Bad news guys – beer makes you less manly.
Not only are men experiencing record-lows in testosterone levels, but it turns out our most beloved beverage, beer, may be a big culprit.
Testosterone is a critical hormone, for both men and women, but it clearly has a bigger impact on males – it’s not just responsible for muscle growth and a healthy libido, it’s responsible for decreasing male stress levels, warding off depression and cognitive decline, keeping us lean and even delaying death.
Why the record lows in T levels? I suspect a huge factor is the overwhelming presence of xenoestrogens – foreign substances that act as estrogen does in the body. Where do these xenoestrogens come from? Plenty of foods, PCB, BPA, phthalates and other plastic chemicals, as well as many pesticides and herbicides. In a nut shell, they’re everywhere. Add to this a general lack of healthy, testosterone boosting foods, lack of exercise, and sedentary, stressful lifestyle, and you’ve got a great prescription for excess estrogen and lowered testosterone levels.
So how does beer come into play? Beer is made out of just four ingredients – barley, hops, yeast and water. Unfortunately, those lovely, delectable hops are loaded with what appear to be pretty potent phytoestrogens, or plant-derived chemicals that act as estrogen would in the body.
It seems that in Germany, women with gynecological disorders would bathe in “brewery sludge baths”, which contained up to 30% hop extracts. Sounds fun. A 1953 study reported that young girls who came to pick hops off the vine in hop gardens regularly began menstruating two days after arrival. The authors of the study concluded that hops contain “the equivalent of 20–300 μg estradiol/g”. Estradiol is the main form of estrogen within the human body, and the average levels of estradiol within the blood stream of women are 30 to 400 TRILLIONTHS of a gram per milliliter. Hops contain 20-30 millionths of a gram of estradiol per gram of hops – that’s quite a lot.
In Europe a condition called “brewers droop” is widely known; it refers to the lack of ability some beer brewers have in being able to “get it up”.
I’ll be the first to admit that I love a good hoppy beer; more than a few IPAs come to mind, and with the explosion of craft brewing and turning away from watered down, adjunct lagers (BUDWEISER), beers are becoming more and more hoppy. But with the rampant exposure to xenoestrogens, should us men be going out of our way to consume a potent liquid estrogenic cocktail?
Luckily, we have red wine to the rescue.
Red wine is one of the richest sources of a lovely little antioxidant called resveratrol. Resveratrol has many interesting health boosting properties, among them improved heart health, increased endurance and possibly increasing lifespan. But as it relates to this discussion, resveratrol just so happens to be an aromatase-inhibitor. Aromatase is this enzyme in our bodies that goes around converting testosterone into estrogen. Anything that inhibits this enzyme therefor increases testosterone and lowers estrogen, a boon for the modern man. And don’t worry ladies, you need some help too as you’re getting exposed to just as many xenoestrogens as men are.
Now, this isn’t going to be some massive effect. It won’t get you “jacked” or give you ‘roid rage, but it will help to balance your hormones in this xenoestrogen-laden world. If you’re a guy who frequently experiences low libido, depression, that “spare tire” around your belly, lack of drive and motivation, and just generally feel less “you”, I recommend giving the beer a nice month or two break and switching to some red wine. You can thank me later.
I haven’t given up my beer – in fact I drank one while finishing this article, a stout called Old Engine Oil. I have cut back on beer, however, and begun to use certain foods and supplements to detox my body of excess estrogens and prevent the hormonal disturbances caused by hops. If you’re interested in knowing how you can do the same, or how to balance your hormone levels in general, we should talk.