Raise Your Testosterone Levels With These Easy Strategies

The testicles are where most of your testosterone is created, which is the hormone that is linked directly to libido, male reproduction, hair growth, muscle mass, red blood cells, bone density, and sexuality. What most people don’t know is that testosterone is also a key player in your overall well-being. So you want to raise your testosterone levels.

The problem is we don’t stay young forever, and already by the time, you are reaching your 30s, testosterone levels are on the decline and it will continue to drop, as you get older. If that’s not enough, there are many prescription drugs, like the Statin family used to treat high cholesterol, that interfere with testosterone production. Wait – there’s more. Your estrogen levels start to go up because of day-to-day exposure that you simply can’t avoid because it’s in our water, food, products we use (plastics), and so much of our environment. This also interferes with your testosterone production.

What to do to replace your testosterone?

You might be experiencing symptoms that can come from a decrease in testosterone like a decrease in your libido, memory or concentration problems, mood swings, or erectile dysfunction. If you have been wondering if this could be related to your age, you were on the right track, because more often than not it is linked to low testosterone levels, which occur as you age.

It’s a good idea to get tested so you know exactly where you are at. Since your testosterone levels will vary throughout the day, to get the most accurate reading have your blood taken 3 or 4 times during the day.

If the tests confirm you are dealing with low testosterone levels, there are different synthetic testosterone products that can be prescribed to you. One option is DHEA, which is an abundant androgen precursor pro-hormone in your body that is responsible for producing a number of the main hormones that includes testosterone.

Never take these products unless your physician or Naturopathic doctor prescribes them. Instead, we challenge you to incorporate these 10 things into your life. All of them will help to increase natural production of testosterone.

Are you getting enough zinc?

A recent study fed the participants a zinc supplement for only 6 weeks and what they found is all of the participants enjoyed a significant increase in their testosterone production. Bottom line – zinc plays a key role in testosterone production. Even when zinc is restricted in a person’s diet, it causes a testosterone decrease.

Research shows that 45% of adults 60+ years of age, had zinc levels that were lower than what is recommended. The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey found that even after giving participants a zinc supplement 20-25% of older adults still had lower than average zinc levels.

So it’s clear that you want to make sure that you are getting enough zinc. The best place to get zinc is through your diet. Eat foods that are high in zinc. This includes raw milk, meat, fish, yogurt, pumpkin seeds, oysters, apricots, kefir, raw cheese, and beans. It’s best if you get organic food or food from a source where you can learn about the condition of the soil, because chemicals used to grow food and feed livestock can be depleted of nutrients and so they have nothing to pass on to the food, and therefore nothing to benefit you.

You can also take a zinc supplement. Take around 40 mg or less a day. Too much zinc isn’t a good thing, because it can impair mineral absorption.

Are you getting enough fat?

Most of us do it – we watch our fat intake and stay away from saturated fats because research has told us they are linked to heart disease. The trouble is more current research debunks that idea and says we also need saturated fats in addition to monounsaturated fats and polyunsaturated fats. So make sure you are getting all three. The only fat to avoid completely is trans fats, which are found in processed foods.

Monounsaturated fats include foods like pumpkin seeds, avocados, nuts, and olive oil. Polyunsaturated fats include foods like sunflower oil, flax seeds, and walnuts to name just a few.

You can optimize your testosterone levels by making sure you have healthy levels of all three fats.

Are you producing enough HGH?

HGH is a growth hormone that is also called somatropin or somatotropin. HGH is a peptide hormone that promotes cell reproduction, regeneration, growth, and hormone production. The pituitary gland produces HGH, which plays many roles in your body. Not enough HGH means low testosterone, a weak immune system, a belly, an increase in body fat, a decrease in lean muscle mass, a decrease in energy, a decrease in libido, and the list goes on.

The problem is by the time you reach your 30s the production of HGH is already declining, so you aren’t getting what your body needs, and that includes lower testosterone levels. You can take a quality HGH supplement to help your body begin to produce more of its own natural growth hormone in the pituitary gland. This is much different than taking a synthetic HGH injection that has many side effects. Not only can an HGH supplement help to increase your testosterone levels, it can improve your libido, improve your memory, decrease body fat (especially belly fat), increase lean muscle mass, and much more. More on HGH benefits can be found here!

Does your diet contain sugar?

If you have sugar in your diet, and most of us do, it’s time to cleanse your body of it and make some eating habit changes. Sugar is highly addictive and it does a lot of damage to your body, including reducing your testosterone levels. Americans consume approx. 12 teaspoons of sugar each day. That’s in the equivalent of 2 tons in your lifetime.

Sugar not only it tastes good and it triggers a reaches your opioid and dopamine signals triggering the pleasure response. It acts like a drug working on both the physical and emotional. Try to cut out sugar from your diet. If you are successful, your testosterone levels will increase and enjoy numerous other benefits like weight loss.

Weight Loss And Testosterone

According to research conducted by the Endocrine Society's 2012 research, when you are overweight if you lose at least some of those extra pounds, testosterone levels can increase.

If you are determined to lose weight, it’s time to make some changes, and that starts with the elimination or at least serious reduction of the use of sugar. Excess fructose is responsible for the obesity epidemic that society is currently facing. Fruit juice, soda, packaged foods, fast food etc. all need to be controlled. You will also need to watch for sugars that are not as obvious, such as eating too much fruit or the use of sweeteners like agave. Your total sugar consumption, including healthy sugars, should not be more than 25 grams/day. If you are diabetic, have high blood pressure, have high cholesterol, or overweight, this is even more critical.

To lose weight you should also eliminate grains, milk, and milk products from your diet. Milk has lactose, which is a type of sugar that will increase your insulin resistance. This can make it harder for you to lose weight. Refined carbohydrates such as waffles, bagels, cereals, etc. should be avoided because as they break down they turn to sugar, which in turn increases your insulin levels, and it can cause you to become insulin resistance, which is causing chronic overweight problems in our society.

As you remove these foods from your diet, you need to add healthy fats and vegetables to your diet to replace them. Your body needs carbohydrates, but you need to replace simple carbs that convert to simple sugars with complex carbs.

Are you doing high intensity exercises?

High intensity exercises are a great start. High intensity exercise when combined with intermittent fasting will maximize your benefits, and increase testosterone production. Participating in intense exercise workouts of short duration will stop the decline of testosterone and actually help to increase your testosterone. That is in comparison to aerobic or prolonged moderate exercise, which has a negative effect on testosterone.

If you also fast intermittently studies have shown it will help to boost your testosterone because it increases the hormones linked to a healthy libido and healthy testosterone levels. This includes adiponectin, leptin, insulin, melanocortins, glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), and colecystokinin (CKK).

After exercising, you should have a whey protein meal, so you get the other testosterone boosting benefits. Here’s an excellent example of what it should look like. Take 3 minutes to warm up followed by 30 seconds of the most intense exercise possible. You should feel like you're going to die if you go any longer. Then for 90 seconds, you need to recover at a slow to moderate pace. You repeat this cycle 7 times and the workout only takes 20 minutes in total. 75% of your time, you are actually either warming up, recovering, or cooling down. The intense workout part takes 4 minutes of your time. For this you get these amazing results. You can use whatever equipment you want. It’s not about the equipment; it’s about pushing yourself as hard as you can for those 30 seconds. In the beginning, only do a couple of repetitions, and then work your way up to the 7 repetitions.

Are you strength training?

With your intensity exercising, you should be strength training to get the maximum testosterone increase. Implement the two exercise forms for maximum testosterone production and enjoy all the other benefits too.

Are you optimizing your Vitamin D levels?

Your body needs Vitamin D and yet most of us are not getting adequate levels because we all wear sunscreen and our skin does not get exposure to the sun. Vitamin D increases your testosterone levels, but that’s just one of the many benefits of Vitamin D. One study done with men that were overweight and given Vitamin D supplements for a full year, found that at the end of the year, these men had a significant testosterone increase.

In the United States Vitamin D deficiency is epidemic and the same applies in a number of places in the world. Start by getting tested to see if you have a Vitamin D deficiency. The recommended levels are 50-70 ng/ml up from the previous levels of 40 to 60 ng/m. Ask your doctor for the 25(OH)D test or 25-hydroxyvitamin D tests.

Sun exposure is the perfect way to get your Vitamin D levels into the normal range. Stay in the sun until it begins to turn a very light shade of pink. Don’t confuse this with getting a sunburn, that’s not what you are supposed to do. However, when your skin is exposed to the sun it will begin to change color, so watch for that first step when it starts to turn pink, because that means you are getting enough Vitamin D.

If you can’t get direct exposure from the sun, you will need to take a Vitamin D supplement, preferably the liquid drops as you will get a better absorption from the liquid form. If you plan to take a supplement, you should know that research says you need 8,000 IU per day. However, before taking any supplement or deciding on a dose you should talk to your doctor.

Have you learned to reduce stress in your life?

Let’s face it, we lead stressful lives. Most of us are on the go 24-7 and we have little down time. There’s too much stress and this can lead to trouble with our health. Our bodies are increase cortisol production when we are stressed. Too much cortisol makes it hard for us to lose belly fat and it also blocks testosterone so from being able to properly work in the body. That’s because when we have too much cortisol you are in the ‘fight or flight’ mode and your body reacts like there is an emergency and so it only allows the essential bodily functions to occur like your blood blowing or your heart beating.

It’s important that you figure out ways to reduce the stress in your life. There are many different ways to accomplish this. You might change jobs or work less hours. You might do something about childcare or meals. You might take up yoga or meditation. You might find a walk or a hot bath is just what you need. Whatever it is that helps you to reduce your stress, you need to make it part of your life. When you decrease your stress, you will decrease your cortisol, which will increase your testosterone.

Are you increasing your BCAA?

Research shows that BCAA or Branch Chain Amino Acids can cause higher testosterone levels. Whey protein is a good source of BCAA or you can take a BCAA supplement, which have concentrated leucine levels. Leucine is in dairy products like but even when you get it from your diet, many times it is not utilized as an anabolic agent instead becoming a building block. For there to be an anabolic environment, you need to take your leucine consumption much higher that what would be considered a maintenance level.

Implement one or more of these suggestions and you can expect to enjoy the benefits of increased testosterone production. Of course, the more suggestions you implement the better the results will be. Not only will you enjoy the benefits of increased testosterone, you’ll enjoy all the other health benefits