Functional medicine practitioners, men’s health specialists, or anti-aging physicians often have more experience with these supplements. Men over 45 with confirmed low testosterone might get more bang for their buck with testosterone boosters, though DIM can still play a supporting role. Both DIM and testosterone boosters are relatively new in terms of long-term human use studies.
If you’re pregnant, your hormone levels are changing to support your growing baby. Since DIM can affect the levels of estrogen in your body, it may have an effect on your period. In humans, research does show that an estrogen imbalance can increase your risk of weight gain. But these studies suggest DIM supplements may cause fat breakdown and keep fat cells from forming. DIM supplements may help prevent PIN, which can reduce your chance of prostate enlargement and prostate cancer.
My approach is to use them cyclically – taking breaks every few months to let your body reset. This includes total testosterone, free testosterone, estradiol, and liver function tests. Sleep disturbances are another possibility – some ingredients can be stimulating.
The good news is that DIM may provide the benefits needed to promote healthy cholesterol levels and support overall heart health. The hope is that DIM will keep the body from converting testosterone into estrogen. While a diet rich in cruciferous vegetables is ideal, supplements can provide adequate DIM levels. DIM supplements generally have minimal side effects.
But it only recommends 15mg of zinc, which may be a little light for some men, especially if low zinc levels are significantly impacting their testosterone production. It also contains DIM and quercetin, neither of which boasts enough clinical evidence for us to assume they’d work well for preserving or improving testosterone levels in men. That means you could easily encounter side effects related to too much zinc consumption, especially if you already get enough of it in your diet or from other supplements. That brings those middling doses of shilajit and tongkat ali up to snuff, but it also forces you to take 1,200mg of both fenugreek and ashwagandha — doses that have no clinical support and could increase your side effect risk.
It does not raise testosterone levels, but by balancing out estrogen, it helps support the activity of testosterone. This shift promotes a healthier estrogen ratio, supporting hormonal balance. While some of these foods may help to modulate testosterone levels in healthy men, they wouldn't be enough on their own to address clinically low T or hypogonadism. They tend to have fewer studies looking specifically at their relationship to testosterone levels, and doses can often be far below what studies would recommend. It contains just five ingredients, one of which lacks enough scientific support for us to believe it’ll make a major difference in testosterone levels. Magnum appears to place a greater emphasis on ingredients with more support for erectile health than testosterone production, removing the ashwagandha and replacing it with horny goat weed.50 There’s also slightly more zinc but less fenugreek. If your test reveals low testosterone levels, you can talk to a Roman-affiliated provider to determine whether you want to take the nutritional supplements or seek a prescription remedy.
The formula of Innerbody Labs' T booster only includes ingredients with noteworthy clinical support. A lot of testosterone boosters on the market share common ingredients, but the quantities and combinations of the ingredients vary from product to product. If a vitamin D deficiency is suppressing your testosterone, a supplement with 100 ingredients but no vitamin D would likely prove ineffective (not to mention costly).
Several telehealth companies offer access to prescription testosterone interventions, with consulting physicians on staff and available testosterone testing. They’re generally a little less effective than traditional TRT but still more effective than a testosterone-boosting supplement, and they’re often more than enough to take care of clinical hypogonadism in most men. Residue from these products can affect puberty in children and have negative impacts on a woman’s health, especially if she’s pregnant, planning to become pregnant, or breastfeeding.55 They include an increased risk of heart attack, prostate enlargement, and liver malfunction.