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