The four kinds of sentence
Nutrient content claims, structure and function claims, disease claims, and everything else. Only the first two carry obligations, and only the first is fully checkable.
Guides: Claims and the Category
Two guides about the subject rather than about our product. Both apply to every bottle on the shelf, including this one.
Quick answer
These guides cover two things. The first is how a supplement claim works: what a structure and function claim is, what the asterisk links to, where the FDA disclaimer has to appear under 21 CFR 101.93(d), and the line between a permitted claim and a disease claim no supplement may make. The second is the male-enhancement category: what the phrase means, what the FDA keeps finding in products that use it, and what actually has evidence behind it.
The two guides
Neither is about selling anything. Both would be just as useful if you bought a different product afterwards.
How To Read A Supplement Claim
What a structure and function claim is, what the asterisk is actually for, where the disclaimer has to sit, and the line between a permitted claim and a disease claim no supplement may make.
Male Enhancement: What The Phrase Means
A category euphemism with no definition, the one thing the FDA keeps finding in it, and what actually has evidence behind it for the problems people are really trying to solve.
Why we publish guides that make our own product look worse
The first guide explains where the FDA disclaimer has to sit relative to a claim. Applied to the product this site sells, that rule raises a question about the front of the bottle, and the guide does not skip it.
We could leave that out. Publishing it costs us orders. But a guide that our own product happens to pass on every line is not a guide, it is an advertisement with numbered steps, and anybody who has read one recognises the other.
The second guide is harder still, because it is about the category this product is sold in, and the most important fact about that category is that it is the one the FDA most often finds adulterated. Writing that honestly means telling readers to be more careful in the aisle we sell in.
The useful thing about a subject guide is that it survives the page it was written on. If you read these and buy something else, or see a doctor instead, the guides worked. If you read them, weigh the trade, and decide this product is still what you want, that is an informed decision and it is worth more to us than an uninformed one.
Where to find each subject
So that you can go straight to the part you need rather than reading both guides end to end.
| If your question is | Go to |
|---|---|
| What is a structure and function claim? | Reading a claim, first section. What the law permits a supplement to say about itself. |
| What is the asterisk for? | Reading a claim. It links a claim to the FDA disclaimer, and the rule says where that disclaimer has to appear. |
| What can a supplement never say? | Reading a claim, the section on disease claims. This is the brightest line in supplement labelling. |
| How do I spot a weasel word? | Reading a claim, the six-word test at the end. |
| What does “male enhancement” mean? | The category explained. Nothing defined, which is the point of the phrase. |
| Why do these products get recalled? | The category explained, the section on what the FDA finds and why nitrates make it dangerous. |
| What actually works for these problems? | The category explained, the last section. Most of it is not sold in a bottle. |
| How does all this apply to this product? | The benefits page, which runs both methods against the label on the bottle. |
How these guides were researched
Every regulation quoted was read in the original text on the eCFR, not from a secondary summary. That matters more than it sounds, because summaries of the disclaimer rule routinely leave out the placement requirement, which is the part a reader can actually use while holding a bottle.
Every FDA statement quoted comes from the agency's own pages, and is quoted rather than paraphrased. Where the agency qualified its own list, the qualification is printed alongside the list rather than buried.
Every study cited was opened. Where a trial reported a limitation, the limitation is quoted rather than the headline finding. Where a monograph said the evidence does not support a use, that sentence appears rather than a softened version of it.
Nothing in either guide is generated from a template. The category guide is about the category on this bottle, because that is the guide a reader of this site needs.
About the product behind this blog
Horse Mood is a men’s capsule carrying one claim on the front and eight ingredients sharing one 1,200 mg Test Boost Proprietary Blend, with no individual amounts published. We print the arithmetic the label leaves out.
Order NowRead the label firstHow to use these two guides
The first guide is about a rule. It sets out the four kinds of sentence that can appear on a supplement bottle, what an asterisk actually links to, where 21 CFR 101.93 requires the disclaimer to sit, and the line between a permitted claim and a disease claim no supplement may make. Read it once and every label in a shop becomes legible in about ten seconds.
The second is about a category. It explains why the phrase male enhancement exists at all, what the FDA repeatedly finds inside products that use it, why nitrate medicines make that finding dangerous rather than merely dishonest, and what actually has evidence for the four different things the phrase is used to gesture at.
Neither is trying to move you toward a purchase. They are written so that someone who reads them and sees a doctor instead has had the better outcome, because an informed decision against us is worth more to us than an uninformed one for us.
Both were written by the same editorial desk that writes the product pages. There is no separate content team and no freelance byline. That is deliberate: the person explaining why a claim needs an asterisk is the person writing the page that sells a product whose claim does not have one.
What the guides cover between them
Ten subjects across two pieces, and every one applies to any bottle on any shelf.
What the asterisk links to
The statement that the FDA has not evaluated the claim and the product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. It is a requirement, not a hedge.
Where the disclaimer must sit
On each panel carrying a claim, adjacent to it or linked by a symbol, boxed when it is not adjacent, in boldface at a minimum size. This is the part summaries leave out.
The disease-claim line
The brightest line in supplement labelling. Supports healthy function is permitted; treats a named condition is not, and a product that says so is an unapproved drug.
Six words with no meaning
Advanced, maximum strength, clinical grade, doctor formulated, premium quality, proprietary complex. None has a definition for a dietary supplement.
Why the euphemism exists
A supplement selling to people with a condition it may not name has to gesture instead. That is a structural fact about the law, not a moral failing of one company.
What the FDA finds in this aisle
Undeclared sildenafil and its analogues, again and again, in products sold as all-natural. The agency's own qualifications about its list matter more than the list.
Why nitrates are the line
The interaction that makes a hidden vasodilator dangerous, in the population most likely to be buying here.
The category's eight ingredients
Tongkat ali, boron, saw palmetto, nettle root, horny goat weed, wild yam, sarsaparilla, orchic substance, honestly ranked.
What actually works
Translated for each of the four things the phrase covers. Most of the answers are medical and most of them are not sold in a bottle.
What these guides are not
They are not medical advice, and they are not a substitute for a conversation with somebody who can see your history, your bloodwork and your prescription list. Nothing on this site can do that and nothing on this site pretends to.
They are not a complete literature review either. We read the sources we cite, we cite the sources we read, and where a source reported its own weaknesses we quote those rather than the headline. That is a reasonable standard for a commercial website and it is not the same as a systematic review.
They are not an accusation against any company, including the one whose product this site sells. Where we print a rule beside a photograph, the reader draws the conclusion. We are careful about that distinction because it is the difference between a useful site and a cynical one.
And they are not a recommendation against the category. Two of its ingredients have real evidence, several more are ordinary and well tolerated, and plenty of people take products like this happily. The argument is about what a label should tell you before you decide.
If you only read one paragraph
Find the sentence on the front that promises something. Look for a small star at the end of it. Turn the bottle over and find where that star lands. If there is no star, and no disclaimer on the panel carrying the claim, you have noticed the thing worth noticing, and the rule that makes it worth noticing is printed in full in the first guide.