The most common question I get asked is always about testosterone.
Here it is broken down for you…
TESTOSTERONE
Testosterone is the most important hormone in a man’s body.
It is a type of androgen, belonging to the group of other male sex hormones such as DHT and DHEA.
Testosterone controls everything…
Your facial hair. Your muscle size. Your voice. Your bone strength. Your emotions. Your motivation. Your energy levels. Your sexual activity. Your confidence.
Testosterone is what makes a man, a man.
How is Testosterone Produced?
95% of your testosterone is produced in your testicles.
The other 5% is converted from another androgen hormone called DHEA.
Your body does not just magically create testosterone all of the time. In order for your body to begin making testosterone, a few things need to happen.
Here’s how it works…
Your hypothalamus in your brain notices that your testosterone levels are not where they should be.
It releases hormones telling your pituitary gland to release two very important hormones called Luteinizing-hormone (LH) and Follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH).
After they are released, LH and FSH make their way down to your testicles and get to work.
FSH begins the process of creating new sperm. LH begins the process of creating new testosterone through the conversion of cholesterol.
What Happens After Testosterone is Produced?
After testosterone is produced in your testicles, it gets released into your bloodstream to begin working its magic.
All of this newly produced testosterone is called “free testosterone”.
Free testosterone is testosterone that is floating around in your blood waiting to be bound to something.
You want to have as much free testosterone circulating around your body as possible.
This is because only free testosterone is able to bind to androgen receptors around your body to produce powerful results. For example, lifting weights turns on the androgen receptors in your muscles.
When free testosterone binds to those androgen receptors in your muscles, it greatly increases the rate of protein synthesis, helping you to grow bigger and stronger muscles.
When free testosterone binds to androgen receptors on your bones, it helps you grow bigger and stronger bones. There are androgen receptors all over your body.
The problem is that most of your testosterone is not free testosterone. Over 90% of the testosterone that your body creates automatically binds to different proteins and enzymes soon after it is created.
Some of your free testosterone gets converted into other androgen compounds such as DHT. Some of your free testosterone gets converted into estrogen.
Where it all goes, nobody knows. What’s important is making sure that your free testosterone levels are the highest they can possibly be.
Testing Your Testosterone Levels
Many times when you go to get a blood test your doctors will only check the total testosterone levels in your body.
This is a huge mistake because total testosterone can not tell the difference between bound testosterone and free testosterone.
If you have high levels of total testosterone in your body but low levels of free testosterone, YOU WILL SUFFER FROM HAVING LOW TESTOSTERONE!
To know where you really stand you need to get a blood test that checks your total testosterone and your free testosterone levels.
- American B&D; readers can check their testosterone (without a Doctor's approval) at MyLabFax.
Only by having a large amount of free testosterone in your blood will you really be able to experience the benefits that high testosterone has to offer.
Symptoms of low testosterone
- Extreme fatigue
- Irritability
- Brain fog
- Decrease in sex drive or no sex drive
- Trouble burning fat off
- Loss of strength
- Slower time healing from muscle breakdown
- Increased injury frequency
- No feeling of self worth/depression (the world seems pointless to you, like you have no meaning)
- Increased risk of estrogen side effects such as gynecomastia or symptoms of gynecomastia (breast tissue development from low testosterone and high estrogen
- Infertility
- Decreased erection quality and frequency
How To Naturally Increase Your Free Testosterone Levels
One of the best ways to increase your free testosterone levels is by killing excess estrogen in your body.
Estrogen is created when your body breaks down testosterone.
By preventing your body from breaking down testosterone three very important things happen:
- You are able to keep more of your free testosterone that your body produces
- Your estrogen levels drop
- Your hypothalamus increases the amount of testosterone you produce because your estrogen levels drop
Since estrogen is made from testosterone, when your body realizes that your estrogen levels are dropping, it will increase your testosterone production to try and increase your estrogen levels.
But if you’re blocking your body from creating more estrogen, you end up getting a big boost of natural free testosterone production instead.
Using an AI (Aromatase Inhibitor) that prevents your body from converting your free testosterone into estrogen is a sure fire way to help you lower your estrogen levels while also increasing your free testosterone levels at the same time.
10 Natural Ways To Increase Your Testosterone Levels
- Get enough sleep every night
- Exercise every day (lift heavy weights)
- Have more sex
- Eat more food (and meat, in my experience)
- Lower your body fat % (Get lean)
- Decrease stress
- Stop drinking alcohol
- Stop smoking tobacco/marijuana
- Fasting (if you're fat)
- Drink more water
9 Natural Supplements To Help Increase Your Testosterone Levels
- Red Growth
- Zinc
- Magnesium
- Boron
- Icariin
- Mucuna pruriens
- Chlorophytum Borivilianum
- N-Methyl-D-Aspartic-Acid
- Creatine
Testosterone Replacement Therapy
Do you implement TRT on a continuous basis or do you cycle it? I’ve done 6 weeks on 6 weeks off before, but recently read TRT doesn’t really work like that and is more of a permanent strategy.”
Personally I do NOT believe testosterone replacement therapy is the best way to increase your testosterone. I speak from experience as I used testosterone for many years and I QUIT using TRT. I do not like it at all.
I like raising my levels naturally much more than I like injecting testosterone. I repeat, I DO NOT use testosterone at all. I got good results in my first 6 weeks on TRT and I never got any good results after that.
The problem with injectable testosterone is that testosterone converts into estrogen so every time you inject testosterone, you are basically also injecting estrogen and you get all of the same symptoms as high estrogen.
TRT is right for some people but it is absolutely not right for ALL people. For me, I get superior results without using injectable testosterone. In fact, my testosterone levels test significantly higher when I DO NOT use TRT.
If i were to use TRT today, an aromatase inhibitor would be MANDATORY! to kill the excess estrogen.
I recall reading an article awhile ago. You were leaning out and cutting and I believe you said you had to come of of TRT to get your absolute leanest, is that correct?”
That is correct, the only thing that synthetic testosterone ever did was bloat me like a pregnant female. I was never able to get super lean on it.
What are your using instead of synthetic TRT now to keep your testosterone up?”
I use a combination of an aromatase inhibitor which I cycle on and off in 3 week increments, a daily diet that gives me enough calories to gain weight but I never overeat at any one meal, I stay relatively lean, and I drink only distilled water.
No sugars, no fatty vegetable oils, no MSG, no frankenfoods, and I try my hardest to avoid chemicals like fluoride and chlorine. I take very fast showers with cold water, as I do not want tap water seeping into the pores of my skin.
The modern world is poison, the best way to eliminate the poison is not by injecting testosterone but by literally eliminating the poison that you come into contact with.
This is how I keep my testosterone levels high.
Also just looking around at the male under 25’s, I would say that their testosterone levels are dangerously low. Not just how they look but how they act, like women, gossiping on social media for hours a day, sitting around crying while watching movies and tv. Playing hours and hours of video games. Sitting around like depressed crybabies, “Oh the world is so bad, people are so evil, blah blah.”
I want to just kick these guys in their non-existent nuts.
Testosterone is the number ONE anti-depressant for males. It should be checked FIRST before you’re put on any dangerous and addictive pills like prozac or zoloft. I’ve never in my entire life met a depressed men who wasn’t also suffering low T. The low T CAUSES the suffering. How can feel like a damn man if you’re always tired, achy, having no sex, getting poor quality erections, and holding a bunch of belly fat? You can’t.
Every man over 25 should get their test checked 3-4 times every year. Period. And respond accordingly.
How much (in number) should be testosterone in 23-24 years old person ?
Same question goes to Vic too
You want your levels to be at a minimum 500 or higher.
500 would be very low for 24 years old.
No Shit, you want higher than 500 if he gets his blood tested and sees 500 he needs to fix it and get higher! Good ranges are 800 or more!
You want your Free and Total testosterone to be as high as possible.
Total Testosterone: 800+ ng/dL
Free Testosterone: 50+ pg/mL
There is a huge problem in the medical industry with testosterone. They don’t have accurate reference points for where your levels should be.
A typical testosterone blood test will tell you that the reference range for total testosterone is 250 - 850 ng/dL.
They will say that if you fall anywhere in that range then you’re fine.
That range has a discrepancy of +/- 600 points. That is not fine.
That is bad science.
Be smarter than that. Get your testosterone levels tested and do everything you can to raise them naturally.
Fuck.
This is the best no bullshit testosterone article on the fucker Internet.
Short, to the point and best of all..True. that’s hard to come by these days.
Vic, do you have a list of other supplements a man should take for optimum health? Currently I take D3 and fish oil. Is there anything else I should consider?
Also, what’s your opinion on caffeine? I’ve read that it can raise cortisol levels. I don’t consume caffeine often but I know men who do, and I’m beginning to think they might be better off without it.
Cholesterol is also very important to eat! Eggs are good for this.
Thank you for writing this.
Had blood levels taken recently and doc said everything was fine. Checked the numbers myself and they were not fine.
Been obsessed with correcting the issue ever sense.
Great info.
It’s terrible how many men are becoming more estrogenic all the time.
Keep up the great work!
- D
This post is very important to me since i have a little of gynecomastia.
Regarding sleep i’ve been avoiding the use of smartphones before 10:00 pm and the first benefits are:
. Eyes are not sleepy.
. No need to force my eyes vision (When i use my smartphone i tend to force my vision more).
. No distractions stopping me to sleep.
. Less grumpy in the morning because of good sleep.
Also, a lot of feminine men defend frankenfoods to death.
Hasta luego.
Does masturbation counts as sex?
Yes, and up is down, black is white, left is right, and war is peace.
Thanks for the shout out Victor, we really appreciate it!
Testing not available in NJ
👎
Cool article! Thanks!
Here’s some other ideas as well:
1. Get a shower filter to lower chlorine levels. Maybe a whole house filter, too?
2. For more zinc, eat: oysters, meat, sprouted pumpkin seeds, cocoa, spinach and yogurt.
3. Use more glass, wood, natural fibers and stainless steel and less plastic. Examples: glass water bottle, bamboo keyboard and mouse, glass tuperware, stainless steel pot and kitchenware, 100% cotton sheets and clothes, tent without extra chemicals.
4. Get good sunshine earlier in the day to activate daytime body cycle.
5. Use coconut oil and butter.
6. Engage in healthy competition.
7. Consider high-quality probiotics - sauerkraut, kimchi, yogurt, etc.
Vic, I see that you have changed your mind completely. What do you do about all the hormones and chemicals that are found in our meat and vegetables?
Hey Victor, what are your thoughts on ZMA? It was recommended to me for sleep, but all it seems to do for me is give me vivid dreams and wake up really groggy. I’ve tried to research it but get conflicting messages, the benefits interest me but I don’t seem to experience them. Have you experimented with it?
Hey Vic,
Just got my results back from lab. Low total testosterone for my age, but normal free testosterone. Does this mean I have a bunch of free testosterone that can’t bind to any androgen receptors for some reason? Does this mean I don’t have enough androgen receptors?
Hi Vic,
I like your site, but I’m confused. You so drastically changed your stance on TRT, when you used to promote it so vehemently. Everyone has a right to change his/her mind. I certainly have. Do you have blood work to prove that the red pct actually brings your testosterone up? So far I’ve only seen one person’s bloods from it.
vic, my doc refuses to test me, how do i get them to test me?
Find a new doctor.
I’m really curious, how were you able to recover your test levels after years of TRT? It seems to me it is a life treatment and one cannot decide to stop and expect to recover pre-TRT levels, even with the perfect lifestyle. What do you mean with “superior results without trt”, when your HPTA sysyetm has been shut down for a long period of time ? I mean, if you started TRT you actually had low levels to begin with, so how is that possible that you get higher levels without it? Thank you, i’m quite confused with the logic here
Hey,Vic.
I read a lot of your articles, and they inspired me so much.
I wanna know how do you think about sunglasses and sun cream.Is sunlights can really hurt our eyes or not? Can man do not use sun cream to protect damaging from sun to turn darker skin.
I never use sunglasses or sunscreen, ever. The sun hurts you? Don’t make me laugh. The sun gives life to this planet.
Ok, so it doesn’t matter if the man is tanning. Now the sunscreen is advertised, making people feel that the skin is getting worse without the sunscreen. I have tried washing my hair with green tea before, and my hair is very refreshing. I have never liked to use shower gel, facial cleanser and so on. What do you think about this kind of cleaning product, we can take a bath without soap, even wash your face with water, bathe, wash your hair? In addition, you said that you don’t need fluoride, which means you may not need fluoride toothpaste. Can you brush only with salt? It seems that there is nothing wrong with using these things.
You can brush with baking soda and wash your hair with egg yolks. Natural is always better.
Thanks，bro