The following is my complete experience with Carbon 60 olive oil for readers (like myself) interested in reading others' anecdotes. I encourage people to ask questions but to NOT post their personal experiences on this thread (please start another one in a similar vein).
ABOUT ME: 33 years old, female, personal trainer, volunteer researcher at UCSF. Moderately science literate. Currently applying to medical schools. Experienced with most kinds of recreational drugs (though not presently) and acutely dialed into "highs" and "comedowns" from substances in general. Long-time athlete; at 19 underwent a double discectomy for two herniated lumbar discs (L5/S1, and L4/L5) due to overuse injury in collegiate rowing. Re-herniated L5/S1 sometime since then and also endure arthritis throughout my low back. Also suffer from arthritis and crepitus in my right knee from a septic infection in the joint ten years ago. On the whole, I am in excellent physical condition but admit that joint pain and inflammation have been the biggest culprits in my life (and heartburn).
EARLY SEPTEMBER: Heard an interview between Clif High and Sarah Westall on Youtube. Clif High talked about Carbon 60 and the Parisian lifespan study (Baati et al.). I scoffed at this because he is into entertaining woo woo. As he talked, I decided to Google it briefly. Experienced some lag and gave up on in.
SEPTEMBER 14th, 2017: While on my bicycle, I made a reckless left turn and was hit by a light rail train. I suffered a left-side grade 3 shoulder separation from a posterior impact. This means that two separate ligaments, the AC and the CC ligaments responsible for holding my collar bone in place probably ruptured completely and now the distal end of my collar bone juts up abnormally about 2cm. Needless to say, this was a painful injury and my shoulder was incredibly swollen. The prognosis for this injury is typically 8-12 weeks. I was saddened not only by the permanent physical deformity, but the notion that I might not return to my MMA training for as long as 8-12 weeks. A full recovery is considered full range of motion pain free.
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By the next day, I could not touch my left fingertips to my chin. I could not raise the arm in any direction. I could not hold anything heavier than a coffee mug in the hand while in the sling. More uncomfortable than this, however, was the sharp pain in my mid trapezius muscle when I isometrically contracted my upper back (as one does when sitting up, coughing, or sneezing). I took 400mg of ibuprofen at morning and at night for over a week, and iced the area 4-6 times daily. 3 days post-injury, I began arm pendulums and basic mobility exercises to resolve stiffness. By day 5 I was using a Theraband to horizontally abduct the shoulder, retract my shoulder blades, and other motions that did not cause immediate pain. One week post-injury, I could flex my straight arm in the sagittal plane about 30 degrees before pain ensued. For a grade 3 AC separation, this type of flexion, chest pressing, and overhead pressing are the most painful motions. My success in these motions would dictate my recovery.
SEPTEMBER 23, 2017: Heard an interview between Sarah Westall and Tom Martin about Carbon 60. Heard that his business sold out of Carbon 60 after the Clif High interview was released. I immediately Googled the study, read the abstract, and decided to order a bottle for the heck of it before suppliers sold out again. It was only $43 and purportedly safe. I listened, in fascination, to the interview. As an athlete I was interested in performance gains and living longer, for sure, but also curious about whether it might accelerate my shoulder's healing process. I spent most of the next day listening to interviews, podcasts, reading papers on carbon 60, trying to understand the molecule, reading longecity posts, and everything else related (like activated charcoal). I told some of my co-workers and clients. Everyone was interested.
SEPTEMBER 27, 2017: I received my second physical therapy session. I explained to my physical therapist that horizontal abduction was good. All rowing and retraction motions felt strong, but that flexion and pressing of all kinds was off limits to me. Those motions produced immediate and acute pain; it is unknown if the pain was due to swelling or a muscle injury. On the whole, however, I felt that my shoulder was improving rapidly and my larger concern was the pain in my upper back. I felt that I had "plateaued" in my body's rapid elimination of swelling and inflammation of the injured area. It had been two days since I felt my last improvement. I informed her that when I did my rehab exercises, I generally felt good doing so. I did them until the shoulder ached, announcing its limit, and would then cease rehab and ice the area. The next day, invariably, I would feel increased swelling, stiffness, and irritation from delayed onset muscle soreness and inflammation from having exercised the area. Pain, stiffness, and irritation, was the price I had to pay for rehab.
SEPTEMBER 28, 2017: My shoulder was especially irritated and achey, even creeping into my neck. Though my icing efforts had waned in recent days, I felt it necessary to ice the area again. I had ceased taking ibuprofen several days earlier and figured it was achey because of this fact. Basically, the shoulder was especially cranky on this day. I was also underslept and ready for a nap when I left my lab at 3pm. I had about an hour to myself before my shift at the gym. I decided to go to my apartment and lie down. When I arrived, I found that the Carbon 60 package was waiting for me on the table. I decided that I would dose it immediately, and dispassionately, as I had read many accounts of possible placebo effect.
Five 1ml syringes took 60 seconds to administer directly into my mouth. I did this with as little fanfare as possible, fully prepared for placebo. I already eat clean, mostly vegetarian, high fruit and vegetable, and a high antioxidant diet. I figured I wouldn't feel much of anything, since I'm a healthy individual. Within 2-3 minutes, I felt a "boost" as I was breaking down the box in which the product had been shipped. It felt similar to a nicotine hit, or like "coming up" in a step-wise fashion on some sort of stimulant. I was shocked. I immediately texted my real-time results to my bodybuilder client. I realized fully that my response could be placebo, but I wanted to offer someone my real-time experience. I lost all sense of sleepiness and desire for a nap. In fact, I felt alert. I wanted to describe that uplift/boost to someone. I noted that I could be imagining the boost and excited by a placebo. Fine. I raised my arm over my head. If felt like 90% of the swelling had been eliminated. That earlier achey irritation was entirely gone. The only sensation I felt as blockage of the range of motion with no true pain. I noted the temperature of the apartment was quite warm, and perhaps that had more to do with it than anything else.
I went to work, serviced one personal training session, and decided to do more rehab exercises with real weights (three hours post dose). I was pleased to find that I could press overhead, adduct my arm, and chest press. I successfully attempted ten or more targeted lifts. I lifted weights for 45 minutes and felt happy. I felt mildly high, like I'd smoked a bit of indica (which I do perhaps four times a year). I was impressed by how little my muscles burned, despite my deliberate attempts to make them burn under long eccentric and concentric contractions.
I was also nervous because I worried I would feel ruined the next morning if I didn't stop lifting. I decided to give the shoulders a break and move to hips and glutes. I did targeted lower body exercises with my heart rate 130-140 beats per minute for over ten minutes. I did not break a sweat, and I did not feel tired. If it was a placebo, it was incredibly effective. Though I did not feel achey in my shoulder as I usually so post-rehab, I decided not to break protocol and iced it just in case.
SEPTEMBER 29, 2017 - I did not wake up in agony. The agony never came. I dosed another 5ml of C60 at 1pm--21 hours after my first dose. I stood quietly for several minutes, "listening" for the boost. The boost did not come. I thought perhaps I felt an iota of a boost, but it was probably wishful thinking. Perhaps my body was still pleasantly affected by its prior dose, and the marginal impact was lessened. (This could be consistent with Fig. 1 in the Baati paper, describing blood concentrations of C60 vs. time). At any rate, my shoulder felt incredible, there was little swelling, and I felt good all over.
SEPTEMBER 30, 2017 - Still no agony. I managed a pushup off the edge of the sofa. I dosed 5ml of C60 at 4pm and ate a bowl of cereal. Then hit the gym. Only two days before, I was pressing just 10-20 lbs over my head with my injured arm. This day, I was chest pressing 50-60 lbs, and overhead pressing 30 lbs (pre-injury, I would probably be chest pressing 90 lbs and overhead pressing 50-60). Decline presses, which I had never yet attempted, felt off-limits. I learned I could hold my entire body weight (187lbs) in a Roman chair while doing leg lifts.
OCTOBER 1, 2017 - Still no agony. Did 25 minutes of biceps and triceps lifting for the fun of it. The triceps required extreme overhead orientation of the humerus, which one would expect to be difficult due to the injury. While I could feel a small amount of residual swelling that ultimately limited my range of motion, there was no significant discomfort. I did several sets of 45-lb EZ-bar biceps curls, and more sets of alternating hammer curls with 20lb dumb bells with perfect form. While it was disconcerting to see the end of the collar bone jutting above my shoulder line, there was no pain. In fact, I have regained 100 percent of my biceps strength. Considering how ten days ago, I could not hold a dinner plate on my injured arm, this is exceptional.
CONCLUDING REMARKS: I genuinely look forward to my C60 dose, as one looks forward to a cup of coffee. It has been 17 days, or 2.4 weeks since my grade 3 AC separation and I consider myself to be at 75% of my original strength in most upper body exercises that directly affect the joint, and 90-95% of my original strength in other exercises that involve the arm but do not directly affect the joint. My range is not 100% pain free yet. I consider this to be an incredible recovery for an injury that usually requires 8-12 weeks for a full recovery. I can consider the following:
1) As a personal trainer in good physical condition to begin with, with good nutritional habits, and who was scrupulous about controlling for inflammation with ice and ibuprofen in the 7 days post-injury, it is natural that I would experience an accelerated recovery.
2) All of the above, plus a powerful placebo effect
3) All of #1 plus the aid of C60's potent antioxidant effect modulating the oxidative damage in my highly inflammed shoulder due to traumatic injury.
Because I am making such incredible progress, I see no reason to stop what I am doing. I am committed to finishing my 100ml bottle of C60. I then intend to abstain from taking C60 for an undetermined amount of time to see if I can detect any "withdrawal symptoms" from the product.
More updates to come.
