Tammy, The question about why I'm on Acai is interesting....I told this story last night in chat (and it is detailed, because I am explaining why I don't think it was placebo effect). My parents, myself, and my brother are all Republic of Tea fans. It's not unusual to see mannnnny of the Republic of Tea cylindrical tins in any of our pantries at any given time. I currently have about 8 tins I'm working through. We are all tea fans, just for the flavor and the experience, and trying different flavors is fun.
I was at their house over Christmas, and I can't actually recall if I had had some coffee or not (my guess is I had already had one cup, but they brew it weaker than I), but I remember it was morning and that is my worst time, coffee or not. I decided to have a cup of green tea, grabbed what was there, and brewed a cup. It brewed up purple. Cool. Anyways, as I was slowly nursing it, about halfway through the mug, I was like, "WHAT was in that tea? I feel BETTER." It was like the cloud of illness that I always feel was lifting. My mom was like, "I dunno, I never really drink that, (brother) does." It was like the weird CFS burden I normally have was BETTER, like what happens when you get a B12 shot and it kicks in, or how I imagine glutathione IV is, based on what I've heard. It caught me off guard, wasn't expecting that at ALL. I was sitting in front of TV and it just came over me. I was not really stimulated like with coffee, but just better and able to do more. I was like, "wow, this is going to be a good day." Next day I tried the tea again, same thing, so I had two cups. (It was Republic of Tea's Acai green). And I drink green tea all the time, and tea with hibiscus all the time (it's in many of that brands teas), so it wasn't that. Also, I do smoothies from health food store with frozen blueberries often, etc. But never had a feeling like this.
So this really got me thinking, I believe I bought a tin of the tea but went through it quickly, and then I went on iherb and ordered Now's Acai in capsule form. About 30 minutes to an hour after taking the pills, I can feel it! Same effect, probably moreso, in pill form. I haven't tried the juice. The pills work better than the tea did, but they take a little longer to work. I would say I notice the tea's effects after like 20 min, the pills after like 30-40 min. But tea's a hassle when I'm tired, and the effect isn't as profound, so that is why I take the pills.
My guess is that about 20% of us will see this kind of effect if they take the right dose of Acai. At least that would be my hope. If you read the reviews on iherb, a lot of people saw more energy from it. So I think a portion of the population benefits from it, like with B12.
I am sure people have had dried acai or acai juice, but I think there is something about freeze drying it that preserves the good stuff. Which is what Now's pills are. I won't buy anything else because I know what I'm using is working, so haven't tried anything else.
I noticed the tea has "acai berry bits" in it, so I wonder if those are freeze dried too, like the Now pills. Maybe it's something with steeping them that helped, vs other Acai forms that are out there. I intuitively feel that I wouldn't get as much benefit from the juice, because my body would be processing all that fiber too. Because I have thought about this a lot.......
I would just recommend people try the Now pills if they wanna see if it helps them too. Please let me know. I don't notice too much from 1, but 2 leaves a big noticeable increase in stamina, like I get up off the couch and start washing dishes, and then I'm like, "wow, how am I doing this? oh yeah, took the acai an hour ago." It helps me go walk or even run too. I still have CFS, but this is basically the one thing that helps me tons. I have been taking the pills for like a year, I'd say? Maybe only 9 months....I take breaks sometimes if I forget to reorder. Then if I try 3 pills, I don't notice much of an added benefit.
I had been taking it for awhile without really asking questions, but I noticed the bottle talks about NO, and I started questioning what the heck is going on......so that is how I found out about Pall, after googling NO.
