Years ago, during the advent of Takota, I was having the time of my life meeting new people, playing shows, and being an American idiot internationally. While I basked in the idea of being able to play music for the rest of my life, my body was rapidly deteriorating.
While I tried to keep my sprits high in the midst of the gobs of hair I was losing everyday, something else happened that would parallel my quest to end my hair loss. I was no longer interested in sex and my libido hit rock bottom.
If I were to sum it up I would say that libido throughout my whole journey has been very inconsistent. My diet experimenting lead to dramatic increases and decreases in sexual desire without any explanation.
If something was going well, maintaining it was damn near impossible. While I searched for answers to my hair loss, I noticed that many of the same techniques would either disturb hair and promote libido, or disturb both hair and decrease libido. Balancing everything was an annoyance, not so much to me, but to my lady at the time.
Supplements
To solve my problem, I engaged in moderate and mega-dosing of every fatty acid (krill, borage, black currant, flax, fish, hemp, Udo's), mineral (zinc, copper, selenium, chromium, magnesium, boron, manganese), vitamin (vitamin E, A, C, D3, K2; all of them), amino acid (trimethylglycine, l-tyrosine, GABA, taurine, l-arginine, BCAAs, whey), and adaptogen (tribulus, rhodiola, ashwagandha, etc.) known to man. Looking back on it, I'm surprised I continued with supplementation for so long. I don't remember any of them doing anything positive.
Drugs
If supplements were akin to a scalpel, I felt I needed a bazooka to solve my issues. I looked up an anti-aging doc in my area and we began a battery of labwork. We found out that my free testosterone was low, my SHBG was very high, and oddly enough my estrogen (E2) appeared to be high as well (this later proved to be lab error).
He slapped me on Arimidex (which aggresively lowers estradiol), prescribed testosterone cypionate injections, Armour thyroid, DHEA, and Cortef for my "weak adrenals." When this failed to make any difference in the quality of libido, he added HCG to the mix (it's not just for fat ladies).
After a few more months of this complete and udder madness we both felt it was best to ditch the injections and go on Androgel.
The drugs did exactly what they are designed to do. I had JACKED my testosterone so far passed the lab values that my doctor was enthralled. I should have felt like a million bucks, but instead I felt like shit. Libido was still inconsistent and the arimidex made me want to die. I ditched the meds and suffered through the mentally agonizing downswing of returning to baseline.
Diet
When I gave up on supplements and drugs I noticed that certain dietary tweaks would increase and decrease libido. Very high-fat diets seemed to promote extremely low levels of desire, while a high-carbohydrate diets increased desire.
This high-starch induced sex-drive opened me up to the possibility that my low-sugar diets were counter productive in my quest for sexual supremacy. Through vigorous sugar research, I was introduced to the unorthodox ideas of Dr. Raymond Peat. Learning and incorporating Dr. Peat's ideas into my own regimen restored my libido, health, and livelihood.
The turning point in my sexual adventure occured when I began studying the work of Dr. Ray Peat. I was hesitant however, due to the overwhelmingly negative sound bites I had heard from many I admire in the paleosphere.
Before we go on, I think it's appropriate to state a brief overview of Peat's ideas. Chris Rosenfelt, friend and commenter over at Ray Peat Fans on Facebook, summarizes Peat's position eloquently:
"Dr. Peat believes that energy and structure are interdependent, therefore providing proper oxidative energy to the simplest, smallest unit of living matter, the cell. Cells form tissues, tissues form organs and organs form the human body, obviously this is in its very simplistic form but if you take care and provide the proper nutrients/energy to the cell then it should have a "ripple effect" throughout the organism.
So Dr. Peat's philosophy is just about maintaining proper oxidative energy through the use of protective hormones and elements such as thyroid, pregnenolone, progesterone, testosterone, carbon dioxide, glucose, saturated fats and not letting the potentially negative hormones and elements (if chronically activated) like cortisol, adrenaline, estrogen, PUFA's, ACTH, lactic acid, carbon monoxide, parathyroid, prolactin, TSH, protein kinase C, etc... get out of control in the body."
Limiting Serotonin
My first suggestion is limiting the conversion of the amino acid L-trytophan into the anti-libido hormone, serotonin. This can be done in a couple of different ways, but increasing the calcium to phosphate ratio is the most straightforward. Calcium increases carbon dioxide production, which will limit serotonin release. We'll talk more about in a second.
The next step is limiting foods high in tryptophan that don't contain calcium. This includes muscle meats and most non-dairy proteins. Gelatinous meats like: oxtail, bone broth, and even Great Lakes Gelatin are great substitutes.
- Increasing The Calcium/Phosphate Ratio - Dairy, homemade eggshell calcium
- Increasing Gelatin Consumption - Bone broth, oxtail, Great Lakes Gelatin (make sure to dissolve it first)
Increasing sugar consumption has numerous applications for restoring libido. Understanding that sugar can be used of as a "dietary supplement" may help one overcome sugar-phobia. Sugars most interesting characteristic may be its ability to increase carbon dioxide (CO2). Glucose oxidation (not fatty acid oxidation) increases CO2, which suppresses the release of histamine and serotonin.
- Fruit Sugar - Very-ripe fruits, strained orange juice (if you're hardcore)
- White Sugar - White sugar has no nutrients, but its ability to rapidly activate the metabolism cannot be ignored. White sugar made into a simple syrup can be utilized as quick way to reduce stress, increase metabolism, and enhance libido.
Fat-soluble vitamins are anti-prolactin, anti-estrogen, and are the building blocks of steroid hormone synthesis. Vitamin A seems to be especially important—suggesting that the widespread use of Vitamin D to be potentially dangerous.
- Vitamin A - beef liver, egg yolks
- Vitamin D - sun, minor supplementation (if A and K levels are adequate!)
- Vitamin K - beef liver, egg yolks
- Vitamin E - beef liver, egg yolks
- Zinc/Copper - oysters, shrimp, beef liver
In a few short months; morning erections turned to full, orgasm sensation increased tenfold, and I experienced spontaneous erections in an almost annoying way. It was incredible. Supplements, hardcore meds, and INJECTIONS IN MY LEG (and belly) couldn't touch Peat's unorthodox approach.
