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Testosterone production has always been of paramount importance.

Perhaps, it wasn’t as acknowledged before because there wasn’t such an issue with it today. Today, we have a large portion of our young men with alarmingly low testosterone levels and it seems the health community as well as some of these particular men are scrambling to find out what the problem is.

Well, as I’ve discussed on this site before and I will again, our modern lifestyles are far from natural. And when they’re far from natural, we start getting our body too far away from some of its natural processes. Some of these include winding down for proper sleep, getting adequate sun exposure, exercising often, etc.

Testosterone is crucial, possibly the most important male hormone there is. So the benefits to having higher testosterone levels are countless and I may cover those in another post. What I want to highlight is what Dr. Andrew Huberman had to say about it:

“Testosterone makes effort feel good.”

That statement hit me hard when I heard it. For anyone who’s young, hungry, trying to improve, wanting to make a mark on the world, this is an idea that sits nicely with you.

I can probably even credit this quote with being the thing that pushed me over the edge to start caring more about it myself. I want my effort to feel good. I want to be able to work often and hard and feel a rewarding feeling as I accomplish things.

So I did a bit of searching around and found the 3 most commonly referred-to compounds that will help increase testosterone. The good thing is that these are also widely available so anybody should be able to get their hands on them.

Vitamin D

Vitamin D is very important for the production of testosterone.

Unfortunately, a large percentage of the US population is deficient in vitamin D. Maybe this has something to do with the low testosterone levels I was referring to earlier.

One study found that a 3,000 IU supplement of vitamin D each day boosted testosterone in the recipients.

It’s worth noting that you can get the same positive effect by exposing yourself to sunlight regularly. While I have previously written about how to keep yourself safe with quality sunscreens in the sun, I have not said enough how important sun exposure is for our bodies.

What I like to practice is getting in the sun often, even if it’s not for a long time. This way I can reap some of the benefits from the sun without worrying about sun burns and so on.

Other places you can get vitamin D from are eggs and tuna. In case that’s not enough though, there are plenty of supplements out there for it.

Ashwagandha

Ashwagandha is on here because it is probably the most well-researched and scientifically-backed herb that can be used for raising testosterone out there. There are others, but none as extensively researched as this one.

Ashwagandha has been shown, throughout multiple studies, to increase testosterone levels, increase sperm count, and lower cortisol. Cortisol, better known as the “stress hormone”, is thought to lower testosterone the more it is released into the body.

Ashwagandha is an herb that is easy enough to get a hold of. I realized not too long ago that I get a dose of it on a near-daily basis because of the smoothies I drink.

The smoothies are the REBBL Protein Shakes that come in several different flavors. Every one of them has ashwagandha added to them and you don’t even notice it.

Zinc

Zinc is the best mineral for testosterone-boosting purposes.

Several studies have looked into the relationship between zinc and testosterone and what they saw was that zinc (with vitamin B supplements) increased sperm quality and it boosted testosterone is athletes and zinc-deficient people.

Just like the first two compounds, zinc is probably one of the more thoroughly-researched and scientifically-proven natural compounds out there. I like recommending things like this because they are like “can’t go wrong” supplements to get in your diet.

Zinc is naturally most plentiful in meats and shellfish. Beyond that, an additional supplement may be necessary.