Got Low T Symptoms? Try These Five Surprisingly Simple Lifestyle Changes

Low testosterone in men has become an epidemic, with average testosterone levels 25 percent lower than they were just a generation ago. Many men struggle with low T symptoms like low libido and lack of energy even if they technically do not have low enough testosterone to need replacement. Even men who need testosterone replacement therapy, or TRT, can respond faster if they follow these five simple steps for increasing testosterone.

1. Banish the Beer

Got Low T Symptoms? Try These Five Surprisingly Simple Lifestyle Changes Beer may be delicious, but it can lower testosterone. Many men assume that the fatigue, weight gain and other low T symptoms are caused by the alcohol and calories in beer, but hops are the real culprit.

Hops contain phytoestrogens, which mimic the action of estrogen in the human body. Most beer has some hops, but the effect is worse in men who drink extremely hoppy beers like India Pale Ales. Even a few beers a week can lower your testosterone and give you a distinctive beer gut, or even the dreaded man boobs.

In addition, beer is made largely from barley. Barley contains compounds that mimic the female hormone prolactin, which causes breast growth and lactation. This hormone can cause feminization of your body and also many low T symptoms.

2. Stop the Stress

When you are stressed, your body produces the hormone cortisol. Several recent studies have shown that cortisol is associated with low testosterone. In addition, chronically high cortisol can mimic or exacerbate many symptoms of low T, such as fatigue, fat gain and muscle loss.

You may not be able to cut back on the amount of stress in your life, but you can change the way it affects you. Meditation, exercise and other simple life changes can decrease cortisol levels and increase testosterone.

3. Forgo Hormones in Food

Hormones are unfortunately becoming common in food, especially the female hormones progesterone and estrogen. Unfortunately, when people consume meat and dairy products with high amounts of these hormones, they also see an increase. This can lead to lower testosterone along with low T symptoms in men.

Meat and dairy are both great ways to gain muscle and they supply the fats and vitamins needed to make adequate amounts of testosterone. Buying hormone-free and grass fed meats and dairy will lower the amount of hormones in your diet.

4. Filter Your Water

Got Low T Symptoms? Try These Five Surprisingly Simple Lifestyle Changes 1 Biologists and environmentalists are concerned about the high level of estrogens in American waterways. However, men should be concerned as well. Estrogen can lower testosterone and produce many low T symptoms as well as causing men to develop more feminized characteristics.

A normal water filter should be sufficient to remove estrogen, as it is a large protein. Restricting yourself to filtered water will ensure that you aren't getting low testosterone from something as simple as water.

5. Purchase Less Plastic

Plastic is all around us. We use to it to store our food and drinks, and to hold lotions and other toiletries that we will then put on our skin. However, plastic contains BPA, phthalates, and a variety of other compounds that have been shown to affect testosterone. BPA may increase testosterone, but the effect is not permanent; when the body is exposed on a regular basis, your cells will stop making this important androgen. Phthalates and other chemicals found in plastic actually lower testosterone.

Studies on these chemicals and how they affect the human body are still being conducted. However, until doctors know more about how plastics affect our bodies, men with low T symptoms should use glass, BPA and phthalate-free plastic, and other means of food storage.

Modern life exposes men to many substances that decrease testosterone and cause low T symptoms. However, there are ways that you can minimize these factors and get the healthy testosterone levels that you need to look and feel your best.