Born of the Mountain: Why Shilajit is Your Oldest New Energy Supplement

Just when you thought you’d got your food groups down, along comes an ancient herbo-mineral humectant exuding from the Himalayan mountains to offer you strength and focus.   Let WillPowders take you through the benefits of shilajit.  

If, until recently, like us, the word shilajit hasn’t been part of your everyday vocabulary, we believe that’s about to change.  Here we have the answer to, what is shilajit?  Held in mystic reverence in Central Asia since ancient times, Shilajit has long been hailed in traditional medicine for its role in preventing ailments and enhancing the quality of life.  Not a bad little pair of potential properties, huh?  As traditional herbal medicine finally starts to be of serious mass interest once again, mineral components of traditional medicine are still, unfortunately, the poor relative when it comes to modern research, with even some scientists lamenting how shilajit isn’t getting enough attention, ‘In light of Shilajit's tremendous medicinal potential, it would not be an exaggeration to say that it can be a panacea for all human ailments and Nature's wonderful gift to mankind’ [*].  However, in what meeting points there have been with modern science, it seems that shilajit could claim benefits such as antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and immunomodulatory properties.  It seems to beg the question, why make up new, untested chemicals when Old Father Time has already cooked up a potent, trialled by millenia mineral batch of fortifying goodness for us?  Add to all this that shilajit could also delay muscle fatigue during exercise, and thus enhance physical performance, and you’ve got to ask, exactly where has this powerhouse been hiding all our lives?  Come to Poppa!

It’s not really possible to understand shilajit without understanding its ancient roots and its accompanying ancient medicine usage and folklore turned modern science.  Shilajit, pronounced sheel-a-jeet (so you don’t embarrass yourself in the gym shower, that’s right, we got you on this one, but the rest of what happens in there is up to you!), is a Sanskrit word.  It contains two concepts - to conquer or excel over something and stone.  A quick shimmy into English and we have the idea of that which conquers stone and, in our WillPowders’ case, that stone is a Himalayan mountain.  And, you don’t get more true grit than that!  

But how did it get that name?  Well, shilajit is extruded from the mountains.  As it emerges from the rock in the warm summer months, it is thought to be conquering or being born of the mountain, with all that Herculean DNA in tow!  And, as it goes, the word also translates in Marathi-English as bitumen - yes, a tarry textured substance - and this is how it presents itself on the mountainous rock face - as a thick black-brown resin.  Black treacle, eat your heart out!  

It’s not possible to understand the power of shilajit without having reverence for one of this planet's natural processing plants - in this case, the Himalayan mountains.  While at WillPowders we might scorn the ultra processing that Big Food uses on our food, we don’t argue with what the mountain does in order to bring us shilajit.  In the summer heat, this humus rich tar exudes out of the rocks.  It was formed from organic matter centuries ago.  As an ancient substance, it’s been used in Ayurvedic and Siddha medicine practices for centuries for its potential to both benefit and alleviate a whole range of things in our bodies.  For Ayurvedic purposes, its properties are ‘strength giver’, a ‘catalytic’, as it’s believed to carry nutrients deep into the body’s tissues and a ‘rejuvenator’, and couldn’t we all do with a little more of that quality coming to call?  Its primary use is to combat tiredness, lethargy and chronic fatigue - you know, those things most of us wrapped up in the daily grind are trying to wrestle down to a disruptive minimum on a regular basis.   Lots of us (before our WillPowders initiation kicked in, of course) can’t remember the last time we didn’t feel tired in our adult lives, right?  Shilajit could help with that.

As a substance that contains humic acid, shilajit can help our gut microbiome, and you know how much we like a stomach stocked with good bacteria at WillPowders.  It seems that increasing humic acid in the diet can get those colonic bacteria multiplying in your favour.   In tests, healthy volunteers who increase orally applied humic acids ‘increase the sum concentrations of preexisting colonic microbiota from 20% to 30% without changes in the bacterial diversity of the individual microbiome’ and, this, the study suggests, may be a serious amendment or alternative to taking probiotics’ [*].  Convinced so far?  Then let’s take a deeper dive into the advantages of shilajit and its resplendent resins.

 If we consider that Type 2 Diabetes, coronary heart disease and colitis are all diseases linked to inflammation, then we start to sit up and take notice of what fulvic acid can do for us.  In one study, fulvic acid’s anti-inflammatory properties were similar to 1% hydrocortisone.   Fulvic acid, it has been suggested, might have a bimodal effect that ‘not only suppresses immune function but also stimulates it.  Essentially, it provides evidence that FvA [fulvic acid] ensures proper immune function’ [*].  In essence, it seems that in our lab mice and rat friends, fulvic acid can at once quell the immune response to soothe flare ups and stimulate an appropriate inflammatory response when infections and pathogens need quashing.  

Sometimes it just takes one extra appointment in the week and a kid with a dribbling nose or bum and the straw that broke the camel’s back blows into town.  The busier we get, the more modern life compels us to reach for convenience and, who serves you convenience (with a side dollop of sugar and bad fats) on every corner?  That’s right - Big Food!  When times get this way, it’s worth knowing that at least a few convenient things in your day have been curated with careful consideration to your health.  That’s where we come in at WillPowders!  With us, you know that, forming a habit of using our performance protein powder at one or two points in your day, whether you’ve adulterated your yoghurt, shook up a shake or brewed up a cup of comfort, you’ll be keeping firmly upright on the balance beam of nutrition.  Even if the rest of the day goes to shit and your spouse rings to say the dishwasher has bust and Child 2.0 needs a costume pronto for World Harass Parents Day, you will know that you’ve consumed iron, manganese, zinc and selenium as easily as swallowing.   Stick in the macronutrients of calcium, magnesium, phosphorous, potassium, chloride and sodium in electrolyte form from our powdered bone broth (the full deck of amino acids in our performance protein powder) and those bad boys will get sucked up by your bod and vitals in no time!  For a full rundown on what these macronutrients do for you, try our Skin and Bone blog.  Now that’s performance!