Guys - 7 Steps to Optimize Your Testosterone
Testosterone - a key to good health, mood, libido, drive, strength, etc. - especially for men over 50.
The good news - you can improve your numbers and your health with simple lifestyle changes - no pills or procedure required.
7 Steps to Optimize Your Testosterone
What is Testosterone - it's a hormone, one whose job it is to make effort & exertion feel worth it. From chasing big game or a mate as hunter/gatherers all the way to getting your butt off the couch and to the gym - healthy levels of testosterone are critical for energy, confidence and muscle building.
Are you “Low T” ?
Symptoms - low drive to do much of anything. Brain fog. Muscle loss. Low libido. Weight gain via extra belly fat. Insulin resistance / pre-diabetes / diabetes. Poor sleep. Feeling down, fragile, lost, etc, etc. Not fun. Low T is also associated with all cause mortality in men over 60.
Get Your Numbers
It's a simple blood test. Yes, it will include a total testosterone number, but Free Testosterone is the more important one. While you are at it, test for DHEA as well, it’s a precursor for testosterone and easy to supplement.
What You Will Learn
If your levels are not where they should be, like most guys over 50, then the next step is to work to raise your testosterone… naturally.
Here's 7 steps you can use to optimize your Testosterone…
#1 Reduce Belly Fat
Belly fat is NOT a spare tire, it is NOT inert, NOT just extra pounds.
Belly fat is metabolically active. It lowers your T ! It changes how you process carbs for the worse. It is out to get you. It's gotta go.
Two kinds of fat, subcutaneous and visceral. The first is not dangerous, just unflattering. The second, visceral fat, lies at a deeper level and is very bad news, something we need to fix for sure.
Visceral fat releases an enzyme called aromatase which converts testosterone into estrogen increasing fat storage / lowering testosterone.
Growth hormone production, think building muscles, is also reduced by visceral fat. Visceral fat also piles up around vital organs like your liver. In the past, if someone had Fatty Liver Disease it was a slam dunk that they were an alcoholic. Now Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD) is the majority, NAFLD is the new #1 driver of liver transplants. Why? Because of the rapid increase in rates of visceral fat.
Bottom line - if you have belly fat, especially a lot of it, you are in or rapidly heading for a very bad place. Your #1 job is to recompose your body, starting right now.
#2 Eliminate processed foods and plastics
Eating lots of carbs, sugar and stuff that quickly converts to sugar, especially abundant in processed foods - lowers T and that's bad.
Food Inc. factory produced vegetable oils, actually seed oils - bad news, found in restaurant food and all processed foods - they lower T.
A grain heavy diet that includes wheat flour - is problematic. Eat good proteins, lots of veggies (no grains) and lots of good fats, including some saturated fats.
Food Inc. poisons you and robs your wallet at the same time. Do not buy or consume their products.
Do not drink bottled water, avoid food packaged in plastic, especially if heat is involved. Prime example - bottled water left in the car in summer.
#3 Employ Diet Hacks
Carbs offer a solution, go KETO or at least very low carb. Track carbs but ignore calories, increase good fats, etc. Bring carbs down to a target of 50 grams per day (gpd) for KETO, 100 gpd for paleo / low carb. Carbs and sugars and starches are known T killers.
Fast 8/16 - limit meals to an 8 hour window each day, say 9am-5pm. That's the 8/16 fast and it works wonders.
Get more / enough protein, highly likely you are low. How much? Take your goal weight, that's you lean and fit, multiply that times .45 to get kilos, then multiply that times 1.8 to get your personal optimal grams of protein per day. Buy a scale and track it or get 4 palm size chunks of protein each day, one can be a whey protein shake.
No snacks! No booze. To raise T lower or skip the booze, the two go hand in hand.
No soy! Especially soy protein isolate found in many processed foods. Soy is a phyto estrogen, the last thing you need.
Once you drop the carb overload, you need to focus on fats to fuel your energy systems, as nature intended. Fats also help you make hormones, including testosterone. Get plenty of good fats each day - they are healthy - as long as you are on a natural low carb diet.
Watch what you drink - no soda (diet or regular) and cut the booze, whatever you drink now, drink less - your T will thank you.
#4 Exercise Hot and Heavy
In general, exercise is not a key to weight loss, especially if accompanied with lower caloric intake, that is a recipe for failure.
However… lifting heavy things, like weights at the gym, especially if you are hot and sweating (think hoodie or hat), will raise your T levels
Any exercise is good but intense exercise, lifting heavy stuff, once you are ready per your doc, possibly with a trainer - that is a proven way to raise T.
#5 Sleep, Stress and Sunshine
Sleep is huge, it's when the body makes and releases T. There are tons of articles on sleep practices / sleep hygiene, read them and implement those healthy habits with discipline.
Here's an evolutionary hack - to set / reset your internal clock / circadian rhythms as they drive so many hormone schedules as well as sleep.
2 rules - each and every day be outside at sunrise and again at sunset. This low angle sun, much redder wavelengths, in your eyes (no sunglasses) and on your bare skin is critical. Your body has built in sensors and needs this input.
Set an alarm on your iPhone and no matter what, get outside for 10 minutes every sunrise / sunset.
Get 20-30 minutes of sun on as much of your body as possible mid day, every day.
Reduce stress, cortisol a direct byproduct of stress runs counter to testosterone. De-stress for health, start today.
#6 Supplements
Food is most important but these supplements will help:
Zinc 30 mg p/day always with Copper 1-2 mg p/day
Magnesium - 200-400 p/day, citrate not oxide
DHEA - 25 mg - likely you are low, start with that, often 50 is better
Ashwagandha 500 mg p/day or Korean red ginseng - optional
#7 Big Pharma
AIIM is all about using lifestyle modifications to accomplish goals. Before we look at typical pills and procedures we fix most stuff via diet, exercise, sleep and stress reduction, etc. Those are always the first line of action / always super effective.
However, when it comes to dropping lots of belly fat (again so important with T levels), there is often a case for pharma use in the short term to help jump start the process. Specifically GLP-1 inhibitors such as Ozempic, Wegovy, and Monjaro, etc.
Short duration - 6 months. Lowest dose. GLP-1, like all drugs, has issues. One is muscle loss, thus doing weights and getting lots of protein become doubly important.
Remember a GLP-1 is an add on, a jump start - all the prior listed steps are really the big drivers.
Do all of the above then after 60 days - Retest
You will have objective data as to how much all the above actually changed things. Likely your numbers and how you feel will improve, a lot.
Raising T naturally is well within most people's reach but, if you need more help beyond all of the above, consult Dr Horzempa about safe sustainable Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT).
Bottomline - your Testosterone level is HUGE.
Your T will dramatically affect so many things from how you feel, think and perform that it is well worth the effort to optimize.
Note - I am a 65 year old male with excellent free T - all accomplished 100% naturally. I take a DHEA supplement, 50mg every morning with my other supplements. No HRT required. So rest assured that for most of us this is very doable.
Important - there are lots of factors that affect your all important T factors. The above is a good starting place toward understanding and beginning to push your T in the right direction. For best results, and absolutely if you are considering hormone replacement therapy / supplementing testosterone, consult with Dr Horzempa. He will provide broad and detailed testing to understand the full picture and what's really needed. Sometimes that's just modifying lifestyle factors like above and sometimes it's HRT.
Bottomline - HRT is not something to mail order / online order / T clinic - this is complex so seek a smart integrative MD if you want to explore HRT to if it's appropriate for you.
Got questions? We are here to help. Reach out to AIIM anytime at www.myAIIM.com