun Dried Liquid Drops, which come in at $0.52 per dose. So, even if you purchase the most expensive version of Nootropics Depot’s PrimaVie, you’re still paying less per dose.

However, Nootropics Depot charges $10.20 for shipping if you don’t meet its $50 free shipping threshold, which is easy enough to do if you combine one or two other products with its shilajit. But on its own, any one shilajit product comes with an added $10.20 in shipping.

While that added cost may seem a bit harrowing, it only brings the 30-count of the capsules above the per-dose cost of Pure Himalayan Shiajit’s drops. All of the company’s other configurations of PrimaVie remain less expensive per dose.

Unfortunately, there's no money-back guarantee if you try PrimaVie from Nootropics Depot and don't like it. The company only allows for a 30-day return policy for unopened products. This is similar to policies from most other companies in this guide, though Pure Himalayan Shilajit gives you 30 days to try a product risk-free.

Our Nootropics Depot shilajit testing experience

Nootropics Depot’s shilajit supplements were the last ones that we tried from our large testing batch. And after the eye-watering flavor we experienced with some of the alternatives, we were looking forward to the capsules. So, naturally, we tried the powder first.

To be honest, it didn’t have as intense of a “fresh tar laid down in a heat wave” smell to it. That was still there, but it was muted. In its place was a flavor that one tester described as “funeral potpourri” without elaborating further. If cost is an extreme concern for you, this remains your best financial option. But we couldn’t mask this taste in dark espresso the way we could with other products.

The Nootropics Depot PrimaVie capsules were a revelation after this. The bottle bears a faint aroma of the typical shilajit flavor, but the capsules taste like nothing in the mouth. There is no shilajit supplement we’ve found that’s as convenient while still offering research-supported efficacy.

Best liquid

Pure Himalayan Shilajit focuses solely on shilajit products, though its name is still somewhat misleading. That’s because you can get shilajit from its website that comes from other regions than the Himalayas. Of course, Himalayan options are still there, as well.

There are several products we found recommendable from Pure Himalayan Shilajit, but none so recommendable as its Sun Dried Liquid Drops. This is a minimally processed shilajit that’s filtered and allowed to evaporate at ambient temperatures under sunlight. That means it isn’t exposed to the kind of high heat needed to make resin, solids, and other forms of the supplement.

According to the research we’ve seen, humic substances like fulvic acid can begin to denature at high temperatures, which makes this the purest form of shilajit you can get that’s still safe to consume.7

Pure Himalayan Shilajit also recommends that you take its drops sublingually, if you can stand the taste. This may improve bioavailability by allowing some of the shilajit’s compounds to penetrate your oral membranes before having to pass through your digestive tract to make it into the bloodstream. Our testers tried this, but the taste was overpowering and we didn’t feel a noticeable difference in efficacy.

Pure Himalayan Shilajit pricing

The Sun Dried Liquid Drops from Pure Himalayan Shilajit cost $129.99 for a 50 mL bottle. While that’s the highest price of the single-ingredient shilajit supplements in our guide, it contains 250 doses, which gives it one of the lowest per-dose costs here as well, coming in at just $0.52 per dose.

The price of the drops also qualifies them for free shipping, the threshold for which is $45 in the U.S.

In addition to the Sun Dried Liquid Drops, Pure Himalayan Shilajit offers:

• Liquid drops (not sun-dried)
• Soft resin
• Mumio (shilajit from the Altai Mountains)
• Tablets
• Standard resin
• Extra Strength Shilajit
• Shilajit coffee

One aspect of the company’s policies we find a little confusing is its money-back guarantee. On its own, it’s relatively clear. You need to try the product for at least 30 days before asking for a refund, and there’s no mention of a time limit for when you need to make this request (so long as 30 days have passed since receipt).

However, elsewhere on the site there appear to be prohibitions against returns initiated after 30 days post-receipt, which would nullify the guarantee. And other parts of the site have similar statements with 90 days as the cutoff.

We spoke to the company and were told that a customer should contact them at “around the 30-day mark.” Representatives said they weren’t especially strict as long as it was close to that point (though they never gave us a hard cutoff). They also said that a return could be initiated before trying the product for 30 days in the event of an adverse reaction.

Our Pure Himalayan Shilajit testing experience

Our testers enjoyed their experience with the Sun Dried liquid drops more than they did the resin or powder. They aren’t quite as convenient as the tablets or capsules, but they’re much easier to measure and administer than resin or powder.

On the taste side, the drops aren’t much better than other forms, but the flavor seems to hide in coffee better than the resin or powder we tested could.

One noteworthy issue we ran into in testing was that the liquid, which is certainly a liquid, though much thicker than we thought it’d be, sticks to the outside of the dropper a bit. You have to be especially careful when reinserting the dropper into the bottle so that you don’t scrape it along the bottle’s rim, which would cause some of the shilajit to run down the side of the bottle. It’s not a difficult mess to clean up thanks to its water-solubility, but it is a slight waste of the substance.

Best tablets

The tablets from Pür Shilajit offer the convenience of capsules with far less processing. While many tablets are made from compressed powders, these are derived from sun-dried resin, meaning they've been processed less and should offer greater purity.

The tablets come in a blister pack that allows you to pop them out as needed and protects them from sticking to one another as they most certainly would if delivered in a bottle. That stickiness is apparent when you hold them, and they can almost seem to melt in your hand on a warm day.

Each tablet delivers 200mg of shilajit. That’s a relatively high dose per tablet. Pure Himalayan Shilajit offers its tablets in three doses: 120mg, 180mg, and 240mg. But it’s unclear on the Pure Himalayan Shilajit website which of what appear to be two different tablet products you’re getting, making this the safer option for consumers.

For the green thumbs out there, terms like humus and fulvic acid might already be familiar, as they’re critical aspects of healthy soil. Pür Shilajit is the only company in our guide to offer horticultural shilajit products for gardeners. These products are not for human consumption.

Pür Shilajit pricing

The tablets are one of only two Shilajit products offered by Pür Shilajit; the other is a resin that’s a good product but comes in a large 120g container for over $200. Fortunately, you can save a little extra as an Innerbody reader by using the code INNERBODY to take 10% off your order.

You can get Pür Shilajit’s 200mg tablets in a 12g or 24g pack, containing 60 and 120 tablets, respectively.

• 12g pack: $49
• 24g pack: $89

Pür Shilajit also sells two sizes of its horticultural shilajit:

• 333g (makes 192 gallons of solution): $99
• 1 gal (makes 4,000 gallons of solution): $999

You can also bundle products (including horticultural shilajit) to get a progressively larger discount:

• Two products: 20% discount
• Three products: 30% discount
• Four products: 40% discount

From four products and up, the discount is capped at 40%.

Our Pür Shilajit testing experience

After Nootropics Depot’s capsules, the tablets from Pür Shilajit were the most convenient way to take shilajit. And like those capsules, there’s no guesswork regarding dose measurements.

Depending on how you typically take pills, you’ll taste more or less of that signature shilajit flavor when taking tablets. Testers who put the pills in their mouths first, followed by water or another beverage, tasted the shilajit intensely. Testers who reversed that order, putting the drink in their mouths first and then popping the pills, could only slightly taste the shilajit.

These tablets also dissolve the same way liquid or resin can in water or coffee, albeit after a slightly longer wait. The taste in coffee resembled the liquid drops in intensity.

Best resin

The big selling point for Cymbiotika’s shilajit resin is that it’s not just Himalayan or Altai shilajit. Instead, Pürblack (the company that manufactures this resin for Cymbiotika) combines shilajit harvested from multiple mountain ranges. In theory, this means its shilajit contains the broken-down particles of a more diverse range of flora and fauna than you’d get from a single-origin shilajit.

Other than that, this is similar to most other resins you’ll find from other companies, though Cymbiotika’s includes trace amounts of gold and silver. In some regions, these trace amounts are naturally occurring and can be used to identify a shilajit's point of origin. In this case, Cymbiotika has added the elements after the fact under the assumption that they’re part of the whole health package a well-rounded shilajit should offer.

There isn't a lot of research into how ingesting gold or silver might be good for you, but we found one study suggesting silver may be beneficial for diabetes, obesity, and atherosclerosis.18 We also found a gold study that indicated it was safe to consume but didn’t go so far as to proclaim any benefits.19

Cymbiotika shilajit pricing

Cymbiotika’s shilajit resin is available in a 15g container for $67. Subscribers can take 10% off ($60.30) and get free shipping. Otherwise, shipping appears to be calculated by location, with our orders averaging a shipping cost of around $10. This was slightly less than the $10.20 we paid to ship from Nootropics Depot, but it’s still a high cost for such a small product.

Our Cymbiotika shilajit testing experience

After the powder, shilajit in resin form was the second least convenient way to take the substance in our testers’ experience. It’s strange that the resin form is so common compared to others, but it may hit a sweet spot between processing and shipping that keeps costs lower for manufacturers.

Whatever the case, it’s messy, sticky, difficult to measure precisely, and no less pungent or noxious in flavor than other shilajit we tried.

Our testers did appreciate the inclusion of a metal measuring spoon with engraved markings on it. Wooden spoons will eventually degrade, and painted markings could come off over time. The metal spoon is durable and reliable, even if it’s hard to know for sure how much it’s holding.

Best shilajit blend for testosterone

Considering that many men will look to shilajit as a way to increase testosterone levels, it makes sense to combine it with other ingredients that have research supporting their ability to do just that.

All told, there are 12 ingredients in Total T-MAXX, five of which we can say have good research behind them and appear at doses consistent with that research. Other ingredients on the list have some research behind them, as well, but they appear at doses below what’s been successful in studies.

Here’s a closer look at the ingredients in Nugenix Total T-MAXX

• Vitamin D (as cholecalciferol): 20 mcg
• Zinc (as zinc l-monomethionine) (L-OptiZinc®): 15 mg
• Fenugreek Extract (seed) (50% Fenuside™) (Testofen®): 600 mg
• Ashwagandha Extract (root) (5% withanolides) (KSM-66®): 600 mg
• Shilajit Purified Extract (PrimaVie®): 500 mg
• Eurycoma longifolia Extract (root): 150 mg
• Rhodiola rosea Extract (root) (3% rosavins) (Rhodiolife™): 150 mg
• Maca Extract (root): 150 mg
• Asian Ginseng (Panax ginseng) Extract (leaf & stem) (10% ginsenosides): 140 mg
• Black Ginger (Kaempferia parviflora) Extract (rhizome) (2.5% 5,7-dimethoxyflavone): 90 mg
• White Button Mushroom Extract (fruit body): 10 mg
• Black Pepper Extract (fruit) (95% piperine) (BioPerine®): 5 mg

As far as the research goes, vitamin D levels have been linked directly to testosterone.27 Zinc and ashwagandha have also both been shown to increase testosterone in respective studies.28 29 The 500mg dose of PrimaVie shilajit is right in line with successful testosterone studies, as well. Fenugreek rounds out the group of reliable testosterone-boosting ingredients in Total T-MAXX.

It’s possible the other ingredients can contribute to the overall success of the supplement, but they'd have to do so as more than the sum of their parts.

Nugenix pricing

The biggest drawback of Nugenix’s Total T-MAXX is that it’s expensive. In fact, you might be able to find individual capsules containing the five ingredients we highlighted above for a total cost that’s less than one of these bottles from Nugenix. However, you’d be missing out on the potential that the other ingredients bring to the table.

The cost of a single bottle of Total T-MAXX is $169.99. There are no opportunities for bulk or subscription pricing, and that high price tag also doesn’t get you free shipping, which costs $4.99.

Shilajit has several purported benefits, including increased testosterone, decreased inflammation, and protection against neurodegeneration. There aren’t other supplements on the market that combine all of its potential plusses, but other supplement categories can approach one or two of these and may be good alternatives if the taste or another aspect of shilajit makes it an untenable choice for you.

Here’s a quick look at some options by potential benefit: