Testosterone (T) levels in Canadian & American men have been declining over the past two decades. Low T in our nation came from lifestyle factors such as poor nutritional choices, low physical activity level, poor sleep quantity & quality and other unsupportive habits. All of these and more are natural causes in low T levels. For most male readers, our collective grandfathers had about 50% more testosterone (T) than most of us do when they were our age.

The most common symptoms of low T levels are usually:

1. Reduced libido, sex drive & erectile dysfunction
2. Low energy, depression & low motivation
3. Trouble losing fat & increased fat tissue
4. Difficulty building muscle and strength
5. Brain fog & an increased risk of developing Alzheimer's
6. Gynecomastia: development of male breasts

The chances are that you may suffer from two or more of these symptoms because most men in Canada & the U.S. do. If this doesn’t sound familiar, being informed and taking preventative measures will only better your future self.

This post is the first of a five-part series (plus a special featuring Napoleon Hill) where we’ll cover information that men need to know about increasing their T levels naturally.

What is Testosterone?

Simplified: Testosterone is the principal male sex hormone, and it’s anabolic for growth characteristics. Synthetic testosterone is the most sought after performance enhancing drug in sports. Most people don’t know what it is beyond this or what it does.

When testosterone molecules enter specialized receptor sites in your muscle tissue, they begin protein synthesis, and therefore grow new muscle tissue. Similar effects take place in bones. Testosterone molecules bind to distinct skeletal receptors and increase the density, strength, and mineral uptake of the bone and muscle tissue.

The effect is so pronounced that external additions of T (meaning steroids) build muscle even without training or exercising.

Why Men Should Naturally Increase Their Testosterone

The truth is, the endocrine (hormone) system is much too complicated to be fixed by prescription(s) or pill(s) – this is why T Boosters are scams.

Low T in our society has manifested from lifestyle factors such as poor nutritional choices, low physical activity levels, reduced sleep quantity & quality and other unsupportive habits. All of these and more are natural causes in low T levels. If men optimized their lifestyle, they'd achieve the opposite effect – an increase in natural T production.

Here’s the problem: Doctors and researchers know how bad most people are at changing their habits. We are creatures of habit as you've likely heard. For this reason and big pharma incentives, doctors prescribe the easy fix. It's very temporary, so men will have to go back for more and be dependent on resources out of sync with their body – aka Testosterone Supplementation Therapy (TST) or Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT).

HRT causes an adverse effect on health in the long term. You’ve heard about bodybuilders having small testicles right? It’s true. If your body receives T from an outside source, it will stop producing its natural testosterone. You may think that this isn’t so bad but that’s not the biggest problem. The real issue is that when a man stops using exogenous T, the body won’t produce its own because it has adapted physiologically to an external source for T resources.

In fact, the body is left usually worse than when a man began using HRT. Such these reasons why men must take control of their habits and increase their T production levels naturally. Relying on medication as a treatment has its consequences.

T-gels, creams, pellets, and patches that the doctor is prescribing can affect natural T production even after men stop taking them...and not in the right way. Please ask your doctor questions.

Understanding How the Body Produces Testosterone Will Help Men Optimize Their Production

Here is what happens: When external sources of hormones enter into your bloodstream, the brain can't tell how it got into the bloodstream. The brain doesn’t differentiate if T came from your testicles or from somewhere else. Your brain assumes all is fine since it detects that there is T in your blood. The brain doesn't know the source, and it never communicates to the testes to work and produce more testosterone. The testes shrink because it lost its primary job & wither in function the longer a man uses external hormones.

Natural testosterone is produced through the following process:

It all starts from the hypothalamus (a gland deep in the brain) which releases a hormone called gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH).

GnRH then stimulates the pituitary gland (another gland deep in the brain) that releases two other hormones: luteinizing hormone (LH) & follicle stimulating hormone (FSH).

Via the bloodstream, both of these hormones make their way from the brain, down to the testes where they enter testicular Leydig cells.

Inside Leydig cells, the following events take place: FSH starts the process of spermatogenesis, whereas LH – through an incredibly complex process – converts cholesterol into testosterone.

About 95% of testosterone production happens this way. The remaining ~5% are synthesized from DHEA in the adrenal glands.

Based on how much T is present in the body, a “Feedback” signaling” is sent via the spinal cord to tell the hypothalamus to either accelerate or slow the production.

If a man has exogenous T flowing in their body, the signal from the brain to the testes will be “Bless. We have plenty of T available, no need to produce more.”

How Does Testosterone Affect the Body After Production?

Once testosterone enters the bloodstream, it’s referred to as “free testosterone.” It’s literally free from any receptor, as it’s not bound to anything…yet. When T levels reaches a certain threshold, the liver releases a carrier protein called Sex Hormone Binding Globulin (SHBG). This is where things get complicated.

About 98% of this fresh “free testosterone” is bound to either SHBG or albumin (another carrier protein). When testosterone links to either one of these proteins, it cannot efficiently enter cells anymore. T cannot connect to the receptor as easily since it's not just T anymore, there's a protein with it making that molecule way to big to fit. It has difficulty joining the muscular-skeletal androgen receptors.

Roughly 98% of the testosterone is not really that “active.” The more of the carrier proteins (SHBG and albumin) you have in your bloodstream, the fewer testosterone molecules remain biologically available. The remaining testosterone that isn't attached to carrier proteins (free testosterone), freely circulates the body, just waiting to be coupled to a receptor.

Let’s say you’re lifting weights at the gym. Your muscular skeletal androgen receptors activate, and free T molecules will be bound to the receptors. Once the binding occurs, the receptor experiences a structural change, allowing your T molecules to enter your cells inner nucleus, where DNA stays.

Testosterone communicates with DNA, the effects of testosterone finally take place. In muscle tissue nucleus, this increases protein synthesis and muscle growth as a result. If this happens in the face, your jaw bone may become stronger, more chiseled and angular, etc.

What Should Men Do Right Now?

Thank you for your support, the next post I will share solutions on how to raise testosterone naturally today.