Does tongkat ali increase testosterone?
In a round about way, it sure does, which explains why its one my all time favorite sex boosting supplements.
And unlike most other herbs, we have plenty of science that demonstrates how effective this plant actually is.
Studies that prove that tongkat ali increases Bio-Available testosterone by lowering estrogen AND cortisol, two hormones that have a negative impact on production of the hormone.
Tongkat is also a strong libido enhancer, and according to one study, it significantly increased erectile function in male rats.
Tongat ali also improves sperm quality, with one human study showing that it boosted sperm motility by a whopping 44%, and semen volume more than 18% (source).
All this to say…If you’re looking for one herb to add your sex boosting arsenal tongkat ali, along with pine pollen, should be right at the top of your list.
Now here’s David Jaynes with more info on this subject….
Tongkat Ali and Testosterone in Men
Ask enough supplement stores and “experts” and you’ll find somebody willing to tell you anything in the world that grows and requires sunlight will fix every health issue facing the human race.
It’s one of the problems with asking advice from people who sell the same stuff they give advice about.
Which makes it the mission of folks like me to actually research (and even personally test) health supplements before I tell you whether or not it will cure your particular ills.
This week I asked “Does Tongkat Ali Boost Testosterone?”
As you’ll see, Tongkat Ali can increase the testosterone available to your body. But it doesn’t always do this by increasing how much testosterone your body produces, but instead, makes your current levels more bio-available so your body can put it to use.
Here’s how that works, starting with a top-level question some folks forget to ask.
What is Tongkat Ali?
Tongkat ali (AKA Malaysian Ginseng-Eurycoma Longifolia–Long Jack), is a southeast asian plant that looks like a miniature palm tree. Local tribes used it for centuries to cure a variety of ailments, including:
•Stomach ailments
•Infections and fevers
•Headaches
•Depression
•Anxiety
•Impotence
•Fatigue
They would take the stuff as a tonic, boiled into water like tea. Ingesting it daily would reliably either cure an ailment or offer relief from incurable symptoms.
Native tribes didn’t really have any concept of testosterone, but look at the last four items on the list. Depression, anxiety, impotence and fatigue are all symptoms of low testosterone.
As with many natural remedies, the combined trial, error and observation of thousands of years produced an effective result even though early man didn’t really understand why that result worked.
Thanks to modern research, we now know why.
Tongkat Ali Reduces Estrogen In Men
Because modern medicine has narrow, focused goals, most of the early research on tongkat ali and testosterone looked at whether or not it boosted testosterone production.
The research found out that in many cases, it does not. However, it also found an increase in total testosterone levels up to 70% in some cases.
Later research looked into this apparent contradiction.
For example, Norhazlina Abdul Wahab and his team at University Kebangsaan in Malaysia looked at the impact of tongkat ali extract on hormone production among rats.
They treated adult male rats with estradiol (a form of estrogen made by converting testosterone into estrogen). Some rats were given tongkat ali while a control group was not.
The found that the presence of estradiol decreased sperm count, which is a natural and unavoidable symptom of decreased testosterone. They also found the rats given tongkat ali had significantly higher sperm counts than those who were not given the herb.
Norhazlina and his team concluded that tongkat ali reduces the impact of estrogen on male testosterone levels.
Like I mentioned earlier, this doesn’t mean the rats produced more testosterone. Instead, by reducing the impact of estrogen it meant the rats got to use more of the testosterone they produced.
Tongkat Ali Reduces Stress
To understand this next part, you need to understand how stress impacts your testosterone.
Stress sucks, as everybody knows, but it sucks worse for male hormonal health. When you’re under stress, your body gets flooded with various hormones, enzymes, and other chemicals.
One of those chemicals is cortisol…
Cortisol, as it turns out, absolutely shreds your testosterone.
That dance goes a little something like this:
•Stress makes your body produce more cortisol
•More cortisol makes your body accumulate more abdominal fat
•More abdominal fat means your body makes more of the enzyme aromatase
•Aromatase converts testosterone in your blood into the estrogen estradiol
•Converted testosterone means less overall testosterone for your body to use
In 2013, Shawn Talbott and an international team investigated how tongkat ali impacts stress hormones in males. They screened 32 men and 31 women for chronic stress and treated them with either an extract of tongkat ali or a placebo for four weeks.
Those in the treatment group showed significant improvements in stated mood, and a significant reduction in their salivary cortisol. What’s more, testosterone in the men increased an average of 37% (source).
Bottom line: tongkat ali does reduce cortisol levels, and shows a corresponding and immediate increase in testosterone as a result. As with the estrogen impact I mentioned above, tongkat ali does boost testosterone, but via reducing the levels of hormones that reduce the existing supply.
Does Tongkat Ali Increase Testosterone-Conclusion:
In case you missed it earlier, tongkat ali boosts your available testosterone, but not always by stimulating you to produce more of the stuff.
Instead, it reduces the presence of two hormones (cortisol and estrogen) that reduce your overall testosterone supply.
From a standpoint of your low testosterone symptoms, this distinction doesn’t matter. More testosterone is more testosterone.
And once your levels begin to improve, your libido, virility and bedroom performance will improve as well.
You can take tongkat ali as a powder, capsule, or tincture. Though this hasn’t been clinically tested, many users report getting the best results when they cycle their tongkat ali.
