so tribulus terestis has pretty much been the most popular testosterone boosting supplement
for the past 40 years and even to this day it's extremely difficult to find a testosterone
boosting supplement that does not have tribulus in it now most of the current research as well as
a ton of anecdotal reports seem to indicate that tribulus is fairly reliable at increasing libido
and because of this most men that end up taking it do assume that tribulus is increasing testosterone
however the research actually seems to point in a different direction and so in today's
video we're going to take a super deep dive into tribulus to see what its effects on hormones are
as well as its other effects on health so let's go ahead and dive right in
this video is sponsored by let's get checked hey what's up guys my name is zach and welcome to
nutrition library where we take an evidence-based approach to nutrition and supplementation for men
now when it comes to the research on tribulus i do want to say right out of the gate that the
research is super conflicting for instance in this study and in this study in particular the
researchers did in fact find that tribulus could increase testosterone however when it comes to
these studies it is extremely important to keep in mind here that both of these studies were in
fact performed on hypogenetic infertile men and so these two research papers obviously carry
some merit for guys that are in fact hypogenetic however when it comes to the general population
these two individual studies are somewhat limited in their application now with that being said when
it comes to the research that's been performed in healthy young active men the research is a whole
lot less promising now in this study and in this study where the participants of these studies were
young healthy active men their researchers did find that tribulus did not in fact have any effect
on any tested hormone parameters and to be quite frank this really isn't that surprising there are
a ton of compounds that show a ton of promise in rodents and a ton of promise in um infertile men
that have absolutely no effect on healthy young men and so it's just not super surprising to see
that tribulus might have an effect on hypogenetic men but doesn't have any effect on young healthy
men and to be honest this is another reason why i'm such a huge fan of getting a blood panel done
and seeing where your specific hormones are actually at without knowing whether or not you're
actually hypogenetic or not it's really impossible to actually implement a proper supplementation and
nutrition strategy to optimize your personal hormone profile now if you have yet to get
a hormone panel done i would highly recommend my friends over at let's get checked a lot of
you guys know that i have been recommending them for a while now but they literally have the most
convenient service on the market once you order your test they send it to your doorstep you send
it back to them and then within a few days you have your results through their online portal
and on top of that you get a free consultation with a practitioner that walks you through your
results it's extremely freaking easy and so make sure to check out the link that's
in the description for 30 off of your test now where the research with tribulus actually gets a
whole lot more discouraging is in this study and in this study where the researchers found that
even in hypogenetic infertile men tribulus also had no effect on testosterone levels
which means that not only does tribulus have no effect in healthy young active men but
even in infertilemen the research is still mixed at best and furthermore even in the studies where
tribulus did increase testosterone it was to a very small marginal degree
and so even if you are in the small portion of the population that does respond well to
tribulus i still wouldn't expect it to have that large of an impact anyways now with all of that
being said i do not think that tribulus is an extremely promising supplement when it comes
to increasing testosterone however this is not to say that tribulus is completely useless even
though tribulus doesn't seem to be effective at increasing testosterone there do seem to be
some other relevant health benefits namely to libido and mood now specifically when it comes
to tribulus's effect on libido i do think it's actually extremely interesting namely one because
all of the research that has been performed on the association between tribulus and libido has shown
extremely consistent results and then the second reason is because of the possible
mechanisms of action now the first extremely interesting possible mechanism of action here
seems to be that tribulus might actually increase androgen receptor density
in the brain now androgen receptors are obviously the receptors that testosterone and dht bind to
and so by theoretically increasing the amount of these receptors in the central nervous system
you can theoretically increase the responsiveness of the central nervous system to these hormones
and thereby increase things like mood and libido and so i don't think this has been entirely proven
yet however i do think it is an extremely promising and interesting mechanism of action
now the second possible mechanism of action here is that tripolis may also improve cardiovascular
health now specifically tribulus has been shown to protect the heart from damage but it also appears
to have some influence on blood flow and blood pressure to some degree which obviously is going
to kind of help things work down there and thereby also increase libido as well now the third way
that tribulus may improve libido is by reducing the perception of stress now this has only been
shown to be effective in rodent trials at super high doses however it still might be relevant
to individuals that are particularly stressed stress has an inverse relationship with libido
and so as stress goes up libido goes down and vice versa and now the mechanisms of action here aren't
fully well understood yet however there may be some interaction with the tribulus and monoamine
oxidase enzymes which are the enzymes that break down dopamine serotonin and norepinephrine
and so theoretically tribulus might actually inhibit these enzymes thereby actually increasing
the availability of these neurotransmitters which are going to have a positive effect
on stress parameters now the fourth mechanism of action here seems to be that tribulus might
actually increase dht levels as well now this has only been demonstrated in a singular study
and may actually be disproven at some point in the future however i do think this is still somewhat
promising even though tribulus might not increase testosterone per se it may still have some promise
as a hormone regulatory supplement just because of the fact that it might actually increase
dht levels to some degree now what's interesting here is that tribulus doesn't seem to have any
effect on the 5-alpha reductase enzyme which is the enzyme that actually converts testosterone
into dht and so the mechanism of action here isn't fully understood yet either however
because of the possibility that tribulus might increase dht i do still think that tribulus might
be somewhat of a promising hormone regulatory supplement still now the last reason that tribulus
is such a promising libido enhancing supplement is because of its general testicular antioxidant
capacity now this has only been demonstrated in rodent trials at this point however it has been
repeatedly shown and so even though tribulus might not increase testosterone it does seem
to be somewhat of a testicular protective compound which is in stark contrast to things like phodoja
agustus which actually have detrimental and toxic effects on testicular function and so even though
tribulus doesn't appear to directly increase testosterone it does also appear to have some
other health properties that may make it worth taking for some individuals now with all things
considered i don't think that tribulus is a good stand-alone option when it comes to specific
supplements to improve hormonal status however it might be a good option to kind of stack on top of
some other options like ashwagandha and tonkat ali and terkesteron again it doesn't show much promise
for increasing testosterone but because of its effects on both mood and libido and because of its
somewhat general protective effects on the testes again it might just be simply a good option to
stack on to your current stack whatever that might be but other than that guys that's pretty much all
i have for this video again if you are interested in getting a hormone panel done make sure to
check out the description below for 30 off of your test and if you were looking for a complete guide
on uh supplements that have been shown and proven to increase testosterone um i've got
a link down in the description for that as well but other than that i will see you guys next time