The 4-Hour Body_ An Uncommon Guide to Ra - Timothy Ferriss [52]
Tolerance to the upper-like effects11 develops quickly and cessation can cause severe headaches. The withdrawal pains lead to a domino effect of stimulant use. Either people never stop taking ECA or they substitute in equally strong drugs to avoid chronic fatigue. I suspect there is an entire generation of strength and endurance athletes with ECA-induced adrenal fatigue who now depend on stimulants for normal everyday function. Some I know opt for 6–10 double espressos per 24 hours. Used in high doses or in high-humidity/high-heat conditions, ephedrine and ephedra have also both been associated with heart attack and death.
I suffered so many sinus infections post-ECA that I visited a Stanford-trained specialist who, after reviewing a cranial MRI, asked without a second of hesitation: “Do you drink much caffeine or take other stimulants?” Almost all of my sinal cavities were completely blocked with compressed, dried matter. She was amazed that I was able to get out of bed in the morning.
From that point onward, I removed stimulants for brief but increasing periods, as painful as it was, until I had reestablished basic adrenal function. It was clear that another fat-loss approach was needed, something more sustainable.
I wanted to find a nonstimulant stack that used different pathways altogether.
After: PAGG
The end result was PAGG.
Policosanol: 20–25 mg
Alpha-lipoic acid: 100–300 mg (I take 300 mg with each meal, but some people experience acid reflux symptoms with more than 100 mg)
Green tea flavanols (decaffeinated with at least 325 mg EGCG): 325 mg
Garlic extract: 200 mg
Daily PAGG intake is timed before meals and bed, which produces a schedule like this:
Prior to breakfast: AGG
Prior to lunch: AGG
Prior to dinner: AGG
Prior to bed: PAGG
AGG is simply PAGG minus policosanol.
This dosing schedule is followed six days a week. Take one day off each week and one week off every two months. This week off is critical.
Let’s look at our new cast of characters.
POLICOSANOL
Policosanol, an extract of plant waxes, often sugar cane, is the most controversial element in the PAGG stack. I originally experimented with policosanol at low and high doses to increase HDL cholesterol and decrease LDL cholesterol. Used in combination with time-release niacin, one orange before bed, and chromium polynicotinate (not picolinate) during the four-week “Geek to Freak” project detailed in later chapters, I lowered my total cholesterol from 222 to 147 while almost doubling HDL.
There was a pleasant side effect: an unintended but significant reduction in bodyfat. I isolated the policosanol over several weeks of further testing. The research studies are far from conclusive regarding policosanol’s effects on cholesterol; most show no effect whatsoever. This could be due to not dosing policosanol before peak cholesterol production between midnight and 4:00 A.M. Regardless, the addition of policosanol (10–25 milligrams before bed) to the PAGG (then AGG) stack produces, in my experience and that of my guinea pigs, far superior effects for fat-loss vs. AGG alone. This was tested with three brands and three dosages (10, 23, and 40 milligrams per day). I found 23 milligrams per day to be optimal for fat-loss, with little additional benefit from higher doses.
ALPHA-LIPOIC ACID (ALA)
Alpha-lipoic acid (ALA) is a potent antioxidant and free radical scavenger that has been proven to regenerate vitamin C and vitamin E; restore levels of intracellular glutathione, an important antioxidant that declines with age; and increase excretion of toxic heavy metals such as mercury.
It was first synthesized and tested in the 1970s for the treatment of chronic liver diseases. The intravenous interventions reversed disease in 75 out of 79 subjects.
Given its impressive effects, the most remarkable feature of ALA is its apparent lack of toxicity in humans.12 It’s NOAEL (No Observable Adverse Effect Level) is 60 milligrams per kilogram of bodyweight, which would make up to 4,091 milligrams per day safe for a 150-pound