Dr. Kyle Gillett: Tools for Hormone Optimization in Males

If you look at the difference between people who stand a lot, sit a lot, and drive a lot, what you see is a progressive decrease in sperm count. Because when people are sitting, there's an increase in temperature. And then when they're sitting on the hot seat of the car or using the heated seats, it actually kills sperm. I think there are good data on that.

Creatine is interesting because it has multiple different effects. It helps with amino acid synthesis ... It does slightly increase total testosterone, and it also increases the conversion of testosterone to dihydrotestosterone.

Prolactin does have a significant acute increase after ejaculation. It does, to some degree, after orgasm as well. But prolactin acts on the pituitary to inhibit the release of the hormones LH and FSH, of which LH can increase testosterone.

For really vigorous exercise, around 3-4 times a week is very sustainable over a long period of time. On top of that, you could add in 3 or 4 more instances of less vigorous exercise.

It is not hormonally helpful to... regularly train vigorously for longer than an hour.

I take 400mg of tongkat ali per day. I take it early in the day, because it has a bit of a stimulant effect ... I've been taking it for years ... I've never cycled it ... My blood work tells me that it causes an increase in free testosterone for me and also an increase in luteinizing hormone for me.

If you are optimizing the growth hormone that is released as pulsatile secretion, it is helpful to... avoid eating about two hours before bed ... Fasting, otherwise, specifically for growth hormone optimization in someone who already has normal growth hormone signaling, is not helpful.

You want to have adequate vitamin D. Vitamin D helps with testosterone production. It helps, again, with bone mineralization and stature.

Everyone should get outside and find a movement pastime to last a lifetime. You're going to get sunlight, you're going to get some degree of heat and cold exposure, and you're also just going to move more.

I've actually seen in my blood work that if I don't get out for a 45-minute jog at least once a week, all of my blood profiles suffer in a direction that I don't want them to go. In particular, testosterone and estrogen move in directions that are not conducive to my goals.

If you have deficient vitamin D, and you replace it, then you will optimize your testosterone.

Just to remind people, the SHBG, sex-hormone binding globulin, is attaching to the testosterone molecule and limiting the amount of so-called free testosterone that's available to have its impact on cells.

Testosterone is normally released in a pulsatile manner. So, it's high in the morning and low in the evening. Whereas if you're on testosterone therapy, then you're going to have a steady state. So, your testosterone level is going to be pretty much the same, even in the evening.

Actually, I saw an interesting paper that said that for every two degree increase in temperature of the scrotum, there's a 20%, decrease in spermatogenesis and viability of sperm.

Smoked cannabis, I would say, diminishes testosterone, increases prolactin. That's a no.

I do avoid drinking out of cans or plastics that may have BPA, or Bisphenol A, in them. Bisphenol A is known to bind to what I would consider the fifth estrogen receptor ... I would consider it a xenoestrogen.

Up to about an age of 25, optimizing your growth hormone and IGF-1 helps with bone density and bone growth.

I do not think everybody needs a multivitamin. The more exclusionary your diet is... then perhaps it's more reasonable to take a multivitamin