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How Low-Carb Diets Wreck Your Testosterone
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Transcript
Introduction to Low Carb Diets and Testosterone
00:00:00
chrisyzen
Hey, it's Christian Ordonov. Let's talk about how low carb diets such as keto, carnivore can lower men's testosterone levels. Let's look at the mechanisms at play and hopefully it will make sense intuitively that a long-term low carbohydrate diet is detrimental to anybody's health but men's health ah specifically in this example because very simply the fact that this low carb diet is met with ah an increase in cortisol as a response by the body that cortisol testosterone relationship is an inverse relationship when one goes up the other one will go down they've done studies with
The Role of Cortisol in Testosterone Regulation
00:00:56
chrisyzen
human volunteers where they inject them with insulin and The insulin causes a drop in blood sugar because the glucose is partitioned the blood glucose is partitioned into the cells and that the drop in blood sugar results in um an increase in cortisol because cortisol's primary role is to maintain or raise your blood sugar in response to stress and a drop in blood sugar is one of the most primordial stresses because if your blood sugar drops you will soon faint if it's not raised
00:01:34
chrisyzen
And then you will fall into a coma and soon after, minutes after, you will probably die. Your brain will not have energy and it will be the end. So cortisol is an amazing hormone in terms of survival and surviving stresses like that and fight or flight type situations where you have to run away, fight off a predator, stuff like that.
00:01:55
chrisyzen
however if cortisol is chronically elevated it does have a lot of detrimental effects including aging and degenerating the body because it stimulates lean tissue to be broken down mostly to be turned into glucose and again it has this count um this oppositional effect on testosterone, right? So let's look at some of the mechanisms through which
Glucose Dependency of Testosterone Production
00:02:21
chrisyzen
this happens. So we have in the testes, in the male testes, there, these lady cells that produce testosterone in response to LH, luteinizing hormone, which is a pituitary hormone. These cells rely on glucose for energy production. So if you have low availability of glucose because of a low carb diet,
00:02:42
chrisyzen
you, your brain, your central nervous system and your red blood cells will get preferential um doling out of this glucose. If you do as well as on top of this low carb regime, if you also do exercise,
00:03:00
chrisyzen
you will have to partition some of that glucose because of the the the the demands of the exercise imposed on the body. So that's another thing that will take and energy or glucose away from quote unquote nice to haves and absolutely anywhere you look at it, fertility, high libido, high testosterone.
Energy Prioritization and Reproductive Functions
00:03:20
chrisyzen
ah this This is a part of the reproduction system which is way, way higher Then basic survival. So you have your basic survival, the brain, the central nervous system, the heart, the organs, you know the liver, kidneys, stuff like that. So you have this kind of basic core at the bottom that will get preferential doling out of nutrients and energy.
00:03:45
chrisyzen
And then as you go up higher, the the more abundance you signal to the body, the more these other things like creativity, joy, testicular function, you know libido, wanting the altruism, wanting to do good for the world. these are kind of If you look at think about ah Maslow's hierarchy of needs, you've got to go much way higher up to start ah having these. so And the way you do it in a physiological level is you you take care of basic needs.
00:04:15
chrisyzen
and then you have an an overabundance, quote unquote, of nutrition and energy in order to support these other higher processes, right? So that's what happens when you severely limit glucose intake with a low carb diet, especially if you're not in ketosis, because at least in ketosis, you yeah some of that glucose that ah that is getting produced and some of the demands for glucose are lowered so more glucose can go for other ah go around for other but bodily processes because the the the brain, the central nervous system can also use ketones when you produce ketones. There's less of a requirement for producing glucose.
00:05:00
chrisyzen
but if you're just doing low carb without getting into like ketosis that absolutely will impair the functioning of these latic cells which produce testosterone okay then you need
00:05:15
chrisyzen
to To produce testosterone, you need to convert cholesterol into pregnant alone, which then will will be converted through some enzymatic steps to testosterone. This is another process that demands adequate energy and glucose metabolism again in those lady cells.
Low Carb Diets, Insulin, and Energy Signals
00:05:33
chrisyzen
right Then we have the disruption of insulin signaling and and its impact on testosterone production. So studies have shown that insulin receptors are present on these latex cells in the testes and insulin can stimulate testosterone synthesis. So if you keep your insulin low,
00:05:51
chrisyzen
this kind of this kind of signals to the body that not much energy, not much glucose or carbohydrate is coming into the body. So it's another signal of scarcity that when chronically ah when when we chronically send the signal to the body, it will down regulate these nice to haves, like high testosterone level. That's absolutely not necessary for immediate survival to have a high testosterone level.
00:06:21
chrisyzen
Then, the just the the by virtue of the fact that low-carb diets increase the production of cortisol, because cortisol is what stimulates this process of gluconeogenesis in the liver. It's not the only hormone that does that, but cortisol basically breaks down lean tissue muscle bone skin joints parts of organs so that they parts of them can go to the liver to be turned into glucose right so that
00:06:58
chrisyzen
this process this high cortisol level is associated with lower testosterone again because cortisol and testosterone have an inverse relationship it's again if the stress hormones are high
00:07:15
chrisyzen
that's a signal to the body that we don't need the the reproduction hormones to be high. It's similarly when stress hormones are high, the immune system is also suppressed, like adrenaline and cortisol suppress the immune system because if you're in a stressful situation that could be like a survival ah situation, you don't need your immune system, you don't need your reproductive capacities to be um full you know working at full capacity, you actually don't even need your digestive system to be working super well and super efficiently. That's why when you're stressed, it actually increases intestinal permeability. It actually impairs digestion because the blood is shunted towards the limbs so that you can fight flea or whatever the case may be.
00:08:07
chrisyzen
so This signal of elevated cortisol suppresses the production of GNRH, which is the gonadotropin-releasing hormone that's sent from the hypothalamus to the pituitary that signals the LH and FSH, so the luteinizing hormone and the follicle-stimulating hormones to be released.
00:08:29
chrisyzen
right so Again, these stress signals, they lower these other hormones and peptides that signal downstream for the production of these ah steroids,
00:08:41
chrisyzen
no DHEA, progesterone, testosterone, these kind of more reproductive type
Impact on Hormone Conversion and Sperm Quality
00:08:51
chrisyzen
hormones. okay Then there's another issue is when you're chronically on a low carb diet, the thyroid hormone is down regulated, right? So the T3 triiodothyronine that also is involved in supporting and the normal function of reproductive hormones like testosterone. So because low carb diets can reduce the conversion of T4 to T3, right? Which is the active thyroid hormone.
00:09:21
chrisyzen
This could have a negative impact on testosterone production. right So we know that hypothyroidism, whether diagnosed or not, hypothyroidism is associated with lower testosterone levels and reduced fertility in men.
00:09:41
chrisyzen
um
00:09:45
chrisyzen
So those are some of the mechanisms. There are actually other ones. there's ah So it can actually, it can also reduce sperm quality, right? So low carb diets may negatively affect sperm quality by limiting the availability of fructose, which is a key energy source for sperm motility. Nobody in the keto movement or the carnivore movement is talking about the fact that sperm rely on fructose.
00:10:20
chrisyzen
And that's produced from glucose in the seminal fluid to power their movement toward the egg for fertilization now.
00:10:29
chrisyzen
that That's something that many men don't know. that we So certain cells in the body that have few or no mitochondria, they can basically only work with like just carbohydrates, right because the the the process of burning fatty acids that requires mitochondria, the beta oxidation,
00:10:53
chrisyzen
So certain cells, um for example, I think in the eyes, the lenses of the eyes and and stuff like that, the retina, certain cells there, I think they have either no mitochondria or very few mitochondria. So they also require very high amounts of glucose.
Personal Experience and Carbohydrate Intake
00:11:09
chrisyzen
And actually when I started increasing my carbohydrate intake,
00:11:16
chrisyzen
my eyesight improved which could also be said differently my eyesight severely deteriorated on these low carb diets and I but I i kind of I noticed that my eyesight wasn't great
00:11:37
chrisyzen
But it was only after it improved so drastically by increasing my car carbohydrate intake that I noticed it super specifically, if you know what I mean. It was such a such a big contrast.
00:11:53
chrisyzen
um And i've I've had clients that have told me that their eyesight improved by when when they start my dietary recommendations. So what what are the other mechanism? I'm just going to rattle them off. So I already mentioned the reduced glucose availability in pairs, latic cells, ability to produce testosterone, the latic cells in the testes, decreased activity of steroid steroidogenic enzymes due to low glycolytic flux,
00:12:23
chrisyzen
Low insulin levels reduce testosterone synthesis by impairing latic cell function Elevated cortisol from metabolic stress suppresses testosterone production Reduced thyroid function negatively impacts testosterone synthesis. Altered cholesterol metabolism may limit the availability of cholesterol for testosterone production. Decreased leptin levels lower GNRH. Reducing testosterone production. Remember GNRH is what stimulates the pituitary to release LH and FSH.
00:13:00
chrisyzen
And then if there's a caloric restriction or energy deficiency, that also reduces testosterone by prioritizing survival over reproduction. So this is what, again, this is what low carb diets do. They signal.
00:13:17
chrisyzen
Stress the body is basically the ah carbohydrate restriction sends a very similar Signal to the body as does fast your starvation. Okay, and That causes it to lower its metabolism. So T3 the thyroid hormone will be lower the active ah thyroid hormone and And it will cause cortisol to elevate, which further suppresses testosterone production, makes you feel like crap, and degenerates your body and ages you faster. Okay? ah So then also ah a couple more, so reduced IGF-1 levels impair latic cell function in testosterone production.
00:14:01
chrisyzen
the IGF is insulin like growth factor one and then I already mentioned poor sperm quality due to reduced fructose availability in seminal fluid so low carb diets they're not just shortening your life They are wrecking your testosterone and that's not a good thing. Anyway, any way you really think about it. The
Reevaluating Low Carb Diet Benefits
00:14:32
chrisyzen
only reason I can think of that a low carb diet will show improvement for a person and this is why why a lot of people see improvement is they go from the standard Western horrific diet
00:14:44
chrisyzen
to a much more intentional diet and that's why they have improvement but it's still very much low sub-optimal diet for long-term health and longevity.