Whenever you’re looking for supplements on the market, your main concern should always be safety. These are supplements that you are putting into your body – it’s important what you’re putting in is safe to use and effective.
Which begs the question: are testosterone boosters bad for you?
Although they have claims to promote:
- Muscle Mass
- Recovery
- Libido
- Testosterone
- Focus
- Energy
- And more…
There’s so many on the market, it can be hard to know whether which ones work and which ones main cause damage. In this article, we plan to answer the question if testosterone boosters are bad for you.
Generally, are testosterone boosters bad for you?
Generally, no. Most of the testosterone boosters on the market are made up of all natural ingredients. These are usually a combination of nutrients, herbs, minerals and vitamins which all have been seen to help raise testosterone in some capacity.
Some examples of commonly used ingredients include:
- Zinc – A mineral which boosts your levels of testosterone precursor hormones.*
- Magnesium – Another mineral which helps raise free testosterone levels.
- D-Aspartic Acid – Natural acid that raises testosterone percursor hormones.
- Vitamin D3 – A natural vitamin which is technically a hormone which has been seen to raise testosterone.
- Ashwagandha – Herb which has links to raising testosterone by regulating stress levels.
- Mucnua Pruriens (Velvet Bean) – Helps raise testosterone precursor hormones.
* = The precursor is the Luteinzing Hormone which studies show can help raise testosterone and growth hormone levels.
There’s nothing dangerous in this mix, especially when you consider how much is in a supplement.
However, not all supplements are born equal. You need to be doing your research into what’s in your supplement and if it has any links to causing problems.
That’s where we come in. With touchingheartstouchingminds.com, we specialize as a supplement review service. We check out the most popular supplements on the market to make sure that they are up to our standards.
Bad Signs in Testosterone Boosters
Although we can’t list any specific testosterone boosters in this page, we can give you several signs to look out for that will let you know if you’re looking at a bad T-booster.
Here’s the fast list:
- Proprietary Blends
- Too Many Libido Enhancers
- One Ingredient Supplements
- Contains Prohormones
Let’s look at those in more detail.
1. Proprietary Blends
Proprietary Blends a huge problem in testosterone boosters, and supplements in general. This is when a supplement manufacturers choose to hide the individual ingredients under one large dosage, rather than show them all individually.
Their reason for doing this is that it protects their formula. You don’t know their dosages so you can’t recreate it and take them out of business.
Our argument to this is that many best-selling supplements clearly display their dosages. They don’t fear that they’ll be copied – most people don’t have the resources or time to manage this.
We feel the real reason is that they don’t want you to know that they are under-dosing ingredients in an angle to cut costs. It saves them money, and it’s difficult to prove that they’ve been diluting the dosages. It’s a win-win for them.
2. Too Many Libido Enhancers
This isn’t a “dangerous” sign, but it’s a tip off that you’re dealing with a bad quality product. Many low quality supplement companies like to use ingredients that have marketing hype behind them which they can still buy in for cheap.
This is usually libido enhancers. These types of ingredients usually help to raise testosterone in small animals like rats, but don’t scale up to humans. This makes it easy for supplement companies to claim they’ve been proven in studies (albeit rat studies) to raise testosterone.
Due to the lack of potency, it’s cheaper for supplement companies to buy and use them. At the moment, the current “trendy” ingredients for doing this are Tribulus and Horny Goat Weed.
They’re everywhere, and they’ll do very little aside from mildly helping your libido.
3. One Ingredient Supplements
This is another huge issue in the industry. One ingredient supplements which claim they’re a comprehensive testosterone booster are never a good idea.
There’s only so much you can do with one ingredient. It’ll only target one area. The only time you should consider a supplement like this is if you’re using it as a supporting ingredient to a stack that you already have.
4. Contains Prohormones
These are a huge issue. Always do your research before you buy a supplement to make sure you’re not getting something that contains prohormones.
Prohormones are typically banned substances which work in a similar way to anabolic steroids, and typically made in a lab.
Although they are usually banned, there are some which manage to slip through the net into supplements. They can effectively raise your testosterone, but usually come with a myriad of side effects.
You should always make sure the supplement that you’re investing in is all natural to ensure you get good, safe and effective results.
Final Word: Do Your Research!
We can’t be any clearer about this. Don’t buy into a supplement based on the marketing hype alone. Make sure you always do you research and make sure what they’re recommending is legit.
Make sure the dosages are easy to see, the ingredients are natural and that the company is respectable. The majority of testosterone boosters aren’t bad for you – but the majority does not equal all of them.
Be vigilant. Check the label. And be safe.
If you want to know more about testosterone boosters and building muscle in general, you should check out our Build Muscle page.