What Astaxanthin Does to Your Testosterone, DHT, and Exercise?

for 20 years they have done research and now they found the most successful supplement to increase longevity they mean the ITP the intervention testing program the most prestigious longevity research organization today which supplement do they test AA zantin santin is a molecule made by algae and actually gives salmon and flamingos their pink color so if you want to live longer and stay younger should you just go and buy santin as a supplement form and take it not so quickly if you be following my Channel you know that the devil is in the details the dose

the timing cycling and the brand what I've done for you today is tracking and finding the exact manufacturer that provide the ITP with the product this person Dave has been researching atin for over 25 years and he's probably in my opinion one of the top three experts on Esten for longevity in the world and today we're going to discuss the impact on your exercise routine or your testosterone now enjoy in my community the longevity hackers they ask me about the impact on testosterone I'm I'm quoting the the question I've heard negatively impact hormonal function in

men I've come across discussion in Reddit that it may inhibit 5 Alpha reducta the enzyme responsible for converting testosterone into DHT any um anything that you know about the impact on Sexual Health both men and and women yeah so ases anthon I think has been shown to improve improve testosterone levels um and U that's not to be by protecting the testosterone producing lat cells in the testes from oxidative stress so I think it it helps to promote testosterone production um but like you said there is a potential inhibition or at least research showing um on

the conversion of testosterone to DHT um and so um I think more research needs to be done there um to explore that um but I think that is uh what the research has shown with that said um you know in terms of anecdotal feedback from our community um we've had reports of people saying that they have increased libido and you know sexual you know health and performance um and so I I think there uh I know that there are some discussions online saying potentially um that someone had decreased libido but then I think others commented

and replied that that was not their experience um and so um again it's it's probably something you have to look at um you know what else are they taking what else are they doing lifestyle all of these things to really know you know scientifically uh is it having an effect but I don't know of any uh clinical studies in humans um demonstrating a um observable you know manifestation of decreased libido or erectile dysfunction or anything like that because um in terms of erectile you know uh function or dysfunction you know blood flow is important and

aanon does increase nitric oxide and blood flow and so if anything you know that could promote um you know healthy erectile you know function um and we've had reports from you know people in our community that that they have had benefits in those in those areas um so I think more research needs to be done uh in that area but I I don't think you can definitively say that it's negative uh you know for for male hormones uh necessarily certainly it helps to protect the testosterone production at at the testes um and also if you

look aters the conversion to DHT which I I don't is a huge problem because also affects male pattern boldness as well but but but have you have you seen evidence that it affects this conversion from testosterone to DHT I've seen some published literature in that area but again I don't you know again can you is it replicated how well is s designed and and so research out yeah yeah there's not a whole lot of data in this area so um so it's out there but again I think more research would need to be done in

particular in humans to to know um you know what is really conclusive here but in terms of say reproductive Health um you know which is not exactly the same but if you look at sperm quality and performance you see benefits there um with with aanin supplementation um so you know the the sperm linear velocity the oxidation of the sperm um you know lipid membranes the mitochondrial function in the sperm you know all these things have shown improvements with with asanin as well as well and and and certainly in the Wilds or in like say Farm

raise salmon um it does promote um you know the the reproduction and and development it supports that and um and so I think that uh from that standpoint it's been shown to be uh beneficial uh and then with with uh with women it is shown to uh reduce oxidative stress um to you know to promote Hormone Health in women as well um so with all that said that is an area of research that does require further you know uh exploration to really understand further so um but I I don't think you could conclusively say that

it's um not good for male hormones or um you know specifically for you know testosterone DHD um so but that's I think the extent of of what is known there's still a lot to be understood even though there's like I said 3,000 peerreview papers and 100 clinical studies uh but you really need to do a lot more research to have definitive conclusions uh about these things yeah so not enough data we don't know exactly yeah we don't have good evidence to say that at this point I would like to add a few things it's important

to note that David rightly separated between testosterone levels and DHT levels DHT in case you don't know it's a more important form of testosterone and yes santin repetitively in my opinion has been shown to reduce this conversion from testosterone to DHT the question is is it really bad for you let me tell you my thinking on this so to me looking younger than my real age means that I need to preserve my hair and we know definitely that DHT levels is a major contributor to male pattern baldness so for me even if there are some

benefits to having higher levels of DHD the trade-off makes sense and second here as you can see testosterone is being converted so this lack of conversion may actually lead to testosterone preservation because it's not being converted into DHT I've tried to double check this in healthy humans not in sick animals and I haven't seen any studies besides one in this study they gave humans a combination of soft Palmetto Berry lipid extract and santin what did they find a decrease in DHD but an increase in testostrone suggesting that indeed this lack of conversion preserves testostrone I'm

quoting from them an NOA RM which is a statistical analysis of data in which the same subjects are measured multiple times under different conditions over time this method I'm quoting showed significant within group increases in serum total testosterone and significant decreases in serum DHT from Baseline so it could be that atin actually preserves testosterone by preventing it from becoming DHD which can actually cause you a hair loss if you're a man but as David suggested it's too early to conclude we need more data and I'm going to update you as more data comes now let's

go to the impact of EST stantin on exercise specifically does it antioxidant impact will have an offsetting effect on the benefits from exercise so in my community ask me yeah yeah they know that a lot of these uh fat soluble antioxidants they tend to interfere especially from land plants as opposed to algae which is a ocean plant so they know they they interfere with the production of free radicals which are essential for for the benefits from exercise so I have seen the exercise studies I have read they showed that for people who over exercise it

reduces the damage in chronic inflammation I read multiple you know in Serbia there was a bunch in Serbia they're very interested in that but I haven't SE a study that tried to see if there is a negative impact on antioxidant activation by exercise in other words does santin is going to offset some of the antioxidant activation coming from free radicals during the intense exercise have you seen anything about that I have not seen anything about that it would be great to explore that further um but you can look at things like in nature salmon obviously

consume a lot of aanin and they have to go through a very strenuous long journey Upstream to reproduce and so that um that long swim is something that they if if asdan was negatively impacting these things you you would suspect that maybe it would hinder their ability to um to have that Miracle you know feat of of strength and endurance to to swim upstream um so so there is that um and then in humans um if you look at various uh studies in related to exercise uh and performance you know there there are varying results

which I think are probably based on study design and dosing um but if you look at um muscle uh development or in particular there was a study in in the elderly looking at sarcopenia which is muscle deterioration and they found that asanin supplementation supported increased muscle size and strength and and so that I think is an important finding 17 humans 1 it was older adults elderly yeah I don't recall the exact age but it's probably old more than 60 I I would guess 60 70 80 you know in that age range um but certainly an

older adult population was where that was demonstrated um I don't know of research looking at the same in uh younger adults uh or you know middle-aged adults and so I think that's an area that would be good to explore further but um a lot of athletes you know TR athletes for example have historic have historically used ases anthon and so I would think that if there were a major issue with its interfering um you know with um with recovery or with a muscle um you know growth that um wouldn't be so you know well utilized

in the athletic Community yeah at this point I would agree I think because they show the European footballs people who play football professionally they basically ere exercise and atin in essence reduce HS CRP so it reduces systemic inflammation this and HS CRP also controlled by Nrf2 so what it tells me that santin did not offset the activation of nf2 by exercise it just enhanced it otherwise I would not have seen this impact with reduction of HS CRP you know what I'm talking about the studies I speak speak about so yes I I've seen um there

were studies in in the young uh soccer players as we say in the US uh European footballers and and um yeah we've seen reductions in in hscrp uh for instance in our cardiovascular clinical trial when we looked at the diabetic subpopulation there was reductions in hscp as well um and uh it's known to activate Nerf 2 um like you Nrf2 and and so which has you know an important role in antioxidant anti-inflammatory and other uh you know cellular functions um so um yeah I think it most likely doesn't uh have a negative effect on any

type of uh things related to exercise if anything it helps you with uh endurance and Recovery um but you know even though there are more than 3,000 papers with asanin and 100 or so human clinical studies there's just so much more that is left to learn and to be discovered so I think additional research this area would be great to see I would like to add a few things this study came in 2023 and this is the only study I have seen where they measur santin impact on exercise with healthier individuals Unfortunately they did not

measure muscle strength which I wish they had but instead they measur the impact on metabolic health so what have they done in this study let's go and see in a second so in this study they take 68 males with obesity but without any indication of illness and these were separated into four groups control without anything exercise nor estin supplemental group with estin 20 mg training group only exercise and training plus EST antin and they've done the study for 12 weeks so if they measure metabolic Health parameters what did they find in some parameters exercise plus

Estes Dentin has the same impact the same effect which suggests Astin does not offset the benefits from exercise but in some aspects actually santin plus exercise improved the results suggested complim M or even synergetic effect as you can see in this graph this is Esten plus exercise and you can see a lower reduction in ctrp9 and this is another metabolic parameter where Esten plus exercise had a better Improvement and the researchers concluded our findings indicate that 12 weeks of sente supplementation and exercise training decreased ocin levels body compositions BMI and improved lipid and metabolic profiles

these benefits were greater in men with obesity who exercised and used Esten supplementation so all in all this data is very encouraging suggesting not offsetting the benefits of exercise by stin and possible even beneficial synergetic effect or complimentary effect but again we need more data to confirm this and I like David's note that Astin has a positive correlation with Salon endurance performance let me go to the chemical activity of this compound because it's very interesting to me in my perspective when you want to preserve your youthfulness you want to freeze time you don't want to

change and you don't want your membranes to change all the time and my understanding correct me on this but santin is a bit unique antioxidants in two aspects one it can have multiple hits of free radicals it won't just get get going to get one hit from the free radical then it's going to die it's going to have multiple Cycles and the second is it cannot become prooxidant we know uh if you for example put too much even even outside if you put too much vitamin E into fish oil is can oxidize the fish oil

it makes me more wary about antioxidant recommendations but it would seem that atin doesn't suffer from these two two things so it's more like a long lasting antioxidant that stabilize your membranes and it it fits more into the picture that I have of freezing time which I I want to do so can you corre correct me on these two uh two aspects of the chemical properties of this molecule yeah no you're definitely correct in terms of asanin being a very unique antioxidant and so a lot of people think of all antioxidants as being the same

U but they're not and so the structure makes a really important difference and even within the catenoid family if you look at acanth versus beta carotene uh or ltin and zanthin they look to the untrained eye very chem ially similar from the molecular structure um but like I mentioned earlier asanin um has oxygenated head groups um with hydroxy um o groups and also Ketone groups on on each um ring u m at the end of the molecule whereas beta carotene does not um and and so that allows it like you said to Anchor across the

membrane and stabilize U the cellular membrane um and we've done work with a collaborator of ours um who has a an appointment at Harvard but also his own private research company where they had a biological U membrane model and they incorporated asanin or other um antioxidants in and looked at um the electron density across the membrane so you have higher concentration of electrons at the phospholipid hail tail uh head groups and then a lower concentration at at the Tails um and and you can look at that electron density across the membrane and when you put

ACD in um that density or distribution of the electrons was virtually unchanged uh and if you Incorporated other things like beta keratine or even lepene you saw a very significant disturbance in the electron density and disturbance of the membrane and so it is is stabilized disturbance what does it mean disturbance in so people could understand so the membrane is comprised of a lipid Bayer so you have phosph lipids you know kind of two backtack lipids uh with the heads and the tails you know kind of in opposite directions and that comprises the the membrane um

and um when it gets Disturbed those are no longer nicely ordered they can get you know kind of um angled in different directions and you don't have a nicely ordered stacked membrane of your lipids um nicely uh you know laid out across the membrane and that can have a lot of negative effects on cellular function if your membrane is depolarized or or disturbed um and so asanin helps to maintain the Integrity of the membrane uh as compared to other antioxidants and even other catenoids um but also with that um it has the ability to scavenge

free radicals both inside and outside the membrane because it can uh trap free radicals with its uh head groups but also which would be at the surface uh of the membrane inside and outside um you know and also inside the interior of the membrane with the double conjugated poine backbone of the molecule that can also um you know quench free radicals and and so it has the ability to fight free radicals in and outside of the membrane and then it can say um uh regenerate you know by interaction with vitamin C which you know like

can regenerate Vitamin E for example as an antioxidant so it can play well with with the other antioxidants as well um and so I think with aanin you have that unique capability based on its structure to not become prooxidant which by the way in that model membrane system not only did it stabilize or maintain the Integrity of the membrane um lipid peroxidation was measured measured and lipid peroxidation or oxidation of the lipids in the membrane was reduced with aanin whereas it was increased with beta cartine which was acting as a prooxidant in that case and

so that's a really cool study um that that what about the others lopine also did did they measure other yes all of the other ones um had varying levels of membrane disturbance and lipid peroxidation in that particular model whereas asanin was the only one that had the reduction of the lipid peroxidation it's not to say that all of those are ant it's almost they attract a fire to the membrane I potentially yeah that could be one way of putting it or they disrupt the membrane which which is is not good and it potentially can be

prooxidant um and so Asen I think is very unique in that case um and so but in addition to that there's been some studies in in test tubes looking at like singlet oxygen um you know Scavenging uh quenching that is uh you know one measure of it's kind of antioxidant capabilities and it actually was much more effective um at fighting the free radicals uh compared to other common antioxidants and it was shown to be like 6,000 times stronger than vitamin C or 550 times stronger than vitamin E and like 40 times stronger than beta carotene

and so from a Scavenging standpoint it appears to be very effective but I think almost more importantly is the fact that it localizes in that special way in the membrane U which is very unique um and the fact that it not only gets to the me the outer plasma membrane of the cell but like I said gets to the nuclear mitochondrial and other membranes in the cell which is are all important places and if you can do that you can reduce the oxidation of the lipids but if you're at the the nuclear level for example

you're you're preventing hopefully the oxidation of the DNA and then ultimately proteins and so all of these things have important impacts on all of your cellular signaling Pathways and functions and so there's benefits to mitochondria and and other uh you know cell signaling Pathways as well and and so these are all uh ways that asan can benefit but at its core it's sitting in the membranes fighting for your radicals stabilizing the Integrity of the membranes um but then I think it has all these Downstream this Cascade of benefits on inflammatory Pathways and and other uh

signaling Pathways so this is for testosterone and exercise I published this segment because many people ask me about their topics and their full interview will be published soon and it is the most indepth content we have on SSN on the internet today let me know if you like this format by subscribing and I'm wishing you a wonderful energetic healthy year in 2025