SodaPeak Side Effects: Cautions for Each Ingredient
SodaPeak's label asks some people to consult a physician before they take it.
That covers pregnant or nursing mothers, children under 18 and anyone with a known medical condition. The interaction most worth knowing is saw palmetto with finasteride or dutasteride.
See the full fit guide on the who it is for page.
The label’s own caution names pregnant or nursing mothers, children under 18 and anyone with a known medical condition, and tells all three to consult a physician first.
The interaction most worth understanding is saw palmetto and 5-alpha reductase inhibitors such as finasteride and dutasteride. And because the blend’s split is not disclosed, no exposure to anything here can be calculated at all.
What the label itself says
The side panel carries the caution, the keep-out-of-reach line and the storage instruction. All three are transcribed below from the supplied photograph rather than paraphrased, because on a safety page the wording is the point.
- Caution
- Do not exceed recommended dose. Pregnant or nursing mothers, children under the age of 18 and individuals with a known medical condition should consult a physician before using this or any dietary supplement.
- Keep out of reach
- KEEP OUT OF THE REACH OF CHILDREN. DO NOT USE IF SAFETY SEAL IS DAMAGED OR MISSING. STORE IN A COOL, DRY PLACE
- Storage
- Keep away from heat, light, and humidity to preserve freshness.
- On the back panel
- These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
Note what the caution does not contain: any ingredient-specific warning. There is nothing about 5-alpha reductase inhibitors, nothing about PSA testing, nothing about diuretics and nothing about the bovine tissue. Those are the cautions this page exists to supply, and they come from the ingredient list rather than the panel.
Eight cautions from the eight ingredients
Each of these comes from a named source in the references at the bottom of this page. Where a concern is about the ingredient category rather than about this product, the entry says so; where a hazard is commonly implied and the regulation does not describe it, the entry says that too.
- Saw palmetto and 5-alpha reductase
- This is the interaction most worth understanding on this label. Saw palmetto inhibits the enzyme that converts testosterone to DHT: one six-month randomised trial measured prostate tissue DHT falling 32%. Memorial Sloan Kettering lists “decreased libido” among its common side effects. If you take finasteride or dutasteride, which work the same way, tell a pharmacist.
- Saw palmetto and PSA testing
- Because saw palmetto acts on prostate biology, anyone having PSA screening should tell the clinician ordering it. The NEJM trial found no PSA change, and the point is that the doctor reading your result should know what you are taking.
- Bovine tissue
- Orchic substance is bovine testicle tissue. It is not on FDA’s list of prohibited cattle materials and it is not a specified risk material, so we are not going to imply a BSE hazard that the regulation does not describe. What is true is that the source country, the age of the cattle and the processing are all unstated, and that a monograph on orchic extract says there is not enough reliable information to know whether it is safe.
- Boron and the upper limit
- The Tolerable Upper Intake Level for boron in adults is 20 mg a day. A 5% chelate would have to supply 400 mg of raw material to reach that, which is a third of the entire blend and would breach the descending order. The ceiling at position eight is 150 mg of chelate, so exceeding the limit from this product is not a realistic concern.
- Horny goat weed and adulteration
- A consumer monograph notes that some horny goat weed products have been found to contain undeclared prescription drugs. That is a statement about the category rather than about this product, and it is a reason to want a certificate of analysis, which was not supplied.
- Nettle root and diuretic effects
- Nettle is traditionally used as a diuretic. The trials on this site used the root for urinary symptoms, and anyone on a diuretic or a blood pressure medicine should mention it.
- Pregnancy, nursing and under-18s
- The label’s own caution covers this: pregnant or nursing mothers, children under 18 and anyone with a known medical condition should consult a physician before using this or any dietary supplement.
- Gelatin, and who it excludes
- The capsule is gelatin. US regulation defines gelatin as a product of collagen from cattle and swine, which makes this unsuitable for vegetarians and vegans, and unsuitable for anyone keeping halal or kosher without specific certification that was not supplied.
Two of those eight deserve to be pulled out of the list, because they are the ones that change what someone should do rather than what they should know. They are the first two, and the next section is about them.
The interactions worth raising with a pharmacist
Five minutes at a counter settles all of these. None of them is a reason for alarm; all of them are reasons to mention it.
| If you take or are having | The ingredient | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Finasteride or dutasteride | Saw palmetto, position 3 | Both drugs inhibit 5-alpha reductase and so does saw palmetto. A 2001 tissue study measured prostate tissue DHT falling 32%. Same enzyme, same direction, and an undisclosed amount. |
| A PSA test | Saw palmetto, position 3 | The 2006 NEJM trial found no PSA change, and the point is that the clinician reading your result should know what you are taking. |
| A diuretic | Nettle root, position 4 | Nettle is traditionally used as a diuretic. The trials on this site used the root for urinary symptoms. |
| A blood pressure medicine | Nettle root, position 4 | Same reason. Mention it rather than adjust anything yourself. |
| Anything for the prostate | Saw palmetto and nettle root | Both have their main human literature in benign prostatic hyperplasia, which is the field they were trialled in. |
| Hormone therapy of any kind | The blend as a whole | The blend is named for testosterone and contains a 5-alpha reductase inhibitor. Nobody can tell you the net effect, which is itself the reason to mention it. |
| A boron supplement already | Boron chelate, position 8 | The upper limit is for total intake from all sources. This label states no elemental figure, so your pharmacist cannot add it up either. |
| Anything at all, before surgery | The blend as a whole | Standard advice for any supplement. Tell the team what you are taking and take the bottle with you if you can. |
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What to take to the counter
The most useful thing is the bottle itself, or a photograph of the back panel. The ingredient names and the order are what a pharmacist will read, and they are the only quantitative information the label carries.
If they ask how much saw palmetto is in it, the honest answer is that the label does not say, and that its position third of eight caps it at 400 mg in a 2-capsule serving.
What the SodaPeak label does not say about the split
Everything above is about direction — which pathway an ingredient acts on, and which drugs act on the same one. None of it is about size, and size is what a safety assessment normally turns on. You cannot compute an exposure for anything in this bottle.
The panel declares 1,200 mg for all eight ingredients together and no amount for any one of them. The printed order gives a ceiling per position, which can rule an amount out and can never confirm one. So for every ingredient here, the true statement is: somewhere between a trace and the ceiling.
- Saw palmetto. Somewhere between a trace and 400 mg per 2-capsule serving. The studied dose is 320 mg.
- Nettle root. Between a trace and 300 mg. Its studied dose, 360 mg, is above the ceiling.
- Horny goat weed. Between a trace and the entire 1,200 mg, since it sits first.
- Orchic substance. Between a trace and 171.4 mg. No human dose exists for comparison in either direction.
- Boron chelate. Between a trace and 150 mg of chelate — and the elemental content of that chelate is not stated anywhere on the label.
Add the missing standardization and even those ranges soften. Without an icariin percentage, a eurycomanone figure, a fatty acid content or an elemental boron figure, a milligram of raw material is not comparable to a milligram in a study, in a safety direction any more than in an efficacy one.
This is the honest limit of what a page like this can do. It can tell you what to mention and why. It cannot tell you how much of anything you are taking, and no amount of reading the label will change that.
Boron, and the upper limit
Boron is the only ingredient here with a published tolerable upper intake level, which makes it the only one where a ceiling can be compared against a safety figure at all.
The NIH Office of Dietary Supplements gives a Tolerable Upper Intake Level for boron in adults of 20 mg a day, and that figure is for elemental boron from all sources combined, not for a raw material by weight. Those are two different quantities and the difference is the whole of this section.
| Figure | Value | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Tolerable Upper Intake Level, adults | 20 mg a day, elemental | NIH Office of Dietary Supplements. Total from all sources. |
| Dose in the 1987 study | 3 mg a day, elemental | A 48-day repletion in twelve postmenopausal women. |
| Dose in the 2011 study | 10 mg a day, elemental | Seven days, in men. |
| Ceiling on the chelate at position 8 | 150 mg of chelate | Arithmetic: 1,200 mg divided by 8. A ceiling on the raw material, not on the element. |
| Elemental boron in this product | Not stated | The label names the chelate and gives no elemental figure. No specification was supplied to this site. |
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So the reassuring part first. Even on an unfavorable reading, reaching the upper limit from this product is not a realistic concern: a chelate would have to be extraordinarily concentrated for 150 mg of raw material to deliver 20 mg of elemental boron, and the position caps the raw material at that.
Why we will not print an elemental figure
Common trade grades of boron amino acid chelate run at around 5% elemental. Multiply the ceiling by that and you get a tidy number, and it would be a guess about a raw material for which no specification was supplied.
The accurate statement is the one in the table: the ceiling on the chelate is 150 mg, the elemental content is not stated, and therefore the elemental dose is not knowable from this label. If you already take a boron supplement, the upper limit applies to your total intake and this product contributes an unknown amount to it.
Allergens, exclusions and the things a label cannot tell you
The Other Ingredients line reads: Calcium Carbonate, Microcrystalline Cellulose, Sodium Starch Glycolate, Stearic Acid, Magnesium Stearate, Silicon Dioxide, Gelatin Capsule. Several of the seals supplied with this product make claims about what is absent, and those claims are plausible from that line and confirmed by no test document.
- Gelatin. The capsule shell. US regulation defines gelatin as a product of collagen from cattle and swine, which excludes vegetarians and vegans and, without specific certification, anyone keeping halal or kosher. No certification was supplied.
- Bovine tissue. Orchic substance, position 7. Not a prohibited cattle material and not a specified risk material — but source country, age of cattle and processing are all unstated.
- Gluten and dairy. A “naturally gluten free” seal and a “dairy free” seal appear in the marketing. Both are plausible from the Other Ingredients line and neither is confirmed by any test document supplied to this site.
- Adulteration. A consumer monograph notes that some horny goat weed products have been found to contain undeclared prescription drugs, and FDA has published notices about test boosters containing hidden drug ingredients. Both are statements about the category. They are the reason to want a certificate of analysis, which was not supplied.
- A certificate of analysis. A reference, SOD-1425-26-SO, was supplied with the artwork. That is a draft label reference and not lab proof. No document exists on this site.
If you have a diagnosed allergy, the sentence that matters is the Other Ingredients line above, read off the bottle you received rather than off this page. Artwork and delivered stock can differ, and the bottle in your hand is the one that governs.
What testing was supplied →Lot and CoA references →The eight ingredients →
If something goes wrong
Stop taking it and speak to a clinician. That is the whole of the advice, and everything else is administration.
- Stop. Do not work through it and do not halve the dose to see whether it settles.
- Keep the bottle. The lot number and the expiry are on it, and a clinician or a pharmacist will want the ingredient list.
- Tell a clinician. Take the bottle or a photograph of the back panel. The ingredient order is the only quantitative information anybody has.
- Tell the seller. The order desk, listed in the footer, Monday to Friday, 9:00am to 5:00pm Eastern Time, or the website inbox for anything in writing. The refund policy sets out what happens to an opened bottle.
- Report it. Serious adverse events from a dietary supplement can be reported to FDA. A report costs you nothing and it is the only route by which this kind of information ever reaches anyone.
The medical position, in full
Talk to a clinician before starting this or any supplement if you take prescription medication or have a diagnosed condition. The label says adults 18 and over, and tells pregnant or nursing mothers and anyone with a known medical condition to consult a physician first.
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
Nothing on this page is medical advice, and nothing on this site is a diagnosis or a treatment recommendation. Where the label is silent, this page says it is silent rather than filling the gap with something that sounds authoritative.
References
The sources behind the numbers on this page.
- Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer CenterSaw Palmetto — integrative medicine herb monograph — MSKCC.org · source
- Bent, Kane, Shinohara et al. — 2006Saw palmetto for benign prostatic hyperplasia — New England Journal of Medicine · DOI 10.1056/NEJMoa053085 · PMID 16467543 · source
- Marks, Hess, Dorey et al. — 2001Tissue effects of saw palmetto and finasteride: use of biopsy cores for in situ quantification of prostatic androgens — Urology, volume 57 · DOI 10.1016/S0090-4295(00)01052-9 · source
- Franco, Trivisonno, Sgarbossa et al. — 2023Serenoa repens for the treatment of lower urinary tract symptoms due to benign prostatic enlargement — Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews · DOI 10.1002/14651858.CD001423.pub4 · source
- National Center for Complementary and Integrative HealthSaw Palmetto — what the science says — NCCIH.NIH.gov · source
- Safarinejad — 2005Urtica dioica for treatment of benign prostatic hyperplasia: a prospective, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover study — Journal of Herbal Pharmacotherapy · DOI 10.1080/J157v05n04_01 · PMID 16635963 · source
- European Medicines Agency — 2012Assessment report on Urtica dioica L. and Urtica urens L., radix (EMA/HMPC/461156/2008) — EMA.europa.eu · source
- WebMD / Natural MedicinesHorny Goat Weed — uses, side effects and adulteration warning — WebMD.com · source
- WebMD / Natural MedicinesOrchic Extract — uses, evidence and dosing — WebMD.com · source
- U.S. Government Publishing Office21 CFR 189.5 — Prohibited cattle materials, including the definitions of specified risk materials and of gelatin — Code of Federal Regulations · source
- U.S. Food and Drug Administration — 2020Import Alert 17-04: Detention Without Physical Examination of Bulk Shipments of High-Risk Bovine Tissue from BSE-Countries — FDA.gov · source
- NIH Office of Dietary SupplementsBoron — Health Professional Fact Sheet — ods.od.nih.gov · source
- Nielsen, Hunt, Mullen, Hunt — 1987Effect of dietary boron on mineral, estrogen, and testosterone metabolism in postmenopausal women — The FASEB Journal, volume 1 · DOI 10.1096/fasebj.1.5.3678698 · PMID 3678698 · source
- Naghii, Mofid, Asgari et al. — 2011Comparative effects of daily and weekly boron supplementation on plasma steroid hormones and proinflammatory cytokines — Journal of Trace Elements in Medicine and Biology · DOI 10.1016/j.jtemb.2010.10.001 · source
- U.S. Food and Drug Administration — 2023T XTRA Strength Test Booster contains hidden drug ingredient — FDA.gov · source
- U.S. Food and Drug AdministrationQuestions and Answers on Dietary Supplements — FDA.gov · source
- U.S. Government Publishing Office21 CFR 101.36 — Nutrition labeling of dietary supplements, including the proprietary blend and descending-order requirements — Code of Federal Regulations · source
See the SodaPeak packs
One, three or six bottles. The price is on the seller’s checkout page, because it is the one figure this site was never given — and a figure we were not given is not a figure we will print.
Shipping and the guarantee term are shown at checkout. This site publishes no number it was not able to verify.