Advanced Orthomolecular Research AOR Benagene Capsules, 30 Count

I took this product a little over a year ago and it completely removed my brain fog in a couple of weeks. Unfortunately, it was a bit too much for me to afford at the time and I quit taking it then would take it again for a month and go off again. In hindsight, I now realize that it was during that time that I also lost about 20 pounds for no apparent reason. Last month I decided to start taking Benagene again because the brain fog had returned. Before I did so, I went to the website and read more about it. That's when I realized that this product was the reason I had lost the weight. It actually turns off (or on) a gene that makes your body think you are doing intermittent fasting. This intermittent fasting regimen has been proven to make people live longer. So, now I have 3 reasons to keep taking it and not go off of it any longer: lifts brain fog helps me live longer helps me lose weight Love this product.

This stuff works. I'm a PhD student studying neuroscience at Johns Hopkins, and the science checked out so I tried it. I've struggled with treatment-resistant chronic depression for a while; medications help some (and I've tried them all) but I still felt depressed every day, just less. I've never had much issue with PMS, so I can't say how much it helps with that. But it pushed me to fully not-depressed. There's still some bad days, but even on the worst days I only feel bad for part of the day, and the lows are much less low. I still take my medications, and I know those are helping, but this supplement is what my body needed to finally feel normal. I can't endorse this enough. After 10 years with depression and 3 years trying to find a medicine regiment that would treat it, this did the trick. I can vouch for it both from a scientific and personal standpoint, this is no phony.

UPDATE: The US AOR company contacted me and is arranging a replacement bottle. I've upgraded the rating to 4 stars. Photo #3 (the replacement received) is what your product should look like. This is supposedly STABILIZED but I went to take one today and capsules in the rest of the bottle have degraded into a dark red discoloration on one side of each capsule. I keep all supplements in a dark, cool, dry place so it's not on my end. If this can't survive the bottle, how can it survive my digestive system? Wrote the company, provided Lot numbers and EXP date 08/2018 and photos and they said (verbatim): "That definitely doesn’t look normal! I would highly suggest returning this to your local retailer or the United States AOR HQ. It is not supposed to look like that – in fact, it looks crystallized or melted somehow." Not the kind of response I expected.

Just one man's opinion, but I think this stuff is wonderful.. I do feel younger mentally and physically and I feel like my skin is in better condition since I started taking it. I understand that we can all fall victim to a placebo effect but I try not to let that happen. I don't go into something thinking it is going to work and magically I feel better. I start out being suspicious of a product and then try to decide if it is doing what it is suppose to be doing. Pretty much all supplements I have ever tried did not feel worth it to me. This one does. I will say taking two a day also seems to make a difference, but can be prohibitively expensive.

Quality product

Looks like the ingredients have changed, my old bottle has different ingredients listed. Tried to return but item is ineligible for returns.

Product/packaging has a strong odour like highly concentrated passion fruit, or concentrated fruit skin. I have not had this with other benaGene/OAA products too date. Perhaps it is from contamination of the capsules or the container.

Molecular Biologist here. Here's the real deal on oxaloacetate. The Good: Yes it's been clinically proven to reduce fatigue and improve cognitive functions. Multiple studies prove this. The Bad: The hugely disappointing fact is that the issue is in the dose. All these studies were done with 1,000-3,000mg per day. That's 10-30 capsules worth per day. A clinical dose of 3000mg daily resulted in 33% fatigue reduction, 2000 gave 27% reduction, 1000 daily gave 21% reduction, so one would expect 100mg (1 cap) per day to give either 1% fatigue reduction or 0%. The 100mg/day dose is a sub-therapeutic dose and there have been zero studies done less than 1000mg/day. The studies also stated that first effects were felt at 21 days, so if you're feeling effects sooner, than either you are a "super-responder" or are feeling placebo effects. Will you have any benefit from 100mg/day. Doubtful but possible. No studies have been done under 1000mg/day. Is it worth a shot? Maybe, 40% of those in studies were enhanced responders. If your in this 40% than you "may" or "may not" respond at 100mg/day. The 60% regular and non responders will almost certainly not have any response at all at 100mg/day. The Extra Bad: The price for 30 caps is insanely and offensively cost prohibitive. The lowest studied dose would cost 500/mo and the studies at the upper limit that had 33% fatigue reduction would cost 1,500/mo. This product was in the mid $20 range many years ago, I guess they decided to double the price at some point since people would pay that, which is a shame that they made that decision and put this supplement out of the reach for nearly the entire general public. Conclusion: Yes, it's clinically demonstrated to produce real tangible results you can actually feel. But not at the listed 100mg dosage. If they ever decide to lower their obscenely high price, I would absolutely change my review to 5 stars.

It really helps supporting cells.

Am seeing an immediate improvement so ordered again. Stocked up:-)

Ambiguity about effectiveness of drug

As someone with moderately-severe MECFS, i noticed this started working almost immediately in terms of lifting some of the deep fatigue and brain fog. However it also caused me a great deal of gastrointestinal discomfort, like 10/10 pain in my abdominal area, which means I've had to stop taking it. Also the price point is annoyingly high.

The reviews of this product and the scientific theory is very interesting. I'm on my second month and I'm not sure I've seen much progress at this time. It is expensive, but I'll give it another month.