Natural Methods to Increase Testosterone Production

Despite the fact that women produce testosterone, albeit at much lower levels than men, testosterone is the hormone that is often considered to be the epitome of manhood. The truth is that testosterone does play a major role in male sexuality and reproductive function; however, testosterone is responsible for much more than that. In fact, scientific studies have revealed that testosterone plays a vital role in the process of sustaining male health. There is a direct correlation between the decline in testosterone and the decline in male health. In fact, a decline in testosterone has been directly linked to prostate cancer.

There are other very important benefits of maintaining healthy levels of testosterone, including the ability to effectively build lean muscle mass and the ability to burn body fat. Unfortunately, once a man turns 30, his ability to produce testosterone begins to decline as he ages. Unless steps are taken to reverse this decline in testosterone levels, it will continue for the remainder of the person’s life.

Fortunately, there are a number of steps that a man can take that will naturally boost his body’s testosterone levels.

Focus on Losing Weight

You will find that a couple of these methods are a part of a catch-22 cycle. In other words, losing weight helps improve the body’s ability to produce testosterone, while raising testosterone levels will help facilitate weight loss. This means that losing weight initially may be a challenge, but as you lose weight, your testosterone levels will improve and you will find that you will be able to lose weight more efficiently, subsequently increasing testosterone levels, and the cycle will continue.

Studies have shown that men who are overweight are more likely to have low testosterone levels. Being that it is more difficult to lose weight with low testosterone levels, you must be able to effectively engage the challenge of losing weight. The best way to address the difficulty in losing weight is to significantly reduce the amount of processed sugar in your diet. There is mounting evidence that excess sugar, especially fructose, is the predominate factor associated with the obesity epidemic in America and beyond.

One of the best ways to cut sugar from your diet is to cut soda, which is extremely high in high-fructose corn syrup. Additionally, it will be vital that you cut fruit juice, processed foods and excessive fruit from your diet. It is recommended to keep fructose consumption below 25 grams per day, including fruit consumption. For those individuals who are suffering with insulin resistance, obesity, hypertension (high blood pressure), diabetes or high cholesterol, it is even more important that you reduce your sugar intake.

Now this may come as a huge surprise, but the elimination of milk and grains from your diet is also vital to effectively losing unwanted weight. Milk has a sugar known as lactose, which has been proven to play a significant role in causing insulin resistance.

High-Intensity Training

Intense training programs, such as heavy lifting and sprinting, can raise testosterone levels in a significant way. Short, intense workouts create the demand for protein synthesis, which signals the body that testosterone production has to be increased in order to meet needs of the protein synthesis process.

In the same way, aerobics and moderate exercise have been shown to have negative or no effect in improving testosterone production.

There is another element involved here that is somewhat controversial; however, the results are undeniable. It is called intermittent fasting. Intermittent fasting serves to boost testosterone production through the increased expression of what is known as satiety hormones, which include leptin, glucagon-like-peptide-1 (GLP-1), insulin, adiponectin, and more. All of these satiety hormones are recognized as potentiates of healthy testosterone actions, increasing the male libido and assisting the body in resisting age-related testosterone decline.

Zinc in Vital to Testosterone Production

Zinc is a mineral that is extremely important to the production of testosterone. There are studies that reveal that supplementing your diet with zinc for a little as six weeks can present a marked improvement in testosterone levels in men who are suffering from low testosterone production. Conversely, diets that are deficient in zinc have been proven to produce significant testosterone deficiencies.

According to a National Health and Nutrition Survey, more than 45 percent of people over the age of 60 have lower zinc intake levels than what is recommended, even among those who are including zinc supplementation as a part of their daily regimen.

Actually, your diet is the best source of zinc, especially proteins like meat and fish. There are a number of other dietary sources of zinc, such as beans, yogurt raw cheese and raw milk. It can be extremely challenging to consume enough zinc through your diet when you are a vegetarian, and even meat eaters will find it difficult. This difficulty is primarily due to the manner in which crops are farmed. Pesticides and chemical fertilizers can significantly reduce nutrients in the ground, making it impossible for plants to absorb enough of the nutrient.

Also, the manner in which the food is prepared will play a role in how nutrient rich it will be. Cooking the food will definitely deplete the nutrients, especially when you consider the fact that most people overcook their food.

You should also optimize your Vitamin D levels. Vitamin D is actually a steroid hormone that is essential to the development of healthy sperm cells, as well as helping to maintain healthy semen and a high sperm count. Vitamin D is also responsible for helping to increase testosterone levels.

Strength Training

In addition to high intensity training, strength training has also been proven to increase testosterone levels, providing that the training sessions are intense enough. This best accomplished by lowering the repetitions and increasing the amount of weight lifted. You should also focus on working large muscle groups in lieu of doing exercises that isolate individual muscles.

It is obvious that testosterone plays a significant role in male health, making the ability to effectively produce this hormone immensely important. The aforementioned tips will go a long way to helping men effectively raise their testosterone levels naturally.