5 best micronutrients for testosterone levels

In this article I’m going to go through the 5 best micronutrients for testosterone.

The benefits of these micronutrients don’t stop with your hormones. You need most of these simply to survive, and having adequate levels flowing through your body ensure optimal health, energy, and well-being.

Do you need to supplement with these nutrients?

For each micronutrient I’ll be giving you a few foods that are the best sources. The topic of food quality, which I’ll cover another time, also has to be taken into account. There’s mounting evidence that our foods don’t hold the same amounts of nutrients in the same quantity as they once did, primarily due to the degradation of our soil for a number of reasons and causes.

So, in some cases, especially if you’re training and sweating on a regular basis as a few of these nutrients are expelled through the sweat, supplementation with a high quality supplement is a good idea.

So, what are the best nutrients for your testosterone levels?

Vitamin E

Vitamin E is a term for a group of compounds called tocopherols and tocotrienols. You can find these compounds naturally in certain foods and they’re also stored in the body.

One of the interesting aspects of Vitamin E is its ability to lessen and even prevent the effect of lipid peroxidation of polyunsaturated fats, protecting the body from the oxidative damage. (study)

In one study, 483mg alpha-tocopherol was given to humans – and 1,500mg to rodents. The results were increased total, free testosterone.

Vitamin E has also been shown to be an antagonist to estrogen receptors, lowering overall estrogen in a natural way.

All-in-all, vitamin E seems to be necessary to create the thriving testosterone levels every guy should have if they're healthy.

As always, if you're worried about vitamin E levels, get some blood work done to see if you even need to supplement. Start with natural foods, then add supplementation if you're still not getting enough from your diet.

Best foods:

Eggs

Avocado

Spinach

Shrimp

Magnesium

Improves sleep quality, which is why we include a full dose in Man Sleep. Sleep is an important and vastly underrated way of maintaining heathy testosterone levels for men.

Magnesium is a rare micronutrient that it seems a majority of the population should supplement with as nearly 70% of Americans are deficient in magnesium. 

What makes it more likely that you need supplementation is if you sweat (ie. if you exercise). Like zinc, it evaporates through sweat, so if you workout, you need more than if you don't.

As far as testosterone goes, in one study, 1 gram boosted T levels by 24%, which is pretty damn impressive. 

Another study on older men found a correlation between higher magnesium levels with higher T levels. Of course, correlation isn’t causation, so you can’t say that magnesium increases testosterone from this study, but it’s a nice addition to the previous study mentioned.

Magnesium appears to lower SHGB, which increases free testosterone. Free testosterone is believed to be the form of testosterone that actually works, flowing through your body doing testosterone things. The higher percentage of free testosterone you have, the better.

Best foods:

cacao/dark chocolate

beef/red meat

Spinach

Zinc

Zinc is one of 24 essential minerals for human survival, but adequate zinc consumption also helps you thrive hormonally. The more you sweat, the more is depleted from your body, hence, the more you’ll need to consume, as evidence by this study done on elite wrestlers that showed 3mg/kg taken daily increases in testosterone, vs the placebo group that didn’t take zinc saw a depletion in hormonal health.

Again, it’s important to note that the wrestlers were sweating a lot, so recommended intake can depend on how much you sweat.

Another study found that men who had testosterone levels on the lower end (less than 480 ng/dL), after 6 months of supplementation, noticed significant improvements in testosterone and DHT levels. While men who had higher testosterone levels (more than 480 ng/dL) noted no increases in testosterone, but they still saw significant increases in DHT levels, which is a more potent androgen.

Zinc does more than just help testosterone, it's an important mineral for immune health as well. If you do sweat, supplementing with zinc seems to be ideal. If you don't workout... Just start working out already! Life's better when you're strong and healthy.

Start with food, but if you're looking for a good zinc supplement, check out Man Boost. We include a full, clinically effective dose of zinc picolinate (the purest form of zinc) in every serving.

Best foods for zinc:

Red meat

Oysters

Dairy

Eggs 

Boron

Boron might be the most impressive mineral or micronutrient of them all when it comes to boosting testosterone levels. Yet it rarely gets talked about.

In this study, researchers gave subjects 10mg of boron every morning for 10 days.

The results:

• dihydrotestosterone (DHT) levels rose by 10%
• free testosterone levels had increased by 28%
• free estrogen levels had decreased by -39%

Another study found an increase of 29% in testosterone levels with 10mg of supplementation.

With boron I do think supplementation can help a lot because of the reduction in soil quality over the years. You can get boron from most plants and vegetables, however, even coffee.

That said, if you want to try supplementing with boron, we include a full clinically effective dose of the mineral in Man Boost.

D3

D3 is actually not a vitamin but a steroid hormone mistakenly named. D3 helps regulate more than 1,000 bodily functions, so levels of D3 that are too low will have a negative impact on your health and performance long term.

With testosterone, D3 is very powerful - along with supporting a healthy brain and immune system.

This study showed a correlation between D3 and higher testosterone levels as well as lower SHBG levels, meaning more free testosterone, the form that actually matters most. 

In another study, men taking 3332 IU’s daily for a year showed a 25.2% increase in testosterone when compared to a placebo group.

While supplementation has shown to positively impact testosterone, the best source of D3 for your testosterone levels and overall health is still exposure to sunlight as this study showed. 

Going tarps off outside as often as possible is ideal, just another reason to also get in shape, lower body fat, and have a physique you’re proud of.

Personally, I supplement less with D3 in the summer than I do in the winter. In the winter I actually take a very high dose, and the impacts aren't just with testosterone, as D3 benefits immunity and brain health.

You can also get D3 from foods like eggs and white button mushrooms.

Supplementation is up to you, I think there's a strong case, especially in the winter.

Again, we're not trying to survive, but thrive.

If it's something you want to try supplementing with, check out our Man D3, which contains 1,000 IU's of liquid gel D3 which is more absorbable than the powder form many supplements contain.

Best micronutrients for testosterone levels

Specifically for testosterone, you want to get some bloodwork and make sure that your levels of magnesium, zinc, boron, D3, and vitamin E are at adequate levels.

Eat foods that are high in these nutrients, but supplementation isn’t a bad idea as well. Now, the conflict of interest here is that I own a supplement company. So, me saying ‘supplement with this stuff’ could take away from the video.

Which is why it’s good to get your bloodwork done first, you may not need supplements at all. If you get enough sunlight you may not need to supplement with D3, if you’re in a darker, colder climate like I am, supplementing with D3 is a good idea in the colder months.

So do a little bit of personal research, add the foods mentioned to your diet, and if you’re still not getting optimal amounts of the micronutrients, supplementation can help.