- Andrew Huberman is the host of the Huberman Lab podcast.
- The podcast follows a chronological order.
- Andrew wonders a question he has had for a long time.
- Exercise is discussed, as well as supplements and do's and don'ts.
- Vitamin D3 and testosterone therapy are mentioned.
- The topic of prostate health is brought up.
- Dr. Kyle Gillett is a dual board certified physician in family medicine and obesity medicine and an expert in hormone optimization.
- He is an M.D. (Medical Doctor) and treats patients of different backgrounds, ages and goals.
- Today's discussion focuses on male hormone optimization including behavioral, nutrition-based, supplement-based and prescription-drug based tools.
- Specific recommendations for people with different goals and of different ages are offered.
- Topics covered include how to determine if testosterone is optimized, how often to test for specific hormones, and gauging how good one should feel.
- Discussion includes cycling on and off supplements and/or prescription drugs geared towards hormone optimization, and behavioral foundations of optimal hormone function.
- Psychology and life events are discussed as they relate to hormones and how hormones impact our psychology.
Facts:
- This podcast is separate from the teaching and research roles at Stanford, but it is part of an effort to provide zero cost science and science-related tools information to the public.
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- Momentous Supplements library is constantly expanding.
Facts:
- Puberty can affect an individual's adult height, body composition, and hormones.
- There is a wide variation in how quickly puberty occurs.
- Entering puberty early can decrease an individual's adult height or stature.
- Lifting heavy weights will not stunt growth.
- Deliberately overeating and lifting weights to gain muscle and fat can stunt growth.
- Childhood obesity can cause early puberty.
- Obesity increases the production of leptin, which can trigger the onset of puberty.
- To reach one's maximum height, it is important to avoid deliberately gaining weight or laying down excess body fat.
- Dieting and actively trying to lose body fat is safe under the supervision of a physician.
- The first puberty of everyone's life is the first three months of their life, which is due to DHEA, an adrenal hormone.
- The second puberty, or the puberty that most people know of, actually starts that same way as well. It's called adrenarche and is when the adrenals kick in for the second time.
- Testicles usually descend before birth, but there is a risk of testicular cancer if they are not fixed early and also heat damage to the teste.
Males should:
- Get bloodwork done as early as possible, ideally during later Tanner stages (ages 15+).
- Get bloodwork done twice a year, with the help of a qualified physician.
- Monitor testosterone, SHBG and DHT levels for hormones optimization.
Anything else for the everyday person, male or female?
Facts that all males should do:
- Consume an array of nutrients that include dairy.
- Ensure adequate vitamin D intake.
- Optimize growth hormone and IGF-1 before age 25.
- Consume enough free estrogen while growing.
- Eat a combination of quality proteins from animal sources and non-animal sources.
- Obtain prebiotic fiber and essential fatty acids to help with brain development.
- Consider taking a multivitamin if there are dietary restrictions.
- Avoid caloric restriction and excessive body fat to maintain testosterone levels.
- Get enough quality sleep 80% of the nights.
Bullet 1: Stress is an important factor in hormone optimization. Bullet 2: Good social connections are necessary for hormone optimization. Bullet 3: Managing stress includes relaxation techniques, dietary changes, exercise, prayer or meditation, and counseling or therapy. Bullet 4: It's important to get outside and find a movement pastime to last a lifetime. Bullet 5: Finding one's purpose in life is an important component of hormone optimization.
- Behavior should be the first priority when trying to feel better.
- Nutrition is the second step, followed by supplementation.
- Supplements and medications are similar, with medications having more side effects or stronger therapeutic effects.
- Supplements should be considered if an individual is an athlete, or desires high cognitive performance.
- Food can provide many of the same benefits as supplements.
- Finances often dictate how much time and energy can be spent on supplements.
Do you find that those two things are related to this issue? KYLE GILLETT: Absolutely. In men, especially-- and it's not just men, but men in particular-- we have seen a huge increase in addiction to porn and masturbation, and we often see that coincide with ED, low libido, and all these other issues.
Facts:
- Libido can be impacted by both testosterone and estrogen levels
- Males may not know how to talk about subtle changes in hormone levels
- ADAM questionnaire is available online to help people understand their hormone health
- Motivational interviewing can be used to ask open-ended questions to help diagnose patients
- ED can be an indicator of plaque buildup in the arteries
- Porn and masturbation can contribute to ED, low libido, and other issues in males
- Pornography and masturbation can create a brain wiring situation where males are aroused by watching other people have sex instead of being the first person actor.
- Masturbation may decrease motivation to find sexual partners.
- Ejaculation causes an increase in prolactin, which blunts libido for some period of time.
- Pornography and masturbation can limit real world libido.
- Masturbating daily or multiple times per day can be detrimental to hormone profile.
- Porn use can make this worse due to dopamine sensitivity.
- Excessively frequent masturbation and viewing pornography may be detrimental to hormones.
- Optimizing hormones in men includes getting movement, sunlight, quality social connection, and avoiding excessive masturbation and pornography.
- Athletic Greens (AG1) is a vitamin-mineral-probiotic drink.
- It provides the probiotics needed for gut health.
- AG1 contains adaptogens, vitamins and minerals to meet foundational nutritional needs.
- It tastes great.
- Get 5 free travel packs and a year supply of Vitamin D3, K2 at athleticgreens.com/huberman.
- Doing vigorous exercise for more than an hour can be hormonally harmful.
- Weight training can still help with hypertrophy of collagen even if done at a low to moderate intensity.
- Training vigorously for longer than an hour is not recommended and can lead to overtraining.
- Consistency is key when it comes to exercising to optimize hormones.
- It is beneficial to finish workouts while you still have energy and balance between sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems.
- Exercise in the morning before 9 AM gives more energy throughout the day.
- Going out for a 45-minute jog at least once a week helps to maintain healthy blood profiles.
- There is no strict cutoff for what is TRT.
- Testosterone and estrogen are both steroid hormones.
- Exogenous testosterone can have negative effects on fertility.
- Performance enhancing drugs, including steroids, vary in use and reason.
- The benefit of taking performance-enhancing drugs rarely outweighs the detriment for those under 30 years old.
- Creatine can slightly increase total testosterone and dihydrotestosterone, but will not cause hair loss.
- L-carnitine is a peptide hormone that helps with amino acid synthesis and energy shunting.
- People should take 1 to 5 grams of betaine per day if they are creatine non-responders.
- L-carnitine should be taken orally in doses of 1000 milligrams to 5000 milligrams per day.
- Allicin from garlic and berberine help decrease the conversion of carnitine and choline to TMAO.
- Injectable l-carnitine is almost completely absorbed and should be taken in doses of 500 milligrams to 2000 milligrams.
- L-carnitine helps shuttle nutrients into the mitochondria and increases the density of the androgen receptor.
- Creatine, betaine and l-carnitine do not need to be cycled.
Facts:
- Vitamin D and boron can optimize testosterone levels.
- Boron can acutely help lower SHBG (sex hormone binding globulin) usually in a dose of 5 to 12 milligrams per day.
- The ideal level of free testosterone in males should be about 2% of one's total testosterone.
- Varicose veins in the testicles (varicoceles) can lead to very high SHBG levels.
- Valsalva is an exercise to check for varicoceles, which involves bearing down like you're lifting a weight or having a bowel movement.
- Regular blood tests are important to analyze factors that impact health.
- InsideTracker offers personalized nutrition platform that analyzes data from your blood and DNA.
- InsideTracker helps you understand your body and reach health goals.
- InsideTracker provides data on metabolic factors, lipids, hormones, etc.
- InsideTracker suggests nutritional, behavioral, and supplementation-based interventions.
- Visit insidetracker.com/huberman to get 20% off any of InsideTracker's plans.
- Thank our sponsor InsideTracker.
- Vitamin D3 can be used to optimize testosterone.
- Tongkat Ali (also known as Long Jack) upregulates enzymes in the steroidogenesis cascade.
- Dosage of Tongkat Ali is recommended at 300-1,200 milligrams a day.
- Taking Tongkat Ali increases free testosterone and luteinizing hormone.
- It can also slightly increase DHEA and decrease SHBG (protein that binds up androgens and estrogens).
- Taking Tongkat Ali does not directly affect thyroid hormone, growth hormone, or other pathways.
- Fadogia agrestis is a genus of plants that increases the release of luteinizing hormone from the pituitary.
- Human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) is a synthetic form of luteinizing hormone, which stimulates the production of sperm and testosterone in the testes.
- Pregnant women's urine is refined for non-synthetic hCG and menopausal ladies' urine is used to make menotropins.
- The safe dosage of Fadogia agrestis for humans is 300 milligrams per day.
- For increased effects, 600 milligrams of Fadogia agrestis can be taken daily for a month, followed by 1-2 weeks off.
- Growth hormone is a peptide hormone released by the pituitary; it has a fast half life of minutes and increases IGF-1.
- IGF-1 can be checked, and it is usually congruent with growth hormone levels.
- Diabetes can affect growth hormone and IGF-1 levels.
- Taking amino acids before bed may help with growth hormone release.
- Fasting can increase growth hormone, but genes related to growth hormone and IGF-1 are not significantly higher.
- Avoiding food two hours before bed can help optimize growth hormone release.
- To improve growth hormone, a balance of iodine and good source of iodine is recommended.
- Cruciferous vegetables and boron are considered goitrogens, which means more iodine is needed when consuming them.
- Iodized salt can prevent goiter but is not the ideal form of iodine, which is found in the ocean.
- To improve thyroid hormone, cruciferous vegetables should be eaten daily along with plenty of iodine.
- Other supplements to offset TMAO include creatine, betaine, l-carnitine, allicin garlic, vitamin D3, boron, tongkat ali, fadogia, and fasting.
Facts:
- Behaviors and nutrition are the starting point for a hierarchy that can optimize testosterone.
- Peptides can be taken to increase GH and IGF-1.
- Ibutamoren or MK-677 is another peptide that increases growth hormone but has side effects such as anxiety, hunger, and high blood glucose.
- Sermorelin is the most common peptide taken, which can cause deep but short sleep with intense dreams.
- People should be wary of taking peptides as they may contain contaminants.
- People are using testosterone to increase levels that are already normal rather than replacing diminished hormone levels.
- A typical dosage range for testosterone therapy is 100-120 milligrams per week divided over two or three doses, typically cypionate or enanthate.
- Possible side effects of testosterone therapy include acne, hair loss, mental status changes, cardiovascular concerns, fertility concerns and lipid concerns.
- It is important to monitor all of these potential side effects closely with the help of a physician and an interdisciplinary team.
Bullet 1: Taking hCG or clomiphene can increase testosterone, but also estrogen.
Bullet 2: hCG is a hormone produced during pregnancy that binds to the LH and TSH receptors.
Bullet 3: Clomid contains enclomiphene and zuclomiphene, which have different effects on the body.
Bullet 4: Clomid works by blocking the action of estrogen from the estrogen receptor in the hypothalamus and pituitary.
Bullet 5: Side effects of taking Clomid are common and include visual changes and blurry vision.
- Taking hCG several times per week can help maintain spermatogenesis and fertility while on testosterone.
- Heat damage to the testes can be avoided by using cold therapy, avoiding saunas, hot tubs and heated seats.
- For every two degree increase in temperature of the scrotum, there is a 20% decrease in spermatogenesis and viability of sperm.
- Tight fitting clothing can also negatively affect fertility.
Bullet 1: Smoked cannabis, THC, and nicotine can all diminish testosterone levels. Bullet 2: Cannabis and THC can increase gynecomastia (growth of male breast tissue). Bullet 3: Excessive cycling and incorrect legwork exercises can weaken the pelvic floor muscles which can lead to impotence. Bullet 4: It is important to use proper form when exercising to support the pelvic floor. Bullet 5: Alcohol can significantly increase aromatase, the enzyme that converts testosterone into estrogen, and should be limited to three to four standard drinks every two weeks. Bullet 6: Eating foods with saturated fats can help optimize hormone production, but it is not vital. Bullet 7: Cholesterol binds to the estrogen-related receptor alpha, which can help with metabolism, but can also have concerns for cancer and tumor risk.
- Low dose tadalafil (Cialis) is sometimes prescribed to male patients for prostate health and blood flow to the prostate in dosage ranges of 2.5 milligrams to 5 milligrams per day.
- Tadalafil increases the density of the androgen receptor similarly to l-carnitine, and can reduce episodes of nocturia from 2 to 1.
- Commercial pilots should avoid higher doses of tadalafil; otherwise, no higher than 10 milligrams a day is recommended.
- Prostate specific antigen (PSA) levels should be monitored depending on age: 0-1 for 20 year olds, 1-3 for 40 year olds, and 5 for 80 year olds.
- Taking 5-alpha reductase inhibitors like finasteride or dutasteride will cut PSA levels in half.
Bullet facts:
- Drugs to offset hair loss usually operate through the DHT system
- DHT receptors cause beard growth on the face
- Some drugs to block or disrupt the DHT pathway may cause negative effects such as diminished sex drive and motivation
- Alternatives like topical DHT antagonists may be used to maintain hair without the side effects
- Androgen receptor genes are found on the X chromosome and their sensitivity determines hair loss
- Caffeine can be used topically to crowd out androgens and prevent hair loss
- Spironolactone and finasteride should not be used topically by males, as they are absorbed systemically
- Turmeric and curcuminoids can cause decreased DHT levels and negative effects
- Saw palmetto is a 5-alpha reductase inhibitor but only affects certain isoenzymes
Fact 1: BPA and phthalates present in plastic bottles and certain aluminum cans can negatively impact sperm counts, testosterone levels, and genitalia size for males. Fact 2: Phthalates are most enriched in pesticides and may be linked to decreases in sperm and testosterone levels in rural areas. Fact 3: Bisphenol A is a xenoestrogen and can bind to estrogen-related receptor gamma. Fact 4: Dr. Gillett avoids drinking from plastic bottles when possible.
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