Three sets of ways to boost your testosterone…. 

Today's Post:  Thursday, 3-12-2015

This blog is in three parts.

1.  The first one is an article that came to me in an email. 

[As I often do, I comment at key points with my comments set off with these kind of brackets.  >>> ]

I put his article first because it explains:

why more people today need to boost their testosterone;

and what they lack or suffer with if they don’t;

AND what benefits they gain if they do.

This first set of things also uses no supplements or drugs to work!

And, it’s unusually well done.  I leave in the credits so you can look up the article’s author and his other work!  If you like it, by all means do so!

2. The second one is two ways to avoid two common pitfalls that can cut your testosterone in half.  So you can almost double your testosterone by removing those two things that lower it otherwise!

3.  The third part has the set of inexpensive supplements that boost testosterone and have other health benefits -- plus the somewhat more expensive two supplements that are mostly testosterone boosters that work.

1.  Part one is an article that came to me in an email.  [As I often do, I comment at key points with my comments set off with these kind of brackets.  >>> ]

I put it first because it explains: why more people today need to boost their testosterone;

and what they lack or suffer with if they don’t;

AND what benefits they gain if they do.

This first set of things also uses no supplements or drugs to work!

And, it’s unusually well done.  I leave in the credits so you can look up the article’s author and his other work!  If you like it, by all means do so!

Here it is:

http://blog.paleohacks.com/4-dietary-pitfalls-that-lower-your-testosterone-levels/

4 Dietary Pitfalls That Lower Your Testosterone Levels -

See more at: http://blog.paleohacks.com/4-dietary-pitfalls-that-lower-your-testosterone-levels/#sthash.iIaRcuX7.dpuf

While it’s normal for testosterone levels to decrease as you age, the rate of decline seems to be at an all-time high. Today, men’s testosterone levels are 25% lower than two decades ago. This doesn’t just affect your libido or ability to build muscle.

The latest research shows that low testosterone levels may leave you more susceptible to chronic conditions like diabetes, cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis and depression.

[In addition, higher testosterone levels do NOT cause cancer!

AND lowering testosterone in cancers that grow faster with higher levels of testosterone has recently been shown to be dramatically inferior to effective prevention and treatments that avoid the harmful side effects of low testosterone on exactly that list of diseases Dr Mark just listed!]

How do you know if you have low testosterone? A blood test for bioavailable and free testosterone will tell you exactly where you stand,

but the most common symptoms seen in clinical practice are:

low sex drive, fatigue or poor energy, increased body-fat, decreased muscle mass, low mood and irritability. 

[People, both men and women, who have enough testosterone do have more energy, feel better, are less irritable, and have more libido and more enjoyment!]

Turn on the TV during the next big football game and you’ll see commercials for the latest gels and creams as a quick fix for low testosterone. While these may address symptoms in the short-term, they won’t address the root cause of your low testosterone.

How can you restore you energy, mood, lean muscle, and libido? The answer is not in a bottle…it’s on your plate!

Here are the top 4 nutrition pitfalls that can strongly contribute to low testosterone:

1. You Don’t Eat Enough Saturated Fats

Over the past three decades doctors and dietitians have told you to AVOID saturated fats like the plague. In particular, saturated fats from animal sources were vilified as disease causing 

and harmful for your health. Interestingly, this span of time coincides with a significant decline in testosterone levels in men…and it is no coincidence! 

[Animal fat sources of saturated fat ONLY cause harm if they come from animals fed grains that are GMO and/or sprayed with pesticides and herbicides.  And the harm then does NOT come from the saturated fat!  The harm then comes from the pesticides and herbicides bioconcentrated in the fat AND the very high levels of pro-inflammatory omega 6 oils in the fat from the grain feeding.

Dr Mark IS right that “grass-fed” is best because animal-sourced saturated fats that come from animals fed with unpolluted pasture or grass or organic spouts do NOT have these harmful effects.]

Cholesterol is the building block for all your hormones, including sex hormones like testosterone. Studies show athletes training intensely and following low-fat diets suffer from lower testosterone levels, whereas athletes following high-fat diets – in particular saturated fats – are able to mitigate exercise-induced reductions in testosterone.1

Adopting a Paleo diet is a great way to optimize your intake of healthy saturated fats. Include one to four tablespoons of butter (grass-fed is best), ghee (clarified butter), coconut oil or red palm oil daily with your meals. Remember, saturated fats have a high smoking point making them a great choice for pan-frying or stir-frying. Or, simply add them to your veggies before you eat!  [Whole Foods carries organic coconut oil.] [Eating butter cold or only gently warmed or melted is also better for you than heating it until you get harmful AGE’s in it.]

2. You Sabotage Deep Sleep With Late Night Snacks

Simple sugars trigger the release of serotonin, your happy neurotransmitter, providing you with some relief and comfort after a busy day. Unfortunately, an evening bowl of ice cream or chocolate dessert raises your blood sugar hormone insulin and interrupts your sleep hormones.

[Small snacks of mashed avocado and nonstarchy green vegetables or raw nuts if you aren’t allergic can stop real hunger with virtually no sugar if you have real hunger later at night. Also you can eat more of them with your dinner.  Then you may then have to eat them later less often.]

High evening insulin delays melatonin production (your sleep hormone) and ultimately affects your testosterone and growth hormone production overnight. Growth hormone, the “fountain of youth” hormone, teams up with testosterone during deep sleep to build lean muscle and support deep, rejuvenating sleep.

Don’t sabotage your testosterone-building sleep. Replace sugary snacks in the evening with

frozen grapes or berries, or enjoy a cup of herbal tea (mint, chamomile, rooibos) to help relax your nervous system. Be sure to aim for at least 7 hours of sleep per night. [Decaf coffee with grass fed or organic half and half also works.]

3. You Eat Too Many Carbs (And Simple Sugars)

If you are overweight or out of shape you likely have poor insulin sensitivity. This means that your body does not process carbohydrates very efficiently, resulting in consistently elevated insulin levels in your bloodstream.

Chronically high insulin leads to the over-production of a hormone called androstenedione, which competes with testosterone in the body, resulting in low testosterone. Androstenedione is also five times weaker than testosterone, meaning you are getting far less bang for your buck.

Therefore, if you are overweight the best way to boost testosterone levels will be to improve 

your insulin sensitivity by losing weight. This is a very common scenario that suppresses testosterone production. Simply adopt a high protein, high fat, low carb (less than 100 g per day) Paleo diet and your testosterone levels will be back on the rise in no time (your libido too!). (Note–If you are already very lean, these rules don’t apply. A very low carb diet for too long can excessively elevate stress hormones and suppress testosterone.)

[For fat loss and health, also eat or drink as a Vitamix drink six to 10 servings of organic vegetables a day and one or two organic servings of whole fruit. 

And, for a bit more carbs for those already lean and/or after your heavy workouts, use beans and lentils and nuts if you aren’t allergic or high carotene organic vegetables like yams and sweet potatoes and carrots and squashes and some pumpkin puree with nothing else added.  Even properly cooked quinoa in moderation can help.

In addition, with these sources of carbs you can often eat more than 100 grams of carbs a day and still get the full low carb effect!]

4. You Drink Too Much Alcohol 

Did you know that the medical definition of a binge drinking session is only five units of alcohol for a male and four for a female? A recent study found the average number of drinks on a night out is between 8-9 drinks per person. This is almost twice the amount of the medical definition of a binge (perhaps a “double binge” is the appropriate term!).

Typically, the higher your alcohol intake, the greater your weight gain around the abdomen. Unfortunately for men, the more fat you store around your belly, the greater the activity of an enzyme called aromatase, which converts your precious muscle building testosterone to estrogen.

A simple way to restore testosterone levels is to cut out alcohol completely for 1-4 weeks. If your schedule and client outings won’t allow complete abstinence, try cutting your intake by 50% and not consuming more than 2-3 drinks in a single day.

[Another way to drink with far less of this effect is to take two non-consecutive days a week where you drink no alcohol and limit yourself to one or one and a half or two drinks a day the other five days that week.]

Beer is the worst offender as it is mildly estrogenic, offers up an excess of calories, and contributes to the classic ‘beer belly’. [Dark beer is the best for you.  And no matter what kind, aim for one a week or less.]

Opt for red wine (high in aromatase inhibiting resveratrol) or spirits–neat, on the rocks, or mixed with soda water. [Red wine has the most heart protective other nutrients AND the resveratrol plus the related phytonutrients in red wine almost cancel out the cancer causing effects of the alcohol!]

Finally, if you follow a bodybuilding style workout–training different body parts multiple days of the week–then you may want to tweak your program to boost low testosterone.

The research is clear that compound movements such as squats, deadlifts, and Olympic lifts (cleans, snatches, jerks) are hands down the best way to naturally boost your testosterone levels. Simply combine lower body and upper body exercises into the same training day and you’ll maximize your hormone-building potential. [The power lifts of squats to parallel and back up and deadlifts allow you to use the most weight and use the most muscle and work best for this purpose.  Leg presses and heavy clean and jerks Olympic style are nearly as effective.

So are split squats and slow rep lunges holding heavy dumbbells in each hand.]

[Doing super slow rep strength training with one set of an exercise for each of the key areas of the body using weights you can do 10 to 20 reps with and keep doing more each time until you can do over 25 and then increasing the weight also works!  The clients of The Perfect Workout coached program do this workout twice a week with two recovery days in between.]

If you are training three days per week perform deadlifts on day one, Olympic lifts on day two, and squats on day three. Add in compound upper body movements like bench press, push press, chin-ups, pull-ups, inverted rows and dips and you’ll increase your testosterone and lean muscle in no time.

Be sure to include whey protein isolate (40 g for men, 30 g for women) after each training session to accelerate recovery and promote muscle protein synthesis. If you can digest dairy, full-fat milk 

(750 ml-1L) is an excellent post-workout choice.

[While eggs have more complete protein, whey has the protein that matches the amino acid balance of your muscles almost exactly and so whey has been shown to be the most effective muscle building protein!  Jarrow sells an unflavored whey and a grass fed whey.]

There you have it, correct these four common dietary pitfalls, modify your workout regime, and your testosterone levels will be back on the rise.

Symptoms of low libido, fatigue, weight gain and low mood will soon subside without the need for costly creams and gels!

Give your body the right nutritional building blocks to maintain a healthy testosterone balance.

References

Volek J et al. Testosterone and cortisol in relationship to dietary nutrients and resistance exercise.

Ho CH et al. The Prevalence and the Risk Factors of Testosterone Deficiency in Newly Diagnosed and Previously Known Type 2 Diabetic Men. J Sex Med. 2014 Dec 2.

Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. CDC, 2012;61. Vital Signs: Binge Drinking Prevalence, Frequency, and Intensity Among Adults — United States, 2010.

Hickson RC et al. Successive time courses of strength development and steroid hormone

responses to heavy-resistance training. J Appl Physiol 1994;76:663-670.

Dr. Marc Bubbs

Dr. Marc Bubbs, ND is a Naturopathic Doctor, Strength Coach, Author, Speaker, and Blogger practicing in Toronto, Canada.

He believes that diet, exercise, and lifestyle factors have the most profound impact on your overall health and performance.      [The research shows he is correct.]

Marc is the author of

 The Paleo Project – A 21st Guide to Looking Leaner, Getting Stronger, & Living Longer

and currently serves as the Sports Nutrition Lead for Canadian Men’s Olympic Basketball Team.

2. Part two is ways to avoid two common pitfalls that can cut your testosterone in half. 

So you can almost double your testosterone by removing those two things that lower your testosterone otherwise!

a)  Radiation from cell phones that are turned on and worn near where your body produces testosterone are PROVEN to cut your testosterone levels by 20 to 40%.

[That effect plus a diet high in sugars and GMO grains and fewer people who exercise are behind the lower testosterone levels in people today.]

So, leave your cell phone off unless you are calling out or have reason to expect a call.

Or, wear it on the outside part of your body in a belt mounted holster or pouch.

Or, if you are up for the risk of losing it, putting your cell or smart phone in your purse or brief case also works.

b)  Your body makes more testosterone if you avoid too much heat to the area that makes it! 

This can increase or slash how much testosterone you have.

Men make more testosterone by wearing boxer underwear than men who wear briefs.

It also helps to sleep without sweatpants or a pajama bottom on warmer nights.

Lastly, if in winter you let your room drop to 60 degrees and use a warm hat, socks, and blankets instead of using more heat  --

--  that saves money AND increases your testosterone!

And, if you heat-proof &/or air condition your house so that your bedroom at least stays below about 73 degrees in summer, that can also help. 

(Oddly, it may even save money to cool your bedroom to 68 degrees in summer because if your house is well insulated with double pane windows, your air conditioning is more efficient and the electricity also costs less then than the same amount of cooling does in the late afternoon!

Lowering your bedroom to 68 degrees at night is even better for testosterone creation if you can do it.)

3.  Part three has the set of inexpensive supplements that boost testosterone and have other health benefits -- plus the somewhat more expensive two supplements that are mostly testosterone boosters that work.

a)  The inexpensive supplements that boost testosterone and have other health benefits:

Taking 3,000 to 5,000 iu a day of vitamin D3 or even 10,000 is dramatically health protective in something like over a dozen different ways!  (Much less than 3,000 iu a day and the health benefits disappear. It isn’t until at least 1700 iu a day that they begin to show up reliably.)

It’s quite inexpensive to do. People who do are less likely to die of infections or get chronic diseases. This may even include protection from mental decline  People who do are less likely to get or keep autoimmune diseases. They get over colds and flu faster if they get them at all. AND they are far less likely to get any kind of cancer. Lastly, if they take this much D3 and get enough vitamin K2 and weight bearing exercise they will have and keep MUCH stronger bones.  D3 does a wonderful double!  It both massively boosts your immune system AND helps it ONLY attack things it should attack.

(This level of D3 is what people once got every summer from sunlight conversion and is totally safe.  Synthetic D2 may not be safe in amounts that high; but naturally sourced D3 is the safe and protective one.)

A very nice extra I recently found out, is that people who get this much D3 also boost their testosterone levels!!

b) Zinc from oysters or lots of wild caught seafood or nuts if you aren’t allergic or supplements in the 15 mg to 50 mg a day range also boost your immune system and increase your testosterone and may even be cancer protective from the immune system boost.

Note that over 50 mg a day can boost your immune system if you do it once and then take less.  But if you take more than 50 mg of zinc every day, the effect reverses and LOWERS your immune system.  Zinc supplements are also inexpensive.

c) Fenugreek as a spice and supplement has two effects besides its distinctive aroma.  It prevents or helps prevent blood sugar spikes AND it boosts your testosterone!

Fenugreek may have interaction effects in people taking drugs to lower blood sugar or who have gotten too low blood sugar from their drugs.  But for everyone else it’s quite safe.

And, like D3 and chelated zinc or zinc citrate, fenugreek supplements are quite inexpensive.

b)  The somewhat more expensive two supplements that are mostly testosterone boosters which do work: 

*Tribulus  (NOW sells it and you take two capsule at bedtime.  It’s not as cheap as the first ones; but Tribulus isn’t pricey either. Besides men, it has increased libido in some women too.)

**Tongkat Ali (This one apparently works by preventing conversion of testosterone to other things and results in more “free” or actually usable testosterone in your blood; and is best used by men as I understand it.)

( Solaray sells Tongkat Ali by itself and their version is not as cheap as the first set; but also is relatively inexpensive.)

***

(There is also a third one, DHEA, that has tested to increase libido in older women which may increase testosterone --  and may have anabolic effects to help with muscle growth in men also.)

In conclusion, if you do all or most of these things, you can increase your testosterone or ensure it stays high.

That gives you more ability to build muscle and keep off unwanted extra fat.

It makes you feel better and have more energy on most days.

And, it boosts your libido and increases enjoyment.

Lastly, if you do it right, it is safe to do and far safer than its earlier reputation according to recent research.