You’ve heard about them, even if you wish you hadn’t—testosterone boosters are advertised everywhere online, touting themselves as a cure-all for ineffectual males looking to increase their libido, physical capabilities and even fertility. You might even spot such an ad somewhere on this very page.
Consider this your warning as a buyer to beware: most testosterone boosters don’t even boost testosterone, let alone do any of the other miraculous things companies might suggest. It’s easy for companies to claim they boost testosterone, because few people will actually go to the doctor to double-check, and even for those who do, their testosterone levels could be unusually high or low due to a huge swath of related factors that change from moment to moment.
Take Tribulus Terrestris, a popular natural testosterone booster that became renowned for helping to build muscle in the early ‘70s, especially among body builders using it after completing a steroid cycle. The supplement has never been proven to increase testosterone levels or strength-enhancing abilities despite multiple studies. In fact, the only benefits of Tribulus Terrestris come from anecdotal evidence, meaning any increased virility or strength from this booster is likely a result of the placebo effect and nothing more.
Compare that reality to the image those pesky ads perpetuate about testosterone boosters—basically using images of ultra-virile bodybuilders to suggest T-boosters can both up your sex drive and have the same muscle-toning effects of anabolic steroids, minus the addiction and other health risks.
However, even those few boosters that do have some kind of measurable effect only boost testosterone levels about 20 to 50%, a negligible amount compared to the 300% increase that occurs even on a low-dose steroid cycle. But surely, you think, even that measly 20% must have some impact on your sex drive and muscle-building abilities.
Not so much. D-Aspartic Acid (D-AA) is perhaps the only testosterone supplement that’s actually been shown to do what it’s supposed to, and it became highly sought after due to a study showing it could increase testosterone levels by as much as 40% in only 12 days. Alas, these almost immediate results are too good to be true. Even if you keep taking D-AA, your testosterone levels will return to normal after only one month of use—far too short a time to see any results in muscle increase.
The first study—the one that made D-AA seem like the miracle cure so many men hope for—was likely industry-sponsored, cherry-picking its results by ignoring the supplement’s long-term effects (or lack thereof). It’s indicative of the sort of scientific doublespeak most testosterone boosters use to legitimize their bogus claims of increasing body mass and libido. These cleverly deceptive marketing techniques make effective use of male insecurity, celebrity endorsements and pseudo-science to sell their supplements, because there are few actual virtues to the product itself.
If you’re dead-set on increasing your testosterone levels, there are a few natural supplements that have been shown to have minor effects on testosterone levels. Nutrients like zinc, magnesium, vitamin A and vitamin D can increase testosterone levels, but only if you’re deficient in your usual levels. Once your levels have returned to what your body considers “normal,” they’ll have no further effects on testosterone.
While supplements won’t have any effect on your testosterone levels or ability to build new muscle, there are a few options that can produce changes in libido. Fenugreek, a seed pod commonly used as a spice in Indian food, prevents testosterone from being converted into dihydrotestosterone (DHT), which is thought to lower sex drive. Taking supplements of fenugreek may very well result in improved sexual function. Other supplements that have an effect on the libido include Mucuna Pruriens or L-DOPA, which increases dopamine levels instead of testosterone to produce its effect, and the expensive Malaysian herb Tongkat Ali, which is traditionally used as an aphrodisiac.
We all want to believe in a miracle cure, which is why these modern day snake oil salesmen continue to flourish using their inescapable marketing techniques. But there’s no easy over-the-counter solution to something like fitness of fertility. Even the testosterone boosters that do work tend to be spectacularly ineffective compared to the expected results. As sad as it may be, there’s no quick fix here—if you want improvement, it takes actual effort on your part.
