DOUBLE Your TESTOSTERONE Naturally With These TRICKS | Andrew Huberman

Summary

The video script delves into the intricate relationship between testosterone and dopamine, highlighting how testosterone, originating from the adrenals and testes, enhances the pleasure derived from effort. It discusses the role of cholesterol in either producing cortisol, a stress hormone, or testosterone. The script challenges the myth of testosterone reduction with sleep deprivation, emphasizing the importance of sleep in replenishing testosterone. It also explores the impact of sex and ejaculation on testosterone levels, noting that while sex can increase testosterone, abstinence can further boost it. The discussion extends to the influence of proper breathing, light exposure, and exercise on hormone levels. Lastly, it touches on the effects of supplements like vitamin D, zinc, magnesium, and creatine on testosterone optimization.

Takeaways

• 🔬 Testosterone and dopamine are closely related in the pituitary system, influencing our motivation and the feeling of effort.
• 🌡️ Testosterone is synthesized from cholesterol, which can also be diverted to produce cortisol, a stress hormone, highlighting a physiological choice between stress and effort positivity.
• 💪 The primary role of testosterone is to make effort feel rewarding, which is crucial for motivation and well-being.
• 🤔 While anger can lead to increased cortisol and decreased testosterone, enjoying one's activities can maintain or even increase testosterone levels.
• 🧠 Testosterone is not simply the opposite of estrogen; instead, prolactin is often considered the antagonist of testosterone, promoting a state of rest.
• 🛌 Contrary to some beliefs, sleep deprivation does not necessarily decrease testosterone levels, but sleep is still essential for its replenishment.
• 🏋️‍♂️ Physical activity, particularly heavy weight training, can significantly increase testosterone levels, suggesting a link between physical effort and hormonal balance.
• 🌞 Proper light exposure, especially early in the day, is crucial for maintaining optimal levels of dopamine and testosterone.
• 🌙 Avoiding bright light exposure at night can help prevent the suppression of dopamine and testosterone, supporting hormonal balance.
• 💊 Certain supplements and compounds, such as vitamin D, zinc, magnesium, and creatine, can influence testosterone levels, suggesting dietary and supplemental strategies for hormonal optimization.

Q & A

What is the relationship between testosterone and dopamine?

Testosterone and dopamine are closely related in the pituitary system. Testosterone, which comes from the adrenals and testes, primarily makes effort feel good, while dopamine is a neurotransmitter associated with reward and pleasure.

How does the body's production of cholesterol affect testosterone levels?

Cholesterol can be synthesized into either cortisol, a stress hormone, or testosterone. Since the body has a limited amount of cholesterol, it gets diverted towards either stress or the pathway where effort feels good, which is the pathway linked to testosterone production.

What is the effect of anger on testosterone levels?

Anger can divert more cholesterol molecules towards cortisol production, leading to stress and a slow depletion of testosterone.

Does sleep deprivation affect testosterone levels?

Contrary to a common myth, testosterone doesn't necessarily drop with sleep deprivation. However, sleep is needed to replenish testosterone levels eventually.

How can enjoying one's activities impact testosterone stores?

Enjoying what you're doing can help maintain or even increase testosterone stores, which in turn makes effort feel good and improves the quality of life.

What is the role of testosterone in competitive and foraging behaviors?

Increases in testosterone promote competitive and foraging type behaviors in humans and non-human mammals. Competitive environments can also increase testosterone levels.

How does sex affect testosterone levels?

Sex can increase testosterone levels, with the physical act of sex leading to significant increases. However, the act of ejaculation itself does not reduce testosterone levels, and abstinence can further increase testosterone levels.

What is the impact of proper sleep on hormone levels like testosterone and estrogen?

Proper sleep can offset reductions in testosterone and estrogen, and fertility issues that occur due to lack of sleep. Breathing correctly during waking hours and sleep, and viewing bright light within the first hour of waking are important for optimizing these hormones.

How does nose breathing during sleep affect hormone levels?

Nose breathing during sleep increases the amount of oxygen intake and carbon dioxide offloading, which can reduce apnea and breath holding, leading to decreased cortisol and increased testosterone and estrogen levels.

What is the role of light exposure in regulating dopamine and testosterone?

Viewing bright light within the first hour of waking has powerful effects on sleep and wakefulness, which translates to optimizing testosterone and estrogen levels. Avoiding bright light exposure in the middle of the night is also important to prevent suppression of dopamine release.

What are some supplements or compounds that can optimize testosterone levels?

Vitamin D, zinc, magnesium, and creatine are some compounds that can optimize testosterone levels. Additionally, herbal supplements like Tongkat Ali and Fogia Agrestis can significantly boost free and active testosterone.

Outlines

00:00

🧠 Testosterone and Dopamine: The Brain's Reward for Effort

The paragraph discusses the intricate relationship between testosterone and dopamine within the pituitary system. Testosterone, primarily produced by the adrenals and testes, is highlighted for its role in making effort feel rewarding. The script explains the biochemical pathway where cholesterol can be converted into either cortisol (a stress hormone) or testosterone, illustrating the body's choice between stress and rewarding effort. It also touches on the myth of testosterone drop with sleep deprivation, emphasizing the importance of sleep for testosterone replenishment. The speaker suggests that enjoying one's activities can help maintain or even increase testosterone levels, which is crucial for a fulfilling life. The paragraph concludes with insights on how testosterone and estrogen are fundamental to the will to live and effort, and how they have evolved to be essential for our species' survival.

05:02

💪 Optimizing Testosterone: Sleep, Light, and Exercise

This paragraph delves into practical ways to optimize testosterone levels, focusing on sleep, light exposure, and exercise. It underscores the importance of proper nasal breathing during sleep to reduce apnea and improve oxygen intake, which positively affects hormone levels. The speaker also stresses the significance of viewing bright light early in the day to stimulate dopamine production, which in turn supports testosterone levels. Avoiding bright light at night is advised to prevent dopamine suppression. The paragraph also discusses the impact of weight training, suggesting that moderate to high-intensity workouts can significantly boost testosterone. Finally, the speaker introduces the role of certain compounds and supplements, such as vitamin D, zinc, magnesium, and creatine, in enhancing testosterone. The effects of herbal supplements like Tongkat Ali and Ugia Agresti are also highlighted, noting their potential to increase free and active testosterone levels.

Keywords

💡Testosterone

Testosterone is a hormone that plays a crucial role in the development of male reproductive tissues and secondary sexual characteristics. In the context of the video, it is highlighted that testosterone is not only linked to reproductive functions but also to the motivation to engage in effortful activities. The speaker emphasizes that testosterone makes 'effort feel good,' which is essential for the will to live and the evolution of our species. The script mentions that testosterone levels can be influenced by various factors, including stress, sleep, and sexual activity.

💡Dopamine

Dopamine is a neurotransmitter associated with the brain's reward and pleasure centers. It is closely related to testosterone in the pituitary system, as discussed in the video. Dopamine is involved in motivation, desire, and the feeling of reward, which aligns with the video's theme of how hormones like testosterone can make effort feel rewarding. The speaker suggests that dopamine is linked to the 'will to live' and the fundamental drive to pursue activities that are beneficial for survival and well-being.

💡Pituitary System

The pituitary system refers to the pituitary gland, often called the 'master gland,' which is responsible for producing and regulating various hormones in the body. In the video, the pituitary system is mentioned as the place where dopamine and testosterone are closely related, highlighting the intricate hormonal interplay that influences our physiological and psychological states.

💡Cholesterol

Cholesterol is a waxy substance found in cells and is used by the body to produce hormones, including testosterone. The video script explains that cholesterol can be synthesized into either cortisol, a stress hormone, or testosterone, but not both, indicating a trade-off between stress response and the promotion of effortful activities. This concept is central to understanding how our body's resources are allocated and how they can influence our behavior and well-being.

💡Cortisol

Cortisol is a hormone produced in response to stress and low blood sugar levels. It is often referred to as the 'stress hormone.' In the video, cortisol is discussed in contrast to testosterone, where an increase in cortisol can lead to a decrease in testosterone. This relationship is important for understanding how stress can impact our motivation and the quality of our efforts.

💡Sex and Testosterone

The video explores the complex relationship between sexual activity and testosterone levels. It is noted that observing sex, participating in sex, and ejaculation can all influence testosterone differently. For instance, observing sex might lead to a modest increase in testosterone, while participating can result in a more significant increase. The discussion highlights the nuances of how sexual behaviors can impact hormone levels and, by extension, our overall well-being.

💡Sleep Deprivation

Sleep deprivation is the condition of not getting enough sleep, which can have various negative effects on health. The script challenges the myth that testosterone necessarily drops with sleep deprivation, suggesting that while sleep is important for replenishing testosterone, the relationship is not as straightforward as commonly believed. The video emphasizes the importance of sleep for overall hormonal balance and health.

💡Nose Breathing

Nose breathing is the act of inhaling and exhaling through the nose. The video script suggests that proper nose breathing during waking hours and sleep can positively influence hormone levels, including testosterone and estrogen. It is posited that nose breathing can help regulate the levels of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the body, which in turn can affect hormone balance and overall health.

💡Bright Light Exposure

Bright light exposure refers to the practice of being exposed to natural or artificial light, particularly in the morning. The video explains that getting sufficient bright light exposure early in the day can help regulate dopamine and testosterone levels, which are crucial for motivation and well-being. The script also cautions against bright light exposure at night, as it can suppress dopamine release and negatively impact hormone levels.

💡Heavy Weight Training

Heavy weight training is a form of exercise that involves lifting heavy weights to build strength and muscle mass. The video script indicates that engaging in heavy weight training, without going to failure, can lead to significant increases in testosterone levels. This form of exercise is presented as a way to stimulate the body's natural hormone production, which can enhance physical performance and contribute to a sense of well-being.

💡Supplementation

Supplementation refers to the practice of taking vitamins, minerals, or other compounds to support health. The video mentions several compounds, including vitamin D, zinc, magnesium, and creatine, which can be taken as supplements or obtained from diet to optimize hormone levels. The script provides information on how these supplements might influence testosterone and other hormones, emphasizing the importance of understanding their effects for those interested in hormonal health.

Highlights

Testosterone and dopamine are closely related in the pituitary system.

Testosterone's major effect is to make effort feel good.

Cholesterol can be synthesized into cortisol or testosterone, but not both.

Anger can divert cholesterol towards cortisol, reducing testosterone.

Enjoying what you do can help maintain or increase testosterone stores.

Testosterone and dopamine are linked to the will to live and effort in all mammals.

Prolactin, not estrogen, is the opposite of testosterone, promoting quiescence.

Sex can promote testosterone, with ejaculation showing a more nuanced effect.

Observing sex can modestly increase testosterone, while participating leads to a significant increase.

Abstinence or sex without ejaculation can increase testosterone levels up to 400%.

Proper sleep is important for maintaining testosterone and estrogen levels.

Breathing correctly during waking hours and sleep can impact hormone levels.

Viewing bright light early in the day can optimize dopamine and testosterone levels.

Avoiding bright light exposure at night can prevent suppression of dopamine and testosterone.

Heavy weight training can lead to significant increases in testosterone.

Vitamin D, zinc, magnesium, and creatine are important for optimizing sex hormones.

Creatine may increase DHT, which plays a role in masculinization and androgen receptor affinity.

Herbal supplements like Tongkat Ali and Fadogia agrestis can boost free and active testosterone.

Proper nutrition and supplementation can have a significant impact on hormone levels.

Transcripts

there's a very interesting relationship

between testosterone and dopamine

dopamine and testosterone are closely

related in the pituitary system and

obviously uh testosterone comes from the

adrenals and from the testes but the

major effect of testosterone is to make

effort feel good that's what

testosterone does it has other effects

too right reproductive effects

androgenized parts of the body Etc but

it makes effort feel good the

testosterone molecule is synthesized

from cholesterol cholesterol can either

be made into cortisol a stress hormone

or testosterone but not both so you have

a a limited amount of cholesterol and it

gets diverted towards stress or this

pathway where effort feels good MH

that's the pathway you want to get into

the anger pathway if we were to just

kind of play a mind experiment here the

anger eventually is going to divert more

of that cholesterol molecule to cortisol

and stress and you will be slowly

depleting testosterone now going into

this you'll have plenty of testosterone

but after a couple days there have been

very interesting studies showing that

testosterone doesn't necessarily drop

with sleep deprivation that's a bit of a

myth you need it to replenish Testo you

need sleep to replenish testosterone

eventually but the real question is are

you enjoying what you're doing if you

can just convince yourself or ideally if

you can just enjoy yourself you're going

to maintain or maybe even increase

testosterone stores which will make

effort feel good and to me that's the

Holy Grail when effort feels good life

just gets way better and we're not

talking about achieving the reward I'm

not talking about the end of this thing

I'm talking about the process of it

feeling really good and so there's

something about these molecules that in

an ancient way in all organisms all

mammals as far as we know are linked to

the will to live they're linked to

effort and making effort feel good which

has been fundamental to the evolution of

our species I always say people think

that the opposite of testosterone is

estrogen but it's not the opposite of

testosterone is Prolactin which makes us

feel quiescent and not in pursuit of

things Etc testosterone makes makes

effort feel good estrogen makes emotions

feel okay so it is the case that

increases in testosterone promote

competitive and foraging type behaviors

in humans and in non-human mammals but

it's also true that competitive

environments themselves can increase

testosterone the real question then is

does sex itself promote testosterone and

the answer is somewhat complicated but

the short version is yes and as you

recall sex has multiple stages so

there's the physical act of sex there's

the seeking of sex and then there's

orgasm and ejaculation now it's

important to distinguish between these

because whether or not sex itself

increases testosterone depends on

whether or not the male ejaculates these

are quality studies showing that men who

observe sex so I guess this would be

observing pornography they had increases

in testosterone that were very modest of

about 10% whereas when people

participated in sex they had 70%

increase es in testosterone so there are

increases in testosterone that are quite

significant during the physical act of

sex and far less so during observing sex

sex and ejaculation itself does not

reduce testosterone levels however

abstinence or sex without ejaculation

for a week or more will increase

testosterone levels up to 400% what it

means is that sex self increases

testosterone however abstinence also

increases testosterone even further so

it's a nuanced answer and I hope this is

satisfactory no pun intended to those of

you that have been asking me what is the

relationship between sex and ejaculation

and testosterone and dopamine it is

nuanced and you have to understand that

Nuance if you want to understand how

certain behaviors impact hormones and

how hormones impact those behaviors and

so we all know because now we've been

told a lot in the last decade or so that

getting proper sleep is important for

all these aspects of Health getting

proper sleep can really offset all the

reductions in testosterone and estrogen

and reductions in fertility that occur

if we don't get enough sleep but how

sleep actually adjusts things like

testosterone and estrogen so the simple

version of this is getting your

breathing right during the waking hours

meaning primarily unless you're working

out really hard or there's some other

reason why you're maybe eating or

speaking you need to be breathing

through your mouth you should be a nose

breather there's really good evidence

for that now and in sleep you also want

to be a nose breather because that's

going to increase the amount of oxygen

that you're bringing into your system

and the amount of carbon dioxide that

you're offloading there are other

positive effects of it as well but

you're basically reducing apnea breath

holding in sleep leads to buildup of

carbon dioxide and leads to increases in

cortisol which then decrease

testosterone and decrease estrogen in

negative ways across all Sexes okay so

the simple version of this is get your

breathing right and many of you have

heard me talk about this before that

viewing Bright Light Within the first

hour of waking whether or not it's from

artificial light or ideally from

sunlight has these powerful effects on

sleep and wakefulness this translates to

the protocol of if you want to optimize

testosterone and estrogen you need to

get your light viewing Behavior correct

it's not just about optimizing your

sleep which is also important it's about

getting sufficient amount of light in

your eyes so you have sufficient levels

of dopamine so the simple protocols for

that I've reviewed before but it means

getting anywhere from 2 to 10 minutes of

bright light exposure in your eyes early

in the day it is not sufficient to do

this with sunglasses unless you have to

do that for safety reasons it's fine to

where prescription lenses in contacts if

you can't get sunlight for whatever

reason you want to use bright artificial

light the other aspect of light viewing

Behavior that's extremely important is

to avoid bright light exposure to your

eyes in the middle of the night if

you're viewing bright light in the

middle of the night you are suppressing

dopamine release if you're suppressing

dopamine release you are suppressing

testosterone levels heavy weight

training but not weight training to

failure where completion of a repetition

is impossible but where basically people

are working at anywhere from like 70% to

95% of their maximum or sometimes even

going right down to their one repetition

maximum leads to the greatest increases

in testost tone there's clearly a

influence of hard work at the neural

level and then at the muscular level for

increasing testosterone and there's also

clearly an effect of working too hard

and presumably increasing cortisol too

much in terms of reducing testosterone

okay so now let's talk about the role of

specific compounds some of which many of

which can be taken in supplementation

form or extracted from diet and

nutrition in order to optimize sexter

hormones and again I just want to

emphasize that I'm not suggesting anyone

take anything or stop taking anything

this is purely for informational

purposes but some of the data on these

is quite striking and impressive vitamin

D which is important for so many

biological functions including endocrine

functions zinc magnesium creatine it's

very clear that something about creatine

although the mechanism isn't exactly

clear either increases five Alpha

reductase or makes the testosterone

molecule more susceptible to certain en

uh enzymatic reactions that leads to

increases in DHT DHT dihydrotestosterone

has this dramatic role in creating a

kind of masculinization of the brain

prenatally it also uh defines the

primary sex characteristic of the growth

of the penis and it has powerful effects

in creating balding in beard growth Etc

and it has a much higher affinity for

the Androgen receptor than does

testosterone there are a few other

things that can increase testosterone in

particular Tonga Ali and another one

which is very interesting it's a

Nigerian shrub called doia agrestis and

it mimics lutenizing hormone which is

the hormone that comes out of the

hypothalamus that stimulates the testes

if you got those and the ovaries if

you've got those to make more

testosterone or estrogen and so those

two herbal supplements together can give

a significant boost in free and active

testosterone so you said Tong God Ali

can give you 100 to 200 what does the

other one give you fogia is usually

taken at about 600 mg um and that can

the the most traumatic effect I've ever

scene was somebody who had his

testosterone down in the low twos or I

think it was like low twos and it he got

it up to the 700 range which but that's

it but that's an outlier right most

people are going to see about a 3 to 400

Point increase and that's what the two

of them synergistically F doia will

actually make the testes grow it's a

it's a noticeable difference so

everybody wants that