Disclaimer: None of the information in this article constitutes medical advice. All statements are merely the opinion of the writer(s). We recommend that patients follow their doctor’s guidance in regard to testosterone enhancement.
Choq is a supplement brand targeted to men which claims that their products can improve testosterone levels. The brand uses exotic ingredients like shilajit and Mucuna pruriens extract in their formulations.
But are these ingredients actually proven to increase testosterone levels or are these just marketing claims? Does the brand actually have superior lab testing proving their supplements are more pure than competitors? Do Choq supplements contain any harmful additive ingredients?
In this article we’ll answer all of these questions and more as we review every ingredient in Choq’s most popular product. First we’ll explain an important distinction about product testing that may not be apparent to consumers from Choq’s website but is critical to consumer safety.
CoAs Are Not Finished Product Test Results
Choq’s website has a link to “view the actual lab report on our Shilajit.” Here is the link. This link is to a certificate of assurance (CoA) which is a document submitted by raw materials suppliers to supplement companies detailing the contaminant levels.
This is not finished product testing and is not as reliable as finished product testing.
The gold standard of dietary supplement testing is finished product testing, meaning the actual product that customers receive is tested for contaminants. This is important for two reasons:
- It ensures that contaminants have not been added to the formulation during the manufacturing process
- It provides an additional layer of testing and assurance beyond data submitted by a supplier, which is incredibly important given that suppliers have an economic incentive to misreport contaminant data in some cases
We’re a supplement company and we have received supplier contaminant data in the form of a CoA that was simply inaccurate. If we had just trusted the information in the CoA, we would have been selling products to customers that were higher in heavy metals than our standards.
The key takeaway here is that a CoA is better than nothing, but the document shared by Choq is not based on in-house or third-party finished product testing (which most startups can’t afford to do) and is not as meaningful.
We do not recommend consumers take supplements that tend to be high in heavy metals like shilajit without finished product testing available.
The lead level in the Choq CoA, shown above, isn’t even particularly low, at least compared to other supplements. We sell three dietary supplements and the highest lead level in any of them (based on finished product testing at an independent laboratory) is currently equivalent to 0.073 parts per million (ppm). The lead level in Choq shilajit is reported as 0.5 ppm, or nearly 7x higher than our product with the highest reported lead level.
Lead is unfortunately present in nearly all foods, drinks and tap water due to environmental contamination, but the lower your intake of lead the better.
Choq Daily Ingredient Review
Choq Daily is one of the brand’s products that claims to optimize testosterone levels. It contains five active ingredients: shilajit, musli extract, Tribulus terrestris extract, Mucuna pruriens extract and cacao extract.
Shilajit was shown to increase free and total testosterone levels in a clinical trial published in the Andrologia journal. The same shilajit dose as used in the trial is included in Choq Daily.
Musli extract was claimed to increase serum testosterone in one trial, but we find the trial to be very poorly reported. The group taking musli extract experienced an increase in testosterone of 4.667 ng/dl (which is an insignificant amount) and the group taking placebo experienced an increase in testosterone of 6 ng/dl.
The researchers reported that the musli increased testosterone even though it did so less than placebo. We do not agree with this study and do not consider this ingredient effective for increasing testosterone.
Mucuna pruriens extract is often included in male enhancement supplements but we have yet to come across a study proving it increases testosterone levels in human trial participants.
Cacao extract is another ingredient we can find no research backing for in regard to testosterone improvement.
Overall we consider this supplement potentially effective for improving testosterone levels but would not recommend it given that it only contains one ingredient we consider effective out of five active ingredients.
The good thing about Choq Daily is its inactive ingredients are safe and non-toxic, so there are no ingredients in this supplement we consider actively harmful or dangerous.
Questionable Health Claims
Choq’s website has a number of questionable and united health claims. The brand claims that one of the ingredients they use, Tribulus terrestris, supports sexual vitality and cardiovascular function without any citation.
In a blog post titled “Is Shilajit Safe?” the brand fails to answer the question in the title and states that clinical studies have been completed on shilajit and that their shilajit was tested in a lab. Whether or not an ingredient is safe depends on the results of safety studies and of contaminant testing. The fact that there are studies and testing alone proves nothing.
Consider an entirely safe and non-toxic supplement like melatonin. It’s been thoroughly studied in clinical research and proven safe, but if a supplement brand were to sell melatonin with high levels of cadmium, it would be unsafe.
Choq also claims that their “ultra pure” shilajit is “safer” than most of the shilajit sold by other brands, without any proof. The way to prove this claim would be to compare contaminant testing data from Choq’s shilajit and that of other brands, which Choq does not appear to have done. Without this data, this is a baseless and useless marketing claim.
We consider bold health claims without citation to be a sign of a low-quality brand, and we recommend that consumers disregard such claims entirely.
The Chief Scientific Officer of Choq is a “Doctor of Acupuncture,” and we’ll leave it up to consumers to decide if they want a doctor of acupuncture to formulate ingestible supplements for them.
Can Supplements Improve Testosterone?
One of the most popular YouTube videos on dietary supplements for testosterone enhancement comes from a channel called “Mark Bell’s Power Project” and features a famous neurobiology professor from Stanford University named Dr. Andrew Huberman:
