Top 5 Things That DESTROY Testosterone (And 5 Things That Boost It)

Did you know that testosterone levels are dramatically dropping and there is one surprising activity that can boost it? On today's episode, I'm going to be going through research that shows how testosterone levels in men have been on a consistent decline over the past several decades, what this means for our future as a species, and what you can do to naturally boost your testosterone.

Now, hey, don't forget to subscribe to the podcast and hit the notification bell so you don't miss any upcoming episodes. I have episodes coming out on the ADHD medication shortage, why puberty is happening at younger and younger ages, and interviews with people like Dr. Paul Saladino and Riley Gaines. So you're not going to want to miss those game-changing episodes.

I want to get into this dramatic decline of testosterone that's been happening since the 1960s. Now, this is a major problem because Low testosterone decreases lifespan in men. And so it literally shortens your life. Low testosterone has also been linked to heart disease, cancer, diabetes. It's also been linked to weaker bones and smaller muscles, which causes you to age more quickly.

It's also been linked to low libido. It's been linked to a number of other issues like low self-esteem and lack of motivation. So having low testosterone is incredibly harmful to men. Now, I do want to mention there is a cultural discussion today going on around masculinity that, hey, maybe masculinity isn't good and even testosterone isn't good in many ways.

The reality is though, is that we want men with high testosterone and we want masculine men. Masculinity can be positive, especially when it's connected to virtue.

You know, when masculinity is partnered with, and those masculine virtues we could talk about, such as most of the time masculine virtues are considered justice, courage, bravery, honor, respect, self-discipline, and combined with feminine virtues like nurture and empathy and kindness and grace and love. When those are combined together, It, it, it heals, it builds, it saves.

And so we really want to have manly men, masculine men, men with high testosterone levels, because it's not only for reproduction, which is incredibly important to us as a species, but it's also very important for us making the world a heavenly place.

If we want to make this place a place where everyone's needs are met, everyone is operating in their greatest giftings, everyone is operating in the highest level of character. Mm-hmm. We want masculine men and we want testosterone levels to be higher.

And again, if we want men to live, if we actually want them to live and not die, if we, if we want to, uh, have good rates of fertility in, in, in birth rates for men and women, well, we want men to have higher levels of testosterone. Listen to this study. This is mind-blowing. Men with low testosterone levels had an 88% increase in a risk of death compared with those who had normal levels.

Did you hear that? If you're a male or you're married to a man or dating a man and they have low testosterone, they have an 88% increase in dying compared to men with normal levels. And the effect persisted even after such variables as age, other illnesses, and body mass index were controlled. So this isn't a fluke.

Generally, men are nearly 90% increased risk of death if they And so, they have low testosterone. And today, men in their 20s have the same level of testosterone as men in their late 60s back in the 2000s. So, think about that.

In just 20 years, our testosterone levels in men have gone so low that a lot of men today in their 20s have the testosterone levels of those of a 60-year-old back 20 years ago. And so, we're talking about a massive decline here. In fact, the rates that testosterone levels have dropped is 30,000%. Wow. 3% In the past 50 years.

And another study found it, uh, you know, we're basically— for a lot of men, they're dropping by 1% or more faster a year than in the past. You can see here on this graphic testosterone levels in the United States back in 1960 versus in, uh, you know, this was taken in 2015. It's actually continued to decline if you look at the new research. So you see these levels in men continue to drop off.

Now what's interesting is is that the levels of testosterone have dropped to the greatest level in Western countries. So Western and Eastern Europe, Latin America, Canada, and the US have all been experiencing the same strong decline in testosterone since the 1960s and '80s. And here's the thing though, they've stayed at the same level of highs in areas like Uzbekistan, Siberia, and Pakistan.

So certain areas of the country, I think, were oftentimes masculinity is more prized, and maybe there's less toxins in certain areas of the environment, or in terms of what they're consuming, they have higher levels of testosterone. And you can see here on this chart the average testosterone by country in the 1980s. You can see there, maroon is good, okay? So that's what you want.

Maroon is good and yellow is bad. Anything getting in that yellow or orange. Well, now look at this more recently. You can see here, the US went from there all the way down to yellow. And look at Canada, look at Mexico, areas of South America are even worse. So we've seen this continual decline over time. And studies have found that some— and I want to get into now why this is happening.

One of the main causes is— actually, I'll say there's 3 causes, 3 main causes of why testosterone levels are dropping. One is lack of energy. It's cellular energy. It's organ energy. In Chinese medicine, this is called, uh, chi, or, and, and it could also be part of, uh, this, this concept called yang.

But basically it's this, when, uh, when you have lack of cellular energy, that's lack of purpose in your life. When you don't have a purpose, that decreases cellular energy. Um, when you are missing certain things in your diet, but the biggest thing is this sleep.

When, when we're not living with the natural rhythms of our surroundings, specifically with nature, it throws off our circadian rhythms. Our melatonin levels drop, cortisol goes too high, and also testosterone levels will drop. So men, when you look at what they were doing professionally for a great number of years, is men were working outdoors more, right? It was farming, it was hunting.

It was repairing things that were broken, it was building. And so throughout history, if you would go back 100 or 200 years ago, I mean, the amount of men that were doing a lot more activities outdoors that were more laborious things where they were using their muscles and, and requiring physical activity was so much higher in the past.

Well, now men are sitting at a desk all day inside, not moving. That's gonna cause testosterone levels to drop. But a lot of this is cellular energy. Movement actually increases cellular energy.

Good sleep, more than anything, sleep will increase cellular energy, keeping stress levels balanced the way we perceive stress and not having too many things going on constantly, the stress of even phones and light constantly. So, that's one thing causing low testosterone in men is a lack of cellular energy. The second thing is cellular toxicity. Our cells are toxic. Yeah.

And the reason is, is everything from bisphenol A to phthalates, which we're going to get into in a minute. Also, when you look at the chemicals in our food supply, such as glyphosate from, from the chemical Roundup, all of the chemicals we're exposed to on a regular basis, that's causing testosterone to decrease in men.

And the third thing is nutritional deficiencies, lack of zinc, lack of vitamin D. Lack of certain phytonutrients in our diet all causes testosterone to decline over time. And so we need to get to the root cause of those 3 things. Now, let's start off here with phthalates. Now, studies have found that phthalates block the effects of testosterone on the body's organs and tissues.

And there are several, several areas or things that cause us to be exposed to this. Number one is Microplastics. Chemicals called phthalates, which are endocrine disrupting and mimic estrogen, are found in common everyday objects such as baby bottles, paint, and cosmetics. But of course, we see this in a lot of these plastic things that we're eating out of.

If you're drinking out of a water bottle that's too hot and it's plastic, but again, they're paint, it's all over the place. But microplastics is a big one. Here's another one. Hormones in our beef and dairy products. Non-organic meat and dairy products contain chemicals and hormones.

In fact, one study found there are incredibly high levels of estradiol, a type of estrogen, in milk and meat products if they're not organic. And when men are exposed to these xeno or phytoestrogens, what it does is it starts to increase your estrogen, giving you more feminine-like qualities, and starts to decrease your testosterone levels. And there's several double-blind studies that show this.

Here's another one. Soy, consuming too much soy, also being straight vegan. Now listen, I do want to say this before I get into the study, that veganism, there is a right way to do it. Okay? Somebody could be a vegan and eat higher levels of beans like lentils, which are higher in protein. Yeah.

So, doing lots of beans, doing mushrooms, doing certain nuts like Brazil nuts, doing protein powders, there are ways to help address some of those deficiencies. There's herbals that you can use. We'll get into that at the end.

But, there's no doubt, generally speaking, if you're comparing even the healthiest vegan to the healthiest carnivore or omnivore, the omnivore, the carnivore is going to have much higher levels of good testosterone. And less of the estrogen that men don't want in their bodies, generally speaking. Here's the other thing I just want to mention about soy.

Soy is one of the most heavily subsidized crops by the United States government, and it has estrogen-like effects on the human body. Too much soy leads to enlargement of breast tissue in men, water retention, female pattern fat deposition, and mood swings.

This is according to studies, and studies have found that soy isoflavones heighten antisocial behavior in monkeys and appear to feminize male animals in animal studies. So again, we've seen this in animal studies, the negative effects of soy and how it causes them to have more feminine-like qualities.

And not just that, and by the way, that's not a good thing because it also decreases their lifespan and increases rates of chronic illness. And so that's incredibly negative. Now here's another chemical we want to stay away from that's really connected to these microplastics, and it's bisphenol A. A, known as BPA.

And this is an anti-androgen and it blocks the normal effects of testosterone within the body. One of the things that can happen in your body when you consume toxic foods, imagine your cell like a circle, okay? And there are little receptor sites all around your cell. So let's say now this is sort of a receptor site.

What you want to have happen is your body should be able to absorb these receptor sites Certain hormones like testosterone or nutrients that are critical to build testosterone like zinc and vitamin D. What happens is if you have bisphenol A and phthalates and other chemicals, heavy metals, they will go and take the place of testosterone and zinc and vitamin D. So now it's taken the place of it, so it has nowhere to go.

So now your body is absorbing less of those things it needs, less of it's getting— Right. Sent to the areas it needs to. And so your body has lower testosterone levels. That's one of the reasons why toxins are so damaging to the body is what they do to cellular receptor sites. Now, BPA is found in our water supply. Okay.

So if you're not filtering your water using reverse osmosis or some sort of filter, a Berkey filter, using some sort of water filter, you will likely have BPA in your water supply. Also, again, it's found in almost all water bottles or many linings of cans. So if you're eating out of anything plastic, there's a lot of BPA BPAs in there, aluminum cans, optical lenses have them.

You'd be surprised all the areas where BPAs are. And BPAs disrupt hormones, especially related to the reproductive system inside women as well. So that doesn't only hurt men, it hurts women. And I want to get into some of the consequences of low testosterone. When testosterone counts get too low, men begin to feel fatigued, They lose sexual interest. They gain weight and lose muscle mass.

And so if you're a male with any of these symptoms, again, if you're just tired, you just notice you're just— you feel tired all the time. It's likely low testosterone. If you don't have that same libido and sexual desire that you used to have, it's probably low testosterone. If you're starting to gain weight, especially in this visceral section, low testosterone.

And if you're just losing muscle mass, you don't— you just don't feel strong. Anymore. It's, it's low testosterone. And this is incredibly negative on so many areas of your body, but also increases heart disease, cancer, diabetes, shortens your lifespan, weak bones. It really puts you at risk in so many ways.

And in addition, there is a link between low testosterone levels and depression and mental health issues. So men, you've gotta focus on increasing those testosterone levels if you want to be healthy. There's really no choice. I also want to say this in regards to muscle mass, that when men lose muscle, they age more quickly.

This is why it's so important that men are doing things that are physically active, full-body exercises to build muscle mass. Maintaining muscle mass as you age is one of the greatest indicators of longevity. And so you want to focus on doing everything you can to spare muscle wasting, and testosterone is the key hormone to help you do that.

Now, there are 4 practical ways and steps in order to support testosterone. Number 1, you need to get quality sleep and lower stress and your perception of stress. Now, there are plenty of studies show that if you get less than 7 hours of sleep a night, your testosterone levels start to tank. Okay? And you want to make sure that you're in bed for at least 8 hours.

So what I would recommend too is in order to get quality sleep, here's a few things you can do to boost testosterone. You want that room to be as dark as possible, absolutely zero light coming in. If you have light coming in your room, you're going to typically be hurting testosterone levels. And so you want to make it dark while you're sleeping.

The other thing you want to do is make it as cold as possible. Now, when I say as cold as possible, you want it anywhere from as low as 60 degrees to no higher than 68 degrees. That's at the absolute top. So you want it cold. You also want to use a weighted blanket when you sleep, ideally using blue blockers at night to keep off those blue lights.

I mean, as little light— once the sun goes down, You don't want any light really. I mean, if you have a candle burning or a little bit of orange or yellow light, but that blue light or white light, it is affecting your sleep in a negative way. Here's the other big thing to get quality sleep, spend more time outdoors.

The more time you spend outdoors in the sun or just having sun exposure where your eyes are seeing the sun, the more it affects you in a positive way. By the way, there's a study done on if you have the same effect if you have a lot of windows. Windows help, but even glass blocks some of those positive rays.

And so you actually wanna spend both some time outdoors and some time in also having a lot of windows around you, but you actually want some time outdoors. So the more time you spend outside, the better sleep you'll have. Now, the other thing is lower stress. And oftentimes stress is not about the actual stress, it's about how we perceive that stress. And how long the stress lasts.

I'll give you an example of this. If you are going into a relationship, a moment where you're going to have a conversation with somebody that you believe is going to be stressful, and you believe this is going to be really hard and toxic, and for days you think about it, it sort of eats your gut up.

Have you ever been in that situation where you know you have to have a hard conversation with somebody? Maybe you're a boss and you've had to let someone go. I mean, That, that can be really difficult. Um, or you have to break up with somebody. Those situations are very, very hard because you believe in a way that it's gonna be very hard.

And also you believe that it's going to somehow hurt you or hurt your physical health, and then you're feeling it for days. If you switch your perception to, you know what, this is what God has called me to do. You know what, this is gonna be the best for the person. I'm gonna love them. I'm gonna support them. But outside of that, everything's outta my control.

And you go in saying, you know what, this is gonna help them grow and it's gonna help me grow. It actually really changes things for you. So the, your perception about stress, think about stress like this. When you're lifting weights, that's stress. You're stressing the muscle.

And as long as you don't overdo it, as long as you don't go from trying to curl 10-pound dumbbells to 50 pounds and then doing something where you tear your muscle, now that's not good. You can overdo stress. But as long as you're doing it in a good way, you want stress, you want hard relationships, cuz it helps you grow in character, right?

Those hard people in your life, if you allow it to with consciousness and your perception's correct, those people in your life that are bothersome, they actually allow you to grow more patient and more kind with everyone around you, right? So your perception about stress is, is incredibly important. The other thing is this. You want some stress, but you don't want it constantly.

I mentioned curling earlier, dumbbells. Okay? If you are curling dumbbells for 16 hours a day, you are going to hurt your arm. That's your reality. You're going to hurt your arm. But if you do it for a minute, 3 times a day, you're fine. So you also need to think about stress like that.

You need to be able to unplug some to where you're not on your phone, you're not on your computer, you're not doing something where You're reading a book or you're praying or you're meditating, or you're just having a conversation, or you're just relaxing in nature and doing those things. So you need to unplug. So, so lowering stress in studies has shown to improve testosterone levels.

Number 2, exercise. When you exercise, here's the key. You want to lift heavy weights with larger muscle groups. That's the ideal. Studies have shown this. The bigger the muscle group, The more it will boost testosterone. So working your glutes and your butt, working your legs, those are the biggest muscle groups, your butt and your legs. After that, it's your back. Okay?

So the more you can do exercises that work your butt and legs and your back, that's going to help more than anything. And after that, it's going to be your chest and your shoulders, and then also your core. But those are those— that's really what's going to move the needle for your testosterone levels. An example of the best exercises for boosting testosterone.

Squats, deadlifts, rows, pull-ups, bench press, shoulder press, things like planks with a little weight on your back. Those are going to help boost your testosterone levels more than anything. In fact, if you just did those 7 or 8 exercises, that, that's gonna, that's gonna really, really lift up your testosterone levels significantly. Now, now here's an interesting study.

Researchers from the University of California, Santa Barbara, have found that chopping wood significantly increases testosterone levels even more than competitive activities in sports. They found a 48% increase in testosterone levels in all men, regardless of age or the state of health, after just 1 hour of tree chopping or chopping wood on a chopping block.

In comparison, they saw a 30% increase in testosterone after playing a sport like soccer. So know this, probably even more than lifting weights and more than athletic competitions, whether it be soccer or potentially football or basketball, chopping wood raises testosterone more than almost any one of those.

Now, my guess is, is that football is probably up there comparable to that and about the same. But generally speaking, Chopping wood increases testosterone levels, and I want to share why that is. Number one, it's a full-body activity.

When you're chopping wood, you are really working your core, you're working your chest, you're working your lat muscle, you're actually working your low back and legs. So you are working almost all of your muscle group. The closest thing you can do at gym to this, to chopping wood, would be to take a medicine ball and do that over and over and over again, uh, heavy medicine ball slams.

So, those heavy ball slams. So, that's going to be the closest gym workout you can do. And that's a great way to end your gym workouts is doing those ball slams. And that's a great way to build testosterone. By the way, a lot of women are low in testosterone. I wanted to mention that because oftentimes we think this is a thing that's only for men. No, a lot of women are low.

And so, that keeps their body from regenerating. So, the cells regenerating. By the way, if you have a physical condition, Could be hypothyroidism as one example. Um, it could be, uh, it could be arthritis. It could be infertility as a woman. Oftentimes there is a low testosterone component, and what's happening is testosterone is an anabolic hormone. Anabolic means it's building and regenerating.

Okay, you want to regenerate and build. Oftentimes hypothyroidism in Chinese medicine is known as a lack of a lack of an— it's an anabolic issue. And so, in hypothyroidism or Hashimoto's, you have to be able to regenerate the cells in the thyroid and help strengthen it and create new tissues. If you don't have proper testosterone levels as a woman, you are not doing that.

So, women as well, when you go to the gym, you should be lifting heavy weights. You should be doing hip thrusts. You should be doing— squats. You should be doing some sort of hip hinge with some weights like a kettlebell. You should be doing rows and shoulder press.

Like, women should be doing those things to optimize their hormone balance, to improve the health of their thyroid, their adrenal glands, their reproductive organs, to anti-age. It's critically important for women as well. I want to go back to this study on chopping wood for men and also mention this. I think there's a psychological component here.

When you have a man who believes that in chopping wood, they're doing something manually, manly and masculine, they're doing something maybe to provide for their family and heat the home or doing something in that way, it's going to increase their testosterone levels.

Studies have shown this is that our mentality, men, if they believe I'm a winner, I'm masculine, I'm doing something virtuous, I'm doing something to provide for my family and protect and provide. That increases testosterone.

So there is a really significant psychological component because like then this chopping wood study, half of it is, yes, you're doing something physically active that's going to boost your testosterone levels. But also men that are lumberjacks are just chopping wood, that's increasing testosterone because of the psychological component.

I remember my dad growing up, my dad, we had a wood-burning fireplace in our home growing up and my dad chopped wood. And I remember being out there and him teaching me to chop wood and I I remember feeling like a man. I mean, I was in high school, I was like when he taught me probably, or junior high, I think probably like a 12, 13-year-old boy.

But I remember feeling like, okay, this is a manly thing I'm doing with my dad. Men, do that with your sons. Bring them out there, chop wood. It's going to help them become better men. It's going to help build their strength. It's going to help them increasing those vital testosterone levels we need to keep high for our entire lives.

So I want to share with you the ideal diet in order to boost testosterone levels, and it's going to be this: it's going to be high in protein and moderate in fat and carbs. Okay, you want to make sure those carbs don't get too high. That will absolutely tank your testosterone levels. Those— what you want to be low to moderate, moderate fat and high protein.

Most men, you should be aiming towards at least your body weight in protein. So for instance, for myself, if I weigh, uh, 170 pounds or Okay, I want to be trying to get about 170 grams of protein a day. I mean, that's, that, that's really ideal. So, so like, I'll aim for at least trying to get about 40 grams of protein 4 times a day and then lifting heavy weights.

If you want your testosterone levels to go up, that for a lot of men, that's what you want to do. You want to try and get 40 grams 4 to 5 times daily. I know that sounds a lot, but adding in shakes will really help that. And, and that's, that's the ideal if you want to, if you want to start putting on more muscle mass and building Uh, testosterone. Fats are also very important for building muscle.

Um, you want to be getting a little bit of saturated but also a lot of monounsaturated fats. That will help. Again, you don't want to go high though, high fat. You want to do moderate, moderate low fat, moderate low carb, and then high protein is key for testosterone. Um, the carbs you consume, you want those to be typically very nutrient dense And lower glycemic ideally.

So the ideal carbs would be for men that want to build testosterone. It's going to be berries such as blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries. It's also going to be sweet potato. It's going to be rice, maybe a little bit of oatmeal, and potentially something like potatoes. Those are the best carbs typically for men to build build muscle mass.

You could do a sourdough bread that's a little bit more like a sourdough. Multigrain bread, those are, those are fine. But again, remember that those should be minimal. Those should be sort of a, a moderate amount. Now, let me mention this.

If you are lifting that day, larger muscle groups, you want to get more carbs within that 2-hour window around your workout and that day, the, the meal right after— actually, the meal before, right after, and then the next meal— in order to build more protein. So on leg day, butt day, if you're doing more physical activity, you want to do a few more carbs on those days.

The fats you want to be getting: olives, such as in olive oil, coconut, also some nuts and seeds can be great, and a little bit of fat from meat, avocado. Those are all fine to get. But again, don't go high fat. You want to do moderate to low. And then you want to eat organ meats and eat red meat. So organ meats like liver are going to be good.

Red meat— now chicken and eggs are also fantastic, and wild-caught fish, but you really want to focus on red meat, red meat not only has protein, it also has creatine and other nutrients. And so that's why you want to get red meat, is there's other nutrients in there that build muscle and that also help support building testosterone levels. And then Brazil nuts are another great food.

But again, eat organ meats and a lot of red meat if you want to boost testosterone levels. Now I want to get into some herbals and supplements that have clinical studies that have been shown to build testosterone levels. Now the first thing I want to mention here Are organs. You can take organ meats or granulars in a capsule or a tablet. Tremendous benefits.

In fact, have you heard of peptides such as BPC-157, TB-500, some of these muscle-building peptides? Well, what is the food source of those peptides? It's organ meats. So if you want to get a natural source of peptides that build muscle mass and support cellular regeneration and healing, Organ meats, that's where you get them. BPC-157 is actually found in stomach tissue.

So, if you're taking a stomach granular, you're getting the natural form of BPC-157 and all of the others. And, you also want to be getting liver, you want to take adrenals, kidneys, testes, especially for men that want to build testosterone. So, you want to take organ meats, especially testes. And liver if you want to build up your testosterone levels. The next one here is fenugreek.

Fenugreek increases testosterone levels by up to 46% in men according to a clinical study. So fenugreek, taking a regular dosage of that is great. You can sprinkle it on your food or take that as a supplement or in a combo. Ashwagandha increases testosterone by 14.7%.

Now, ashwagandha is known as Indian ginseng, the more powerful ginseng that will cause your testosterone to go even higher than that is Panax ginseng, also known as red ginseng or Chinese or Asian ginseng. They're all the same, they just have different names. That also will help boost testosterone levels. Zinc is big. Listen to this.

One study found men that were low in zinc, when they consumed zinc, it doubled their serum testosterone levels, literally doubled it. So if you have a zinc deficiency, as many men do, Your sperm levels get low, your testosterone levels get low. So you want to make sure you're getting plenty of zinc.

Another critical nutrient is vitamin D. You know, vitamin D— here's the thing about vitamin D. It's not only a vitamin, it's typically known as a prohormone. It is critical and essential for hormone levels, especially testosterone levels. And there are studies that have shown that men who are vitamin D deficient have low testosterone. And so it's one of the most important nutrients.

You need, must have in order for your body to create testosterone. In fact, there is a study done by a bloodwork company and they found that vitamin D was one of the top— I believe it was the number 1 or number 2 deficiency in all people they test.

And so if you think about— and they test for every vitamin and nutrient out there, and the vitamin D levels were one of the top 2 that people were deficient in. And I bet it was zinc and magnesium were probably the other 2. But these are things that so many people are deficient in today. That's absolutely harming testosterone levels. And I do want to mention peptides as well.

Your best source is organ meats, but you can also see a functional medicine practitioner. Now, this is very controversial today because the, uh, it's, it's, you know, they're trying to make it into a drug. These drug companies are seeing money now in peptides, so they're trying to make it into a drug.

But typically, this has been used in, in, by, by people that practice anti-aging and longevity medicine for a long time. Like BPC-157 and TB-500. Peptides are incredible for anti-aging in some cases. Now, I don't think you want to overdo them, but I do think they're better than hormone replacement therapy.

In fact, I think organ meats are a type of hormone replacement therapy if you use them correctly. So the final and maybe one of the most important ways to naturally boost your testosterone levels is through your beliefs and building a stronger identity.

There was a study done on male rowing contestants, and what they did is they had this men, these men get on a rower and row, and they tested their saliva levels for testosterone. And there were 3 groups of people, and they, they told these men, they told some of them, you lost. They told some of them that you won.

And then some of the men, via questionnaire, they found out these men thought not only did they, maybe they win or whether they won or lost, but they believed they were winners. They had this identity of, I'm a winner. So here's what they found in the study. The men who lost had a 7.24% drop in their testosterone levels. The men who won were told they won increased by nearly 5%.

So a 4.92% increase in testosterone levels. But overall, the men that thought they were winners had testosterone levels that were 14.46% higher than their deflated opponents. So it's really incredible when you look at this, that men— if, if, if, if a man just believes, I'm a man, I have high testosterone levels, I'm a winner, it increases their testosterone.

Now let me say, this is so important for both men and women out there. Now let's say you're married, okay, and you're a woman watching this and you've got a husband. If you say things to him to deflate his self-esteem and make him feel like he's not a winner, that he's not a provider, that he's he's not a real man, that he's not doing things to provide for the family.

You destroy his testosterone and literally take years off of his life, likely in creating disease in his body. That's crazy. That's why it's so important that we treat each other with love and respect, and we, we love each other in the way of knowing that other person's needs. As a man, men need, in order to be healthy and have high levels of testosterone, They need respect. They need honor.

They need encouragement. They need to be nourished. They need to, they need to believe that they matter. They need to believe that they're a winner. Okay? And so if you do that as a woman, I mean, listen, if you're a woman watching this and you have men in their life, have a conversation with your man and let them know, um, how much they matter.

You know, do ways to make, do things that make them feel manly. I mean, just, I give you a simple one, real simple. Now listen, I'm not telling you to pretend to do this, but if you did, it would be okay. Okay? You can't open the jar. Okay? And let's say it's hard to get off.

Give it to the man because those little things, a man just going and being able to get the jar that the top is twisted on too tightly, it makes a man feel more manly. Okay? Doing things like that, encourage that behavior. If your guy goes to the gym and comes back and his muscles look this much bigger, Let him know, wow, hey, you're looking swole, you're looking fit, you're looking buff.

Let them know that you want to— now, some of this is psychology, but you want to reinforce that positive behavior. Do everything you can to support your man in acting like a virtuous masculine man. Now, on the flip side, men, if you're watching this, the same works for the women in your life where you need honor and respect. Your woman needs to be loved and she needs to be pursued.

Like when you were dating, getting her flowers, taking her out on date nights, telling her how pretty she looks. So the same goes for women, by the way. If a woman— if a man feels like he is a provider and a protector and he's a winner, testosterone levels go up and hormones are balanced and they— and you age more slowly.

If you're a— if you're a woman though, And you don't feel loved and you don't feel pursued, well, that's gonna throw off your progesterone and estrogen levels. So if you're a man watching this, in the very same way you wanna be loved, you need to love your wife in that same manner of loving her, nurturing her, listening to her, and continuing to pursue her like you, when you were dating.

Go get her flowers. Do those things. And, and there's such a beautiful combination of men and women when they're pursuing each other in this way, uh, that actually optimizes hormone balance and longevity for both the man and the woman. And, and also for men and women, I want, I wanna, I wanna say this. Men also benefit from being around more masculine men.

If you're a man and you're not as masculine and you say, I want to grow in this, I didn't have this. Uh, it's going to help you. By, by the way, I had this happen. I had a man who, uh, told me he just, his dad wasn't like this growing up and being around myself and some other guys that worked out a lot and, and, and were more masculine that way. He said, it's really helped me.

And, and so men, you wanna be around those. And listen, it's not just about masculinity. I wanna say this. There is a mass, the form of masculinity when it's combined with vices and being chauvinistic and, uh, deflating of others, that's not healthy.

But when men are virtuous, You think about men in the military, men that have given their lives, men that are out there trying to change the world for good, men that are both masculine and you combine it with virtue. You really wanna pursue groups of men like that, being part of a growth group, going out to dinner with them, spending time with them, doing everything you can.

So just like you should have a date night with your spouse, ideally you'd have a guy night with the boys where you're hanging out and you'd have a couple trips a year doing those things as much as possible. And women, it's the same thing. You need to be around other women that can listen and provide for you.

In those ways as well, helping you feel more feminine and beautiful, encouraging your dreams in life. And so we need community to optimize these hormones. So in summary, I want you to remember this: over the past 50 years, testosterone levels in men have dropped by 33% in the United States. And this is a crisis. In fact, it's even been called Spermageddon.

And this leads to low sperm count, and low fertility, lack of motivation, lower self-esteem, higher rates of depression, higher rates of heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and even a decrease in lifespan. So what can men do?

Remove toxins, lift weights, specifically heavy and larger muscle groups, eat more protein and organ meats, hunt, get outdoors, chop wood, and spend time around other virtuous masculine men. Men, if you do that, your testosterone levels are going to soar.

And I know that if you can follow through with what, what I've been sharing here, again, listen, testosterone isn't just about, you know, being a man or pounding your chest. High testosterone is about living a healthier, longer life, contributing more to society, and making the world a better place. Men, optimize your testosterone levels. It could be live or die.

Hey, thanks so much for tuning into the Dr. Josh Axe Show. Remember, each and every week I'm here to Bring the truth unadulterated to your life in order to help you grow in body, mind, and spirit. Also, make sure to subscribe, like, and share, and I can't wait to see you on the next episode.