In my last post, we talked about increasing the amount of yang energy within, specifically through certain herbs. These herbs increase sperm production and libido, are anti-aging and many are also cognitive enhancing.
If we want more yang energy, we need to address the most fundamental yin and yang hormones within – estrogen and testosterone.
Prevalence of Xenoestrogens
Xenoestrogens are chemicals found in food and our environment that have estrogenic effects on our bodies, and unfortunately they’re freaking everywhere. They are part of a bigger problem, those of endocrine disruptors – chemicals and compounds that negatively affect our endocrine system and thus our hormone levels – and the practice of semen retention is largely the practice of fine tuning the endocrine system.
Xenoestrogens are ubiquitous – they’re found in plants, foods, pesticides, cosmetics, fragrances, medications, plastics and the liquids and foods contained therein, and even in the drinking water in some places.
Many xenoestrogens come from plants – these are known as phytoestrogens. In a perfect world, these are actually beneficial compounds, but considering all the synthetic chemical xenoestrogens, these are just one more source of estrogen in our environment. The biggest sources of phytoestrogens for most people are from soy products, the hops in beer, flaxseeds, sesame seeds, lavender, licorice, and hummus, if made with tahini. Hops contain one of the most potent phytoestrogens known to man – sorry my beer loving brethren.
As long as you aren’t chugging a ton of soy milk and double dry-hopped IPAs, phytoestrogens would be a moot point, but again, because of the overload of all of the other toxic xenoestrogens in our environment, I would keep these to a bare minimum unless you’ve done a great job of eliminating the other culprits.
The best way to detox excess xenoestrogens is to eliminate their intake, focus on burning up excess body fat, and regular use of a sauna.
Because xenoestrogens are fat-soluble, they get stored in your body fat, and thus burning up any excess fat will help to release them. Be sure to consume plenty of fiber, as the liver binds excess toxins to fiber to aid in their elimination. I’d recommend a monthly 24-48 hour green juice fast, except add a fiber supplement to the juices. I prefer just throwing in some chia seeds, although you could use Metamucil as well. Schisandra, my favorite herb for semen retention, is an amazing liver detoxifier as well, so I’d be sure to throw it in for those fasts.
Sauna use directly releases toxins through the skin, but it can be difficult and pricy finding one near you. If you can, I highly recommend it, as it has a host of other benefits as well. Check your local gyms – you are going to the gym, right?
Check out Dr. Anthony Jay’s page of products he uses, as well as his book Estrogeneration if you’d like to dive deeper into this topic.
Increasing Testosterone
Decreasing the estrogenic load on the body alone will work wonders on correcting hormone levels and boosting testosterone, but we also want to look into how to directly increase T levels.
- Lift heavy weights
- Get plenty of quality sleep
- Eat properly
- Destress and lower inflammation
- Certain supplements and nutrients
Lift Heavy Weights – this is hands down the easiest and quickest way to raise T levels, both acutely and over the long term. When you begin lifting weights, you send a message to your body that you need to start getting stronger and increase muscle mass, and testosterone is how the body accomplishes these goals.
Not only will lifting weights increase the release of testosterone, but it also increases the sensitivity and expression of androgen receptors throughout the body. See, testosterone is meaningless if it has nothing to bind to in order to exert its effects, and androgen receptors are the binding site. If your receptors aren’t sensitive to androgens, aka testosterone, it doesn’t matter how much testosterone you have floating around – it won’t activate the receptors.
Lifting weights is the one-two punch for increasing androgen levels and sensitizing androgen receptors. The best lifts to increase T levels are heavy, compound lifts, such as squats, deadlifts, bench presses, overhead presses and rows. Check out StrongLifts 5×5 for a guide on how to get started. Make sure to start off with light weight and proper form, or else you’ll get injured and have to take time off. The StrongLifts site has videos to learn proper form.
Hill sprints are another excellent way to increase androgens and androgen sensitivity. Simply find a 30-ish foot hill and sprint full speed up it, 4-7 times. That’s it. Make sure to warm up before hand with a light 5 minute jog and some high knees before hand, and give yourself a few minutes to recover between sprints. You can sprint on flat ground too, but it’s a bit less effective and harder on the joints.
Get Plenty of Sleep – this is just as crucial as lifting weights. Multiple studies show the correlation between a better nights sleep and between higher levels of testosterone. A study of 531 men found that those who only slept 4 hours a night had 60% less testosterone than those who slept a full 8 hours a night.
To improve your sleep, the most important thing is keeping a regular sleep and wake up time. Set a bedtime that is 8-9 hours before you want to be waking up, and stick to it. Keep your room as dark and cool as possible. Avoid caffeine after 3 pm, and limit alcohol consumption to one or two drinks max.
Make sure to avoid blue and bright light before bed, and get a hefty dose of bright light first thing upon waking up, either from a bright lite or from just a quick stroll outdoors. Avoiding blue light at night and getting bright light in the morning are key to entraining your circadian rhythm. Blue light blocking glasses can be very helpful for those of us who enjoy watching tv/gaming/have computer work to do before bed. Install f.lux or use the built-in red shift feature on newer phones.
Supplements such as magnesium glycinate (T booster!), glycine, 5-HTP, ashwagandha (T booster and cortisol reducer!), and melatonin can all be helpful in getting a good night’s rest.
Eat properly – quick quiz – what is testosterone made out of? If you answered cholesterol, you were spot on. Cholesterol is converted into pregnenolone, which is the precursor to all steroidal hormones, including testosterone and estrogen. Moreover, cholesterol is a key component of every cell within the body, with the brain taking a whopping 25% of all of the body’s cholesterol.
Cholesterol is not the villain it was once made out to be, either. I’m not saying you should be pounding hamburgers for every meal, but you should absolutely not be avoiding foods like grass-fed beef or eggs from pastured chickens.
Not only are sex hormones made out of cholesterol, but they have a fatty acid backbone. As such, it stands to figure that a low-fat diet would be deleterious to testosterone production, and indeed this is what the research shows. The graph below shows what happens when researchers lowered the fat intake of subjects from 40% of total calories consumed to 25%, and then back up to 40% – we see a clear drop in T levels.
It’s important to note that not all fats are created equally though – saturated and monounsaturated fats are best for testosterone production, while polyunsaturated fats have a negative impact on T levels. This is because extracted polyunsaturated fats are highly unstable and therefor likely to be oxidized and rancid upon consumption.
This means fats such as vegetable oils, most seed and nut oils, fried foods and processed foods using these oils are a hard no-no on a T boosting diet. Corn, peanut, soy, canola and other extracted oils are off limits, and should be from just a regular health standpoint as well. Grass-fed butter, olive oil, coconut oil, red palm oil, macadamia nut and avocado oil are your best bets, but make sure they aren’t coming from plastic bottles! Conventional factory-farmed meats, dairy and eggs are higher in polyunsaturated fats as well, because they’re fed cheap soy and corn feed – another reason to try to get as much free-range, organic animal products as possible.
Increasing saturated fat and monounsaturated fats increase T, poly lowers T
As for carbs and protein, as long as you’re getting adequate amounts of both, your testosterone levels shouldn’t be impacted much. Again, the types of foods consumed still have an impact. Gluten may increase prolactin levels, something we on the semen retention train are trying to keep to a minimum. Grains and products coming from grains are doused in estrogenic pesticides, so make sure the grain products you’re buying are organic and low in gluten.
Make sure that the majority of the foods you eat are organic, and try to have the meats and eggs you consume come from free-range animals. We just went over how deleterious pesticides are to your endocrine system. Meat, milk and eggs that come from non-organic, factory farmed animals are laden with these same pesticides, as it’s used on the corn and soy feed that they are forced to consume, never mind the antibiotics that have to be used, growth hormones and even injected estrogens to increase animal growth.
The best diet in my eyes is one that is pretty close to paleo, meaning lots of organic, non-starchy green veggies, grass-fed/free range meats/poultry, eggs, wild caught fish, fresh seasonal fruit, some nuts/seeds/tubers, and plenty of herbs and spices. I can’t recommend a whole foods, nutrient-rich diet enough.
Finally, it’s important to have a balanced caloric intake. Being overweight kills T levels, considering excess body fat is actually estrogenic. On the flip side, consuming too few calories results in lowered testosterone as well. It should be made very clear that this does not apply to those who are restricting calories in order to drop down to a healthy bodyweight, but more in the sense of someone who is constantly under-eating or who is constantly burning the candles at both ends, working out too much and not eating enough.
Speaking of burning the candle at both ends…
Destress and lower inflammation – this is a huuuuge killer of testosterone in today’s world. Basically, testosterone and cortisol, our main stress hormone, have an inverse relationship. More cortisol means less testosterone, simple as that.
The best ways to destress? Get plenty of high quality sleep, make sure you get lots of low intensity movement throughout the day, plenty of fresh air and sunlight, eat anti-inflammatory, nutrient dense foods, and make sure to have a practice designed to lower stress specifically. Yoga, breathing exercises and meditation are obvious choices, especially since they help sublimate sexual energy.
Certain herbs are excellent at lowering stress as well, known as adaptogens– ashwagandha, tulsi, reishi mushroom, and phosphatidylserine are excellent options, but remember, these are secondary to the real heavy hitters listed above.
Stress and inflammation go hand in hand, and the more inflamed you are, the lower your T levels are gonna be. Along with the things suggested in the previous paragraphs, avoid excess Omega 6 fatty acids (which are primarily found in vegetable oils, which you already should be avoiding), and consume plenty of Omega 3s, especially those found in cold water, fatty fish and fish oil. Herbs and spices are great anti-inflammatories, so include plenty of turmeric, ginger, cayenne, rosemary, sage and whatever other herbs you enjoy. Organic dark berries, dark chocolate and organic teas are excellent additions to help lower inflammation.
Supplements such as a strong turmeric/curcumin complex, boswellia, and fish oil or krill oil will work wonders.
Target nutrients and supplements – Pivotal here is the fact these should only be bothered with if you’ve got your other T-boosting ducks in a row – nothing is gonna make up for a shitty diet, a stressful life and being overweight and not exercising. That said, there are a couple important supplements to consider when trying to boost T levels.
Aswhagandha – lowers cortisol and increases testosterone; potent adaptogen, increases sperm production.
Zinc, boron and magnesium – this trifecta of minerals are crucially important for T levels – a deficiency in any one of them will lower testosterone and increase estrogen. More does not equal more testosterone, we’re just making sure we aren’t deficient.
Vitamin D – did you know that, like sex hormones, the body makes vitamin D from cholesterol? It is also technically a hormone itself, but is also crucial for optimum testosterone levels – 3332 IUs of the vitamin for a year resulted in a 25% uptick in T levels as compared to a control group. It’s dirt cheap – I recommend 5000 IUs if you aren’t getting enough sunlight, which is pretty much all of us.
Vitamin K2 – a crucial vitamin to be taking if you’re taking Vitamin D, as it helps to make sure that the calcium absorbed gets deposited in the bones and not in arteries. It’s also crucial in the conversion of cholesterol into testosterone, and mice fed the vitamin saw a whopping 70% increase in testosterone levels! Small amounts can be found in some fermented foods like natto, in wheat germ and hard cheeses, and in grass-fed dairy products, but it’s best to supplement.
Iodine – another mineral that, if deficient, lowers T levels. Critical for thyroid health as well, which affects testosterone. I personally don’t take it as an isolated supplement, but make sure to consume plenty of seaweeds, particularly nori wraps and kelp flakes, although you can supplement if you so choose. Shoot for around .5 – 1mg. If you’re on thyroid meds, talk to your doc, or just eat seaweed a couple times a week.
A good multi – this one linked is the best I’ve found for an affordable price. You get more than enough zinc and selenium, a fair amount of D3, a decent chunk of iodine, and all the rest of the vitamins in their bioactive forms. I would definitely get the additional K2/D3, iodine and boron though.
Key Takeaways
As men, we definitely drew the short stick in terms of being born in such a toxic time – xenoestrogens and other toxins abound, porn and sexualized ads and tv shows are everywhere. It’s up to us to make sure we counteract this craziness.
Avoid plastics and synthetic, chemical-laden cosmetics; try to eat as organically as possible, and get your meat from free-range, pastured animals; do monthly 24-48 hour fasts with some fiber thrown in there; destress and consume anti-inflammatory foods; get plenty of deep sleep, and consider some targeted supplementation, and you can see, and FEEL, your testosterone levels start rising in a matter of weeks.