Testosterone is the main male sex hormone. It plays a key role in male development, and low levels can affect sexual function, mood, energy levels, hair growth, bone health, and more (1, 2).

Levels of this hormone naturally decline with age, with studies suggesting that hypogonadism, a condition in which the body doesnt produce enough testosterone, affects 39% of men aged 45 and over in the United States (3).

Though hormone replacement therapy (HRT) is the most common way to treat low testosterone levels, many men seek natural supplements or foods that can boost their testosterone levels.

Recently, Brazil nuts have become more popular among men, as they are said to help raise testosterone levels and aid fertility.

This article explores the effects of Brazil nuts on testosterone.

Brazil nuts are said to boost testosterone levels due to their high selenium content.

A 1-ounce (28-gram) serving provides a whopping 988% of the Daily Value (DV) (4).

Several studies have shown that taking a selenium supplement may improve testosterone levels or aid male fertility by enhancing semen quality (5, 6, 7).

For example, a test-tube study in sheep cells found that supplementing with selenium activated genes and pathways that enhanced testosterone production (8).

Similarly, a 26-week study in 468 men with infertility noted that taking 200 mcg of selenium along with 600 mg of N-acetyl-cysteine daily increased testosterone production, sperm count, and sperm quality, compared with a placebo (9).

Another study in 690 men with infertility observed that taking 200 mcg of selenium along with 400 units of vitamin E for 100 days improved sperm motility and appearance in 53% of participants. Plus, 11% of men in the study were able to get their partners pregnant (10).

However, in some studies, a high intake of selenium through foods or supplements had either no effect on testosterone levels or negatively affected sperm motility (11, 12).

Also, its worth noting that most of these studies use selenium supplements rather than foods high in selenium, such as Brazil nuts.

This highlights the need for more research on Brazil nuts effects on testosterone levels specifically.

Some studies show that high selenium intake may improve testosterone levels, sperm motility, and sperm quality. Still, more studies are needed to confirm this effect.

Aside from raising testosterone levels and aiding male fertility, Brazil nuts have been linked to many other impressive health benefits, including:

While these findings are promising, more human studies are needed before recommendations can be made regarding Brazil nuts potential to help treat these conditions.

Brazil nuts are a good source of antioxidants, may have anti-inflammatory effects, and have been linked to benefits for the thyroid gland, heart, brain, and blood sugar levels.

Though Brazil nuts offer health benefits, eating too many can be harmful.

Research has shown that eating more than 5,000 mcg of selenium per day, or approximately 50 Brazil nuts, can cause selenium toxicity (27).

Signs of selenium toxicity include gastrointestinal issues, hair loss, brittle nails, fatigue, skin lesions or rashes, and muscle and joint pain. In severe cases, selenium toxicity may cause kidney failure, heart failure, acute respiratory distress syndrome, and even death (28).

However, reaching toxicity levels through diet alone is quite rare.

Other studies have found that too much selenium, especially from supplements, is linked to poor blood sugar control, as well as a higher risk of diabetes and prostate cancer (29, 30, 31).

Selenium has a tolerable upper intake level of 400 mcg per day, which means you can safely consume up to this amount without adverse effects. That is equal to 4 average-sized Brazil nuts per day (27).

Try to limit yourself to one to three Brazil nuts per day to be safe.

Eating too many Brazil nuts can be harmful due to their high selenium content. Try to limit your Brazil nut intake to one to three per day.

Though Brazil nuts may help raise testosterone levels, more research is needed before it can be recommended for this purpose.

Fortunately, other strategies to boost your testosterone levels are supported by more research, including:

In some cases, low testosterone could be due to an underlying medical condition, so its important to speak with your healthcare provider if you think you have low testosterone.

Common symptoms that occur with low testosterone include fatigue, low sex drive, erectile dysfunction, depression, hair loss, and muscle loss (3).

Regular exercise, sufficient sleep, minimizing stress, losing excess fat, and eating a healthy, varied diet may help raise testosterone levels. If you suspect that you have low testosterone levels, seek advice from your healthcare provider.

Current research on Brazil nuts, testosterone, and male fertility is mixed.

While several studies have linked higher selenium intake to increased testosterone levels and improved sperm motility and quality, others have found no effect.

This highlights the need for more research in this area, especially on the link between foods high in selenium, such as Brazil nuts, and testosterone.

If you think you may have low testosterone levels, its best to speak with your healthcare provider before trying natural treatments, as low testosterone levels could indicate an underlying health condition.

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Brazil Nuts and Testosterone: Is There a Link? - Healthline

Chiropractic Economics October 28, 2019

As Octobers National Chiropractic Health Month comes to an end, doctors of chiropractic and their staff are encouraged to this week give one last effort via social media, e-news and their communication outlets to raise the profile of chiropractic.

Back pain remains one of the most prevalent and disabling conditions worldwide, and various chiropractic organizations are sharing back-injury prevention and strengthening tips in addition to information on the value of a conservative approach to back pain treatment.

As the overuse and abuse of prescription opioid painkillers in the United States remains a top public health problem, its essential for health care consumers and providers to understand that spinal manipulation and other conservative approaches can treat musculoskeletal conditions such as low-back pain effectively and safely.

The American Chiropractic Association has also launched a campaign to enact federal legislation that would allow DCs to perform to the fullest scope of their license in Medicare, which currently serves more than 55 million seniors. To support the National Medicare Equality Petition go to acatoday.org/equality to ensure the aging population receives full access to chiropractic care.

Encourage patients to:

For additional opportunities for activism this month by doctors of chiropractic please click below:

ACA National Chiropractic Health Month Tool Kit

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End National Chiropractic Health Month with an act of... - Chiropractic Economics

ROCKVILLE, Md., Oct. 30, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Hurricane-force winds are fueling the spread of wildfires in Northern and Southern California, causing hundreds of thousands of people to be evacuated from their homes and Governor Gavin Newsom to declare a state of emergency. To help vulnerable dialysis patients in the path of the fires, the American Kidney Fund (AKF) has activated its Disaster Relief Program, the nations only rapid-response system that provides emergency financial assistance to dialysis patients.

When disaster strikes their communities, disaster relief grants from AKF help patients replace lost medications and special renal diet foods, pay for temporary housing and transportation to treatment, and replace clothing and personal essentials lost due to the natural disaster or the need to evacuate without notice.

The destructive wildfires have already created extensive damage, and much of the state is without power. Schools and businesses have been closed for safety, and Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) has been shutting off electricity and gas in an effort to help prevent the wildfires from spreading. The power outages include people on PG&Es list of customers who require electricity in their homes to run medical equipment, such as home dialysis machines.

We are very concerned about how dialysis patients are faring in this emergency situation, and are prepared to help them with disaster relief grants beginning today, said LaVarne A. Burton, AKF president and chief executive officer. Emergency evacuations and power outages create very challenging, life-threatening situations for these patients. Patients in the fire zones are faced with losing all their belongings, including their medicines and their renal-friendly foods, when they evacuate their homes. Those who dialyze at home need electricity to complete their treatments, and those who dialyze in a center that is without power have to find an alternative place for treatment during lengthy and widespread outages.

Missing just one dialysis treatment due to a power outage puts a patients life at risk. PG&Es shutoffs this month have caused multiple dialysis centers to close and dialysis patients, particularly in rural areas of California, to evacuate to find places they can safely dialyze. Having dialysis treatment schedules affected by power outages causes additional burden and stress for dialysis patients during a time they should be focusing on staying safe during a natural disaster.

Any California dialysis patient affected by the wildfires who needs an AKF disaster relief grant should contact their dialysis social worker for information on applying, or call AKF directly at 800.795.3226.

About the American Kidney Fund

The American Kidney Fund (AKF) fights kidney disease on all fronts as the nations leading kidney nonprofit. AKF works on behalf of the 37 million Americans living with kidney disease, and the millions more at risk, with an unmatched scope of programs that support people wherever they are in their fight against kidney diseasefrom prevention through transplant. With programs that address early detection, disease management, financial assistance, clinical research, innovation and advocacy, no kidney organization impacts more lives than AKF. AKF is one of the nations top-rated nonprofits, investing 97 cents of every donated dollar in programs, and holds the highest 4-Star rating from Charity Navigator and the Platinum Seal of Transparency from GuideStar.

For more information, please visitKidneyFund.org,or connect with us onFacebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.

Alice AndorsAmerican Kidney Fund240-292-7053aandors@kidneyfund.org

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As California wildfires force massive evacuations, American Kidney Fund activates Disaster Relief Program to help vulnerable dialysis patients - Yahoo...

Congratulations are in order, readers. This week, I celebrated my first anniversary at Hello Homestead at the Bangor Daily News. It may seem like small potatoes, but its a big deal for me I havent lived anywhere for a full year since I graduated college. Its a satisfying milestone, but also bittersweet. I traveled through most of my early twenties, and sometimes, I miss the adventure. No matter where I am, though, nothing brings me back to the days haggling with hand gestures, living out of a backpack and sleeping under the stars quite like the smell of smoking meat.

Smoking meat is one of the earliest forms of food preparation and preservation, dating back to the Paleolithic era. Formaldehyde, alcohol and other chemicals in wood smoke act as natural preservatives, kill microbes and slow fat oxidation, while drying the meat removes moisture that promotes bacterial growth.

Smoking meat (as opposed to applying direct heat) tenderizes tough cuts and gives meat a unique flavor. When burned, different woods break down into compounds with unique, complex smells and tastes. Smoldering cherrywood, for example, imparts a hint of fruity sweetness, while mesquite smoke leaves a savory, earthy flavor.

Cultures all over the world smoke meat. Everywhere I traveled, someone always seemed to be smoking something, whether it was lamb spit-roasting on the bustling streets of Marrakesh or guinea pig smoking in the volcano-vistaed backyard of a farm in Ecuador.

No matter what is being roasted or how and where, for that matter the smoky, meaty scent fills me with adventurous nostalgia. Now that I have settled down in Maine (happily, I might add), learning how to smoke meat for myself seemed like a great way to keep those memories alive.

Sam Schipani | BDN

Colt Knight, state livestock specialist and assistant professor at the University of Maine Cooperative Extension, and his homemade smokehouse.

From the start, I knew exactly who to recruit for my meat-smoking adventure: Colt Knight, state livestock specialist and assistant professor at the University of Maine Cooperative Extension. I met Colt while working on a story about a tech-based rural education program he runs using hand-crafted GPS collars for cows.

At the time, he mentioned that he was building a smokehouse in his backyard. Plus, he hosts a number of meat-processing and preparation workshops, including an upcoming Barbeque 101 workshop that features you guessed it smoking meat.

I called Colt up, and he invited me to his house for a smoking lesson. His smoker was all set up, and he had pork belly prepared for an (ironically, perhaps) all-American smoked classic: bacon.

Though you cant go wrong with smoked Southern barbecue or New York City pastrami, no smoked meat has captured the American cultural consciousness quite like bacon. Bacon mania a phenomenon so pervasive that it has its own thoroughly-cited Wikipedia page took over the country in the late-aughts. For a while, it seemed like bacon was in everything from milkshakes to mints.

This year, though Bacon Nation is sitting on over 40 million pounds of unsold pork belly because producers rushed to meet Chinese pork demand after an outbreak of African swine fever. Though exports may eventually even out the excess, some of that pork belly will find a way into ours (bellies, that is) for now.

There are a few different smoking techniques including low-temperature cold smoking primarily used to preserve meat, high-temperature hot smoking and barbeque smoke-roasting. We would be doing the former, Colt explained. He was already equipped with lump charcoal (never briquettes, he said some are made with lighter fluid that leave a chemical flavor) and dried hunks of applewood.

Just like in wood-fired stoves, smoking wood is generally seasoned, not green. Also you should avoid softwoods, such as pine, cedar and spruce. The porous wood will burn too fast and hot, leaving unpleasant flavors. Besides, the resins in softwoods can release hazardous, potentially-carcinogenic chemicals.

I also asked Colt about some other health concerns, including Listeria bacteria, which can grow in smoked meats when the internal temperature is not properly monitored. In fact, pregnant women are advised not to eat smoked meat at all, lest they pass Listeria-related neonatal infections to their child. Im not trying to get pregnant, but I still wanted to know the risks.

Colt explained that the curing process which usually takes about a week, and he would prepare in advance would help us avoid such nasty bacteria. Curing is essentially soaking the meat in salt, a key step in meat flavoring and preservation. Curing removes moisture and makes meat inhospitable for microbe growth that causes spoilage (and, apparently, Listeria). As a bonus, removing that moisture also makes the meat easier to smoke.

With my food safety fears assuaged, I was finally ready to start makin bacon. Even though Colt had cured bacon for our smokehouse experience in advance, he wanted me to experience all the steps of the process, including making the cure and preparing the meat for the curing process.

Colt lent me a psychedelic apron, and I donned a pair of food-safe gloves. Things were about to get messy.

First Colt pulled a giant fatty slab of pork belly out of a cooler. Fatty meat retains moisture better in the smoking process plus, the streaky marbling was perfect for bacon. He used the tip of his knife to point out where the meat was pulled off the ribs.

Sam Schipani | BDN

Pork belly with a knife indicating where the meat was separated from the ribs.

We cut the meat into slabs that would be small enough to put into gallon-sized freezer bags for curing. I was hesitant with the knife at first, but eventually, I let the blade do the work. With the right knife-work, it was like cutting through butter.

Then came curing. Colt used an old Kentucky curing recipe with equal parts kosher salt, maple syrup and brown sugar, plus a touch of pink curing salt. Curing salt, comprised of sodium nitrate and sodium nitrite, is controversial because of its potential carcinogenic effects. Scientists in the United Kingdom even called for banning nitrates in meat for fears of the cancer-causing effects.

While large amounts of nitrates are toxic, Colt explained that they play a key role from a food-safety perspective in curing meat. Moderation is key. We weighed the slabs of meat to figure out how much of the cure and more importantly, how much curing salt we were going to use.

I was less shocked by the sprinkle of curing salt than I was by the cups full of kosher salt, sugar and syrup we combined for the cure. It was just a reminder for me: bacon, while delicious so, so delicious is by no means a diet food (sorry, keto-maniacs).

We slathered on the cure and rubbed it in. Then, I slid my slabs of meat in a freezer bag. Colt explained that the meat needed to cure in the refrigerators for seven days (one week for every inch of thickness, he explained, and my slabs of pork belly were 1 inch thick). He recommended flipping the bag every day so the flavors can sneak into every nook and cranny. Over the course of the week, the meat should darken and stiffen.

Luckily, Colt had the pre-cured meat ready for my visit. We rinsed the meat to remove some of the excess salt and patted it dry.

Then, we started the smokehouse. Colt said that he modeled his smokehouse off of an old Applachian-style smokehouse he remembered from when he was a kid in West Virginia.

We waited for the temperature to reach around 90 degrees so we could begin cold-smoking. Colt realized that maybe we should have started the smokehouse earlier, but we decided to enjoy the beautiful day while we waited. I played with Colts extremely well-behaved basset hound, who needed a little bit of attention after we kept her so far from the delicious meats.

Sam Schipani | BDN

Staff writer Sam Schipani with Colt Knight's basset hound.

Once the smoke was tumbling out of the smokehouse vent, it was time to hang the meat inside. The porky belly looked and smelled beautiful: meaty divas with fog machine entrances.

Once again, though, waiting was the name of the game. Colt explained that the pork belly would have to smoke for four to six hours (sometimes more he said he takes it out when he likes the color). Some meats even require days to properly smoke.

I nearly panicked. I couldnt play with Colts dog for four to six hours; my editor would kill me. Silly me Colt, of course, was prepared with smoked pork belly that was ready for the next step: slicing. Colt said he even popped the pork belly in the freezer for a while beforehand to make it easier to slice.

Still, I struggled. My knife skills were still lacking, and I sliced the bacon too thick and uneven to properly cook. Colt was patient, but he could tell I was frustrated. He decided to break out the deli slicer. He was a little worried that I might slice my finger off. Little did he know, I was experienced with intimidating spinning blades from my pallet art experience.

Finally, the bacon was ready to cook. Colt hooked up a griddle and added our thick, freshly smoked slices. (Is there anything as musical as the sound of sizzling bacon? I think not.) Ever the gourmand, Colt also grilled the bread in the extra bacon fat.

The first bite of my bacon sandwich (fully loaded with five slices of bacon, carcinogens be damned) was divine. I may not have been abroad, but that scrumptious sandwich felt like the start of a whole new kind of adventure.

Smoking meat can be capital-intensive and time-consuming, but it is immensely rewarding if youre looking for flavor. The food safety concerns are legitimate, but its easier to navigate through them than it may initially seem (especially if you start with tutelage from an expert like Colt). Certain tools will make the process easier and smoother, and they could be expensive or difficult to DIY (Colt said it only took him a few days and some YouTube videos for him to make his smokehouse, but sans carpentry skills, it would probably take longer).

After a smoking lesson, though, I feel like I could smoke my own meat safely and effectively if I had the proper tools. I wonder if my landlord will let me build a smokehouse in my second-floor city walk-up.

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I tried smoking meat. Here's how it went. - Bangor Daily News