Unlike other authors who write patchwork articles (sewn together from the work of others) solely for the purpose of promoting their brand, I know exactly how tongkat ali feels (or doesn't feel), and what it does to me, and what it doesn't.

I do, provided I have a proper extract, and not just some root powder, and not a shit that has been put on the market solely for the purpose of marketing, by people who know nothing about medicinal herbs, but a lot about spamming the Internet. If you buy tongkat ali root powder from websites by people who have no own stock and act only as agents forwarding drop ship orders, you have reason to feel cheated.

I need the equivalent of about 50 gram of tongkat ali root per dosage if I want to achieve an effect, and after using it straight for about 2 weeks, I need the equivalent of 100 gram.

I know exactly what the tongkat ali does for me, and what it doesn't, because, over more than a year of usage, I have done multiple challenges.

A "challenge" means: I judge the effect of tongkat ali not only (and not even principally) during periods during which I consume my daily dosage, but also, more importantly, during periods when I am tongkat ali sober.

These periods turn out sober indeed.

Tongkat ali is a hormonal modulator; as a rule of thumb, unless one ingests huge over dosages of hormonal products, one doesn't feel hormones (except thyroid). I have used growth hormone over months, and I did get the edema that is a typical side effect, but I never felt anything from growth hormone. I also didn't feel anything different during growth hormone off cycles. Growth hormone has likely been the most expensive placebo I ever tried.

I also tried the full range of testosterone products: oral testosterone, Andriol and Proviron, testosterone patches and cream, aromatase inhibitors like anastrozole, and hypothalamic stimulators like clomiphene.

Proviron feels like speed, and Andriol and testosterone patches and cream feel like nothing. Anastrozole, in combination with clomiphene or alone, may make me more aggressive (but I'm not 100 percent sure about this either), and provide no benefit sexually.

I stop taking certain products when I have a sexual failure in spite of using them.

And I initially became increasingly interested in tongkat ali because during periods during which I took my daily dosage, I never had a failure. And when I stopped using it, I do have my failures.

I know for sure that genetically (and when I am sober) I do not have aggressive testosterone levels. I just have to take a look into the mirror to be sure of that. My hairline now (age 50) is exactly where it was 25 years ago. No pattern baldness.

I also know it from my mother who told me that my father stopped having sex in his early 40s. And I remember when I was in my early teens, I once stumbled across a package of a testosterone capsules, which were the medication of my father.

I am an apostle of sex, or even a sex maniac, not because I would be blessed with unlimited sexual desires, but for philosophical reasons. I find no solace whatsoever in religion, and I can't be mislead by Kantian stupidity, but I know how extremely good it feels to be engulfed by libido, and to have an explosive orgasm.

I can't see any other purpose in life.

I have elaborated further on my philosophy on the domain www.Kreutz-Philosophy.com.

I have become an expert on sexual enhancement, because I need it. I have a very hard time to have an erection without Viagra or yohimbe. I will almost certainly not be able to have an erection in a sober state, even when I am together for the first time with a beautiful young woman.

I can engineer erections with yohimbe or Viagra (50 to 100 mg).

Yohimbe will even give me some libido; but yohimbe is a heavy-caliber drug. It makes me totally agitated, gives me tachycardia and palpitations, robs my sleep for at least 20 hours after ingesting it (which can easily add up to 30 hours without sleep if I take my dosage on the tenth hour of being awake).

Yohimbe, for me, is an experience like an LSD trip. And I am totally worthless on the following day.

Yohimbe is a prohibited drug in Australia, and I am surprised that it isn't (yet) in the US.

But it weren't really the dreadful side effects that got me entirely off yohimbe. It was the fact that after hundreds of usages, my orgasmic pleasure vanished. I could have rock-hard erections (and I do mean: a tissue consistency of a stone), and be very focused mentally on what I was doing when I was doing it, and then I would have an orgasm which I hardly felt.

My next phase were dopaminergics, and I did have great sex, and specifically great orgasms, with several of them. But dopaminergics work only a few times, unless one takes dosages appropriate for Parkinson's patients.

Take bromocriptine: initially, one fourth of a 2.5 milligram tablet would allow me to totally forget myself during intercourse, and to enjoy pre-orgasmic plateaus that would last for minutes. Now I can take 2 tablets of 2.5 milligram and just feel no enhancement at all. I just get nauseated.

I started taking a proper tongkat ali extract about a year ago, and it has been my mainstay since.

So, what do I feel after ingesting about 1 gram of a 1:50 tongkat ali extract?

Initially, I felt a slight hot-headedness, but this side effect has since subsided.

Now, when I ingest 1 to 2 grams of tongkat ali extract, I feel … nothing.

Please note: tongkat ali alone doesn't even give me erections. I still need the Viagra.

I know when I have taken Viagra. I get an erection when I ought to.

So, why bother with the tongkat ali?

Yes, I have asked myself exactly this question quite a number of times.

When I first took the tongkat ali 1:50 extract, and combined it with the Viagra, I did have good, proper sex every day. But I really didn't feel anything from the tongkat ali extract.

At that time, I thought of myself that, man, you are in proper shape, and all you need is the Viagra.

So I stopped taking the tongkat ali extract.

For two or three days after stopping the tongkat ali extract, things were still just fine. And then I started failures in spite of having ingested the Viagra.

The failure was not that I wouldn't have had an erection. Provided I had taken the Viagra, I did get sufficient erections. But I lacked libido. I could stop intercourse in the midst of it, and not even become frustrated or disappointed. I just wasn't sufficiently interested, even not with a new conquest.

This happened two or three times, and then I did know that "no, things are not in order".

Back on my daily dosage of about 1 gram of tongkat ali extract, such libido failures no longer occurred.

This is a reliable test result. I can repeat it any time. I get off my daily tongkat ali dosage, and some two to 4 days later, I will have my first clear libido failure.

I go back on the tongkat ali, and I seem to reach a peak after four to eight days: teeth-clinching sex; during these peak days, I know how a violent rapist must feel: "This bone must penetrate this hole. No matter what comes after. No, I cannot stop. I will not stop. No unfinished business. They can lock me up for 30 years, or hang me at the next tree, but here and now, this will go on until I have unloaded."

If this is what goes on in the minds of rapists, then I envy them. Not for the 30 years or the next tree. But for their powerful libido, which really is the essence of life.

I can taste this level of libido (and I am extremely thankful for it) when I am about a week into a tongkat ali cycle. I cannot plan the best episodes. Sometimes, I have absolutely extraordinary sex with a girl that is below my average, and no, it's not some hidden qualities of the girl that make for absolutely great sex, but it's me. It's my testosterone levels. It's the tongkat ali.

I know from numerous challenges that this is how tongkat ali affects me. I never have really bad sex when on a combination of Viagra and tongkat ali extract. It's always satisfying. And sometimes it's blasting.

I will have episodes of absolutely extraordinary sex at the beginning of a tongkat ali cycle, some 4 to 8 days into it. The tongkat ali will still work well in the second week, but in the third week, I will usually no longer be in the frame of mind for extraordinary sex on a 1-gram-a-day dosage. At that stage, I can still get a kick out of increasing the dosage to 2 gram a day, but after some 20 days into a cycle, the effect of tongkat ali will flatten. I will still have good sex, but it will not be teeth-clinching.

Then it is about time to give the tongkat ali a break. For the first two to four days off, sex will still be satisfying, though lacking zest.

And then the clear failures set in. Not erectile failures (as I still take my daily Viagra… which does not have to be cycled), but libido failures. Lack of interest.

During my first off-cycles, I attributed the libido failures to the girl. She may not entirely be my type. But I know my type. And if I land one in bed, I should be properly aroused. I don't want to think: "Well, maybe better for the relationship if we first get to know each other. I mean, before penetration.

No, that's wrong. I don't want to think like that. What I want to think is: "I want it now. All of it. And I don't give a damn if that is not-so-good for the relationship. I need it now. All of it."

I can take libido failures only for a few days. Libido failures totally undermine my self-esteem.

Tongkat ali is a God-sent for me. Up to now, through many months of usage, I have always been able to re-engineer teeth-clinching libido by entering a new tongkat ali cycle.

It has no other effect on me.

I don't know about others. Actually, I can imagine that for young men with no testosterone deficiency, tongkat ali makes no difference.

If tongkat ali cures libido failures, or libido deficiencies, then this effect can be felt only by those who actually do have libido failures, or at least deficiencies.

It may have other effects on other people. I have heard that bodybuilders use it as a mild substitute for steroids, and that some (previously) obese women swear on it as a slimming agent.

I leave these fields of research to others. My specialty is sexual enhancement.

And for that, tongkat ali works according to the pattern outlined above.