For a man in the modern age, testosterone levels can be a difficult thing to keep track of if you’re not in the know. I imagine most people who read this article are men in their 30’s who work non-physical jobs finding that their mood regulation, overall energy levels and perhaps even something as personal as sexual performance just isn’t quite what it used to be. This is actually a fairly commonplace position as men beyond the age of 25 start slowing down their testosterone production, so don’t be too worried, it’s likely that you just don’t naturally produce testosterone in the ways you used to. There’s a myriad of ways you can tackle this and in this article we’re going to be focusing on the ways you can increase testosterone naturally and get back into your groove. Focusing on the things that actually work, and warding you away from the testosterone booster lies that we’ve all seen far too many times.
Diet and Vitamin Supplementation To Boost Testosterone Naturally
There are a number of deficiencies linked with a lowered testosterone production, so it’s important to take a look at your diet to see if there’s any sort of nutrient missing. Zinc deficiency is tied to low testosterone levels, and zinc is found in many readily available foods such as poultry and red meat. If you’re a vegetarian, it’s found in lower quantities in foods such as beans and whole grains, so it may be worth seeking some form of zinc supplementation. Another large contributor to reduced testosterone production would be a magnesium deficiency. Magnesium and testosterone levels have been linked in various studies, with a deficiency typically leading to low testosterone levels.
Magnesium rich foods are leafy greens, nuts, beans and whole grains, so if you don’t typically include these in your diet then it’s similarly recommended to seek some form of magnesium supplementation if you’re looking for an easy way to boost test levels.
There’s a whole branch of supplements called testosterone boosters designed exactly for this, and a study of herbs that some of you may have heard of that can have an effect to and we’ll come onto those a little later. If however you’re more interested in just making sure that you’ve covered your essential vitamins a good idea is to get a good greens powder to cover all bases, this is generally far more effective than a multivitamin, and it’s really hard to go wrong with those.
Vitamin D Supplementation Or Go OUTSIDE!
Picture this: You wake up, get in your car and go sit in an office for 8 hours. After this you head home, put your feet up and enjoy whatever media helps distract you from the tedium of having to do the same things tomorrow. How well does this reflect your daily typical activities? Now ask yourself, how much sun is really getting on your skin? This is where our modern societal norms contradict the environments our bodies were evolved for, as the sun is a vital source of Vitamin D, an essential nutrient for our bodies that unfortunately a whopping 70% of the population are deficient in. Now I understand it can be a bit of a stretch for most of us to fit long daily walks in the sun into our already hectic routines but it’s very likely having such low vitamin D levels will be having a negative affect on your natural ability to produce testosterone, and as we’ll get into more details on later, the extra exercise will likely be doing a lot of good for your testosterone levels as well. Double whammy!
Though it’s not exactly as ‘natural’ a boost to testosterone as we’re aiming for, we’d be remiss if not to mention the use of Vitamin D supplementation. Readily available and easy to integrate into every lifestyle, in a pinch these will do the job just fine, and depending which state you’re reading this from (or even just the time of year), could actually be a necessity to combat the lower amount of sun time available.
Exercise
Daily exercise is one of those things most of us know we should do and just… don’t. As understandable as it might be that after tiring yourself out at work you’d want to relax, unless your job is quite physical you’re going to need to consciously implement some kind of exercise. Now, any type of exercise will do you a world of good, especially if you can get out on a good long walk like we discussed in the previous paragraph, but the best exercise linked to increasing testosterone however is of course lifting weights. There’s been a number of studies that show a peak of testosterone levels after a good work out, and if your lifestyle is quite sedentary, just having a 20-30 minute workout a day will help pull your testosterone levels from the floor. No matter your circumstance, there will be ways to implement some form of exercise into your routine, even if it’s just ten to twenty minutes whenever you can spare the time. The endorphins and hormones released during and afterwards will do wonders for your mood regulation and will help to regulate your testosterone levels. You don’t need to worry about high intensity interval training that some people would suggest, most hormone and metabolic research says it doesn’t make any difference except for the brief window in which you’re training it won’t boost testosterone levels for the long term. It’s also important to lose weight if you’re carrying a few extra pounds, being in a healthy body fat range will increase testosterone. Plus everybody wants more lean muscle mass. The downside is of course, that if you have low testosterone you’re likely to experience weight gain, which can make the process of raising t levels and exercising more difficult. If you’re new to training you can find a great beginners guide to weight training here.
Testosterone Boosting Supplements
Testosterone supplements are a mixed bag, there are some really high quality testosterone bossters on the market, and others that don’t contain any ingredients at all that have been shown to increase testosterone. Unfortunately this is something of an issue. We generally recommend looking for a testosterone booster that contains, Ashwagandha, DAA, Zinc, Vitamin D, B vitamins, Tongkat Ali, Fenugreek and/or Panax Ginseng. These are generally the most well backed herbs and supplements. Luteolin can also be beneficial as it represses estrogen. One of the better examples is Prime Male, although there are a lot of other good testosterone boosters available with ingredients that are designed to naturally increase testosterone levels.
Sex
Studies show that those without a regular sex life often have lower testosterone levels than those who do. Now this certainly isn’t something everyone can try to solve so easily, but if you’re in a long term relationship and have found the sex has dried up, it could be the time to try and liven things up again. Sex drive and testosterone have a kind of symbiotic relationship. Without regular sex, testosterone levels will decrease, and without healthy testosterone levels, sex drive will decrease. It’s a very personal journey and your path differ greatly from many others, so take this as you will. It might be what’s missing, though it might not be very helpful depending on your circumstances.
Sleep
It’s quite common that most of our night time routines end up with us feeling like we’re making up for lost time. That could just be that your work and personal commitments have prevented you from being able to watch that show you were excited for, or you’ve simply not been able to engage in your hobbies. What this often leads to, is people staying up way beyond reasonable times to be able to enjoy these things, taking a groggy and difficult morning as a form of payment. This can have knock on effects however, especially if it’s the norm. Not getting enough sleep not only gives your body less time to rest and recuperate, but also leads to and increase in the stress hormone cortisol, as your body typically rids itself of this hormone during sleep. Cortisol is a kind of antithesis to testosterone, in that when cortisol spikes, testosterone levels flat-line, and when cortisol drops testosterone levels rise. You can see then the impact getting plentiful, restful sleep will likely have on your testosterone levels, though this doesn’t just mean sleep as much as possible. 7 hours is about what’s considering healthy for most, although that does vary from person to person. Aim for 7 hours, listen to your body and adjust accordingly. If you’re struggling with sleep we’d recommend trying a natural sleep aid like melatonin or magnesium rather than anything stronger, which can mess with your t levels. Ashwagandha can also help you sleep as well as raising t levels making it a great option.
Other Testosterone Info
There is also some new evidence to suggest that some probiotics for men can raise test levels, but the jury is still out, although it seems likely this could prove to be effective in the near future.
Cold showers don’t effect testosterone, despite the myths.
Fasting doesn’t improve it, it decreases t levels.
And as for not flogging the dolphin (if you’ll pardon the euphemism) that’s also not particularly effective at increasing testosterone levels.
Conclusion
With it all taken into consideration, it’s easy to see how our modern lifestyles have left our bodies lacking in particular areas that we evolved for, whether through activity or diet, without prior knowledge it’s common that this ignorance can eventually lead to health problems. Without a healthy diet or generally healthy lifestyle, we can’t expect healthy testosterone levels, and without healthy testosterone levels you can unfortunately be left with various health issues.
Everything from simply a reduced sex drive to symptoms of depression, our testosterone levels regulate more in our bodies that we typically give it credit for. Hopefully this article can provide you with some useful options for tackling these issues, and of course we recommend seeing a doctor and getting their recommendations if possible. Whilst a lot of these methods won’t individually be enough to treat low testosterone, getting to healthy weight is the one most likely to increase testosterone levels substantially if you’re not already there.