Hi, today's question comes from a young man in his early thirties who wants to know something super important.
How can I boost my testosterone naturally?
Now we know the more testosterone you have, the better your sex drive and libido, but it is important on so many other levels: Increased muscle mass, increased bone density, decreased body fat, it's good for your heart, good for muscle repair and so much more.
When you have low testosterone, it really impacts your health on a daily basis. Even your mood and your ability to concentrate gets affected if your testosterone levels aren't at an optimal level.
So, how can you boost testosterone naturally?I have 11 things that you can start implementing naturally to start boosting your testosterone production immediately.
Now, he also asked about Nugenix. He said he has been taking it for about a year and wants to know if it is a good formula to help his testosterone production. Here's the thing, I do not like Nugenix. It does have zinc, but it only has one milligram, so it really doesn't do the job, you need more than that.
It's also based on a product called fenugreek. Fenugreek is a great herb, I've recommended it to my patients for years, and it's really great for women who just gave birth and need to increase their milk production. It's also great for people who have blood sugar issues.
So if you're a type two diabetic, fenugreek is a really great herb for you. But if you’re not a type two diabetic or a new mother, I don't recommend fenugreek at all.
So here are the 11 things that I recommend to naturally boost testosterone. Number one is zinc like I said before. Nugenix does have zinc, but it's only one milligram. You need at least 15 milligrams, and make sure the chelate, which is what the zinc is bound to, is a good bioavailable form.
The number one form that I like is zinc orotate. It’s easily utilized by the body, and it gets the zinc to the tissues where they need it most. If you take 15 milligrams a day, that's a great way to naturally boost testosterone.
Number two, vitamin D is critical for testosterone production. It's basically an epidemic, how many people are low in vitamin D levels. Make sure you get somewhere between 1,000 and 5,000 IUs of vitamin D a day.
If you have the opportunity to get a blood test to evaluate where your levels are, that's amazing, but if you don't, start at 1,000 IUs. If you live in the Northeast where it's wintertime now, and the sun's going down early and you're not getting the opportunity to be in the sunlight as much, definitely get up to about 5,000 IUs a day.
Number three, you need fat to make testosterone. If you're on a ketogenic diet, I'm sure you're getting plenty of fat, but you need good fats to make testosterone. So, get your omega-three fats from fish like wild-caught salmon, or a good fish oil that's been molecularly distilled so there's no PCBs or mercury in there. You could do walnuts and ground flax seed as well.
Make sure you're getting your mono-saturated fats, as in olive oil and avocados, and make sure you're getting good saturated fats like coconut oil.
Number four, you definitely also need branched-chain amino acids. These are best taken post-workout, but the branched-chain aminos like leucine, isoleucine, and valine, are three amino acids that really help increase testosterone production, especially when you're exercising.
This brings me to number five. Exercise boosts testosterone, but here's the conundrum.
Your energy's low when you have low T, you're not feeling great and so you don't want to go to the gym. But if you can get up and get to that gym, three days a week, 30 to 60 minutes, and do some resistance training, that has been shown to actually boost testosterone production. And as you start feeling a little bit more energy and feeling stronger, you can work your way up to maybe five days a week at the gym and really start helping your body feel at its best.
Alright, number six, one of the things that help boost testosterone that people don't think about is making sure that you decrease DHT. As we get older, testosterone gets converted into something called dihydroxytestosterone. Dihydroxytestosterone has a negative impact on your prostate gland and your hair follicles. So you wanna make sure that the DHT goes down.
Testosterone gets converted to DHT by an enzyme called 5-alpha reductase. So anything that decreases 5-alpha reductase can help keep testosterone levels at an optimal level and reduce bad DHT.
The two things that I love for that are DIM, (di-indole methane) and saw palmetto. Those two herbs are great at keeping the DHT down and the testosterone up. Now DIM comes from cruciferous vegetables like kale, broccoli and cabbage. Make sure to either steam or cook them, because they're goitrogens, and can have a negative impact on your thyroid if you're eating them raw.
Alright, number seven, I love sleep. Sleep is one of the number one ways to help boost testosterone because if you're not getting good night's sleep, you're not allowing your body to repair and you're not allowing your endocrine system to function at its best, so your testosterone levels are gonna take a hit.
I actually formed a cortisol-lowering adrenal support formula to help people get a great night's sleep called Relax. It’s been really working wonders for a lot of athletes out there.
But there's other things to help you get a great night's sleep like shutting off your computer, your laptop and your cell phone at least a couple hours before bed. That shuts down what's called blue light.
Blue light totally causes problems with your sleep, because it inhibits natural melatonin production. Make sure you're not having any coffee after 12 o'clock in the afternoon, or any caffeine because that can impact your sleep.
The next thing is stress, stress is a major testosterone killer. The stress hormone cortisol totally shuts down data production, and that has a real negative impact on testosterone production. As I mentioned before, my Relax formula's great, because I have two really wonderful herbs, magnolia and holy basil, that drive that cortisol down.
But I also recommend meditation, and you can do deep breathing to help stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system which allows your body to start making testosterone at its optimal levels.
The next thing that I recommend is intermittent fasting. Now, intermittent fasting is not for everybody, but it has been shown to dramatically improve testosterone production.
The way you do it is, if you stop eating around 7-8 o'clock at night, wait about 12 to 16 hours to eat again. You can have a green veggie smoothie in the morning and just not a big meal.
If you eat at seven o'clock, wait until maybe 11 o'clock the next day, and then you're in the clear. Intermittent fasting has been shown to dramatically boost testosterone production if combined with exercise.
The next thing I recommend is supporting the adrenal glands. Because the adrenal glands are critical at helping make testosterone production. Adrenal glands make DHEA, and then DHEA is a big factor in making testosterone.
So here's some, a couple things that I love for adrenal health. I love ginseng and I love ashwagandha. Ginseng and ashwagandha are wonderful at boosting adrenal health, and the healthier your adrenal glands are, the better your testosterone production.
Finally, number 11 is liver health. The liver's great at breaking down toxins. It's also very important in how our hormones and endocrine system functions. So a couple things for liver health are dandelion and milk thistle.
That’s 11 things for you to help naturally boost your testosterone. All have been proven to actually increase testosterone production, and they're really easily applicable to daily life.
So put those things together and don't worry about Nugenix, and you will start producing a healthier testosterone level. I hope this answers your question.
Obviously, if you have more questions, feel free to give me a shout out, and I hope you have an amazing day!