Does D-Aspartic acid increase testosterone?

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Can D-aspartic acid boost your testosterone by 42% in as little as 12 days?

Let’s talk about how effective aspartic acid really is. Some say it only works for 2 weeks…which is true. But I’m going to show you how to prevent this.

Be sure to read to the end for the best D-aspartic acid foods (here’s a hint: 🥛).

Let’s dive in.

Hans here! I increased my testosterone to 1254ng/dl and have been maintaining high T naturally. I’ve turned myself into an Alpha Energy Male.

An Alpha Energy Male with high energy, fast recovery, high sex drive, and confidence.

This is why I research obsessively, experiment and write, and have been doing so for the past decade.

Hope you enjoy and join me on this journey.

Why do we want to be an alpha energy male?

Being an alpha energy male is synonymous with possessing both high testosterone levels and abundant energy. Consequently, the question arises: what exactly is the significance of having elevated testosterone and energy levels?

Because high T and energy make us feel incredible and powerups our motivation, drive, confidence, and sexual function.

A life without high T and energy isn’t a life worth living.

Quick background on Aspartic acid

D-Aspartic acid was first found in the nervous system of marine mollusks and subsequently in the nervous and endocrine tissues of many other animals, including humans.

Several further studies have demonstrated that D-Aspartic acid is concentrated in the endocrine glands, particularly in the pineal gland, the pituitary and the testis.

Supplementing aspartic acid dramatically increases aspartic acid levels in those tissues (R).

  • In the pineal gland, it enhances melatonin production.
  • In the pituitary, it promotes the release of LH
  • In the testes, it promotes the production of testosterone (R)
  • In the thyroid, it promotes the production of T4 and T3.

Let’s discuss LH and testosterone production.

Aspartic acid on LH release

In humans and rats, sodium D-aspartate induces an enhancement of LH release.

In the rat pituitary, sodium D-aspartate increases the release and synthesis of LH through the involvement of cGMP as a second messenger (R). cGMP is broken down by phosphodiesterase enzymes (PDEs).

PDE 5, -6 and -9 are cGMP-specific while PDE1, -2, -3, -10 and -11 can break down both cAMP and cGMP. PDE1, PDE2, PDE4, and PDE11A are highly expressed in the pituitary. Thus a PDE1, 2 and 11 inhibitor together with aspartic acid might enhance the LH release even more.

In this graph, you can see how D-aspartic acid promotes the release and cGMP in a dose-dependent manner. As cGMP goes up, so does LH.

In humans, 3g Aspartic acid doubled LH after 4 weeks (R). However, the increase in total testosterone was only 80ng/dl. Which isn’t bad, since these guys already had high testosterone.

does D-aspartic acid increase testosterone?

🧨How to increase LH and optimize your testosterone to LH ratio

Aspartic acid on testosterone

Since aspartic acid accumulates in the testes, you’d assume it’s important for testosterone optimization right? Correct!

Depleting aspartic acid tanks testosterone levels.

A few of the mechanisms include lower cAMP levels and reduced StAR and 17β-HSD expression (R, R, R).

  1. cAMP enhances testicular sensitivity to LH.
  2. StAR transports cholesterol into the mitochondrial of the Leydig cells to be converted to pregnenolone.
  3. 17β-HSD converts androstenedione into testosterone.

Aspartic acid increases testosterone in humans

Study 1

3g AA for 12 days increased testosterone by 42%.

This boost might be explained because the selected men were healthy sedentary males (age 27–37 years), with low initial testosterone levels (~455ng/dl).

Study 2

3g AA for 4 weeks only increased testosterone by 80ng/dl while almost doubling LH (R). As a bonus, the T/E2 ratio also improved.

The smaller boost in testosterone (80 vs 140ng/dl) might be because the selected men were resistance-trained men (age: 22.8 ± 4.67 years old) with higher initial testosterone levels (~808ng/dl).

Study 3

3g of AA for 14 days was ineffective at increasing testosterone and 6g of AA actually lowered testosterone (R). This study did not replicate the finding of the 2 above.

Study 4

This is the last human study investigating the effects of AA testosterone and weight training outcomes.

Over 12 weeks with 6g of AA, testosterone slightly decreased and estradiol decreased by 16% (R).

Aspartic acid on testosterone summary

3g of aspartic acid for 2-4 weeks seems to be the ideal dose and duration. After that, the effects wane. This might be due to rapid D-aspartic acid breakdown. More on that later.

🧨The complete guide on how to increase testosterone

Aspartic acid on estrogen

In vitro evidence suggest that D-aspartic acid enhances aromatase and subsequent estrogen production.

In vivo, D-aspartic acid increases aromatase and estradiol in frogs and boars but inhibits it in lizards (R, R, R).

However, as seen above in the testosterone section in studies 2, 3 and 4, D-aspartic acid didn’t increase estradiol whether it was used for 14 days or 12 weeks.

D-aspartic acid doesn’t increase estrogen in humans.

🧨Inhibit Aromatase: 31 Potent Supplements

Aspartic acid on DHT

Aspartic acid has been shown to stimulate 5AR and increases the DHT-to-testosterone ratio (R).

No human study has looked at this yet, so I can’t tell you how effective will be in terms of %’s.

🧨The ultimate guide to increasing DHT

Dopamine, mood and sexual function

Dopamine and prolactin

D-aspartic acid promotes the release of dopamine, which is involved in motivation, focus, drive, libido and erections, movement and much more (R). Dopamine also helps to suppress prolactin.

On the flip side, when there is too much nitric oxide in the brain already, and more is being released through NMDA receptors by D-aspartic acid, this can lead to low dopamine.

Nitric oxide (NO) combines with superoxide (a free radical) to form peroxynitrite. Peroxynitrite is one of the most powerful free radicals AND it’s been shown to inhibit tyrosine hydroxylase (the rate-limited enzyme in dopamine synthesis).

If NO is too high due to excessive NMDA stimulation, dopamine can drop and prolactin increase.

No human study has investigated the effects of aspartic acid on prolactin yet, so I’m not sure how much of this theory is applicable to most healthy men.

Related articles for extra guidance

α-MSH

Alpha-melanocyte stimulating hormone (α-MSH) is a peptide released in the brain that’s involved in libido, sexual arousal, erections, energy levels and more.

α-MSH released by aspartic acid will help to increase libido, mood and sexual function (R).

In terms of erections, 8g of l-arginine aspartate 8 g combined with 200 mg of adenosine monophosphate (AMP) significantly boosted erections (R). D-aspartic acid works through the NMDA receptor, which plays a role in erections (R).

Some Reddit reviews.

D-Aspartic Acid will absolutely increase libido and sex drive. I mix about 3g into my water daily (gallon a day) and I’ve noticed a significant increase in drive. Cheers. (R)

Usually it takes 4 or 5 days before I start really noticing it, libido shoots up, way more aggressive socially, doing better in the gym. (R)

Did an 8 week cycle. Libido definitely went up. (R)

Glutamate and focus, mood and libido

D-aspartic acid binds to many glutamate receptors, all of which are involved in memory, mood, recall, focus, libido and more (R).

It also counteracts the decrease in NMDA receptor signaling observed during aging and even has a beneficial role during remyelination, Alzheimer’s disease and in patients with schizophrenia (R).

Summary

Why I won’t take it

Too much can be an excitotoxin and harm the brain. When taken in isolation without the balance of other protective amino acids, it could do more harm than good.

I understand the usefulness of D-aspartic acid, but given that not all studies found an increase in testosterone and that you can get ample D-aspartic acid from certain foods, I don’t see a need to try it.

If I were to try it, I’d use it 2 weeks on 1 week off.

Here are some bad reviews on it as well.

I was waking up in the middle of the night to write essays about absolute rubbish. Was talking none stop. Got really weird almost ecstasy like feelings especially after the gym- when I took the supplement). So for another month I kept taking it. Stopped and then I experienced a serious crash. (R)

I would get weird headaches and nervous tension. Noticed no nootropic benefit whatsoever. (R)

Only been on this stuff 3 days and already I’m experiencing depression and fatigue. My dick is basically numb and it feels like I can’t retain anything I read. (R)

Why D-aspartic acid only works short term

The benefits of D-aspartic acid peak at week 2 and decline from there. You might maintain the benefits for 4 weeks tops.

This is because the enzyme that breaks down D-aspartic acid (D-aspartate oxidase (DDO)) becomes massively upregulated (R).

So you can either combine it with a DDO inhibitor or cycle it 2 weeks on 1 week off to prevent this increase.

OR you can simply get all of your D-aspartic acid from foods.

Although there is no research on this, I speculate that D-aspartic acid supplementation is similar to carnosine supplementation.

Carnosine is rapidly broken down by carnosinase and carnosinase is inhibited by anserine. So taking carnosine with anserine is superior to taking carnosine alone.

Similarly, another amino acid might inhibit DDO and prevent D-aspartic acid breakdown. Thus getting D-aspartic acid from food might be superior to supplements.

L vs D-aspartic acid

L-aspartic acid is widely available in foods whereas D-aspartic acid is a lot rarer. The body can convert L-Aspartic acid to D-aspartic acid with the help of D-aspartate racemase (which uses vitamin B6 as a cofactor).

D-aspartate racemase is found in the greatest concentrations in the pituitary followed by the testes, brain, liver, kidney and serum. So clearly the body wants D-aspartic acid in those tissue.

Most protein sources (animal or plant) contains more or less the same amount of L-aspartic acid.

30g protein from:

  • ground beef contains 2.8g of aspartic acid.
  • whey ➡ 2.9g
  • chicken breast ➡ 2.8g
  • turkey ➡ 2.6g
  • oysters ➡ 2.9g
  • casein ➡ 2g
  • tuna ➡ 3.1g
  • egg ➡ 3g
  • cod ➡ 3.1g
  • pork ➡ 2.7g
  • lamb ➡ 2.7g
  • pea ➡ 2.9g
  • rice ➡ 2.8g

So it would seem that regardless of what protein source you consume, as long as you consume enough protein, you’ll get ample L-aspartic acid. If I eat 200g of protein on a daily basis, that gives me roughly 18g of L-aspartic acid per day.

The more L-aspartic acid you consume, the more D-aspartic acid the body should be able to make.

D-aspartic acid food sources

So where can I get D-aspartic acid from naturally?

D-aspartic acid is created by bacteria, so fermented food has a good amount. Here are a few examples (R).

  • Raw milk ➡ 2-3%
  • Yogurt ➡ 20%
  • Kefir ➡ 17.6%
  • Yakult ➡ 40.3%
  • Sour milk ➡ 14%
  • Parmigiano Reggiano ➡ 27% (up to 5 g/kg)
  • Coffee
    • instant ➡ 43%
    • roasted ➡ 23-38%
  • Raw beef ➡ 6.2%
  • Cooked chicken ➡ 22%
  • Zein ➡ 40.2%
  • Casein
    • Heated ➡ 31%
    • Unheated ➡ 3.1%

Therefore, the highest D-aspartic acid testosterone boosting is Yakult! TestoShake 2.0 will now be created with Yakult (but yogurt or kefir should also be fine).

Lactic fermentation is mainly responsible for producing D-aspartic acid which is why fermented food has the highest amount of D-aspartic acid.

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