Testosterone: How to Keep Up the Level

Testosterone is a male sex hormone. Because of the very nature of the subject, this article refers to male health and everything discussed herein is treated from the male perspective and with focus on testosterone and how different factors affect the level of this hormone.

Introduction

Testosterone is a male sex hormone. It is important, not only for male sex drive and fertility, but for a number of other reasons as well. As men reaches the age of 35-40, the testosterone level often drops gradually. After a time that gives serious symptoms, including but not limited to sexual dysfunction, loss of bone density, loss of muscle to the advantage of fat, loss of energy, and a less efficient immune system. Low testosterone also increases the risk for heart disease and type II diabetes.

If you are a man over 40 and feel that you more easily than before are growing fat, or that your sex power is less than before, then you probably suffer this problem.

But this decline in testosterone is not inevitable. Neither is it irreversible. However, testosterone replacement therapy is not the way to go, in my opinion. Although nowadays it is relatively common, it also comes with certain risks. Adding to the body separate hormones, and especially sex hormones, causes biochemical chaos, since various hormones and other substances are intricately interdependent. That is, adding one hormone causes imbalance. What's really out of order is not only one hormone, it is a whole system – so the whole system must be toned.

Moreover, too much testosterone might be worse than too little, causing testicle shrinking and breast growth! This might happen if you take steroid hormones, that is doping, as a performance booster. It is also a risk with unskillfully managed testosterone replacement therapy. With natural ways to raise testosterone, there is no risk to get too much.

First we must ask why testosterone levels drops. Is it really age-related, or is it a form of degenerative disease?

We have a clue: although a very high percentage of males suffer from this problem sooner or later, it is far from all. If it could solely be attributed to ageing, it would affect all men. But it doesn't, so, in my opinion it is a form of degenerative disease, or rather a symptom of degenerative disease.

Then it doesn't come as a surprise that diet & nutrition strongly affect testosterone levels. So do, for instance, sleep, stress, exercise, and female sex hormones. Let's discuss various factors, one by one.

Sleep

Testosterone is formed during sleep. That's why, normally, men wake up with erection, and that's also why male sex drive is strongest in the morning. If you do not sleep properly, and that means at least 7 hours good, peaceful sleep every night, your testosterone production will be negatively affected.

Stress

Stress negatively affects the testosterone level. It increases the production of enzymes that break down testosterone. It also disturbs the balance between cortisol, another hormone, and testosterone, by increasing the production of cortisol at the cost of the production of testosterone. It is vital to learn stress management.

Alcohol

Alcohol increases cortisol and decreases testosterone and growth hormone for up to 24 hours, while it increases the level of female sex hormones in the male.

Exercise

It is a well-known fact that weight lifting increases the testosterone levels. Ideally, this should be done 3 times a week, at least 30 minutes each time. It should engage all the larger muscle groups, and you should use heavy weights. For this purpose, it is not meaningful to “pump” hundreds of times. If you can repeat a lift more than 10 times in a series without a pause, the weights are not heavy enough.

Other ways to train the larger muscle groups are fine, but it must involve a strain similar to lifting heavy weights.

Walking is always good exercising, also for the testosterone level. Not at least because walking raises HDL cholesterol - the good cholesterol, a building block in the testosterone synthesis. It also burns fat as energy. (More about fats and testosterone below.)

Very hard training, however, increases the level of cortisol and decreases testosterone, which can fall by up to 40%. (If your training raises the pulse more than moderately, it will not raise HDL cholesterol, and it will not use fat as energy until the body's stores of carbohydrates are depleted.)

Sun & Vitamin D

Vitamin D has proved to boost testosterone levels and if you have vitamin D deficiency, your testosterone levels are certainly low as well. I even suspect that many cases of low testosterone is directly caused by vitamin D deficiency, which is very common.

Except for in some mushrooms, such as shiitake, this vitamin exists only in animal products like fish, egg yolk, and dairy products. However, it is very little. You would have to eat fat fish, such as salmon or mackerel to every meal, every day, in order to get even close to what you need of D vitamin.

Under certain conditions D3, one form of the vitamin, can be produced by exposing the skin – and its fat – to sunlight. But note that it must be the genuine fat. If you use sun oil, you destroy the preconditions for D3 production. It is cholesterol that is synthesised to vitamin D. (Cholesterol is not always harmful but has its essential functions. Too little cholesterol might be as serious a problem as too much.) Sunscreens and windows also block vitamin D production, and so do heavy air pollution, as in big cities. Moreover, if you live far from the equator, the sunlight is too weak for vitamin D synthesis during a large part of the year.

Exposing the genitals to sunlight for 20 minutes has sometimes shown to more than double the testosterone level, which is a quite amazing result. But if you try this, and I would not recommend it, be careful so you are not damaging the testicles by too much UV-radiation. The skin in this area is thin, so radiation easily penetrates it to reach right into the testicles. After all, getting cancer is not a price you want to pay for getting your extra testosterone.

If you suffer from low testosterone, you should definitely consider to supplement with vitamin D. At the present level of knowledge, everything points at that the best form to take is D3 (cholecalciferol). How much you need is individual, but you can safely start with 1000 I.U. per day and increase to 2000 I.U. after some weeks.

(I will write more about vitamin D in a subsequent article.)

Female Sex Hormones

The effect of testosterone is not only dependent on how much testosterone the male produces, it is also connected to female sex hormones. A presence of extra female sex hormones in the male might strike on the testosterone in two ways. First, because it can actually give a signal to reduce the production of testosterone – second, because it conflicts with the function of testosterone in many ways, sometimes triggering opposite effects. Simplified, one can say that female hormones neutralise male hormones. Optimising the level and effect of testosterone must also include measures to minimise the exposure to female sex hormones.

To some extent glandular estrogen is produced by as well males as females, and the liver removes those which we are not meant to have. Without undue interference, this would probably function well. However, additional estrogens are added in a number of ways.

1. Obesity. (Fat tissue actually produces estrogens. The more body fat, the more estrogens.) Obese men more often suffer from low testosterone than those that are not overweight.

2. High levels of fat in the diet. Intestinal bacteria feeding on fat produce estrogens. However, we need some fat, but it must be the right fat.

3. Alcohol decreases the secretion of male hormones, such as testosterone, and increases levels of female hormones, such as estrogen and prolactin.

Estrogen-imitating substances, xenoextrogens, are generated in a number of ways. In the body they act as estrogens.

Read more about estrogens, xenoestrogens, and how the liver can change sex in my previous article, The Feminisation of Nature.

Diet & Nutrition

A bad diet can increase estrogen and decrease testosterone. We want to achieve the opposite, so what should we think of?

Hold back on refined sugar. Apart from many other bad effects, it also feeds estrogen-producing bacteria in the stomach.

You need 3 forms of fats. Omega 3, monosaturated fat, and certain forms of saturated fat. Indeed, a diet too low in fat causes a fall in the testosterone level. But it must be the right fats.

Omega-3 is found mainly in fish, linseeds and walnuts, or one can take it in capsules as a supplement.

For monosaturated fat, I'd recommend you to eat avocado, nuts and various seeds, or take olive oil. And by all means, don't forget to eat the nutritious seeds when you eat fruit.

Seeds are not only providing good fats, they are also rich in vitamin E and zinc.

As for saturated fat, the healthy sort is found in coconuts, or in fermented milk products. When you buy fermented milk, such as yoghurt or kefir, do not choose a low fat version! Use the full fat sort. You need this fat. Moreover, many nutrients in the fermented milk are fat soluble, and need sufficient fat for you to be able to absorb them.

Do never use soy milk or any other soy product! Soy strongly increases estrogen!

Eat eggs. They provide HDL cholesterol, a building block in the testosterone synthesis. Moreover, they contain vitamin D and zinc, two nutrients that are vital for testosterone.

Cabbage contains a phytochemical called IC3, or indole-3-carbinol. It lowers estrogen and raises testosterone. Eat some raw cabbage every day.

Finally, I would recommend supplementation with nicotinic acid, one of the different forms of vitamin B3. This vitamin acts normalising, or optimising on the hormonal balance. Apart from that, the supplements directly affecting the testosterone level are mainly vitamin D and Zinc, possibly also vitamin E and supplemental Omega 3.

Lignans: Linseeds & Sesame

Linseeds are the best vegetarian source of Omega-3 fatty acids, and they contain valuable fibre. In addition to that, they contain lignans, which are phyto-estrogens, chemically similar to estrogen (but without most of its harmful effects), the female sex hormone that causes so much trouble. In some chemical processes of the body they outcompetes estrogens and some harmful estrogen-imitating substances, which are thereby made less powerful. They occupy the estrogen receptors of the cells, so harmful estrogens cannot reach them. This is a very valuable effect, since estrogens and estrogen-imitating substances are involved in the development of many degenerative conditions, such as cancer and cardiovascular disease.

Linseeds are the richest source of lignans that is known, they contain more than 100 times the amounts of other foodstuffs.

Sesame seeds is the second richest source of lignans that is known, but sesame seeds are valuable food in many other ways as well. They contain eight essential amino acids, essential fatty acids, vitamin E, several B-vitamins, and many minerals.

Chewing a handful of linseeds and sesame seeds every day is a good habit and will help to keep down the bad effect of unavoidable estrogens. But chew them well. Unchewed seeds will just pass undigested right through you.

Always get whole seeds, store them as whole seeds and crush them by chewing when you eat them. Never store crushed seeds. Immediately they are crushed oxidation will start and the fats rapidly become rancid. Linseeds are especially sensitive in this respect.

(This article is based on material previously published in Meriondho Leo.)

Related articles:

The Feminisation of Nature (about estrogens and their effects)

Cyanophobia (about linseeds)

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