Does Pomegranate Juice Increase Testosterone Levels?

Increase your testosterone naturally with pomegranate juice

Recent reports in newspapers have suggest that you can increase your testosterone levels by drinking pomegranate juice. Here, Duncan looks at whether this is true, or unclear.

What does Testosterone do?

Within the body testosterone increases nitrogen retention and synthesis of protein in skeletal muscle. Providing that you meet your dietary requirements an increase in testosterone will help strength improvements.

Testosterone levels can also be increased with resistance training compared to a decrease in levels that are found in endurance athletes. This is why you need a balanced training programme that includes both resistance and endurance training.

Is there Testosterone in Pomegranate Juice?

Pomegranate juice has long been called a Superfood, due to it being full of antioxidants which improve blood circulation, decrease risk of heart disease, decrease inflammation and others.

Research undertaken at Queen Margaret University Edinburgh looked at the changes in salivary testosterone, blood pressure and moods after taking Pomegranate juice. The study was carried out on 60 subjects varying in age and sex, saliva samples were taken 3 times a day and a mood questionnaire carried out before during and after the 2 week period.

The results showed and improvement in salivary testosterone of on average 24%, increases were observed at all time points during the study. Blood pressure was reduced for both systolic and diastolic. Mood improvements were also noted using the PANAS-X test. (compare that with the side effects for steroids)

A study by Turkish researchers at Firat University found that pomegranate juice slightly increased testosterone levels in rats while improving sperm quality. They found that the juice increased natural anti-oxidants which they stipulated possibly protected fatty acids found in testosterone cells from oxidation.

However, a study by a Dr Panuck found no effect of pomegranate juice on testosterone levels, they were looking at effects of polyphenols on PSA.

Will it make me stronger?

As these three studies have shown there is a variety of conclusions being made on whether pomegranate juice can improve testosterone levels.

This is due to how the studies are being undertaken, 2 on humans and one on rats, and whether they are looking directly for the effects.

Further studies need to be concluded before I can confidently say drinking pomegranate juice regularly could be a great natural method to assisting improved strength levels.

But drinking it will have many other benefits like:

• reduced blood pressure
• improved blood circulation
• reduced risk of heart disease.

Nothing replaces a sound training plan: Proper training, Rest and Nutrition are always the best methods.

2014 update

Since the initial reports in 2012 claiming pomegranate juice can increase testosterone there appears to be little further published research to back up the original claims.

One paper tested rats using 3 supplements for comparison, olive oil, nagilla sativa oil and pomegranate extract(5). They found all 3 increased testosterone levels with pomegranate showing the greatest improvement, however the increase was insignificant.

Looking at bodybuilding websites they are using the original research when forming lists of natural foods that can increase testosterone, however some researchers (4) have criticised the report for not being peer reviewed and stating that it has been used to market the juice rather than to benefit science or nutrition.

The researcher above and a review from the NHS (6) both say there may be some benefit from pomegranate juice but further research needs to be conducted with humans.

Read more about nutrition

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• Ultimate guide to eating before competing

Duncan Buckmaster        

References

1. Emad Al-Dujaili & Nacer Smail, Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh Pomegranate Juice influences mood & salivary testosterone in healthy subjects.
2. Animal Study: Pomegranate Juice increases testosterone level & sperm quality Clin Nutr: 2008 Apr;27(2):289-96
3. Pomegranate Juice Slows PSA rise in men with recurrent prostate cancer
4. Critique of recent pomegranate research by Thomas Lumley
5. Asian Pac J Trop Biomed. 2013 Jul;3(7):563-8. doi: 10.1016/S2221-1691(13)60114-8.
6. Pomegranate Juice: Superfood or Superfad? : Review from the NHS