Testosterone is a famous steroid hormone of anabolic and androgenic importance. It defines a man's masculinity by increasing libido, facial and upper body hair, increased size of overall body muscle and sexual equipment. As puberty hits, testosterone transforms boys into men.
Of all androgenic hormones, testosterone maybe at the top of the list. 95% is created in the male's testes, the remainder is made in the adrenal glands. In women, most of it is made in the ovaries. It is synthesized from cholesterol, and involved in the intricate creation of proteins throughout the body, not just the muscles that get the most attention by athletes in the gym. By increasing muscle integrity, it burns more fat. It strengthens the sex drive in men and women.
Testosterone helps the human body use oxygen at a higher level, is the foundation of energy and stamina. It's importantly involved in brain function, concentration and memory. It helps relieve depression. Elevated levels of testosterone can make a man feel bulletproof. It is a heart protector, that controls negative factors that could impose on cardiovascular health such as high cholesterol. It strengthens the skeletal and immune system. It even plays a role with insulin to keep blood sugar normal.
Testosterone has amazing ways to support the body's fat metabolism. Lipoprotein lipase is an enzyme that activates fat cells to store more fat. Testosterone inhibits this action. Published in the Journal of Metabolic Disorders was testosterone's influence to increase important fat cell receptors that function to release lipids for energy.
Most testosterone that benefits health are bioavailable. It can be free and unbound, but most of it rides on a serum transport protein such as albumin or cortisol binding globulin. These binding proteins will carry most of the testosterone that will eventually latch onto the androgen receptor of many cell's within the body. However, the binding protein SHBG or sex hormone-binding globulin is the one that renders testosterone's anabolic effect useless. As men get older, more SHBG is circulating around to disarm testosterone levels to a lower ratio of availability. What to do about this is discussed later.
Then there's the enzyme aromatase. Much of it is in the skin, fat cells (especially around the midsection) and the scrotum, but when this enzyme makes contact with testosterone, it will convert it to estrogen. With every succeeding year, a man's body produces more of this enzyme. Structurally, testosterone is a precursor of estrogen, and it doesn't take much for aromatase to bring androgenic hormones to even lower levels by making that alteration. Unfortunately, the more this happens, this will also raise SHBG levels to compound the situation of less overall testosterone.
There is less muscle with a lower metabolism to fight the fat war the older one gets. As more fat accumulates around the body, the fat cells by themselves can make estrogen. Fat cells are making more estrogen while estrogen influences the body to get fatter. Estrogen can even signal to the brain to make less testosterone. This can lead to estrogen dominance that is more common in women than men, but symptoms of this in men are: Impotency; Man boobs; Prostate problems; Male pattern baldness; Diminishing sex drive; Noticeable increase in weight; Moodiness & feelings of depression.
Symptoms in Women: Memory problems/Fuzzy thinking; Bloating; Insomnia; Fatigue; Migraine headaches; PMS; Menstrual Cramps; Irregular/Absent periods; Unusually heavy/Long lasting periods; Depression; Weight gain.
There are effective methods to turn the tide of faltering testosterone levels, and this article will focus on what you can do with your lifestyle and nutrition to improve this condition.
Sleep: There are so many things that benefit a body with a good nights sleep, and one of them is optimizing testosterone production. Deprivation lowers it.
Stress Management: Too much stress, including poor sleep raises cortisol levels, and this hormone directly inhibits testosterone production. Create your own zone of relaxation in various ways, and make regular visits. (Relaxation techniques such as Tai Chi, yoga, stretching, deep breathing, message therapy, self-hypnosis, guided imagery, and meditation are examples.)
Alcohol Control: It may have been recently proven alcohol spikes testosterone in laboratory mice, but not necessarily in men. Alcohol activates the enzyme testosterone reductase in the liver where testosterone is broken down, and the more blood goes through this filtering organ, the more blood testosterone levels go down. While that's going on, alcohol also forces the body to use up enzymes meant to create new testosterone in the testes to breakdown the alcohol itself. If there is liver damage from alcohol abuse, this can raise estrogen and SHBG levels which lowers testosterone.
Exercise: Aerobics won't do it. Weight training or strength training, preferably with weights is the most effective testosterone producing type of exercise. (There are other types of intense resistance training without weights that produces similar results. Whatever is most convenient for you.) Do multi-joint exercises like squats, deadlifts, leg presses, and lunges. These leg exercises involve more muscle, are known for boosting that androgenic response. Other testosterone producing multi-joint exercises are bench presses, military or overhead presses, upright rows or bent-over rows with a barbell. The more weight you use, and the shorter the rest period, the greater hormone release.
Sex and Testosterone: Sex does give testosterone levels a temporary boost, but drops down after the climax. Just seeing a beautiful woman will increase male testosterone.
Supplements:
Stinging Nettle: this natural herb has the force to reverse the effect of SHBG (sex hormone-binding globulin) that has latched onto testosterone, making it ineffective. From this herb are compounds called lignans that bind onto SHBG and free up testosterone, restoring its androgenic power.
Stinging Nettle also inhibits 5-alpha reductase that is an enzyme that transforms testosterone into DHT or dihydrotestosterone. DHT has been known for causing baldness on top of the head, but it can also cause prostate problems. Nettle has shown promise as an alternative treatment for prostate enlargement. Don't buy Stinging Nettle that's been extracted with alcohol or ethanol. It's of lower quality. Use either aqueous (water) or methanolic extracts that have a much higher potency.
Zinc: Helps manufacture testosterone and reduces the creation of DHT (If you get zinc as supplement in capsule or tablet form, make sure it's of a molecular weight that you can absorb and benefit from it.) Zinc is in the following foods; seafood, kelp, oysters, sardines, meats, liver, lamb, poultry, dulse, egg yolks, soybeans, legumes, lima beans, whole grains, pecans, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, mushrooms, brewer's yeast and soy lecithin.
Vitamin C: Megadoes are known for boosting testosterone levels.
DHEA: the body creates testosterone and estrogen from dehydroepiandrosterone, and supplementation maybe necessary if DHEA levels drop too much, especially with age. Discuss this with your doctor.
Tribulus Terrestris: this supplement raises LH or leutenizing hormone which stimulates the testes to create more testosterone.
ZMA: Is the combination of zinc, magnesium aspartate and Vitamin b6 in a single capsule that promotes testosterone production.
Other Supplements: Saw palmetto, yohimbe, milk thistle, and maca (when I was lifting weights and taking stinging nettle with saw palmetto, it made me feel like superman).
Dietary Fat: In the Journal of Clinical Nutrition, studies showed increasing fat in the diet actually increased testosterone production, while low-fat diets lowered it. Keeping fat ratio intake around 30% is favorable, and the healthiest fats for maintaining testosterone and an efficient fat burning metabolism are omega-3 fatty acids from salmon, mackerel, herring and fish oil supplements. Flax seeds and walnuts also have omega-3s. Monounsaturated fat from olive oil, peanut oil, avocados and polyunsaturated fat from safflower, soy, and sunflower oil, along with nuts and seeds are the best choices for dietary fat
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