Testosterone is an anabolic hormone that works in opposition to the way calorie restriction lowers anabolic activity. Testosterone increases IGF-I, which in turn increases mTOR – all related to accelerated aging and increased cancer risk. One CR woman we know, who supplemented with testosterone and was under a great deal of stress, developed breast cancer after only three months of supplementation even though she had stopped the supplementation. Metastasis of some cancers is accelerated by testosterone.
Those who feel their testosterone level is too low can be heartened: Just by maintaining a healthful weight, testosterone increases naturally. Another way to increase testosterone is simply to lower glucose levels after your last meal so that they are low when you go to sleep – a good idea anyway since insulin is very low during sleep. This will increase IGF-I secretion safely and thus also increase testosterone safely.
But what if your testosterone is still too low?
Actually, while some calorie restrictors complain of decreased testosterone and libido, others don’t seem to be affected. If your BMI is below 18.5 (the osteoporosis trigger point), very low testosterone and other anabolic hormone levels are likely. So is decreased bone density. If you need to put on a few pounds, consider becoming a member of LivingTheCRWay, which offers many resources for healthful weight gain.
But what if you maintain a healthy BMI of between approximately 18.5 and 23? Your testosterone should not be inordinately low. Actually, testosterone on elderly Okinawans who have practiced moderate calorie restriction all their lives is higher than those who follow a standard western diet.
Lactobacillus reuteri raises testosterone
A brilliant study by the Erdman lab at MIT identifies a new possibility for those who wish to raise testosterone: the probiotic L reuteri. According to L. reuteri expert, Gabriela Sinkiewicz, in the 1960s L. reuteri was found in 30% to 40% of the population, but now it is found naturally in only 10% to 20 % of the population.
The Erdman lab found that raising L. reuteri levels in mice lowered an inflammatory cytokine, IL-17A, which in turn raised the number of Leydig cells, a principal source of testicular androgens, especially testosterone.
Could it be that CR practitioners who suffer from low testosterone have low levels of L. reuteri and perhaps other synergistic microbes that influence testosterone production?
You can ask Dr. Erdman herself in an upcoming expert teleconference in mid-June.
In the meantime, take a look at this interesting study:
Probiotic microbes sustain youthful serum testosterone levels and testicular size in aging mice.
Poutahidis T, Springer A, Levkovich T, Qi P, Varian BJ, Lakritz JR, Ibrahim YM, Chatzigiagkos A, Alm EJ, Erdman SE.
PLoS One. 2014 Jan 2;9(1):e84877. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0084877. eCollection 2014.
Abstract
The decline of circulating testosterone levels in aging men is associated with adverse health effects. During studies of probiotic bacteria and obesity, we discovered that male mice routinely consuming purified lactic acid bacteria originally isolated from human milk had larger testicles and increased serum testosterone levels compared to their age-matched controls.
Further investigation using microscopy-assisted histomorphometry of testicular tissue showed that mice consuming Lactobacillus reuteri in their drinking water had significantly increased seminiferous tubule cross-sectional profiles and increased spermatogenesis and Leydig cell numbers per testis when compared with matched-diet counterparts.
This showed that criteria of gonadal aging were reduced after routinely consuming a purified microbe such as L. reuteri. We tested whether these features typical of sustained reproductive fitness may be due to anti-inflammatory properties of L. reuteri, and found that testicular mass and other indicators typical of old age were similarly restored to youthful levels using systemic administration of antibodies blocking pro-inflammatory cytokine interleukin-17A.
This indicated that uncontrolled host inflammatory responses contributed to the testicular atrophy phenotype in aged mice. Reduced circulating testosterone levels have been implicated in many adverse effects; dietary L. reuteri or other probiotic supplementation may provide a viable natural approach to prevention of male hypogonadism, absent the controversy and side-effects of traditional therapies, and yield practical options for management of disorders typically associated with normal aging.
These novel findings suggest a potential high impact for microbe therapy in public health by imparting hormonal and gonad features of reproductive fitness typical of much younger healthy individuals.
PMID: 24392159. NIH, NLM: PubMed access to MEDLINE
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