I used to love drinking Yerba Mate cold cans but am rather sensitive to caffeine. Still, I like the boost of energy I receive from it, and in turn, the boost in mood that it provides. However, over the past few years paying more attention and experimenting a bit with caffeine intake (coffee, other teas/natural energy drinks/green tea) it occurred to me that maybe processing caffeine in drink/fluid form is too taxing day in and day out on the body. Caffeine can definitely wear you down, yet I find myself repeatedly dependent on it. I had tried Green Tea supplements for awhile (while not drinking any caffeine) and noticed an improvement in my health. I looked and felt less worn down. Yet those pills only had 40mg in them, and the effects were subtle. I like more of a jolt like spark. The energy that yerba mate can provide feels fantastic, and is generally my favorite kind of boost. It's strong, at times euphoric, with much greater endurance and less jitters than coffee. Yet despite all of the health claims, I know from about 5 years of experimentation that drinking it regularly does NOT create health in the body; it actually creates stress and agitation in the body, which can cause all kinds of other problems.
ANYHOW - I thought I'd give yerba mate in supplement form a try. To me this sounded good, and I hoped it would be more mild than drinking the tea. At first, it delivered, and I was pleased. The serving size is two, but I only took one per day which according to the label, I believe is about 70mg of caffeine. I took two on a day where I got only 4 hrs of sleep and had to work 9hrs and it pulled me through, I was so glad. My mind was very activated and interested in everything, I felt like the self I always try to aim to be. I thought I had found my solution. Despite feeling great and energized, when I looked in the mirror after two days of use, I looked terrible, worn down, and a few years older. It was shocking.... but I didn't want to stop taking them because I was finally being productive after months of being in a sort of unenergetic funk. On the fifth day or so, I started having pains in my back (kidneys) making it difficult to fall asleep and find a comfortable position to lay in. The following day, I ended up urinating blood! I will have to stop taking these. It's sad, because I thought I found my secret weapon and way to stop the habit of drinking caffeine. Yerba Mate is touted for its health benefits but I believe from experience - it holds a greater possibility of causing strain and disorder within the body. Beware.
Other notes - this product has a lot of misc junk in it, which I don't like - gelatin, purified water, gycerin, beeswax, annato, silicon dioxide, soy lecithin, titanium dioxide, carob, tumeric, malodextrin, and mannitol. The pills them self look like a strange brown plastic.
I do like that this has ginseng and schizandra in it, which inspires me to seek out these elements individually. I hope I can achieve a similar energized focused state without the caffeine and negative effects.
