Shilajit Gummies Side Effects: What the Trials Reported, What Users Report, and Who Should Skip Them

Shilajit gummies side effects fall into two very different groups, and most articles blur them together. The first group is what purified shilajit itself does in the body, which in the human trials so far amounts to very little. The second group is what contaminated or poorly purified shilajit does, which is where the real risk lives. A gummy adds a small third group of its own.

We sell shilajit gummies. We would rather you read this and decide not to buy than buy and be surprised.

What the clinical trials reported

There are four human trials of purified shilajit worth citing, all at 250 to 500mg per day, all in adults, running from 28 to 90 days. Their safety findings, in one place:

Trial	Dose and length	Safety finding
Keller et al., 2019, J Int Soc Sports Nutr	250 or 500mg/day, 8 weeks, 63 men	Placebo-controlled; safety was not a reported outcome
Pandit et al., 2016, Andrologia	250mg twice daily, 90 days, healthy men 45 to 55	Placebo-controlled; safety was not a reported outcome
Biswas et al., 2010, Andrologia	100mg twice daily, 90 days, 28 men	Liver and kidney blood markers unchanged at the end of treatment
2026 open-label pilot, Cureus	500mg/day, 28 days, 25 men	No serious adverse events; all safety labs within normal limits

A 2014 review in Phytotherapy Research summarized the animal and human data the same way: safety at studied doses is reasonably well documented. The honest caveat is the size of that evidence. About 180 people in total, none followed for longer than three months, and almost all of them men. Nobody has studied a year of daily use, and nobody has studied gummies.

What users and clinicians report

The trials are small, so reported side effects from wider use matter. The Cleveland Clinic, in an article reviewed by Dr. Robert Saper, lists the side effects that come up most often:

• Digestive: nausea, vomiting, diarrhea
• Head: sore throat, headache, dizziness
• Hormonal: because shilajit may raise testosterone, acne, irregular periods, and hair loss in women are listed as possibilities
• Allergic reactions, as with any supplement

Most of these are mild and stop when the supplement stops. Two rarer reports deserve their own paragraph.

A licorice-like blood pressure syndrome. A 2018 case report in Gynecological Endocrinology described a pregnant woman with persistent high blood pressure and low potassium after six months of taking mumijo, another name for shilajit. Her doctors diagnosed pseudohyperaldosteronism, the same syndrome heavy licorice consumption causes, and it resolved when she stopped. It is one case. It is also the reason we would not take shilajit in pregnancy or with a blood pressure condition without a doctor's sign-off.

Iron. Shilajit is mineral-dense. The Cleveland Clinic lists hemochromatosis, an iron overload condition, among the reasons to avoid it. The evidence there is thin, but the caution costs nothing.

The real risk is contamination, not shilajit

This is the section that matters most and gets the least space elsewhere.

Raw shilajit is a resin that seeps from rock. Whatever is in the rock is in the resin: aluminum, arsenic, cadmium, chromium, lead, mercury, thallium, and fungus are all documented in unprocessed material. Purification is supposed to remove them. Sometimes it does not.

Three studies show the scale of the problem:

• A 2004 study in JAMA bought 70 Ayurvedic products from Boston-area stores and found that one in five contained lead, mercury, or arsenic.
• A 2008 follow-up in JAMA bought 193 Ayurvedic products online, made in both the United States and India, and again found about one in five contained detectable lead, mercury, or arsenic. US-made products were no cleaner than Indian ones, and three quarters of the contaminated products claimed Good Manufacturing Practices on their labels. A GMP claim on its own says nothing about contaminants.
• A 2025 study in BMC Chemistry measured thallium in raw shilajit and in commercial shilajit supplements. It found thallium in the supplements at up to 0.5 micrograms per gram, and in some products the concentration was higher than in the raw material. The authors called for standardized testing.

Heavy metals have no taste and no smell, and none of the popular home tests, the water test, the flame test, the alcohol test, can detect them. We wrote about that in How to Tell If Shilajit Is Real or Fake. The protection is purification, the processing step that removes them, so choose purified shilajit extract from a maker that states the milligrams of extract and where the product was made.

Side effects that come from the gummy, not the shilajit

A gummy is a food matrix around an extract. Three things follow from that.

Sugar. Most gummies carry 2 to 4 grams of sugar per serving. Ours is 3 grams, 20 calories. Sugar-free gummies usually swap in sugar alcohols such as maltitol or sorbitol, which are the most common cause of the bloating and loose stools people attribute to "the shilajit."

Dose. Many gummies contain under 100mg of shilajit extract per serving. At that level the side effects and the benefits are both close to zero, because there is not enough of the ingredient present to do either. Check the Supplement Facts panel for the milligrams in the serving, not the number on the front. Here is how.

Other actives. Combination gummies often add ashwagandha, ginseng, or tongkat ali, each with its own side-effect list. Ours includes ashwagandha and panax ginseng. Ashwagandha in particular has documented cautions in pregnancy, with thyroid conditions, before surgery, and for the liver, which we cover in Can You Take Shilajit and Ashwagandha Together?.

Who should not take shilajit gummies

Drawing on the Cleveland Clinic's list and the case report above, talk to a doctor first, or skip it entirely, if any of these apply:

• Pregnant, breastfeeding, or trying to conceive
• Under 18, since there is no safety research in children
• High blood pressure, heart disease, or a clotting disorder, or taking blood thinners
• Diabetes, liver disease, or kidney disease
• Hemochromatosis or any iron overload condition
• An autoimmune or overactive immune condition
• Any prescription medication, because shilajit's interactions have not been studied

None of that is unique to shilajit. It is the standard list for a supplement with a small evidence base, and the honest thing is to print it rather than bury it.

Frequently asked questions

Are shilajit gummies safe?

At studied doses of 250 to 500mg per day, purified shilajit produced no safety signal in trials lasting up to 90 days. The risk is not the compound but the purity of the product, since unpurified shilajit can carry heavy metals. Choose a product that states the milligrams of extract and the fulvic acid standardization.

What happens if you take shilajit every day?

Daily use is how every trial dosed it, for four to twelve weeks. Beyond three months there is no published data in either direction. If you take it daily, give it eight weeks before judging, and stop if you notice digestive upset, headache, or anything unusual.

What should you avoid when taking shilajit?

Avoid unpurified or raw shilajit, and avoid products that will not tell you the dose or the test method. Avoid it in pregnancy and with the conditions listed above. There is no documented food interaction, and no trial has found a problem taking it with coffee, which is how our label suggests taking it.

Does shilajit show up on a drug test?

There is no published report of shilajit causing a positive drug screen. Standard workplace panels test for classes of drugs, such as opioids, amphetamines, cannabinoids, and cocaine, and shilajit contains none of them. The caveat is the one that runs through this whole article: an unregulated product could contain something its label does not say. A product from a brand that discloses its full contents is the safeguard.

What are the side effects of shilajit for women?

The trials were almost entirely in men, so the answer is mostly inference. Because shilajit may raise testosterone, the Cleveland Clinic lists acne, irregular periods, and hair loss as possible effects in women. The one serious published case, the blood pressure syndrome above, was in a pregnant woman. Women who are pregnant or trying to conceive should not take it.

What are the side effects of shilajit for men?

In the trials, none of note. The reported effects in men are the general ones: digestive upset, headache, and dizziness in a minority of users. The testosterone finding, if it holds, stayed within the normal range.

Does shilajit affect the kidneys?

In the 90-day fertility trial, kidney and liver blood markers were unchanged. The kidney concern with shilajit is indirect: lead, cadmium, and mercury, which contaminate poorly purified products, are toxic to the kidneys with long exposure. Anyone with existing kidney disease should not take shilajit without medical advice, and everyone should choose a purified product from a brand that discloses its contents.

Sources

• Keller JL, et al. The effects of shilajit supplementation on fatigue-induced decreases in muscular strength and serum hydroxyproline levels. J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2019. PubMed 30728074
• Pandit S, et al. Clinical evaluation of purified shilajit on testosterone levels in healthy volunteers. Andrologia. 2016. PubMed 26395129
• Biswas TK, et al. Clinical evaluation of spermatogenic activity of processed shilajit in oligospermia. Andrologia. 2010. PubMed 20078516
• Safety and efficacy of TruBlk shilajit resin supplementation on physical performance and blood biomarkers in healthy adults: a 28-day open-label pilot. Cureus. 2026. PubMed 41613504
• Stohs SJ. Safety and efficacy of shilajit (mumie, moomiyo). Phytother Res. 2014. PubMed 23733436
• Stavropoulos K, et al. Pseudohyperaldosteronism due to mumijo consumption during pregnancy: a licorice-like syndrome. Gynecol Endocrinol. 2018. PubMed 29933704
• Saper RB, et al. Heavy metal content of Ayurvedic herbal medicine products. JAMA. 2004. PubMed 15598918
• Saper RB, et al. Lead, mercury, and arsenic in US- and Indian-manufactured Ayurvedic medicines sold via the Internet. JAMA. 2008. PubMed 18728265
• Kamgar E, et al. Quantifying of thallium in shilajit and its supplements to unveil the potential risk of consumption of this popular traditional medicine. BMC Chem. 2025. PubMed 39827344
• Cleveland Clinic Health Essentials. Shilajit benefits, side effects and uses. Reviewed by Robert Saper, MD. March 2025.