Do Testosterone Boosters Work
In short, yes, they can. However, a crap diet and mediocre training program will certainly decrease the effectiveness of your testosterone booster. And a great training program and a solid diet can both help you build muscle and boost testosterone.
Certified strength coach Parker Hyde shows how to maximize your levels with your gym work in the article “How to Naturally Boost Testosterone Release with Exercise.” In short, loading , overall volume, exercise choice, and even exercise order can have an impact.
Likewise, the amino acids in a protein-rich diet play a big role in both testosterone and muscle growth. As Chris Lockwood, Ph.D., explains, “When combined with training, which increases the sensitivity of androgen receptors, and the consumption of essential amino acids necessary to support protein synthesis, the effects of testosterone on muscle and performance is significantly amplified.”
So before you take a single serving of your test booster, make sure you’ve got yourself set up for success. Exercise consistently with a well-designed muscle-building program, and make sure you are taking in adequate protein and overall calories based on your body weight, goals, and activity level.
Focus on eating right and training hard, and your testosterone booster will be worth more!
The History Of Testosterone
Imagine sitting at a scientific conference in Paris, on June 1, 1889, when your 72-year old colleague, Dr. Charles Brown-Sequard, describes miraculous improvements in his physical and mental stamina, and even the arc of his urine flow ever since first injecting himself with a concoction of blood, semen, and testicular fluid he had extracted from the testicles of dogs and guinea pigs. Gross…and a bit creepy, right? Not in 1889, apparently.
Brown-Sequard’s “Elixir of Life” would be prescribed by over 12,000 physicians by the end of that same year. However, it wasn’t until 1935 that the hormone responsible for these remarkable anti-aging, energy, and performance-enhancing benefits would get its name: testosterone. That same year, both Swiss researcher Leopold Ruzicka and German researcher Adolf Butenandt would discover how to synthesize it for commercialization, and later be jointly awarded the Nobel Prize for chemistry for the achievement.
Ever since then, the king of hormones has been one of the most controversial and sought-after substances in health, fitness, and sport. But fortunately for Fido, dogs no longer have to donate the family jewels in your quest for the fountain of youth and weight-room domination.
Oral Testosterone ‘not The Best’
One reason for these “disappointing” results is that oral testosterone supplements may not work as well as supplements such as gels, patches, or injections that provide more stable hormone levels.
“We now think the oral supplement was not the best method of testosterone supplementation to use,” Emmelot-Vonk says. “This is because the level of testosterone was hot high enough for the entire 24-hour period. So maybe it would be better to use a form of testosterone that gives better levels for 24 hours, such as patches or injections.”
Some doctors worry that testosterone supplements may promote prostate cancer. But the Dutch study showed no evidence of prostate abnormality in the six-month study.
Urologist Robert Davis of the University of Rochester, N.Y. offers testosterone supplements to men with low testosterone who complain of symptoms such as erectile dysfunction or low energy. He notes that oral testosterone supplements are not used in the U.S.
Davis says studies may one day show that testosterone supplements can help men without symptoms. But that remains to be demonstrated, he notes.
The Emmelot-Vonk study appears in the Jan. 2 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association.
SOURCES: Emmelot-Vonk, M.H. The Journal of the American MedicalAssociation, Jan. 2, 2008 vol 299: pp 39-52. Marielle H. Emmelot-Vonk, MD,department of geriatric medicine, University Medical Center Utrecht,Netherlands. Robert Davis, MD, professor of urology, University of Rochester,N.Y.
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Assessment Of Muscle Function
Power is defined as the rate of doing work or generating force. We used a specially designed and validated leg power instrument to measure lower extremity knee and hip extensor power. The test was performed with subjects right foot on the foot pedal with the right knee flexed to 90°. Subjects were instructed to push the foot pedal as hard and as fast as possible. The instruments data acquisition and processing routines calculated peak power using the mass of the flywheel and its revolution frequency. As with the 1-RM tests, subjects were first familiarized with the procedures, completed a warm-up, and were positioned to achieve the desired 90° of knee flexion. The seat position required to achieve the desired knee angle was recorded to the nearest 0.5 cm for subsequent testing. Trials were continued until a plateau in peak power was reached, in which case the highest value was recorded as the peak power. Typically, 515 trials were required to achieve peak power. As the duration of effort required for each trial was less than 1 sec, approximately 30 sec of rest were provided between trials.
How Low Testosterone Affects Muscle Mass
Your testicles regularly produce the androgen called testosterone , which is the hormone responsible for creating and maintaining your male sex characteristics, such as the pattern of your body and facial hair, bone density, body fat distribution, and muscle density.
Testosterone sent your body into overdrive during adolescence, when your voice changed, you sprouted your first facial and pubic hairs, and you left boyhood behind. Testosterone is also the hormone thats responsible for a healthy sex drive, your ability to achieve and maintain an erection, and your ability to easily and quickly build up muscle mass.
After the age of 30 or 40, your testicles gradually slow down their production of T. Although this is a normal part of aging, the slow-down may be exacerbated by other factors and conditions, such as:
- Obesity
- Side effects from medications or treatments
- Problems with your pituitary gland
- Problems with your hypothalamus
- Chronic diseases
- Infection
If youve noticed a decrease in your muscle mass, are having trouble building new muscle, or are starting to gain belly fat and other fat deposits, you may have low T.
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Considering Testosterone Replacement Therapy
Treatment is not necessary if your levels fall within the normal range. Testosterone replacement therapy is primarily beneficial for men with low testosterone levels. Dont purchase testosterone without a prescription. See your doctor if you think you might have low levels of testosterone. A blood test can determine your testosterone levels and help diagnose underlying conditions.
Doctors and researchers have varying opinions regarding the effectiveness of testosterone replacement therapy. Most agree that study results are mixed for most conditions.
A healthy diet and regular exercise are necessary for good health and to ensure the maximum effectiveness of testosterone treatment. Follow-up care and monitoring is recommended.
Low Testosterone And Muscle Mass
Testosterone helps build muscle, and low testosterone can cause loss of muscle mass. Here are tips to maintain muscle and avoid weakness from low testosterone.
Its a simple equation: Testosterone builds muscle mass and low testosterone turns muscle to fat. Testosterone is the male hormone that makes it possible to develop the muscle mass of the male physique. In the absence of testosterone, the hormone estrogen takes over. Estrogen puts fat where you least want it: on your chest and around your belly.
Why Low Testosterone Causes Muscle Loss
Loss of muscle is called muscle wasting, and its a late sign of low testosterone. But even before you notice muscle wasting, you may feel weaker and less energetic, says Ronald Tamler, MD, director of the Mount Sinai Diabetes Center in New York and an associate professor of medicine, endocrinology, diabetes, and bone disease at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City. Muscle cells have receptors for testosterone called androgen receptors. When testosterone binds to the receptors, muscle fibers are maintained. Without testosterone, maintenance stops and muscle is degraded.
What’s more, according to a 2012 review of low testosterone in obese men published in the journal Current Diabetes Reviews, low testosterone increases fat deposits, specifically in the belly.
4 Tips to Build Muscle Mass With Low Testosterone
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A Note About Testosterone Replacement Therapy
Although the tips above can help reverse low T, extremely low levels of testosterone can result in a variety of health problems beyond just restricting your bodys ability to build strength. If you feel like you could benefit from low T treatments, schedule a free consultation with an experienced urologist to discuss your options.
So What Is The Bottom Line
While testosterone plays an important role in muscle building, it is only one of many different factors that contribute to muscle growth.
Insulin, insulin-like growth factor 1, hepatocyte growth factor, fibroblast growth factor and growth hormone all work together to build muscle.
Besides hormones, good sleep, excellent and balanced nutrition, reduced stress levels and plenty of exercise all contribute to developing strong, lean and larger muscles.
Avoid injecting steroids and stick to safer, more natural methods of boosting your testosterone and muscle mass.
Find out for yourself the top 5 natural T-boosters currently available on the market right now.
These are the best choices if you want to…
- Build Muscle Quickly
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Testosterone What It Does And Doesn’t Do
When you think of testosterone, what comes to mind? Macho men? Aggressive, impatient, type A behavior? Road rage? Violence?
Testosterone’s role in bad behavior is largely a myth. What’s more, testosterone plays other important roles in health and disease that may surprise you. For example, did you know that testosterone is a key player in ? Or, that women need testosterone, too? There’s more to testosterone than guys behaving badly.
So Testosterone Can Help Build Muscle Mass
Research has shown that if you are below the normal ranges then you will have a much harder time building muscle.
If you maintain standard levels, then muscle building becomes easier, and if you are at the upper end or above, then your muscle building potential goes up even more.
To increase your testosterone levels, you need to make a few lifestyle changes which will have more of it flowing through your veins. These are as follows:
Reduce your stress levels: Stress can impair your testosterone levels. The more stress you have, the lower your levels will be. Discover ways to get rid of your stress to help increase your testosterone.
Eat a balanced diet WITH fat: Low levels of dietary fats such as monounsaturated and saturated fats directly correlates with lower testosterone levels. Protein and carbs count, but they are useless without fats.
Sleep more: Sleep deprivation leads to fat gain, reduced energy expenditure and lower testosterone levels. Aim for 8 solid hours of sleep for better testosterone production.
Strength training: Cardio is great for fat loss and heart health, but you need to train with weights to build muscle and increase testosterone levels.
Reduce body fat: The higher your body fat is, the lower your testosterone will be. You want to aim for higher amounts of lean muscle to burn more body fat and help produce more testosterone.
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Fill Your Body With Muscle
Complex carbohydrates and lean proteins help build muscle and prevent fat build up. Accompany eggs, chicken, fish, and lean cuts of red meat with brown rice, sweet potatoes, or quinoa and watch yourself grow stronger and healthier. Cook all of your food in a moderate amount of healthy fat, such as olive or coconut oil.
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How Testosterone Affects Strength
Conventional wisdom says that testosterone strength gains are caused by the muscle growth described above. But recent scientific research has shown that there are additional factors at play. Calcium is involved in muscle contractions which is another reason why a balanced diet is essential for maximal training gains. Testosterone has been shown to increase the volume of calcium that gets released which enables more forceful muscle contractions during training. Since strength is directly related to the force thats produced, the extra calcium increases overall performance. Testosterone and muscle strength are inextricably linked, so boosting hormone levels can be beneficial for both bodybuilding and competitive goals.
What Other Lifestyle Factors Can Lower My Testosterone
A few other lifestyle factors affect testosterone levels, though not necessarily in ways that you canâor shouldâtry to work around.
Family Planning and Families: If you’re a woman and take oral birth control, you’ll likely have lower testosterone levels than if you didn’t take the pill. Getting married and having children can also reduce testosterone in women. Even the simple act of nurturing of a crying infant also lowers testosterone in most women. Does this mean you should avoid any of these things? Definitely not. But be aware of them. As your kids get older, their testosterone-reducing effects on you should decrease.
In some, but not all studies, it appears that men aren’t immune to this effect, either. Uncommitted single men typically have the highest testosterone, while men in a committed relationship have reduced testosterone. Being married can lower testosterone even more, and being married with young children typically yields the lowest levels of circulating testosterone.
All of this evidence supports the “challenge hypothesis” that arose from bird research and shows that male testosterone levels tend to rise and fall based upon competing with other men for a mate or dominance.
The bad news for families, but the good news for testosterone levels, is that a man’s testosterone levels increase after divorce.
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How Does Testosterone Affect Sexual Health And Fertility
Beyond its roles in male sexual development and fertility, testosterone supplementation has been nearly conclusively shown to improve sexual function in men. Researchers have summarized the benefits of testosterone on male sexual function as being five-fold:
- Physiological: Testosterone stimulates nitric oxide and blood flow.
- Structural: Testosterone helps ensure that a man’s penis is working and performing properly.
- Neural: Testosterone improves the tissues involved in, and flow of impulses needed, for sexual activity.
- Antagonistic: Testosterone blocks the enzyme that would otherwise cause a man to lose an erection.
- Supportive: Testosterone helps counteract the adverse effects on sexual function that are common with obesity, diabetes, and aging.
Though high-dose testosterone supplementation can cause infertility, high-dose testosterone therapy is only about 70-90 percent effective as a form of male birth control, which is to say it’s less consistently effective than the use of oral contraceptives in women. Though fertility usually returns to normal within months or years after discontinued use of prescription testosterone in men, prolonged use of it can cause permanent infertility.
Collectively, the research in women with low sex drive or in menopause supports the safe and effective use of testosterone therapy to increase sexual desire, activity, pleasure, and orgasms, with an increase in acne being the only notable side effect.
Can A Man’s Testosterone Be Boosted Naturally
Category: Health Published: October 29, 2015
Let’s look at various agents and actions that do and do not boost testosterone. Keep in mind that all of the concepts below assume that the man has a healthy testosterone hormone system, which includes a properly functioning hypothalamus, pituitary gland, and testicles. If a man has a non-functioning testosterone hormone pathway, no amount of effort will naturally boost his testosterone levels. Such a man has to undergo hormone replacement therapy in order to have normal health. Also note that testosterone is a hormone with a long-term action. This means that a higher testosterone level will only lead to higher energy, bigger muscles, and better moods if the testosterone levels remain consistently elevated for several weeks to months. Agents that may lead to a temporary elevation of testosterone followed by a dip have no effect on long-term testosterone levels and therefore do not give the desired long-term benefits.
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Testosterone Treatment Increases Muscle Study Says Fueling Debate
ByJoe Brownstein16 December 2011
Testosterone therapy, in which testosterone is administered to men with low levels of the hormone, has been a controversial topic, with some advocating for the therapy as a way to restore vitality in older men, but others are concerned about the health conditions, such as heart problems and cancer, it may bring along.
Now, a new study shows that men taking testosterone therapy for just over half a year could gain a few pounds of muscle mass and lose a corresponding amount of body fat.
But while the authors find the study encouraging, it may not do much to change the minds of those skeptical of the risks and benefits.
While other research has also established that testosterone can help build muscle mass, there are concerns that it may raise the risks for prostate cancer. And some studies, such as a Boston University study published in the New England Journal of Medicine last year a study that was ended early because of these very concerns have shown an increased risk for heart problems on men taking the therapy.
“By and large, the medical community is not certain benefit from testosterone,” said Dr. John Amory, an internist who researches the effects of testosterone at the University of Washington.
The study was published online Dec. 6 in the Journal of Sexual Medicine.
Testosterone and muscles
While muscle mass increased in those treated, Amory said, it was only about 2.5 pounds. “The effect is not that marked,” he said.
An answer?