How to Prevent Testosterone Decline With Age Naturally - An Evolutionary Framework

If you want to avoid testosterone decline with age, you're in the right place, because this article will equip you with a series of actionable, evidence-based protocols that you can directly implement into your life to do exactly that.

My philosophy for minimizing testosterone decline with age revolves around modeling the lifestyles of modern-day hunter-gatherers, because the men in these societies experience less testosterone decline with age than men in industrialized nations (55).

The reason is because they live evolutionarily consistent lifestyles – meaning their way of living is closely reminiscent of the way pre-modern humans lived for most of human evolution.

Those of us who live in industrialized nations, on the other hand, live evolutionarily mismatched lifestyles, meaning the modern world we live in is the antithesis of the world humans evolved in.

In our haste to advance, we've built ourselves a cage that keeps us safe from predators and starvation, but leaves men unhealthy and docile, as sedentary jobs, chemical castration, and neutralized gender roles bleed us of our testosterone levels from every angle.

As a result, testosterone levels have been declining just over 1% per year since the 1980s (1) (2), and 38.7% of men aged ≥45 have clinically low testosterone (hypogonadism) (3).

The best way to go about reversing these trends is to reverse engineer the living patterns of our evolutionary forefathers into actionable protocols that promote pristine holistic health and optimal testosterone levels.

To understand why this is the best way to prevent testosterone decline with age, you first need to understand what causes testosterone levels to decline in the first place.

What Actually Causes Testosterone to Decline?

The root cause of all testosterone decline is a process called oxidative stress. I go into much greater detail on oxidative stress in part 3 of this series, but the main thing you need to understand is that oxidative stress is the grassroots of all cellular damage.

Damage to the glands involved in testosterone production and the regulation of its availability, namely, the hypothalamus, pituitary, and testes, leads to downstream reductions in total testosterone production or free testosterone availability.

There are two primary causes of oxidative stress (cellular damage) that lead to testosterone decline:

Aging – causes a trickle of oxidative stress due to cellular respiration, a necessary and natural aspect of normal cellular functioning.
Poor health – anything that is "unhealthy" is so because it causes unnecessary oxidative stress.

Testosterone makes for a fantastic barometer of overall male health (4). The healthier you are, the more optimized your unique testosterone profile will be, and vice versa.

Studies show a direct negative association between oxidative balance score (a measure of systemic oxidative stress) and testosterone levels (5).

Biological VS Chronological Age

In addition to being an indicator of one's overall health, or lack thereof, oxidative stress levels are also a crude but effective measure of one's biological age – how old one's cells, tissues, and organs are, based on physiological function, rather than the years they've been alive (chronological aging) (6).

Thus, an older but healthier man can be biologically "younger" than a younger, less healthy man.

So instead of the popular notion that "testosterone declines with age," or "testosterone declines after 40," it would be more accurate to say that the body dials back testosterone production in proportion to a man's biological age, which is synonymous with the amount of oxidative stress he has accumulated across his lifespan.

Simply put, testosterone declines with poor health more than age.

A crucial distinction to point out is that poor health factors have a far greater effect on decreasing testosterone than aging (7).

The fact age-related declines in testosterone are more pronounced in industrialized nations than in hunter-gatherer populations indicates that aspects of our modern lifestyles are causing surplus oxidative stress beyond what can be attributed to natural aging, causing testosterone levels to decline earlier and faster.

Mild declines in free testosterone from aging alone are ubiquitous across all populations, industrialized and hunter-gatherer alike. But crucially, when these declines are kept to their natural minimum, free testosterone levels remain in the normal range (termed "eugonadal").

In fact, these natural declines are arguably beneficial for male longevity (see part 4 for more detail).

But beyond normal aging, the excessive decrements observed in industrialized nations are leading to unprecedented rates of pathologically low testosterone, causing lower quality of life for individual men and greater healthcare expenses for society.

Since aging is not in your control, but your health is, if we are to solve the testosterone decline crisis, we must stop blaming age for low testosterone, and instead concentrate all of our efforts on optimizing the overall health of men in society.

There are two angles from which we can attack this problem.

Distress VS Eustress

Since the goal of minimizing testosterone decline with age is reducible to minimizing unnecessary oxidative stress, we must first distinguish between the two major types of biological stress.

Distress is a negative, pathological state characterized by higher net oxidative stress, whereas eustress is a positive, healthy state characterized by lower net oxidative stress.

Eustress is caused by hormetic stressors, which are stressors our bodies can "recognize" because they evolved mechanisms to deal with them at manageable doses, such as exercise, fasting, and cold and heat exposure.

Distress is caused by toxic stressors, which are stressors that our bodies either didn't evolve defenses against, or, hormetic stressors at doses that exceed our body's ability to handle.

The process of eustress is analogous to building muscle. When you lift weights, your muscles break down, but then grow back bigger and stronger than they were initially.

Similarly, when you expose your body to a hormetic stressor, some oxidative stress is created, but since the body evolved mechanisms to combat them, it responds by ramping up its innate antioxidant defense systems, leaving the body in a state of eustress (lower net oxidative stress), thereby bolstering its ability to handle future stressors of any kind.

Moderation is key though. Too much of a good thing (hormetic stressors) can become a bad thing (distress) if they exceed the body's ability to respond and recover from them.

Strengthening your antioxidant defense system through intentional exposure to moderate doses of hormetic stressors will help reduce the impact of toxic stressors that are extremely difficult to completely avoid in the modern world, such as microplastics, air pollution, EMF radiation, etc.

So as you read this article, keep these high-level concepts in mind, as they form the basis of my strategy for minimizing testosterone decline with age:

The root cause of testosterone decline is oxidative stress.
Evolutionary mismatches in the modern world cause unnecessary oxidative stress consequent to poor health.
The best way to curtail oxidative stress and prevent excess testosterone decline is to maximize eustress and minimize distress, through what I'll call "evolutionary medicine," which entails living an evolutionarily consistent lifestyle.

We'll start with damage control – how to minimize distress in the modern world.

Step 1: Eliminate Testosterone Killers Baked Into Modern Life

Maintain a Healthy Body Fat Percentage

Obesity is the single most powerful driver of testosterone decline with age.

A study by Thomas Travison and colleagues showed that when men became obese, testosterone levels dropped 12%, equivalent to the effect of over a decade of aging (7).

Another study showed that age-related declines in testosterone were reversible with weight loss (8). The study concluded that: "decreasing testosterone with ageing is not inevitable but potentially preventable and reversible with weight management."

Obesity is so detrimental to testosterone levels because adipose tissue (fat) produces an enzyme called aromatase, which directly converts testosterone into estrogen.

Estrogen reduces testosterone production by exerting negative feedback inhibition on the HPG axis.

Having a lower testosterone to estrogen ratio makes fat loss harder because testosterone increases metabolism and lipolysis (the breakdown of fat for energy), whereas estrogen increases fat storage signaling, creating a negative feedback loop.

Obesity also increases systemic oxidative stress, which, as we've established, is the root cause of the cellular damage that causes testosterone decline.

Therefore, keeping your body fat percentage in a healthy range (~10-18%) is arguably the most important measure you can take to maintain healthy testosterone levels as you age.

The most common fat loss mistake I see men making is trying to lose fat too fast. Rapid fat loss suppresses testosterone and slows metabolism (53), which nullifies the intended effect and makes keeping fat off much more challenging.

One of my former clients came to me unable to escape cycles of drastic weight loss followed by rebounds. After employing reverse dieting to reset his metabolism and restore his testosterone levels, we used a percentage-based fat loss approach to help him lose over 30 pounds in just under 9 months – a perfect pace for sustainable fat loss.

Click below to learn more about how the Testosterone Transformation Academy can help you achieve similar results.

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Another common mistake men make is blaming age for fat gain.

One study found that Turkana hunter-gatherers did not gain fat with age, whereas men from western populations did, which shows that lifestyle is a much more potent determinant of body fat percentage than age.

Another study on the Turkana group found that their total testosterone levels did not decline with age, owing in part to the fact that they do not gain body fat with age (9).

Chronic Disease

Second to obesity, the most potent suppressor of testosterone levels with age is chronic diseases.

One study reported that men with one or more chronic diseases had 15% lower testosterone levels than their healthy age-matched counterparts (54).

Travison's study found that participants who developed any chronic disease experienced nearly double the rate of free testosterone decline (-13.1%) compared to men who did not develop a chronic disease (-7.3%) (7).

Of all chronic diseases, diabetes had the most significant individual effect – increasing the risk of low testosterone by over two and a half fold (7).

A third study combined data from 13 studies on over 60,000 men and found that among men with no chronic diseases or comorbidities, total testosterone levels remained stable from age 40 through 80 (10).

There is a reciprocal relationship between testosterone levels and chronic diseases: chronic diseases bring down testosterone levels, and lower testosterone levels exacerbate chronic diseases, creating another negative feedback loop.

Chronic diseases are virtually non-existent in hunter-gatherer populations due to their healthier lifestyles.

The root cause of most chronic diseases is the same as the root cause of testosterone decline: oxidative stress from an unhealthy lifestyle.

Unfortunately, the American medical system treats chronic diseases using a drug-first approach, which is problematic because…

Polypharmacy

The Travison study reported that "polypharmacy" (the simultaneous use of multiple prescription drugs) was associated with "substantially accelerated" testosterone decline with age.

Multiple classes of pharmaceuticals can suppress androgen production (12), particularly statins, beta-blockers, opioids, chemotherapeutic agents, and certain SSRIs (13).

Insidiously, the combination of chronic diseases as well as the drugs used to treat their symptoms can have a dual negative effect on testosterone levels.

Pharmaceuticals are useful for keeping you alive, but they only treat surface level symptoms and fail to address the underlying root cause that gave rise to the condition in the first place.

Left unaddressed, it's only a matter of time before the same root cause manifests as a different condition. Same cause, new problem. Before you know it, you're playing whack-a-mole with countless different drugs.

Not to mention that, since drugs don't treat the root cause, the condition never fully goes away, its symptoms are just suppressed. Pharmaceutical drugs tend to keep you dependent on them for life (which is exactly what pharma companies want).

So if you're taking prescription drugs for conditions that are not caused by pathogens or genetics, but rather poor health, like low testosterone (TRT), erectile dysfunction (Viagra), diabetes (Metformin), obesity (Ozempic), high blood pressure (Lisinopril), depression (SSRIs), high cholesterol (Statins), etc, I strongly encourage you to wean off the drugs and uproot the root cause once and for all by following the evolutionary medicine guidelines in this article.

The fervency of my belief in the power of evolutionary medicine for eradicating chronic diseases is not merely conceptual, it's based on my experience leveraging it to completely overhaul the lives of numerous men, starting with myself.

My Low Testosterone Story

At the age of 21 years old, when testosterone levels are supposed to peak, I was grappling with multiple health problems and low testosterone symptoms, including erectile dysfunction, high blood pressure, a heart arrhythmia, low energy, as well as chronic stress and anxiety.

My doctor's solution was:

Viagra for my ED.
Lisinopril for my blood pressure.
Propranolol for my arrhythmia.
Zoloft for my stress and anxiety.

Not once were lifestyle interventions even considered as a frontline solution.

Refusing to accept lifetime dependency on a pill box, I kindly declined and took matters into my own hands. I devoured all of the information I could on men's health, and after implementing the evolutionary medicine guidelines in this article…

My blood pressure dropped from 150/90 to 110/80.
My erections returned with vengeance.
My mind was calm and capable of coping with any challenge life threw at me.
My physique became unrecognizable.

My story shows that it is your overall health (biological age) that determines your testosterone levels and wellbeing, not your chronological age.

If you want to skip the three years it took me to reverse-engineer this process and have it applied directly to your specific situation, I built the Testosterone Transformation Academy for that exact purpose.

Another former client came to me taking SSRIs for depression and a statin for high cholesterol. In nine months, he lost over sixty pounds, his cholesterol levels normalized, his testosterone levels improved significantly, and he was able to go off of both drugs indefinitely.

Here's what he had to say about his experience:

Click here for more information about the Testosterone Transformation Academy.

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Sleep

Impaired sleep is one of the most potent acute suppressors of testosterone (14).

Sleep deprivation also decreases muscle mass and increases body fat, leading to reductions in testosterone levels consequent to adverse changes in body composition (15).

Studies on hunter-gatherer societies show that, although their sleep duration is similar to people in industrialized nations (5.5–7.1 hours), only 1.5–2.5% report insomnia or daytime fatigue, which is far less than the 10–30% reported by industrialized societies (16), indicating that their sleep quality is superior.

To optimize your testosterone levels, you need to sleep like a hunter-gatherer. Here's how.

Duration

Although hunter-gatherers only sleep about 6.4 hours on average, a study on American men found that men who slept less than 5.5 hours lost more muscle, gained more fat, and had lower testosterone levels than men who slept 7.5 hours or more (17).

Sleep needs also vary significantly between individuals. Some men are good to go for six hours, others (myself included) need eight to nine hours to feel fully rested.

Given the importance of sleep, I'd recommend allotting more time for sleep than the 6.4 hours averaged by hunter-gatherers to be certain you're getting enough.

My advice is to go to bed at a time that allows you to sleep for as long as you need until you wake up naturally (you can still set a "just in case" alarm to be sure you're not late to obligations).

Over time, you'll figure out how much sleep you personally require.

Protocol: Set a bedtime alarm that reminds you it's time to get ready for bed. Example: If you need 1 hour to get ready for work, and have to be out the door by 8 am, go to bed around 10pm and set a "just in case" alarm at 7am to leave a full nine hours for sleep. If you wake up naturally before your just in case alarm, you get to enjoy some peaceful morning alone time to get things done.

Regularity

Hunter-gatherers typically go to sleep about three hours after sunset and wake up just before sunrise. Their sleep and wake times are very consistent, showing that our internal circadian "clocks" exert a powerful anchoring effect on sleep–wake timing (16).

This aligns with other research showing that sleep duration and quality are both optimized when the sleeping window is aligned with the timing of the internal circadian clock (16).

Hunter-gatherers' circadian rhythms are perfectly synchronized with the rising and setting of the sun, so sleep regularity and circadian rhythm timing is arguably more important than duration.

Protocol: Go to bed and wake up as close as possible (within one hour) to the same time every day, and ideally, align your sleep and wake times with the rising and setting of the sun. Example: If the sun sets at 7pm, and rises around 6 am, a solid 8 hour sleeping window would be from 10pm (~3 hours after sunset) to 6am (just before the crack of dawn).

Light Viewing Behavior

The highest leverage protocol for anchoring your circadian is getting natural sunlight in your eyes for about 10 minutes as soon as possible after waking up, ideally within the hour after waking.

Viewing sunlight upon waking initiates a cascade of wakefulness-promoting hormones and neurotransmitters including dopamine, cortisol, and testosterone.

It also "starts our circadian clock," triggering the release of melatonin approximately 12 hours later, which facilitates the transition into restful sleep.

The structure of modern living causes many people to miss this crucial sunlight exposure window. Most people wake up, drive to work, stay inside all day, and drive home. As a result, some people hardly view the sun at all!

The rule of thumb is this: get as much bright light (ideally natural sunlight) in your eyes as possible when you want to be awake, and as little light as possible (by minimizing artificial lights) in the hours leading up to your bedtime.

This emulates the light exposure patterns our circadian rhythms evolved to respond to.

If the sun isn't up yet when you wake up, that's fine, just get outside for about 10 minutes once the sun does rise. And yes, this protocol is still effective even on cloudy or overcast days.

While sleep duration, regularity, and light viewing behavior are the biggest needle movers, there's a lot more that goes into truly optimizing your sleep hygiene. If you want to learn more about that, this sleep optimization resource has all of the details.

Psychological Stress

Travison's study showed that loss of spouse and loss of employment (both versions of psychological stress) reduced testosterone levels as much as a decade of aging, the same amount as obesity (7).

This goes to show that your mental health is an equally important determinant of your testosterone levels as your physical health. I cannot stress this enough (pun intended).

Stress is such a potent repressor of testosterone because it simultaneously causes oxidative stress and increases cortisol – the "stress hormone" that competitively inhibits testosterone.

Cortisol also suppresses GnRH release from the hypothalamus, reducing downstream testosterone production in the testes (18).

I don't intend to demonize cortisol. It serves important purposes. But like anything in biology, too much is problematic.

Stress evolved to be acute (short term), not chronic (long-term). But in the modern world, our evolutionary hardware causes us to perceive every little thing, from being honked at in traffic, to quarterly performance reviews, as a threat to our survival, and so most people's stress response is constantly activated throughout the day.

Other aspects of the modern world that have been shown to be risk factors for psychological distress include long working hours, social isolation, lack of exercise, low perceived social status, and low inequality (19).

While they live hard lives, research shows modern-day hunter-gatherers are less stressed and less depressed, largely because their stress responses are only activated when needed, they maintain close social bonds, get plenty of physical activity and leisure time, and have social groups arranged in a way that gives everyone a sense of meaning (19).

Stoicism

Although stressful and traumatic life events are often out of our control, how we respond to them, which is in our control, determines how they affect us more than the events themselves.

For this reason, I encourage all men to practice stoicism, a philosophy based on the core tenet that, in the words of Epictetus: "it is not events that trouble us, but our opinions about them."

Meditation

Meditation has been shown to decrease cortisol (stress) and increase testosterone (20). Nothing has changed my life for the better more than meditation, and it only takes 10 minutes per day.

If you want to learn more about how to get started with meditation and stoicism, check out these videos: Meditation Video, Stoicism Video

Enhance Your Social Status and Income

These go hand in hand because as men, we derive both our sense of status and get our income from our work, so getting very good at what you do is the best way to simultaneously increase both. That said, overwork and burnout can be just as detrimental, so don't let your work come at the expense of leisure and socialization (a mistake that has cost me many times).

Nature

One of the best ways to spend your leisure time is in nature. Studies show that just 20–30 minutes daily, or 120 minutes weekly, significantly reduces stress hormones (cortisol) and lowers blood pressure (21).

Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals

Endocrine (meaning hormone) disrupting chemicals (EDCs) are a class of chemicals that damage glands and organs leading to adverse alterations in hormone levels downstream.

Many EDCs also cause cancer, neurodegenerative disease, metabolic disorders, and a host of other undesirable health effects consequent to systemic oxidative stress (22).

Some EDCs are naturally occurring, but most are synthetic and didn't exist until after the industrial revolution. The two most prevalent sources of EDCs are plastics and pesticides.

I dedicated my entire senior thesis project as a biology undergrad to investigating the relationship between EDC prevalence (metric tons of plastic and pesticides produced per year) and markers of male reproductive health (testosterone levels and sperm counts).

My research revealed a statistically significant inverse correlation between EDC prevalence and male reproductive health. In other words, as EDC production increased, testosterone and sperm counts decreased concurrently.

You can read the entire thesis here for more details on the mechanisms behind how these chemicals interfere with the reproductive system.

The reproductive system is the most delicate system in the body. That's why getting hit in the testicles hurts so bad – it's our body's way of reminding us to protect that area!

Given the sensitivity of the reproductive system and the ubiquity of EDCs in the modern environment, these chemicals can compound and create a "death by a thousand cuts" effect on your testosterone levels.

Men throughout history were not exposed to modern synthetic EDCs, and neither are modern-day hunter-gatherers, which may be one reason why their testosterone levels don't decline with age as much as ours do.

The highest leverage changes you can make to minimize your EDC exposure are:

Install a reverse osmosis water filtration system.
Minimize consuming food and drink from plastic containers, especially when heated. Swap plastic tupperware, plates, water bottles, and utensils for glass, ceramic, or metal alternatives, and stop eating meals packaged in plastic like microwaveable dinners, ramen noodles, and takeout.
Stop using scented products like cologne, shaving cream, shampoo, conditioner, laundry detergent, dish and hand soap, etc. The rule of thumb is if it smells good, it probably contains EDCs. Make sure all of your products are explicitly labelled "phthalate free," and do not contain "fragrance" in the ingredient list. If you see "fragrance," avoid the product, even if it says phthalate free.
Buy all organic foods and wash your produce with baking soda to be sure there is no residual pesticide residue.

While those steps are a good starting point, this EDC guide has all of the information you need to minimize your EDC exposure in the modern world.

EMFs

Electromagnetic frequencies (EMFs) are a form of radiation with electronic devices and WiFi being the most common sources of exposure (23).

Animal studies have shown a dose-dependent effect of EMFs on testosterone levels, with duration of exposure, intensity of the EMF source, and proximity to the testes being the major variables determining the extent to which EMFs disrupt testosterone production (23).

While human studies have produced mixed results, some report decreased testosterone levels with prolonged exposure (23).

It's thought that EMFs decrease testosterone by increasing testicular temperature and/or by causing oxidative stress.

Whatever the case, EMFs do seem to have a mild deleterious effect on testosterone levels, so you'd be wise to minimize your exposure.

Keep your phone as far from your testes as is reasonably feasible. Put your phone on airplane mode and turn off Bluetooth and WiFi when not in use. So too with your laptop, which you should not ever put directly on your lap. At the least, have a desk between your laptop and your testicles. Ideally you'd use a standing desk to increase the distance, and also because prolonged sitting also increases testicular temperature in and of itself.

You should also remove all electronic devices from your bedroom and turn off your WiFi router while sleeping to minimize unnecessary exposure.

Instead of watching TV or playing video games for leisure, go for walks or read in the woods where you can fully disconnect from all EMF exposure, like a true hunter-gatherer.

Alcohol, Marijuana, Cigarettes

Alcohol has a dose-dependent negative effect on the male reproductive system (24), and testosterone levels are inversely associated with recency of marijuana use (25).

Interestingly, cigarette smoking increases testosterone levels because nicotine inhibits aromatase – the enzyme that converts testosterone into estrogen.

But the net negative effect of cigarettes on your overall health far outweighs this effect, which isn't good for you anyway, because too little estrogen is also detrimental to male thriving. This is a niche case where more testosterone doesn't equal better.

The less you use these substances, the better your testosterone levels will be.

Step 2: Leverage Healthy Stressors That Protect Your Hormones – Eustress

Everything we've talked about up until this point involves minimizing distress – the type of stress that damages your body unnecessarily.

Now we're going to talk about how you can maximize eustress – the type of stress that improves your body's oxidative stress resilience.

Nutrition – The Paleo Diet

Following the logic of evolutionary medicine, the best diet for optimizing human health and male testosterone would be one that emulates the eating patterns of our pre-modern ancestors. The paleo diet accomplishes exactly that.

Paleo is short for paleolithic, the era during which most of human evolution occurred.

A 2024 paper (26) found that, in men with low testosterone, a dietary intervention based on paleo principles produced a 68% increase in serum testosterone levels (from 218 to 366 ng/dL).

The central tenet of the paleo diet is if a hunter-gatherer wouldn't have had access to it, it's off limits. Simply ask yourself: would a caveman have had access to this food? If the answer is no, it's not evolutionarily consistent and you probably shouldn't eat it.

You don't have to be quite that dogmatic, but the more closely you adhere to a pure paleo diet, the more optimal your testosterone levels will be.

In a nutshell, following the paleo diet requires that you only eat single ingredient whole foods, including meats, seafood, fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds, while avoiding all modern processed foods. Dairy in moderation (namely Greek yogurt, grass-fed butter, and hard, aged cheeses) is acceptable on a flexible paleo diet.

The elimination of processed foods is crucial because they cause oxidative stress by spiking insulin, through imbalanced ratios of omega-3 to omega-6 fatty acids, as well as the harmful artificial additives they contain. For these reasons, processed foods are major contributors to nearly every chronic disease (27).

Processed foods didn't exist until after the industrial revolution, and as such, they were not eaten during evolution and are not eaten by modern-day hunter-gatherer populations.

In addition to being evolutionarily consistent, what makes the paleo diet stand out as the best diet for testosterone optimization is that it is the only diet that explicitly bans processed foods, but also doesn't restrict any macronutrients for food groups (aside from processed foods). For example…

The keto diet: doesn't allow carbs, and very low-carb diets decrease testosterone (28), but still allows for processed foods, like keto chips and keto ice cream.

The carnivore diet: doesn't allow carbs or any plant-based foods, which are rich in antioxidants, fiber, and crucial micronutrients not present in meats, but still allows for processed meats like hot dogs and deli meats.

The vegan diet: doesn't allow animal-based foods, which contain crucial nutrients not present in plants, and still allows for processed foods like vegan chips and candy.

In addition to being directly harmful, processed foods also lack micronutrients and antioxidants that are directly beneficial – both by reducing systemic oxidative stress and by providing vitamins and minerals.

Putting this all together, the paleo diet is the best diet for testosterone optimization because it:

Is evolutionarily consistent.
Explicitly bans processed foods.
Facilitates nutritional diversity and doesn't restrict any key food groups.

Check out this article for more information on how to start implementing the paleo diet.

While the paleo diet should serve as the guiding framework for your nutritional strategy, there are certain foods that are uniquely rich in key nutrients involved in testosterone synthesis, such as zinc, magnesium, boron, selenium, healthy fats (omega-3, monounsaturated, and saturated fatty acids), and antioxidants that combat oxidative stress. Below is a list of those foods:

Oysters
Sardines
Liver
Eggs
Raw cacao
Brazil nuts
Avocados
Olive oil
Raisins
Pomegranate
Kiwis
Blueberries
Cruciferous vegetables

These foods should be staples in your paleo-based diet.

This video goes into more detail on how these specific foods and the nutrients they contain support testosterone production.

Although proper nutrition is imperative for testosterone optimization, when it comes to reducing oxidative stress, not eating can be just as beneficial as eating healthy…

Fasting

The effects of fasting on testosterone levels are a bit counterintuitive because extended fasts temporarily decrease testosterone levels during the fast. Similarly, time-restricted feeding (aka intermittent fasting) slightly decreases basal testosterone for a few weeks while the body adjusts, but then levels rebound to baseline (29).

However, fasting supports an optimal testosterone-producing bodily environment by improving overall health through autophagy (a process whereby the body breaks down and excretes toxins and waste products), improving insulin resistance, and lipid metabolism (29).

Interestingly, a study looking at how steroid hormone levels are affected by age in "very healthy men" found that overnight fasting (not eating anything between dinner and breakfast) increased serum testosterone and dihydrotestosterone (DHT) levels (30).

This is likely due to the fact that elevated insulin temporarily suppresses testosterone release, which is especially disruptive during sleep – the time during which most testosterone is produced.

Andrew Huberman's podcast episode on time-restricted feeding described a study wherein mice that were only fed within an eight-hour window had far fewer signs of inflammation and cellular damage, gained less body fat, and lived significantly longer than mice that were allowed to eat anytime they wanted, even though they ate the exact same amount of calories.

Fasting is evolutionarily consistent. Humans would have had to forage for food before eating each day, and couldn't snack at night, so daily feeding windows would have been restricted by the natural confines of food availability (reminiscent of intermittent fasting). This is why when you start and stop eating each day is an important anchor for your circadian rhythm and directly influences your sleep quality.

Stretches of food scarcity lasting one or more days would also have been relatively common (31).

Therefore, my final nutritional protocol is to follow the paleo diet, adhere to intermittent fasting (eating within the same 8–10 hour feeding window every day), and occasionally incorporate longer-term fasts (24–72 hours).

Exercise

27% of Americans are inactive, and inactivity rates increase with age, contributing to age-associated testosterone declines.

One study used the physical activity patterns exhibited by present-day hunter-gatherers as a template for optimal exercise protocols. The study concluded that the most health-promoting types of exercise are moderate in intensity and duration, and are performed outdoors with others (32).

The study also found that there is a J-shaped curve relationship between exercise frequency and health, whereby those who rarely exercised had the highest risk of heart disease, those who exercised excessively had the second highest risk, and those who exercised moderately had the lowest risk.

These findings reveal that there is a "Goldilocks zone" wherein the most exercise-induced health benefits can be conferred, which serves as a useful proxy for gauging the ideal exercise frequency for optimal testosterone levels.

Strength Training

It's well established that strength training and HIIT cardiovascular training lead to the highest post-exercise surges in testosterone.

A study conducted on Tsimane forager-horticulturalists found that one hour of land clearing, which involves chopping down trees and relocating them (an activity that emulates high intensity strength training) increased testosterone levels by 48.6% regardless of age, which ranged between 16–80 years old (33). You read that right – men in their eighties were still swinging axes.

Interestingly, that study mentioned that older men in industrialized populations exhibit significantly smaller post-exercise testosterone surges than younger men, a phenomenon not observed in the Tsimane. This is probably because the Tsimane maintain superior holistic health, which bolsters post-exercise testosterone production.

There are three takeaways you should extract from this literature:

Engaging in muscularly demanding activity throughout life is not just a possibility, it's how human males are supposed to age.
Intense strength training yields noteworthy spikes in testosterone regardless of age.
The extent to which strength training increases testosterone in older men depends on their overall health, highlighting the holistic nature of optimizing testosterone.

Strength Training Parameters

Strength training exercises that use more than one muscle at a time, called compound exercises (think squats, deadlifts, lunges, overhead press, pull-ups, bench press, rows etc), increase testosterone more than single-joint exercises (like curls, lateral raises, tricep extensions, etc) (34).

Moreover, strength training using free weights (think barbells and dumbbells) has been shown to increase testosterone more than fixed machines, likely due to more overall muscle mass and energy expenditure required for whole-body stabilization (34).

High-volume, compound movements with moderate weight and reps and shorter rest periods in workouts lasting about one hour have been shown to maximize post-exercise testosterone surges (34).

Don't get too caught up in splitting hairs here. As long as you're regularly strength training using compound exercises, pushing yourself to a challenging intensity, and don't train too far beyond exhaustion, you'll get the intended benefits.

Some argue that strength training doesn't meaningfully influence baseline circulating testosterone levels because surges in testosterone only last during, and up to a few hours after training. While direct, post-exercise testosterone surges are indeed transitory, strength training absolutely does improve overall testosterone status by improving body composition, metabolism, insulin sensitivity, sleep quality, and by reducing oxidative stress and cortisol levels.

Since strength training parameters and frequency vary according to one's training experience and fitness level, and also must account for total weekly exercise volume, I've created a complete training program specifically designed to optimize testosterone production that is adjustable for all training levels. I leverage those parameters in my own training and with my clients to great effect.

In a perfect world, you would train outside with one or more partners, like the golden-era bodybuilders used to at Venice beach.

Cardiovascular Training

In addition to muscularly demanding labor, regular cardiovascular activity, such as persistence hunting covering long distances while foraging, are consistently observed across modern hunter-gatherer societies and would have been the norm during human evolution.

We humans evolved to use our heart and lungs as well as our muscles. There are countless studies demonstrating the litany of health benefits provided by cardiovascular exercise on all systems in the body, including improved testosterone production (35).

Before moving forward, we need to define our terms. "Cardio" is a sliding scale ranging from Zone 1, which is very low intensity (a brisk walk) to Zone 5, which is maximal intensity (an all-out sprint).

Zones 4–5 recruit similar energy systems as strength training, and thus lead to higher transitory post-exercise testosterone surges than lower intensity Zones 1–3.

However, if you only engage in strength training and high-intensity cardio, your aerobic energy systems will remain untrained, and you will miss out on the unique health benefits afforded by low-to-moderate intensity steady-state cardio.

There is a common misconception that "cardio kills gains" or "cardio decreases testosterone," which couldn't be further from the truth. This myth arose from research showing that exceeding 115 minutes of aerobic cardio in one session, or 5–7 cumulative hours per week (nearly one hour daily), leads to reductions in testosterone consequent to excessive cortisol secretion (52).

Vilifying cardio for this effect is senseless because the same effect occurs with excess strength training, or any type of vigorous exercise.

So the general rule of thumb for all types of exercise is to adhere to the Goldilocks zone in the J-curve presented at the beginning of this section, wherein at least four, and up to six sessions of any type of exercise, lasting about 1 hour in duration, is optimal for overall health and testosterone production.

Therefore, the amount of cardio you do needs to factor in the amount of strength training you do, and vice versa.

All in all, strength and cardiovascular training complement one another, and their combined benefits create a synergistic effect that optimizes testosterone levels beyond either in isolation, so an ideal exercise regimen includes both.

Like strength training, the ideal cardiovascular activities would be performed outdoors and with others. My personal favorite form of cardio is rucking with friends, because you get out in nature, socialize, and it just feels manly.

What matters most at the end of the day is that you exercise consistently, and the best way to do that is to find exercise modalities that you enjoy and can stick to for the rest of your life.

And if you can combine your exercise with socialization, competition, and being outdoors, which very often makes exercise more enjoyable, all the better.

Competition

Another study on the Tsimane showed that competition (via their version of a soccer match) transiently increased testosterone levels by 30.1% across all ages. These competition-induced testosterone surges were greater than those from tree chopping, showing that competition itself has a causal effect on boosting testosterone.

Other research shows that mental competition (playing chess) also temporarily increases testosterone (36), but not as much as physical competition.

Throughout human history, men competed with one another for mates, resources, survival, and social status.

In the modern world, competition is no longer a survival necessity, and most men stop competing after they hang up their cleats from high school or college sports. Some men never compete their entire lives.

Although both mental and physical competition increase testosterone, physical competition increases it more, and is the perfect complement to exercise because both can be performed simultaneously – two birds, one stone.

Having a physically competitive hobby also gives you something to train for, which can improve exercise adherence in men who don't necessarily enjoy exercise for its own sake. I know many men who would never bother with cardio or go near a barbell if they weren't motivated by the desire to one-up their buddies in Jiu-Jitsu.

Competition also forces you to tap into levels of intensity that you otherwise wouldn't. As a former college football player and current Jiu-Jitsu competitor, I can tell you that the level of effort you'd put into a set of curls is nowhere near the level of effort you'd muster when another man is attempting to run through you on the gridiron, or tap you out on the mats.

This capacity to access your highest potential that competition brings out of you carries over into all aspects of your life. You'll find yourself being more competitive in your career as well, which will augment your performance and may even increase your earning potential.

Another ancillary benefit of physical competition is it fosters camaraderie…

Camaraderie

Humans are social creatures, and maintaining close bonds is integral to our overall wellbeing.

Throughout human history, men would have spent the majority of their days with other men working together to achieve a common goal, such as a successful hunt, and group celebrations are common in non-industrialized societies.

Unfortunately, male loneliness is on the rise. One survey found that 15% of men have no close friendships, a fivefold increase since 1990 (37), and social isolation is associated with a number of health consequences, including low testosterone (38).

This lack of social connection is another evolutionary mismatch. Due to our modern work structure and the nuclear family, most men wake up, go to work, come home to their wife and kids, and repeat this process without much meaningful engagement with other men.

The perfect antidote is physically competitive activities because they tap into three evolutionary pathways that simultaneously boost testosterone production:

Exercise
Competition
Camaraderie

Here are some examples of such activities you can incorporate into your life:

Martial arts (Jiu-Jitsu, wrestling, kickboxing, etc).
Recreational sports (rugby, soccer, basketball, football, racquetball).
Group fitness classes.
A workout partner.
Hunting.
Rucking.

Walking

Although it's a huge win, your daily movement quota is not met from one hour of structured exercise.

Average step counts in modern hunter-gatherer populations are (39):

Tsimane forager-horticulturalists from Bolivia: 18,000–20,000 steps/day
Hadza hunter-gatherers of northern Tanzania: 18,434 steps/day
Tarahumara men from northwestern Mexico: 18,800 steps/day

In contrast, the average step count in the U.S. is 4,774 steps/day, and the same research shows that step counts decline significantly with age (39).

Low step counts are also correlated with lower testosterone levels (40).

The gap between you and a Hadza elder, in terms of step counts and testosterone levels, widens every decade you don't address it. Aim for a minimum of 10,000 steps per day.

Heat & Cold Exposure

Humans evolved being exposed to the elements, so enduring extreme swings in temperature during the seasons would have been the norm. The core benefit of both heat and cold exposure is the fact that they are hormetic stressors that enhance the body's overall stress resilience.

Studies show that dry sauna decreases cortisol (thereby increasing the testosterone to cortisol ratio), but doesn't directly increase testosterone production. If you happen to be trying to conceive, be wary of sauna, because prolonged sauna (or testicular heating of any kind) induces a significant but temporary and reversible impairment of spermatogenesis (41).

Cold exposure, whether it be in the form of cold plunges or showers, produces significant elevations in dopamine, adrenaline, and cortisol, but does not lead to meaningful changes in testosterone levels.

That said, cold exposure improves metabolic function, hormetic stress resilience, and upregulates antioxidant defense pathways, which all indirectly support testosterone optimization. Just don't do it immediately after strength training, as it blunts the post-exercise hormonal response by about 10% (42).

Just like with exercise, moderation is key. Excessive heat and cold exposure, in either duration or frequency, is not only dangerous, but can supersede your body's ability to adapt – turning a hormetic stressor into a toxic one.

Vitamin D

Speaking of exposure to the elements, hunter-gatherers spend most of their days outdoors and get plenty of sunlight exposure.

Due to our indoor modern lifestyles, vitamin D deficiency is becoming increasingly common, and is linked to a litany of negative health outcomes, including low testosterone (43).

Although some foods like fatty fish, egg yolks, beef liver, and dairy products contain higher amounts of vitamin D, you would need to eat unrealistic amounts of these foods to get enough (20 eggs, for example), so sourcing your vitamin D through diet is not a practical long-term strategy (44).

The best way to get enough vitamin D is through direct sun exposure on bare skin. At least 5–30 minutes of daily sun exposure while wearing shorts and a t-shirt with arms and legs exposed, without sunscreen, is necessary to absorb adequate amounts of vitamin D (44).

If direct sun exposure is not an option, supplementation should be a last resort. The tolerable upper limit (the most amount of something the body can safely handle) for vitamin D supplementation is around 4,000 international units per day (44).

Going beyond this level could potentially lead to vitamin D toxicity, so if you want to be as precise and safe as possible, monitoring your blood vitamin D levels would be prudent (44).

A surplus of vitamin D is not going to increase your testosterone levels above baseline anyway, so the risks of supraphysiological (beyond what is naturally possible) doses of vitamin D are not worth the non-existent rewards.

In addition to being evolutionarily consistent and most bioavailable, obtaining vitamin D from the sun is optimal because our bodies can naturally regulate vitamin D levels from the sun, so you don't need to worry about vitamin D deficiency or toxicity (44).

Beyond physical and dietary protocols, there are three life circumstances that pertain to aging men specifically, and that need to be navigated with particular care to ensure testosterone profiles are optimized.

Having Kids Lowers Testosterone

silhouette of man and woman kissing during sunset

Testosterone levels decline around 30% during fatherhood (45), because exposure to infants increases prolactin and oxytocin – both of which suppress testosterone production.

This mechanism was adaptive from an evolutionary standpoint because high testosterone levels encourage men to reproduce by driving risk-taking, competitive, and mate-seeking behaviors.

Fathers with excessively high testosterone levels would have been more likely to continue pursuing mates at the expense of paternal investment, so bringing testosterone down a bit evolved to shift a father's priorities to caring for his current offspring as opposed to creating more (46).

That said, maintaining adequate testosterone levels was imperative for fathers to be maximally effective at protecting and providing for their offspring. Most activities involved in indirect child care, such as hunting, foraging, constructing shelter, fending off rival tribes and predators, etc, require sufficient testosterone levels (46).

Indirect child care activities are also time consuming. Fathers historically spent the majority of their day away from their families on the frontier with other men, reducing their time of exposure to their offspring.

In a study on Congolese fisher-farmers, higher testosterone levels predicted a higher "provider score" ranking (46).

That same study showed low testosterone in fathers is associated with depression, reduced parenting effort, and worse offspring health (46).

As such, there is an inverted U-curve wherein fathers with moderate testosterone levels, with a slight skew towards higher levels, had the healthiest offspring.

In the modern world however, the advent of the nuclear family has transitioned the traditional role fathers historically filled from primarily indirect care (protecting and providing), to more direct care (hands-on nurturing like bottle feeding, swaddling, changing diapers, etc).

Not only that, but our culture now expects fathers to be omnipresent, often out of necessity, because the nuclear family itself is evolutionarily inconsistent.

Mothers evolved to have help from their sisters, mothers, aunts, cousins, and female friends to assist them with childcare.

But now, the tribal family structure has been fragmented, and it's too exhausting for mothers to raise children themselves, so fathers have to take paternity leave to fill the supporting role that other women used to fill throughout human history.

In some cases, fathers become stay-at-home dads while mothers go to work to provide financially – a complete reversal of the gender roles we evolved to fill.

This role shift exacerbates the testosterone-suppressing effects of fatherhood beyond what males evolved to experience.

Fathers now spend more time with their infants than ever before in human history, leading to chronically elevated prolactin and oxytocin, and subsequently, lower testosterone.

In this way, male over-involvement in direct childcare may be a contributing factor to the unprecedented testosterone declines observed in industrialized populations – a hypothesis supported by research showing that Tsimane forager-horticulturalist fathers don't experience fatherhood-related testosterone declines to the same extent that men in developed nations do (47).

Although being a present father is of paramount importance, it is not evolutionarily consistent for men to be omnipresent nurturing caretakers.

Providing

It is your moral duty as a father to maintain healthy testosterone levels, because the motivation and drive to provide for your family, which, in the modern world, comes in the form of financial contribution, is powered by testosterone – as evidenced by research showing that higher testosterone levels are correlated with a higher socioeconomic position (48).

Protecting

In addition to providing, the capacity to physically protect your family is also largely mediated by testosterone. Testosterone augments physical performance and muscular development, but more importantly, testosterone increases a man's propensity to respond to challenges with aggression. Put another way, testosterone increases the likelihood that men choose to fight in fight-or-flight situations.

Thus, the difference between having low versus high testosterone levels could be the difference between choosing to fight in defense of your family instead of cowering and leaving them in danger.

If you think we're too "civilized" for violence in the modern world, think again. If there's anything that's remained consistent throughout human history, it's violence, and we hairless apes of the 21st century are still just as prone to it as we've always been. This article by Sam Harris reveals shocking data about the prevalence of violence in our "civilized" society.

Don't Spend Too Much Time With Your Kids

Counterintuitively, spending less time with your kids is one of the best things you can do for them.

Since prolonged exposure to infants excessively suppresses testosterone production, and ultimately, your ability to fill your role as protector and provider of your family, be mindful of how many hours you spend swaddling, bottle feeding, and changing diapers.

I'm not saying to be an absentee father, but a full-time paternity leave isn't ideal for your testosterone levels, your family dynamics, or society.

While showing up for your family as needed, remain involved in your career, passions, hobbies, and projects – especially those that keep you active, give you a sense of purpose, and provide value to your family or society, and help you maintain social bonds with other men.

Avoid The Dad-Bod

We've already talked about the importance of body composition, but it's worth saying that you should not use having children as an excuse to fall out of shape. During my time as a men's health coach and personal trainer I've seen far too many men let themselves go after having kids, claiming they "don't have time" to exercise.

If anything, your family should motivate you to get in the best shape of your life, so that you're physically capable of protecting them, have the testosterone levels necessary to provide for them, and so that you can set a good example as head of household.

Have More Sex

woman in black lace brassiere lying on bed

Sex itself transiently increases testosterone (49), but men report lower levels of sexual activity with age.

It's been shown that men in hunter-gatherer societies continue reproducing into their sixties and seventies (50). The publishers of this research stated that "these populations likely represent early human demographic conditions and mating patterns," suggesting that men evolved to be capable of continual reproduction later in life.

In biology, the concept of "use it or lose it" applies to all systems. For instance, if not continually utilized, the muscular system atrophies with age, leading to sarcopenia. So too with the skeletal system, leading to osteoporosis.

Since testosterone is largely responsible for the upkeep of the male reproductive system by enhancing sex drive and sperm production, maintaining sexual activity in later years very well may have a positive impact on your testosterone levels.

As you ramp your sex life back up, I recommend not ejaculating too often, as ejaculation transiently elevates prolactin – the hormone that temporarily inhibits testosterone production and is responsible for the refractory period (49).

Several studies have shown a connection between ejaculatory abstinence and higher basal testosterone levels (49), but the overall literature on this topic is still inconclusive. My recommendations here are largely philosophical and experiential.

Semen retention has been widely practiced in countless civilizations throughout history as a way to bolster a man's vitality and vigor.

So how do you have more sex while practicing semen retention? This requires having "non-ejaculatory" sex – having sex without ejaculating at the end. Sex and ejaculation are mutually exclusive, so having sex does not require that you ejaculate.

If you want to learn more about how to revitalize your sex life and how to have non-ejaculatory sex, I highly recommend reading The Way of the Superior Man by David Deida.

Why Retirement Lowers Testosterone

Throughout human history, men have contributed to the tribe until the day they died, as evidenced by the research on Tsimane forager-horticulturalists showing that men participate in horticultural activity into their eighties.

More importantly though, older men have always been revered as wise elder advisors – leveraging their brains and life experience to help the tribe make good decisions more than their brawn.

By contrast, most men in western societies stop contributing to society from the moment they retire until the day they die.

Even worse, many men, stuck in jobs they despise, "mentally retire" decades before formally retiring – checking out from their careers out of resentment or lack of interest.

Retirement of any kind is an evolutionarily inconsistent societal construct and is unhealthy for the male psyche because it deprives men of two crucial human needs:

Status – a sense of belonging and importance.
Purpose – a sense of meaning derived from using one's abilities to contribute.

Status and purpose co-evolved because they fostered individual efforts to support group cooperation, which is what enabled Homo sapiens to out-compete all other species and become the most dominant life form that has ever existed.

Given their salience as drivers of our primary competitive advantage, the need for status and purpose remains deeply ingrained in our psychology to this day.

In the context of modernity, most men derive their sense of status and purpose from their careers, which may in part explain why Travison's study showed that men who lost their jobs, whether it be through retirement or being let go, experienced reductions in testosterone (7).

But merely having a job isn't enough.

Trumble's study on competition among Tsimane forager-horticulturalists showed that men who scored higher in emotional investment in winning had higher testosterone levels, highlighting the importance of emotional investment (passion, fulfillment, enjoyment) in your work for your testosterone levels to be optimal.

This creates a positive feedback loop whereby the higher your level of emotional investment in your work, the better you perform, and the more status you gain as a result, further increasing your testosterone levels due to a phenomenon called the winner effect – wherein men who perceive themselves as succeeding in any endeavor experience elevations in testosterone.

So if you don't like your career, muster the courage to change it, or work on something you're passionate about in your off time, which could eventually turn into your full-time income.

No matter how old you are, it's never too late to dedicate what life you have left to something that you find meaningful.

"It is not death that a man should fear, but rather he should fear never beginning to live." – Marcus Aurelius

If you're "retired," use the knowledge and experience you've accumulated across your lifespan to continue contributing to society. That can take the form of consulting, starting a business that solves a problem you're passionate about, volunteering for a nonprofit cause you believe in, etc.

Older men in hunter-gatherer societies chop wood and advise decision-making until they shut their eyes for the last time. The modern equivalent is continuing to contribute intellectually and socially for as long as you're capable, both for your own wellbeing, and to leave the world better than you found it for those who come after you.

Power of Belief

Often our beliefs are equally, if not more powerful than phenomena themselves, which is why well-conducted experiments always compare their results to a placebo effect.

The implication here is that, since men in our society are being brainwashed by TRT companies who profit from overexaggerating the narrative that testosterone declines with age, many men are falsely being led to believe that low testosterone after middle age is an inevitability.

I've overheard men at my Jiu-Jitsu gym have this exact conversation. These middle-aged fathers were talking about how testosterone declines with age, so they're going to need to go on TRT in the next few years. I've also heard it from men at the gym I worked at as a personal trainer, who believe men need TRT after 30 to avoid low testosterone with age.

Consequently, men are more likely to blame age for any low testosterone symptoms they may be experiencing, reducing the likelihood that they make changes that would improve them, causing their testosterone levels to decline further – creating a negative feedback loop that insidiously reinforces the belief that low testosterone with age is inevitable (this is called confirmation bias).

In addition to directly contributing to testosterone decline through inaction and complacency, believing that testosterone declines with age can cause levels to decline faster through belief effects themselves.

One study on hotel cleaners showed that, miraculously, when two groups were given the exact same shake, but one group was told it was unhealthy and the other group was told it was healthy, the latter group lost more weight even though the total energy expenditure (calories burned) in both groups were effectively identical (51).

Likewise, if you believe that you're going to develop low testosterone after middle age, through mind-body processes that still aren't entirely understood by science, you may inadvertently cause that belief to come true.

Another study on Australian men who described themselves as being in "excellent health" reported that these men did not experience declines in testosterone with age. Although these men were in fact far healthier than average men, some of these men weren't quite as healthy as they made themselves out to be. Some were smokers or had a slightly higher than ideal BMI, but their testosterone levels were unscathed. The authors mentioned that the effect of believing they were in excellent health with such confidence may have overridden the effect of their mild health imperfections (30).

Your best bet is this: while implementing all of the protocols outlined in this article, remind yourself that the data show that healthy men experience no declines in total testosterone with age. It's not how old you are, it's how well you've taken care of yourself.

Even if you're doing everything right, free testosterone will still decline a little bit (~1% per year after middle age), but that's actually a good thing for your longevity and should be embraced, not resisted (part 4 explains why).

When kept to their natural minimum, these declines in free testosterone do not lead to low testosterone – as evidenced by the fact that men in hunter-gatherer societies continue chopping wood, making strategic decisions, leading their tribes, and even reproducing, well into old age.

This is the factual evidence that your beliefs about testosterone and aging should be based on, not exaggerated marketing propaganda from TRT companies. The one remaining question is whether TRT is ever appropriate for older men. We thoroughly address that matter in part 6.

But that question only becomes relevant if you've first exhausted every tool in this article, and most men haven't. For now, I'll leave you with this.

The small testosterone declines that come from natural aging are normal and healthy, but all declines beyond that are pathological byproducts of poor health, oxidative stress, or evolutionary mismatches – all of which are either caused or exacerbated by our modern lifestyles.

Therefore, if you are to keep age-related testosterone decline to its natural minimum, you must minimize distress and maximize eustress by living an evolutionarily consistent lifestyle.

Your ancestors didn't have or need TRT or a supplement aisle, because they had purpose, movement, community, and food they killed themselves. The blueprint for male thriving from life to death has always been there, you just had to look back far enough to find it.

This article is part five of a six-part series on testosterone decline with age. Parts 1–4 are listed below:

Youtube Video Overview:

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