October 9, 2025 • 49 mins
Dr. Jeffrey Gladden and Nodari Rizun explores into the fascinating world of Shilajit, a natural product with a rich history and numerous health benefits. They explore its origins, the science behind its effectiveness, and its role as a regenerative adaptogen. The conversation also touches on the historical significance of Shilajit in medicine, its unique properties, and modern research supporting its use. Listeners will learn about the practical applications of Shilajit, how to consume it, and its potential as a delivery system for other herbal extracts.
For Audience
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Takeaways
· Shilajit is a natural product found in mountainous regions.
· It is a combination of fulvic and humic acids.
· Shilajit has been used for centuries in traditional medicine.
· It acts as a regenerative adaptogen, helping the body adapt to stress.
· Genuine Shilajit is always in resin form, not powder or tablets.
· The quality of Shilajit can vary significantly between sources.
· Shilajit can enhance the effectiveness of other herbal extracts.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Shilajit is a food that extra terrestrials left.
(00:04):
Shilajit is the food that'll make you live hundreds of years more.
Shilajit is a cure-all.
And none of that is true.
Those are legends.
Those are myths.
So when we talk about shilajit, we're not talking about isolated fulvic or humic acids.
(00:26):
So if we were talking just about fulvic, purely fulvic or humic acid, could talk aboutfertilizer or soil extraction.
And this is how counterfeits of Shilajit are made.
If you were to qualify Shilajit, a very easy term for it would be regenerative adaptogen.
(00:49):
Or even more precise, even better would be biogenic stimulant.
(01:24):
Welcome everybody to this edition of the Gladden Longevity Podcast.
I'm your host, Dr.
Jeffrey Gladden, and we're here answering the big questions in life as always.
How good can we be?
How do we make 100 a new 30?
How do we live well beyond 120?
How do we live young for a lifetime and how do we develop a 300 year old mind?
And today I'm going to be talking about a topic that we've never spoken about before onthe podcast.
(01:49):
It's about a naturally occurring product called Shilajit.
and it's spelled S-H-I-L-A-J-I-T.
Some of you may have heard of it.
There's a gentleman, Nodari Risen, N-O-D-A-R-I, Nodari Risen, R-I-Z-U-N, who is anattorney, actually.
(02:10):
It has an interesting story about how he came to hear about Shilajit and then how he'sreally taken this to the next level in terms of purity and
bringing it to market and things like that.
But in the context of this, we're going to be talking in depth about what it is, how itworks, what's in it.
It's really a combination of a number of things.
And I think you're going to find this a really educational, fun podcast.
(02:34):
Welcome everybody to this edition of the GLAD Longevity Podcast.
I'm your host, Dr.
Jeffrey Gladden, and I'm here with Nodari Reisen.
Nodari, welcome to the show.
Thank you.
Thank you much.
Yeah.
So today we're going to be talking about a natural product found in the wild calledShilajit, which maybe some of you have heard of.
(02:56):
I first heard about it in the context of conversations about CoQ10 being combined withShilajit and it's an interesting product.
So, Nodari, before we get into the product itself, tell us how you got
interested in this.
I knew you're a lawyer and you're involved in civil rights law, if I'm not mistaken, butthat seems like a little bit of I don't know, next level finding and find out, you know,
(03:20):
that you're with trilogy, right?
So tell us how you got from point A to point B.
Right.
So you are absolutely correct.
I'm an attorney.
My specialty is actually uh human rights and civil rights.
So when I was in law school, I was in Russia and I met a gentleman.
(03:40):
He was a fascinating person.
He basically was an old school Soviet dissident.
And those people always fascinated me because they were incredibly stoic, incrediblydisciplined, and a lot of highly intellectual, very well read, very interesting people.
(04:03):
So he told me his story at that point.
And at that point, I'm in my second year of law school.
So I'm still very impressionate young person.
So long story short, he is thrown off from a third story building by KGB people, breakshis back, gets paralyzed.
(04:24):
Now when I met him, he was walking, was very active and very active.
not just saying physically active, so like he would walk a lot with a slight limp.
to be fair to the situation and honest, completely disposing everything, slightly, butnevertheless after paralysis.
But what was even more fascinating is the mind.
(04:48):
So the guy was incredibly sharp, incredibly well read, knew, had what's calledencyclopedic knowledge and could maintain very, very interesting conversations about
all sort of things.
And those themes were very, very different.
very, well-rounded person.
(05:11):
So when we spoke about this situation, because at that point I'm with maybe 2020, likeearly, early 20s, something like that.
And the guy's already in his late 60s pushing 70s.
So I asked him, well, how did you do it?
Paralysis?
hostility of life, difficult.
(05:32):
And he tells me, listen, so two things, I took the resin and I did yoga.
And that whole resin thing kind of stuck with me for years and years and years and years.
So when I graduated law school, I worked for a pharmaceutical company and myself on apersonal level, I...
(06:00):
always somewhat despised pharma.
Because my uncle runs and owns a pharmaceutical company, they make life-savingpharmaceuticals, mostly blood expanders, things for surgeries.
So because I was an attorney, he gave me a job.
(06:23):
my thought on pharma is absolutely necessary.
can be life saving, maybe sometimes there's too much of it.
And once pharma becomes just about profit, there's definitely a lot, a lot of it.
And a lot of things could be fixed, like mind, body, et cetera, with things that aresomewhat more natural.
(06:44):
And...
That's me myself, I was always into health.
I was always into natural things, natural substances, natural practices.
So this whole idea of resin, the magic of resin kind of stuck with me.
Now, before I started Pure Black, I was working on my PhD studies.
(07:05):
So really complex, very boring type of thesis.
for six years, quite grueling work.
But that made me a different person that made me think quite scholastically, like veryacademically, like, man, let's measure everything.
Let's conclude.
Let's figure out how this works, that works.
(07:26):
And there was a point in my life where I said, well, listen, I really want to do somethingthat would be not for the money, not just for the money.
Like if I...
me ask you this.
So you're working for your uncle's pharmacy company and then you decide to do a PhD.
I assume it's around an extension of your law studies in human rights and civil rights,right?
(07:49):
And you know that you've known about the guy that introduced you to the idea of Shilajitand some healing powers that he had experienced.
And so am I to understand that you started
taking this in law school or when you were working at the pharma company or during the PhDor just kind of something that's stuck in the back of your mind or.
It's stuck to the back of my mind.
(08:10):
It's stuck to the back of my mind.
And when I said no more pharma, I don't wanna do pharma, I don't wanna do pharmaceutical,know, pharmaceutical contracts.
don't wanna consult for just business anymore.
I need something that will be enjoyable to do, will feed me at least a little bit.
(08:33):
But most importantly,
heavy.
Right, most importantly, will benefit people.
So in this resin thing, in this story, which initially happened to me, I saw somethingwhere I said, well, I can really help humanity.
And that's basically how Pure Black started.
So I've spent a very, very long time hitting the books, hitting all the publications inforeign languages as well.
(09:01):
So where is your Russian, where's your wrench Russian gentleman at this point in time?
Is he still part of the picture or he had moved on?
it's my uncle.
He's he lives in Moscow.
Yeah, he's much older.
He's already retired.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Right.
My uncle was the guy.
My uncle was the guy who I worked for.
But the guy who told me this was Oh, I don't have contact with him like he I don't know.
(09:27):
he faded off into the background someplace.
Okay.
don't have his phone number, nothing.
Got it.
OK.
So you're so you but this is OK.
You decide you don't really want to work for big pharma or pharma and you want to dosomething in a natural space.
And so you remember this guy and now you're tracking down everything you can on Shilajitto see what it is, how it works uh and all that sort of thing.
(09:55):
that right?
OK.
That is right and what I realized, I can greatly improve it.
I can greatly push the quality.
There's so much misinformation.
There's so much that is out there to tell.
kind of misinformation, how are you going to improve it?
There were a lot of myths on one hand saying
(10:16):
that Shilajit is a food that extra terrestrials left.
Shilajit is the food that'll make you live hundreds of years more.
Shilajit is a cure-all.
And none of that is true.
Those are legends.
Those are myths.
And I think those marketing myths were there pre-internet.
(10:39):
as well.
um
define what it actually is for the audience here.
We've kind of, you know, taken them along a little bit on a ride here in terms of your ownstory.
But Shilajit is spelled S-H-I-L-A-J-I-T.
It's kind of right.
Right.
is a Sanskrit name.
This is only one of the names that are available in many, languages.
(11:04):
Another very famous name is Mumyo, Russian Persian.
Another is Bragg's Zoom.
And basically almost every culture, which has mountains areas, has some sort of Shilajitin their culture.
Okay, so this is just so the audience understands, this is a tar-like humic substance.
(11:25):
It's a rich exudate that seeps from high altitude rocks, if you will, like in theHimalayas, Altai, and Andes.
And it's a phytomineral complex, right?
So it's a plant and mineral complex of fulvic and humic acids.
uh
absolutely correct, just one correction.
It doesn't really seep the way people think it does.
(11:48):
Usually you find shilajit-bearing rock and in the summer, yes, these rocks, there's alittle bit of exudate, there's a little bit of tar coming out of them.
But...
If we're talking about real Shilajit, you never go into the mountains and find thismiraculous stream which is just coming out of the rock.
(12:09):
It's a myth.
It's not true.
You have to find these Shilajit-bearing rocks and the rock needs to be ripe.
And ripe means it has to be a certain...
consistency, certain color, certain glycine content, a certain size.
is like going to the produce section of the market and finding the right cantaloupe.
(12:35):
yeah you could say that it's just it's in the wild but yeah you could say that it's kindof like finding the right cantaloupe or a lot of cantaloupes.
it ripens.
is there, if it ripens and there's a season or is this season, once it ripens, is it ripefor you or for what?
It's for years, you need at least 40 years for really good shillage bearing rock to form.
(12:59):
And you need very specific atmospheric and and conditions and flora and fauna conditions.
Because what atmospheric conditions do, they allow plants, mostly adaptogenic.
to grow, then those plants die, then they compacted usually into crevices, mountaincrevices, they ferment for many, years.
(13:25):
So that biomass accumulates and it forms the rock.
And if the rock is a good quality rock, it was there long enough of time, this is what youwill collect, you will extract, and it'll make this tar, it'll make this resin.
Genuine Shilajit is always a resin.
(13:46):
It's never powder, it's never a tablet, it's never a tincture.
So last, I would say seven to 10 years, Shilajit really grew out of nowhere.
There's a lot of Shilajit offerings, but what most companies are selling are usually
(14:07):
counterfeits packaged conveniently.
So that's why if you want real shilajit, it's always a resin.
And that's why I always said, while being pure black, I don't want to touch things thatare not true, that are not real.
We will always be a resin.
And unless we can make use of resin highly convenient, we're not going to do tablets,we're not going to do powders, we're not going to do tinctures.
(14:34):
We'll always stay a resin.
OK, so I'm just pulling up a couple of things here on humic and fulvic acid, which areactually found in several different things besides Shilajit, if I'm not mistaken.
But what's interesting is that they can be an electron donor, so they can also acceptelectrons, which they can be a free radical scavenger.
(14:57):
And that would help with mitochondrial health, if you will, if you can scavenge up freeradicals, but also be an electron donor.
And it also looks like they can bind up trace minerals like zinc, magnesium, selenium,iron, and copper, which could facilitate intestinal absorption.
They produce a natural ionophore for certain micronutrients, a way for them to get intothe cells.
um And they can bind.
(15:20):
heavy metals, pesticides, organic toxins.
So they can also be used to detox and then they can help with electron transport inmitochondria.
And humic and fulvic have also shown anti-inflammatory activity down regulatingNF-kappa-beta, which is one of the primary levers of inflammation.
So what we're talking about here, it looks like is a fermented plant.
(15:44):
uh product, right, that occurs in the wild and it ferments in a context of the minerals inthe rocks and things like that.
And then it turns into this actually very useful compound that can do several differentthings.
ah
is correct.
(16:04):
if I may just shed a little bit more light onto this.
So when we talk about shilajit, we're not talking about isolated fulvic or humic acids.
So if we were talking just about fulvic, purely fulvic or humic acid, we could talk aboutfertilizer or soil extraction.
(16:26):
And this is how counterfeits of Shilajit are made.
So you and me, can go right now, if we wanted to, buy fertilizer, which is folic acid, andstart making tablets out of it.
But we won't do that because we understand that Shilajit is something different.
Yes, it's an organic, it's more complex.
(16:49):
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
more plant phytosubstances.
We're just saying that it does have fulvic and humic acids as part of its pickup, butthat's part of a cocktail of things that are in there, right?
So, yeah.
More biologically active substances.
If you were to qualify Shilajit, a very easy term for it would be regenerative adaptogen.
(17:15):
Or even more precise, even better would be biogenic stimulant.
Now what does that even mean for a normal person?
What did you say?
stimulant stimulant biogenic stimulant now what what does this mean so if we take a plantor a an animal but let's talk about plants let's let's stay concrete and we subject that
(17:40):
plant to a lot of stress that plant will develop a certain biochemistry
That's why they say certain environment plants need to form in a hostile environment.
What does that mean?
That means very hot in the summer, very cold in the winter, high levels of solarradiation.
(18:06):
So this plant at some point dies but metabolites
keep forming because the fermentation process basically takes sterols, phytochemicals andcreates, as you said absolutely correctly, this cocktail.
So this cocktail is what becomes Shilajit.
(18:29):
Fulvic acid.
It's interesting.
talk about stress and plants, right?
Because the audience should understand that, uh, you know, we know that plants are full ofa lot of phytochemicals and phytonutrients and polyphenols and hormones exactly.
And, and things that can be helpful to us, but it's also important to understand that, um,if you were to grow those plants in a greenhouse, the concentration of those very helpful
(18:55):
chemicals would be much lower.
then if you put them in a stressful environment, a lot of those polyphenols and things areactually formed as a stress response inside the plant to help the plant survive, if you
will.
And it turns out that then they have beneficial effects for us.
So this is kind of like you're in the Andes or you're in the Himalayas.
(19:17):
You you've got plants that are growing in a hostile environment by definition.
So they're producing different polyphenols and other
useful factors and now they're dying and fermenting and intermingling with other plantsand intermingling with the minerals that are in the rocks and the soil.
And so it becomes a really sort of interesting nutrient cocktail, right?
(19:38):
That's what we're saying, right?
Yeah.
Moreover, moreover, here's the other thing which is very interesting.
If you extract a plant like that and give it to a human,
human will have to undergo way less stress due to shifted biochemistry, due to changedbiochemistry.
(20:01):
That's why doctors of antiquity spoke so highly about Shilajit and we'll talk about it uhin a little bit who actually commented on Shilajit because there are written sources of
absolutely major, major figures
in the history of medicine who said something about trilogy.
(20:21):
But you gave a wonderful example and I think maybe a good idea here is to simplify it alittle bit and talk about a plant that almost everybody in the Western or English speaking
world knows.
Tea.
To be more precise, green tea.
To be more precise, stressed out green tea.
(20:44):
Now what is a stressed out green tea?
It's called matcha.
So matcha is green tea that is grown in the shade.
It doesn't get enough sun as the normal tea would and it develops a completely differentbiochemistry.
And because of that it's highly valued as a ceremonial
(21:09):
phenomenal substance which people would take to calm themselves, to stimulate themselves.
oh Basically fitting into all the into everything that an adaptogen is.
An adaptogen is a term which was coined in the 30s.
And it was coined off of another plant which also
(21:32):
it for people.
So an adaptogen is basically uh something that will bring an organ or metabolic processinto equilibrium, which means that if it's, you know, underperforming, it'll bring up,
it'll raise its performance.
And if it's overperforming, let's say, it'll actually bring it back down.
(21:52):
A common one would be the use of ashwagandha to basically regulate
cortisol production in the body.
If there's too much cortisol, the ashwagandha will lower it.
If there's not enough, it'll raise it.
So an adaptogen is something that doesn't matter where it finds you.
You know, could be to the left or the right.
It'll bring you into the center, so to speak.
Right.
(22:13):
So.
Right, right, right.
Absolutely correct.
It will make you perform under stress and you will be incurred less damage from thatstress.
And everybody's life is what?
Stressors?
And partially how we respond to them is what defines our aging and performance.
That's it.
(22:33):
Well, adaptogens are incredibly important because things as we age do get out of balance.
So anything that you can have that enables you to come back into balance is interesting.
I'm also looking at here that it can reduce uh lipid peroxidation markers, right?
So oxidative stress can be reduced.
And then there are some endocrine studies that show that it will actually increasetestosterone.
(22:59):
and DHEA production in middle-aged men.
Apparently studies have been done.
And that's interesting.
That's kind of bringing hormones back into, you know, alignment, if you will.
And then there's cognition and neuroprotection.
There's studies showing that it inhibits tau protein aggregation, at least in vitro, whichcould be relevant for Alzheimer's.
(23:19):
And then it has impacts on the gut and also on the immune system in terms of decreasingimmune
uh driven inflammation, as well as chelating heavy metals and helping you to detox.
So it's not only it's kind of like a it's kind of like a Merv missile, right?
It's got multiple it's got multiple warheads, if you will, multiple areas that itinteracts.
(23:42):
And in each one, it's kind of bringing things back into alignment.
So.
Dr.
Guaden, I love your analogies.
So if we talk about just a pure body of research, just PubMed alone, if we go and put inShilajit, I believe it's 136 or 140 some studies, but that is what is published in English
(24:09):
and what made it to PubMed.
But that is the tip of the iceberg because if you go and research in libraries,
which hold research in other languages, for example Ukrainian, Russian, Norwegianlanguages, you will find way more and way more interesting data and studies than you will
(24:38):
find on PubMed.
Why?
because when people publish on PubMed, they publish to get a publication or get somethingrecognized.
When people published or put something in a repository in a major medical library, usuallythat was a 25 to 30 page abstract of their PhD thesis.
(25:04):
Mm-hmm.
And after that, there was their PhD thesis.
So the rigor and depth of research was way more profound.
And I don't.
I don't want to give any advice to anybody here.
We're not here to talk about cancers.
We're not here to talk about regenerative surgery for the reasons everybody understands.
(25:29):
But the studies on augmentation of chemo and radiation therapy
with the help of Shilajit at dating back to the 50s and 60s of the last century, wherealready at that point it was shown that
(25:54):
And again, I don't want you or me or any podcast to be banned by the FDA at some point.
let's, we are not promoting any cures here.
Okay, well, here's some interesting facts too.
Humic acid is actually a larger molecule and so it's less well absorbed.
(26:15):
So it basically does a lot of its work in the gut by binding toxins and modulating the gutmicrobiome and immune tone.
And then fulvic acid, which is smaller and more soluble.
is the one that becomes bioavailable to the cells as an antioxidant mineral transporter,mitochondrial cofactor, and immune modulator.
(26:35):
So they're kind of like Abbott and Costello, right?
A big guy and a little guy.
uh But they're a good team, right?
They're a good team.
So that's pretty interesting.
And you tend to find them together.
At least that's been my impression.
And they are just a part of the big equation because again, if somebody wants to justconsume humicaphobic acid, they can just go and consume humicaphobic acid and they're
(27:00):
wonderful sources out there of phenomenal quality.
But Shilajit is somewhat different and what Shilajit does, what Shilajit was studied for,
is way broader than just fulvic or humic acid.
So that's the idea.
And I think what supports this statement is the history of shilajit.
(27:28):
It's been used for millennia in literally four or five hundred years ago, high quality
was traded for its pure weight of gold in gold.
But in order to get your Shula Jeets weight in gold, you had to pass certain tests whichare barbaric, nevertheless, they are quite interesting.
(27:51):
But if we talk about written sources, something that stayed with us or stays with us ashumans, as scholars, for doctors, as physicians,
Probably the most famous guy who wrote about this is Abisena.
So Abisena, yeah yeah Abisena.
(28:15):
So Abisena is a foundation of medicine.
He was studied in medical schools in Europe for about 500 years.
He's still studied.
Of course, there's way more data, there's way more information you can study just at thecenter.
But at some point, it was a go-to textbook.
(28:38):
the
is it's been around for a long time.
It's been revered for a long time and it's been found to be useful for a long time.
Really?
That's kind of what you're saying, right?
Yeah.
And he writes about like Abhisena writes about in his most famous book, Canons ofMedicine, he writes about trilogy.
But there were other guys who in part predated Abhisena.
(29:01):
There was Sri Raka Sampita, foundation of Ayurvedic medicine, where that guy writes in his
treatise which is incredibly progressive, incredibly scientific for its time, where hesays, listen, no curable disease can be cured without Shilajit.
(29:22):
There's another guy, Pabba Prakash, where he also talks about Shilajit.
And that physician basically was very famous, Ayurvedically, doing things like basicallyputting forward a pharmacopoeia of herbs.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
all of these people say something which is very similar.
(29:44):
It's just similar looking at it from like maybe different angles, but it's still the samething.
So they talk about regeneration and rejuvenation.
So if you and me, we were to go out right now and you
Nodari.
Let's come up with a different term for this.
(30:04):
What is this?
Simply so that people would understand.
I'd say, well, it's a regenerative adaptogen.
It's an adaptogen, but it regenerates because not all adaptogens are regenerative.
Ginseng, probably not regenerative.
Rhodiola, not regenerative.
This one is regenerative.
(30:25):
I think the reason for that is it sounds to me, I mean, if I was to hypothesize, it wouldbe the impact not only on the immune system, but mitochondrial function, because that's
one of the areas that pretty much always has to be rejuvenated.
If somebody is going to get better is the integrity of mitochondrial function where energyis produced, electrons go where they're supposed to go.
(30:47):
And the exhaust of that
production process, the free radicals are minimized and contained and neutralized in anefficient manner.
And that seems to always go awry in almost every disorder, if you will.
that would be the fact that it has the ability to do that through at least the fulvicportion of this plus other elements, the other minerals and things.
(31:12):
think that's probably where it brings in its rejuvenation.
elements.
I don't know, you may feel differently.
Dr.
Glieden, I don't know how much you read before this conversation, but you are surprisinglybeyond well-informed.
So here's what happens, you are absolutely correct.
More energy to the system, and this is what Shilajit does, creates a resource to do work.
(31:40):
But...
changed homeostasis very quickly.
A shift and you as a doctor understand better than anybody that a sick person or a sickerperson or a person who is getting sick will always have different homeostasis from person
who is incredibly healthy.
It's just a different battery chemistry.
(32:03):
It's a different body chemistry.
But if you...
Right, right, right, right, right.
and then you've got matcha with another homeostasis.
They're both homeostasis.
Yeah.
about a human as a battery, but battery has a certain chemistry.
(32:23):
So if the chemistry is improved and you have energy, which Shilajit does stimulatemitochondrial respiration.
Now, mitochondria working, mitochondria has to burn something.
So we all burn what?
Oxygen.
we are breathing species.
Now when you burn oxygen you create free radicals so you create oxidation basically yourust.
(32:52):
Now what's interesting about Shilajit on one hand and and this is counter logical butthat's how it works on one hand great quality Shilajit stimulates this mitochondrial
respiration mitochondrial efficiency
But on the other hand, not being an antioxidant per se, it mimics the most potentantioxidants.
(33:20):
And that's how change happens.
Yeah, no, that's right.
And I think if you can go in and solve that for people that are sick, you actually startto put them on the road to recovery.
So to your point, tell us about, tell us about True Black.
It's an interesting name.
Tell us, you know, there are imitation products out there.
There are things with just humic and fulvic acid in there, but you've actually gotten ahold of a very pure form of
(33:47):
Shiljit, I'm not sure of the source, but maybe you can walk us through what's actually inthe little can that you have.
in a little glass jar.
for pure black, only use a biophotonic glass.
We do have other products which unfortunately we still use some plastic but we're phasingout plastic completely.
(34:11):
So talking about that little tin thing, it will all be very high-end German, European madeglass that all the pure black products, pure black and peptides will be.
in.
But when I came into this thing, when I started Pure Black, by the way, the name PureBlack, it's just the name, not the product.
(34:34):
The name is not my idea.
The idea belongs to our wonderful marketing director, Mark Simmons.
So the product idea was mine.
So I said, okay, we have something where
cycle and cycle after cycle and I'm talking about commercial cycles in countries, thisthing gets discredited.
(34:57):
And then I started digging into it, wearing my attorney hat.
And I said, okay, so if we wanted to make this very efficient, if we wanted the legends tobe true, even in part, why would Shilajit
come to the scene, disappear, come to the scene, disappear.
(35:17):
And the reason it happens is because it's very easy to counterfeit.
And we spoke about humic acids and phobic acids, over, way over 90 % of what we see outthere, they are soil extractions.
that are marketed as shilajit, that are marketed very well.
(35:39):
So what we do have is not a swirl extraction, it's shilajit made out of shilajit berryrock.
Now pure black does not rely on just one location.
I believe in building hybrids.
So we will collect shilajit barium rock from multiple regions, make it into a crude, intothe crude resin.
(36:05):
And this is what's processed and processed and processed to the point where you get thisreally high quality thing.
called pure black shillage resin, pure black live resin as well.
So, right.
it is black.
It's very, very black.
It has kind of a velvety surface to it.
(36:25):
It's not shiny black.
It's a little more velvety as I recall.
But yeah, and it's reasonably firm also, right?
um And then, so, okay, so you've got a jar with this shilajit in it.
How are people gonna actually consume it?
What are they going to do with it?
So they will take a little spoon and we usually provide a little spoon or they'll justtake their spoon.
(36:48):
They will dissolve it in water, scrape a little bit off and it's about a pea sized, scrapea little bit off and drink it.
That's it.
As simple as that.
There are really great recipes when shilashit is dissolved in hot milk, you know, somehoney's added.
some flavorings I'm adding and it makes a really delicious thing.
(37:12):
Now going back to the question that you asked.
tea?
How would that be?
I don't like sholajit with matcha tea.
I'm a little bit of a flavor purist.
I drink our white rabbit line sholajit separately, which is phenomenal smell and taste asit is, and I drink matcha separately.
(37:35):
I don't like to mix.
And it's kind of funny that you're actually bringing this up because for years we've beengetting a complaint of
Well, I'm trying to hide the smell and taste because this thing, I tried to take it in mycoffee to not smell and taste this bad smelling and tasting thing, but it sort of ruins my
(38:00):
coffee flavor because I'm a coffee snob.
So that's when we made Deja-Bru, where we basically took inspiration from micelles andliposomes and we coated these nanoparticles of shilajit in organic, very exquisite coffee
oil blends.
So now there's actually a shilajit that tastes, smells like coffee, doesn't ruin the smelland taste.
(38:25):
So organoleptics is very important.
for many people.
again, talking about how we make it, what we do, we basically took concepts which arethousands of years old and made them more efficient.
We made them better.
We made it work better.
We added new things.
(38:47):
So uh pure black is known in the Shilajit world for its highest quality and efficacy.
And pure black, just so people are wondering, spelled P-U-R-B-L-A-C-K.
Yeah, P-U-R with an umlaut over the U rather.
Yeah.
So pure black, anybody's trying to look it up, it's P-U-R-B-L-A-C-K.
(39:12):
Yeah, interesting.
So yeah, I mean, you wouldn't just take a scoop of it and put it in your mouth and swallowit.
It's...
It's a little bit of a, you know, it's a resin.
It's not tarry, but it's, it's, um, let's call it.
Yeah.
Some people don't mind the smell and taste.
Some people put it under their tongue.
(39:33):
I've been doing it for quite a lot.
But again, things change.
And I think we have to evolve products, herbs, quality, everything has to be better.
with each iteration.
That's why I practice this principle of Kaizen, always getting better, always beatingoneself.
(39:55):
And that's why we have what we have.
We continuously work on innovation.
There are multiple patents.
We disclose if somebody's interested how we make it.
People can go on Google patents, just put in my name and anything that's out there willcome up unless Google still did not scrape the US patent and trademark offices website,
(40:22):
but most things are there.
And the idea is to keep improving.
Now one thing that we did not talk about when it comes to Shilajit is that there isShilajit as an active ingredient.
So a physician of antiquity would say, well, you broke your leg, you got to take Shilajit.
(40:44):
You want babies, you got to take Shilajit.
But what is neglected and not understood
that Shilajit is also a delivery system.
So it is an amplifier and a harmonizer.
So it's an old concept, but if we talk about it in the modern terms, well, it's a deliverysystem.
(41:07):
There really isn't a thing or a term in pharmaceutical times which says, well, this is aharmonizer of your aspirin.
It doesn't work like that or of your...
Ibuprofen.
So shilajit is continuously and was continuously used to amplify other botanicals, toamplify other extracts, other herbs.
(41:30):
Now, fun fact, it amplifies even alcohol and drugs.
So if somebody wants to drink less, they should definitely consume their booze withshilajit.
not that I'm irresponsible alcohol.
(41:50):
would they drink less if they're doing that?
Well, I mean, talk about fulvic acids, how, I mean, let's take plants again, simpleexample.
Why is fulvic acid a fertilizer?
That molecule brings stuff into the cells.
Same with the humans.
(42:11):
So bring stuff in way more.
efficiently.
Now why would somebody do it with alcohol?
Well because they want to quit drinking because they want to drink less.
Why would somebody do this with herbs or with herbal formulas?
Because they want their herbal formula to work better, to function better.
(42:32):
So that's why they would do it.
That's why in Ayurveda there's this concept of a churna.
saying that if you drink this with alcohol, the alcohol is going to get into your systemfaster?
Okay, so you're going to have an effect from a smaller amount of alcohol, so you're goingto up drinking less.
Is that what you're saying?
(42:52):
That is correct.
it will, so it has another very, very strange effect.
Sugars, and we know that alcohol is a sugar, sugars are highly addictive.
If one takes Shilajit consistently,
with that consistency the sweet tooth is lost so people who are sweets addicts for examplethey will consume way less sweet things if they consistently take Shilajit.
(43:25):
Now another thing which is very interesting over time if you do this long enough sugarstarts tasting
disgusting.
like things that would normally be just sweet to you, they start to disgust you, theybecome abnormally sweet and you can do it.
(43:46):
And for a lot of people, this is a very good and I would say efficient way to very usefulto maintain healthier weight.
to not put so much load on their pancreas, which is not forever regenerate.
(44:07):
And I would like, and I apologize if I'm too academic here, but it's a pleasure talking toyou about science.
So please let me bring up my other point.
There are two studies, which are very interesting studies.
One is on
use of Shilajit-based formulation and opioids.
So rats who were given Shilajit-based formulation and opioids did not develop tolerance.
(44:38):
So the ones who did not take it did develop tolerance.
And for doctors, for example, people, I'm not talking about Pratt's, but people being, um
is if you're on a pain medication and it's an opioid and there's tolerance that developsto it.
And so you have to take more and more.
(44:58):
If you're taking Chilajit along with it, the same initial smaller dose continues to beeffective.
Is that what you're saying?
Only you as a doctor can say that.
I'm not a doctor, I'm a lawyer.
That's why I'm not going to say that.
But you are correct.
You are absolutely correct.
(45:19):
So ah this is true.
This is one study.
The other study, which is very interesting, there's a lot of correlation between anxietyand sugars.
Sugar is consumption.
Sugar is over consumption.
So another study was a comparison of geology-based formulation to alprazolam.
(45:43):
Now it was out there for purely, right, it was for purely scientific purposes, but if youlook at statistics, more than 40 million Americans
at some point of their life will consistently take alprazolam.
Well, what is alprazolam?
It's known as Xanax.
It's a medication for anxiety.
(46:05):
So again, they saw effects there.
And again, it was an animal model.
It was not a human.
But there is something very interesting there.
And if you take
multiple numerous systems which human body is made out of.
Shilajit there is a study almost for every system or for every system where there iseffect of Shilajit on it.
(46:33):
Now again when researchers write their studies they want their study to show something
So they pick the best trilogy they know what to pick.
Unfortunately, most people, what do they do?
They go on Amazon and buy the cheaper stuff.
And when it doesn't work, they feel very disillusioned.
(46:57):
It didn't work.
And usually the reason it didn't work, well, you got yourself a nicely packaged andmarketed soil extraction.
That's why it didn't work.
That's it.
get that makes sense.
Well, it also makes sense that every organ would be impacted, particularly if it'simproving immune modulation and also mitochondrial function, right?
(47:20):
So that's going to affect virtually everything, ah even in the brain.
Yeah, it's fascinating.
We're just we're just about out of time here.
So where can people find out more about this if they'd like to?
They can go and read things on purblack.com.
So again, it's P-U-R-B-L-E-C-K.com, purenoe, purblack.com.
(47:43):
And that's it.
If people want more scholastic, more academic knowledge, they should go on PubMed andresearch everything that has to do with Shilajit Muneo.
That's it.
Yeah, no, it's good stuff.
Well, Nodari I appreciate you taking the time to chat with us today.
It's interesting.
I learned some things, and that always makes it fun.
(48:06):
So thank you so much.
pleasure, pleasure, pleasure.
Shilajit is a food that extra terrestrials left.
(00:04):
Shilajit is the food that'll make you live hundreds of years more.
Shilajit is a cure-all.
And none of that is true.
Those are legends.
Those are myths.
So when we talk about shilajit, we're not talking about isolated fulvic or humic acids.
(00:26):
So if we were talking just about fulvic, purely fulvic or humic acid, could talk aboutfertilizer or soil extraction.
And this is how counterfeits of Shilajit are made.
If you were to qualify Shilajit, a very easy term for it would be regenerative adaptogen.
(00:49):
Or even more precise, even better would be biogenic stimulant.
(01:24):
Welcome everybody to this edition of the Gladden Longevity Podcast.
I'm your host, Dr.
Jeffrey Gladden, and we're here answering the big questions in life as always.
How good can we be?
How do we make 100 a new 30?
How do we live well beyond 120?
How do we live young for a lifetime and how do we develop a 300 year old mind?
And today I'm going to be talking about a topic that we've never spoken about before onthe podcast.
(01:49):
It's about a naturally occurring product called Shilajit.
and it's spelled S-H-I-L-A-J-I-T.
Some of you may have heard of it.
There's a gentleman, Nodari Risen, N-O-D-A-R-I, Nodari Risen, R-I-Z-U-N, who is anattorney, actually.
(02:10):
It has an interesting story about how he came to hear about Shilajit and then how he'sreally taken this to the next level in terms of purity and
bringing it to market and things like that.
But in the context of this, we're going to be talking in depth about what it is, how itworks, what's in it.
It's really a combination of a number of things.
And I think you're going to find this a really educational, fun podcast.
(02:34):
Welcome everybody to this edition of the GLAD Longevity Podcast.
I'm your host, Dr.
Jeffrey Gladden, and I'm here with Nodari Reisen.
Nodari, welcome to the show.
Thank you.
Thank you much.
Yeah.
So today we're going to be talking about a natural product found in the wild calledShilajit, which maybe some of you have heard of.
(02:56):
I first heard about it in the context of conversations about CoQ10 being combined withShilajit and it's an interesting product.
So, Nodari, before we get into the product itself, tell us how you got
interested in this.
I knew you're a lawyer and you're involved in civil rights law, if I'm not mistaken, butthat seems like a little bit of I don't know, next level finding and find out, you know,
(03:20):
that you're with trilogy, right?
So tell us how you got from point A to point B.
Right.
So you are absolutely correct.
I'm an attorney.
My specialty is actually uh human rights and civil rights.
So when I was in law school, I was in Russia and I met a gentleman.
(03:40):
He was a fascinating person.
He basically was an old school Soviet dissident.
And those people always fascinated me because they were incredibly stoic, incrediblydisciplined, and a lot of highly intellectual, very well read, very interesting people.
(04:03):
So he told me his story at that point.
And at that point, I'm in my second year of law school.
So I'm still very impressionate young person.
So long story short, he is thrown off from a third story building by KGB people, breakshis back, gets paralyzed.
(04:24):
Now when I met him, he was walking, was very active and very active.
not just saying physically active, so like he would walk a lot with a slight limp.
to be fair to the situation and honest, completely disposing everything, slightly, butnevertheless after paralysis.
But what was even more fascinating is the mind.
(04:48):
So the guy was incredibly sharp, incredibly well read, knew, had what's calledencyclopedic knowledge and could maintain very, very interesting conversations about
all sort of things.
And those themes were very, very different.
very, well-rounded person.
(05:11):
So when we spoke about this situation, because at that point I'm with maybe 2020, likeearly, early 20s, something like that.
And the guy's already in his late 60s pushing 70s.
So I asked him, well, how did you do it?
Paralysis?
hostility of life, difficult.
(05:32):
And he tells me, listen, so two things, I took the resin and I did yoga.
And that whole resin thing kind of stuck with me for years and years and years and years.
So when I graduated law school, I worked for a pharmaceutical company and myself on apersonal level, I...
(06:00):
always somewhat despised pharma.
Because my uncle runs and owns a pharmaceutical company, they make life-savingpharmaceuticals, mostly blood expanders, things for surgeries.
So because I was an attorney, he gave me a job.
(06:23):
my thought on pharma is absolutely necessary.
can be life saving, maybe sometimes there's too much of it.
And once pharma becomes just about profit, there's definitely a lot, a lot of it.
And a lot of things could be fixed, like mind, body, et cetera, with things that aresomewhat more natural.
(06:44):
And...
That's me myself, I was always into health.
I was always into natural things, natural substances, natural practices.
So this whole idea of resin, the magic of resin kind of stuck with me.
Now, before I started Pure Black, I was working on my PhD studies.
(07:05):
So really complex, very boring type of thesis.
for six years, quite grueling work.
But that made me a different person that made me think quite scholastically, like veryacademically, like, man, let's measure everything.
Let's conclude.
Let's figure out how this works, that works.
(07:26):
And there was a point in my life where I said, well, listen, I really want to do somethingthat would be not for the money, not just for the money.
Like if I...
me ask you this.
So you're working for your uncle's pharmacy company and then you decide to do a PhD.
I assume it's around an extension of your law studies in human rights and civil rights,right?
(07:49):
And you know that you've known about the guy that introduced you to the idea of Shilajitand some healing powers that he had experienced.
And so am I to understand that you started
taking this in law school or when you were working at the pharma company or during the PhDor just kind of something that's stuck in the back of your mind or.
It's stuck to the back of my mind.
(08:10):
It's stuck to the back of my mind.
And when I said no more pharma, I don't wanna do pharma, I don't wanna do pharmaceutical,know, pharmaceutical contracts.
don't wanna consult for just business anymore.
I need something that will be enjoyable to do, will feed me at least a little bit.
(08:33):
But most importantly,
heavy.
Right, most importantly, will benefit people.
So in this resin thing, in this story, which initially happened to me, I saw somethingwhere I said, well, I can really help humanity.
And that's basically how Pure Black started.
So I've spent a very, very long time hitting the books, hitting all the publications inforeign languages as well.
(09:01):
So where is your Russian, where's your wrench Russian gentleman at this point in time?
Is he still part of the picture or he had moved on?
it's my uncle.
He's he lives in Moscow.
Yeah, he's much older.
He's already retired.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Right.
My uncle was the guy.
My uncle was the guy who I worked for.
But the guy who told me this was Oh, I don't have contact with him like he I don't know.
(09:27):
he faded off into the background someplace.
Okay.
don't have his phone number, nothing.
Got it.
OK.
So you're so you but this is OK.
You decide you don't really want to work for big pharma or pharma and you want to dosomething in a natural space.
And so you remember this guy and now you're tracking down everything you can on Shilajitto see what it is, how it works uh and all that sort of thing.
(09:55):
that right?
OK.
That is right and what I realized, I can greatly improve it.
I can greatly push the quality.
There's so much misinformation.
There's so much that is out there to tell.
kind of misinformation, how are you going to improve it?
There were a lot of myths on one hand saying
(10:16):
that Shilajit is a food that extra terrestrials left.
Shilajit is the food that'll make you live hundreds of years more.
Shilajit is a cure-all.
And none of that is true.
Those are legends.
Those are myths.
And I think those marketing myths were there pre-internet.
(10:39):
as well.
um
define what it actually is for the audience here.
We've kind of, you know, taken them along a little bit on a ride here in terms of your ownstory.
But Shilajit is spelled S-H-I-L-A-J-I-T.
It's kind of right.
Right.
is a Sanskrit name.
This is only one of the names that are available in many, languages.
(11:04):
Another very famous name is Mumyo, Russian Persian.
Another is Bragg's Zoom.
And basically almost every culture, which has mountains areas, has some sort of Shilajitin their culture.
Okay, so this is just so the audience understands, this is a tar-like humic substance.
(11:25):
It's a rich exudate that seeps from high altitude rocks, if you will, like in theHimalayas, Altai, and Andes.
And it's a phytomineral complex, right?
So it's a plant and mineral complex of fulvic and humic acids.
uh
absolutely correct, just one correction.
It doesn't really seep the way people think it does.
(11:48):
Usually you find shilajit-bearing rock and in the summer, yes, these rocks, there's alittle bit of exudate, there's a little bit of tar coming out of them.
But...
If we're talking about real Shilajit, you never go into the mountains and find thismiraculous stream which is just coming out of the rock.
(12:09):
It's a myth.
It's not true.
You have to find these Shilajit-bearing rocks and the rock needs to be ripe.
And ripe means it has to be a certain...
consistency, certain color, certain glycine content, a certain size.
is like going to the produce section of the market and finding the right cantaloupe.
(12:35):
yeah you could say that it's just it's in the wild but yeah you could say that it's kindof like finding the right cantaloupe or a lot of cantaloupes.
it ripens.
is there, if it ripens and there's a season or is this season, once it ripens, is it ripefor you or for what?
It's for years, you need at least 40 years for really good shillage bearing rock to form.
(12:59):
And you need very specific atmospheric and and conditions and flora and fauna conditions.
Because what atmospheric conditions do, they allow plants, mostly adaptogenic.
to grow, then those plants die, then they compacted usually into crevices, mountaincrevices, they ferment for many, years.
(13:25):
So that biomass accumulates and it forms the rock.
And if the rock is a good quality rock, it was there long enough of time, this is what youwill collect, you will extract, and it'll make this tar, it'll make this resin.
Genuine Shilajit is always a resin.
(13:46):
It's never powder, it's never a tablet, it's never a tincture.
So last, I would say seven to 10 years, Shilajit really grew out of nowhere.
There's a lot of Shilajit offerings, but what most companies are selling are usually
(14:07):
counterfeits packaged conveniently.
So that's why if you want real shilajit, it's always a resin.
And that's why I always said, while being pure black, I don't want to touch things thatare not true, that are not real.
We will always be a resin.
And unless we can make use of resin highly convenient, we're not going to do tablets,we're not going to do powders, we're not going to do tinctures.
(14:34):
We'll always stay a resin.
OK, so I'm just pulling up a couple of things here on humic and fulvic acid, which areactually found in several different things besides Shilajit, if I'm not mistaken.
But what's interesting is that they can be an electron donor, so they can also acceptelectrons, which they can be a free radical scavenger.
(14:57):
And that would help with mitochondrial health, if you will, if you can scavenge up freeradicals, but also be an electron donor.
And it also looks like they can bind up trace minerals like zinc, magnesium, selenium,iron, and copper, which could facilitate intestinal absorption.
They produce a natural ionophore for certain micronutrients, a way for them to get intothe cells.
um And they can bind.
(15:20):
heavy metals, pesticides, organic toxins.
So they can also be used to detox and then they can help with electron transport inmitochondria.
And humic and fulvic have also shown anti-inflammatory activity down regulatingNF-kappa-beta, which is one of the primary levers of inflammation.
So what we're talking about here, it looks like is a fermented plant.
(15:44):
uh product, right, that occurs in the wild and it ferments in a context of the minerals inthe rocks and things like that.
And then it turns into this actually very useful compound that can do several differentthings.
ah
is correct.
(16:04):
if I may just shed a little bit more light onto this.
So when we talk about shilajit, we're not talking about isolated fulvic or humic acids.
So if we were talking just about fulvic, purely fulvic or humic acid, we could talk aboutfertilizer or soil extraction.
(16:26):
And this is how counterfeits of Shilajit are made.
So you and me, can go right now, if we wanted to, buy fertilizer, which is folic acid, andstart making tablets out of it.
But we won't do that because we understand that Shilajit is something different.
Yes, it's an organic, it's more complex.
(16:49):
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
more plant phytosubstances.
We're just saying that it does have fulvic and humic acids as part of its pickup, butthat's part of a cocktail of things that are in there, right?
So, yeah.
More biologically active substances.
If you were to qualify Shilajit, a very easy term for it would be regenerative adaptogen.
(17:15):
Or even more precise, even better would be biogenic stimulant.
Now what does that even mean for a normal person?
What did you say?
stimulant stimulant biogenic stimulant now what what does this mean so if we take a plantor a an animal but let's talk about plants let's let's stay concrete and we subject that
(17:40):
plant to a lot of stress that plant will develop a certain biochemistry
That's why they say certain environment plants need to form in a hostile environment.
What does that mean?
That means very hot in the summer, very cold in the winter, high levels of solarradiation.
(18:06):
So this plant at some point dies but metabolites
keep forming because the fermentation process basically takes sterols, phytochemicals andcreates, as you said absolutely correctly, this cocktail.
So this cocktail is what becomes Shilajit.
(18:29):
Fulvic acid.
It's interesting.
talk about stress and plants, right?
Because the audience should understand that, uh, you know, we know that plants are full ofa lot of phytochemicals and phytonutrients and polyphenols and hormones exactly.
And, and things that can be helpful to us, but it's also important to understand that, um,if you were to grow those plants in a greenhouse, the concentration of those very helpful
(18:55):
chemicals would be much lower.
then if you put them in a stressful environment, a lot of those polyphenols and things areactually formed as a stress response inside the plant to help the plant survive, if you
will.
And it turns out that then they have beneficial effects for us.
So this is kind of like you're in the Andes or you're in the Himalayas.
(19:17):
You you've got plants that are growing in a hostile environment by definition.
So they're producing different polyphenols and other
useful factors and now they're dying and fermenting and intermingling with other plantsand intermingling with the minerals that are in the rocks and the soil.
And so it becomes a really sort of interesting nutrient cocktail, right?
(19:38):
That's what we're saying, right?
Yeah.
Moreover, moreover, here's the other thing which is very interesting.
If you extract a plant like that and give it to a human,
human will have to undergo way less stress due to shifted biochemistry, due to changedbiochemistry.
(20:01):
That's why doctors of antiquity spoke so highly about Shilajit and we'll talk about it uhin a little bit who actually commented on Shilajit because there are written sources of
absolutely major, major figures
in the history of medicine who said something about trilogy.
(20:21):
But you gave a wonderful example and I think maybe a good idea here is to simplify it alittle bit and talk about a plant that almost everybody in the Western or English speaking
world knows.
Tea.
To be more precise, green tea.
To be more precise, stressed out green tea.
(20:44):
Now what is a stressed out green tea?
It's called matcha.
So matcha is green tea that is grown in the shade.
It doesn't get enough sun as the normal tea would and it develops a completely differentbiochemistry.
And because of that it's highly valued as a ceremonial
(21:09):
phenomenal substance which people would take to calm themselves, to stimulate themselves.
oh Basically fitting into all the into everything that an adaptogen is.
An adaptogen is a term which was coined in the 30s.
And it was coined off of another plant which also
(21:32):
it for people.
So an adaptogen is basically uh something that will bring an organ or metabolic processinto equilibrium, which means that if it's, you know, underperforming, it'll bring up,
it'll raise its performance.
And if it's overperforming, let's say, it'll actually bring it back down.
(21:52):
A common one would be the use of ashwagandha to basically regulate
cortisol production in the body.
If there's too much cortisol, the ashwagandha will lower it.
If there's not enough, it'll raise it.
So an adaptogen is something that doesn't matter where it finds you.
You know, could be to the left or the right.
It'll bring you into the center, so to speak.
Right.
(22:13):
So.
Right, right, right.
Absolutely correct.
It will make you perform under stress and you will be incurred less damage from thatstress.
And everybody's life is what?
Stressors?
And partially how we respond to them is what defines our aging and performance.
That's it.
(22:33):
Well, adaptogens are incredibly important because things as we age do get out of balance.
So anything that you can have that enables you to come back into balance is interesting.
I'm also looking at here that it can reduce uh lipid peroxidation markers, right?
So oxidative stress can be reduced.
And then there are some endocrine studies that show that it will actually increasetestosterone.
(22:59):
and DHEA production in middle-aged men.
Apparently studies have been done.
And that's interesting.
That's kind of bringing hormones back into, you know, alignment, if you will.
And then there's cognition and neuroprotection.
There's studies showing that it inhibits tau protein aggregation, at least in vitro, whichcould be relevant for Alzheimer's.
(23:19):
And then it has impacts on the gut and also on the immune system in terms of decreasingimmune
uh driven inflammation, as well as chelating heavy metals and helping you to detox.
So it's not only it's kind of like a it's kind of like a Merv missile, right?
It's got multiple it's got multiple warheads, if you will, multiple areas that itinteracts.
(23:42):
And in each one, it's kind of bringing things back into alignment.
So.
Dr.
Guaden, I love your analogies.
So if we talk about just a pure body of research, just PubMed alone, if we go and put inShilajit, I believe it's 136 or 140 some studies, but that is what is published in English
(24:09):
and what made it to PubMed.
But that is the tip of the iceberg because if you go and research in libraries,
which hold research in other languages, for example Ukrainian, Russian, Norwegianlanguages, you will find way more and way more interesting data and studies than you will
(24:38):
find on PubMed.
Why?
because when people publish on PubMed, they publish to get a publication or get somethingrecognized.
When people published or put something in a repository in a major medical library, usuallythat was a 25 to 30 page abstract of their PhD thesis.
(25:04):
Mm-hmm.
And after that, there was their PhD thesis.
So the rigor and depth of research was way more profound.
And I don't.
I don't want to give any advice to anybody here.
We're not here to talk about cancers.
We're not here to talk about regenerative surgery for the reasons everybody understands.
(25:29):
But the studies on augmentation of chemo and radiation therapy
with the help of Shilajit at dating back to the 50s and 60s of the last century, wherealready at that point it was shown that
(25:54):
And again, I don't want you or me or any podcast to be banned by the FDA at some point.
let's, we are not promoting any cures here.
Okay, well, here's some interesting facts too.
Humic acid is actually a larger molecule and so it's less well absorbed.
(26:15):
So it basically does a lot of its work in the gut by binding toxins and modulating the gutmicrobiome and immune tone.
And then fulvic acid, which is smaller and more soluble.
is the one that becomes bioavailable to the cells as an antioxidant mineral transporter,mitochondrial cofactor, and immune modulator.
(26:35):
So they're kind of like Abbott and Costello, right?
A big guy and a little guy.
uh But they're a good team, right?
They're a good team.
So that's pretty interesting.
And you tend to find them together.
At least that's been my impression.
And they are just a part of the big equation because again, if somebody wants to justconsume humicaphobic acid, they can just go and consume humicaphobic acid and they're
(27:00):
wonderful sources out there of phenomenal quality.
But Shilajit is somewhat different and what Shilajit does, what Shilajit was studied for,
is way broader than just fulvic or humic acid.
So that's the idea.
And I think what supports this statement is the history of shilajit.
(27:28):
It's been used for millennia in literally four or five hundred years ago, high quality
was traded for its pure weight of gold in gold.
But in order to get your Shula Jeets weight in gold, you had to pass certain tests whichare barbaric, nevertheless, they are quite interesting.
(27:51):
But if we talk about written sources, something that stayed with us or stays with us ashumans, as scholars, for doctors, as physicians,
Probably the most famous guy who wrote about this is Abisena.
So Abisena, yeah yeah Abisena.
(28:15):
So Abisena is a foundation of medicine.
He was studied in medical schools in Europe for about 500 years.
He's still studied.
Of course, there's way more data, there's way more information you can study just at thecenter.
But at some point, it was a go-to textbook.
(28:38):
the
is it's been around for a long time.
It's been revered for a long time and it's been found to be useful for a long time.
Really?
That's kind of what you're saying, right?
Yeah.
And he writes about like Abhisena writes about in his most famous book, Canons ofMedicine, he writes about trilogy.
But there were other guys who in part predated Abhisena.
(29:01):
There was Sri Raka Sampita, foundation of Ayurvedic medicine, where that guy writes in his
treatise which is incredibly progressive, incredibly scientific for its time, where hesays, listen, no curable disease can be cured without Shilajit.
(29:22):
There's another guy, Pabba Prakash, where he also talks about Shilajit.
And that physician basically was very famous, Ayurvedically, doing things like basicallyputting forward a pharmacopoeia of herbs.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
all of these people say something which is very similar.
(29:44):
It's just similar looking at it from like maybe different angles, but it's still the samething.
So they talk about regeneration and rejuvenation.
So if you and me, we were to go out right now and you
Nodari.
Let's come up with a different term for this.
(30:04):
What is this?
Simply so that people would understand.
I'd say, well, it's a regenerative adaptogen.
It's an adaptogen, but it regenerates because not all adaptogens are regenerative.
Ginseng, probably not regenerative.
Rhodiola, not regenerative.
This one is regenerative.
(30:25):
I think the reason for that is it sounds to me, I mean, if I was to hypothesize, it wouldbe the impact not only on the immune system, but mitochondrial function, because that's
one of the areas that pretty much always has to be rejuvenated.
If somebody is going to get better is the integrity of mitochondrial function where energyis produced, electrons go where they're supposed to go.
(30:47):
And the exhaust of that
production process, the free radicals are minimized and contained and neutralized in anefficient manner.
And that seems to always go awry in almost every disorder, if you will.
that would be the fact that it has the ability to do that through at least the fulvicportion of this plus other elements, the other minerals and things.
(31:12):
think that's probably where it brings in its rejuvenation.
elements.
I don't know, you may feel differently.
Dr.
Glieden, I don't know how much you read before this conversation, but you are surprisinglybeyond well-informed.
So here's what happens, you are absolutely correct.
More energy to the system, and this is what Shilajit does, creates a resource to do work.
(31:40):
But...
changed homeostasis very quickly.
A shift and you as a doctor understand better than anybody that a sick person or a sickerperson or a person who is getting sick will always have different homeostasis from person
who is incredibly healthy.
It's just a different battery chemistry.
(32:03):
It's a different body chemistry.
But if you...
Right, right, right, right, right.
and then you've got matcha with another homeostasis.
They're both homeostasis.
Yeah.
about a human as a battery, but battery has a certain chemistry.
(32:23):
So if the chemistry is improved and you have energy, which Shilajit does stimulatemitochondrial respiration.
Now, mitochondria working, mitochondria has to burn something.
So we all burn what?
Oxygen.
we are breathing species.
Now when you burn oxygen you create free radicals so you create oxidation basically yourust.
(32:52):
Now what's interesting about Shilajit on one hand and and this is counter logical butthat's how it works on one hand great quality Shilajit stimulates this mitochondrial
respiration mitochondrial efficiency
But on the other hand, not being an antioxidant per se, it mimics the most potentantioxidants.
(33:20):
And that's how change happens.
Yeah, no, that's right.
And I think if you can go in and solve that for people that are sick, you actually startto put them on the road to recovery.
So to your point, tell us about, tell us about True Black.
It's an interesting name.
Tell us, you know, there are imitation products out there.
There are things with just humic and fulvic acid in there, but you've actually gotten ahold of a very pure form of
(33:47):
Shiljit, I'm not sure of the source, but maybe you can walk us through what's actually inthe little can that you have.
in a little glass jar.
for pure black, only use a biophotonic glass.
We do have other products which unfortunately we still use some plastic but we're phasingout plastic completely.
(34:11):
So talking about that little tin thing, it will all be very high-end German, European madeglass that all the pure black products, pure black and peptides will be.
in.
But when I came into this thing, when I started Pure Black, by the way, the name PureBlack, it's just the name, not the product.
(34:34):
The name is not my idea.
The idea belongs to our wonderful marketing director, Mark Simmons.
So the product idea was mine.
So I said, okay, we have something where
cycle and cycle after cycle and I'm talking about commercial cycles in countries, thisthing gets discredited.
(34:57):
And then I started digging into it, wearing my attorney hat.
And I said, okay, so if we wanted to make this very efficient, if we wanted the legends tobe true, even in part, why would Shilajit
come to the scene, disappear, come to the scene, disappear.
(35:17):
And the reason it happens is because it's very easy to counterfeit.
And we spoke about humic acids and phobic acids, over, way over 90 % of what we see outthere, they are soil extractions.
that are marketed as shilajit, that are marketed very well.
(35:39):
So what we do have is not a swirl extraction, it's shilajit made out of shilajit berryrock.
Now pure black does not rely on just one location.
I believe in building hybrids.
So we will collect shilajit barium rock from multiple regions, make it into a crude, intothe crude resin.
(36:05):
And this is what's processed and processed and processed to the point where you get thisreally high quality thing.
called pure black shillage resin, pure black live resin as well.
So, right.
it is black.
It's very, very black.
It has kind of a velvety surface to it.
(36:25):
It's not shiny black.
It's a little more velvety as I recall.
But yeah, and it's reasonably firm also, right?
um And then, so, okay, so you've got a jar with this shilajit in it.
How are people gonna actually consume it?
What are they going to do with it?
So they will take a little spoon and we usually provide a little spoon or they'll justtake their spoon.
(36:48):
They will dissolve it in water, scrape a little bit off and it's about a pea sized, scrapea little bit off and drink it.
That's it.
As simple as that.
There are really great recipes when shilashit is dissolved in hot milk, you know, somehoney's added.
some flavorings I'm adding and it makes a really delicious thing.
(37:12):
Now going back to the question that you asked.
tea?
How would that be?
I don't like sholajit with matcha tea.
I'm a little bit of a flavor purist.
I drink our white rabbit line sholajit separately, which is phenomenal smell and taste asit is, and I drink matcha separately.
(37:35):
I don't like to mix.
And it's kind of funny that you're actually bringing this up because for years we've beengetting a complaint of
Well, I'm trying to hide the smell and taste because this thing, I tried to take it in mycoffee to not smell and taste this bad smelling and tasting thing, but it sort of ruins my
(38:00):
coffee flavor because I'm a coffee snob.
So that's when we made Deja-Bru, where we basically took inspiration from micelles andliposomes and we coated these nanoparticles of shilajit in organic, very exquisite coffee
oil blends.
So now there's actually a shilajit that tastes, smells like coffee, doesn't ruin the smelland taste.
(38:25):
So organoleptics is very important.
for many people.
again, talking about how we make it, what we do, we basically took concepts which arethousands of years old and made them more efficient.
We made them better.
We made it work better.
We added new things.
(38:47):
So uh pure black is known in the Shilajit world for its highest quality and efficacy.
And pure black, just so people are wondering, spelled P-U-R-B-L-A-C-K.
Yeah, P-U-R with an umlaut over the U rather.
Yeah.
So pure black, anybody's trying to look it up, it's P-U-R-B-L-A-C-K.
(39:12):
Yeah, interesting.
So yeah, I mean, you wouldn't just take a scoop of it and put it in your mouth and swallowit.
It's...
It's a little bit of a, you know, it's a resin.
It's not tarry, but it's, it's, um, let's call it.
Yeah.
Some people don't mind the smell and taste.
Some people put it under their tongue.
(39:33):
I've been doing it for quite a lot.
But again, things change.
And I think we have to evolve products, herbs, quality, everything has to be better.
with each iteration.
That's why I practice this principle of Kaizen, always getting better, always beatingoneself.
(39:55):
And that's why we have what we have.
We continuously work on innovation.
There are multiple patents.
We disclose if somebody's interested how we make it.
People can go on Google patents, just put in my name and anything that's out there willcome up unless Google still did not scrape the US patent and trademark offices website,
(40:22):
but most things are there.
And the idea is to keep improving.
Now one thing that we did not talk about when it comes to Shilajit is that there isShilajit as an active ingredient.
So a physician of antiquity would say, well, you broke your leg, you got to take Shilajit.
(40:44):
You want babies, you got to take Shilajit.
But what is neglected and not understood
that Shilajit is also a delivery system.
So it is an amplifier and a harmonizer.
So it's an old concept, but if we talk about it in the modern terms, well, it's a deliverysystem.
(41:07):
There really isn't a thing or a term in pharmaceutical times which says, well, this is aharmonizer of your aspirin.
It doesn't work like that or of your...
Ibuprofen.
So shilajit is continuously and was continuously used to amplify other botanicals, toamplify other extracts, other herbs.
(41:30):
Now, fun fact, it amplifies even alcohol and drugs.
So if somebody wants to drink less, they should definitely consume their booze withshilajit.
not that I'm irresponsible alcohol.
(41:50):
would they drink less if they're doing that?
Well, I mean, talk about fulvic acids, how, I mean, let's take plants again, simpleexample.
Why is fulvic acid a fertilizer?
That molecule brings stuff into the cells.
Same with the humans.
(42:11):
So bring stuff in way more.
efficiently.
Now why would somebody do it with alcohol?
Well because they want to quit drinking because they want to drink less.
Why would somebody do this with herbs or with herbal formulas?
Because they want their herbal formula to work better, to function better.
(42:32):
So that's why they would do it.
That's why in Ayurveda there's this concept of a churna.
saying that if you drink this with alcohol, the alcohol is going to get into your systemfaster?
Okay, so you're going to have an effect from a smaller amount of alcohol, so you're goingto up drinking less.
Is that what you're saying?
(42:52):
That is correct.
it will, so it has another very, very strange effect.
Sugars, and we know that alcohol is a sugar, sugars are highly addictive.
If one takes Shilajit consistently,
with that consistency the sweet tooth is lost so people who are sweets addicts for examplethey will consume way less sweet things if they consistently take Shilajit.
(43:25):
Now another thing which is very interesting over time if you do this long enough sugarstarts tasting
disgusting.
like things that would normally be just sweet to you, they start to disgust you, theybecome abnormally sweet and you can do it.
(43:46):
And for a lot of people, this is a very good and I would say efficient way to very usefulto maintain healthier weight.
to not put so much load on their pancreas, which is not forever regenerate.
(44:07):
And I would like, and I apologize if I'm too academic here, but it's a pleasure talking toyou about science.
So please let me bring up my other point.
There are two studies, which are very interesting studies.
One is on
use of Shilajit-based formulation and opioids.
So rats who were given Shilajit-based formulation and opioids did not develop tolerance.
(44:38):
So the ones who did not take it did develop tolerance.
And for doctors, for example, people, I'm not talking about Pratt's, but people being, um
is if you're on a pain medication and it's an opioid and there's tolerance that developsto it.
And so you have to take more and more.
(44:58):
If you're taking Chilajit along with it, the same initial smaller dose continues to beeffective.
Is that what you're saying?
Only you as a doctor can say that.
I'm not a doctor, I'm a lawyer.
That's why I'm not going to say that.
But you are correct.
You are absolutely correct.
(45:19):
So ah this is true.
This is one study.
The other study, which is very interesting, there's a lot of correlation between anxietyand sugars.
Sugar is consumption.
Sugar is over consumption.
So another study was a comparison of geology-based formulation to alprazolam.
(45:43):
Now it was out there for purely, right, it was for purely scientific purposes, but if youlook at statistics, more than 40 million Americans
at some point of their life will consistently take alprazolam.
Well, what is alprazolam?
It's known as Xanax.
It's a medication for anxiety.
(46:05):
So again, they saw effects there.
And again, it was an animal model.
It was not a human.
But there is something very interesting there.
And if you take
multiple numerous systems which human body is made out of.
Shilajit there is a study almost for every system or for every system where there iseffect of Shilajit on it.
(46:33):
Now again when researchers write their studies they want their study to show something
So they pick the best trilogy they know what to pick.
Unfortunately, most people, what do they do?
They go on Amazon and buy the cheaper stuff.
And when it doesn't work, they feel very disillusioned.
(46:57):
It didn't work.
And usually the reason it didn't work, well, you got yourself a nicely packaged andmarketed soil extraction.
That's why it didn't work.
That's it.
get that makes sense.
Well, it also makes sense that every organ would be impacted, particularly if it'simproving immune modulation and also mitochondrial function, right?
(47:20):
So that's going to affect virtually everything, ah even in the brain.
Yeah, it's fascinating.
We're just we're just about out of time here.
So where can people find out more about this if they'd like to?
They can go and read things on purblack.com.
So again, it's P-U-R-B-L-E-C-K.com, purenoe, purblack.com.
(47:43):
And that's it.
If people want more scholastic, more academic knowledge, they should go on PubMed andresearch everything that has to do with Shilajit Muneo.
That's it.
Yeah, no, it's good stuff.
Well, Nodari I appreciate you taking the time to chat with us today.
It's interesting.
I learned some things, and that always makes it fun.
(48:06):
So thank you so much.
pleasure, pleasure, pleasure.
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