S2 EP 30: Testosterone Truths Part 2: Your Hormone Health Battle Plan

Natural Foundations for Healthy Testosterone 0:00

Let's talk about some things that we can do naturally to help you. Obviously, we're going to talk about TRT, testosterone replacement therapy. We're also going to talk about some peptides, but let's talk about lifestyle things. Then we'll get into some supplements. Then we'll get into TRT. And then we'll get into peptides. Okay. Okay. So, first natural a strength training. Muscle is medicine. I can't emphasize it enough. You have to go lift. Lift often. Lift heavy. Now, if you're just starting, be careful. Get a trainer. Get the proper form and work your way up to heavier weights. Sleep vital vital for you. Growth hormone releases when you sleep.

And we're going to talk about growth hormone and actually peptides that are going to enhance growth hormone because it's in the pathway of testosterone. So you definitely want to be getting adequate sleep. Reduce alcohol, reduce xenoestrogen exposure. That means quit drinking out of plastic bottles. Quit using all the body colog, the body sprays, the body washes, the deodorants, even the heavy metals that are in there like aluminum. Make sure that you're eating clean, you're drinking clean water, you're filtering your water. I'm not saying a beer from time to time isn't okay. But if you are a power drinker, you're a weekend boozer, you got to change those habits because it's also more detrimental to overindulge on the weekends with 6, 8, 10 beers than to have maybe one beer every night throughout the week because your body can process out a little bit of alcohol and the liver is not quite as stressed versus you drinking 6 8 10 beers on the weekend over a period of 6 or eight hours where the liver is constantly trying to process it out. So, we can't destroy ourselves on the weekend with this mindset of like, it's the weekend, you know, I'm watching football or baseball and I'm just going to drink all day. I I would rather see you just have one beer or a glass of wine through the week just to modulate that if you need to. Um, I really rather see you do nothing, but that's not our world. But you have to make this doable and healthy for yourself and not break down all of the hard work you've done all week with a 10-hour drinking binge. Just my opinion. Manage stress. So important. I mean, guys, I know you don't talk a lot about your emotions or how bad things are. You can physically manage stress or you can psychologically manage it or you can do both. Very important. So, if you're having issues in any of these, there's some things that you can do um that are going to help you, right?

Strength training, obviously, that's easy. Go to the gym, but make sure you're doing things to recover. You want to have some good branch chain amino acids. You want to have um some creatine, maybe you also want to be looking at um the right workout, the right plan, the right amount of time. Don't overdo your goals. You know, you're not going to make it to the gym six days a week. If you work full-time and you got kids in sports, you might want to set yourself up for three days a week. If you make it an extra day, that's awesome. Make sure you're doing nutrients to recover. Electrolytes, branch chain amino acids, those would be the top two. Magnesium would be another one that I would recommend. You need magnesium, guys. And I would probably do a combination of maybe glycinate, citrate, 3nate, something along those lines. adequate sleep. If you're not sleeping,

Recovery, Sleep, and Stress Support 3:56

there's a few key things you can look at. One, if you're waking up all night, that's an adrenal issue. Get on some sort of adrenal support. If you can't fall asleep and you're stinking thinking, you might want to consider some atheanine before bed or even ashwagandha, something that's going to calm the brain, something with GABA. I personally like a product called Calm Day. That's a great one by Nutritional Frontiers. You can find it on my store. I will link my store here in the show notes as well as uh link some of the products that I'm talking about which means I probably should make some notes so I don't forget. Right. So, uh adrenal support calm day. If you are having issues where you pop awake at a certain time of night, that's usually liver health because if you're popping awake between 1 and 3:00 a.m., that's usually liver congestion. So, I would suggest supporting the liver. You have to look at what you're eating, what you're drinking, but you can also use something like live complete. That's going to really help you take that with food around dinner time. Other than that, if you're having other sleep issues like sleep apneoa, obviously that's a mouth structure issue. Your tongue is probably falling back into the back of your throat. It's not sitting correctly on the roof of your mouth. We actually have a specialist in my practice that you can talk to about that. and getting to a physiological dentist that might be able to help you with that. If you need a sleep study or something along those lines, you can always do that. Uh, really important though that you address apnea. You don't want to stop breathing in the middle of the night. Don't negate melatonin. It's not just for sleep. Melatonin is one of the biggest anti-inflammatory nutrients out there. Amazing. You can take it all through the day. Reset your circadian rhythm. Get off your phones at night. Make sure that you're not getting that blue light stimulation to your eyes. That's going to decrease your melatonin production and keep you awake. All right. Reducing alcohol and xenoestrogen exposure. We talked about that. Managing stress. Again, calm day. That that little product has been one of my saving graces. I absolutely love it. Um again, two capsules I usually take around lunchtime and I usually take one or two at dinnertime. that just keeps me calm all day long, keeps althanine to my brain, GABA. I am high cortisol because I'm I work a lot. Uh so I need to learn to manage my stress and so do you guys.

Again, adrenal support for managing stress as well. So many things that you can do. My advice is get with a practitioner and we are here to help. You can reach out. I'm happy to help you um to get some of these things going. Now, let's talk about um direct products to um help you with testosterone. And I'm gonna if you're on the Zoom with me here, cuz we we did post this in the Academy of Abiding Wellness too, the video, I'm going to take you for a little walk around some products that I personally love for men to help boost testosterone. So, I'm going to share screen. I'm still going to talk through this with you if you're just listening on podcast, but I'll also put the link to the video if you want to go watch it in the academy and see some of these products. The first one is Testo 180. This is another product that's made by Nutritional Frontiers. Uh it's a great product and I'm going to go through some of the ingredients because I think they're valuable. First you have largginine which is amazing um amino acid that works directly with the pathways of testosterone. Macaka root, tribulus, Asian gins singh, uh you have u dim which is going to help modulate the estrogen and then gooflavonoid. Uh that's in the form of GKO leaf extract and it's a great product uh because honestly when you have low testosterone you need all of these things. Uh lar arginine this is an essential amino acid and it's a potent stimulator of growth hormone release. Now, when we talk about growth hormone, uh we're talking about release from the hypothalamus when you sleep, and it's going to uh call for the release of other hormones that are going to help you recover and grow. That's really the simplest way I can put it. So, Larginine will increase circulation. It's going to be a potent amino acid. You need it.

Then you have the ginkoaloba. Now, ginkoaloba, I know we've talked about it probably in the 80s and 90s for memory, but it's really just to increase blood flow and it hits the genitals. So, if you have any type of issue with ED, this one can be very beneficial for increasing blood flow to that area. It also helps with sex drive and kind of increasing your libido. And then you have uh the ginsing. Now, a lot of people don't know the value of Jins Singh, but this is a real common one that's added to herbal formulas because it's it's highly used to treat any type of sexual dysfunction.

There's been lots of studies on laboratory animals that have shown that Jins Singh enhances libido and um performance. that also appears to be um mediated by the release or the modification of nitric oxide. So nitric oxide is really important for circulation viscosity uh the help the health of you know your overall circulation. So for guys that's that's very important. We want to make sure that you have good circulation to areas. Let's talk a little bit about the tribulus, which might be not as common as you think. And and for those that can't see what I'm showing you, these are the raw ingredients in the product called testo 180. And so tribulus is often used for infertility, ED, and low libido. This is probably one of the

Testosterone-Boosting Supplements and DHEA 10:11

number one herbs that you'll find in most male formulas. Um and it's gained popularity because uh there was a research study done in Bulgaria and Russia that indicated that tribulus actually increase levels of testosterone in DHEA by increasing the luteinizing hormone which is one of the hormones that we look at at men to make sure that it's good. And then there's other things in there like maca which um this warriors would take before battle you know because it increases strength. Um, and then there's other herb powders that are going to help with nitric oxide levels and uh other type of circulatory.

So, this testo 180, easy, awesome, good for you. Take it. I would recommend it. All right. Next product on the list is the homeopathic testosterone. Now, homeopathy is great because you can utilize a bunch of it. And I actually took this as a woman because I had low testosterone and low free testosterone. So I chose to do a homeopathic as well as some DHEA cream which I'm going to show you. Um and then I also modulated my estrogen using a product called estro cleanse and dim. So um we'll get into all that guys because you can use the exact same pathway but I'm going to put that together for you. But this homeopathic, if you're not familiar with homeopathy, it's the idea that likes cure likes. And so, you're putting in the frequency of testosterone into the body. And your body's only going to take what it needs. So, it's safe, it's effective, it gives you that little boost that you want. And so, testosterone, this product, you can grab it on my store. Um, I usually do 10 drops for men three times a day, just by mouth. Easy to take, good tasting. you won't mind it at all. We also have the testo 180 tincture. Now, this is an herbal formula different than the homeopathy, which is really the frequency of what once was. This actually has herbal formulations in it.

And really, there's a few differentiators in this one like ashwagandha and what's and another product called horny goat. Pretty much self-explanatory what that one does. So there's also some yohimi in here and some deer antler velvet. So this one is a great kicker to the 180. I would not This one is also going to help you modulate stress induced low testosterone because of the ashwagandha. So here's what I would say. If you're having an issue with low libido and things like that, all of the signs and symptoms that your testosterone is a little bit low, you can do a combination of the testo 180 capsules with the herbal formula testo 180. You can also add in the homeopathic testosterone because your body's only going to take what it needs. I would advise that you get your blood work redone. You don't just want to stay on something, but I usually tell men, give it time to work. I don't know how low you were and how quickly you're going to rebuild. So, you want to let things work. You usually want to let them work 60 to 90 days and then retest. Really important if it's a natural product. If it's an HRT, I would get your blood work done every four to six weeks because that's going to work faster because you're literally putting in testosterone replacement. When you use a natural approach like testo 180, the testosterone homeopathic, and then the testosterone tincture, you are fueling your body to modulate your hormones to make enough testosterone.

It's not a replacement. There is a difference. Okay, we also have DHEA capsules 25 mg and we have DHEA cream which each pump distributes 20 mg. So let's talk about DHEA. Obviously, we talked about this being the precursor adrenal hormone that supports healthy aging and also is in the pathway of testosterone. Um, and it's very very important that we have enough so that we can convert testosterone. So, by putting this in, if you have your DHEA sulfate tested and it is low, you can utilize this. Um, at 25 mg, you can use more if you need it. Um, I prefer the cream because I have more control over it. And I actually have one right here with me. And I use this myself. Um, and I just do one squirt or one pump and I put it on my forearms and I rub it in with my other forearm. You can do up to two pumps a day, but tons of great results when your plasma DHEA levels are optimal. And in most people about 80% between the ages of 25 and 75 years old have low DHEA sulfate levels. Now what I will say um is you absolutely want to modulate the estrogen because this also is in the pathway of creating estrogen. And so if you have high estrogen as a man, I would probably not use DHEA. I would probably optimize my testosterone first and then get my insulin resistance under control cuz that's going to be the a number one sign besides your insulin and glucose being high. But if you haven't tested those, which I test in men, I test your insulin. But if you only have estrogen levels and they're high, there's a good chance you have insulin resistance. So you might not want to use DHEA cream. You might want to use the testo 180, the testosterone tincture, and the testosterone homeopathic. Get your insulin resistance under control. And then as that happens, you'll be able to build your own testosterone. You can also do TRT if you wanted to. So those are my recommendations on kind of how to use the products. If you need more guidance or help, I'm here for you. You can always reach out. Obviously, you know, we have a lot of different ways that we can work with you. Um, and I don't want to overwhelm anybody with tons and tons of information, but my point to this whole podcast is pay attention to your testosterone, know what it is, know why it's low, work with someone that can help you, and put the right thing in for your body, whether it's natural TRT or peptides. So, let's just jump to peptides because peptides support the body naturally. These are biological processes. Peptides are bridges. They are produced in your body.

But sometimes with age, standard American diet being sad, right? High cortisol, high stress, low nutrition, you're not going to produce the peptides you need as a man to produce enough human growth hormone, HGH, which stimulates other hormones in the body, um, including testosterone. So when your peptides decline, your HGH declines, so does your testosterone. So when we compare this to other options such as uh TRT peptides can help boost TRT serum, so you can use them in conjunction with and get better results and use less TRT without suppressing the natural production of your own testosterone. That's the big thing with TRT. People worry about their bodies going to stop producing their natural amount. If you use peptides alone or in conjunction with TRT or peptides in conjunction with natural boosting of testosterone with natural products, it is an incredible combination. My favorite combo to start out with is Testo 180, the testosterone homeopathic and the testosterone tincture with peptides that help with growth hormone. That's like my favorite combo. If we need TRT, we can always go there, you know, but I don't always start guys out unless you're super low. If you're super super low, we could probably start out with TRT, but it's not always 100% necessary, especially in young men. Especially in young men, you know, guys, you don't want to get into using TRT too young. You want to optimize.

How Peptides Support Hormones 18:58

You're young. You can rejuvenate. Your testosterone is probably low because of something you're doing, not because of something your body's doing. So just keep that in mind. Okay. So how peptides work is the hypothalamus and the pituitary gland, they control the amount of testosterone that's being produced by the gonads or the testicles, right? The hypothalamus then releases what's called GNR which is gonadotropen releasing hormone and that triggers the pituitary gland to release luteinizing hormone which we now know luteinizing hormone travels to the gonads sends all the signals and tells them to release more testosterone. Remember, LH levels aren't just low by themselves. They're going to be affected by this GNR, which is hypothalamus, right? So, stress is going to affect you guys. Stress, okay? Big time. This feedback loop, it controls everything and it maintains these normal levels. So, really important. So, peptides can help with boosting your testosterone levels.

First um they can directly impact the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal which is called HPA axis and they can stimulate testosterone synthesis. Very simple. These types of peptides are actually going to help support the release of hormones. Um they increase serum testosterone and that includes all the things I talked about above plus FSH. Second, peptides can boost growth hormone uh in the pituitary gland. So again affecting the other nearby hormones LH, FSH etc. releasing more signaling for the gonads to release more testosterone. And then third it's going to play a role in preventing the conversion of testosterone to estrogen.

So these are people that have excess body fat um that have uh the gymastia, the male breasts. You have to look at the person in front of you to know which peptides to use. Listen, you can play around with peptides. It's really not going to hurt you. Um just try to follow the right protocols and the right people. But as a guy, you know, insulin resistance, you guys are still susceptible just as women. When you have high production of estrogen because your aromatase is increased due to your insulin resistance, you have this negative signal to the pituitary gland. And so it reduces the ability to produce LH and FSH. So it has this feedback loop to the p pituitary saying, "Well, we don't really need any more testosterone because we have enough. It's just getting converted to estrogen." So you actually lower your production of estrogen, increase this estrogen in your body. So it's not the same thing as saying you're suppressing your estrogen levels. You want to find optimal balance. Okay? We don't want to ever suppress the body's natural flow of something. and we want to find that's what medications do and we don't always want that. So here are some peptides that you can use. Um, kissepin 10. This is um, basically there are two peptides that stimulate testosterone synthesis by affecting the hypothalamus, pituitary, adrenal, HPA, um, kispepin 10. And that's produced by the hypothalamus naturally. But when you have high stress, all the things, you're not going to produce it. It plays a role in reproduction and also cognitive function, bone health, fat. Those are the things you're looking at. It binds with what are called G-proin coupled receptors, releases GNR, which we talked about above, and uh helps release FSH. So, that's also going to stimulate LH production and stimulate the gonads to produce testosterone. So, that's kind of how that pathway works. So, I'm not going to get into a ton of them. Um, but that one primarily is really good.

Another one is um simorin, which is known is pretty common in the peptide world, but this is um a growth hormone releasing hormone that's commonly used with children who have growth deficiencies. So it consists of about 29 amino acid change and it increases both FSH and LH levels in kids which we know is going to stimulate the gonads to release testosterone which is going to help. Now another backer to this is to have optimal levels of zinc because zinc is really important in all of these conversions. So, taking a good multivitamin as a guy that has all the minerals, nutrients, and bioavailable B vitamins, very key. Uh, another one that we like to look at is epomorlin. Now, this is a synthetic growth hormone releasing peptide. So, it's an agonist or excuse me, it stimulates the growth of growth hormone. It's not growth hormone itself. Okay? So um when you take it, it directly inc indirectly increases testosterone by encouraging growth hormone. That's kind of how it works. So where cereal is more of a hormone, is a growth hormone um aggregator. It's going to stimulate the body to create more growth hormone which through the pituitary gland is going to in increase LH and FSH telling the gonads to release more testosterone. I'm probably going to have to put like some sort of thing on here that says not for kids. Um CJC. Now you can also find a CJC with epomorlin which is a great combination but the CJC is going to ramp up your sexual prowess. It's going to stimulate the pituitary gland to release testosterone, estrogen, and other hormones. And so sometimes if you have high estrogen, this wouldn't be the best one for you to do. I'd probably see you do some of the other ones. Um, but it can improve sex drive. So, because this affects all pathways, some people that have high estrogen or even high cortisol can have a little bit of an issue with CJC. Uh, I'm just giving you all the pros and cons. Um, and then you have GHRP, which is growth hormone releasing peptide 6 that can help support testosterone production through the same pathway where we're doing all this. You also have GHRP2. I'm less familiar with those. I don't work a lot with those. Uh, I usually do the epomorlin, uh, cereal. Um, I also like um just a a regular BPC 157 complmenting those for recovery and performance. Uh, lots of different combinations that you can utilize with peptides. So, that's my peptide spew.

The other one that I'm more familiar with is AODD. And this one is a synthetic growth hormone analog. And that means it's going to help the body stimulate growth hormone again increasing LH increasing FSH stimulating for more testosterone. Uh all of that can be done. So this is peptide therapy. Um and you can utilize that with testosterone natural uh products with

TRT Basics and When to Consider It 26:38

testosterone replacement or by itself. [Music] Um, sometimes people don't love going directly to TRT because you can have a lot of side effects from that. Whereas with peptide therapy, it's generally safe. You're going to have very, very little side effects with peptides. Um, so I just give you that example because they're not going to lower your levels of natural testosterone. These are natural amino acid chains that you already make in your body. And so when you enhance it by injecting or taking peptides orally, you don't create any signaling for your body to stop doing something on its own. When you do TRT, you the body will stop producing at the amounts its own testosterone because remember there's testosterone in your blood. You're going to get a negative feedback to the brain saying, "Ha, we have enough. We don't have to produce anymore." So luteinizing hormone and FSH, etc. may not stay at a functional range they can lower, which was going to give you less stimulation to the gonads to produce your own testosterone. So there's a fine line in balance. That's why I like to start natural products first and then go with the peptides to enhance that. That has been a really great combination. But if you need TRT, obviously we can do that too and get you to the right person that can give that to you in prescription.

prescribing is not my scope, but I work with a ton of medical practitioners who do and we util utilize their medical uh staff to help you attain those optimal results. So, finally, we're going to talk about testosterone replacement therapy uh which is administered um through injection from the outside in right through the body. Now, with men, um, this is usually done with into the muscle. Uh, a lot of women will do it subq, and you want to get to optimal levels. So, when you're choosing someone that's going to do testosterone replacement for you, they need to be monitoring your blood work every four to 6 weeks for optimal levels, helping you adjust the dosage. Uh, and you also have to have this prescribed by a physician. Buying things um on the internet from shady little places, not something that I would recommend. So, we can help you get in front of a medical doctor that will help do this for you uh or medical facility um in conjunction with natural products and other things to lower estrogen in your body that are natural. you can have an awesome program. So, I just want you guys to be aware that this is out there. The expense of testosterone, some people worry about TRT is going to be super expensive. It's not as big as you think expense-wise and um you know, you can get it done by prescription as I said. So low testosterone is nothing to worry work uh nothing to ignore is what I want to say. Um there are standard screening tools to determine if you need TRT. Uh again your physician that you're working with should be highly qualified in this. This is not something you just buy off the shelves of some online distribution. Not safe. Shouldn't be done.

So, I want to close with um just a few points, okay? Testosterone is vital for you guys. Keeping it optimal is vital for your for you guys. There's natural ways that you can bring it up that are safe and effective. And if you combine those natural products with peptide therapy, it's a win-win. But you need to be in front of the right practitioner to do that. You know, you can go and play around with peptides and that's fine, but there's different markers that we look at body types um as well as what is the expression of symptomology that we can adjust for you. Uh if you're choosing to do testosterone replacement therapy and you want to reach out to us, we can get you uh in contact with the medical teams that we work with uh to do the assessment. look at your blood work and get you what you need. So, again, not within my scope to prescribe, but I work with really great resources and people that I trust and people that have been doing it well for years because you don't want to get in front of somebody new to TRT who's not going to help you monitor or adjust. Last, don't be afraid of reaching out if you're a guy. I know this is not the easiest topic for men to talk about.

But it's not going to get any better doing nothing. There are certain things you can control today. Go to bed on time. Cut down on the alcohol. Start eating more whole foods. Make sure that you know you're keeping your blood sugar optimal. Lower your sugar intake. Increase your hydration and get good sleep. All of that will improve your life overall. If you want to optimize your testosterone levels, reach out to me. I'm happy to help you. I'll put the appointment uh in the show notes or you can reach out to my assistant. I will put her email in there. So guys, I hope this helps. Um stay tuned cuz all month it's about you. So make sure you pass this to somebody who can use it. A friend of yours, a guy at the gym. If you're a female listening to this and this sounds like somebody you know or love, make sure they listen or write down a few points for them to understand. Remember, there are things that you can do so that you can age gracefully and feel great over the next 20, 30, or 40 golden years that you have coming up. And I'm happy to be a part of your health journey. Thanks guys for tuning in and God bless.