Confusing Study Results: Saliva Testing "Adequate" For Free Testosterone, Yet Way Off For Cortisol!?

Many of us spend a fortune on "hormone optimization", but when it comes to actually testing our levels, most of us are pretty cheap: "200$ for labs? No way I rather buy another test booster for that money - won't hurt, I guess!" And even, if we finally decide to test our testosterone levels, we will usually choose the cheapest and most convenient testing method: saliva testing. But is this an adequate way of assessing one's hormonal status? Although these tests have been around forever, nobody appears to be sure how reliable they actually are. A recent study (Caenegem. 2011) from the University Hospital of Ghent, Belgium, attempts to provide answers.

The researchers tested two saliva collection methods, chewing on a cotton swab (Salivette, Sarstedt) and passive drooling on 30 healthy males with a median age of 27 years (range 19–65 years) and compared their findings against serum levels, which were measured on the same occasion. Here are their results:

For cortisol, we observed a mean positive bias of 65% for passive drooling versus Salivette. In addition, cortisol determined on passive drooling samples correlated much worse with calculated free cortisol than cortisol analyzed on the cotton samples (respectively r=0.34 versus r=0.70). However, for testosterone passive drooling correlated well with the calculated free fraction (r=0.66). A positive bias of 21% for testosterone collected by passive drooling versus Salivette was observed. In contrast to earlier reports, we found no artefactually high testosterone results with the cotton-based collection method.

Obviously, these results seem to indicate that saliva testing for testosterone is a good, while saliva testing for cortisol is a bad idea, BUT these results are in fact intrinsically flawed. By just calculating free serum values instead of using equilibrium dialysis to actually measure them, the scientists' control values and with them their assessment of the "appropriateness" and "inappropriateness" of salivary testosterone, respectively cortisol testing are questionable. 

From what I hear from practitioners like Dr Crisler, it is highly advisable to spend the extra cash to have measured (not calculated) serum testosterone levels as reliable baseline and 4x saliva cortisol profiles to see where your levels are at throughout a 24h period. Arguably, this is yet another case in which a questionable study design leads to results which refute common practice and aggravate a confusion around hormonal testing procedures which affects practitioners and patients, alike.

NAC + Zinc + Selen = Silver Bullett Against Mercury Poisoning

Mercury certainly is among the most dangerous and, at the same time, most ubiquitous heavy metals, we are exposed to. In a recent article (thanks to Dominique for raising my awareness of its publication) strength coach Charles Poliquin references a 2010 study from Michigan State (Wirth. 2010) :

Looking at several well-designed studies, they determined that even low exposures from cadmium, lead and mercury had an impact on semen quality and reproductive hormone levels in men.

As far as solutions to this problem are concerned, Polliquin refers somewhat dubiously to "a specific herbal combination" of "andrographis paniculata, zinc citrate, humulus lupulus, and curcuma longa" without providing scientific evidence for why he thinks this specific formula would work (guess what, Charles sells it ;-). Chances would have it, though, that Joshi et al., in a very recent study (Joshi. 2011, still ahead of print) report the beneficial effects of another, from my perspective, probably even more potent combination of nutrients/antioxidants in experimentally induced mercury poisoning:

Exposure to DMM [dimethylmercury] caused significant alterations in cytochrome P450 (CYP) activity, microsomal lipid peroxidation, and proteins [in rats]. Activities of transaminases (aspartate aminotransferase/alanine aminotransferase), alkaline phosphatase, and lactate dehydrogenase in serum, as well as activities of CYP enzymes aniline hydroxylase (AH), amidopyrine-N-demethylase (AND) in liver microsomes and activities of acid phosphatase, alkaline phosphatase, glucose-6-phophatase, and succinic dehydrogenase in the liver and kidney, were significantly altered after DMM administration. DMM exposure also induced severe hepato-renal alterations at the histopathological level. NAC, along with Zn and Se, dramatically reversed the alterations in all of the variables more toward control.

Actually these results do not come as a surprise, as all three of these nutrients/antioxidants are well-known for their beneficial effects on (liver) enzyme activity and thus heavy metal clearance. Those of you, who read Tim Ferris' book The 4 Hour Body may also remember that his Brazil nut consumption (he ate them for their high selenium content, 1 ounce contains 544µg, i.e. 780% DV) along with other nutritional changes tripled his testosterone levels from low normal levels to the upper quartile of the range. In that, it is of secondary importance whether this was a mercury related effect, or not, since an increase in the detoxification abilities of the liver, as it was achieved in the study by twice a week supplementation with NAC (360mg/kg; human equivalent dose [HED] ~ 52mg/kg)  + Zn (130mg(kg; HED ~ 26mg/kg) + Se 0.5mg/kg; HED ~0.08mg/kg), will benefit the hormonal millieu via multiple pathways (increased estrogen clearance being one of them).

A word of caution: I advice against using the dosing scheme applied in the study, i.e. twice a week mega-dosing of supplements. Spread across a whole week, the human equivalent doses (for an 80kg human being) would equal roughly 600mg NAC, 300mg Zinc and 1mg* Selenium per day, which - apart from the exorbitant amount of zinc (I would not take more than 100-150mg/day even for short term interventions) - constitutes a quite reasonable nutrient stack for shorter detox protocols (4-6 weeks) for mercury, cadmium (cf. eg. Said. 2010) and other heavy metals with an increase in testosterone being one of the possible positive "side effects".

*Note on selenium toxicity: Rumors have it that selenium is toxic even at doses of >400µg. Most of these reports yet turned out to be based on anecdotal evidence from people who poisoned themselves with supplements that contained up to 200x the labeled dose (e.g. >40mg! selenium in MacFarquhar. 2010). It is thus very unfortunate that current data on the ‘Lowest Adverse Effect Level’ (LOAEL) is lacking. A 1989 study by Yang et al. give1.5mg/day as a threshold beyond which longterm supplementation may produce adverse side effects. And though this is below the 1g derived from the results of the rat study, I recommend to better err on the side of caution and to stick to max. 200-400µg supplemental selenium + a handfull of Brazil nuts from time to time as part of a safe antioxidant supplement stack.

Chrysine: 5,7-dihydroxyflavone for Bigger Balls and Higher Serum Testosterone

Polyphenols in general and flavonoids in particular are every supplement producer's favorite. Its so easy to pick up some exotic plant from somewhere deep down in the jungle, extract an exotic flavonoid, give it a fancy chemical looking name and provide some in-vitro data on his anti-oxidant omnipotence or whatever. In most cases the compounds disappear from the market within weeks, yet chrysine which is extracted from the Common Passion Flower, has been around for years. A recent study (Ciftcy. 2011) by Ciftci et al. provides further evidence that its market persistence may not be without a reason.

Over the time course of the scientists fed a group of lab rats 50 mg/kg chrysin (human equivalent ~8mg/kg) or placebo for 60 days and found:

that chrysin significantly increased GSH, CAT, GSH-Px and CuZn-SOD levels, but did not change the formation of TBARS significantly. In addition, sperm motility, sperm concentration and serum testosterone levels significantly increased, whereas abnormal sperm rate significantly decreased with chrysin treatment.

In essence the improvement in antioxidant markers (vs. placebo) went hand in hand with a measurable increase in sperm health and serum testosterone.

Figure 1: Testosterone levels of rats after 60 day intervention with 50mg/kg chrysin. (Ciftcy. 2011)

 "Great", well, maybe not so... although this is an almost 50% increase in testosterone, we do not know how other important hormonal parameters such as SHBG (binds testosterone and thus renders it basically useless), estrogen or cortisol looked like. An estimation of the "muscle building effects", the producers of respective supplements are advertising, is thus futile. And, if you asked my opinion, even if SHBG did not budge and we have an appropriate increase in free testosterone, the latter is probably too little to induce noticeable changes in strength and/or body composition.

Order of Exercises Does not Matter if you Train Upper Body & Lower Body in One Session - Testosterone & Cortisol Response Identical

You will probably remember my post on the effect of leg training on biceps size!? Well, although it is necessary that you train your legs, if you want to grow, a recent study by Jason D. Miller (Miller. 2011) indicates that hormonally it does not make a difference which part of your body you train first; or, in other words, you will get the same hormonal response (measured as testosterone (T) to cortisol (C) ratio) if you bench press (BP) first and do leg presses (LP) as your second exercise (both at 73.5% of 1RM for 4 sets), as you will get if you start with the leg press and finish your workout on the bench.

There does not appear to be an affect of resistance the exercise order of LP [leg press] and BP [bench press] on T [testosterone] and C [cortisol]. The exercise orders resulted in the same exercise volume and lactate responses which in turn resulted in no interaction in T and C between the UB-LB and LB-UB exercise orders.

Miller does yet speculate that a higher volume and or other/supplemental exercises may have changed the picture. But let's be honest: Do you really think it would be wise to do squats, leg presses and deadlifts, followed by bench presses, dips and flys? Probably not.

5α-androstane-3,6,17-trione - Kneller's Trione: Newly Patented Aromatase Inhibitor that Raises Testosterone Without Lowering Estrogen Levels!?

I happened onto an interesting patent (Kneller. 2011), published on 02/10/2011 the author of which, Bruce Kneller, who was arrested in the course of a steroid bust back in 2006, claims to have invented an aromatase inhibitor, 5α-androstane-3,6,17-trione (Kneller's Trione) which produces "substantial and significant increases in plasma testosterone levels in men while inducing no changes outside the accepted normal limits for plasma estradiol levels". This is very different from your usual AI (ATD, Arimidex, Letrozole, etc.) which tend to eradicate estrogen and thus produce nasty side effects. As far as its concrete applications are concerned the author writes:

The oral, daily dose of Kneller's Trione can be from about 25 mg to about 750 mg per day, such as, for example, from about 25 mg to about 500 mg per day, from about 25 mg to about 250 mg per day, or from about 25 to about 100 mg per day. [...] In some embodiments of the invention the composition comprising Kneller's Trione is formulated as a tablet, capsule, caplet, powder, suspension, gel preparation, aqueous solution, solid food form (e.g., chewable bar or wafer), or liquid dosage form such as elixirs, syrups, dispersed powders, granules or emulsions.

Bruce W. Kneller then cites a pilot study in which Kneller's Trione was administered orally to three individuals at dosages of 25mg, 50mg and 100mg.

Figure 1: Tables from patent of Kneller's Trione

As can be seen from the tables in figure 1 the effect of 5α-androstane-3,6,17-trione depends on a) previous hormone levels and b) dosage. Most interestingly administration of 50mg Kneller's Trione to subject 2 who had low estradiol levels to begin with did not reduce these levels any further. With reference to the optimal dosing scheme and potential side effects Kneller reports:

Although dosing of Kneller's Trione went as high as 750 mg per day in this pilot study, no added benefits were seen with dosages this high. Dosages of 250 mg and 500 mg per day also raised total testosterone and bioavailable testosterone levels substantially and safely but did not seem to offer any added benefit over a dose of 100 mg per day. At the 750 mg per day oral dosing level, occurrence of a priaprism caused the subject to withdraw from participation in this pilot study. No other adverse events were noted by any study subject during this pilot study. Observations of every subject's liver function, kidney function, blood lipid levels, blood pressure, heart rate, respirations, and body temperature were made at frequent intervals during this pilot study and were found to be within medically established normal ranges and values.

While my cursory web-search for available OTC supplements with this product did not produce any results, I assume it won't take long until we see a range of these products on the market - even in view of the fact that a constant boner (priapism) may not be the worst, but certainly an annoying and in the long run painful side effect ;-)

As always, I will inform you as soon as there are more recent study results and or product releases. In view of the fact, that Kneller is also the patent-holder of the "OUTLAST" formula in Gaspari Nutrition's cell-volumizer SizeON it's most likely that we will see a "new Novedex XT" hit the market soon.

Edit: Kevin just posted a comment mentioning, he believes that it is already in "some Gaspari products" and in fact. He is right! Its part of Gaspari's Halodrol MT, which I believe is not produced anymore, though. Well, I assume that's what happens to things which work, these days...

3g BCAA + Arginine + Carbs Pre-Workout Modulates Hormonal Response to Single Bout of Treadmill Running to Exhaustion

BCAAs + Arginine + Carbohydrates before workout!? Sounds familiar, doesn't it? In fact many of the first generation preworkout products were either formulated like that or consumers were advised to stack them with a branched amino acid (BCAA) product of the same company. Studies which investigated the combined ergogenic effect of these nutrients are yet scarce. So, I thought that it would be worth posting the results of a recent study from China (Hsu. 2011).

Before they started exercising on a treadmill, the subjects, 14 male physical active college students, received a beverage containing either 3g of BCAA (2:1:1) + 0.5g Arginine + 12.1g carbohydrates or placebo. Blood samples of each subject were collected before exercise, 0, 10, 20, 40, 60, 120 min and 24 h after exercise and the procedure was repeated after two weeks (cross-over design). The results were as follows:

No significant differences in the levels of lactate, ammonia, creatine kinase and glycerol between the two groups were observed at any of the time points. However, the levels of glucose and insulin were significantly higher in the BA trial as compared to those in the PL trial at the 40 and 60 min recovery points. Furthermore, the testosterone to cortisol ratio at the 120 min recovery point was significantly higher in the BA trial as compared to that in the PL trial.

While higher glucose and insulin levels are hardly surprising in view of the fact that the placebo contained no calories whatsoever, the improved hormonal recovery (measured as testosterone / cortisol ratio) in the supplemented group appears to be pretty interesting.

A closer look at the exact data does yet reveal that the supplemented group had a higher testosterone / cortisol ratio to begin with. So, if we calculate the relative changes in the T/C ratio 120min after exercising to exhaustion, these are +13.2% in the placebo group and only +6.8% in the supplemented group.
Does that mean that the money you are spending on preworkout products is wasted? From a hormonal perspective, maybe. From a psychological perspective, we do yet still have another result of the study: "Fatigue score increased immediately at exhaustion in both groups, but the decrease in the fatigue score at 120 min recovery point was significant only in BA trial." Consequently, even if it does not improve the hormonal milieu in the early recovery period, supplementation with branched chain amino acids, arginine and carbohydrates could provide the psychological edge you need to drag yourself to the gym regularly ;-)

On a side note: It would have been interesting to see T/C levels measured beyond the 120 minutes post exhaustion. Based on the fact that the recovery of the T/C levels of the supplemented group sped up from T=60min to T=120min, one may well hypothesize that there would be measurable (hormonal) advantages for the BA group at T=180min and beyond.

Even Low "Normal" Plasma Testosterone Levels Associated with 2.5x Higher Risk of Insulin Resistance

"Your levels are in range!" Did you ever have your doctor say that to you? It appears as if next time you hear that sentence, you better ask him "Where 'in range' are my levels, exactly?" At least, the results of a recently published study by Menendez et al. (Menendez. 2011) suggests that it might be worth digging somewhat deeper into this issue. Studying a cohort of 282 men (aged 36 to 85 years) who had "normal concentrations of total testosterone", the scientists found:

Serum concentrations of testosterone and bioavailable testosterone were negatively correlated with age, body mass index, waist circumference, blood glucose, glycated hemoglobin levels and insulin. Serum concentrations of total testosterone, bioavailable testosterone and SHBG were lower in men with glucose intolerance or diabetes than in those with normal glucose tolerance. After multivariate analysis, age and total testosterone levels were independent predictors of the presence of diabetes or glucose intolerance. The risk of glucose intolerance or diabetes mellitus was over 2.5 times higher in men with total testosterone levels in the lowest quartile than in those with total testosterone in the top quartile.

While the results of this study are certainly interesting and significant, it is unfortunately impossible to tell, whether glucose intolerance and diabetes reduce the natural production of testosterone, OR low testosterone levels reduce glucose intolerance and lead to diabetes. In other words: What comes first, low testosterone or glucose intolerance? Further research will be needed to answer this question, but if you want my opinion, I suspect that they just go hand in hand, i.e. a bad diet lowers glucose tolerance, high sugar reduces testosterone production, low androgen levels impair glucose tolerance etc. - a viscous circle.

The (Re-)Discovery of 17{beta}-hydroxyestra-4,9,11-trien-3-one: Low Dose Trenbolone Safely Promotes Myotrophic Actions in Skeletal Muscle and Provides Partial Protection Against Bone Loss and Visceral Fat Accumulation

Sometimes it is interesting to see how agents that have been around all along reappear back on the medical scene, all of a sudden. A recent study conducted by a group of scientists from Florida (Yarrow. 2011) that compared the effect of different doses of 17{beta}-hydroxyestra-4,9,11-trien-3-one aka Trenbolone on muscle hypertrophy and prostate health of testosterone seems to have the potential to trigger such a "revival":

In both intact and orchiectomized animals, all TREN doses and supraphysiologic testosterone-enanthate augmented androgen-sensitive levator ani/bulbocavernosus muscle mass by 35-40% above Shams (p≤0.001), and produced a dose-dependent partial protection against orchiectomy-induced total and trabecular bone mineral density losses (<0.05) and visceral fat accumulation (<0.05). The lowest doses of TREN successfully maintained prostate mass and hemoglobin concentrations at Sham levels in both intact and orchiectomized animals; whereas supraphysiologic testosterone-enanthate and high-dose TREN elevated prostate mass by 84% and 68%, respectively (<0.01). 

Whether this indicates that "trenbolone therapy" in men would actually be an alternative to the traditional androgen therapy to counter muscle wasting and other medical conditions remains to be elucidated. This is especially valid in view of the fact that the variables controlled in this study did not encompass any of the side-effects steroid (ab-)users tend to report on injectable trenbolone. In other words: Just because it does not enlarge your prostate, this does not mean that it is safe.

News on USP Labs' "Pink Magic": High Dose Massularia Acuminata Increases Testosterone and Makes Bucks Horny as Hell

Faithful readers of the SuppVersity will probably remember my short write-up on USP Labs Test Booster "Pink Magic". Now that the initial fuss about how "brilliant" and "unique" the product is, is over there is finally another study on the efficiency of its main ingredient, a shrub called massularia acuminata.

Two scientists from Nigeria (Yakubo. 2011) published an article on the "Effect of Aqueous Extract of Massularia acuminata Stem on Sexual Behaviour of Male Wistar Rats" in the January issue of Evidence Based Complementary Alternative Medicine. The scientists found that supplementation with 500 and 1000mg/kg body weight (equivalent to 6.8g and 13.6g) of an aqueous extract of the stem of the botanical...

... increased the frequencies of mount and intromission. In addition, the ejaculation latency was significantly prolonged (P < .05). The latencies of mount and intromission were reduced significantly whereas ejaculation frequency increased. The extract also reduced the postejaculatory interval of the animals. Computed percentages of index of libido, mounted, intromitted, ejaculated and copulatory efficiency were higher in the extract treated animals compared to the distilled water-administered control whereas the intercopulatory interval decreased significantly.

In short: the rats were horny as hell ;-) But there was more to it:

The extract also significantly (P < .05) increased the serum testosterone content of the animals except in those administered with 250mg/kg body weight on days 1 and 3.

In view of these results it is interesting to have a look at the amount of massularia in Pink Magic. Unfortunately, USP provides no data on the amount of the individual ingredients - so, we only know that there is 1.6g of a mixture of massularia and two other botanicals in one serving. Massularia is mentioned first which tells us that it should be the main ingredient. So, let's be generous and assume that there is 1.0g of massularia per serving. USP recommends 3 servings per day. This would amount to 3.0g of massularia, which has now been clinically proven to be insufficient; and what's more even with 6.8g/day (equivalent to 500mg/kg in rats) the increase in testosterone (cf. Table 1) is still almost negligible.

Table 1: Effect of aqueous extract of Massularia acuminata stem on serum testosterone concentrations of male rats. (Yakubo. 2011)

What about all the positive feedback on various message boards, then? Well, we do not know how the dosing protocol used in rats eventually translates to human beings. The above calculation is based on a standard human equivalence dose formula, the accuracy of which is certainly questionable. Thus, the results of the study are actually good news for USP Labs, as they prove that massularia which, by the way is not a USP Labs exclusive anymore, actually works.

Tinospora Cordifolia as in LG Sciences' Natadrol is a Potent Antioxidant and Metal Chelator

This is only a small news-item, but unfortunately scientific background info on commercially available supplements is pretty rare - so here we go...

Scientists from India (Bhawya. 2010) investigated the antioxidant potential of various extracts of Tinospora Cordifolia (the primary ingredient in LG Sciences Test Booster Natadrol) and found that ...

Methanolic, ethanolic and water extracts showed significant antioxidant potential compared to other solvents and also possess metal chelation and reducing power activity. In the DPPH radical scavenging activity, methanolic extract  (98.13%)  showed high antioxidant potency, ethanolic  extract (90.34%) was a potent scavenger of superoxide radical. At the same time, both methanolic (97.08%) and ethanolic extracts  (95.21%)  inhibited hydroxyl radical along with other extracts. The metal chelation  in methanolic  (60.62%), ethanolic  (57.62%),   aqueous extracts  (40.89%)  and reducing of ferrous ions was significant found increasing in methanolic, ethanolic and aqueous extracts.

Although this is an in-vitro study, it may well explain the beneficial effect LG claims their product exerts on testosterone production via an antioxidant and metal-chelating pathway. Or in other words: Less oxidation and metal accumulation at the cellular level equals higher testosterone output. Interestingly, a methanolic extract would even be more potent than the "highly specialized ethanolic extract" LG uses.

What you may however be interested in, as well, is the fact (mentioned in an older blog post) that - just as many other testboosting, cortisol-lowering, etc. herbs tinospora tends to be toxic (especially in the testes) in high does in-vitro studies. This suggests that, despite all antioxidant activity, going overboard on respective supplement may not be advisable.

Vitamin D Supplementation(!) Increases Testosterone in Men

Thanks to Dashforce from the MindAndMuscle-Forum we finally have evidence for the direct effect of vitamin D3 supplementation on testosterone in men. Dashforce reports on a study by scientists from Austria and Germany (Pilz. 2010) who provided 54 men, whose serum levels were previously at the lower range ~30ng/ml (the referential  minimum varies depending on which source you cite from 30-50ng/ml),with either 83 μg (3 332 IU) vitamin D daily or placebo for 1 year.

Table 1: Characteristics of the study groups at baseline and at the end of the study

As you can see in table 1,vitamin D supplementation lead to a significant increase in total testosterone from 10.7 nmol/l to 13.4 nmol/l. What's even more important, this increase (+25%) was not compensated by and an increase of SHGB, so that the amount of free testosterone rose from 0.222 n/mol to 0.267 nmol/l, i.e. by +20% (vs. +5% in the placebo group).

What is particularly interesting about this study is the fact that supplementation actually raised the level of testosterone. This is different from most previous studies, which observed a correlation between higher vitamin D levels and higher testosterone levels. If for example some probands would simply have been more healthy and thus exhibit higher levels of both, we would have had the same correlation. In the case of the Pilz study there is a clear causative effect between restauration of adequate vitamin D levels and increases in total and free testosterone.

I hope we see more trials with a similar design - also to investigate if there is a dose response relationship and whether even higher vitamin D levels would further increase testosterone. Until then, keep an eye on your vitamin D level and take a supplement to get to the upper ranges of the "normal" range ~80ng/ml.

Date Palm (Phoenix dactylifera) as a Natural Test Booster and Ergogenic

A very recent study (Saddiq. 2010) published in the Journal of the International Society for Horticultural Science found that the seeds of Phoenix dactylifera can raise testosterone, norepenephrine (NE), dopamine (DA) and GABA levels and may counteract the negative effect of prednisolone administration in rats.

[...] the daily oral administration of pits of date palm caused the maximal increase in NE, DA and GABA content that was found in the brain stem after 2 weeks. The daily oral administration of methylprednisolone caused a decrease in NE, DA and GABA content found in the brain stem after 2 weeks. Moreover, the daily oral administration of pits of date palm and methylprednisolone caused an increase in NE content found in the brain stem after 2 weeks. The daily oral administration of pits of date palm and methylprednisolone caused a significant increase in testosterone level in serum blood of male albino rats.

While all this sounds promising, further studies would have to clarify whether it needs the cortisol-like effects of prednisone for the testosterone-boosting effect of the date seeds to take place or whether taking adequate amounts of pits of date palm would provoke similar (or even superior) increases in testosterone in rats and, most importantly, in men. Be that as it may, even the increase in neurotransmitters (NE, DA, GABA) certainly could provide real-world benefits for athletes, as well as people suffering from fatigue.

New Study Says: Boron Does Indeed Raise Free Testosterone

There have been rumors on the Internet for quite some time - "Did you hear? Boron increases testosterone!" Hitherto, however, these claims have not been substantiated by reliable scientific research. A recent study done by a group of scientists from Iran (Naghii. 2010) yet seems to prove that this is more than the steroid-loaden phantasy of an average gymrat.

In a placebo controlled study, the scientists found that supplementation with 10mg Boron/day did not only lower SHGB and thus raise testosterone, it did also lower three inflammatory biomarkers (Interleukin-6 (IL-6), high sensitive CRP (hsCRP) and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α)):

Table1: Hormones and inflammatory biomarkers concentration (mean ± SD) plus hormone ratios following consumption of placebo (day 0) and weekly boron supplementation (day 7)

As you can see in table 1, the testosterone to estrogen ratio more than doubled (0.31 to 0.67). This alone makes me believe that it won't take too long for supp companies to notice this little trace mineral and to include it in more and more of their products. Hitherto it is already found in some formulations, like multi-vitamins, meal replacements and other stuff that is enriched with minerals the dosages, however, are minuscule and far from the 10mg used in the present study.

The scientists also investigated the time-course of the effect of boron supplementation on day 1 of the study and interestingly it took only 6 hours for free testosterone to rise from 8.55pg/ml to 11.25pg/ml. To me, this suggests that there is more to boron supplementation than just repleting exhausted blood and/or tissue levels.

Update: I have been digging a little into the possible mechanism of action behind the increase in testosterone and my personal take it that boron is a (weak) anti-estrogen. By cutting estrogen by 50% (cf. table 1) your body will automatically reduce SHGB, which is up-regulated by estrogen. This frees testosterone and may in fact provide (minor) benefits in muscle gain, libido & fat loss. I suspect that in the end this could be related to a reduction in manganese and an increase in magnesium & calcium retention (cf. Acu-Cell information about boron) that follows the administration of large amounts of boron. These is highly speculative and may only be part of the picture, though.
Also, in view of conflicting evidence from previous studies (e.g. Nagghi. 2006), which found that supplemental boron increased (not decreased) estrogen in men, further investigations are warranted.

Viscous Circle: Low Testosterone > Increased Visceral Fat > Insulin Resistance > Even Lower Testosterone

E.J. Hamilton and colleges (Hamilton. 2010) investigated the effect of androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) in prostate cancer patients on subcutaneous and visceral fat. There results are far from being surprising:

Twelve months ADT increased visceral abdominal fat area by 22% (from 160.8 ± 61.7 to 195.9 ± 69.7 cm²; p<0.01) and subcutaneous abdominal fat area by 13% (from 240.7 ± 107.5 to 271.3 ± 92.8 cm²; p<0.01). Fat mass increased by 14% (+3.4 kg; p<0.001) and lean tissue mass decreased by 3.6% (-1.9 kg; p<0.001). Insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) increased by 12% (2.50 ± 1.12 to 2.79 ± 1.31, p<0.05).

All that by itself is bad enough, but in the end, by the medical suppression of androgens doctors put their poor patients in a viscous circle, from which it will be very difficult to escape, as obesity and insulin resistance will further reduce testosterone production and overall metabolic health regardless of whether they are secondary to low testosterone, come from bad eating habits or whatever.