Can Keto Help Boost Testosterone?

– Testosterone and the ketogenic dietare a lot more closely related
than people seem to think. See it all comes down to thegood old foundation of cholesterol. And whether you like it or not,cholesterol is actually good for us. I’m Thomas DeLauer with Keto Mojoand we’re going to break
down how the keto dietcan actually help boost
your testosterone levels. You see the first thing
we have to look at,again, is cholesterol. Cholesterol is what is
known as a steroid hormone. Now the word steroid
automatically gets a bad rap,but in reality, a steroid hormoneis a perfectly healthy
thing within the human body. So cholesterol is a steroid hormone,and testosterone is a steroid hormone,and they’re called steroid hormonesbecause they have a common theme. And that is the steroid ring
which actually makes up themolecular structure of these hormones. Now we don’t need to go into
the molecular breakdown,the molecular structure and all that. We’re going to save that for another day. We want to talk about the ketogenic dietand how it boosts testosterone levels. So first we have to look athow cholesterol becomes testosterone. You see, cholesterol gets convertedinto something known as pregnenolone. Pregnenolone is sort of a master hormonethat can be broken down
into various other hormones. It can be broken down into estrogen,it can be broken down into testosterone. It all depends on the circumstance. And it’s done so by an enzyme
known as Cytochrome P450. The Cytochrome P450 breaks
down a lot of things. In fact it’s even involved
in alcohol metabolism. But it has a big role
when it comes down totaking the root core of
cholesterol and breaking it downand turning it into something
that’s usable by the body,generally, hormones. Now when we look at the ketogenic diet,75%, or roughly thereof,
is going to be fatswhen we look at our diet. So we have to remember
that when we’re supportingour healthy cholesterol
levels through the diet,we’re potentially giving
ourselves more of a foundationto build testosterone off of. So this is all a very positive thing. Cholesterol also plays a rolein what are called lipid rafts. Now these lipid rafts are what essentiallycarry different proteins
and different fats. And these lipid rafts assemble componentsfor things like mTOR and IGF. Now what that means is it’sgoing to help someone build muscle,which has a direct
correlation with testosterone. So when we have mTOR, which stands formammalian target of rapamycin,we essentially have the anabolic switch. When mTOR is turned on and
mTOR signaling can workbecause we have the healthy cholesterol,the testosterone within the human bodycan actually do the work. It can actually build muscle. It can actually do things. This also plays a big role with IGF. IFG is another thing, although
unrelated to testosterone,it is related to overall muscle building. And the more muscle that we have,generally we start having
more testosterone as well. So there is sort of a feedback
system that happens there. Now let’s go ahead and look at a studythat found the ketogenic diethad a powerful effect
on not only cholesterol,but on testosterone, too. So this study was published inthe Journal of Strength
and Conditioning Research. It was an 11 week study that took a lookat people that were doing
the traditional western diet,versus a very low carb ketogenic diet. Well what they found
at the end of 11 weekswas that they did have an increasein total cholesterol levels. At first glance, people are likewow, we don’t want this increase,even though it was a subtle increase,it still goes against the grainof what we are normally hearing is good. But they also found that there is a118 nanogram per deciliter
increase in testosterone. Now to give you an idea
of reference range,the general positive reference
range for testosterone levelsis going to be anywhere from like300 to 900 nanograms per deciliter. So when you see a 118 nanogram
per deciliter increasein 11 weeks, that is a huge increase. That’s enough to take
someone that is consideredlow testosterone into
significantly higher testosteroneand within normal range. That is very powerful. Now they also saw that
there was a decreasein overall insulin levels. So there could be a correlation there. You see, the way that we
can go down that rabbit holeis to start looking at howinsulin plays a role in
leydig cell function. You see we have leydig cells
that come out of the testes. These leydig cells actually
promote testosterone. They create testosterone. They are the epicenterfor lack of a better way of saying it. Well, it’s been shown
that insulin resistancebecause if we’re being exposedto so much insulin that
we become resistant,can actually end up impeding the abilityto produce leydig cells. So what that means is that
the brain is still ableto send the signal to say
“Hey, create testosterone,”but then the leydig cells
never have the opportunity to. So in essence, the ketogenic dietaffects testosterone in two ways. It affects it directly with thefoundational fuel that it
needs, the cholesterols,but then it also stops somethingthat would normally stand
in the way of the process. Now this is just the tip of the iceberg. We’re just seeing that
it’s positive results. We have to dive more into the researchand we have to wait for more
concrete evidence to come outas to exactly why this is occurring. But all we know, is if we give our bodythe foundation that it needs,then it can make what it needs
for a successful, happy life. As always, keep it locked
in here with Keto Mojoand make sure if you’re testing,that you’re leaving the guess
work out of the equationand leaving your measuring to the meter. I’ll see you in the next Keto Mojo video.