One of the physical markers for the entrance into manhood is when testosterone takes off. This hormone serves vertical growth, horizontal growth, hypertrophy, procreation, and an entirely new outlook on life as plastic army men suddenly become less interesting and the opposite sex much much more.
The downside is, as a gent, the longer you circle the sun the more in jeopardy your testosterone efficacy renders itself.
After 30 the average guy loses 2-3% free testosterone yearly [11].
A great deal of men suffer from testosterone deficiency and this number is growing year over year as the average male testosterone level continues to plummet [18], but you don’t have to accept this fate.
Carry on and find what testosterone is, why it’s important for Jacks and Jills, the difference between free and total testosterone, symptoms of low testosterone, why it drops, and how to boost it naturally. Let’s get it.
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What Is Testosterone
Testosterone is the male dominant sex hormone that early on, develops the penis and testes. Excreted by the endocrine system, which is responsible for manufacturing hormones, testosterone is synthesized from cholesterol, but regulated to not over produce by your central nervous system (CNS).
So going on a cholesterol binge won’t necessarily lead to you smashing beer cans on your forehead like the Texas Rattlesnake.
In puberty, testosterone is what causes all of the extra face and body hair to grow, leads to that annoying crackle of your voice as it deepens, and is part of why your strength and muscle mass increases with or without resistance training.
Most testosterone is made by the Leydig cells in the testes, but the adrenal glands chip in too. For ladies, adrenal glands and ovaries take care of production.
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I remember when all I had to do was show up and I was ready for action. It takes a little more to get the engine going these days.
The Importance Of Testosterone
Dear reader,
Whether you’re smack in the middle, beyond, or well-beyond your stages of puberty testosterone care should be on your radar.
This naturally occurring anabolic steroid has a range of direct and indirect responsibilities. From muscle growth, to muscle maintenance, metabolic rate, red blood cell production, libido, mood, bone density, and sperm production.
It’s the main hormonal component of hypertrophy [2]!!
But there’s more, testosterone increases growth hormone production, significantly assists in burning fat [3], and contributes to liveliness.
This is why men take testosterone, however there are natural alternatives that we’ll get into shortly.
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Why Women Should Care About Testosterone
Testosterone is more ample in males, but the ladies don’t produce it just for kicks and giggles. As one of the androgens, AKA male sex hormones, produced in ladies it helps with the function of ovaries, bone density, muscle growth and maintenance, normal libido function, and cognitive propensity.
Although less profuse, ladies should ensure their testosterone levels don’t nosedive either.
Testosterone for women should be in the 15 to 70 nanograms per deciliter (NG/DL) of blood range.
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The Difference Between Total Testosterone and Free Testosterone
Before continuing, I should draw the distinction between total testosterone and free testosterone.
Most testosterone binds to the proteins albumin and sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG).
When testosterone is bound to SHBG it’s generally not “free” to be used outside of the bind, but testosterone bound to albumin is relatively bioavailable.
So you may have high testosterone, but what has higher relevancy is free testosterone.
2-5% of total testosterone is free testosterone [8]. Lack of free testosterone is what leads to the unsavory symptoms listed in the upcoming section.
Note: if ever needed, a blood test is able to draw the distinction between free and total testosterone.
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Symptoms Of Low Testosterone
Hypogonadism, or testosterone deficiency, is when a woman’s ovaries or a man’s testes don’t operate at full capacity. This leads to a deficiency of the subject’s sex hormone.
Women experience a decrease in estrogen, men testosterone.
This is what happens when a man’s testosterone is low:
Lack of “umph”
Irritability
Fatigue
Unordinary weakness
Breast enlargement
Erectile dysfunction
Insomnia
Brain fog
Loss of motivation
Depression
Body and facial hair loss
Fertility issues
Muscle wasting
Note: testosterone levels can be measured via blood test.
Normal testosterone levels for guys and gals are:
Men: 300 to 1,200 nanograms per deciliter (NG/DL) of blood
Women: 15 to 70 nanograms per deciliter (NG/DL) of blood
Another note: a male with testosterone below the 300 NG/DL threshold should be diagnosed with testosterone deficiency.
Another another note: when a woman’s testosterone function is below the feasible range she’ll experience many of these male symptoms with the addition of: irregular menstrual cycles and vaginal dryness.
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What Causes Testosterone Levels To Decrease
Testosterone deficiency taps the shoulder of a growing number of men as our society becomes more sedentary. Gents 40 years ago had better testosterone function than today [20], mainly because they were extra active and spent extended periods outdoors.
What happens when testosterone levels decrease is the testes produce less while simultaneously receiving less signals from the pituitary gland to produce testosterone. In turn your abundance of free testosterone becomes not so abundant.
Many of the contributing factors to low T are:
High polyunsaturated to saturated fat ratio. Each fat plays a physiological role, but saturated fats are more prevalent in testosterone production. When you consume more polyunsaturated fats than saturated fats your testosterone will indeed dip [1].
Try consuming more grams of saturated fatty acids than polyunsaturated fatty acids on a regular basis.
Excess soy consumption. Soy is a phytoestrogen proven to lower free testosterone [9].
Try limiting or all out excluding soy from your diet.
Health issues. High blood pressure and diabetes are two health complications that complicate things in the T department.
Try consuming medium to low glycemic carbs most of the time, limiting sugar, and living an active lifestyle with full control of your calorie intake.
Obesity. Lugging around excess body fat has been proven to lower not only total testosterone, but free l testosterone as well [6].
Try dropping body fat by implementing a strategic weight loss strategy that leaves you satiated and set up for long-term success.
Chronic stress. When you don’t have beneficial ways to deal with stress you suffer from more than depression. Cortisol floods your system and testosterone falls like leaves in October [4].
Try implementing intentional stress management tactics to maintain testosterone health and quality of life.
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Lack of sleep. Skipping on a lengthy snooze session also raises cortisol levels, but not only that. During sleep your greatest growth hormone and testosterone spike occurs [10]. Miss that and testosterone falters, progressively when this is a regular practice.
Try getting your nightly sabbatical of 7-9 hours sleep with regularity. When you come up short, do your best to slide a power nap in.
Overtraining. Whether you’re a workout warrior or a part-timer you can experience overtraining syndrome if your ability to recover is outpaced by your physical exertion.
Try ensuring you include rest days with your training, as well as the methods I cover extensively in the overtraining syndrome article.
Aging. Testosterone production begins around 2 months after conception, peaks at around 240 months (or 20 years as some would say) on the blue marble, and after 30 sun rotations the decline begins. At this point men tend to experience a 1.6% yearly drop in total testosterone, 2-3% drop in free testosterone [11].
Try utilizing the natural methods of boosting testosterone regularly and you’ll slash this downward spiral.
Heavy alcohol consumption. You drink the booze. And the alcohol in the booze affects testosterone by acting on the Leydig cells located in the testes, where most testosterone production occurs [12].
Try drinking judiciously.. 1-2 times weekly max if you aren’t adept at limiting how much alcohol you throw in your chatter box on a particular night.
Low dietary fat intake. A low fat diet, under 50 grams daily for the average male, will take a chunk out of serum testosterone levels [13].
Try ensuring your total fat intake is up to par. More on that in the testosterone booster section.
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Phthalates in plastics. Phthalate exposure has been shown to have an inverse relationship with testosterone. It’s a testosterone blocking substance [14].
Try storing and heating your food in glassware rather than plastic containers.
Extended calorie deficit. A calorie deficit is when you consume less calories than you burn. It’s necessary to lose fat, but when you deprive your body of sufficient calories for extended periods testosterone suffers [5].
Try calorie and/or carb cycling when on a weight loss stretch to prevent the effects of low T.
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Natural Ways To Boost Testosterone
Don’t fret, here’s what you need to fill that testosterone glass if it were to ever empty and how to keep it full despite the oppositional advances of father time.
Diet, exercise, and health maintenance are what your to-dos will be centered around.
How to naturally boost testosterone levels:
Include these testosterone foods. With a few intentional nutritional inserts you can get this hormone jumping:
Cruciferous veggies like broccoli and cauliflower help raise testosterone by blocking excess estrogen production.
Garlic indirectly gives testosterone a boost by lowering cortisol levels [15]. And you only need about half a clove of garlic daily to reap benefits.
Red meat isn’t a red creature with horns. In fact it’s iron and zinc-rich, which bodes well for your aim.
Fish, especially fatty fish, like salmon are vitamin d infused. Vitamin d is key to testosterone production.
Whole eggs are team testosterone with their high amounts of cholesterol, vitamin d, omega 3s, vitamin k, and zinc. Don’t leave out the yolk, that’s where the goods are.
Oysters are another source of zinc, but not just any source; they provide more than 200% of your daily needs in just a 1 ounce serving. Also a source of dopamine, so it’s a feel good dish too.
Dark green leafy veggies like spinach and kale are sources of magnesium and you’re about to learn why that matters in 3,2,☝️..
Consume your vitamins and minerals.
Vitamin d is on top for testosterone regulating vitamins. You can get it through sun exposure, but the darker your pigment the less your body absorbs per minute. To be safe, get 600 IU, man or woman, in daily through diet and/or supplementation.
Zinc is lost through sweat, so if you’re like me and can create a puddle if the sun merely winks in your direction, you should ensure your diet provides enough zinc and/or supplement with zinc. 9 mg daily will do for women and 11 mg for men.
Magnesium directly and indirectly assists testosterone by helping convert vitamin d to the usable testosterone boosting hormone it’s supposed to be within the body. Another mineral lost through sweat, get in 410 mg daily for men and 360 mg for women.
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Weight training. Resistance training promotes growth hormone and testosterone release [16]. Particularly multi-joint exercises, IE bench press, squat, and deadlift. Heavy lifting in the strength range of 1-6 reps per set is best, but all resistance training elicits a positive hormonal response. Adding muscle is a signal for your body to consistently produce testosterone too.
High intensity cardio. Similar to weight lifting, high intensity interval training (HIIT) makes your anabolic hormones go wild [17].
Daily dietary fats. 20-30% of your diet should generally come from dietary fats. If you want to be more specific around 0.3 grams of fat per pound of fat free mass is the go. We talked about the results of doing too much with polyunsaturated fats, but contrarily monounsaturated and saturated fats are testosterone friendly.
Monounsaturated fats IE olive oil and avocado. Make these 40% plus of your total fat intake.
Saturated fats IE coconut oil and cheese. Although saturated fats get a bad name they are hormonally beneficial and energy dense. As long as your total calories are in check, saturated fats are okay to include. Around 33% of your total fat intake.
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Don’t starve. It’s true weight management is a large piece of the pie and if your weight is in the overweight or higher category you’ll need to cut calories to lose fat.
Still you are to ensure, even if on a weight loss diet, you have days you consume enough calories to promote healthy testosterone emission. Again.. if you’re always in a deficit, testosterone will drop.
So be mindful of your total calorie intake. To figure how many calories you need use a Katch-McArdle or St. Mifflin Jeor calculator.
Sexual activity. Bedroom activities tend to result in more activity in the testosterone division. So if you have a trustworthy partner and are safe.. you’ll get benefits along with the benefits.
Note: protein isn’t directly linked, yet indirectly upholds testosterone production since the impact of low protein boosts testosterone killing properties, IE catabolism. Maximize muscle protein synthesis by sticking to at least 0.7 grams of protein per pound of body weight per day. I personally recommend 1-1.8 grams per pound of body weight per day.
Another note: if you jumped to this section the previous section includes responses to issues that cause testosterone to drop.
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My Thoughts
Be wary of testosterone supplementation in a bottle. The number of “testosterone boosting” products span shelf to shelf at your local vitamin store. I’ll save the suspense; they don’t work. Your funds are better suited for vitamins and protein sources.
Be wary of testosterone supplementation via injection when not under a doctor’s care. Yes testosterone stacked with other anabolic steroids will work wonders in assisting your body building aims, but there are long-term ramifications.. ironically such as many of the ones listed when experiencing low testosterone.
Get it naturally or at least understand the risks.
When it comes to testosterone maintenance and/or reversing deficiency it’s less about obtaining astronomical testosterone levels and more about them not being low. The symptoms of low T are to be avoided at all costs.
Minus extreme anabolic steroid use, a testosterone boost isn’t going to kill it with the strength department alone, but having low testosterone will kill it for you.. the bad way.
Keeping your body fat in check, a balanced diet, sleep, and hitting the weights consistently is the basis of all things hormonal.
If your testosterone levels are chronically low, natural intervention seems to get you no where, and the doctor gets wind of it you have the option of testosterone replacement therapy. So there’s always hope.
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So, It’s About That Time
Keep that anabolic sex hormone alive. By changing a few of your life habits you’ll create a natural testosterone booster.
When it comes to testosterone it’s about keeping your super powers and if you lose them it’s about getting them back. Take this handoff and run with the many natural measures to retain healthy testosterone levels. You should trot away ready to cross into the endzone of a hormonally efficient existence. It’s all there you just have to do it. Put those muscles to use and Be Great.
Sources:
[1] pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/6538617/
[2] ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3999979
[3] ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12679426
[4] ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8884416
[5] ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20300017
[6] ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21678033
[8] pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26909800/
[9] pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11524239/
[10] ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4445839/
[11] ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2544367/
[12] ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6761906/
[13] pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15741266/
[15] pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11481410/
[16] pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2796409/
[17] ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5551442/
[18] urologytimes.com/view/testosterone-levels-show-steady-decrease-among-young-us-men
[19] mayocliniclabs.com/test-catalog/Clinical+and+Interpretive/83686
[20] reuters.com/article/health-testosterone-levels-dc-idUKKIM16976320061101