Tobacco raises testosterone levels

Two of the most common things that people smoke are; tobacco and marijuana.
The question is, how do they affect testosterone levels? Or do they even?
Looking at the scientific evidence behind tobacco and testosterone, it’s actually something that increases natural testosterone and DHT levels (study, study).
This effect is likely caused by nicotine, which acts as aromatase enzyme inhibitor (turning less testosterone into estrogen) and also blocks the conversion from dihydrotestosterone into a weaker metabolite 3-alpha-diol…
…Then there’s also the metals and minerals in tobacco which can have androgenic effects, bottom line being that smokers tend to have bit higher T levels than non-smokers, even though smoking itself is not too healthy thing to do.
When it comes to cannabis, some studies say that the active ingredient (THC) can inhibit testicular enzymes needed in testosterone production and reduce T-levels, though the effects are reversible and not as significant as some people claim. In fact there have been few studies where smoking pot has not negatively impacted any hormones (study, study).

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Choose Coffee Over Tea

coffee is better than tea for testosterone levelsTea, especially the green kind, has been hailed as the supreme health drink for years…
…And surely enough there’s evidence that regular tea consumption can reduce your risk of certain cancers, offer slight protection from type-2 diabtes, and improve cardiovascular health. Some research even suggests that green tea consumption can aid in weight loss (although these effects are marginal at best and the green tea extracts sold as fat-burners are really not as effective as the producers claim).
Looking at tea from the hormonal point of view, it’s not so “supreme” after all;
Tea is one of the foods with highest known fluoride content and fluoride in excess can significantly lower T-levels.

When isolated leydig cells are exposed to green tea catechins (EGCG and EC), stimulated testosterone production drops significantly.

Injecting rodents with green tea antioxidants ended up crushing testosterone levels by a whopping 70%!

The catechins and tannins in various teas have a mechanism of blocking DHT synthesis via reducing 5-a enzyme (study, study).

Adding increasingly bigger dosages of green tea to male rodents feed (human equivalents of 5 to 20 cups) caused dose-dependent reductions in testosterone between 25-78%.

I recommend choosing coffee instead, since not only does coffee taste better, it’s also pro-testosterone;
4mg/kg of caffeine taken 1-hour prior to exercise can increase T-levels by 12% in elite athletes.

When infused into a chewing gum 240mg’s of caffeine was able to increase the exercise-induced testosterone boost by 14%

In this study, pre-workout caffeine dosed at 200, 400, 600, and 800mg’s led to dose-dependent increases in testosterone

Caffeine is known to be a non-selective PDE-inhibitor, reducing the breakdown rate of cAMP (a compound needed in T-synthesis)

Click to expand...

Choose Coffee Over Tea

coffee is better than tea for testosterone levelsTea, especially the green kind, has been hailed as the supreme health drink for years…
…And surely enough there’s evidence that regular tea consumption can reduce your risk of certain cancers, offer slight protection from type-2 diabtes, and improve cardiovascular health. Some research even suggests that green tea consumption can aid in weight loss (although these effects are marginal at best and the green tea extracts sold as fat-burners are really not as effective as the producers claim).
Looking at tea from the hormonal point of view, it’s not so “supreme” after all;
Tea is one of the foods with highest known fluoride content and fluoride in excess can significantly lower T-levels.

When isolated leydig cells are exposed to green tea catechins (EGCG and EC), stimulated testosterone production drops significantly.

Injecting rodents with green tea antioxidants ended up crushing testosterone levels by a whopping 70%!

The catechins and tannins in various teas have a mechanism of blocking DHT synthesis via reducing 5-a enzyme (study, study).

Adding increasingly bigger dosages of green tea to male rodents feed (human equivalents of 5 to 20 cups) caused dose-dependent reductions in testosterone between 25-78%.

I recommend choosing coffee instead, since not only does coffee taste better, it’s also pro-testosterone;
4mg/kg of caffeine taken 1-hour prior to exercise can increase T-levels by 12% in elite athletes.

When infused into a chewing gum 240mg’s of caffeine was able to increase the exercise-induced testosterone boost by 14%

In this study, pre-workout caffeine dosed at 200, 400, 600, and 800mg’s led to dose-dependent increases in testosterone

Caffeine is known to be a non-selective PDE-inhibitor, reducing the breakdown rate of cAMP (a compound needed in T-synthesis)

Click to expand...