Deer Antler Velvet Handbook: Part 8 - What's the Best?

Are you wondering what's up with all the different deer antler velvet supplements?

We'll show you what's legit and that deer antler velvet is safe and easy-to-take.

Take a journey through snake oil marketing, straight up scams, and overpriced and hyped up sprays.

Don't Get Scammed!

With a look around the internet or the supplement store you'll think it strange how you can find deer antler velvet for 20 bucks and another for 150 bucks, most are diluted and overhyped liquids often sold as sprays.

Get Started By Buying the Best

If shoppers only knew that deer antler velvet is a nutritional dietary supplement they would buy three bottles of the best for $99.97 $75.99 and take it consistently to reap the results.

Q: Which deer antler velvet is going to give you the most bang for your buck?

A: The one with the most quality deer antler velvet in it will give you the most bang for the buck. When you take enough deer antler velvet that's when you will get it to work.

Look Out!

Most mass-market products have 1,000 to 3,000mgs in the whole bottle - that's like a daily dose of red deer liquid extract!

Not Enough Doesn't Work

As this study shows, a daily dose of 560mgs deer antler velvet doesn't work so one won't achieve the benefits of deer antler velvet.

More Is Definitely Better

This study shows that one may require at least a minimum of 1290mgs to feel a difference in joint discomfort.

Buy Enough and Take Enough to Make It Work

You should know that you shouldn't pay a lot for deer antler velvet, because it is not rare and mystical. Deer antler velvet is common since deer antler velvet is a food supplement that is developed into an industry in New Zealand and other countries and cultures throughout the world, like China, Korea, Japan, and Russia.

The Best Choices are Powder Capsules and Liquid Extracts

Deer Antler Velvet Powder Capsules: easy to take version of deer antler velvet that works mainly for nutritional support of collagen and bio-available minerals as a tonic superfood. Best quality capsules are fresh processed and packed from quality velvet antler.

Deer Antler Velvet Liquid Extract: highly absorbable cold-processed extractions that preserve collagens, growth factors, peptides, and circulation promoting lipids, the alcohol containing extract being the most studied.

Short answer: No, but kinda yes...

Long Answer:

Deer Antler Velvet is Technically Not Snake Oil

It is really amazing at how good it works at promoting physical vitality and strength of the muscles and joints, among of bunch of other benefits.

BUT,

Unlike what the 'fake news' and not-so-random internet searches may make you think, supplements like deer antler velvet are not drugs used to treat and manage diseases and conditions.

AND,

Some supplement companies make less-than-satisfactory deer antler velvet products with diluted thin extractions that can be sprayed from a nozzle, just like old-fashioned snake oil!

Question:

Then why do you sell deer antler velvet if not to treat your disease?

Answer:

For supporting, maintaining, and promoting health, wellness, and fitness performance.

Contrary to the large and completely uninformed websites, the clueless journalists, some hokey doctors, and sinister snake oil salesman, dietary supplements are highly regulated.

How are Supplements Regulated?

According to the FDA supplements are defined as food and don't treat, prevent, cure or mitigate disease, therefore making deer antler velvet a dietary food supplement.

Not Steroids...

Deer antler velvet is not a steroid drug, although it does work to promote healthy hormone metabolism for growth and regeneration.

Here is the lowdown, there are two main points:

(1). Buy a deer antler velvet supplement with enough deer antler velvet in it.

In other words, avoid aloe vera, skip on wild yams, and toss the tribulus and tongkat ali. If you want this other stuff then take it separately, because a little bit of that stuff doesn't work much either.

(2). Definitely avoid dumping your money into diluted bottles of confusing marketing.

Are you a supplement manufacturer? Probably not, so why does this matter to you as the consumer when they make you go through the mathematical calculation and conversions like it is your job of interpreting it all like you are going to be making deer antler velvet? Focus on how much deer antler velvet is listed in the supplement.

You gotta take enough to make deer antler velvet work.

When looking at some products, they barely contain deer antler velvet and are focusing solely on growth factors as the only active constituent.

Really?

That's all? Nothing more? So, supposedly it's all about the growth factors? Nope! It isn't just growth factors; deer antler velvet is so much more than just a singular constituent.

Knowing what deer antler velvet is will greatly help one understand.

Simply put, deer antler velvet is a holistic tonic with lots of unique nutrition and constituents with plenty of supporting benefits that work together to build health, strength, and vitality.

Off we go to the deer antler sprays that generally range from 10 bucks to 50 bucks and maybe more!

Supposedly spritzing sprays of deer antler velvet containing growth factors, peptides, lipids, and minerals into the mouth is more effective than simply taking it?

Wait what was that?

The major consideration here is: how dilute is the extract if one can just spray it in the mouth. Overall this is 'fakey' supplement marketing aimed at making you possibly feel cool.

Keep This In Mind and Mouth = Take Enough Deer Antler Velvet

Two simple ways (actually 3):

(1). Hold the extract in your mouth for a minute or two.

(2). Dilute deer antler velvet extract in a little bit of water and slowly sip on it.

(3). Put it in a juice or shake.

Hydro-alcohol Extract for Full Potency

Another weird thing to ask about sprays is: why do these deer antler velvet sprays have no alcohol? Did they miss something? Such as using Russian researched alcohol extraction methods. The alcohol extract is what is used for a pre-workout.

Also,

Why do they make these sprays all clumped together with things you should avoid like citric acid and potassium sorbate, flavorings or something random like aloe vera, wild yam, or tribulus? If you want that stuff take it separately to control your dose of deer antler velvet.

Amount of extract per bottle: 1,000 milligrams to 2,500 milligrams average in the entire bottle of many branded deer antler velvet sprays.

Someone would have to drink the whole bottle to get one daily dose equivalent of Tonic Tinctures Deer Antler Velvet!

Whoa, that can get pretty expensive very quickly as some bottles can run $100's of dollars for a little bit of deer antler velvet in the whole bottle, let alone one dose.

How you avoid preservatives: is your extract Hydro-alcoholic?

Traditionally, in the time-honored industry of tincture extraction and making deer antler velvet across the world, the solvent to make deer antler velvet into a supplement should be hydro-alcoholic for full potency.

Why hydro-alcohol?

(1). Natural preservative

(2). Alcohol is required to extract many of the beneficial constituents and water is able to extract everything that is soluble in water.

(3). Alcohol and water extracts are 99% absorbable.

But this other brand has 25,000 nanograms, another has 1,000,000 nanograms of IGF-1. Big deal! Right?

A nanogram is pretty small. What's the difference between a little bit and a little bit? Hmmm...

Growth factors work by their presence in the diet which is one reason why milk and beef build strong bodies, raw milk, raw eggs and rare cooked beef have growth factors also.

There is not much difference in taking varying amounts of micro-nanogram doses of IGF-1 orally IF there is not much deer antler velvet in the bottle.

Like any tonic, the key to deer antler velvet supplementation is to be consistent in taking it, the more often you take it, along with food and other supplements, the more deer antler velvet will work for you.

The IGF-1, and other growth factors and constituents all-together are part of safe and healthy endocrine response for healthy hormones. It's not magic, because it takes a lot of the concurrent nutrition in the form of protein and other recovery nutrition to make deer antler velvet work.

Tonic Tinctures Deer Antler Velvet is a 1:2 extraction ratio which means {1 ounce (~28,500mgs) of deer antler velvet} is extracted into a {2 ounce bottle}. This is the lower alcohol gooey thick extraction full of all the nutrients and constituents found in deer antler velvet.

Each dropper is ~500mgs of deer antler velvet.

The Lowdown: We process in-house and are able to pull a concentrated hydro-alcoholic extraction, without heat, a total of four times on the slices before they are exhausted and completely utilized yielding a think liquid extract that is 35% alcohol by volume.

The market is full of these multi-ingredient deer antler spray formulations under several different labels, one being used by a large corporate supplement retailer.

Spritz! Spritz!

They list deer antler velvet on their label, but do so with nearly a dozen other ingredients including Aloe Vera, Niacin, Artificial Flavors, Glycerin and a couple preservatives added for good measure. The label will state 300mgs or 1000mgs per serving, but of what ingredients?

Not Based On Deer Antler Velvet Serving Science

These manufacturers make no claim as to potency for dosage clarifications to make sure you are getting enough deer antler velvet. They may use IGF-1, marker of potency, but deer antler velvet potency is more than just growth factors, since there is more than just growth factors in deer antler velvet.

Brand X claims to use an extraction that is 43:1 or 70:1 or 80:1. This means 43 kilogram to make 1 kilogram powder; 70 kilograms to make 1 kilogram powder; 80 kilograms to make 1 kilogram powder. BUT, it's a liquid?

Tricky tricky! Seems they forgot a step since they are selling a liquid.

This is done with laboratory equipment and must go through an additional step of adding this powder extract to a glycerin filler base or an alcohol base - a.k.a dilution tincture.

But they have extracted nothing into the liquid. They simply add a pile of powder of about 5,000 milligrams (or less!) into their "pure" supplement.

Ouch, that hurts the buck doesn't it, because these can cost 80-250 bucks a bottle? Save yourself and get the best.

Tonic Tinctures Power Velvet is a 1:1 extraction ratio which means {2 ounces (~57,00mgs) of deer antler velvet} is extracted into a {2 ounce bottle}. 

Each dropper is ~1000mgs of deer antler velvet.

The Lowdown: we process in-house and are able to pull a concentrated hydro-alcoholic extraction, without heat, a total of four times on the slices before they are exhausted and completely utilized yielding a think liquid extract that is 45% alcohol by volume. This extra concentrated alcohol extract focuses on the benefits of the scientifically studied Russian alcohol extracts.

Brand Z claims to use an extraction that is over 43:1. By now we can recognize something is amiss from our previous example of ratio extraction with big numbers like 43:1 and 80:1.

This ratio stuff is made to be confusing.

And checking their website we can verify {43 pounds deer antler velvet} are extract into {1 pound deer antler velvet powder extract}, of which they add 1,000mgs to 1 fluid oz.

That's a minimum daily dose for some people.

This company calls their supplement deer antler velvet and lists IGF-1 as an ingredient on the label (that's a no-no!) with artificial flavors, preservatives, and soy stabilizers.

But the potency of their deer antler velvet cannot be deduced as they use only IGF-1 as the marker for deer antler velvet potency. Yes, it is true that deer antler velvet contains growth factors. And then they offer several different strengths of very small nanogram doses of IGF-1 for increasing greater amounts of money. Are they adding IGF-1 to the bottle along with deer antler velvet or turning deer antler velvet into IGF-1

What's going on with all these deer antler sprays?

Brand T is a bunch of similar manufacturers that are available from specialty purveyors of tonic herbs on the internet and on eBay.

Brand T's deceivingly use a partial extraction ratio which can be 3:1, 8:1, or 20:1. If we check the units for their ratio this is kilograms raw material into kilograms powder extract. They tell you its 20 times as potent! That's not what 20:1 means, 20:1 means 20 kilograms to make 1 kilogram.

Tricky tricky!

Save yourself the shopping and research trouble and see if you can make deer antler velvet work for you.