Tongkat Ali for Stress
Tongkat ali may modestly lower stress hormones and lift mood, but the evidence is too thin and conflicted to recommend it for stress. The only dedicated trial was small, short, and industry-funded, and no major health institution endorses this use.
Why this grade7-layer evidence engine
This earns a weak (Grade C) rating because the human evidence rests on essentially one dedicated stress trial. In Talbott 2013 (PMID 23705671), a 4-week randomized placebo-controlled study of 63 moderately stressed adults, 200 mg/day of tongkat ali extract cut salivary cortisol by about 16% and improved tension, anger, and confusion scores versus placebo. But the trial was small, brief, internally rated low-quality, and industry-funded, so its lead author's conflict of interest cannot be ruled out.
The only supporting study, a 24-week trial of a Physta water extract plus multivitamins in 93 people (PMID 30574050), does not cleanly isolate tongkat ali: it used a low 50 mg dose inside a combination product, never measured cortisol, and saw mostly within-group rather than between-group gains. With just two small low-quality trials and no replication, the signal points in a positive direction but is far from established.
No major clinical institution corroborates this use. Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic, Harvard Health, the NIH Office of Dietary Supplements, and relevant specialty societies are all silent on tongkat ali for stress. Regulators raise safety concerns rather than support it: the US FDA notes commercial products have been contaminated with heavy metals such as lead and mercury, and European regulators (EFSA) refused novel-food authorization over potential DNA-damage signals. Better-supported options like exercise, CBT, and mindfulness remain the standard.
Scoring transparency
All scores computed by a 7-layer evidence engine — fully auditable▸View the full decision path (audit trail)
- compute_raw_score — 加權公式: L2×0.30 + L3×0.25 + L5×0.25 + L11×0.10 + L1×0.10 = 0.461
- tier_from_score — 依分數區間映射至 tier letter
- apply_hec_rules — 無高階證據可裁決
- tier_strict_requirement_check — Tier 條件達標，未降階
- detect_disputes — 偵測到 0 個 hard + 1 個 soft dispute
- decide_status — 依 tier + dispute 結果決定 status