As your hormones changed as an adolescent, they will change again with age throughout your life, and often this comes with a depletion of testosterone levels in your body. Lower levels of testosterone in men can mean a lot of things, and come with a stigma that makes you feel less masculine.

“It helps maintain muscle mass, bone density, and sex drive for starters. For men, testosterone production is at its highest in early adulthood and drops a little each year after.” – Healthline

It can be a difficult time, especially if the changes have to do with a progression in age, but in honesty, there are many reasons why you might find your body producing less of this sex hormone, and fortunately, there are a few different ways that you can treat it without turning to prescription drugs or medical procedures.

Reduce Your Weight

Overweight men tend to have lower levels of testosterone, and this isn’t different for those who become larger later in life. Obesity can affect sex hormones on a grand scale, especially when there’s an excess of sugar in your diet. This is one time when a silver lining can be found without much effort, because hormone depletion due to weight gain is usually quite simple to reverse. Of course, each body is different, and what may cause changes in one person may not always work the same on another, but in most patients, limiting processed sugar in your diet should help you to lose weight and increase your levels of testosterone. It’s ideal to avoid even “healthy” sweeteners like agave, which rate low on the glucose scale, but very high in fructose, and to keep your limit of consumption near or below twenty-five grams per day.

Eat Healthy Fats

Although the above paragraph is all about how being overweight can have a negative effect on your testosterone levels, eating more healthy fats can actually have a positive effect.

“There is actually a strong correlation between consuming a diet that is higher in healthy fats, and testosterone production.” – Fit and Strong Dads

Choose items like tuna, salmon, or take a supplement that contains fish or krill oil in an effort to be more conscious about consuming more healthy fats. You should still monitor sugar and reduce the saturated fats in your diet, especially if you’ve noticed a depletion in sex drive, or other symptoms affiliated with a lack of testosterone.

Pump Up The Vitamin D

Another way to keep levels of testosterone up without turning to medication is to improve your interaction with vitamin D. This means spending more time in the sun, drinking milk, and possible taking a multivitamin.

“Vitamin D, a steroid hormone, is essential for the healthy development of the nucleus of the sperm cell, and helps maintain semen quality and sperm count. Vitamin D also increases levels of testosterone, which may boost libido.” – Dr. Mercola

Vitamin D alone may not make a large enough difference in your hormone levels to notice right away, but this doesn’t mean that it isn’t working in your favor. Sometimes there are a number of reasons for testosterone depletion, and dealing with only one treatment won’t fix them all.

Lower Your Stress Levels

Finally, studies have shown that stress can have a negative effect on your testosterone level as it can cause you to release another hormone called cortisol. Cortisol can block the effects that testosterone has on your body. With chronic stress becoming such a high rated issue among Americans it’s easy to see how extended levels of cortisol might be taking a negative effect on your body. Treatments for anxiety and stress vary from person to person, but many people find that meditation, yoga, and verbal therapy can help to lighten the load. If you find yourself really struggling with the stress you could talk to a professional about the possibility of therapy sessions as a method of coping with your lowered levels of testosterone.

In extreme cases there are less natural methods to treat these symptoms, but it’s important to remember that any extra chemicals you put into your body could affect you in other ways, and if it’s possible to avoid being medicated or undergoing surgery, it’s best to use another method. Speak to your doctor about the possible paths you can take on the journey to natural treatments, and ask about lifestyle changes and dietary changes that you can make in order to slow the depletion of testosterone, or restore what’s been lost.