hey what's up guys so i have made a handful of videos on ashwagandha over the past several years
and a large reason for this is that it seems to be one of the more versatile herbal supplements that
really exists now i just got done finishing and publishing the complete guide to supplementation
that outlines nine specific health goals that men are typically interested in and ashwagandha by far
is the one supplement that shows up in most of these categories however one of the more
interesting effects of ashwagandha is its effects on testosterone levels however up into this point
i have not made an in-depth video um discussing the specific mechanisms of action that are related
to its ability to increase testosterone and so essentially what i want to do in this video is
just take a super deep dive into the effects of ashwagandha on testosterone levels now the reason
i think ashwagandha is the most interesting supplement when it comes to possible compounds
that could be used to improve testosterone levels is simply because it appears to affect
testosterone levels because of several different mechanisms not just one now things like tonkat
ali the primary mechanism of action there appears to be its ability to block estrogen receptors and
thereby signal to your body that you need more testosterone production however when it comes
to ashwagandha there appear to be three primary mechanisms of action that i do want to cover in
this video now the first one that we're going to talk about is arguably um ashwagandha's primary
mechanism by which it increases testosterone and that is that it appears to significantly reduce
stress markers now one thing i do think it's important to point out here is that there
does appear to be a difference between the effects of acute stress and chronic stress
when it comes to effects on testosterone now it has been repeatedly shown that acute stressors
actually increase testosterone levels now this does make sense if you think about testosterone
in the terms of stress resilience testosterone does increase the body's resilience to stress and
so it makes sense that your body would actually release testosterone and produce testosterone in
response to stressors however again there does appear to be a significant difference between
acute stress and chronic stress and so there does appear to be a point at which
these acute stressors that typically increase testosterone actually cross over and cross
somewhat of a threshold and become chronic stressors and thereby then decrease levels of
testosterone now the reasoning behind this could probably be argued in depth however it does appear
that the body can really only handle so much stress before it starts to pull back its resources
and production of testosterone now it should be noted here that ashwagandha appears to be
most effective and most efficient in these specific situations of chronic stress and not
acute stress now ashwagandha has specifically been shown to reduce stress and increase
testosterone by specifically reducing levels of cortisol and the reason this is so effective
is that uh cortisol production and testosterone production both share a similar precursor and
substrate uh known as pregnant alone uh now pregnant alone can be converted either
into cortisol or testosterone however your body can only produce so much pregnant alone and so
when you have a high demand on cortisol production it will restrict the production of testosterone
and so by lowering the body's demand on cortisol and reducing cortisol levels your body does
have more pregnant alone available in order to turn into testosterone now the second way that
ashwagandha appears to increase testosterone levels is by increasing thyroid hormone levels
now this one is particularly interesting because of the specific mechanism by which ashwagandha
appears to increase thyroid hormone levels now your body typically produces thyroid hormones when
a region of the brain known as the hypothalamus detects a drop in thyroid hormone levels or an
increase in the demand on thyroid hormones and when this happens it releases a hormone
known as thyrotropin releasing hormone which then stimulates the pituitary gland to produce thyroid
stimulating hormone which then subsequently stimulates the thyroid gland to produce thyroid
hormones now what's interesting here is that ashwagandha has actually been clinically shown to
reduce levels of thyroid stimulating hormone which is super interesting because typically
you would expect thyroid stimulating hormone to be elevated in instances that thyroid hormones
are elevated which seems to suggest that ashwagandha is actually bypassing this
step and actually directly stimulating the thyroid gland to produce thyroid hormones now
the reason this is so important is that when you directly stimulate the thyroid gland to produce
thyroid hormones it actually provides a negative feedback loop to the hypothalamus to
cease the production of thyrotropin releasing hormone as well as thyroid stimulating hormone
now the reason this is so important is that thyrotropin releasing hormone as well as
thyroid stimulating hormone both have a negative impact on the hpg axis when these hormones are
released it actually causes an increase in prolactin levels as well as a suppression
of luteinizing hormone which is the hormone that actually tells the testes and the lettuce cells of
the testes to produce testosterone so essentially what happens when you take ashwagandha is that
there is this long feedback whereby ashwagandha stimulates the thyroid gland to produce thyroid
hormones which then shuts down the production of trh and tsh which then increases levels of
luteinizing hormone and suppresses levels of prolactin which ultimately have a positive
impact on testosterone production now the third way that ashwagandha appears to increase
testosterone levels is by directly stimulating the production of gonadotropic releasing hormone now
gonanotropic releasing hormone is the hormone that the hypothalamus releases that tells the pituitary
to release luteinizing hormone which then subsequently tells the testes to produce
testosterone now this process is typically initiated by low levels of dht and estrogen
and when receptors in the hypothalamus detect low levels of these hormones it actually triggers the
hypothalamus to release ganatropic releasing hormone which again is going to subsequently
increase levels of luteinizing hormone and testosterone production however it is important to
note here that this is not the only mechanism by which gonadotropic releasing hormone is produced
there are also a handful of neurotransmitters that actually trigger the production of gonadotropic
releasing hormone as well namely gaba and acetylcholine as well as a very specific serotonin
receptor known as the 5-ht2a receptor and coincidentally ashwagandha improves the signaling
of all three of these neurotransmitter systems now because of all these mechanisms again this is one
of the reason why i consider ashwagandha to be one of the more effective supplements when it comes to
increasing testosterone levels as well as improving stress levels improving sleep improving
cognition as well as athletic performance however this is also one of the reasons why there are so
many uh potential side effects when it comes to ashwagandha supplementation so i will say that
ashwagandha supplementation is not for everyone however when it comes to again supplements that
can be used to improve testosterone i do believe ashwagandha to be one of the more promising now if
you guys are interested in my full breakdown on foundational supplements as well as supplements
that can be used for testosterone cognition muscle growth stress sleep mood hair loss and libido i
would highly recommend checking out the complete guide to supplementation that you can find a
link to in the description if you guys are into supplementation at all i can guarantee you that
this resource will become extremely invaluable to you but other than that guys if you have any
questions please feel free to leave a comment down below and i will see you guys next time