A 4x Increase in Testosterone Since My 30s

Increasing testosterone (T) may seem like a male-only goal or benefit, but it can also be relevant to women whose testosterone is below normal, or women that would benefit if the man in their life had more normal testosterone levels. Men with a youthful level of T, assuming that their mind and other hormones are in balance, tend to be more relaxed, happy, energetic, and cheerful about completing repairs and other tasks.

Ladies, you definitely want the men around you relaxed, happy, and cheerful about doing things around the house, don't you? Aside from that, there are certain biochemical reasons women enjoy healthy levels of T and don't enjoy low levels of T. More on that in a little while.

So back in 2007, when I was in my late 30s, I started testing my hormones, and my testosterone level was pretty low at around 250 ng/dL. 15 years later in my early 50s, I tested again, and my testosterone level came in at 1017 ng/dL.

For a man, that's considered high in a good way, especially for a man in his 50s. And it's all the more surprising for somebody that had T deficiency for many years. My blood level of testosterone rose to 4 times what it had been 15 years earlier. And just two years earlier, my testosterone level had been low on another type of hormone test.

How the Heck Did My Testosterone Level Increase So Much?

Well, many things happened after the previous test results. I improved my gut health, my adrenal and thyroid function, my liver function, and my metabolic flexiblity (e.g. graduating from "sugar burner" to "fat adapted"). And I detoxed a lot.

But there was something specific and new that  I was doing when I got that test result of 1017 ng/dL. 

And when I stopped doing that specific, new thing, my blood testosterone dropped to the mid 700s. Mid 700s is still not bad at all for somebody in their 50s, but it suggests that this thing I was doing was responsible for the extra-high level of testosterone over 1,000.

What Specific, New Thing Probably Raised My Testosterone?

Blending cruciferous vegetables (aka crucifers) into smoothies. Mainly broccoli and collard greens. Almost every day. Sometimes twice a day. However, I should also mention that another possible reason for the increase in my level of testosterone was the far infrared saunas I had been doing.

Sauna therapy is one nof the best ways to eliminate fat-soluble toxins like endocrine dysruptors (e.g xenoestrogens), which elevate estrogenic activity and suppress the production of T and compete with it at receptor sites.

I had also been working on removing some hidden infections. Chronic infections can have all kinds of effects, like creating hormone deficiencies.

So any of what I had been doing could have improved my testosterone level. However, raising my T to over 1,000 ng/dL probably had something to do with my intake of cruciferous vegetables, and here's why ...

Why Blending Crucifers Could Have Increased My Testosterone

First, I noticed more signs of high T on days that I blended crucifers.

Second, there are some pretty strong mechanisms connecting the consumption of raw crucifers with elevated levels of testosterone.

Indole-3-carbinol (I3C), a metabolite of compounds in crucifers helps the body (mainly the liver and gut) normalize hormones in several ways, including ...

• I3C stimulates detoxification / biotransformation enzymes that remove estrogens and estrogen-like compounds from the body that suppress T and compete with it at receptors
• I3C binds (weakly) to estrogen receptors (ER) in the body without creating a strong estrogenic effect, potentially blocking the binding of ERs by other estrogens that have a stronger estrogenic effect, including xenoestrogens (think pesticides, phthalates, BPA, etc)

These "anti-estrogenic" effects of I3C have been studied extensively because they seem to reduce the incidence of hormone-dependent / estrogen-enhanced cancers like ovarian, breast, and prostate cancer.

By the way, I3C also modulates signaling pathways related to cell growth and apoptosis (beneficial cellullar "suicide") that are dysregulated in cancer cells.

Another Reason I3C Can Increase Testosterone

The body limits the total amount of sex hormones in circulation, so as a man reduces excessive estrogenic activity in his body (e.g. with the help of I3C), the body may allow more testosterone to be produced, at least in theory.

In the past, my estradiol (one of the main estrogens) tended to be high. So the I3C in my crucifer-spiked smoothies might have normalized my estradiol, allowing more T to be produced.

Men (and the women who love them) also need to realize that even slightly elevated estrogen in men doubles their risk of stroke and increases the risk of coronary artery disease and prostate cancer.

Benefits of I3C for Women

For crucifer-guzzling women, the estrogen-normalizing effects of I3C may help these women to normalize their other sex hormones like testosterone and progesterone, and reduce cancer risk. And this might be especially true in women with estrogen dominance (very common these days).

I have not yet found information about the net effect of I3C in women with low estrogen, like menopausal women, and it is possible that the anti-estrogenic activity of I3C could potentially be contraindicated in women with low estrogen.

But this might be easiy overcome with bioidentical hormone therapy or products, while maintaining the detoxification and other anti-cancer effects of I3C.

Considerations When Consuming Lots of Crucifers: Iodine and Thallium

People that are low in iodine (not so common in the US anymore and more common in many other parts of the world) may need to increase iodine intake if they are eating lots of cruciferous vegetables because some of the glucosinolates can convert into goitrogens, substances that block the uptake of iodine in the thyroid gland. 

But don't assume that you are low in iodine. Some people are too high in iodine. People can get too much iodine through the skin from personal care products.

And excess iodine is a potential cause of Hashimoto's thyroiditis that is made worse by selenium deficiency. So the goitrogenic effect of crucifers might even be beneficial for people with Hashimoto's if iodine excess is a cause.

Also keep in mind that crucifers can be high in the heavy metal thallium, a potent mitochondrial toxin. So monitor your thallium with periodic hair mineral tests and possibly take thallium binders like orthosilicic acid or zeolite.

I use both of these binders, and on a hair test that I took after I had been blending crucifers for a while, thallium was undetectable, despite the large quantities of crucifers in my diet.

By the way, if you grow your own crucifers, you may be able to influence the amount of thallium in your soil and in your crucifers by avoiding commercial fertilizers (even those labeled "organic) that have included manures from animals fed non-organic grains.

What's the connection between manure and thallium? In conventional agriculture, "biosolids", which is sewage sludge, is use as soil fertilizer. And sewage sludge contains thallium. Thallium gets into the grains fed to animals, and their manure contains the thallium. Many fertilizers, including many labeled "organic", contain manure contaminated with thallium. and this is one way thallium can get into crucifers. 

The bottom-line, at least for most people, is that the I3C in cruciferous vegetables can help with hormones and general health.

Why Raw Crucifers Are Best for Raising Your Testosterone

Realize that I3C (and isothiocyanates like sulforaphane) requires the enzyme myrosinase to convert its glucosinolate precursor into the active form, I3C.

Cooking destroys myrosinase, so to maximize I3C, eat crucifers raw. The easiest and most effective way to do that is by blending them into smoothies.

Blending may be superior to juicing crucifers to the extent that any of the phytonutrients are bound to fiber. However, people with SIBO may have issues with the fermentable fibers in whole crucifers, and might be better off juicing instead of blending. Or they might be able to use a special supplement that helps to digest fermentable fibers before the gut bugs do.

Although you can purchase supplements with I3C and its molecular cousin diindolylmethane (DIM), getting I3C from fresh whole vegetables delivers so many additional nutrients at the same time, like sulforaphane and minerals.

Non-Testosterone Benefits of Raw Crucifers

On a side note, a recent study demonstrated that glucoraphanin-based phytonutrients (e.g. sulforaphane) in broccoli and other crucifers rapidly reduce symptoms, including the cytokine storm, that accompany the illness ascribed to a certain scary pathogen that has preoccupied the world for the past three years.

The study hypothesized that this may be accomplished by the upregulation of endogenous antioxidants like glutathione via the Nrf2 pathway. And the study hypothesized that differing death rates from the scary pathogen among countries around the world might be due to different dietary intakes of Nrf2-inducing nutrients.

It also turns out that Nrf2 activity can block the ACE II receptor. Might elevated Nrf2 activity help to prophylactically prevent infection by the scary pathogen?

The bottomline is that there is a really strong case for ensuring that you have a steady stream of Nrf2-activating and hormone-balancing substances in your diet!

WARNING: Are You Considering Testosterone Replacement Therapy?

If you are a man who is concerned about his testerone level and considering testosterone replacement therapy, I need to let you know one more thing ...

Simply dumping exogenous T into your system can result in too much of the T being converted to estrogen, thereby lowering your ratio of testosterone to estrogen, which could give you man boobs, erectile dysfunction (or worse ED), and an elevated risk of cancer, cardiovascular disease, and stroke. 

Please don't do that before looking into why you do not have good levels of testosterone or testosterone activity at receptor sites. Some men maintain youthful levels of testosterone into the 70s, 80s, and beyond. Are they freaks of nature? Or is everybody else dealing with things like ...

• Chronic stress
• Chronic inflammation
• Elevated cortisol
• Elevated estrogen and estrogenic endocrine dysruptors ("xenoestrogens")
• Elevated prolactin
• Elevated sex hormone binding globulin
• Mitochondrial dysfunction ...

... or other factors that impair testosterone production or the ability of testosterone to bind to testosterone receptors?

At least check into the Bio-Individual Blueprint system as a way of looking at your testosterone through a more holistic lens. As a start, download the free Bio-Individual Blueprint Roadmap and watch the walkthrough video.