Herbs, Supplements, and the Safer Way to Support Testosterone

Ginseng Benefits and Cautions 0:00

Only 10% or less increase in testosterone, which is still good, but huge increases in wellbeing, increases in mood, increases in energy. Now there are different, many different ways to prepare ginseng and you need to know which are appropriate for you. I've had some real shocking ones of people that came to me. with kind of weird conditions. And one guy, older guy came in and said, all of a sudden, like over two days, all this acne came out and I started having headaches. And I said, what'd you do differently?

He said, well, nothing. I said, are you taking ginseng? And he said, oh yeah, one of my friends said it's great for old men. I said, let me see it. And it was a red Korean ginseng, which is very, very hot. And so in Chinese medicine, when we say it's very, very hot, it will cause inflammation and other problems. So I got them off of that. Now for someone else, red Korean ginseng would be amazing. I carry it. It's very valuable. But you need to know which ones are appropriate for you. So I would recommend against using it unless you're getting it from a professional.

Hi, and welcome to The Balancing Point. I'm Dr. John Needers, and I'm here to make traditional Chinese medicine, functional medicine, and integrative health simple, practical, and fun, so you can restore balance, boost vitality, and enjoy a healthier life every single day. Howdy, this is Dr. John back with another episode of The Balancing Point. I want to thank you for tuning in. Hopefully tuning in again. And today is part two of a little talk about testosterone supplements.

Introduction to Testosterone Supplements 1:35

Last episode, I talked about testosterone testing and things to be careful of and. why testosterone can be dangerous as a pharmaceutical. It's not always, but it can be. And it's often much safer to use herbs and supplements to increase testosterone levels. And I will tell you absolutely from many decades of experience that they actually worked. Now I'm a doctor of acupuncture and Oriental medicine. I'm certified in functional medicine and I've treated a lot of fertility cases and Chinese medicine is just brilliant for male and female fertility issues.

Now, I mentioned in the last episode that I'd speak from my personal experiences, as well as going over herbs and supplements that have the most credible research available in how they increase testosterone levels, or relatively increase it by lowering sex hormone binding globulin levels. Now, we went over sex hormone binding globulin in the last episode, but let's just say it's a significant issue In that under stress in particular, the body makes more sex hormone binding globulin. Sex hormone binding globulin does just what it says.

It binds your sex hormones. estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, et cetera, and makes them ineffective. So I'm going to talk again about my experience. And again, I emphasized in the last episode that testosterone levels are critical for men and for women. I have a great many, many, many female patients taking herbal supplements for testosterone to increase their testosterone and that they report that it has been absolutely life-changing for them.

Personal Health Crisis and Recovery 3:34

So it's not just about men, it's men and women both need testosterone. Now about me, in December of 2023, I was hospitalized for several days for congestive heart failure and pneumonia. Now those of you that know anything about Medicine know that that is not a good combination for a 72-year-old man. Oh, and by the way, I let myself go so far downhill that I had numerous other medical conditions. I mean, very dangerous when combined with the pneumonia and the congestive heart failure. In some ways, I was very lucky to leave the hospital alive.

I was very blessed. And then it, but then my doctors kind of just said, okay, you're good. And left it up to me to cure the myriad illnesses that I had allowed myself to fall into. And this is easy to do. You start going down the slippery slope. You don't pay attention to it. I was putting all my attention on my family and on my patients in particular and not on me. And so that's why I ended up in the hospital. I had diabetes, severe. I had gout so bad that I needed a walker to get around. I couldn't even get to the other rooms in my office and I had to be driven to work.

I had prostate enlargement and infection and multiple other problems. We don't have an hour to go into all those, but there were plenty. But one of the biggest issues is that all of these illnesses had sapped my strength, had just sucked the strength out of me to the point that I literally could not stand up without assistance. Right? I needed to use both hands to get out of my chair. My thigh muscles weren't strong enough off and I had to have someone help me up. I put grab bars in my bathroom around the toilet.

So you get the picture. I was very, very weak and That's very dangerous. One of the main tests for longevity and for dementia is how long it takes you to stand up out of a chair. So at any rate, I made a vow in the hospital, and again, I've done other shows talking about the specifics of that, but that I would change my life. I would turn it around in four months. I wanted to prove to myself I could do it. I wanted to prove to my patients that I could do it. And I wanted to create some hope in the world.

At the end of four months, I didn't need a walker. I could easily stand up on my own. I'm no longer diabetic and my prostate is in great shape. Four months, that's all. So if you can dedicate yourself to that, you can turn it around. Now, I knew I had to increase my testosterone levels, and it would not be safe for me to do that with pharmaceuticals because I had my heart issues and my blood coagulation issues. Testosterone, uh, pharmaceutically can be very dangerous. So what I used were herbs and supplements.

And here they are. I used Dongkat Ali. There are many theories about Dongkat Ali and why it works and how it works, but it's been used in Southeast Asia as an aphrodisiac and to increase fertility and happiness for centuries. There are many theories about why it works, but I think it's because it lowers sex hormone binding globulin. I think there's some pretty good research on that. If you run up this chat GPT, they say, the evidence is flimsy. That's fine, but I know it worked for me, right? My sex hormone binding globulin went up.

Herbs and Supplements That Raised Testosterone 7:10

Now, I was also using something else to lower sex hormone binding globulin. At the same time, in fact, these came in the same product. It's a product called Tomcat, which I just love that name. Uh, and this was the second item that was in that compound were Changbai mountain ants. Changbai is a mountain in China and the ants from that mountain. have almost magical, mystical qualities. And this has been well proven through research. But at one time, only the emperor and a few select people were allowed to have those ants.

They were made into an elixir, and they drank it, or they ate it. And they had these huge harems that they had to perform for. That was part of their official duty, whether they liked it or not. And so the Dongkhar Ali and the Chongbai Mountain Ants lowered my sex hormone binding globulin to the point that I could actually use the little bit of testosterone that I had and I immediately started feeling better. I was able to get to the gym five days a week. Then I also did Chongbai Mountain Sika deer antler tips, quite a mountain Chongbai, and Sika antler tips have the highest level of human growth, or growth hormone, I'll say, growth hormone and testosterone.

And so antlers, the deer isn't being hurt, they drop their antlers every year. But if you cut off the very tips, that's the fastest growing part of the antler, which has to grow all the way back every year, these huge antlers. So it takes a huge amount of testosterone and a huge amount of growth hormone. And so I did the Chongbai Mountain Cicadera antler tips to support my human growth hormone and testosterone levels. By 72, human growth hormone is barely existent. Testosterone's always very low.

So this was a good way to pump those up. The fourth thing I used was pine pollen extract. Now, there's very little evidence, research evidence for the effectiveness in pine pollen extract in humans. There are some good studies that have been done on fish, actually. It was very impressive. And when you look at the biochemistry of pine pollen extract, it's very similar to testosterone. So, you know, I thought maybe it'll work. Again, even though the research wasn't good, I didn't see a downside. And I believe that may have made the biggest difference in my recovery.

I can't prove that because I did all of these things at once. But once I started the pine pollen extract, I got great success. Unfortunately, the company that I got it from had a specialized process to produce it, and they are no longer in business, but that's what I used. Then Chinese herbs, we've got a couple that, well, one at least, that's been used for many centuries and has very good evidence for it, and that's an herb called desert cistantia, C-Y-S-T-A-N-C-H-E, which in Chinese is called rochongrong.

It's actually a fungus, a parasite that has to be wild grown, but it's been used for centuries for increasing libido, for increasing vitality, what in Chinese medicine is called kidney yang. which for kidney young, you can think of male sex hormones for the most part, very, very effective. I did that. And then I did a supplement, creatine monohydrate. Now, I was leery about that. I'd heard some bad things, you know, some indeterminate things. But when I started researching it, I read dozens of studies.

I read Arnold Schwarzenegger's blogs on creatine. And they all showed incredible benefits for strength building. Now, if you have higher muscle to fat ratio, you're going to have higher testosterone. Body fat really destroys testosterone levels. Higher muscle and activity will increase testosterone. So for me, the creatine was probably the most effective thing for muscle growth and increasing strength, where the other supplements were really great for increasing my testosterone levels and lowering sex hormone binding globulin levels.

Additional Supplements and Adaptogens 11:30

And so again, four months, I doubled my strength from my pre-illness plateau in four months, developed more muscle mass and better tone. Now, other supplements, and these I did not use at the time, a couple of them I'm using now, that are well proven, ashwagandha, the Ayurvedic herb. Now, you know, I doubted that it was effective because it was in so many Ayurvedic formulas. I mean, almost every time someone would come in and they'd been doing Ayurvedic formulas, they had ashwagandha. And it's like, yeah, okay.

Well, then I started doing more research and the research indicates a 14 Doesn't sound like much, but it's actually very significant. 14 to 20% increase in testosterone. Now I've used it a lot for adrenal support for my patients. It's useful for almost everything. It's good for mood. It's good for testosterone. It's good for the adrenals. not too expensive either. So ashwagandha, fenugreek extract. Now women have been using fenugreek for, I don't know how long actually, but a very long time to help with milk production and it's very effective.

And one of the things it does with testosterone issues, it lowers dihydrotestosterone, which is a byproduct of testosterone and the more dangerous byproduct, but it will lower DHT levels by 40%. Ginseng was one that we looked at. Only 10% or less increase in testosterone, which is still good, but huge increases in wellbeing, increases in mood, increases in energy. Now there are many different ways to prepare ginseng and you need to know which are appropriate for you. I've had some real shocking ones of people that came to me.

with kind of weird conditions. And one guy, older guy came in and said, all of a sudden, like over two days, all this acne came out and I started having headaches. And I said, what'd you do differently? He said, well, nothing. I said, are you taking ginseng? And he said, oh yeah, one of my friends said it's great for old men. I said, let me see it. And it was a red Korean ginseng, which is very, very hot. And so in Chinese medicine, when we say it's very, very hot, it will cause inflammation and other problems.

So I got them off of that. Now for someone else, red Korean ginseng would be amazing. I carry it. It's very valuable, but you need to know which ones are appropriate for you. So I would recommend against using it unless you're getting it from a professional. The exception is an herb called Siberian ginseng or Eleotherio because it's not really ginseng. It's one of the most powerful adaptogens. Adaptogens are when you're under stress and your adrenals are overtaxed and you're barely holding on. You want those adaptogens.

They help you adapt to life and difficult situations. Shilajit, S-H-I-L-A-J-I-T, which it's a compound, it's a fascinating compound. It's from a breakdown of certain plants. Anyway, I'm not going to go into it in detail, but there was a 10 to 20% increase in testosterone. I don't use it in my practice because the potency and effectiveness can vary a lot depending on the sourcing, and I don't personally have a source for it that I really know enough about. Good chelagy will increase testosterone levels.

For minerals, boron and zinc can have a huge effect. So those are two things. Now, again, with a mineral, if you're not deficient and you take it, you're not going to notice much. But if you are deficient and you take it, wow, things can really, really go wild. Zinc I like in particular because at higher dosages, it's very effective as a COVID and antiviral.

Closing Advice and Professional Guidance 15:30

COVID protection and antiviral. If you can get enough zinc into the cells, then it's very hard for the virus to replicate. And so for COVID, I would recommend about 60 milligrams a day with some other things to help get it into the cells. But boron and zinc, now there are tons of other herbs. And you see studies that vary a lot. Some show they're effective, some show they aren't. Often when you see that it's because of production questions. It's like, how was this herb sourced? How was it processed, et cetera.

But things that have been used forever, things like horny goat wade, yin-yang ho or tribulus have shown some promise, but they aren't my frontline issues. All right, so that's my testosterone supplementation in a nutshell. It works. Herbs and supplements are very effective at safely increasing testosterone levels. With that being said, I highly recommend that you see a professional that's trained in their usage before you dive in head first. All right, I hope this is helpful. I want you to be happy, be healthy, and I'll be back next week.

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