Looking into efficacy of astragalus root in increasing telomere length

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cycloastragenol

I did decide to buy TA-65, which is a nutritional supplement that contains an active ingredient called cycloastragenol, which is an extract of the astragalus root.  It originally sold for $25,000 for a one year supply, depending on the dose, which varies with age.  The price is down now to around $600 a month.  

That's still pretty steep.  So is it worth it?  I took two 250 "unit" capsules a day for a few days.  I was very pleased with my results.  I fell asleep at a reasonable time, 10:00pm, which surprised me because I am a night owl.  I slept well, which is not something I always do.  The next morning, about two hours after taking my second dose, I noticed my vision was super sharp.  Nice.  I also felt less of the ups and downs of blood sugar during the day.  So, I am sure I'd like to continue taking it, but I'm not sure this is the only way to go.  Is there a cheaper substitute?  

Why the big prices anyway?  Cycloastragenol could probably be taken by just taking astragalus root, which is an inexpensive Chinese herb.  However, isolating the cycloastragenol extract in the amount one would need for the telomere lengthening effect would take 1000 lb. of astragalus a year, over 2 lb. a day.  

How much cycloastragenol should one take?  The original dose was 100 mg a day.  Now it's 5 mg.  It's called units, so I'm not sure how much a unit is.  I understand that the recommended dose has gone down.  

There are other extracts in astragalus that cause the lengthening of telomeres, such as astragaloside, but this extract is about a tenth as effective as cycloastragenol.  

I'll go ahead and tell you my astragalus root story.  I also bought a bottle of astragalus root, not extract, just the powdered root.  I took five of them, and broke out in hives.  Well.  Hmmm....

So, having determined that cycloastragenol is the active ingredient in TA-65, and that this is what I'm interested in going with, I started to find other similar supplements for a lot less money.  One of them is $150, but I didn't see that it had any astragalus at all.  It had something called ashwagandha extract, which also seems to be a fine ingredient, except I'm not at all sure it lengthens telomeres.  TA-65 at least has been studied and shown to have numerous benefits, among them increasing telomerase levels, which is the enzyme that stimulates telomere lengthening.  

So then, which other purveyors of the cycloastragalus are there?  What are their prices?  1) LUXIVI  98% cycloastragalus $40 to $130 depending on the dose and quantity, between 5 mg and 8 mg.  2) CrackAging "Super Absorbtion" cycloastragalus, $40 to $115 also depending on dose and quantity.  Both of these were found by searching Amazon.  

And there were others.  There is one that some swear by called Astragalus IV.  This is astragaloside extract, which I have mentally put on a back burner.  This is also sold by CrackAging, among others, for $80, as an additional supplement to take with their cycloastragalus.   So, about $115 plus $80 would be $195.  OK, less than $600, but I'd say one would still have to be motivated to spend that much.  

But some are.  Some have said that they have lung problems and their oxygen goes up to 96-98% when they take the supplements and goes down to 88% without it.  If that's really true and it were me, yes, I'd pay.  And some were convinced that their creatinine levels and kidney function improved phenomenally.  Definitely put that in my cart.  

So that's all I know about this subject so far.  I'll use up my TA-65 and then I suppose I'll try another brand and maybe buy a made in America astragalus root and see if I can take that without getting hives.