If there is a holy grail among male hormones, that would definitely be the testosterone. Testosterone is regarded as the most important male hormone because it plays a vital role in sexual and reproductive development.
You probably want to know what is the best natural testosterone booster being offered on the market, but before anything else, you first need to understand what testosterone is and what it really does.
Testosterone belongs to a class of male hormones called androgens. These male hormones are also called steroids or anabolic steroids. They are produced mainly in the sex organs, but a small amount is also produced in the adrenal glands.
Women also produce them, but testosterone in men is significantly higher. In women, the ovaries and adrenal glands produce testosterone, but the levels are only about a tenth to a twentieth when compared to men’s levels.
The production of testosterone is controlled by the brain’s hypothalamus and pituitary gland. The pituitary gland is instructed by the hypothalamus on how much testosterone to produce. The message is then passed on to the sexual organ or the testes for production.
Check our comparison of top testosterone boosters:
The Functions of Testosterone
As mentioned earlier, the testosterone can be considered as the most important hormone for men because it has a lot of positive effects on many aspects of men’s health.
It is involved in the development of male sex organs before birth as well as the development of certain characteristics during puberty, which include the deepening of the voice, increasing of the male sex organ, and the growing of facial and body hair.
The testosterone is also responsible for losing fat, gaining muscle, and improving the overall body composition. It also helps in strengthening the bones and fighting off certain diseases such as Alzheimers and heart disease.
Aside from the effects on the body, testosterone also aids in improving cognitive function and mood and fighting depression.
Also, one of the common reasons why men are interested in knowing how to boost testosterone is because it is also responsible facilitates in increasing libido, erection quality, sperm production, sexual pleasure, and performance.
Why is There a Need to Increase Testosterone?
As men age, the levels of testosterone naturally decrease as well. When that happens and an individual reaches a very low level, the condition is called hypogonadism.
Male hypogonadism can be defined as a condition wherein the body does not produce enough testosterone and as a result, it can affect certain masculine physical characteristics and also impair normal reproductive function.
So, how do you know if your body is not producing enough and that you need to find ways on how to get more testosterone? Here are some of the symptoms that you should look for:
- reduced sex drive and even lack of sexual desire.
- erectile dysfunction or impotence, thus a decrease in sexual performance.
- increase in your breast size.
- lowered sperm count.
- hot flashes which can be described as a warm feeling spreading over the body but mostly felt in the head and neck region.
- frequent bouts of depression and irritability and you also find it hard to concentrate.
- shrunken and softened testes.
- loss of muscle mass and hair on your body.
- bones are becoming more prone to fracture.
- decrease in strength and physical endurance, especially during workout sessions and playing sports.
Although most people, even the specialists, believe that low testosterone can be caused by aging, there are also other factors that come into play.
It can be caused by a traumatic brain injury, stroke, surgery, medication, use of illegal drugs, excessive alcohol consumption, exposure to toxins or heavy metals, prior usage of anabolic steroid, radiation, chemotherapy, accidents, and extreme physical activities, just to name a few.
If you notice any of the symptoms mentioned, it is always best to go to a specialist for a diagnosis. Just so you have an idea, the normal levels of testosterone for men fall between 300 and 1,000 nanograms per deciliter.
If you find out after diagnosis that your testosterone level is below normal levels, the next thing that you should do is to find ways on how to raise testosterone effectively.
Thankfully, there are a lot of ways and options for you so you would not have to deal with the negative effects of a low testosterone.
In fact, you may already be familiar with some of the ways that will be mentioned later on and you may already be doing some of them. You just need to be consistent.
How To Deal With Low Testosterone
Regardless of the reason why you are experiencing a decrease in your testosterone, there are ways and treatment options that are available for you to increase testosterone levels. These options can also help reduce the side effects that you may be experiencing.
Testosterone Replacement Therapy (TRT)
One treatment option is called the Testosterone Replacement Therapy or TRT which comes in different methods. While it aims to find solutions on how to build testosterone, each method has its own advantages and disadvantages.
Subcutaneous Implant
A subcutaneous implant is a form of Testosterone Replacement Therapy, wherein a small pellet is implanted under the skin of the abdomen or buttocks. The said pellet is smaller than a grain of rice and needs to be re-implanted every four to five months.
It may not be considered as one of the natural ways to increase testosterone, but it can definitely help raise the levels.
However, it should be noted that subcutaneous implants can have a number of side effects such as anxiety, infection, adrenal exhaustion, extreme agitation, an expulsion of pellets, scarring, fibrosis, neurological issues, and more.
This method also does not allow for adjustments to the treatment so if you look at the long term and numerous side effects, this treatment option may not really be worth it.
Application of Transdermal Patch
A patch is used to provide a steady stream of testosterone and it is applied either to the upper arm or the scrotum. However, one known side effect of this method is that it often leads to skin irritation.
Using Gels and Creams
When it comes to ease of use, gels and creams are preferable they are very easy to administer and are usually very effective too. They are usually applied to the arms or shoulders once or twice a day, depending on the advice of a specialist.
Aside from increasing the testosterone level, testosterone creams also help raise HDL levels which are considered to be the good kind of cholesterol.
Intramuscular or Subcutaneous Injections
Some specialists say that this is one of the most effective answers to the question of how to increase testosterone levels through TRT.
There are a number of benefits which include the ease of administration, as long as the patient is not afraid of needles.
It is also very affordable and convenient since it can be done even at home. Injections also produce reliable blood levels and can mimic natural variability. Not to mention the fact that the dosage amount can be easily adjusted.
So, looking back at all the methods, using injections is preferable compared to the other methods of TRT in terms of safety and potential side effects.
How to Boost Testosterone Naturally
Although there are a number of synthetic products that can be bought on the market, going natural is still the best option. There are natural ways to boost testosterone and these strategies are appropriate for everyone and essentially have no side effects.
Lose some of the excess weight
To begin with, men who are overweight are more likely to have low testosterone levels compared to those who are physically fit. So, if you are overweight, losing the excess pounds can help increase your testosterone levels.
Losing weight can be a struggle, but if you are serious about it, you can achieve your goal. For starters, limit your intake of processed sugar because it is the number one cause of obesity.
Drink lots of water instead of beverages which have high sugar content. The ideal total fructose consumption per day should only be below 25 grams and this already includes fruits.
In addition to cutting off sugar from your diet, it is also essential to eliminate grains and milk because milk also has a sugar called lactose. It has been shown to increase insulin resistance so it is better to avoid it if you want to lose weight fast.
Other types of food which quickly break down into sugar are cereals, bagels, waffles, pretzels, and other processed foods.
Since you will be cutting several items from your diet, you need to look for healthy substitutes and some of the most recommended are vegetables and healthy fats, including natural saturated fats.
Studies have shown that a diet rich in saturated and monounsaturated fats can help increase testosterone naturally. Some of the foods that you can include in your diet are red meat, cheese, eggs, olive oil, coconut oil, nuts, avocado, and peanut butter.
A diet high in carbohydrates may also be beneficial for you, especially if you exercise regularly. Just make sure that you do not take too much of anything because remember, your goal is to shed off some pounds and lose weight.
Go on an intermittent fasting
This basically means you skip the first meal of the day and then you eat your meals closer together. You will still eat three meals per day with the first meal in the afternoon, another one at 3PM, and the last meal around 6PM. This eating pattern will allow your organs to rest, especially your liver.
Your liver plays an important role in naturally balancing hormones, especially testosterone. If your liver does not function optimally, it can have a significant effect on your testosterone output. This is primarily because the liver holds an enzyme which conjugates the group of testosterone called 17beta-hydroxyl.
There was even a study published in the Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology which says that “serum testosterone is reduced in up to 90 percent of men with cirrhosis, with levels falling as the liver disease advances.”
Intermittent fasting has been proven to boost testosterone. In a study conducted by the University of Virginia Medical School, results showed that growth hormone levels increased 2,000 percent over the baseline in men who had no calorie intake for 24 hours, and growth hormone levels are correlated with testosterone.
Intermittent fasting can help increase testosterone by 200 percent and even up to 400 percent.
Engage in a high-intensity exercise
Aside from increasing testosterone levels, short but intense exercise such as resistance training also helps in preventing its decline. Note that aerobics and prolonged moderate exercise do not count because they have no effect on testosterone levels so might as well do something that has a positive effect.
Having that said, the type of exercise that you do matters. The more muscles that you stimulate while exercising, the more testosterone gets produced. Some examples of good exercises are squats, deadlifts, rows, presses, and chin-ups.
To give you an idea about how a typical high-intensity exercise should be done, you can start by warming up for three minutes. Then, exercise as hard as you can for 30 seconds.
You should give all your effort until you feel that you can no longer go on. Allow yourself to recover at a slow to moderate pace for 90 seconds after that. Repeat the short but high-intensity exercise and the recovery seven more times.
If you add up the total time that you need to complete the routine, you will see that you only need 20 minutes for the entire workout. Within those 20 minutes, you even spend about 75% of it recovering or cooling down, so in essence, you are only working out intensely for four minutes.
It can be really hard to believe how much you can benefit from it, but you need to do it in order to find out for yourself.
For the intense exercise, you can use any equipment that you want. You can use an elliptical machine or a treadmill and you can even go outside to do some sprinting or swimming as long as you push yourself as hard as you can for a half minute.
Just be careful not to injure yourself in the process. Remember to do some stretching first and then start slowly until you get your pace.
Take some Vitamin D
Vitamin D3 is one of the most important nutrients that can naturally increase testosterone levels and boost libido. It is a steroid hormone which is essential for the healthy development of the nucleus of the sperm cell. It also helps maintain the quality of semen as well as the sperm count.
There was a study conducted in 2011 with the title, Effect of Vitamin D Supplementation on Testosterone Levels in Men, which showed that Vitamin D supplementation naturally boosts testosterone in overweight men by as much as 30 percent. As an added bonus, Vitamin D3 is also known to help in the prevention and treatment of cancer so its intake gives a lot of benefits.
Unfortunately, Vitamin D deficiency is experienced in the United States and many regions around the world. The main reason for that is because people do not spend enough time under the sun to facilitate the production of Vitamin D which is such an important process.
What you can do is to spend at least 20 to 30 minutes every day to detox your body with the sun and get your daily dose of Vitamin D.
Exposing a large amount of your skin to the sun until it turns the lightest shade of pink is the best way to optimize your Vitamin D levels.If sun exposure is not an option, you can also use a safe tanning bed with electronic ballasts to avoid unnecessary exposure to EMF fields.
Vitamin D can also be taken orally through a Vitamin D3 supplement. However, according to research, an adult needs to take 8,000 IU’s of Vitamin D per day to elevate their levels above 40 ng/ml, which is the minimum for disease prevention.
Consume plenty of zinc
Research has shown that if you restrict your dietary sources of zinc, it can lead to a significant decrease in your testosterone. On the other hand, zinc supplementation will increase it while also protecting you from exercise-induced reductions in testosterone levels.
The best source of zinc is your diet. Make sure that you eat a balanced diet of foods rich in protein such as meats and fish as well as other good sources of zinc such as raw milk, raw cheese, beans, and yogurt.
If you are a vegetarian, it can be a bit challenging to obtain enough of your daily dose of zinc because conventional farming methods which make use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides deplete the soil of nutrients including zinc. But the challenge is not just for the vegetarians. In some cases, you may also deplete the nutrients in your food when you overcook it because cooking drastically reduces the levels of nutrients in food.
You can take a zinc supplement if you are not sure whether your diet can give you the amount that you need every day. Just make sure that you stick to a dosage of less than 40mg per day because it is the recommended adult upper limit. If you take too much zinc, it can interfere with your body’s ability to absorb other minerals and you may experience some side effects.
Reduce and manage your stress
Stress may be a result of low testosterone levels, but it may also be the one causing the problem. When you are under a lot of stress, high levels of the stress hormone are released by your body. This stress hormone is called cortisol. Unnatural elevations in cortisol can reduce testosterone in your body quickly.
You can actually compare these two hormones to two individuals on a seesaw wherein when one goes up, the other comes down.
It should still be noted that mental and physical stress can also be a form of therapy and it can actually be good for you from time to time.
However, when you are chronically stressed, which means it happens all the time, then that is where the problem begins. Your body gets stuck in a state where you are pumping out the stress hormone nonstop.
Stress can also increase your food intake which is what some people call stress eating. As a result, you can gain a lot of weight and store harmful body fats around your organs. These can greatly impact your testosterone levels negatively.
That is why it is important to take care of your emotional issues and reduce repetitive stressful situations in your life. Look for ways on how you can reduce and manage your stress by avoiding the triggers that cause it in the first place.
Get plenty of quality sleep
Just like diet and exercise, getting good sleep is very important for your health as it may also have major effects on your testosterone levels.
As a matter of fact, there was a study about the relationship between sleep disorders and testosterone in men that was published in the journal, Current Opinion of Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Obesity.
According to the study, getting enough sleep and sleeping at the right time are two of the most natural testosterone boosters. The recommended amount of sleep that you should have every night is at least 7 hours. It is also critical that you take advantage of the 10PM to 2AM window.
The circadian rhythm of your body resets itself every night during this window. During that time, your body releases chemicals like cortisol which contributes to the overall hormone balance and prevents low testosterone levels.
Sleeping anytime between the 10PM to 2AM window is so beneficial that even if you sleep for just one hour in that window, your body will have the same healing effects as two hours of sleep before or after the time slot.
So, the ideal time to go to bed is around 10PM so you can wake up at 6AM and have optimal hormone balance. Research also suggests that you need around 7 to 10 hours of sleep per night for long-term health and for your testosterone.
Live a healthy lifestyle
Living healthy is not just about eating the right kind of food and getting enough sleep and exercise. You also have to avoid doing destructive habits such as smoking.
Men who smoke are found to have a harder time building and maintaining the lean muscle that they want because smoking has an impact on the natural testosterone levels.
Aside from smoking, it is also best to avoid too much alcohol consumption because it also facilitates the decline of your testosterone levels. If you really cannot avoid drinking alcohol, stay away from beer because it contains hops, which form estrogen and can suppress testosterone levels in the body.
Avoid Xenoestrogens and other chemicals that are known to lower testosterone
The best way to boost testosterone is to avoid anything that can lower it, of course. Xenoestrogens are synthetic or natural chemical compounds which imitate estrogen. They interfere with the body’s hormone system and can cause a number of health problems like weight gain and learning disabilities.
If you get exposed to too much Xenoestrogen, you will experience a significant drop in your testosterone levels. The challenge is, this chemical compound is everywhere. But you can still do your best to avoid products that contain it. Here are some of the things that you can do for starters:
- Keep your food in a glass container rather than plastic, especially when heating food in a microwave. Plastic contains phthalates, which distort the hormones by imitating estrogen and heat can transfer the phthalates into your food.
- As much as possible, eat organic food. Pesticides can imitate hormones in our body so it is always best to eat organic. However, the downside is that organic foods are more expensive. If the budget will not allow you to eat organic all the time, at least make sure that you wash your fruits and vegetables thoroughly before eating. It would also be best to eat meat from animals which have not been treated with hormones.
- Limit your exposure to gasoline and pesticides because they contain a lot of xenoestrogens. If you work in a gas station or a farm, make sure that you always wash your hands thoroughly after exposure or wear a face mask at all times.
- Use natural grooming products such as those which do not contain any parabens. It can be quite difficult to look for paraben-free products, but most of the time, they are found in health or organic stores.
The Quest for Effective and Natural Testosterone Booster
Aside from habits and routines that you can do to increase your testosterone levels, you can also try these top testosterone boosters.
These boosters are natural supplements that work by directly increasing testosterones or other related hormones in the body. Some of them also help by preventing testosterone from being converted into estrogen.
D-Aspartic Acid
This is a natural amino acid, which works by increasing follicle-stimulating hormone and luteinizing hormone. The latter makes the Leydig cells in the testes produce more testosterone, so this amino acid is important. It may also help in improving the sperm quality and production.
However, studies suggest that taking D-Aspartic Acid may be beneficial for people with already low testosterone or those with impaired sexual function, but does not really do much with people who have normal testosterone levels.
Tribulus Terrestris
This supplement is a herb which is used as an herbal medicine for centuries now. It’s called the best testosterone booster by some people. Research shows that taking Tribulus brings benefits by helping improve sex drive and improve sperm health. It also helps increase the testosterone in men with impaired sexual function but does not bring any benefit for younger and healthier individuals with normal testosterone levels.
Fenugreek
This is another testosterone booster which is herb-based so it can be considered safe. Research suggests that it works by reducing the enzymes that convert testosterone into estrogen.
There were studies which have proven that Fenugreek helps improve sexual function and the quality of life. Experts suggest taking 500mg of Fenugreek daily to boost testosterone levels in both deficient and healthy men.
Ginger
This one is a common kitchen staple, so it would be easy to use this supplement. It has many known health benefits and is believed to increase testosterone levels and sperm count in men who experience infertility.
A study was conducted in the past wherein infertile men were given a daily ginger supplement and after three months, the men had experienced an increase of 17% in their testosterone levels.
Ashwagandha
Ashwagandha is a herb also known as Withania somnifera and is used in ancient Indian medicine.
Several studies have been conducted which show that infertile men who took it as a daily supplement experienced 10 to 22% increase in their testosterone levels. The herb also helped increase exercise performance and strength and facilitate fat loss.
All of the above mentioned natural supplements can increase your testosterone level, but what could be even better is to use a natural testosterone booster that has all of these ingredients blended together to maximize results.
Check this Testofuel review to see what product I recommend.
Having a healthy testosterone level is very crucial, especially for men who want to have a healthy lifestyle and a great body composition.
That is why, if you feel that you are experiencing a decline, you should look for the best way on how to increase testosterone naturally.
The best way to increase testosterone may vary from one person to another. Sometimes, it can also be a matter of personal preference.
Whether you choose to undergo treatment or follow the tips on how to increase testosterone level in a more natural way, what’s important is that you choose the method that will work for you and will not put your health at risk.
A natural testosterone booster with the right ingredients would be a safe and effective way to increase testosterone levels for most men.
Im in South Africa to b precise in Soweto woch product i can u here for testo boosting. May u show things that can help us who are unemployed.
Hey Ratile. There are many ways you can boost your testosterone. If you can’t afford supplements at the moment, take a look at other natural options. This article is about foods that can boost your testosterone, so please have a look at it: https://www.massgainssource.com/foods-that-boost-testosterone/