The Ultimate Natural Testosterone Support Stack
IOH Nutrition / Four-Product Protocol
Four Pathways. Four Formulas. One System.
Most testosterone products pick one lever and pull it hard. Male hormone physiology does not work that way. Production, clearance, cofactors, and foundation are four different jobs — and this stack assigns a formula to each one, with every active disclosed at its dose.
Included Free
A full bottle of D3 & K2 ships with every stack.
Not a sample. Not a trial size. Vitamin D is the single most common limiting factor I see on men's labs, and there is no sense building a hormone protocol on top of an unfilled foundation. So we put it in the box.
Manufacturing & Standardization
What we can document about these four formulas.
We list what is verifiable and we stop there. Where a claim belongs to a raw material supplier rather than to us, we say so.
Manufacturing
Produced in an FDA-registered facility operating under cGMP.
Standardization
Branded, standardized raw materials with named owners: KSM-66, Eury Gold 28, TRAACS and Albion chelates, DimaCal, vitaMK7 by Gnosis.
Disclosure
Zero proprietary blends across all four formulas. Every active carries its own number on its own panel.
Printed labels
All four Supplement Facts panels are shown in the product images. The panels below are transcribed from them.
What it is
Four separate physician-formulated products, sold as one protocol: Amplify T, DIM+, 5X Chelated Minerals, and a free bottle of D3 & K2.
No blends. No hidden doses. Four printed labels, four panels, four jobs.
What it does
- Supports the body's own testosterone-producing pathways
- Supports healthy estrogen metabolism and clearance
- Supplies the mineral cofactors those pathways run on
- Supports a healthy stress and cortisol response
- Supports vitamin D status and calcium utilization
Who it's for
Men past 35 who feel the slide — energy, drive, recovery, body composition — and want to work the underlying system rather than override it.
Men who intend to test, not guess.
How to take it
- Amplify T: 1 capsule morning, 1 evening
- DIM+: 2 capsules daily
- 5X Minerals: 1 level scoop daily
- D3 & K2: 2 capsules daily with a meal containing fat
Full protocol and the reasoning behind each dose are further down this page.
The Difference
The category sells a bottle. We built a system.
Almost every product in this aisle is a single capsule with a proprietary blend on the back and Tribulus on the front. Here is the honest comparison.
The typical T booster
- One capsule asked to do four unrelated jobs
- A proprietary blend total that hides every individual dose
- Tribulus as the hero ingredient, usually at a token amount
- Estrogen metabolism ignored entirely
- Mineral cofactors ignored, or supplied as oxides and sulfates
- Research percentages quoted from studies at doses the product does not contain
- Serving instructions that quietly push trace minerals past safe upper limits
- No mention of vitamin D status at all
The IOH standard
- Four formulas, four defined pathways, no overlap and no waste
- Every active disclosed at its exact milligram amount
- KSM-66 and Eury Gold 28 carry the botanical formula, at doses used in human research
- A dedicated estrogen metabolism formula built around DIM and calcium D-glucarate
- Fully chelated glycinate minerals from Albion, patent referenced on the panel
- Study doses stated alongside product doses, so you can judge for yourself
- A daily protocol built to stay inside adult tolerable upper intake levels
- Vitamin D3 with K2 included free, because it is the foundation the rest sits on
Four Jobs
What each formula is actually responsible for.
Nothing in this stack is decorative. If a product is in the box, it has a job the other three cannot do.
01
Production & Stress Adaptation
Adaptogenic and botanical support for the pathways that make testosterone, and for the cortisol response that competes with them.
Amplify T
02
Estrogen Metabolism
Support for how the body processes and clears estrogen metabolites through phase I and phase II pathways.
DIM+
03
Enzymatic Cofactors
The chelated trace minerals that steroidogenic and antioxidant enzymes physically require in order to run.
5X Chelated Minerals
04
Endocrine Foundation
Vitamin D3 with K2 for vitamin D status and for directing calcium where it belongs. Included at no charge.
D3 & K2 — Free
The Signature Idea
The four-pathway map.
This is the whole argument for a stack instead of a pill. Read across each lane: the pathway, what happens there, and what we put against it.
Pathway
What we support / What we use
Lane 01
Make it
Testosterone synthesis begins upstream, in the signaling between brain and testes and in the Leydig cell machinery itself. Chronic cortisol load pulls against that signaling. This lane is about supporting production capacity and reducing the stress pressure working against it.
Assigned to
- KSM-66 Ashwagandha 300 mg
- Eury Gold 28 Tongkat Ali 200 mg
- Mucuna pruriens 100 mg
Lane 02
Clear it
Testosterone that converts to estrogen, and estrogen metabolites the body does not conjugate and excrete efficiently, both change the picture. Phase I hydroxylation and phase II glucuronidation are where that gets decided. This lane supports the clearance side of the ledger.
Assigned to
- DIM 100 mg
- Calcium D-glucarate 400 mg
- Broccoli sprout, flax lignan, milk thistle
Lane 03
Run it
Steroid hormone synthesis is enzymatic, and enzymes need metal cofactors. Zinc, magnesium, selenium, copper and manganese are not optional extras in that chemistry — they are the parts the machinery is built from. Form matters here more than dose.
Assigned to
- Zinc bisglycinate 25 mg
- Magnesium bisglycinate 200 mg
- Selenium glycinate 250 mcg
- Plus seven more chelated minerals
Lane 04
Stand it on something
Vitamin D behaves like a hormone, and low status is the single most common correctable finding on the men's panels I run. K2 belongs with it because raising vitamin D changes calcium handling, and calcium needs to be directed to bone rather than to arterial tissue.
Assigned to
- Vitamin D3 5,000 IU
- Vitamin K2 as MK-7, vitaMK7 by Gnosis
Why four and not one: a single capsule cannot deliver 300 mg of a standardized root extract, 400 mg of calcium D-glucarate, 3.65 grams of chelated mineral powder and 5,000 IU of D3. The physical volume does not exist. Anyone selling you all four in one pill is not giving you all four.
Inside the Formulas
Every active, every dose, and what the research actually used.
Where our dose matches a studied dose, we say so. Where it does not, we say that too. You should not have to take a supplement company's word for the difference.
Formula 01 / Production & Adaptation
Amplify T
Serving size 1 vegetarian capsule
Protocol dose 2 capsules daily
Protocol dose 2 capsules daily
KSM-66 Ashwagandha
300 mg per capsule · root extractKSM-66 is a full-spectrum root-only ashwagandha extract and it is the single most researched branded adaptogen on the market. Human trials have examined it for supporting a healthy stress and cortisol response, for exercise performance and recovery, and in men, for supporting healthy testosterone levels within a normal range.
This matters upstream of everything else in the stack. Sustained cortisol load and healthy androgen output pull in opposite directions. Supporting the stress response is not a soft benefit here, it is a structural one.
Study context: KSM-66 human trials in men most commonly use 300 mg once or twice daily, which is the range the protocol dose sits in.Eurycoma longifolia — Eury Gold 28
200 mg per capsule · 28% glycosaponins, 10% eurypeptidesTongkat Ali, and specifically a standardized extract rather than raw root powder. Eury Gold 28 is standardized to both glycosaponins and eurypeptides, which is what allows a 200 mg dose to be meaningful where 200 mg of unstandardized root would not be.
Human research on standardized Eurycoma extracts has looked at male vitality, healthy free and total testosterone within normal range, and stress markers. It is one of the two ingredients doing real work in this formula.
Study context: most controlled human trials of standardized Eurycoma extract use 200 to 400 mg daily. The protocol dose of two capsules lands at 400 mg.Velvet Bean — Mucuna pruriens
100 mg per capsule · 15:1 seed extract, 15% L-DopaA natural source of L-Dopa, the direct precursor to dopamine. Dopamine signaling is part of the same conversation as drive, motivation and libido, and it participates in prolactin regulation, which sits alongside androgen balance.
This is also the ingredient in the stack most likely to interact with prescription medication. If you take anything that acts on dopamine, read the medication section further down before you start.
At the protocol dose this supplies roughly 30 mg of L-Dopa daily. That is a modest, food-range amount, not a pharmacologic one.Tribulus terrestris, Muira Puama, Maca
25 mg each per capsuleThree traditional male-vitality botanicals, included to round out the profile of the extract blend. Tribulus is standardized to 40% saponins as a 20:1 concentrate, Muira Puama is a 4:1 bark extract, and the Maca is a Maca Pure grade standardized to 0.6% macamides and macaenes.
Straight talk
Tribulus, Muira Puama and Maca are at 25 mg apiece. Those are supportive amounts, not clinical ones. Maca trials generally run 1,500 to 3,000 mg per day, and Tribulus trials commonly run 750 mg and up. We are not going to stand here and tell you that 25 mg of Maca is moving your hormones.
What is carrying this formula is KSM-66 at 300 mg and Eury Gold 28 at 200 mg, both at doses that appear in human research. That is where the value is, and that is where we would rather you look. The other three earn their place as traditional-use botanicals in a blend, and we would rather label them honestly than dress them up.
Supplement Facts
| Amount per Serving | % DV | |
|---|---|---|
| KSM-66 Ashwagandha (Root) (Extract) | 300 mg | * |
| Eurycoma Longifolia (root) extractas (Eury Gold 28®) standardized to 28% Glyco Saponins and 10% Eurypeptides | 200 mg | * |
| Velvet Bean (Mucuna pruriens)(seed) extract (15:1) (15% L Dopa) | 100 mg | * |
| Tribulus terrestris (fruit) extractstandardized to 40% Saponins 20:1 concentrate | 25 mg | * |
| Muira Puama (Ptychopetalum olacoides)(bark) extract 4:1 | 25 mg | * |
| Maca (Lepidium meyenii) (tuber)(Maca Pure) (0.6% macamides & macaenes) | 25 mg | * |
* Daily Value (DV) not established.
Other Ingredients: Vegetarian Capsule (hypromellose, purified water), rice flour.
Transcribed from the printed Amplify T label, also shown in the product images.
Formula 02 / Estrogen Metabolism
DIM+
Serving size 2 vegetarian capsules
Servings per container 30
Servings per container 30
Diindolylmethane (DIM)
100 mg per servingDIM is what your body forms from indole-3-carbinol when you eat cruciferous vegetables. Its role in this formula is estrogen metabolism: supporting the phase I hydroxylation pathways that determine which estrogen metabolites you produce and how readily they are cleared.
This is the reason a dedicated estrogen formula belongs in a testosterone stack at all. Androgen support and estrogen clearance are two halves of the same balance sheet, and most products in this category only work one side of it.
Calcium D-Glucarate
400 mg per serving · supplying 40 mg elemental calciumThe quiet workhorse of this formula, and the one most competitor products leave out. Calcium D-glucarate supports phase II glucuronidation — the conjugation step where the liver tags hormone metabolites for excretion. It works by supporting normal beta-glucuronidase activity in the gut, which is the enzyme that can otherwise unhook those tags and send metabolites back into circulation.
DIM handles which metabolites you make. Calcium D-glucarate is about whether they actually leave. Pairing the two is deliberate.
Chrysin
100 mg per servingA flavonoid from passionflower, included for its traditional role in men's estrogen-balance formulas. See the straight talk below — we are not going to oversell this one.
Flax Lignan Concentrate, Broccoli Sprout, Green Tea, Milk Thistle
100 mg / 50 mg / 50 mg / 50 mg per servingThe supporting cast around the two primary actives. Flax lignan concentrate is standardized to 20% SDG. Broccoli sprout is standardized to 5% sulforaphane, a compound studied for supporting the body's own phase II detoxification enzymes. Green tea is decaffeinated and standardized to 95% polyphenols and 75% catechins. Milk thistle is standardized to 80% silymarin, included to support normal liver function, since the liver is where hormone metabolism physically happens.
Vitamin E
5 mg per serving · as d-alpha tocopherol from sunflowers, 7 IUNatural-source d-alpha tocopherol, not the synthetic dl- form. Present as an antioxidant supporting the botanical actives in the formula.
Straight talk
Chrysin looks excellent on a label and performs poorly in people. Oral absorption is low, it is heavily metabolized on first pass, and the human data behind the aromatase story is thin. I am not going to tell you 100 mg of chrysin is changing your estrogen. It is in the formula as a traditional inclusion, and you should weight it accordingly.
Same honesty on the supporting four: green tea at 50 mg, milk thistle at 50 mg, broccoli sprout at 50 mg and flax lignan at 100 mg are all below the doses used in most clinical work on those ingredients. They are real, standardized, and doing supportive work. They are not the reason to buy this bottle.
DIM at 100 mg and calcium D-glucarate at 400 mg are the load-bearing ingredients in DIM+. If you are evaluating this formula, evaluate those two.
Supplement Facts
| Amount Per Serving | %DV | |
|---|---|---|
| Vitamin E (as d-alpha Tocopherol)(from Sunflowers) (7 IU) | 5 mg | 33% |
| Calcium (from 400 mg per servingof Calcium D-Glucarate) | 40 mg | 3% |
| Diindolylmethane (DIM) | 100 mg | * |
| Chrysin | 100 mg | * |
| Flax (Seed/Hulls) Lignan Concentrate20% SDG (secolariciresinol diglucosides) | 100 mg | * |
| Broccoli (Sprouts) (Brassica OleraceaItalica) (5% Sulphoraphane) | 50 mg | * |
| Green Tea (Leaf) (Camellia sinensis)(95% Polyphenols 75% Catechins) (Decaf) | 50 mg | * |
| Milk Thistle (Seed) (Silybum marianum)(80% Silymarin Extract) | 50 mg | * |
* Daily Value (DV) not established.
Other Ingredients: Vegetarian Capsule (Hypromellose, Purified Water).
Transcribed from the printed DIM+ label, also shown in the product images.
Formula 03 / Enzymatic Cofactors
5X Chelated Minerals
Serving size 3.650 g — 1 scoop
Servings per container Approximately 50
Servings per container Approximately 50
Zinc Bisglycinate Chelate — TRAACS
25 mg per scoop · 227% DVZinc is required for the enzymatic steps of steroid hormone synthesis and for normal male reproductive function. The relationship worth understanding is that zinc repletion matters most when zinc status is low — this is about supplying what the machinery needs, not about pushing a normal value higher.
The bisglycinate chelate form was chosen over oxide or sulfate for absorption and for gastric tolerance. Zinc oxide is cheap and it is also the form most likely to leave men feeling nauseated.
Magnesium Bisglycinate Chelate — TRAACS
200 mg per scoop · 48% DVMagnesium participates in several hundred enzymatic reactions, including a great deal of the energy metabolism that hormone synthesis depends on. Bisglycinate is the well-tolerated, well-absorbed form, and it is also the form least likely to send you to the bathroom.
Study context: research examining magnesium and androgen binding used substantially higher doses, in the range of 10 mg per kilogram of body weight daily. The 200 mg here is a repletion-level dose, and we are not attaching that research to it.Selenium Glycinate — Albion
250 mcg per scoop · 454% DVSelenium is the cofactor for the glutathione peroxidase family and for the deiodinase enzymes that support normal thyroid hormone conversion. Thyroid function and metabolic rate sit directly underneath how a man feels day to day, which is why selenium belongs in a hormone protocol rather than only in a multivitamin.
Boron as Bororganic Glycine — Albion
1 mg per scoopA trace mineral involved in normal bone metabolism and in vitamin D handling. See the straight talk below on what this dose can and cannot be claimed to do.
The remaining chelated minerals
Copper 2 mg · Manganese 4.5 mg · Chromium 400 mcg · Molybdenum 500 mcg · Potassium 100 mg · Vanadium 500 mcg · Calcium 50 mg · Malic acid 120 mgCopper is deliberately present alongside zinc, because sustained zinc intake without copper can pull copper status down over time. Chromium and vanadium are included for normal glucose metabolism, which is not a side conversation in men's hormone health — metabolic health and androgen status track together. The calcium and malic acid come in together as DimaCal di-calcium malate.
Every mineral in this formula is a glycinate or amino acid chelate from Albion. That is the point of the product. The panel also carries the Albion patent reference, which is the kind of detail that only appears when the raw material is genuinely what it says it is.
Straight talk
One scoop is one serving, and one scoop a day is the protocol dose. I want to be specific about that, because at two scoops daily this formula delivers 50 mg of zinc and 500 mcg of selenium, and both of those sit above the adult tolerable upper intake levels of 40 mg and 400 mcg. Trace minerals are a case where more is not better and sustained excess has real consequences. Stay at one scoop unless a physician looking at your labs tells you otherwise.
On boron: the free-testosterone research men have read about used 6 to 10 mg of boron daily. This formula contains 1 mg. That is a sensible trace-mineral amount and I am glad it is in here, but it is not the dose from those studies and I am not going to borrow their numbers for it.
Supplement Facts
| Amount per Serving | % DV | |
|---|---|---|
| Calcium (as Di-Calcium Malate) (DimaCal™) | 50 mg | 4% |
| Magnesium (as Magnesium Bisglycinate Chelate) (TRAACS™) | 200 mg | 48% |
| Zinc (as Zinc Bisglycinate Chelate) (TRAACS™) | 25 mg | 227% |
| Selenium (as Selenium Glycinate) (Albion™) | 250 mcg | 454% |
| Copper (as Copper Bisglycinate Chelate) (TRAACS™) | 2 mg | 222% |
| Manganese (as Manganese Bisglycinate Chelate) (TRAACS™) | 4.5 mg | 196% |
| Chromium (as Chromium Nicotinate Glycinate Chelate) (TRAACS™) | 400 mcg | 1142% |
| Molybdenum (as Molybdenum Glycinate Chelate) (TRAACS™) | 500 mcg | 1111% |
| Potassium (as Potassium Glycinate Complex) (Albion™) | 100 mg | 2% |
| Boron (as Bororganic Glycine) (Albion™) | 1 mg | * |
| Vanadium (as Vanadium Nicotinate Glycinate Chelate) (TRAACS™) | 500 mcg | * |
| Malic Acid (from Di-Calcium Malate) (DimaCal™) | 120 mg | * |
* Daily Value (DV) not established.
Other Ingredients: None.
Albion™, DimaCal™, TRAACS™ and the Albion Gold Medallion design are trademarks of Albion Laboratories, Inc. U.S. Patent 6,706,904.
Transcribed from the printed 5X Chelated Minerals label, also shown in the product images.
Formula 04 / Endocrine Foundation — Included Free
D3 & K2
Serving size 1 vegetarian capsule
Protocol dose 2 capsules daily — 10,000 IU
Protocol dose 2 capsules daily — 10,000 IU
Vitamin D3 as Cholecalciferol
125 mcg — 5,000 IU per capsule · 625% DVVitamin D is not really a vitamin. It is a secosteroid prohormone with receptors throughout the body, including in reproductive tissue, and its status is measurable, correctable and cheap to test. Observational research consistently associates adequate vitamin D status in men with healthier testosterone levels; the interventional picture is more mixed and depends heavily on whether the men studied were deficient to begin with.
That dependency is the whole reason this ingredient gets treated the way it does in this protocol. Correcting a genuine insufficiency and topping up a man who is already replete are two completely different interventions, and only one of them has much to offer. Which one you are doing is knowable for the cost of a single blood draw.
At the protocol dose of two capsules this supplies 10,000 IU daily. That is a deliberate repletion dose and it sits above the published adult tolerable upper intake level of 4,000 IU. Read the straight talk below before you start, and read it carefully.Vitamin K2 as MK-7 — vitaMK7 by Gnosis
180 mcg per capsuleMK-7 is the long-half-life menaquinone, and it belongs paired with D3 for a specific reason: vitamin D increases calcium absorption, and vitamin K-dependent proteins are what direct that calcium into bone and away from soft tissue. Taking meaningful D3 without K2 leaves that second half of the job unassigned.
The vitaMK7 material from Gnosis is a stabilized MK-7 matrix, which matters because MK-7 is notoriously sensitive to degradation when formulated alongside minerals.
At the protocol dose of two capsules this supplies 360 mcg of MK-7 daily. Important: vitamin K interacts directly with warfarin and other vitamin K antagonist anticoagulants, and that interaction scales with the dose. See the medication FAQ below.
Straight talk
The published tolerable upper intake level for adults is 4,000 IU a day. I recommend 10,000. I am not going to hide that gap behind a footnote, so here is both sides of it.
My reasoning: in 33 years of running panels, vitamin D insufficiency is the most common correctable finding I see, and I see it in men who train, who eat well, and who spend real time outdoors. 4,000 IU is a population maintenance figure. It is not a repletion figure for a man who is actually low, and most men I test are actually low. Clinical guidance from the Endocrine Society has held that intakes up to 10,000 IU daily are unlikely to cause toxicity in adults, and that is the range I work in with patients.
The honest counterweight, which you deserve to have: a three-year randomized trial published in JAMA compared 400, 4,000 and 10,000 IU daily in healthy adults and found lower bone mineral density at the wrist and shin in the 10,000 IU group, along with more calcium in the urine. Those participants were largely replete when they started. That finding does not tell you high-dose D is dangerous. It tells you that pushing a repletion dose into a man who does not need one is not free.
Which is exactly why the test is not a suggestion from me. Get a 25-hydroxy vitamin D before you start and again around 90 days. If you are low, 10,000 IU is how I would move you. If you come back replete, that number should come down, and your physician should be the one deciding where it lands.
Do not run this dose without physician oversight if you have sarcoidosis or any granulomatous condition, primary hyperparathyroidism, a history of calcium kidney stones, or kidney disease, or if you take thiazide diuretics, digoxin, or any anticoagulant. In those situations vitamin D that is routine for other men is not routine for you.
Supplement Facts
| Amount Per Serving | % DV | |
|---|---|---|
| Vitamin D3 (5000 IU)(as Cholecalciferol) | 125 mcg | 625% |
| Vitamin K2(as Menaquinone 7) (MK7)** | 180 mcg | * |
* Daily Value (DV) not established.
Other Ingredients: Vegetarian Capsule (Hypromellose, Purified Water), Rice Flour.
** From Stabilized vitaMK7 Matrix by Gnosis.
Transcribed from the printed D3 & K2 label, also shown in the product images.
The Daily Protocol
How to run the stack, and why each dose is what it is.
Always consult your primary care physician before beginning any supplement routine.
Amplify T
1 capsule AM · 1 capsule PM
Two capsules daily puts KSM-66 at 600 mg and Eury Gold 28 at 400 mg — both at the upper end of the ranges used in human research, which is where we want them. Splitting morning and evening keeps the adaptogenic coverage even across the day. Take with food.
DIM+
2 capsules daily — one full serving
Two capsules is one labeled serving and delivers the full 100 mg of DIM and 400 mg of calcium D-glucarate. Take with food, since several of the actives are better absorbed with a meal. One bottle is 30 servings, which lines up with a monthly cadence.
5X Chelated Minerals
1 level scoop daily
Mixed into water. Evening is the common preference because magnesium bisglycinate is calming for most men, but morning works equally well. One scoop keeps zinc and selenium comfortably inside adult upper intake levels. Do not stack a second scoop without physician guidance.
D3 & K2
2 capsules daily with a fat-containing meal
Two capsules delivers 10,000 IU of D3 and 360 mcg of MK-7. This is a repletion dose and it sits above the published 4,000 IU adult upper intake level, which is a deliberate clinical choice explained in full in the D3 & K2 section above. Test your 25-hydroxy vitamin D before you start and again at 90 days, and bring the result to your physician. Both vitamins are fat soluble, so take them with a meal that actually contains fat — coffee and a protein shake is not that meal. If you take an anticoagulant, a thiazide diuretic, digoxin, or you have a history of kidney stones, sarcoidosis, hyperparathyroidism or kidney disease, speak with your physician before the first capsule.
Honest Expectations
What the first 90 days actually look like.
No promised timelines here, because I cannot honestly give you one. What I can give you is the shape of how this typically goes and what to watch.
Weeks 1–3
Filling the gaps
The nutrient side moves first, because repletion is faster than adaptation. Mineral status and vitamin D are the variables changing in this window. Most men notice very little dramatic in the first three weeks, and that is normal. What tends to register earliest is sleep quality and how the body handles a stressful day.
Weeks 4–8
Adaptation
Adaptogenic ingredients work cumulatively, not acutely. This is the window where the botanical side of Amplify T has had time to build, and where the estrogen metabolism support in DIM+ has been running long enough to matter. Training recovery and steadiness of daily energy are the common observations here.
Weeks 9–12
Retest, do not guess
This is the point of the whole exercise. Total and free testosterone, estradiol, SHBG, and 25-hydroxy vitamin D. You started with a number, you now have a second number, and you can make a decision based on data instead of on how a Tuesday felt. Bring the results to your physician.
What to Look For
How to judge any testosterone stack, including this one.
Use this on the next product you consider, whoever makes it. These are the questions that separate a formulation from a marketing exercise.
| What to check | Typical off-the-shelf stack | This stack |
|---|---|---|
| Dose disclosure | Proprietary blend totals, individual doses hidden | Every active listed at its own milligram amount, on four printed panels |
| Raw material grade | Generic commodity extracts with no standardization stated | KSM-66, Eury Gold 28, TRAACS and Albion chelates, DimaCal, vitaMK7 by Gnosis |
| Mineral forms | Oxides, sulfates and carbonates | Fully chelated glycinates, with the Albion patent referenced on the panel |
| Estrogen metabolism | Not addressed, or a token DIM inclusion | A dedicated formula built on DIM plus 400 mg calcium D-glucarate |
| Vitamin D status | Ignored, or D3 with no K2 alongside it | D3 5,000 IU paired with 180 mcg MK-7, included free |
| How research is cited | Study percentages quoted without stating the dose used | Study doses stated next to product doses, including where ours is lower |
| Upper intake levels | Serving instructions that can push zinc and selenium past safe limits | A daily protocol deliberately built to stay inside adult tolerable upper intake levels |
| Who formulated it | Marketing-led, built to a price and a trend | Formulated by a practicing physician who takes it himself |
Proof, Not Promises
What we will stand behind in writing.
Every claim on this page is either printed on a label, verifiable from a raw material supplier, or clearly labeled as opinion.
- Manufactured in an FDA-registered facility operating under cGMP
- Four printed Supplement Facts panels, all shown in the product images
- Zero proprietary blends anywhere in the stack
- Branded, standardized raw materials attributed to their trademark owners
- Every mineral supplied as an Albion glycinate or amino acid chelate
- Underdosed ingredients identified as underdosed, on this page, by name
- A daily protocol built to stay within adult tolerable upper intake levels
- Structure and function language only — no disease claims, no promised outcomes
From Dr. Andreas
Why I built this as four bottles instead of one.
At 47 I hit the bottom. Exhausted, carrying weight I did not want, and looking at a lab report I did not recognize as mine. The path I was offered was a lifetime of prescriptions. I decided to go find the root causes instead.
What I learned in that process is the reason this stack exists. There was never one thing. It was training, it was food, it was sleep, it was stress, and it was a set of nutrients my body was running short on while I asked it to perform. A single capsule was never going to carry that.
So when we formulated this, we did not try to cram four jobs into one pill to make the shelf presentation cleaner. We built four formulas, gave each one a defined pathway, and disclosed every dose so you can hold us to it. When a supporting ingredient is at a supportive dose rather than a clinical one, we say so on the page — because you will find out eventually, and I would rather you hear it from me.
I wrote the long version of what that took — the training, the food, the sleep, the labs, and the years it actually ran — in an article on how there was no shortcut. If you want the context behind why this stack looks the way it does, start there.
This is what I reach for personally. I am 56, my medicine cabinet is empty, and I intend to keep it that way. Aging is inevitable. How you age is a choice.
Dr. Andreas Boettcher, B.S., D.C., C.F.M.P.
Founder, It's Only Halftime
Ironman Triathlete Master's Men's Physique Competitor Medication-Free at 56 33 Years of Clinical Practice
Further Reading
Supplements are one lever. Here is the rest of the machine.
Nothing in this box works in isolation, and I would be doing you a disservice to pretend otherwise. Training load, protein intake, sleep architecture, alcohol, visceral fat and insulin sensitivity all sit upstream of the hormone panel you are trying to move. The nutrients support the system. They do not replace the work.
If you want to understand how the pieces fit together before you start — what to change first, what order to change it in, and what a realistic arc actually looks like — this is the piece to read.
Article
How I Quadrupled My Testosterone Naturally at 47. There Was No Shortcut.
The full account of what it took: the labs, the training, the food, the failures, and the years it actually ran. Written first person, with the parts most people leave out.
Read the article
What Ships
Four products. One box. One protocol.
Each of these is a standalone IOH formula with its own page and its own printed label. Bought together, they are built to run as one system.
01 · Production
Amplify T
Botanical and adaptogenic support, built on KSM-66 Ashwagandha and Eury Gold 28 Tongkat Ali.
View product
02 · Clearance
DIM+
Estrogen metabolism support built on DIM and 400 mg of calcium D-glucarate per serving.
View product
03 · Cofactors
5X Chelated Minerals
Twelve fully chelated minerals from Albion, in a single scoop of unflavored powder.
View product
04 · Free
D3 & K2
5,000 IU of D3 with 180 mcg of MK-7 from vitaMK7 by Gnosis. Included with every stack.
View product
FAQ
Questions, answered.
Medications and safety — what should I check before I start?
This is the most important question on the page and it deserves a specific answer rather than a generic one. Talk to your prescribing physician or pharmacist before starting if any of the following apply to you.
- Warfarin or other vitamin K antagonist anticoagulants. The K2 in the D3 & K2 bottle is a direct, well-documented interaction, and the protocol dose of two capsules supplies 360 mcg of MK-7 daily. Do not start this without your prescriber.
- Levodopa or carbidopa, MAO inhibitors, or dopamine-modulating medications including antipsychotics. The Mucuna pruriens in Amplify T supplies L-Dopa and can interact with all of these.
- Thyroid hormone replacement. Both the selenium in 5X Chelated Minerals and the ashwagandha in Amplify T have relevance to thyroid function, and mineral chelation can affect absorption of levothyroxine. Separate mineral dosing from thyroid medication by at least four hours.
- Immunosuppressants. Ashwagandha is not appropriate to combine with these without physician oversight.
- Sedatives, benzodiazepines or sleep medications. Ashwagandha may be additive with these.
- Thiazide diuretics, digoxin, or any calcium-restricted regimen. The D3 in this stack increases calcium absorption, and the protocol dose is 10,000 IU daily. Thiazides reduce calcium excretion, and the combination can raise calcium levels.
- Sarcoidosis or another granulomatous condition, primary hyperparathyroidism, a history of calcium kidney stones, or kidney disease. All of these change how your body handles vitamin D and calcium. Do not run the 10,000 IU protocol dose without physician oversight.
- Tetracycline or fluoroquinolone antibiotics, and bisphosphonates. Chelated minerals can reduce their absorption. Separate dosing by several hours.
- Medications cleared through glucuronidation. The calcium D-glucarate in DIM+ supports that pathway and could in theory affect the clearance of some drugs. Worth raising with your pharmacist.
This list is not exhaustive. If you take prescription medication of any kind, bring this page to your physician before starting.
Why do you recommend 10,000 IU of vitamin D when the upper limit is 4,000?
Because 4,000 IU is a maintenance number set for a whole population, and most of the men I test are not sitting at maintenance. They are insufficient. Correcting that takes a repletion dose, and clinical guidance from the Endocrine Society has held that intakes up to 10,000 IU daily are unlikely to cause toxicity in adults.
That said, I am not going to pretend this is uncontested. A three-year randomized trial in JAMA comparing 400, 4,000 and 10,000 IU daily in healthy adults found lower bone mineral density at the wrist and shin in the 10,000 IU arm, in people who were mostly replete when they started. The lesson I take from that is not that high-dose D is dangerous. It is that a repletion dose given to a man who does not need repleting is not a free ride.
So the whole recommendation rests on the testing. Get a 25-hydroxy vitamin D drawn before you start and again around 90 days. If you are low, this is how I move men. If you come back replete, the number should come down and your physician should decide where. Do not run 10,000 IU indefinitely without a lab result and a doctor looking at it. And if you have sarcoidosis or another granulomatous condition, primary hyperparathyroidism, a history of calcium kidney stones or kidney disease, or you take thiazide diuretics, digoxin or an anticoagulant, this dose is not a decision to make from a product page.
I am currently on TRT. Can I take this?
That is a decision for you and the physician managing your therapy, and I am not going to make it from a product page. What I will say plainly is that this stack is not a replacement for prescribed therapy and it is not positioned as one. Nothing here should be started, stopped or substituted for a medication without the prescriber who wrote it being part of the conversation.
Why is the D3 & K2 free? What is the catch?
There isn't one. Vitamin D status is the most common correctable finding I see on men's panels, and it sits underneath everything else in this protocol. Shipping the stack without it would mean building on an unfilled foundation. It is a full bottle of the same D3 & K2 we sell on its own, included with every stack order.
Do I really need all four, or can I start with one?
You can absolutely start with one, and plenty of men do. But understand what you are choosing. Amplify T on its own works the production side and leaves clearance and cofactors unaddressed. 5X Chelated Minerals on its own supplies the cofactors and does nothing botanical. Each product is a complete formula for its own pathway and an incomplete answer to the whole question. The stack exists because the four lanes are genuinely different jobs.
Should I get bloodwork, and what should I ask for?
Yes, and this is the single best piece of advice on this page. A baseline before you start and a repeat around the twelve-week mark. The panel worth requesting is total testosterone, free testosterone, SHBG, estradiol using a sensitive assay, and 25-hydroxy vitamin D. A comprehensive metabolic panel and a thyroid panel round out the picture. Without those numbers you are working from how you felt on a given morning, which is the least reliable instrument you own.
Do I need to cycle any of this?
The minerals and the D3 & K2 are nutrient repletion and are intended for ongoing daily use, guided by lab values. The botanicals in Amplify T are a different conversation. Many men run adaptogens continuously; others prefer a period off every few months. There is no strong human evidence compelling either approach at these doses. My own preference is to reassess against labs rather than against a calendar.
Is this third-party tested or certified for competitive sport?
Straight answer: we do not have sport certification documented for these four SKUs, so I am not going to imply that we do. What we can tell you is that they are manufactured in an FDA-registered facility under cGMP, every ingredient is disclosed by name and amount, and there are no proprietary blends anywhere in the stack. If you compete in a tested federation, review every label against your governing body's list before you start, as you should with any supplement.
Will the DIM change the color of my urine?
It can, and it is harmless. DIM sometimes gives urine an amber or orange cast. It is a known and benign property of the compound, not a sign of a problem.
Is any of this appropriate for women?
This stack is formulated and dosed for men. DIM+ and 5X Chelated Minerals both have applications outside of male hormone support, and women do use them, but that should be decided individually with a practitioner rather than by buying a stack built around male physiology.
What if I already take a multivitamin or a separate zinc supplement?
Add it up before you add it in. 5X Chelated Minerals supplies 25 mg of zinc and 250 mcg of selenium per scoop. If your multivitamin contributes another 15 to 25 mg of zinc, you are at or over the 40 mg adult upper limit for zinc from supplements alone before you have eaten anything. The same arithmetic applies to selenium against its 400 mcg limit. Overlap in a supplement routine is the most common thing I correct in practice.
Halftime
You were not built to coast into the second half.
Every man reaches a stretch where the mirror, the lab report and the way he feels at four in the afternoon stop agreeing with the person he knows himself to be. The industry's answer is a bottle with a shouting label and a blend you cannot read. That is not an answer. That is a distraction sold at a markup.
Here is what we did instead. We took male hormone physiology apart into four honest jobs, built a formula for each, printed every dose where you can check it, and told you on this very page which ingredients are carrying the work and which ones are along for the ride. Then we put the vitamin D in the box for free, because the foundation should not be the thing you skip.
This is not a shortcut and it was never meant to be one. It is the nutrient half of a system that also runs on how you train, what you eat, and how you sleep. Bring those. Get the labs. Then give it ninety days and read the numbers instead of the marketing.
Aging is inevitable. How you age is a choice. Declare it's only halftime.
Dr. Andreas Boettcher, B.S., D.C., C.F.M.P. · Founder, It's Only HalftimeTrademark attributions. KSM-66® is a registered trademark of Ixoreal Biomed Inc. Eury Gold 28® is a registered trademark of HP Ingredients; U.S. Patent 7,132,117, Bioactive Fraction of Eurycoma Longifolia. Albion™, DimaCal™, TRAACS™ and the Albion Gold Medallion design are trademarks of Albion Laboratories, Inc.; U.S. Patent 6,706,904. vitaMK7® is a registered trademark of Gnosis by Lesaffre. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Manufacturing. Manufactured in an FDA-registered facility operating under current Good Manufacturing Practices. FDA registers manufacturing facilities; it does not approve dietary supplements or the facilities that make them.
‡ These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. Always consult your primary care physician before beginning any supplement routine, particularly if you are taking prescription medication, are managing a diagnosed condition, or are under the care of a physician for hormone therapy. Individual results vary. Keep out of reach of children.
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