can low testosterone levels cause infertility

About Us

How To Naturally Increase Estrogen: Diet And Lifestyle Tips

Testosterone: 15 Best Foods To Eat for Better T-Levels

Once dismissed as a rare condition affecting older men, low T (testosterone deficiency) is now understood as a far more widespread issue. Thanks to a mix of modern stress, environmental exposures, and plain old aging, more men are hitting their 40s and 50s feeling like shadows of themselves — and many don’t even know why. Tongkat Ali (Pasak Bumi, Eurycoma Longifolia) is a Malaysian herb with a massive reputation as a pro-erectile testosterone booster. This isn’t the only rat study with promising results, another one found similar results, the more the rodents were exposed to probiotics, the higher their testosterone was194.

Avocados are a good source of magnesium but are especially rich in another compound known as boron. Boron has been linked to testosterone production, and some have even suggested that it may be able to treat erectile dysfunction. According to a 2015 study, which looked at 399 men aged 65 and older, those with more magnesium in their blood had higher testosterone levels than those with lower magnesium levels. Plus, pomegranates are high in flavonoid antioxidants, which may help protect testosterone-producing cells from damage and even increase testosterone production. However, due to certain lifestyle choices and the natural process of ageing, testosterone levels can start to wane. In fact, according to the NHS, testosterone levels decline slowly by around 1–2 per cent each year from the age of around 30–40. This is why it’s important to give your T-levels some attention every now and again.

In my telehealth functional medicine clinic, we specialize in identifying the root cause of signs your testosterone is low symptoms and personalizing a plan of action tailored to your specific needs and health case. Vitamin D deficiency has been linked (6) to low testosterone levels with studies showing (7) that regular supplementation can help increase testosterone levels in men. While you can get Vitamin D through sun exposure and eating foods rich in Vitamin D, most people don’t get enough of either in their daily lives, making supplementation essential. If you’re eating too much processed food and not providing your body with the right nutrients, you’re going to lower your T. Eating a healthy diet consisting of lean meats, greens, fruits, complex carbohydrates, and healthy fats will help your body support testosterone production. Eating enough protein can help you maintain healthy testosterone levels and can aid in fat loss, which may be beneficial, too.

According to an interesting study done by Cuddy et al. at Harvard University, your body language, as well as postural changes, can almost immediately impact your stress and steroid hormones. …However, if you are under physical or physiological stress that constantly “haunts” you, it’s likely that your cortisol levels are constantly high thorough the day. The THOR Testosterone Training program does an excellent job at this, since it was designed specifically to boost testosterone and optimize hormones through specific training protocols.

We pack our foods in it, drink our water and other beverages from it. In fact, it’s so ingrained in our lives that it’s started to leach into our bodies—literally. Extra estrogens can trigger your body to produce less testosterone (13). That can set up a vicious cycle, because the less testosterone your body produces, the more belly fat you accumulate. A study in the journal Clinical Endocrinology found that some obese men between the ages of 14 and 20 have up to 50 percent less testosterone than those who are not overweight (12).

In fact, interval training has been proven to not only boost T levels, but it helps keeps your testosterone elevated and can prevent its decline. Supplementing with L-glutamine is known for enhancing exercise performance, maintaining acid-base balance and increasing the storage of glycogen in muscle. While you want to eat more foods that boost testosterone, the following foods you want to avoid in order to support your T levels. Generally, total testosterone levels below 300 ng/dL (nanograms per deciliter) may indicate low T, but it’s nuanced. Free testosterone (the active form) also matters, as does the patient’s overall health picture. It’s necessary for the metabolism of the sex hormones testosterone and estrogen. Researchers believe that boron influences estrogen receptors by allowing the body to more easily use the estrogen available.

Many people revert to taking prescription medication for any problems they have, but living an active and healthy lifestyle does wonders for your health. Improving your testosterone levels and making healthy lifestyle changes may help you avoid taking the prescription drugs that could negatively affect your testosterone and health as a whole. It’s no surprise that having too much body fat is damaging to your overall health and testosterone production (49). This is common in bodybuilders when they’re prepping for a show who achieve drastically low levels of body fat (hovering around 5%).

In a large-scale American study, it was noted that 91% of the US test subjects had notable amounts of the insecticide; chlorpyrifos in their bodies89. This is alarming, since TCPY (3,5,6-trichloro-2-pyridinol) which is a metabolite of chlorpyrifos, was noted of having a dose-dependent testosterone lowering effect in multiple linear regression models in one paper90. Several animal studies have also shown that chlorpyrifos has a significant testosterone lowering effect91,92. One study shows how the researchers screened 37 commonly used pesticides for their hormonal actions in-vitro, as many as 30 of them were antiandrogens87. Another study tested multiple pesticides for their effects on the 5-alpha reductase enzyme and saw that many of them had a mechanism for blocking DHT synthesis88.

Additionally, extremely processed foods, alcohol, and saturated fats can contribute to estrogen woes. However, low levels—unrelated to menopause—may be a sign of a condition. Testing sex hormones in a woman (with regular monthly cycles) is best done during the mid-luteal peak. In fact, studies show that upwards of 80% of women suffer from hormone imbalances. PCOS (polycystic ovary syndrome), for example, affects approximately 5 million women in the United States.

Magnesium also binds to something called sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG), which is thought to increase free testosterone availability, adds Lane. For one, “drinking too much alcohol can interfere with the hormone signals your brain sends to the testes to produce testosterone,” says Bailey. A study in the Journal of Clinical Medicine reports that regular alcohol consumption causes damage to Leydig cells, which are cells in the testicles that are responsible for testosterone production.